Hitman With A Badass System Nov - Unknown

Chapter 985 Another Great
Clan Down II
Saber strode confidently into the room, his eyes scanning the
dwarves as he locked the door behind him. In response, the
dwarves sprang into action, rushing to the side of the room where
their weapons were kept. Each dwarf retrieved a formidable war
hammer or war axe, weapons that were nearly as tall as they
were. Their determined expressions masked the fear that flickered
within their eyes, a fear they couldn't fully conceal.
A faint chuckle escaped Saber's lips as he surveyed the sight

before him. The image of these stout dwarves, with their long
beards and sturdy frames, standing defiantly against him, amused
him greatly. Yet, beneath his amusement, Saber could sense the
deep-rooted apprehension that gripped the dwarves. They
understood the overwhelming power he possessed, and it
haunted their every thought.
"What does the Dark Lord want?" one of the dwarf leaders spoke
up, his voice laced with a mixture of defiance and desperation,
hoping to delay the inevitable confrontation. But deep down, the
dwarves knew there was no reinforcement that could match the
might of this death angel sent by the Dark Lord.
"You know what the Dark Lord wants, dwarves," Saber replied, his
voice carrying a chilling undertone. A devilish grin played upon his
lips, as he relished the fear that washed over the dwarves. "The
Dark Lord has given you four days to dismantle your clan. Should
you choose to defy his will, you will witness the true extent of the
Dark Lord's power."
The dwarves trembled involuntarily, their minds unable to shake
off the tales of the Dark Lord's devastation. They had heard the
rumors, the accounts of how he effortlessly obliterated the
Guardian Guild, an organization far superior to their own in terms
of raw cultivation power.
The dwarves had established their clan with the sole purpose of
toppling the elven empress and her empire, never intending to
engage the Dark Lord directly. They were fully aware of their own
limitations when it came to facing such a formidable foe. However,
the audacity of the Dark Lord's focus on their clan infuriated them,
stoking a fiery determination within their hearts.
Though fear and anger mingled within them, the dwarves

understood that their options were limited. The choice before them
was stark: dismantle their clan and potentially spare themselves
from the Dark Lord's wrath, or defiantly challenge fate and face
the full force of his fury.
"Why the bloody hell is he targeting our clan? We haven't done a

damn thing to provoke the Dark Lord," growled another dwarf, his
frustration echoing through the hall.
Saber, his hands clasped behind his back, began to pace slowly in
a circle, his eyes fixed on the dwarves before him. The air
crackled with tension as he spoke, his voice laced with a calm but
undeniable authority.
"The Dark Lord has granted you four days for a reason.
Understand this, the great eight clans will all crumble under the
weight of the Dark Lord's power, one way or another," Saber
explained, his words carrying a weight of truth that settled upon
the dwarves like a heavy burden. "You dwarves are not foolish.
You've heard the tales of what befell the Guardian Guild. No one
is coming to save you. Spare yourselves the bloodshed and
dismantle your clan."
A silent understanding passed between the dwarves, their gazes

meeting and reflecting the fear that simmered within each of them.
They knew that survival and the opportunity to plot the downfall of
the elven empire were of paramount importance. To foolishly face
the wrath of the Dark Lord would be to seal their own demise.
"Is the Dark Lord targeting Gondolin as well?" questioned another

dwarf, their curiosity momentarily breaking through the tense
atmosphere. The dwarves' deep-rooted animosity towards the
elven empire burned brightly, even in the face of their current
predicament.
"He is," Saber replied, his voice tinged with a hint of indifference.
"But your primary concern should be your own fate, dwarves. The
Dark Lord merely wishes for the dismantling of your clan. He won't
impede your pursuit of vengeance against the elves. His aim is to
eradicate the great eight clans altogether."
A contemplative silence settled over the room as the dwarves

absorbed Saber's words. Their minds churned with thoughts of the
looming threat, their hatred for the elven empire intertwined with
the knowledge that the Dark Lord's power was not to be
underestimated.
"The Dark Lord may think he's invincible, but mark my words, lad,
he cannot win against the Skyhall," spoke the oldest dwarf, his
voice carrying a sense of wisdom acquired over countless years.
Saber's laughter echoed through the hall, a sound filled with

amusement and something far colder. "Where was the Skyhall
when the Dark Lord decimated the Guardian Guild? If you expect
the Skyhall to come to your aid, you'll be sorely disappointed.
Besides," his tone turned solemn, his words laden with an air of
finality, "The Dark Lord has already won. This is just
maintenance,"
A mix of resignation and defiance flickered in the dwarves' eyes

as they grappled with the harsh reality of their situation. The
weight of their decision pressed heavily upon them, as they
contemplated whether to dismantle their cherished clan or risk
annihilation at the hands of the Dark Lord. The room fell into a
heavy silence, broken only by the distant echoes of their own
thoughts as they wrestled with the dire choices that lay before
them.
"Can we trust the Dark Lord's word that he won't attack us once
we dismantle the clan?" questioned the oldest dwarf, resignation
etched into his weathered face. It seemed there was no escape
from their current predicament.
Saber's gaze remained steady as he locked eyes with the aged

dwarf, his voice calm but laced with an underlying intensity. "The
Dark Lord is not one to break his word, dwarf. If he desired your
destruction, it would have already been swift and merciless."
Coming to a halt, Saber regarded the dwarves before him, their

expressions a mix of trepidation and begrudging acceptance. The
atmosphere in the room grew heavy as they contemplated their
options and the inevitable sacrifices they would have to make.
"The Dark Lord has another request, dwarves," Saber continued,

his voice carrying a note of calculation. "He seeks access to the
abundant mines and metal reserves you possess. He requires the
necessary metals to forge armor for his growing army. I know that
this proposition may appear burdensome, but consider it a small
price to pay in the grand scheme of things."
The oldest dwarf scoffed, a hint of frustration coloring his tone.

"So, he wants to extort us as well?"
Saber's silence spoke volumes, his deadly gaze fixated on the

questioning dwarf. The air seemed to thicken with tension,
causing the dwarf to wither under Saber's piercing stare. The
others, realizing the gravity of the situation, exchanged uneasy
glances and murmured in agreement.
"It seems we have little choice but to comply," another dwarf

reluctantly admitted, voicing the sentiment shared by the rest of
the clan.
"We can't stop you, but for the love of the mountain, don't clean us
out entirely," added another dwarf, the frustration in his voice
tinged with resignation.
Saber's smile returned, though its edges held a touch of menace.

Clapping his hands together, he exuded an air of twisted
satisfaction.
"Now, if you would be so kind as to lead me to your vault, I will

gather the necessary metals and leave you to make your fateful
decision," Saber proclaimed, his voice carrying a mix of authority
and a dark sense of finality.
The dwarves led Saber to the center of the grand hall, where a
round table stood adorned with various intricate carvings. Each
dwarf removed a unique ring from their fingers, placing it carefully
into a hollowed-out space in front of their seat. As the rings settled
into their designated places, a brilliant glow emitted from each
one, casting a radiant light across the room.
To the astonishment of the dwarves, the round table split open

with a low rumble, revealing a hidden staircase leading downward
into the depths of the earth. The steps were hewn from sturdy
stone, illuminated by soft torchlight that flickered eerily in the dimly
lit underground path.
With trepidation mingling with a glimmer of hope, the dwarves

embarked on the descent, Saber following closely behind. His
presence brought a modicum of reassurance as he spoke in a
steady voice, attempting to calm their anxieties.
"Fear not, dwarves. The Dark Lord does not covet your treasures.
His focus lies on the metals needed for his army's armors and
swords," Saber explained, his tone carrying a note of sincerity.
The dwarves exchanged glances, their curiosity piqued as they

navigated the winding path. One of the dwarves, his voice laden
with concern, broke the silence. "We've heard rumors, tales of the
Dark Lord taking many of our kin and forcing them to build his
grand castle. Are these rumors true?"
Saber's laughter rang through the cavernous space, bouncing off

the stone walls. "Slaves, you say? Oh, how the rumors can twist
and turn. Let me enlighten you, my dear dwarves. Those who
have joined the Dark Lord's construction projects are far from
being slaves. They receive a handsome sum of gold coins for their
services every month, and their nights are filled with joyful drink
parties."
The dwarves stopped in their tracks, their eyes widening in

disbelief. The notion that their kin were not mere slaves but rather
well-compensated workers and revelers shook their preconceived
notions. A moment of silence passed as they contemplated this
revelation, their minds racing with newfound possibilities.
"If what you say is true," one dwarf muttered, his voice tinged with
uncertainty, "then there may be more to the Dark Lord than meets
the eye."
Saber nodded, a knowing smile playing upon his lips. "Indeed,

dwarves. The Dark Lord's intentions may not align with what
you've been led to believe. But for now, let us focus on the path
ahead. We have metals to collect and decisions to make."
The dwarves' curiosity burned brightly as they continued their

descent, their questions still lingering in the air. Finally, unable to
contain their inquisitiveness any longer, one of the dwarves spoke
up.
"Why is the Dark Lord going against the Skyhall and the Great
Eight clans? What is his end game?" the dwarf asked, his voice
tinged with a mix of curiosity and concern.
Saber, his eyes gleaming with a hint of understanding, turned to

face the dwarf. "The Dark Lord is not so different from you
dwarves, seeking revenge against the elves who stripped you of
your cultivation power," he answered. "It was the Skyhall and the
Great Eight clans who instigated the conflict with the Dark Lord.
He is merely defending himself and seeking justice."
The dwarves exchanged knowing glances, a flicker of recognition

dancing in their eyes. They had long carried the weight of their
grievances against the elves, their desire for retribution simmering
within their hearts. The revelation that the Dark Lord shared a
similar motivation resonated with them on a deep level.
Their descent through the underground path came to an end as
they reached a massive iron vault, standing tall and imposing
before them. The dwarves approached it with reverence, their
hands moving in a rhythmic pattern as they tapped on the door.
With each tap, the vault responded, its mechanisms whirring and
clanking until, at last, it swung open with a mighty creak.
The sight that met their eyes was nothing short of breathtaking.
The vault revealed its hidden treasures, glistening in the dim light.
Gold and silver coins, precious gems, and magnificent artifacts
adorned the shelves and gleamed from within ornate chests. The
glimmer of the treasures cast a mesmerizing light upon Saber's
face, illuminating the longing and determination etched upon his
features.
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Chapter 2 - System Activated
(Meanwhile somewhere else)
"Ghost, can you hear me?"
Micheal heard the voice of a teenage girl through his earpiece.
"Loud and clear, pink"
Micheal said while adjusting the tie looking at the mirror. A

handsome young man of late twenties stared back at him.
"I do look good"
Micheal grinned at his reflection.
"What was that, Ghost?"
"Nothing, has the target entered the building yet?"
Micheal looked at his Rolex and asked.
"Not yet but he will, in a couple of minutes"
Pink was Micheal's wing-woman or wingman, in case pink was

using a voice modulator to sound like a girl.
In Micheal's line of work, anonymity was extremely important. Until

now, he didn't meet or know anything about pink as she didn't
know anything about him, except his codename. The face in the
mirror was just a disguise as Micheal had never revealed his true
face to anyone.
"Remember, the client wants you to eliminate the target before he

gives the speech"
"Roger"
Micheal took a last glance at the mirror and left the restroom.
When he stepped out of the restroom, he was welcomed by a
large crowd of rich people. Each woman seemed to wear designer
clothes with accessories that were specially made for them while
the majority of the men dressed in classic black tuxedos with
white shirts and bow.
Micheal would see the majority of their faces if he turned on the

television or roaming through the streets as they were all
celebrities, politicians, and famous sportsmen.
"Can you get me an autograph from Dicap?"
"Not for free"
Micheal put on his black sunglasses and pretended to be the

security guard who he knocked down and left in the dumpster
outside.
"Aw, come on Ghost, I don't have any money to give you"
"You should have saved your two-fifty from the last job"
Micheal said and walked around the place pretending to check the
parameter.
Pink didn't say anything as Pink knew that he wouldn't do anything

for free.
In the world of assassins, Micheal was a superstar and only a

small number of people on the earth would hire an expensive
hitman like him. He had a hundred percent success rate, no other
hitman in the world had such a record. Only a few of the law
forces knew about his existence but they could only speculate as
he never left any evidence or anything to put a file on him.
And the only person who could prove his existence was pink but if
a wingman like her betrayed her partner, the dark world would put
a bounty on her and she would end up dead, so a person with 160
IQ level wouldn't do anything stupid like betraying him.
"Target has entered the building"
Pink said and he noticed the special forces from various countries
entering the hall.
And after a while, Micheal craned his neck and saw a simple
looking old man entering the hall while armed guards surrounded
him in a diamond formation. Many people in the gala looked at his
simplicity with admiration. The target was a newly elected prime
minister of Probra after he freed his people from the clutches of
the previous leader of Probra, an evil dictator who had enough
nuclear weapons to wipe out the entire human race from the face
of the earth.
The target had received various prizes and awards including the
Nobel prize for his peaceful protest against the dictator. He was
here to give a speech about ahimsa and world peace and Micheal
was here to make sure the entire world see the demise of this
man.
However, while everyone was looking at him like he's the god of
peace, Micheal snickered inside because the face that he was
showing to the outside world was as fake as Micheal's face.
Micheal had his own moral ethic, no matter the payment, he
wouldn't kill an innocent and Libor Barnes was not an innocent.
Everyone thought Libor Barnes as the father of the free nation

Probra but failed to question how he survived under the dictator
while protesting under his nose against him. No matter how
peaceful he protested, a dictator like Pavel would have killed him
a long time ago but Libor survived.
Except the dark world, no one knew the real Libor. Pavel was the
only dictator for the outside world but the real mastermind behind
him was none but Libor. His simplicity was just for show as he was
the richest man in the world and he made his fortune by
squeezing Probra and slave trading.
Since no one could prove him guilty, some rich fold from
somewhere was paying Micheal to take him out. As far as Micheal
was concerned, he was getting paid to take out dirt like him for a
sweet amount of a million dollars.
"Tango two, take my position, loo break"
Don took out the walkie talkie and said.
"Copy that Tango one, on my way "
Someone spoke through the walkie talkie but the walkie talkie was
already in the flower vase.
Micheal had done more hard assassinations than this one and
compared to some of his hits, this was like a cakewalk to him. The
reason for his perfect hundred percent success rate came from
his extremely careful preparation. He would only take only one or
two jobs per year as he would take at least six months to prepare
and plan his hit. If a typical hitman had a plan A and B, Micheal
had plans from letter A to Z, and normally he would go for the
simple plan rather than the complex one.
"I will reach my position in a hundred seconds"
Micheal informed Pink and opened the staff only door.
"Roger that, no signs of people around the area"
The guards and securities were busy checking out the hot
actresses and didn't notice him a bit.
The staff only room was just there for the securities to keep the
belonging in the lockers and change their clothes after work.
"Fifth locker"
There was a row of gym lockers before him as he looked at the

fifth locker from the right and walked towards it.
"Is it in there?"
Pink's curious voice rang in his ears
"No"
Micheal didn't open the locker but jumped on the locker and slid
the ceiling above him as it opened like a door.
Only the engineer who designed this five-star hotel and a few
workers who knew about this until Micheal hacked his computer
and stole the original blueprints during the engineer's visit to Tahiti
with his family. The engineer had no idea that Micheal was the
one who manipulated the travel agency data and selected him for
the free trip program to Tahiti.
"Damn, I hope these rats did not eat it"
Micheal climbed the ceiling and closed the entrance but frowned
when he saw the rats running through the vent before him.
"Eat what?"
"Tell you later, how's the parade going?"
Micheal whispered and crawled through the vent without making

any noise.
"Now they are crossing the fifth avenue, five minutes till they
reach your place"
"Roger that, going radio silence, catch you in the next job"
"That much confidence huh? Alrighty, see you later, Ghost"
Pink disconnected the line while Micheal set a three-minute timer

in his watch.
And after crawling through the vent for exactly one minute,
Micheal saw the familiar black bag that he left in the vent three
months ago.
Reaching the black bag, he brushed away the dust and slowly
opened the zip to reveal the Kel tec rfb sniper rifle with a thermal
scope. However, the sniper wasn't made of metal and regular
parts but this rifle was custom made for him using nothing but
plastic, so when the security firm scanned the place with metal
detectors and everything, they couldn't find it.
Since it was made of plastic, the rifle could only fire one bullet
because the heat produced by firing the bullet would melt and
damage the rifle and render it useless.
The bullet was made of a special type of plastic that could

penetrate through the steel without making a noise. This rifle and
bullet alone cost him two hundred grand.
And besides the cost, he had only one shot to take out Libor and if
he missed the shot, there wouldn't be a chance like this again and
his reputation would be tainted.
"Four minutes more"
Micheal turned on the thermal scope and aimed at the center of

the hall where Libor would start his speech.
"Long Live the free nation of Probra"
Micheal heard Libor's voice through the speakers in the hall and
aimed his cross air at the head of the red figure in his thermal
scope.
"Diddle, diddle, we are so little"
The moment he said the word little, he pulled the trigger, and
boom, a sound like a watermelon exploded echoed through the
hall.
However, before even he could let a proud grin after his excellent
bullseye, his whole world around him turned white and he heard a
sudden ding sound in his head.
"Ding, Badass System activated"

Chapter 3 - I Can Dominate
This World
"What the hell?"
Michael was so confused and everywhere he turned, he could

only see the color white like he was caged in a white box.
"What's happening?"
He slapped his face but he didn't feel any pain.
"Huh?"
He knew he should have felt something as he tried to slap himself

again but his palm went right through him.
"It can't be, just relax"
Realizing something's very wrong, he took a deep breath and

closed his eyes, and opened them again.
But even then, nothing was changed.
"Am I dead? What was that voice I heard?"
He was trained to remain calm in any situation as panicking would

only make things worse in his line of work.
Yet, no matter how hard he tried to calm and make sense out of
this citation, he simply couldn't.
"Am I drugged? No, my watch would have indicated if there were

any unknown substances in my blood"
As he said, he lifted his wrist to look at his watch but his Rolex
was nowhere to be found on his wrist, and in fact, he just realized
that he was naked.
"This is serious"
He couldn't help but frown looking at his bare naked body and
even though he was naked, he couldn't feel anything or physically
touch his body.
Closing his eyes again, he tried to concentrate on what just

happened and the voice he had heard, just after he pulled the
trigger.
"The System is looking for a body for the host, please wait"
Just as the message rang out, he could see a window pop up

before him, as information could be seen scattered across the
screen.
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Arch Sensing stage, level 1
Experience Points: 0/1000
Badass Points: 0
Current Skills: None
Occupation: None
Status: In spectral form
Goals: None
Notable Skills: Above average in marksmanship and combat
"How? What?!"
There was no one alive on earth that knew his real name but the
screen was clearly showing his name and he couldn't figure out
what this information was floating before him.
"Am I transmigrated? But why am I still in this form?"
He never would have thought that he would say these things but
the novels he read on earth made him.
"The system, points, the cultivation, it must be that"
He analyzed the situation calmly as he could and he could tell that

there's no other way to explain what's happening to him.
"Ding, the system has found a body for the host"
As the ring sound appeared in his mind, the white background

around him slowly started to fade away and he found himself in
what seemed to be a battle site.
"Forgive me, Elder Wright, forgive me, elders"
Michael tried to step back as he could when he saw a hooded

figure crawling under his feet.
"Shit"
He noticed a man in medieval Knight armor walking towards him

as he quickly looked for a weapon in instinct.
But the man seemed not to notice him as his gaze was on the
figure under Michael's feet.
"Relenis Perfecasi Silicus Phantiteus Vengei Virtuula"
As an assassin, he had enhanced hearing and he was able to tell

that the hooded figure had said something in a foreign language.
And just when he said these words, everything around him

seemed to be paused as the flames, the wind, the man who was
walking towards him, and everything was stopped like in the
movies.
"Hey, can you hear me?"

Since only the hooded figure was moving, he shouted at him.
But surprisingly, a small ball of light emerged out of the hooded

figure and started to take the form of a human before him.
And when Michael saw the youth who was standing before him,
he was startled and the youth also looked shocked. Michael felt
like he was looking at himself from nine years ago, the youth
before him resembled his younger self.
"Who are you?"
Michael asked the youth before him but the youth just shook his
head.
"There's no time to explain, I don't know whether you're the devil

or not but please take my remaining soul energy and avenge my
people, promise me"
Michael could see an immense amount of sadness in the eyes of

this youth when he asked him.
"The system suggests the host promise Abras, finding a suitable

body like this again would take twenty years "
The system sounded like a warning as Abras stared at him for his
answer.
"It must be fate"
Michael sighed. What were the chances of him meeting his

younger self in a circumstance like this and not to mention he
seemed to have a system like in the novels?
"I promise"
Michael reached his hand out towards Abras as he didn't want to

wait another twenty years in this form and more than that, he
couldn't say no to him.
There was no smile or relief in Abras's face but grief as he took a

last glance at the place around him before turning into a ball of
light and flew right into Michael.
[The transmigration process has started, please wait]
The robotic voice of the system appeared again in his mind and
then, he was pulled towards Abras's body.
***************************
(After two days)
Through the heart of the forest, an idle river carried all the debris
that fell in from above slowly downstream. Large branches
sprouted from the trees and reached into the murky water as if
trying to scoop up the swarming fish. Although the warm water
was an olive color from the swirling mud and microsized
organisms, one could see the underwater wildlife flourish in the
shallow part. Swamp-like vegetation and old, rotting trees crept
into the river's edge and created slimy pools of debris from
withered leaves and twigs. Among the debris, a body was floating
and moving downstream.
And suddenly a ray of sunlight shone down and pierced through

the closed eyes of Michael who was floating on the river and
abruptly awoken by it.
Opening his eyes, he realized he was floating on the river and he

quickly started to swim towards the shore before the river met a
waterfall.
Even though he only swam for a couple of minutes, he felt very

tired and exhausted as he lay on the wet sand for a moment.
But when he relaxed his body, he felt extreme pain in his mind as
someone hitting his head with the hammer.
He clutched his head in pain while a great number of memories,

both foreign and familiar, flooded his mind.
"AHHHHH!"
Michael couldn't hold back the anger and shout at the sky with all
his might.
He felt overwhelming guilt, anger, helplessness, and betrayal at

the same time. These memories and feelings were so lifelike that
they almost felt as if he had experienced them himself.
In a short amount of time, he experienced the whole life of Abras.
"That bitch"
After separating his own memories from those of belonging to

Abras, Michael's face was full of anger
[Transmigration completed, Host can now access the system ]
The familiar sound appeared in Michael's mind and drew his

attention.
[Host has received a gift bag from the system, do you wish to
open it now?]
The time around him seemed to be stopped when the screen

appeared before him.
"Alright, let's see what I'm dealing with, open the gift bag"
Instantly, the page in his vision transformed into a golden box. The
box opened as several beams of light streamed out before fading
away.
[Congratulations host 'Michael' for obtaining the Initial level

Experience Pill. Using the pill would give 10,000 XP]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for obtaining two healing

potions. Using this potion would completely heal the host and
cancel out any negative effects and the host would be
invulnerable to attacks for two minutes]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for obtaining the beginner's…]

Several dings continued to rings in his mind as the interfaces
tuned red
[Ding! The system has detected that the host is too weak and
insist on the host to consume the XP pill immediately]
"System, how do I use the pill?"
The interface changed when he asked
"Do you wish to"
"Yes, I do"
Michael rushed the system before it could complete the question

as in his mind, he could hear a series of messages from the
system:
[ Host 'Michael' used the Initial Experience Pill and received

10,000 experience points]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current

stage is Arch Sensing Level 1]




Immediately, Michael sensed a surge of power passed through his

entire body, causing his hairs to stand straight
Following that strange sensation was a feeling of extreme comfort.
The pores all over his body opened up completely, greedily
devouring Arch Energy from all around.
[Congratulations to Host for reaching the Foundation stage level

1]
And in a matter of seconds, he could feel his body experiencing a

tremendous change as his muscles became stronger and he felt
strange energy around him. It was almost as if he could fight the
most formidable fighters on the earth.
And soon the feeling became familiar due to Abras's memories

and then he hurriedly sifted through the memories that didn't
belong to him, gaining a clear understanding of his present
circumstances.
After searching through Abras's memories, he realized that Abras

belonged to a secret group called the sanctuary that protected the
legendary cosmic stream. According to his memories, the water
from the stream had purified arch energy and some kind of
another energy that would boost someone's cultivation level by
many folds, cure any illnesses, keep him young forever and do
many wonders as long as he or she keeps drinking the water from
the stream.
But unfortunately, Abras didn't have any contact with the outside
world and had no useful information that could have made
Michael's life so much easier in this world.
Yet, that didn't discourage him even a bit but put a wide grin on his
face.
"Well, I have a system like in the novels, and unlike those fictional
characters, I can dominate this world for real, let's begin "
Chapter 4 - Badass Points
After crawling away from the river, Micheal found a big tree and
sat under it to familiarize himself with the system.
"Hey system, come up"
He ordered in his mind as the interface popped up before him. He

could see the tabs such as host, shop, storage, subordinates, and
upgrade.
Micheal looked left and right to see if anyone or anything was

coming but weirdly everything seemed paused.
"While you access the system, the time will be momentarily

slowed down until the host quit the system "
"Wow, cool"
His brows raised in surprise hearing the robotic voice.
"Open host"
the system opened the host tab and like in role-playing games, his
naked body appeared before him along with his stats.
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Foundation stage, level 1
Badass Points: 0
Occupation: None
Status: Healthy
Goals: None
Notable Skills: Above average in marksmanship
Proficient in close combat
"Proficient huh?"
Abras's skills merged with him so he instantly learned everything

that Abras learned in his lifetime.
"Let's see what's in the storage"
The storage tab opened to reveal a couple of items lying before

him and when he concentrated, the details and attributes of the
items appeared above them.
The first item in his storage was a black tactical knife as the knife
appeared in his hand.
"Hmm, perfect balance and very sharp"
He touched the knife's blade with his thumb and said.
Name: SOG Seal Pup Elite
Blade Length: 6.75 Inches
Total Length: 12.00 Inches
Total Weight: 5.40 Ounces
Special trait: Can penetrate the defense of anyone under Body

strengthening stage, level 6.
"System, list all these cultivation level in ascending order"
The interface changed and a list of cultivation levels appeared

before him.
Arch Sensing Stage
Foundation Stage
Body Refining Stage
Body Strengthening Stage
Core Formation Stage
Core Strengthening Stage
Soul Refining Stage
Fusion Stage
Half Immortal
Immortal
*System needs to be upgraded to reveal the next levels
At the end of the list, a red warning label appeared,
"Upgrade? What level are you now? How do I upgrade you?"
"Current System version is 1.0, the system needs 10000 badass

points to be upgraded to version 2.0"
"Let me guess, more functions and more shop items will be

unlocked only if I upgrade you"
Micheal read enough novels in his free time to realize how the
system might work.
"The host is correct"
"How do I earn these badass points? Is there a guide or how to

list?"
"Whenever the host acts badass the system will reward you with
badass points"
"Not to boast but I'm a badass, system, so it won't be hard"
Micheal proudly grinned and expected an answer from the system

but he didn't get one.
He already checked the healing potion so he moved to the next

item which was a blue gift box.
"Does the host want to open the box?"
"No shit sherlock, open it"
With a flash of light, the box opened and a black dress appeared.
"Wait a minute, is this?"
Micheal didn't need any introduction to the dress because it was

one of the most iconic costumes in his world, the black costume of
Neo from the Matrix movies.
Item Name: Neo Costume
Special trait: None
Durability: Six months
"Equip it"
Since he was naked in a new world and this costume looked

super cool on him, he ordered the system.
The costume fitted him perfectly but he noticed something was

missing
"Hey system, where are the sunglasses that come with this
costume?"
"Does the host wish to buy the Neo black sunglasses?"
"Yeah, give me that"

The interface changed and entered into the shop tab where he
saw the black sunglasses floating before him.
"Three hundred badass points? Shit I don't have much"
"Then the system recommends the host to explore this world and
earn more points"
"Let me browse the store for more"
The shop was categorized into weapons, potions, armors, and

miscellaneous.
The moment he saw the weapons tab, he opened it with his mind,
and a huge range of guns, knives, bows, and a lot more
appeared.
"A navy colt is 10000 badass points? Hey system, isn't that too
much?"
Even though he didn't know the value of the badass points, ten
thousand for an old colt seemed to be very pricey.
"A gun is too overpowered for this world, hence the price. The
system recommends the host to explore the world and earn
badass points"
Considering a simple colt was this expensive, he didn't even look

at the other weapons as he moved to the miscellaneous tab.
There were a few cards that appeared and he looked at the first
card.
Name: Surrounding scanner
Function: Scan the host's surrounding for the presence of life
Area of effect: small
Current Level: Level 1

Next Level: Scan will identify potential threats, the area of effect
will be increased.
Price: 300 badass points
"Hmm, might come in handy, what's next?"
He scrolled to select the next item
Name: Teleporter
Function: Teleport the Host to a different place instantly
Distance: small
Next Level: The distance will be increased.
"Teleporter huh? Fancy, next"
Name: X Ray vision
Function: Enable the host to activate X Ray vision
Range: small
Next Level: The range and the effect will be increased.
"Useful, but not that important"
After this card, the system required to be upgraded to view more

cards and after fiddling around the system for a few more minutes,
Micheal closed the system and stood up to start his adventure in
this world.
"I miss that sunglass "
Tying his hair in a ponytail, Micheal started to follow the river as

Bear Grylls told in the channels.
"Okay first, I need to find a city or village and gather more intel
about this world. Then I should look for a way to earn more money
and speaking of money, hey system, can I convert badass points
into gold coins or buy coins in a shop?"
"The system needs to be upgraded to level six to unlock that

feature"
He heard the robotic voice and sighed.
"It's settled, I need to look for a way to earn money. I hope this
world has hit contracts"
After walking for one hour, the clouds started to become darker
and the wind was blowing like it would uproot the trees any
moment from now as purple lightning cut crazy zig-zag into the
dark sky.
"Storm, that's what I need now"
Micheal sighed and looked for a house or anything that looks like
a shelter but he couldn't find any.
"It seems I need to go into the forest to take shelter"
Until now he avoided the dark forest and kept walking on the river
shore however, now he had no choice but to go into the forest
before getting struck by lightning.
The bare branches spiked into the sky - no sign of life was to be
found anywhere. It was so dark, he was barely able to see where
he was going. There were only small sounds of rustling bushes
and the howl of the wind. He didn't know what lay in this dark
forest, all he knew was that it wasn't going to be a peaceful time
walking into the forest.
Fortunately, when the downspout started, Micheal found a big tree
that had gigantic leaves and huge branches. He felt so tiny
standing in front of the tree.
Since Abras lived his entire life in the forest, he was an expert in
climbing trees and now, Micheal was able to use this skill to climb
this tree and take shelter under its leaves.
Like a monkey, he flawlessly climbed the tree and comfortably

rested on the branch.
"Hope there are no snakes in this tree"

Chapter 5 - Like The Predator
Micheal was searching his mind to find anything that could help
him survive in this world while the heavy rain was pouring from the
sky. On earth, he would spend most of his time preparing before
actually eliminating the target. He deeply valued intel and
preparation but after searching his mind, he couldn't help but feel
extremely unprepared.
"Am I missing, pink?"
He shook his head
"Hey, system, what happened to my body back in my world?"
"The host's body was disintegrated during the crossing over"
"Well, at least my reputation won't take a hit and those losers

won't find me"
Since his body was destroyed, the cops and the federal agents
wouldn't find him and he would still remain as a myth, a ghost to
them who had a hundred percent success rate in assassinations.
While proudly grinning about his reputation, he suddenly heard

footsteps and hissing sounds.
He quickly checked the other branches near him to see if there's a

snake nearby but when he focused, he found that the sound of
footsteps was coming from the ground.
As he was searching for the source, he saw a group of five

strange looking creatures dragging something. If he saw these
creatures on earth, he would have been shocked beyond words
and even slightly terrified but because of Abras's memory, he
recognized these creatures.
"Snakemen, freaky"
Some of their upper bodies resembled the body of a snake, in

particular, a cobra's, and their lower body seemed to be human.
And two of them had the head and torso of a human but had the
body of a snake as their lower part.
Micheal knitted his brows when he noticed the thing they were
dragging was not an object but a girl who seemed to be in her late
teens.
"Datra, let's take a break here, I'm too tired to walk in this damn
rain"
One of the snakemen complained and stopped his group.
"He's right, we are walking two days straight without any break"
"But we still have a long way to the Nagaland, we can't afford to

lose her again, the queen will skin us alive if we did"
The one with a cobra head hissed but the others chuckled looking
at the girl
"Look at her, Datra, the elders crippled her cultivation and now
she's harmless as a butterfly, besides how can she escape with
ropes tied around her limbs"
"And she can't turn into her true form anymore"
Micheal looked closer at the girl and found a small glimmer of

snakeskin on her neck and realized that she wasn't a human but
one of them.
"Three-body refining stage level seven, one level eight and level
ten "
Normally killing them with his level of cultivation would be an

impossible feat however the system gave him the perfect tool to
kill them if he could catch them by surprise and kill them silently
one by one without alerting the others.
But before that, he decided to open the system and browse the
subordinate tab. At the moment, the interface was empty and on
the corner, the system showed him the maximum number of
subordinates he could have.
"Three huh? For the moment, it's enough, but system, explain
how's this subordinate thing works"
"When the host wants to make someone his subordinate, you can
activate the system's recruitment feature. The target must be
willing to accept to be Host's subordinate and if the target is
willing, the system will recruit the target as Host's subordinate"
"Can a subordinate betray me or know about you, the system?"
"Host doesn't have to worry about that, a subordinate cannot

betray or harm the host in any way, and if the subordinate acts in
any way that brings harm to the host, the system would activate
the countermeasure and eliminate or punish the subordinate
before the subordinate could harm the host. For your last
question, except the host, none would know about the system's
existence unless the host chose to reveal it but the system strictly
recommend not to do that"
"Cool, that's what I like to hear, and im not crazy and dumb
enough to say that I have a system in my mind"
He closed the system as the world before him came to life.
"Okay okay, let's take a break here, but after this rain stops, we
leave here, get it?"
Datra said as they all sighed in relief except for the girl who kept
wiggling against her ropes and tried to speak but the ropes around
her mouth prevented her from making any noise.
"Good, go to sleep, snakes"
Micheal watched them from above and felt like the predator from
the movies.
"If I only had my sniper or an assault rifle with a silencer"
"Does the host really plan to kill those snakemen?"
The system's voice appeared in his mind
"You do give badass points and rewards for killing them right?"
"Yes"
"Then there's your answer, I need to earn points and experience

somewhere, why would I waste such a great opportunity like this?
Even if things went south, I have a healing potion"
"Good"
"Huh?"
For a moment, the system sounded actually human in his mind

but that feeling disappeared quickly.
Considering the branches of the tree were long and big, Micheal
slowly jumped branch to branch like a monkey and checked the
perimeter to see if there's another group of snakes on their way.
While looking at the group, Micheal witnessed Datra creating fire

from his hand. A stream of fire flew out of his hand and fired up
the bundle of wet wood.
"Cool Magic"
Micheal's eyes sparkled looking at this because this was the first
time he had seen such a thing in real life.
"System, can I do that?"
He asked the system in his mind as the system showed him a red
color card.
Skill name: Dragon fire
Class: Offensive type skill

Function: Host can send a stream of dragon fire from his hands
Range: small
Next Level: The range and the intensity of the fire will be
increased, the host can use both hands at the same time to send
the fire stream
"I must buy this"
A wide grin appeared on his face and he felt more motivated to kill
these snake men and earn more badass points.
In his line of work, patience was crucial so he trained his mind to

replay a movie whence he wants. And after replaying a couple of
movies, the snakes started to hiss which seemed like a yawn and
the forest grew darker and darker as only the campfire and the
flashes of lightning provided light.
He blended perfectly with the tree like a chameleon because of

his black robes and dark environment.
"We'll take the first watch"
Datra said and looked at the other cobra headed man.
"Fine with us"
Micheal was surprised that they didn't put anything under them
like a bedsheet or blanket as they went to sleep on the wet
ground.
After a few minutes, the snakes started to snore without minding

the sound of thunderclaps while Datra and the other one kept
watching the girl.
Micheal was waiting for them to look away from each other, so
killing one wouldn't alert the other but after waiting for some time,
they didn't seem to budge from their positions.
"Small distraction would do the trick"
He looked at the tree behind Datra which had a huge stem that
would block the other snake's sight if he kills Datra.
Planning his next move, he leaped towards another branch and

appeared right above Datra's head. He cut a small stick from the
tree using his knife that felt like cutting a banana with a hot knife.
"Thup"
Micheal threw the stick behind the tree as Datra and the other
snake quickly startled by the noise.
"Go, check it"
Micheal waited for one of them to go behind the tree and just as
he thought, Datra, the leader himself stood up to check it.
"Watch her, I'll go check it"
The other snake nodded and kept his glance at the girl while
Datra slowly moved towards the ideal place where Micheal
planned to jump down and stab the knife straight between the
eyes.
He was glad that at least Abras learned the weak points of several
species from one of the elders in the sanctuary as a part of his
training.
"Diddle diddle we are so"
Step by step, Datra reached the point where the other snake
wouldn't be able to see him.
"Little"
Just as he said, he jumped down from the branch and stabbed the
knife between Datra's eyes. The sound of the thunder clasp and
Micheal's perfect athleticism reduced the sound of his landing.
Even after stabbing Datra, his body violently shook but Micheal
used all of his strength and held his body against the tree until he
stopped moving.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level
10 cultivator. The reward is 7000 experience points as well as 200
Badass points]
He had no time to celebrate as his full focus was on killing the rest
of them.
So before the other snake got suspicious, he swiftly moved

towards the next target using the bushes and darkness as cover.
"Da"
Just when the other snake opened his mouth to call for his friend,
Micheal came behind him and sent his Knife through his forehead,
and dragged him away from the campfire and the sleeping
snakes.
The girl's eyes widened in shock and surprise seeing the turn of
events but she didn't make any noises that could alert and wake
the snakes up.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 8
cultivator. The reward is 6000 experience points as well as 250
Badass points]
Chapter 6 - The First
Subordinate
"Three more"
Micheal told himself and stealthily moved towards the remaining

snakes while the girl was pretty stunned to see him and the grin
he walked past her sent a cold chill running through her spine.
He slowly made his way to the three snakes and crouched behind
the snake who was peacefully sleeping in the middle without any
idea of the threat behind him.
"Diddle, diddle we are so little"
The moment he said it, he stabbed the snakes one by one

lightning-fast.
Each of his stabs was precise and deep as the ding sounds
confirmed the kills.
Badass points]
Badass points]
Badass points]
[Congratulations to the host for leveling up. The current stage is

Foundation Level 2]
The girl's eyes widened even further when she saw him break
through to the next level instantly after killing them.
But before talking to her, he opened the system
"Hey system, can you heal and make her cultivate again? "
"Yes, but the target must be the host's subordinate and the
required badass points is 3000 "
"Did you think I'm going to heal someone out of the goodness of
my heart? Let's see if she can be any help to us"
He closed the system and slowly made his way towards the girl
while playing with the knife in his hand.
"Hi there"
He waved and crouched before her
"Are you going to scream if I cut your rope?"
The girl shook her head as he smiled
"Good"
"(cough) (cough) (cough)"
She coughed and took a few deep breaths
"Who the f**k are you? Where the f**k did you come from? Come
on, cut these ropes human"
He was a little surprised by the words coming out of her mouth

and she sounded so arrogant and prideful.
"Ooh, feisty"
"I order you lowly human, cut the ropes now"
"Or what?"
He asked tilting his head
"Didn't they cripple you? I don't know how powerful you were but
now, you're nothing but a crippled serpent"
"How dare"
She became furious but before she could finish her sentence, she
felt the cold blade against her throat
"Come one, finish what you were going to say"
She swallowed and didnt utter a word
"What cat got your tongue?"
"What...what do you want, human?"
Since she was a predator herself, she knew a predator when she
saw one and the human before her radiated an aura of an apex
predator.
"Now we are talking"
Micheal took back the knife and smiled
"Since it's obvious that you're in a mess and I require some help
from a native of this land, why don't we help each other?"
"Humph"
The girl snickered
"If you can kill a core strengthening cultivator, I will gladly help
you, but look at you, you are just at a foundation level, that bitch's
maid is stronger than you"
"I'm not planning to be at foundation level for a long time and even
if I can kill that bitch"
He air quoted the word bitch and continued

"I won't do it for free but what I am offering to you is, if you accept
to be my subordinate, I can heal your crippled cultivation when I
get stronger"
She was taken back by surprise for a moment but in a few

seconds, she started to laugh like a maniac
"You think I fall for that crap, no one can heal a crippled cultivation
human"
There was a slight sadness mixed in her voice when she said.
Hearing her, he opened up the system
"Hey system, can you have anything that could make her believe
that I can heal her?"
A small white pill appeared in front of him
"Basic tier revitalizing pill, the pill can partially heal the cultivation
crippleness of the target"
"How much?"
He knew that the system wouldn't give this pill for free as he
needed to buy this using his badass points
"50 badass points, if host buy a hundred pill bottle, the system can
make an offer of 4000 points"
"Jeez, you sound like a cheap agent, give me one"
He growled and bought a pill from the system shop.
"Crap huh?"
The girl saw a white pill appearing in his hand
"What is tha"
Before she could ask, he put the pill into her mouth and forced her
to swallow the pill.
And just as she was struggling, her surge of energy appeared in
her body and her eyes widened in shock
"I can… I can feel the Arch energy again"
A wide grin appeared on her face but her grin froze on her face
when the effects disappeared.
"What the miraculous pill did you give me? Do you have more?
Come one give it to me? GIVE IT TO ME!"
She moved closer, too close that he could even smell a tint of
jasmine scent coming out of her hair.
"Whoa, easy there tiger, it's only a sample, agree to be my

subordinate and help me get stronger, then I will give you more"
"What do you mean by a subordinate? I'd rather be dead than be

someone's slave"
Her face turned very serious as he shook his head
"Who said anything about being a slave? You just be my

assistant, do you know what an assistant is?"
She still seemed unconvinced as he stood up
"Alright your loss, its seems you don't want to revenge, I'm sure
that someone will come looking for you soon, feel free to tell them
what happened here"
He said and took a step forward to leave
"Hey! Wait"
He halted his step when he heard her shout and turned back
"I can accept to be your subordinate but I won't sign any contract"
"System, does she need to sign a contract to be subordinate????

"No, the system only needs to say yes to be the host's
subordinate willingly"
She didn't know why he was suddenly smiling
"No contract, just say the word yes, are you willing to be my
subordinate?"
She was snickering inside planning to rob him in his sleep but
didnt show her true feeling on her face.
"Yes, I am willing to be your subordinate"
"Does the host wish to accept Gaya as a subordinate?"
"Gaya? Nice name, yes I do system, yes I do"
In a few seconds, Gaya's figure appeared before him alongside

her stats which were nothing but zero at the moment due to her
current state.
But what stat surprised him was the loyalty stat
Subordinate: Gaya
Cultivation Level: None
Race: Demi human-Naga Race
Status: Currently crippled
Loyalty towards the host: 0
"Why am I not surprised?"
And just as he was looking at her stats, a new window popped up
"Does the host wish to eliminate or punish the subordinate in case

they try to harm the host?"
"Hmm, for the moment, set it to punish, I think I'll see her getting
punished very soon "
With a smile, he exited the system and went to cut her ropes
"Do you know the way to the nearest village or town?"
He asked while slashing the ropes
"Yeah, if we travel to the north, we'll reach the port town"
She pulled herself up after he cut her ropes
"Alright, now take anything that fetches us some coins"
"You want me to loot the corpses?"
She frowned and looked disgusted
"Do you have any coins?"
"No"
"Then yes, I want you to loot the corpse, come on move your ass
girl"
She furiously rolled her eyes and deeply exhaled
"I'll make this bastard pay for this, just wait, you lowly human"
She thought to herself and walked towards the dead snakes to

take their poison core which could be sold in the adventurers'
guilds.
After collecting their poison cores, the two of them started to walk
north.
"So are you going to tell me your name? Or do I have to call you
human every time?"
Since this was going to be a long journey, she wanted to pass the
time by making a conversation with him.
"You can call me Ghost"
"Who the f**k would call himself Ghost?"
"The f**k who's called Gaya"
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass.

The reward is 50 badass points]
"I can earn points by being myself? Cool"
He was proudly grinning while Gaya stopped walking and looked

alarmed.
"How...how did you know my name? I didn't say my name"
"I have my ways, now keep walking, I don't want to spend my

night in this forest"
Chapter 7 - Adventure Guild
Gaya seemed like she knew the layout of the forest like the back
of her hand. After a few hours of following her, Micheal stepped
out of the forest and finally saw some man-made structures for the
first time in this world.
'Human, I can only accompany you this far?"
Suddenly Gaya stopped walking when they saw the huge city
walls and a few guards in front of the gates. Since the rain was
still pouring, there was no one around them.
"Why?"
"These lowly humans are in a war with Nagas, if they see me,
they'll report me to those f**king guards and throw me in jail"
She said this but looked like she has some alternative way to this
situation
"I know you have a plan for this situation, Gaya, spit it out"
She grinned
"Hmm, you have some brains for a human, after all"
"I can merge with you using a special spell I know"
"System, what is she talking about?"
"The host can buy the firewall protection from the shop to protect
himself from any items to hijack the host's body or mind"
At this point, he wasn't surprised to hear the system trying to get

himself to spend badass points.
"How much?"
"200 badass points and the system will protect the system for a
year"
"Like a virus guard huh? Alright, buy and use it"
A golden layer appeared around his body on the interface as he

felt a warm feeling in his body.
[Protective shield activated]
With a relieved sigh, he exited the system and looked to see what
she's planning.
"Oh, special spell huh? Are there any side effects?"
"Of course there are no side effects, human, just give me your
hand"
Her acting skills were so good as she said with a sincere look on
her face.
He held out his right hand while Gaya closed her eyes and
chanted something under her breath. And in a few seconds, she
transformed herself into a little white snake and coiled around his
wrist.
Then he pulled up his sleeve and saw a tattoo of a snake on his

wrist.
"Cool, tat"
He started to feel the tattoo by touching it
"Take your hands away from me, human"
"Huh? You can talk"
The tattoo didnt move but he heard Gaya's voice crystal clear in
his mind.
"Yes, I can talk and see what you see and hear what you hear"
"Well, I hope you close your eyes when I change before the
mirror, hehe"
"Perv"
She growled as he chuckled and walked towards the city gate to

enter the town.
"What's this town's name?"
"The humans call this place the river town but I call this a shit
hole"
"Don't get me into trouble talking like this, or you'll pay for it "
"No one will hear me except you human"
It was obvious that she didn't like to be threatened by hearing the

irritation in her voice as he reached the city gates.
There were only two guards playing some kind of dice game
inside their little hut and when they noticed him approaching, the
guards came out
"Hold there, what's your purpose for coming to the river town?"
"To end your pathetic lives, shitheads"
Gaya said and it was fortunate that they couldn't hear her.
"To stay the night and look for a job, sir"
He was furious that even these guards were at the foundation

level 7 and stronger than him.
"Another adventurer, why am I not surprised?"
The guard sighed and signaled the guard to open the gates.
"Go on kid, stay out of trouble"

The guard returned to his game while Micheal nodded politely and
entered the town.
Rivertown looked majestic with its elmwood rooftops, limestone

walls, and aromatic flowers. This town resembled the medieval
fantasy towns that he had seen in the movies but it looked more
beautiful in real life than in the movies.
The main attraction was the tall building at the center of the town,
which seemed to be built using marble stones with beautiful
architecture that slightly matched the architecture of the white
house.
"Why are you looking at the adventurer guild like it's a big deal?
Compare to my palace, it's just a shithole"
"What do you do in the palace? Clean it?"
He chuckled
"Clean it? I am a princess, you asshole, well I was until that bitch,
wait why am I telling you this"
"Let's just go sell these poison core and earn some money "
While walking towards the guild, he noticed a tavern that seemed

to be the most crowded place in the town. And the sweet aroma of
hot baked loaves of bread and something else made his stomach
growl.
As he reached the guild, he saw a few groups of humans

gathered before the guild and discussing.they stared at him for a
few seconds and then snickered and turned away.
"Look at their arrogant faces, these shitholes are only body

refining stage but acts like immortals"
"Amateurs, just ignore them"
In his previous life, he met his fair share of amateurs who would
act proud and arrogant after completing one hit. Because of their
arrogance, they often ended up behind the bars but the reason for
the ghost's success, he never let the pride and ego reach his
head.
When he walked through the front door, his clothes and body were
dried up by a hot wave as he felt warm and pleasant.
The inside pretty much resembled a five-star hotel and he couldn't

believe such a fancy place exists in a small town like this. Just like
the hotel, the first thing he saw was the receptionist who was busy
dealing with the other adventurers.
While waiting, he roamed around the hall and looked at the

painting of old people handing on the wall, and checked the
marvelous fountain in the middle of it. The ground was spotless
and he could even see his reflection on the marble tiles.
"Young master"
The receptionist waved at him after dealing with the others as he

walked towards her and retrieved the poison cores of the snakes.
"How may I help you, young master?"
There was a tint of redness on her cheeks and Micheal had no

idea why she's blushing since he didn't even use a single pick-up
line or flirt with her.
"I need to sell these, can you help me with this?"
He retrieved the poison cores from his pocket and placed it on the
table.
The girl's eyes went wide in surprise because the cores definitely
belonged to the body refining stage snake men but the youth
before her was only a foundation level cultivator.
"Young master, where did you get these?"
"I killed them and took it from them"
"But?"
"Is there any problem, miss?"
He kept his smile but his stare was serious as the girl quickly
shook her head
"Of course not young master, five body refining stage cores will
fetch you hundred silver coins, if the young master can wait a few
moments, I'll go and bring you the coins"
"Thank you, miss, I'll wait here"
When the girl went into the room behind her with the poison cores,
he noticed a board with notices pinned to it.
"What's this? Quest board?"
As he said, he started to read the notices to find something that

was suitable for him.
[Pardon me, adventurer. I'm in need of your service.
Our crops have failed and to make matters worse, we're

constantly harassed, robbed, and sometimes even killed by those
pesky brutes. Hero, would you be so kind as to get rid of those
horrible miscreants. I'd love to join you, but it'll be up to you. I don't
want to get in the way.
You are fully capable of handling those miscreants. Try to kill all
those who stand in your way, we don't need their filth in our lands.
Should you succeed I will be able to repay you handsomely, it'll be

worth your troubles. Now hurry, champion, there's no time to
waste]
['Scuse me, traveler. I need your help.
My brother is such an idiot, he keeps pulling pranks on me and I'm

sick and tired of it. It's time for payback and I know the perfect way
to do it. My brother is scared of forest spirits, they're not real, but
I'm going to make him believe they are. I've made this wooden
mask, but I need some more items to make it really scary. Would
you mind collecting some for me? I need rainbow fowl feathers,
some glimmer weed to make the eyes glow and a whole lot of
seaweed.
I wish I could pay you far more than I can, but what I can pay isn't
less than what's fair either.
[Excuse me, Adventurer. Please, lend me your hand.
I've been betrayed, betrayed by my own foolishness. I knew I

shouldn't have hired mercenaries, instead of fighting the bandits
they joined them. Hero, teach them a lesson in honor and make
sure they remember it. Curse those nasty lowlives. I'm in no state
to fight, but I know you'll manage without me.
Be careful hero, don't underestimate those lowlives. Try to take

down as many of them as possible, the less of a threat they pose
the better.
Reward: 60 silver coin per head
"This last one seems interesting"
"And dangerous too, don't get cocky human, you're just only a
foundation stage cultivator, pick something to your level, like
fetching ingredients for the mask"
"The system recommends the host to take this quest, more the
legend of the host grows, you'll receive better items from the
system "
"Cool"
He had already decided to take on this quest because only by

killing more people, he could earn more experience points and
level up.
Chapter 8 - The First Quest
"Young master"
The girl called out to him when she came back with a pouch of
coins.
"Two hundred silver coins, as promised, young master, please

check it"
"Two hundred silver coins"
The system's voice rang in his mind.
"No need, I need your help with something else though"
"Please tell me, young master"
"I decided to take this quest, is there a procedure I have to take

care of before taking a quest? "
The girl nodded and took out a small form from her desk
"You need to register with the adventure guild, young master, do

you wish to join the guild now?"
"Yes I do"
"Wonderful"
The girl revealed all of her pearl white teeth by letting out a wide
grin
"Please fill this form, young master"
The form had pretty standard stuff like name, cultivation level,
party name, and party members.
Micheal didn't plan to form a party as he liked to do things alone
and the only reason he was putting up with Gaya was she had
knowledge about this world and he could use that knowledge to
his advantage. He thought of her as pink, his aide in the earth.
But he was planning to recruit more people as his subordinates

and expand his influence throughout the world, so he could sit
back and enjoy the wealth created by them while growing stronger
and stronger. For the time being, he liked to do things alone like a
lone wolf.
So on the form, he only filled his name and cultivation level and
left everything else blank.
"The Ghost?"
The girl looked perplexed looking at his name but it was quite
usual for the adventurers to use names like these, therefore she
didn't ask any question.
"Young master, if you don't know any party to join, the guild can
suggest you parties that look for one more member?"
"No need, I like to work alone"
"I'm right here"
Gaya's voice sounded in his mind
"But young master?"
"I can look after myself, miss, trust me"
"Pretty face and no brains, pity, what a handsome lad but he's
going to end up dead"
The girl sighed inside and nodded.
After taking one last glance at the form, a white light appeared
from the girl's hand as she scanned the form using the light.
"Here's your adventurer card, young master, if you lose it, you
have to pay fifty silver coins at any of our branches and receive
another one, each quest you successfully complete will give you
points and added to your card, harder the quest, more points you'll
earn and more points you earn, the more high-value quest will be
presented to you by the guild"
As she said, she gave him his adventurer card.
It was a yellow card the size of a credit card with his name etched
on it.
"Young master, what's the quest that you wish to take?"
He placed the notice on the table but when the girl saw the notice,
her eyes widened in shock.
"Young master, this quest, are you sure you want to take this?
This has marked by the disciples of the morning star sect"
"Those shitheads again, f**k"
"Can I take it or not?"
He had read enough novels to realize that most of the sects are
just assholes who like to bully the weak and he didn't like to be
bullied.
"Young master, you can but"
"Let me guess, no one would take the quests that have this mark"
He pointed at the Star mark on the corner of the notice as the girl
nodded.
"I'm taking this, if they have any problem with that they can find
me"

The reward is 50 badass points and a teleportation scroll]
"You shouldn't have done that, human"

He didn't mind Gaya as he put the card and the pouch in his
pocket and left the guild leaving everyone who heard he was
taking the morning star's quest stunned.
"He's dead"
"What an arrogant kid, look, he's just at foundation stage "
"Look at his clothes, I bet he came from another kingdom and

know nothing about Elen"
On his way out, he heard several people muttering about him as

he exited the building and made his way towards the tavern he
saw earlier.
"Shit, human, that was a dumb move, if you get killed, they'll get
me too and how can you heal me if you're dead?"
"Relax, I'm not the one who dies, sweetheart, I'm the one who
kills"

"You better not die, human, I don't want to get caught by lowly
humans and sold to Naga land"
"We think about that later, now I want to eat and get a good sleep
listening to the rain and thunder"
"Lucky cat tavern"
From the outside, the tavern looks snug, intimate and warm.
Large and small stones and marble stones made up most of the
building's outer structure.
It was impossible to see through the stained glass windows, but

despite the sound of thunderclaps and rain hitting the roofs, the
warm noises from within could be felt outside.
As he entered the tavern through the hard wooden door, he was

welcomed by laughing voices and the smile of a waitress.
The bartender was working hard but still managed to welcome
him with a smile.
It was as charming inside as it was on the outside. Several walls

supported the upper floor and the rows of small candles attached
to them. The walls were littered with so many different
memorabilia, he was not sure if they tried going for a specific style
at one time or just put up anything they liked.
The tavern itself was packed. Adventurers seemed to be the

primary clientele here, which would often lead to exciting
evenings. Several long tables were occupied by, what must be
separate groups who have bonded over great food and
conversation. The other, smaller tables were also occupied by
people who clearly enjoy each other's company, though they
seemed to be strangers who have met here. Even most of the
stools at the bar are occupied, though nobody seemed to mind
more company.
Making his way through the crowd, he managed to find a seat and
waved at the waitress as she came running to him with a wide grin
on her face.
"Welcome to Lucky cats, young master, what can I get you?"
He was surprised by the beauty of this girl because if she was in

his world, she could have been a dazzling actress.she had the
perfect figure and golden blonde hair to complement her rosy
cheek and fairness.
But she seemed like the person who gets harassed by these
adventures and strangers so he didn't say anything about her
beauty and hit on her.
"What's on the menu?"
"pan-Fried Lemon Yak, Smoked Beets, and Lemon Mammoth
Tenderized Rice and Fish and finally today's special Poached

Creamy Mutton"
He had never heard of these dishes and couldn't wait to try,
especially the special
"Give me a special"
"That'd be ten silver, What do you want to drink? Young master,

we have ale and freshly brewed beer"
"Just hot water, put some lemon and mint leaves if you have any"
The waitress seemed surprised but she nodded and ran back to
the kitchen to bring his order.
"Do you want anything?"
He asked Gaya slightly brushing his wrist
"Humph, how could I eat in a place like this? I have standards,

human, unlike some"
"Even with crippled cultivation, you still act bitchy, they should
have broken your mouth instead of the meridians"
"Hisss"
She hissed at him but that only made him grin.
And after a few moments, the waitress brought him his order as
he gave her fifteen silver coins.
"Keep it and do you have rooms to stay the night?"
Her face brightened in delight seeing the tips
"Of course, young master, we have a few rooms available and if

you want, I can put you in our cleanest room"
"And how much would that be?"
"Five silver coins a night, young master"
He took out another five coins and handed over to her

"I'll bring you the key and show you the room when you finish your
meal, young master"
"Great"
The waitress smiled again and went to take other orders while he
started to stuff the juicy meat into his mouth.
"This is delicious"
Eventually, he finished his meal as the waitress showed him his

room.
The room was nothing like the fancy rooms he used to stay in his
world but they more resembled the rooms of the shady motels. It
had a single bed, a small table, a chair, an old mirror, and a
candle holder with a half-burned candle.
"System, do you have a clean bed sheet and a pillow, I don't want
to sleep in that thing?"
He wondered if this was the cleanest room, how the other rooms
would look like. The bedsheet looked ancient and the various
stains on it were enough to make him spend his precious badass
points.
"Five badass points"
"Yeah, I'll buy it??
When he exited the system, he had a new thick silk bedsheet and
a new fluffy cotton pillow in his hand.
After throwing away the old bedsheet and putting his new one as
well as removing his boots, he jumped onto the bed.
Chapter 9 - New Skills And
Abilities
"System, show me the items in the storage"
The system's interface appeared as a couple of items were

floating before him.
"What's this?"
He zoomed the first item in the line which was a delicately made
black arm bracer.
Name: Mark 3 grappling hook
Durability: lifetime
Class: Rare
He reached out his arm and put his arm into the holographic
image of the bracer.
"System, equip this"
The black bracer adjusted its size to fit his arm while the system
sent information about how to use the bracer to his mind and in a
mere moment, he became familiar with the grappling hook.
"I can't wait to try this bad boy tomorrow"
He pulled his sleeve down and looked around his arm with a grin.
After the grappling hook, there were two legendary class long-
ranged teleportation scrolls in the storage but even though they
were legendary class items, what excited him most was the XP
pill.
The system showed him that he received the pill as a reward for
recruiting his first subordinate.
"System, use it, use it"
He rubbed his hand and prepared to level up as the ding sound

appeared.
[ Host 'Michael' used the Second level Experience Pill and

received 113,000 experience points]

stage is Foundation stage Level 3]




"Not bad, not bad at all, I reached this level in just a day, if I
continue like this, I'll be like the op anime mcs "
"The system suggests the host go out and explore the world than
expect the system to give freebies"
"Damn you system, I said I'll do that, just let me have my moment"
He cursed the system and opened the shop menu to buy some
skills
There were three skills that he could buy at the moment with his
1100 Badass points and he listed them in front of his eyes.
Name: Surrounding scanner
Function: Scan the host's surrounding for the presence of life
Area of effect: small
Next Level: Scan will identify potential threats, the area of effect
will be increased.
Name: Teleporter
Function: Teleport the Host to a different place instantly
Distance: small
Next Level: The distance will be increased.
Name: X-Ray vision
Function: Enable the host to activate X-Ray vision
Range: small
Next Level: The range and the effect will be increased.
"I don't need the X-Ray vision, at least not yet, but both the
teleporter and the scanner could come in handy, I shouldn't buy
both incase I need points to buy other stuff"
He kept looking at the teleporter and the scanner without being
able to choose one and after thinking about his quest, he decided
to buy the scanner.
"System, I'll take the scanner"
[Ding, The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Surrounding

scanner]
He experienced mild pain in his head and then, he could sense

the presence of lives around him for a small radius of distance.
He was able to pinpoint the exact locations of people in the inn

and track their movements with his mind, and although he couldn't
explain the feeling, it felt like a seventh sense.
"Cool, now I don't have to worry about surprise attacks"
"System, show me my stats"
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 800
Passive Abilities: Environment scanning
Occupation: Adventurer
Status: Healthy
Goals: None
Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 2%)

"800 points remaining huh, system show me the magic spells you
have, I must buy something before going for the next quest"
Spell name: Felinergio
Effect: Envelope the caster's weapon with a fiery energy
Upgradable: No
Cost: 200 Badass points
"Cool, but I need to buy a spell, offensive spells will be better, "
He waved his hand and looked at the next spell
Spell name: Araerous
Effect: Creates a barrier of frosty energy.
Upgradable: No
"Not upgradable, Nah"
Spell name: Incentenis
Effect: Summons a magical guardian spirit.
Upgradable: No
"400 for a non-upgradable spell, not a chance"
Spell name: Sileneos
Effect: Creates several bolts of frosty energy.
Upgradable: Yes
"Frosty energy huh?"
Rubbing his chin, he moved to the next spell and the next one
immediately put a wide excited grin on his face.
Spell name: Ignitia
Effect: Creates several bolts of lightning
Upgradable: Yes
"System, why didn't you show me this first?"
"The system knew the host would favor this spell but the system
wanted to make the host take a look at the other spells too before
the host make a decision"
"The last spell, the lightning bolts would come from my hand,
right? I don't want a spell that sends out bolts of lightning from my
butt, I can't even imagine that"
"Yes, from hand, host"
He noticed the system sounds different like it was annoyed by his

question
"Alright, alright, take my points and give me that spell"
[Ding, The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Ignitia]
Again like before, a mild pain appeared in the head as the system
imprinted the spell's workings in his brain.
Learning the spell, he conjured the Arch energy and created a few
tiny bolts of lightning with his finger as his eyes sparkled in
excitement and joy.
"COOOOOL"
He could tell that the more arch energy he uses, the more
powerful the bolt would be.
"Let's take a look at the adventurer card"
He retrieved the golden card from his pocket as a holographic

image appeared from the card and showed him which seemed to
be the map of this kingdom. On the map, a small area was
marked by a red circle and.
"This might be the location of the quest, I should rest a few hours
and go there in the night"
As he said, he closed the system and laid on the bed to get a

good sleep before going after the bandits and the mercenaries.
**************************
"It's a shame to stain this bedsheet with his blood, but where did
he get these?"
Gaya transformed from a tiny white snake into her human form
and menacingly staring at Micheal who was peacefully sleeping.
"Do you want this princess to be your assistant? I'll assist you by
ending your pathetic human life"
She slowly took the candle holder and licked the metal to coat it
with her poison.
"Huh?"
Suddenly she noticed a slight smile on his face and stopped

moving.
"He must be having some happy dreams, how cute"
With an evil grin on her face, she sneaked towards him holding
the candle holder in her hand.
"If I can take that miraculous pill, I can ask Sima to recreate the
pill and then I will kill that bitch myself"
She said to herself and raised the candle holder to stab him in the
heart but when she tried to stab him, her hands froze in the air as
her body refused to move.
"What the f**k?"
And then her whole body was thrown into the wall and created a
big thumping sound when she hit the wall.
"HEY, WE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!"
Someone from the next room shouted as Gaya was clenching her
gut and rolled on the ground in excruciating pain.
The pain was like her organs were pierced by millions of needles
and the worst part was she couldn't open her mouth to scream.
"Well well well well, look at this"
Gaya heard Micheal's voice and slowly looked up to see him

grinning like the devil himself.
"Didn't I say that I'm not the one who dies"
He could tell that she was in extreme pain but he didnt stop the
system as he wanted her to experience the pain so she wouldn't
try anything stupid like this again.
The moment she left his body and thought about harming him, the
system alerted him in his sleep but paused the system for a
moment and let her think she could kill him.
"Is this how you repay me? Its seems like I have to kill you"
Gaya saw the black knife appear in his hand as she tried to crawl
away from him.
"I hope you have a good poison core, I wasted my precious pill on
you after all"
Looking at his evil grin and the killing intent in his eyes made her
shiver.
"No...don't..."
The words barely escaped her mouth while he came to her and
crouched before.
"Why shouldn't I kill you? You did try to kill me"
He said as moving his knife's end on her face.
"Please...make...it...stop...beg...you"
Little by little, she was losing her consciousness
"Hmm, what if you try to kill me again"
"I...promise...I...won't"
"I think I can give you a second chance but If I find you do
something stupid like this again, I make you feel a thousand times
worse than what you feel right now, got it?"
She slowly nodded and in a flash, the pain completely

disappeared but the terror she felt didn't.
Chapter 10 - Leveling Up
Again
"How much farther?"
At the moment, Micheal was walking through the mud road

towards his quest.
"Two miles"
Her usual arrogant witty self was nowhere to be found as she was
very silent during his journey.
"Someone's having a bad day, come on, princess, say something"
"Leave me be, human"
Normally she would sound arrogant but now she sounded

terrified.
He thought he would like her to be silent but after traveling in

silence for a long time, he missed the witty and arrogant princess.
However, he knew what would cheer her up
"Alright, your loss, I thought I should give you another pill or two"
"Really?!"
"Only if you stop acting like a crybaby"
"I can do that, human, now give this princess the pills"
"Damn"
He didn't expect she would change her mind so soon but it made
him smile.
"Let's finish the job on hand, shall we? After that, I'll give you two
pills deal?"
"Deal, let's go and kill some maggots"
"That's my girl"
"NO, I'm NOT!"
He laughed and rushed towards his goal before the drizzle could
extinguish the torch in his arm.
Eventually, Micheal came before a crossroads and saw the red

mark on the map was not far away from here. On the horizon, he
noticed a small village, and near to the crossroad, the forest and
thick trees made this area a perfect ambush place for the bandits
who could target the traveling merchants and the villagers on their
way back to their village from the river town.
"We should have come in the day, human, now the bandits will be
in their camp"
"Exactly, now they will be at their camps drinking or sleeping

which makes them vulnerable"
"Even if you kill a few of them silently, you won't be able to kill all
of them like that"
"I have a plan, Gaya"
Being said, he ventured into the forest where the bandits most
likely set a camp and after a few minutes walking into the forest,
he sensed a group of fifteen people fifty meters away from him.
"I need a vantage point, lets see what this bad boy can do"
He aimed his grappling hook at the branch above him and like
batman, he took off from the ground and landed on the branch.
"Whoa, how did you? What is this thing? Where did you get it?"
"Cool huh? It's called mark 3 grappling hook, stick with me I show
you more cool stuff"
"What's mark three? Who named it? I bet it might be those

wretched dwarves, whatever give me that later, this princess want
to try it"
"Why? Are you going to kill me with that?"
He said and moved to another branch using the hook.
"Damn you, human, I promised I won't, besides didn't you hurt me

enough without thinking I'm a girl?"
"Oh don't pull that card on me princess, I'm a strong believer of

equality"
Just Gaya was about to reply, she saw a campfire and a group of
men around it.
"This must be their camp??
Gaya said as Micheal sensed two bandits were roaming away

from the main camp alone.
"Even though there are no level 10 shits like Datra, each of these
bandits are level 7 or eight and counting their numbers, it won't be
easy to kill them as you did with those snakes, if they find you,
they can kill both of us with a single spell"
"They won't have time to cast any spells"
It was so much easier for him to move from branch to branch

using the hook than jumping. And in a few moments, he reached
his first target who was peeing without any worries.
"Gross, why did you make me see that?"
"I am a free bird (whistle) free bird"

Just as he was singing, Micheal landed behind him and stopped
his horrible song by slitting his throat.
Badass points]
He didn't leave his body on the ground but took it with him and put
it on the branch before moving to his next target.
"Pathetic, didn't even put a defense spell on himself"
Gaya had no idea that even if he did have a spell on him, it

wouldn't have made any difference since his knife could ignore the
defense of anyone who's under the Body strengthening stage,
level 6.
The next bandit was returning to his camp when Micheal

appeared before him and slit his throat like he did to the bandit a
few minutes ago.
Badass points]
"So far so good, thirteen more to go"
"How the fuck did you break through to level 7 in a single day? Did
you take restoration pills?"
"Wait till you see me have another breakthrough"
He grinned and swung to a branch that was closer to the main

camp.
"How are you going to kill them with your level of cultivation?"
Gaya noticed that every single bandit was drinking and singing
without sleeping. She couldn't guess how he's going to kill thirteen
body refining stage cultivators without the element of surprise or
hunting them one by one like he always does.
But when she was wondering about this, she saw a small cylinder
like thing appear in his hand.
"What's this?"
"We call this, the flashbang"
As he said, he removed the pin and threw it at the center of the

camp, and closed his eyes and ears.
BOOM!
Just like he thought, the flashbang affected the area of the camp
and threw the bandits off their balance as well as caused the
much-needed chaos. Yet, he didn't jump down right away but
threw the smoke bomb he bought from the shop. Fortunately, this
world seemed to have a variant of a smoke bomb and the flash-
bang so the price was way cheaper than the guns.
"AH!"
The bandits shouted as Micheal plunged his knife into the throat
of his third bandit.
Because of his sensing skill, he didn't get affected by the smoke

as he picked the bandits one by one with inhuman speed.
Badass points]
Badass points]
Badass points]
Each time, he swung his knife, a ding sound appeared in his mind
and he was rewarded by the system. Just when the smoke
cleared, the last voice in the camp was stopped by him and Gaya
was dumbfounded looking at the bandits lying on the ground with
their throats slit and a stab wound on their chests.
In a few moments, he was able to do this?
He had killed 13 experienced bandits in a few mere moments and

they were all level body refining stage cultivators.
How… How was this possible?
This human was clearly a mere level 7 of the Foundation Stage!
When she saw his reflection in the puddle of rainwater, a cold chill
ran through her spine as he was bathed in water and resembled
the ancient devils that she used to read about in the books.
But what made her heart skip a beat was that he leveled up,
again.


"Is he using some ancient evil cultivation technique?"
"Why didn't you assholes have one more bandit?"
He kicked the dead body of a bandit in frustration because he

could have reached level 10 if he had killed one more.
"He's dead, human, instead of kicking him, take their badges as

the proof of kill"
Hearing Gaya's voice in his mind, he sighed and started to rip

their badges. It was surprising to him that they all wore eagle
embodied badges on their chests.
"What kind of bandits wear badges?"

"Be glad they wore badges, human, else you would have had to
cut off their ears as the proof"
"Shit"
After collecting the badges, he was able to gather another six

hundred silver coins from their cache and left the area without
skulking around.
"I should take a bath"
He was reeking the smell of blood and his black robes were now
almost turned red.
"Gaya, is there any waterfall nearby?"
"If you walk towards the east for three hours, there's a beautiful
waterfall I used to travel with my maids "
"Hehehe"
He giggled while turning and walking towards the east
"Did I say something funny, human?"
"No, I just thought you were going to say friends"
"Why is that? Do you think I don't have friends?"
"I don't think, I know you don't have friends"
"Yes I have, I have many friends"
"Quickly name three"
He was waiting for her to speak again but he only heard a 'hmm'
sound from her.
"Thought so"
"Well, this princess doesn't need any friends"

She rebuked and said but he could sense a slight sadness in her
voice which was a big surprise to him considering her arrogant
prideful self.
Chapter 11 - Infuriating Two
Beauties
After following Gaya's instruction for a few hours, the golden rays
of sunlight appeared on the horizon. The sun rose like a flower
opening, gifting its petals unto the world. Amid the dancing,
raindrops were the blush of scarlet, the warmth of tangerine.
Gazing toward the illuminated clouds, still beneath the ethereal
glow, Micheal felt at home in a way he never had before.
In the distance, amid the green of the forested hills was a

reflective white strip that could only the waterfall Gaya had
mentioned. The waterfall had been like a silent white stream
cascading over the rocky outcrops. As he had drawn closer, the
noise had increased steadily until he was only a few hundred
meters away. He could no longer hear anything but the deafening
roar of the water. He moved until he was in the plume of water
vapor that hung over the plunge pool and in only minutes, he was
as wet as he would have been in any rainstorm. The hair clung to
his head and around his face, but no matter how wet they
became, it could not dampen his spirit and delight as he stood in
awe.
"It's beautiful"
Without wasting any time he dived into the water and began to
enjoy this nature's gift after a long night of walking and killing.
While he was swimming happily, he saw Gaya transforming into

her human self swimming towards the bank to get out of the
water.
And when she completely emerged out of the water, his mouth
and eyes widened in surprise. He had only seen her in dark
lighting and never saw her so clearly until now.
Her tall frame and slender body were like a Victoria secret model.
Her blue eyes, like the sea, were calm and emotionless. Although
her hair was wet, he could see the beauty of her long, wavy raven
black hair, so smooth and silky, almost as if it was tailored from
some high-end black fabric.
Even though he had seen countless models and actresses in his

previous life who were devastatingly beautiful, compared with the
woman right in front of him, those models and actresses appeared
to be less attractive and were no match for this woman's imposing
beauty and grace.
And when she shook the water from her hair and put it back, his
heart skipped a beat as the facial features of this woman were like
that of a beautiful painting. The rays of golden light glowed on the
fair and smooth cheeks and her face had a tinge of a matured and
composed femininity. She also had a poised and dignified grace
and arrogance to her which only someone of a high position with
influence and power would have.
"Why are you looking at me like that, human?"
He was glad that his lower body was under the water as he
swallowed a mouth full of saliva.
[Warning, the host is acting like a beta male]
"f**k you system, look at that girl, any man would drool if they saw
a girl like her"
"Stop staring and give me those pills"
She shouted and waved her hands as her wet white dress
transformed into golden ones.
She seemed to be purposefully flaunting her beauty by slowly

correcting her dress and tying her hair into a ponytail.
However, he understood that if she knew that he was thinking of
her as hot and beautiful, she would be more arrogant and prideful,
so he decided to tease her.
"You shouldn't have left this water, it might have done something
good to your face"
"What did you say?"
Her flash of anger appeared on her face as puffs of smoke could

be seen coming out of her nostrils.
"Are you deaf, girl? I said this water might have done something
good to your face"
"YOU!"
The moment he repeated his words, her face reddened in anger

as she started searching for a stone or a pebble to throw at him in
anger while Micheal prevented the system from doing anything
rash to her for such a minor matter as this one.
"What are you searching for, mud? To do a mud facial?"
"I'm going to kill you bastard!"
"Then you're on the right track, by showing your ugly face to me"
He loved making her angry and continued to fan her anger as now
she was on the verge of jumping into the water and biting him.
Hearing him calling her ugly, she was so outraged that it wouldn't
be surprising if smoke billowed from her nostrils and mouth.
And finally, she grabbed a fist-sized pebble from the ground and
threw it at him.
"I will stone you to death, you jerk"
He laughed seeing her running around and collecting stones to

throw at him like a child.
While these two were playing on the surface of the water, a girl
who looked graceful and beautiful was seated on the bottom of
the water. Her surroundings were evidently sealed off and she
was in a state of cultivation. The air around her naked body was
filled with an air of power and emits a bone-chilling aura.
As if detecting a sudden movement, the girl abruptly opened her

eyes.
"Who dares to come into this territory and disturb my cultivation? "
The girl's brows furrowed as she dashed forward like a torpedo.
While on the shore, Micheal had bought two healing pills and gave
it to Gaya as she swallowed the pills with an excited smile like a
child eating candy.
"Alright, come to your usual place"
He reached out his arm towards Gaya.
"I'm too lazy to walk anyway"
She quickly transformed herself into a small ball of light and

merged into his arm as the black tattoo appeared again.
And just when he was about to turn and leave, he sensed

someone moving towards him at high speed.
[Imminent danger!]
The system's warning message rang loud in his mind as he

jumped out of its path.
Boom!
The tree behind exploded into pieces and the after blast flung him
away.
"What the f**k just happened?"

Gaya shouted as he slowly pulled himself from the ground and
saw a girl staring at him with a sword in her hand.
It was a 15-16 year-old young girl. She had arched eyebrows and
a delicate oval face. Although she couldn't be compared to Gaya,
she was indeed beautiful. In this world according to Abras's study,
female cultivators were very beautiful because they cultivated
purer bodies.
However, at the moment, that young girl's eyes didn't make her
look very friendly or amicable as they were filled with flames of
anger.
Seeing her cultivation level, he realized why the system warned

him, she was a body strengthening stage level 4 cultivator, and
looking at the powerful aura she was radiating, he knew that he
had no chance of defeating her, at least not at the moment.
"Who is this bitch, where did she come from? Oh shit"
Gaya's tone indicated she has recognized this person.
"Get the fuck out of here, human, this is bad"
"Was that a mistake?"
He glanced at the destroyed tree beside him and asked the girl.
Her expression hadn't changed though and she still looked

furious. Who didn't know this was her sacred cultivation place
after all? Everyone in this kingdom knew that Rivertown green
valley waterfall was hers but this
pervert had willingly come intending to peek at her training and

cultivating.
And even though she was powerful and he had no chance of

beating her now, he didn't fear her.
How could he? back on the earth, the whole underworld shiver
hearing his name. They even created a saying, if Ghost knows
your name, it's already too late.
"Yes, it was a mistake, it was a mistake not to kill you in the first
shot"
"I don't know who you are but I think you got the wrong person"
"That bitch won't listen to you human, get out of here"
Gaya urged him as he looked at the girl
"Next time, know your target before attacking"
He can't afford to lose face as he had a system called a badass

system for god's sake.
Chapter 12 - Act Like A
Princess
"And where do you think you're going?" he heard the girl's voice
coming from behind as he was leaving. The girl said that with a
cold and detached voice. Micheal turned around and saw her
sword vibrating in her hands.
"Where do you think?" said Micheal, looking at her angrily. He

didn't know her or has any idea why she's acting like a bitch. It
seemed like a misunderstanding and nothing more. Also, he even
started to leave the place after she tried to attack him.
She didn't reply as she adopted a battle-ready position. She

raised her sword and fired the sword which made a whistling
sound. The golden sword broke the air and thrust towards
Micheal.
"System, give me a defense spell"
Micheal quickly fired up the system and ordered it to purchase it

for him rather than him meddling through the shop because the
sword was just an inch away from him. The system would only
momentarily slow down the time and it couldn't stop the time
entirely, so if he took too much time browsing through the system,
the sword could penetrate his head and kill him because while he
was using the system, he wouldn't be able to move.
[Does the host wish to buy upgradable or nonupgradable spell?]
"Are you trying to kill me? Just buy an upgradable one"
He shouted at the system.

[Ding, the host has successfully acquired responsive energy
shield for thousand badass points]
His heart bled looking at the number of points he had to use

because of this girl's temper tantrum and became extremely
furious.
[COnsidering the power gap between the host and the enemy is
too big, the system recommends the host to buy the lightning
dash skill for thousand badass points]
"I don't know what is going to kill me first? Her or the outrageous
price of yours"
[Does the host wish to buy the lightning dash?]
"Yes, buy it quickly"
[Ding, the host has successfully acquired lightning dash for

thousand badass points]
He felt the mild pain in his brain as the system etched the working
into his mind.
At the moment, the sword was less than an inch away from his
forehead, but suddenly the responsive shield activated and
formed a mild blue color energy sphere around him. He closed the
systems and just when he did that, the sword and his energy
shield collided. The backlash pushed him back a few meters away
before he steadied himself.
"Bitch, bitch, bitch!"
Gaya was shouting in his mind in anger looking at the girl.
"Do you want to kill me?!" his voice was filled with rage because If
it had been his previous life, he would have been dead already.
"Yes, so what?" the girl said as the sword flew right back into her
hand.
She didn't know what spell he used to escape her previous track
but it sure did annoy and fume her anger more.
And this time when she closed her eyes, an illusory golden sword
suddenly appeared above her
This huge holographic sword made a sensation of cold spread

throughout his body. The holographic sword was like a guided
missile which meant it could detect if someone was alive and
automatically aim at breathing people.
"Shit, she's using a morning star spell"
Gaya cursed because she knew that it was one of the spells that
commonly used by the inner and core disciples of the Morning
Star sect.
"Bzzeeomm". The sword emitted a noise while it moved towards

him, getting closer and closer.
The energy shield appeared again on which the golden arrow

crashed, what looked like an explosion, however this time, the
shield could only slow down the arrow but it was unable to stop it.
The noise that came out of the explosion was scary and made
Micheal's heart skip a beat because it sounded like a nuclear
bomb went off near him. The arrow was coming straight towards
Micheal's forehead.
"Do something, human"
Celena Marshall, that was her name and she stood out from her
Morning Star sect's fellow disciples and was considered to be one
of the best, to be an exceptional disciple. She had reached the
body strengthening stage at the age of fifteen and reached level
four three years after that. With her exceptional talent, cultivation
level, and powerful spell, Micheal's shield was obviously not
enough to stop her arrow.
He was flung into the tree due to the clash between his shield and
the sword. As Celenia could control the arrow using her Arch
energy made the sword look alive, she made it turn around and
continued her efforts to kill him.
"Lightning dash" he quickly activated the skill he had just learned

and suddenly, his body transformed into a bolt of lightning and
dashed away from the girl.
"You will pay for this, bitch"
His distant voice stupefied Celina and she looked around the
place only to see her arrow was lying on the ground damaged. He
had already disappeared from the place at an amazing speed.
"The spell he used...ancient spell?" whispered Celina.
****************************
"What the f**k did you do to that bitch? Why was she attacking
us?"
He was still moving like a lightning bolt when he heard Gaya.
"I don't know, I think she was cultivating in there and assumed me
as an intruder or something"
"You think? Obviously, she thought of you as a pervert who

trespassed into her territory"
"Trespassed? Was that waterfall belongs to her? And if so, why

didn't you tell me?"
He was already annoyed by what just happened
"Of course, it doesn't belong to that bitch, but that's how this world
work, human, the strong can take any place they like and claim it
as their own, if I was at my peak, I would have ripped her into
pieces and fed to the fishes in that water"
She hissed at anger and frustration as he could see the outer

walls of the River town.
After running a long distance in a short amount of time, his
muscles ached as he started to breathe rapidly.
"By the way, do you know her?"
He leaned on a tree and decided to take a moment to regain his

energy.
"Why would I? she must be one of the Morning Star sect's elite
disciples, after seeing what that bitch can do, I advise you to stay
the f**k away from her "
"No can do, we going back into the town, take as many as quests
that involve killing, find her and kick her ass"
Hearing him, she jumped out of his body taking her human form,
and looked furious.
"Are you mad? I know you're using some kind of evil techniques to
level up but know this, there are no shortcuts in cultivation, if you
continue to use your evil techniques, you will end up dead or
worse"
She seemed like an angry wife who scolds her husband on a daily
basis with hands on her hip and a flushed face.
"What are you talking about? I'm not using any evil techniques, I'm
just awesome"
He couldn't help but grin and say
"f**k you, human, I'm serious"
She couldn't afford to lose him, especially after she sensed her
broken meridians getting repaired by the pills that he gave.
"Me too, you don't have to worry about anything, I'm not using any
evil techniques, alright? If you must know the truth, I'm a prodigy, I
have a special body type called War God body"
He didn't want her to get suspicious about how he's able to level
up so fast and he came up with the special body type because of
his experience in reading many cultivation novels on earth.
"War God body?"
She tilted her head and started to recollect all her knowledge
about special body types. And even though she didn't have any
idea about the body type of War God, she did learn that there are
many mysterious body types that exist in this world that no one
knew about, and besides, how could he breakthrough so quickly
without using any pills or potions?
"I let you in on a secret, don't tell anyone, okay?"
Looking at his earnest expression, she grinned
"Alright, since you're being truthful to this princess as well as

helping me, I can keep your secret"
He knew she was thinking he started to trust her and maybe use
this secret to get more pills except, everything he had just told her
was nothing but lies.
"Come on, come to daddy"
He raised his hands like he was asking for a hug and winked at
her as she rolled her eyes
"Gross, human, I hope she kicks your ass again just for that
mouth of yours"
She disappeared and appeared again as a tattoo on his arm.
"Be careful in the town, human, you already pissed off one major
bitch and might have pissed off another group by taking their
quest, from now on, stay the f**k away from the Morning Star sect
disciples until you at least reach the body refining stage level 6 or
7"
"Jeez, do you hear yourself? f**k this f**k that, you're a princess
for god sake, try to act like one"
"Sorry big brother, I'll be more refined and ladylike from now on, I
know I've not been always polite and respectful towards a senior
like you, please forgive me"
She sounded so feminine and soft in his mind unlike before but he
frowned
"Are you going to forgive me, big brother?"
He knew she was acting but it was a pleasant feeling in his mind
to hear this sweet gentle voice.
"Yes?"
"Well take your forgiveness and shove it far up your ass and take
it out from your f**king mouth and shove it up to your ass again
and repeat this until you f**king die"
"Now she's back"

Chapter 13 - Not Even A Shred
Of Mercy
The guards in front of the gate recognized him and let him in
without asking any question but they had a surprised look on their
faces.
Looking at their faces, he walked towards them with a smile and

retrieved ten silver coins from his pocket.
"You guys are working hard, here take this and have a good day"
He grabbed the guard's hand and placed the coins in his hand as
the guard was dumbstruck.
"Don't spend it in one place"
"Thank...thank you...young master"
The guard stuttered and his eyes sparkled with respect and joy.
"See you guys later"
Micheal waved at the guards as the other guard quickly opened

the gate for him.
"Why did you give our coins to those idiots?"
Gaya sounded irritated as he couldn't help but chuckle
"Since when did it become our coins?"
He emphasized the word our as she answered

"Don't be an ungrateful bastard, human, we're in this together
aren't we?"
"You change your colors faster than a freakin chameleon, girl"
Unlike yesterday, many shops including smithies and bakeries

were open and more people were walking on the streets.
"I did that because it's always better to have contacts in various
places, having valuable contacts is as much as important as
having money"
"You bribed them, I like it"
Gaya approved with a small giggle since she too bribed many
people in Nagaland to get what she wanted but the royal family of
Naga land opposed her methods calling it immoral.
"Consider it as a small gift"
"Tell that to the dumb f**kers in the Naga land"
While talking with Gaya, he reached the guild building as the

groups of adventures kept staring at him.
"What are you looking at? you maggot"
"You said it yourself, they can't hear you, just ignore them"
"Please save my mum, I'll pay you, please adventurers"
And just when he opened the front door, he saw a little girl crying
in the middle of the hall. The little girl's face was pale as her
clothes were torn and dirty.
"Leave this place peasant, you can't afford our services, what if
they destroyed your village, you ants should have paid them"
A youth wearing fancy armor was shouting at the girl while the
other adventurers looked at the scene like they were watching a
cinema with popcorn.
"Please, I can pay you"
The little girl showed the youth a small silver pendant as everyone
who saw the pendant started to laugh at her.
But soon the youth's face turned serious
"I don't want to get my hands dirty by throwing you out, so go"
The little girl was shivering in fear feeling the powerful aura he
was radiating but she shook her head
"No, you have to help me, mum said you all are heroes who help
us"
"Lightning dash"
Just when the youth lifted his leg to kick the little girl, Micheal
dashed forward like a lightning bolt and grabbed his leg.
The girl squealed seeing him suddenly appear before him
"Get out of my face before I kill you"
How heartless could they be? She was only a six or seven years
girl begging for their help but these people were laughing at her
misery.
Even if they didn't like to help, the least they could do was not
making things worse.
Micheal pushed the youth as he stumbled back and fell on the

table behind him. Looking at the little girl, he slowly wiped out the
tears on her face and let out a gentle smile.
"I'll help you, show me the way"
He didn't take the pendant but put the pendant back on her chest
"How dare"
"Zzzzzhhhh"
When the youth stood up with a clenched jaw, Micheal pointed his
hand at the youth and shot bolts of lightning at the youth.
Badass points]
The scene dumbfounded the adventurers and the guild staff as

their faces were full of shock.
Just one move was able to do this?
They saw a huge burned hole in his chest and there was still
smoke coming out of his dead body.
He had dispatched a Body refining stage, level 6 cultivator in a

single move and he was only a Foundation stage level 9 cultivator.
How… How was this possible?
Micheal already closed the little girl's eyes with his one hand and
looked at the others to see if anyone dared to step forward to
avenge the youth.
The remaining members of the youth's group were shocked as

well as their mouths opened wide in fear. The way they looked at
him took a tremendous change. Their arrogant facial expressions
gave way to that of fear as though they were looking at a strange
beast
The girl who he met before was shaken as well. She gawked at
Micheal, his eyes were opened extremely wide.
"Let's go little girl"
He took the girl's hand and walked out of the guild as little cracks
of lightning still danced around his fingers.
"Where's your village, little girl?"
He lifted the girl up and asked as the girl pointed her fingers at the
east
"It's far east from here, adventurer...me lord, there's a tall
watchtower in our village"
"Hold me tight"
He held the little girl tight against his chest and dashed towards
the east turning his body into a bolt of lightning.
After a minute or two of running, he noticed black smoke on the

horizon as well as a burning tower that seemed like the
watchtower the girl mentioned.
His face became serious when he got closer and when he

stopped running, what welcomed him was a burning village and
burned corpses.
"NO!!!!!!"
The little girl screamed and tried her hard to jump out of his
hands.
The entire village burned in a sea of red, yellow, and orange.

Micheal watched as the flames ripped their way through the
buildings before him, tendrils of smoke were reaching desperately
into the sky as if trying to escape the blazing inferno below.
"What happened here?"
Gaya's voice was grave and serious as he rushed towards the

village to find any survivors while the girl kept screaming for her
mother.
Once a charming peaceful village now turned into nothing but

ashes and debris. The smell of burning corpses even
overwhelmed his nose as he held the little girl's head against his
chest without letting her see all of this gore.
Some of the bodies had deep cuts while the others looked like
they exploded as he kept walking in the hope of finding a survivor.
"Someone's alive"
Suddenly he sensed a life sign near him in a burning house.
"Gaya, come out"
He ordered Gaya as she emerged out of his body and closed his
nose and mouth due to the stench.
"Hold her"
He quickly gave the little girl to Gaya and dashed into the burning
house.
"HEY!"
She shouted but he already went inside the burning home
"Our home, mum! Dada!"
The girl tried to wiggle out of Gaya's hold but she didn't let the girl
"This is your home, tiny human?"
Inside the house, the responsive shield had already activated and
shielded him from the flames but he could feel the scorching heat.
"(cough) (cough)"
The smoke started to fill his lungs when he reached a small room
where he sensed the survivor. Except through the smoke and
debris, he couldn't find someone.
But when he stepped forward to remove the wreckage, a creaking

sound appeared from the ground. He didn't waste any time and
quickly cleaned the dust and ashes from the ground using his
bare hand and found a handle.
"Shit"
When he opened the underground door, he found a woman

holding a two or three-month baby in her hand. She had lost
consciousness and barely had a heartbeat and the baby was
silent and lied in her hands without moving.
He immediately lifted the woman and the baby from the hole and
activated the lightning dash.
In Gaya's hands, the girl never stopped her screaming and crying
while Gaya gawked around to see if the cuprites were still around.
"HUMAN!"
Suddenly she saw Micheal rushing out of the home with another
human and even tinier human in his hand.
"MUM!
"(cough) get out of here"
He held the woman in one hand and grabbed Gaya in the other.
"Lightning dash"
Chapter 14 - Massacre
"Mum wakeup!, Roomi wakeup! Uh hoo hooo"
The girl was shaking their bodies and crying.
"System, give me the healing potion"
He quickly ordered the system after doing CPR on both the

woman and the baby but he couldn't restart their stopped hearts.
Just after he ordered the system, a small vial of blue liquid

"Move"
He pushed the little girl and opened the baby's tiny mouth
"Human, what are you doing?"
As far as Gaya was concerned their hearts stopped beating and

they were long dead. But at first, he was pumping their chests and
now he was pouring some liquid into the baby's mouth, she
couldn't guess why he was doing this.
However, her eyes went wide when she saw the color returning to
the baby's body as the tiny human moved its legs. He was in no
mood to rejoice. He needed to save this little girl's mother or they
would turn into orphans like him.
Without thinking about the preciousness of the healing potion, he

poured every last drop of it into the woman's mouth and waited for
her to wake up.
"(COUGH!)"
After a few seconds, the woman suddenly opened her eyes and
coughed a lot of blood.
"MUM!"
"CINDY!"
The girl jumped right into her mother's arms as the woman
showered the little girl with kisses.
"Uwaaahhh"
The baby also began to cry and announced its presence to the
mother.
"Roomi!"
Gaya and Micheal stood silent on the sidelines waiting for the
three of them to finish crying.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for saving the people in need.

The reward is 300 badass points and the windblast skill]
The system's voice appeared in his mind but before he could

check out the windblast skill, the woman shouted.
"THE CHILDREN!"
Suddenly the woman's eyes widened as she cried out loud
"Young master Riyan, the children"
She was pointing in the opposite direction of the village, to be

exact the river sider.
"What? There are survivors"
"Yes, young master, please save them"
"Hey system, do I get rewards for saving people too?"
[It depend on the people or person who need help, host]

"What do you mean by that?"
[It means the system won't reward you if you get manipulated to
help or the person who asks help was using the host, in such
situation if the host does help that person, the system will not
reward the host but take away some points as a penalty]
"Roger that system"
He was not planning to help everyone in this world like some kind
of samaritan but when he saw that little girl crying for help, he
couldn't stand there and do nothing. It was a basic act of humanity
and although he was not entirely a good person, he was not that
cruel not to do anything when a little girl like her asking to save
her mother.
"The cabin, please, young master"
The woman stuttered and kept pointing in the same direction as

before.
"Stay with them"
He said and dashed towards the river leaving Gaya with the
mother and daughters.
"Does he think I'm his servant?"
She was a princess and she was supposed to order this human
around yet, she had to put up with him so she could get the pills
from him to repair her meridians.
After reaching the river and running on the shore for a few
minutes, he finally picked up a trail, and looking at the amount of
blood, he hoped it didn't belong to the kids.
The blood trail led him into the woods and at last after following
the trail for some time, he saw a wooden cabin surrounded in the
distance.
As he got closer, he sighed in relief sensing the life signs inside

the cabin.
(Knock knock)
He knocked on the door because after hearing the murmuring

voices of little children.
"The demons, they came for us"
"Shhhhh"
"What do we do?"
"Whooo hooo"
The children were sobbing and held each other tightly in fear
"Kids, don't be afraid, I'm here to save you, open the door, hey
Riyan, are you inside?"
He couldn't open the door and realized that the door was manned
from the inside.
"Brother Riyan, wake up!"
"Wake up?"
Micheal knew he must have died and sighed. He felt he could

easily destroy the wooden door using his new skill, wind blast but
there was a chance that the debris could hurt the kids inside.
Thinking of an alternative way to enter the cabin, he looked up

and fired his grappling hook to the branch near the cabin roof.
Thud
The children inside shivered hearing the thud sound on the roof
and some grown-up kids picked up some stones and sticks lying
on the ground to protect their brothers and sisters.
"Hey kids, I'm coming in"
He announced his presence as he entered the cabin by breaking

through the roof.
The moment he landed on the cabin, he was welcomed by stones
to the face but the shield protected him from these brave kids.
IF it was on the normal days, he would have laughed off at the

kids or pinched their cheeks as punishment but now he couldn't
help but feel sadder for them because from now on, the world
would call them orphans.
He knew that pain of being called an orphan, he would have had a

different life if he had parents like many kids. Even the body
transmigrated into was just like him.
Looking at the little kids, he noticed many kids wetting themselves

in fear.
"Don't be afraid, Cindy's mother sent me"
Hearing the name Cindy, a relieved expression appeared on their

little faces.
"She's alive?"
One of the boys who was holding a long stick as a weapon asked
him.
"Yes, Roomi, the baby too, now go and wait outside, I'll bring you
to them"
The kids still looked unconvinced
"If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done by now"
The kids looked at each other and finally under the leadership of
the boy, the kids walked out of the cabin.
"Is he going to be alright?"
Micheal heard the voice of a little girl from behind when he walked
towards Riyan, who was lying on the floor holding his wound on
his gut.
Riyan was surely a teenager who barely had any chest hair on
him. Michael crouched before him and closed his eyes
"You did good, kid"
Even though Micheal was in the body of a teenager like him, he

reached the age of twenty-nine on the earth, so he called him a
kid.
Riyan's face was covered in blood and behind that blood, he knew
that Riyan must have been a handsome youth who had a sling life
to live but he lost his life by saving these kids.
"Sunrise Sect"
On his torn robes, he noticed a badge on his chest and wiping off
the blood from it, he read.
"Rest in peace kid, they will suffer for this and this will be my
payment"
He clutched the badge and said as he lifted Riyan's body to bury

him properly. His body was not in the condition for him to take it to
his sect and bury there.
??He's dead, isn't he?"
When Micheal stepped out of the cabin with Riyan's body in his
arms, the boy silently asked him.
"Yes, now follow me"
The children silently followed him, they didn't speak or utter any
words.
"Brother….no….young master"
The boy left the group and came to him while he was leading the
group to the village.
"I'm not a young master kid, you can call me brother"

SImply the word young master felt awkward when it came out of
this boy's mouth so Micheal told him to call him brother.
"Oh"
The boy nodded
"Brother, what about the other kids in the village? Did you save
them too?"
The moment he heard the boy, his heart skipped a beat as he

halted his steps.
Before he left the village, he spent 50 badass points to scan the

entire village for life signs but the system did not find any except
for Cindy, her mother, and the baby.
If these twenty kids weren't the only kids in the village, that meant
only one thing, they were killed by the ones who massacred the
village or lost their lives to the fire.
Thinking about those murderers, his killing intent skyrocketed and

his nails started to dig into his palms in anger.
"Wait till I get my hands on those bastards"
He gritted his teeth and continued to walk.
"System, give me a paralyzing poison"

Chapter 15 - I Am The Ghost
He was leading the kids to the village when he saw Gaya, Cindy,
her mother, and the baby in midway.
"ROY!"
"CINDY!"
The girl shouted at the boy as the children quickly ran towards
Cindy and her mother crying and sobbing.
"Young master Riyan"
Cindy's mother came to him and she couldn't hold back her tears
looking at the lifeless body of Riyan.
"It was a good thing you came here, the kids shouldn't see the
village, they have already been through enough"
"Thank...thank you, young master"
"No"
Michela shook his head and stepped back when she crouched to
grab his legs to thank him.
"Just take care of them, I will be back soon"
Gaya too followed him right behind to the village leaving everyone
behind.
"It was the Blood and bones sect, human"
"Why?"
"The reason was a surprisingly simple one, human, according to
the woman, the blood and bones sect was taking their coins in the
name of protection fee"
"Protection from what?"
"From nothing, they were just using the reason to milk these
villagers, and recently they raised the protection fee "
She air quoted the words protection fee and continued
"The woman said they were barely able to pay the previous fee
but when they raised it, they simply couldn't scrape together
enough coins, so they asked for more time"
"They didn't give time, did they?"
Gaya shook her head hearing him
"Yes, instead of giving them time, those f**kers decided to use the
villagers as human dummies and let their students practice spells
on them"
Because she was walking behind him, she was unable to see the
killing intent in his eyes as she went on.
"If it wasn't for the human in your arms who killed some of their
students and led the remaining children away from the village,
those tiny humans would be dead too. What are you planning to
do, human? "
"First, I should bury those people, they deserve proper burials and
I will give it to them"
******************************
At the moment, Gaya felt thirsty and tired just by looking at him
digging hole after hole and burying each and every villager after
wrapping them in white clothing.
"Why are you doing this human? You don't know these people,
you already used a valuable healing potion by saving that tiny
human and its mother"
"It's not much Gaya, this is just a basic humanity, where I come
from, there are at least people there to give the dead a proper
burial, I don't think that's true here, tell me I'm wrong"
"I don't know where you came from human, but here, this how
things are, in this place, there's only one rule, the rule of the
jungle, if you are not a predator, you're a prey"
Micheal took a deep breath and stabbed the shovel into the
ground as Gaya noticed the look of unwavering determination on
his face.
"Then I will be the strongest, most powerful predator this world

has ever seen and hunt every dirtbag in this world"
[Ding, Congratulations to the host for setting a goal. The host will
receive a reward of 450 badass points and a healing potion ]
Little by little, he started to apprehend the reason when he was

sent to this world with the system. Until now, he had never thought
that this world would be this much messed up where the strong
could hunt down and massacre people like they were nothing.
In his previous life, every person he killed was a crook or criminal

in some way that they were better dead than alive to the world,
not once in his life he took an innocent life, even a hitman like him
had a moral code but the cultivators in this world had nothing, not
even a shred of mercy towards these poor people. He knew the
little girl Cindy must have walked for hours to reach the guild and
ask for help but none of them were willing to help her but only
tried to chase her away.
If someone like Riyan came sooner than he did, they could have
saved more lives, saved more children. If he was on earth, he
would have paid a hefty sum to these people and left because he
had no power back there to change the entire world, he was just a
human but in this world, he had the means to be the strongest, he
had the most powerful weapon in this world, the system.
The remaining bit of Abras's soul changed the way Micheal looked
at this world and influenced his mindset. After burying all these
people, he understands his place in this world and realized what
he needs to do.
"I'm going to do what I do best, kill people"
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 2000
Current Skills: Lightning Dash - level 1
Ignitia - level 1
Wind Blast - level 2
Passive Abilities: Environment scanning - level 1
Responsive Energy Shield - level 1
Occupation: Adventurer
Status: Healthy
Goals: Be the Strongest Predator in this world
"System, how many points to upgrade the energy shield?"
[Level 2 of the Responsive Energy Shield will be able to

completely block all the Body Refining stage and Body
Strengthening level 2 attacks.1500 points required to upgrade to
level 2]
"Do it"
He didn't need another offensive type of skill or to upgrade the

Ignitia as he had the knife to kill anyone under the Body
Strengthening stage level 6.
In an all-out fight, the shield would be a lifesaver so he didn't

hesitate to spend the points and upgrade it.
"Gaya, did you ask the woman the location of the sect?"
"Don't be rash, human, although this sect was newly founded one,
the woman said the sect leader is a body strengthening level 2
cultivator"
She thought he would be afraid or at least slightly shaken but

unexpectedly, he was grinning.
"It seems the universe itself want me to kill them"
When he decided to upgrade his shield, he had never guessed it

would make him invincible before them. With his shield, even their
strongest, the sect master himself wouldn't be able to stop him
from exterminating them.
"Gaya"
His grin disappeared and replaced by a stern look
"From this moment, on my path, I will kill a whole lot of people and
make many enemies, probably powerful ones, so if you want, you
can leave"
He was 99.9% sure that she wouldn't leave but he wanted to warn
her and if she chose to leave, he would let her.
"What the f**k are you talking about? Without my cultivation,

Nagas would eventually find and kill me or worse"
She sighed and continued
"but with you, at least I have a chance to repair my cultivation and

kill that bitch, so, this princess will stay with you "
"Good choice, stick with me and I will not only heal you, but I will
also help you take your revenge, deal?"
He reached his hand out as Gaya shook his hand with an ear to
ear grin on her face.
After burying the final body, he cleaned the sweat and stench off
his body by bathing in the well and dried his clothes and body by
creating hot air around him using the Arch Energy.
"Let's go"
He took Gaya and went on his way to meet the children and the
woman on the outskirts of the village.
"Young master, young miss"
When the woman saw him and Gaya, she came running. Most of
the children were sleeping while the baby in her arms seemed
tired of crying in hunger.
"Is there any place you can take kids and settle down?"
"No...young master"
The woman shook her head as tears started to flow out from her
eyes thinking about their future without her husband to provide for
them.
"System, do you have grocery items and utensils to cook?"
[The host should know by now that if the host has badass points,
the system can provide the host anything]
"Alright, alright"
The woman was startled looking at the vegetables, bags of rice,
and utensils appearing out of nowhere before them.
"Don't refuse, take this and start cooking, when I come back, I will
help you find a new place to settle down"
He wiped the tears off the woman's face as the woman nodded
and let out a gentle smile.
"Young master, what do we call our savior?"
Gaya looked forward to hearing his name since he had never told
her his name and obviously Ghost was not his name.
"I'm what exist and doesn't exist, You can call me Ghost"

The reward is 50 badass points and a teleportation scroll]
Chapter 16 - I’m Just Getting
Started
"Sister Klara, do we have to invite this sinister sect to the

ceremony?"
At the moment a group of six people was dressed in silver and

yellow uniforms and their flying swords soaring through the air.
The group had three boys and three girls.
The prettiest red-haired girl in the group was flying in front leading
the group and when her junior sister asked the question, she
nodded.
"Even though they use immoral techniques to cultivate, they are

still a sect and we are obligated to invite them"
If Gaya was here, she would identify them by looking at their

uniforms. The six of them belonged to the renowned Morning Start
sect of Bredia.
Another pretty and sweet looking girl in the group looked at the
redhaired girl and spoke out softy
"Why do we have to do this? Wasn't this Orion's responsibility?"
"Apparently someone was dumb enough to take a quest from the

guild that Orion was looking to complete, so he was searching for
that fool all over the river town"
"Oh?"
The girl sounded surprised hearing the boy beside her.
"Who was he? Which sect he belongs to?"

"Sect? hmph"
The boy snickered
"He was a rogue cultivator according to the guild and hear this, he
is only a foundation level cultivator"
All the students present were astonished.
Within this Bredia Kingdom, nobody had ever raised a finger

against them let alone taking their quest. Besides, this person was
only at the foundation level.
"I think he must have come from another kingdom, but it doesn't
matter now, when Orion gets his hands on him, he's dead"
The three boys' faces were filled with smiles as the girl frowned
and moved near to Klara.
"Sister Klara, can you do something? He was obviously made a

mistake by taking Orion's quest"
Kalra glared back at the girl and shrugged
"With his puny cultivation level, he shouldn't even go to the guild

yet, not only he did go there but also took the quest without
Orion's permission, it seems he has more arrogant than Orion, so
we should let him learn his lesson "
"But sister Klara?"
If he wasn't from Bredia, I'll tell Orion to leave him alive after he
finishes punishing him, okay?"
"Why are you trying to defend that fool?"
The girl showed the boys a wry smile and sighed
"I just don't want anyone to get killed over some minor mistake,
that's all"
"Shhh, we have entered the sect's premises"

Klara looked at the empty ground in the middle of the forest and
motioned them to shut up.
The minute Klara and the group landed, more than 10 shadows
emerged out of the thick forest and greeted them.
"Welcome, welcome to the blood and bones everyone"
An old man in ragged clothing was leading a group of elders of the

sect.
Their hair was disheveled as their bodies reeked of alcohol and at

one glance, they looked nothing more than drunk beggars.
The two girls behind Klara tried their hardest not to twitch their
noses due to the stink as the boys stared at them with an
awkward expression.
"Sect Master Ralphy, we are here to give you the invitation to the
annual bright light ceremony"
Klara took out a gold tablet from her space ring and handed it over
to the old man.
the old man took the tablet from her hand before wriggling his
nose and taking a deep breath, his face exuded a look of
pleasure. Klara felt extremely disgusted looking at the lust in their
eyes but kept her calm demeanor.
After a few breaths, he licked his lips and looked at the elders,
speaking in a deep voice
"Go to the next village nearby and get our protection fee, we can't
attend the ceremony without gifts in our hands"
The two old men behind him trembled and hurriedly replied,
"Of course sect master Ralphy, we'll gather some disciples and
collect the fee before the dawn"
Seeing the elders turn to leave the place after giving them a weird
look, the girls stomached their disgust and waited for Klara to get
the heck out of here.
"Good"
Having said that, the old man laughed but when the elders were
about to leave, the girls and boys saw a person wearing full black
robes stepping out of the forest and entering the empty ground.
Looking at the direction the disciples were staring, the old man
turned around to see a youth walking towards them.
He asked the Morning Star sect disciples, "Do you know him?"
The disciples shook their heads cluelessly as Klara's brows

furrowed when she saw the youth's cultivation level.
The Oldman's expression turned cold as he smiled at the youth,

killing intent radiated out from his eyes. He then waved a hand
and instructed the elders, casting his glance at the youth in front
of them. In a few seconds, Klara and the group saw ten disciples
of the blood and bone sect who wore blood-red robes appear on
the empty ground and surround the black-robed youth.
Ralphy directed his glance towards the youth and laughed coldly
"You have some guts to trespass into the blood and bone sect,
brat, do you have a death wish or something, why are you here?"
"I'm here to send all of you to hell"
Master Song puckered his eyebrows as the elders opened their

mouths in shock.
At the same time, the group of Klara had curious and suspicious
expressions on their faces as well.
One of the girls asked quietly, "Sister Klara, who is he? Where did
he come from?"
The few of them looked at each other before shaking their heads,
"I've no idea but he seems to be mad, walking here with his
foundation level cultivation"
The few of them were thrown into a hushed discussion as they
occasionally glanced at the black-robed youth, each with their own
thoughts formed of him.
"Since you're so adamant in dying, let me grant your wish?"
A muscle mountain blocked Micheal's way with a wicked smile.

His biceps were bulging out holding a six feet heavy golden ax.
"Shit human, he must be eating entire boars and buffalos for

breakfast"
Compared to the muscle mountain before him, he looked like a

little lamb.
Pulch
But suddenly the bulky man's eyes widened as he dropped his big
ax on the ground. A few seconds after, he too dropped on his
knee and the students around him saw a black knife sticking out
of his heart as blood was oozing out of the wound. When he
retrieved the knife, he kicked the ax as the huge ax landed in his
hand.
Badass points]
Indeed, for a moment, all of them were astonished as Klara's

group froze in their places.
They watched on with gaping mouths as Micheal transformed

himself into a bolt of lightning and charged straight at the group of
Blood and bone Sect disciples who were surrounding him
fearlessly.
Pulch Pulch Pulch
They couldn't see Micheal's body and the only thing they could,
was the lightning bolt in the middle of the group. Every time the
bolt of lightning came near a disciple, hot blood splashed onto the
ground.
In a few seconds, they witnessed Micheal stop his steps as the

disciples whole were surrounding him a moment ago was now
laying on a puddle of their own blood.
The 6 of them from the Morning Star sect were dumbfounded as

their faces were full of shock.
Just in a mere moment, he was able to do this?
"They...they are...moving"
The pretty girl behind Klara pointed at the disciples and said as
everyone looked closer at the disciples.
All of their legs were cut or chopped off in a most horrible way, the
broken bones were sticking out of their legs and made the girls
nauseated.
"BASTARD!!!"
Ralphy's anger erupted within him like a volcano as his scream

echoed through the forest and chased away all the birds resting in
there.
In that instant, even without needing Ralphy to shout at them, the

Blood and bone Sect disciples rushed towards Micheal with faces
of evident rage.
"Chop them off, human"
With his blood dripping ax on the shoulder, Micheal stood there

with an evil smile and waved at them to attack him together.

"Ignitia"
He fired lightning bolts from his one hand at the weaker disciples.
"AH!"
The lightning bolt was aimed at their legs and the lightning bolt
completely burned their flesh as the bones started to become
visible.
"Lightning dash"
Before the stronger disciples cast a shield spell, he again turned

into a bolt of lightning and dashed at them.
Whoosh!
In the next moment, he appeared behind the cultivator who was

trying to attack him. A wicked smile appeared on his face as he
said, "I'm behind you"
"Ah" The disciple's eyes gaped wide open as if he had just seen a
ghost and was in a state of panic.
In a flash, Micheal brought the wrath of the ax down upon him,

chopping his two legs completely off of his body and sent the
limbs flying towards the elders.
Soon after, the lightning arcs beneath his feet seemed to jolt and
dance like streaks of lightning in the sky.
He then turned to the next disciple.
"I'm just getting started"

Chapter 17 - Killing Spree
After a few breaths of moments, the empty ground was full of

anguished cries of agonies and pleas for mercy as well as blood
and limbs.
With a pair of bloodshot eyes, Micheal's heart was filled with rage
and killing intent. The more he chopped off their legs, the angrier
he got as he released all of his pent-up rage burying those little
children on these disciples. He completely ignored their pleas for
mercy and threats.
He knew that these were animals roaming on this planet and all
deserved to die. He knew that he had to make them feel what the
villagers and the little children felt before they died.
At the same time, his mind was filled with continuous sounds and
alerts made by the system.
"I WILL KILL YOU BASTARD!!!"
Ralphy couldn't hold his anger anymore by looking at all his

crippled students lying in their own pool of blood.
The elders were quite shocked seeing his weird spells and
techniques but they knew if they didn't move now, Ralphy would
kill them.
"Bring it on!"
He laughed loudly as he held onto the ax and charged towards

the Elders who had looks of fear and surprise etched across their
faces. Looking at his speed, they halted their movement in shock
and didn't move an inch.
At the very last moment, the elders regained their senses and
started conjuring different spells in a bid to defend themselves but
were still scared stiff.
Regardless of whatever spells or skills they cast, they couldn't

reach him through his shield.
After their fruitless attempts to kill him were made apparent, they
stared at the golden blade of the ax as they felt immense pain. At
the next moment, their bodies dropped on the ground and a
couple of blooded legs were lying before them.
How could their puny spell damage him, he spent 2500 badass
points on the shield, and among the body refining stage
cultivators, he was invincible.
Klara's group was wide-eyed, completely astonished, and

somewhat started to become afraid of him.
"He's too strong and fast. The elders didn't even have the chance
to cast a defense spell on them"
One of the boys whispered to his friend.
"He's too strong. He must've been concealing his cultivation level

from everyone else!"
"Did you see that he went from foundation level to body refining
stage, just like that?"
"He must be using some sort of concealing spell to hide his true
cultivation level and playing mind games with them. Could he be a
body strengthening cultivator?"
"Based on his powers, he has to be!"
He was chopping the legs off the rest of the disciples while Ralphy
seemed to hesitate to attack him. The system was repeatedly
beeping in his mind, informing him of the rewards he had
received.
Cling
At the very end, Micheal slammed the ax down onto the ground
and stood in the middle of the half-dead disciples and chopped
legs. He then shouted out loudly at Ralphy, "Are you going to
attack me or what?"
Despite his anger, his instincts told him that this youth is extremely
powerful and he had a bad feeling as he glared at him and asked,
" Who are you?"
"You don't have the right to know my name,"
He smiled but his eyes were full of killing intent towards Ralphy.
"Why the f**k did you do this?"
Ralphy pointed at the disciples and the elders who were crawling
on the ground and asked furiously.
"Rosewood Village"
He only said two words but his tone was deep and serious
"Isn't that the name of the small village nearby?"
The girl behind Klara frowned and hearing the girl's voice, Ralphy
also remembered the village.
"What of it?"
Klara and her group craned their necks and waited for his answer
but instead of speaking, he laughed like an evil maniac.
After a few seconds, he stopped laughing and glared at Ralphy
"What of it? What of it, huh? You used the villagers, the little kids
as dummies to practice your spells and then you burned the whole
village to the ground, for what? A couple of hundred coins"
Ralphy clenched his fists as several veins bulged up on his

forearm. He maintained an ashen face as he laughed out angrily,
"Good, very good, you did that because of those worthless ants.
Ever since the day, the Blood and bone sect has been
established, until now, none has raised a finger against us. You
are the first and shall be the last"
The next moment, he took out his sword and dashed at Micheal
throwing the golden tablet away.
"He did this because of a few mortals?"
One of the boys asked the group like it wasn't a big deal at all.
"Sister, Klara what do we do?"
Klara sighed and took the golden tablet from the ground.
"Let's see how this unfolds, I don't think he can kill Sect master
Ralphy"
Ralphy was a body strengthening stage cultivator after all. A

difference between the body refining stage and body
strengthening stage was significantly high and it was very unlikely
that a body refining stage cultivator could kill a body strengthening
stage cultivator in a direct battle.
However, her face froze when she saw him lifting Ralphy by his
neck.
Ralphy's hands and legs were transformed into metal by some

sort of spell but still, he couldn't make a dent in the blue shield
around the youth.
"How did you? What the f**k?"
Gaya was extremely astonished looking at his power. She was

expecting a battle between him and Ralphy but now the body
strengthening stage level 2 cultivator was gasping for air in the
human's hands.
"I will make you watch them suffer"

As he said, he dropped the ax and took out his knife. Gaya
noticed a green shade on the blade's surface.
"Release...me…"
Ralphy struggled to utter these works as Micheal laughed out

coldly,
"Shall we start?"
Micheal plunged his knife into Ralphy's right chest avoiding the
major arteries and veins.
When the knife entered his body, he felt a chill run down his spine
and his body turned numb except for his mouth. After paralyzing
Ralphy, he put him down as the old man asked
"What did you do?"
"You should worry about what I'm GOING to do? Can you guess?"
He laughed and kicked Ralphy in the gut
"Bastard"
"I'm going to burn your precious sect members, alive "
The minute the words were spoken, everyone present froze as

they were all completely shocked and stunned.
Some of the disciples and the elders whole were crawling without
legs and had looks of intense fear despite the pain they were
feeling.
The girls behind Klara was terrified as well as they shouted out
anxiously,
"Brother, don't be rash!"
"Please calm down and be rational!!"

"You already shed enough blood and crippled their cultivation,
that's just worse than death for a cultivator"
"If you kill and burn them, you will be no different than the blood
and bone sect"
Klara nodded and shouted without stepping on the blood-soaked

ground.
But he had already turned himself into a bolt of lightning as they

witnessed the bodies of the disciples were piling up on the center
of the ground.
"Don't listen to these bitches, human, you're right, we must slow

roast them in the fire, like chicken"
"You're wrong"
He said when he stopped moving as Klara's group had a bad

feeling looking at his face and the killing intent in his eyes
"I'm worse than them"
Red color can appeared in his hand. The girls twitched their noses
smelling the strong stench when he started to pour the liquid on
the growling bodies of the elders and the disciples.
"NO!!!"
The minute Ralphy screamed out in terror, the lightning bolt from
Micheal's hand hit the pile.
The group was so terrified that the two girls screamed out in
horror. Their expressions were aghast, disbelieving of whatever
they were looking at.
The dark red flames were burning as high as a full-grown tree

while they could feel the heat coming from the flames.
Even Klara who participated in many battles as well as the boys

were horrified. It took them a long time to regain their initial
composure.
Badass points]
Badass points]
Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level
10 cultivator. The reward is 7000 experience points as well as 200
Badass points]
...
Several beeps of the system kept ringing in his mind as his gaze
was now landed on the main culprit, Ralphy.
Chapter 18 - End Of The Blood
And Bone Sect
"I WILL KILL YOU!!... I WILL KILL YOU BASTARD!!"
Ralphy's eyes turned blood red as he screamed at Micheal.
"Human, what are you planning to do with him?"
He didn't answer Gaya but walked towards Ralphy with a wicked

smile on his face.
"I'll make an example out of you"
"Shut up"
Micheal punched Ralphy using his full strength as his two front
teeth flew out of his mouth.
"What...what is..he going to do?"
The girls stuttered and watched him wrapping Ralphy's body in

with white clothing like a mummy.
"Aren't we going to roast him in this fire, human?"
"No"
**************************
"Hey look, that young master is coming?"
"What is he dragging?"
The two guards at the city wall noticed Micheal and came out of
their little tent and waved at Micheal.
"Hey guys"
Micheal waved back at him and deeply exhaled
"Guys, give me some water"
The pair of guards were awe-stricken and stupefied hearing him.
"You don't have some?"
"We do...but young master"
The two guards had a perplexed look on their face
"We are just commoners and you're a noble"
One of the guards slowly said as Micheal shook his head
"f**k that, aren't we all just human? Go bring me the water, I'm
thirsty, go go go" he chased one guard and looked at the other
"And you, come help me with this"
They couldn't talk back to him but the guards were astonished.
While the guard went to bring water, the other guard stepped
forward to help him.
"Were you hunting in the woods, young master?"
His clothes were full of bloodstains and the thing inside the white
cloth seemed like his game.
"Sort of"
The guard saw a long pole appear before him while the other
guard brought him the water in a leather flask.
Gulk gulk gulk

Taking the flask, he started to gulp the water to quench his thirst
as the two guards mistook Ralphy for an animal and kept poking
him.
"What kind of animal is this? It's almost looking like a human?"
"Young master, what is this? Is this a divine beast?"
Divine beasts were animals that had the talent to cultivate and
they were very different from normal beasts.
"It's worse, it's the headmaster of the blood and bone sect"
The two guards looked at one another, aghast. Their eyes were
filled with shock and they were left speechless for a long time.
"Young Master!, you shouldn't joke like that, if those evil people
heard you, they will hunt you down"
"Tell these idiots what we have done, hehe"
Gaya giggled and she couldn't wait to see their look when they
see what's inside the white clothing.
"Come, lift this up"
They had no idea what he planned to do by tying the thing to the

pole and lifting it up. At the distance, Klara's group reached the
city walls and saw Micheal hanging Ralphy on the pole in front of
the city gates.
"Young master, can you tell us what is this?"
"See it yourself"
Micheal pulled the white clothing by its end and unwrapped

Raplphy like a gift box. When they saw Raplphy's face and the
badge of blood and bone sect on his chest, they were speechless
and their eyes widened and looked like they could pop out of their
sockets any second.
"LITTLE BASTARD!!! LET ME DOWN!!"

"Young master"
They took a step back from Micheal as their bodies started to

shiver in fear.

The old man's scream in rage echoed through the River town and
people came rushing out to see what's going on. The men and
women who saw the scene were astounded as their hearts
skipped a beat looking at Ralphy, the infamous sect master of the
blood and bone sect.
The people widened their eyes as they stared at Micheal

unbelievably, looking horrified while the system was continuously
ringing in his mind and awarded him with badass points.
"Young Master, the blood and bone sect"
The guard came to say something but he raised his finger and
stopped him
"There's no more Blood and bone sect, I've burned them all and
this scum will be next"
A ball of green glue appeared in his hand when he said. Looking

at the green glue and the murderous look on his face, Ralphy tried
to wriggle but his body refused to move an inch.
They didn't expect the once cool and handsome young man would
hunt down the entire blood and bone sect as well as capture its
leader alive.
The guards and people couldn't help but step back in fear, feeling
the killing intent radiating from him and Klara's group themselves
haven't seen such tremendous aura from their own Seniors
before. It was absolutely terrifying!
Puch
Micheal threw the green glue at Ralphy and witnessed it slowly
spreading and enveloping his body. The green glue was some
kind of substance he bought from the system. He wanted to burn
him slowly and inflict as much as pain he could so when he asked
the system to do something like that, the system recommended
the green glue.
"What? What is this?"
Ralphy panicked seeing the glue spreading all over his body as he
shouted at Klara's group who were looking at the scene from a
distance.
"Do something! Help ME! AH!!!"
But when he was shouting, a small crack of lightning hit the green
glue and started the fire.
"NO NO NO NO AHH!!!!!"
"On your way to the afterlife, apologize to everyone you killed in

the Rosewood village"
"AHHHH!!"
The women and the girls were rather traumatized looking at the
scene including the two girls in Klara's group. Some people threw
up due to the smell of a burning body.
The youth's rage and resolution to kill was very vicious and
bloodthirsty as any member of the blood and bone sect which left
a very deep mental scar within the female disciples??? hearts.
"He killed all of them horribly and painfully. A man with such a
cruel nature. We shouldn't offend this devil" Klara warned her rest
of the group as they nodded.
Originally when they first heard him saying he's going to

exterminate the blood and bone sect, they thought he was a
madman and going to be killed by Ralphy's students.
Who knew that he would not only kill the elders and students but
also burn Ralphy alive. Furthermore, he was just alone and they
were at least thirty.
Scary...
This is too scary!
"He's too powerful!" The few of them softly muttered in their

hearts.



…..
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage,

level 2 cultivator. The reward is 10000 experience points as well
as 300 Badass points]
"You are too cruel human, but this princess likes it"
"Guys, don't take away this pole until everyone in the kingdom
knows what happened to the blood and bone sect. I have a
payment to collect from the guild"
The crowd stepped aside and made way for him as he activated
the lightning dash and disappeared from the scene leaving
everyone shocked.
"Oh shit, did he say guild?"
One of the boys raised his brows and asked
"Yes, why?"
"Orion will be there, we should go and warn him before he pisses
this person off"
The whole sect knew about Orion's arrogance and the tendency to
make enemies out of everyone. Even in the sect, the outer
disciples hated him the most because of his bullying and they
didn't want Orion to meet the one who single-handedly annihilated
an entire sect.
Chapter 19 - Arch Energy
Filled Food
"Hey"
"Eeek"
The girl on the reception squealed and jumped back when she
saw him suddenly appear before her.
"You scared the hell out of me"
The scene where he killed a powerful adventurer Keeten like a fly

traumatized her and now, she was more afraid of him than
attracted to him.
"Here are the bandit badges, now run along and get me my coins"
"You heard him, bring us our coin you little rat"
Gaya shouted at the girl as he chuckled.
"Right...wait here please, young master"
None of the adventurers dare to look at him directly or look down

on him but rather had a slight fear in their eyes considering the
one he killed was one of the powerful adventurers in the town.
"Look at these clowns"
Looking at Micheal's gaze, the adventurers quickly turned away

and didn't dare to look at him like they first did.
"Expect them to lie down before us after they heard what we did at
the city gates, hehe"
Micheal knew it would take some time for them to hear what
happened at the city gates and even more time for the whole
kingdom to know.
"Young master, here's your coins"
He noticed someone sitting in front of a light orb and casting some

spell.
"Hmm, he must be the person who confirms the quest is truly

completed or not"
"750 silver coins"
The system scanned the coin pouch and informed him of the
number of coins inside without him opening the pouch.
"Hey girl, isn't thirteen into sixty, seven eighty?"
Although he had a smile on his face, the girl trembled because it

was not a gentle smile but a wicked one.
"Young master, four percent of the full amount was deducted by

the guild as a commission"
"Why don't you just go and rob people, greedy f**kers?"
"Four percent huh? Is that a fixed amount or vary quest to quest?"
He wasn't new to the concept of commission, he paid a certain

amount after completing each hit as a tax to the dark world, so he
didn't get surprised like Gaya.
"Fixed amount, young master"
"That's good to hear, see you girl later"
The girls exhaled deeply after he disappeared and the color on

her face returned.
The crowd was almost doubled in size when he stepped out of the
city gates as the system started to continuously ring in his mind
and award him with more badass points.
All the people were standing around the pole and murmuring while
the guards saw him coming towards them.
"Step aside, young master is coming"
The group of people standing on his way quickly jumped out of the
way and lowered their heads.
"Guys, come here"
He pointed his finger at the two guards and motioned them to

come.
Like two obedient puppies, the guards came running and waited
for his order
"Tell me your names?"
"Daniel, young master"
The older guards lowered his head
"Ricky, young master"
The other guards also lowered his head as Micheal threw the coin
pouch at Daniel.
"The survivors of the rosewood village need a place to stay, take

these coins and rent a place fit for sixteen people, can you do
that?"
Both of them were at a loss for words but Daniel quickly

responded by nodding his head.
"It'll be ready, but young master"
Daniel scratched the back of his head and looked curious
"You haven't told us your name yet?"

"Don't you dare say ghost, human"
Gaya shouted in anger as he smiled at the guards
"You can call me Ghost"
************************
Moments later, Cindy's mother was waiting for him and Gaya with
their potions of food.
At this time, she saw a crack of lighting on the ground that

appeared not too far in the distance. A small smile emerged on
her face as the lightning bolt changed to reveal his figure.
The children were cuddling each other and sleeping without any
worries about what's going to happen for them in this cruel world
without their parents.
"Young master"
"Did you eat?"
The woman nodded and picked up a bowl of chicken rice

porridge.
"It's not much like you have eaten in your life"
A powerful youth like him couldn't be anything but a rich young

man who had enough abundant wealth and cultivation resources
to be this powerful at such a young age, she thought.
"If you must know, I'm not a noble or lord of anything but a
commoner just like you and these children"
He took the bowl from the woman's hand and sat on the sandy
ground.
"Wow"
His eyes sparkled when the porridge touched his taste buds. He
had never tasted something like this in his previous life and he
had eaten in any prestigious five-star hotel and Michelin star
restaurants on the earth.
But he didn't give any fancy ingredient or anything special, yet, the
woman before him turned the usual ingredients into something
special.
"This is delicious, lady, what's your name by the way?"
She was bewildered hearing his comment, it was just a normal

porridge that had chicken pieces in it but looking at his
expressions, she couldn't see any sign of him lying.
"I'm Raylene Agner, young master"
She lowered her head in respect while Gaya jumped out of his
body and completely shook Raylene. Her eyes widened as she
became speechless seeing her suddenly appear out of his body.
"You want this princ"
"Just shut up and eat it"
He interrupted her before she could finish her sentence and insult
Raylene.
"How (growl)"
She raised his finger angrily but soon her face turned red in
embarrassment because of the sounds her stomach was making
breathing the aroma of the food.
"It's not (groooowl)"
She clenched her stomach tightly and tried to silence the sound
coming from her stomach but she ultimately failed.
"Here, don't embarrass yourself further"
He took another bowl and handed it over to Gaya. She was

already hungry when he chucked all the food in the inn but her
princess pride prevented her from asking for food. It has been
almost a week since she ate something and smelling something
delicious as this, she couldn't hold her craving anymore.
Taking the bowl in her hands, she gawked around and stood still
like a confused child
"Are you expecting a throne, princess?"
"Sit your ass down here"
His shout made Gaya's knees go soft as she sat on the sand with
him.
As she moved the spoon near her mouth, the fantastic smell of
porridge wafted into her nose; suddenly her appetite became out
of control.
She opened her mouth and took a bite and the next moment, her
eyes widened in disbelief.
The delicious taste, including the scorching aroma of the chicken

and the sweet-and-sour tang of the rice, tickled her taste buds
instantly.
My gosh! This is too delicious!
A simple porridge like this, which was so ordinary in appearance,

had become so attractive to her. However, the system notified
Micheal that the ingredients it gave were extremely high quality
and everything was filled with pure Arch energy molecules that
made this porridge so much tastier.
How else a simple porridge like this could be this delicious?
"Gaya, how is the food?" He asked her at that moment.
However, she had no time to answer the question as she

devoured the porridge quickly. It seemed as if she was still longing
for more.
"It is so…"
"Good?"
He asked her with a grin but he didn't wait for her answer as he
turned to look at Raylene.
"Raylene, we are going to the river town and i made arrangement

for your stay, soon I will find a more permanent home for you
guys"
Tears rolled out of her eyes thinking about everything this stranger
has done for them.Her tears however disappeared when a gentle
wind blew on her face.
"You shed enough tears for one day, even though it will be hard,
try to forget about everything that happened "
Chapter 20 - Reputation
The sky was turning dark and the bright stars were starting to
come out while the gentle breeze of the evening wind was gently
blowing.
"Look over there, the young master is coming"
"Who are those children behind him?"
Daniel and Ricky saw Micheal, a woman, and a group of children

of different ages walking towards them.
"They must be the survivors of the rosewood village"
As a commoner who was born and raised in a village like

rosewood, Daniel felt sad for those people. Many rulers and kings
wouldn't raise a finger for a sect like blood and bone massacring
the commoners thinking it would damage their relationship with
the sect.
This was the first time that someone actually did something
against a sect like the blood and bone. They still couldn't believe
that the bones of the sect leader are hanging from a pole outside
the city gates like a weird decoration. The entire river town was in
turmoil hearing the news about the extermination of the sect and
by tomorrow night, the entire kingdom would know what happened
to them and the person who killed them, at that time, Ghost would
become just as famous as many popular adventurers and
disciples.
Next to Micheal, the ones who profited more in this situation was
none other than the two guards, Daniel and Ricky. Before Micheal
came to Rivertown, they were just two trash soldiers in the king's
army sent to watch over this faraway land by the king of Bredia.
They had no respect among the adventurers or the disciples of
the various sects who come to the river town. In the other towns
and cities, the guards had more prestige and would get a nice
discount anywhere they went but here, even the tavern owner
wouldn't even give them a small discount on ale and food.
However, now their reputation and respect skyrocketed as

everyone in the town started to show them overwhelming respect
because of Micheal. Now Daniel and Ricky were not just guards
but the minions of the ghost, the one who single-handedly
massacred the infamous Blood and Bone sect and burned the
sect leader alive. While they were hunting for a large place to rent
for the ghost, the people and youths came to them asking about
the ghost and their association with him and unlike Daniel who
tried to keep his mouth closed, Ricky bragged about their
connection with the ghost.
He even bragged saying he and the ghost shared drinks which

was somewhat true.
As she got closer to the city gates, Raylene saw a white skeleton
hanging from a pole. She suddenly felt spooky and terrified
looking at the skeleton.
"Do you see that skeleton? It's the sect leader of the blood and
bone"
In that instant, Raylene completely fell into a daze. Every single

word was punctuated clearly within her ears.
"Young Master, you...you killed him..."
"yes"
Raylene's eyes still had that look of sheer shock as Daniel and
Ricky came running.
"Young master ghost, the owner stated an outrageous price but

we haggled and closed the deal for three hundred silver coins"
Ricky proudly exclaimed and handed over the coin pouch to

Micheal.
"Good job, here keep this"
He took twenty silver coins against Gaya's shout and gave it to

Ricky.
"Share it later, now help them settle in the place, I have to check
in with the tavern"
"Brother, aren't you coming to stay with us?"
Cindy pulled his sleeve and asked him as he ruffled her head
playfully
"No, but I will stay very close to you, Cindy"
"Young master but"
Raylene was already in shock after hearing that he had spent

three hundred silver coins for them and why did he have to stay
the night at the inn while they stay in the house he rented with his
coins.
"No, it won't be right for me to spend the night there"
People tend to spread nasty rumors when a single mother stays

the night alone with a young man. It would affect both her and
Cindy in the future so he decided to stay in the tavern. And if
someone started to talk rubbish even after this, he would simply
knock all their teeth off and shut them up for good.
"Young master Ghost is right, my lady, these people have nasty

mouths"
Daniel said and it took a few moments for Raylene to think about
the consequences and agree with them.
"But what if those badmen come again?"
Cindy trembled tightly and held his hand remembering the things
that happened before her earlier.
"They won't, those badmen left the world and will never come
back"
"Yes"
He lifted her up and kissed her on the cheek
"Now go with these brothers and sleep, don't cause any troubles
for your mother"
"I won't"
Unexpectedly the girl wrapped her little hands around his neck
and kissed him on the cheek. His heart was warm like never
before and he had no idea that his new side was also somewhat
influenced by Abras's soul fragments in his own soul.
He kissed her forehead and smiled while the guards were

surprised seeing his change of moods. At this moment, he
seemed extremely felt and approachable youth but a few hours
ago, he looked like the devil reincarnate with the overwhelming
killing intent.
Is he bad or good?
The same question was going on inside Gaya's mind too and until
now, she couldn't find what kind of human he is.
"Take them there"
He passed the little girl to Daniel as he took the girl into his arms
with a warm smile on his face.
He walked with them until he reached the tavern and then he sent
them with Danial and Ricky.
"You are an orphan, aren't you human?"
Just when the children and the guards disappeared from his sight,
Gaya asked him as he froze.
"Don't try to deny it, human, I see the way you look at them,
human, it's the look of someone who grew up without parents"
"Well, well, you do have some brain, princess, I'm surprised"
"Thanks, wait! what? How dare you!"
She screamed in anger but it was good fun for him to make her
angry
While she was shouting at him, he entered the tavern and the
moment the people inside saw him, the place became dead silent
as even a pin dropping sound could be heard.
Since the tavern was near the city gates, every one of them had
seen what he did to Ralphy and they were terrified of him.
"Young master Ghost"
The waitress who had a wide smile on her face the other day now
was shivering and trying to let out a fake smile.
"Relax guys, I only kill those who piss me off, are you guys trying
to piss me off by being silent? We are in a tavern for god sake"
"No, no, young master"
The waitress quickly shook her head while the patrons in the
tavern returned to their usual self little by little. Although the tavern
was not as loud as before, still it was better than the dead silent.
A group of three adventurers was occupying the table he sat

before but seeing him coming towards them, they quickly stood up
and left the table.
"That's right, bitches, run"

Chapter 21 - Heaven’s Gate
Competition I
The waitress welcomed them attentively. She accompanied to his

table in the corner of the room. The way she looked at him now
was a look filled with fear. This youth was really terrifying.
"Young master ghost, what would you like to order?"
"Give me the green salad and hot water with lime"
Considering he had already eaten and not very hungry, he

ordered the salad on the menu before going to sleep.
"Keep the balance"
The waitress was startled when he paid for his meals, even after
becoming super scary and famous. Normally powerful cultivators
and adventurers not only wouldn't pay but might demand coins
using their power. The Ghost's reputation in Rivertown after what
he did outside was more than enough to make them cough out
their today's earnings but surprisingly he paid for his meals and
even gave her considerable tips.
Psst
The bartender gave her a quick glance and shook his head telling
her not to charge him.
"Young master, it's… it's on the house"
"Wonderful"
Gaya became happy hearing the waitress but Micheal shook his
head. These people were not rich and their lives depended on the
earnings of this tavern, how could he use his power and
reputation for the sake of saving a couple of coins?
Wouldn't this stain his reputation?
"No, I'm a customer in this tavern, just like everyone here, and a
customer must pay for what he bought"
At the end of his words, he smiled at the waitress to loosen up her

mood and placed the coins on her palms.
"Now go and bring me the order"
The waitress couldn't help but smile back and run back to bring
his meals as the adventurers gawked at him amazed.
He's really paying for his meals?
Is he the same person who roasted Ralphy alive on the stake?
He looks so friendly now
'What the f**k, human? They should be paying US for not

wrecking them"
While the adventurers were staring at him, Gaya screamed in

frustration inside his mind.
"I don't know what kind of princess you were but I don't like to be
indebted and besides what would happen to my reputation if I did
not even pay for my meals"
"It's a privilege of being powerful, human, what's the use of

cultivation if we pay the commoners"
"It's not a privilege, it's disgusting, I'm slowly getting why they
chased your snakey ass away"
"Shut up, you don't know nothing, if you think I'm evil, just wait
until see the bitch sitting on the Nagaland throne"
While Gaya and he were divulged in this conversation, the
waitress brought him the salad and the hot water.
"Here's your green salad and hot water with lime, young master
Ghost"
"Thank you"
"Oh? No need, young master"
He seemed like a completely different person now. She was

among the people there when he burned Ralphy alive and then,
he was radiating an immense killing intent and looked terrifying.
The more they spent time with him in the same room, the more
they realized that he was only cruel to his enemies but for others,
he seemed warm and friendlier.
"Miss, do you know where the Sunrise sect is?"
He stopped the waitress when she was about to go to the other

table and asked.
"Young master Ghost must be new to Bredia since you don't know
the Sunrise sect but young master, if you're looking to join a sect,
there are more fitting sects for you"
Hearing this, Micheal furrowed his brows
"I just want to return something that belongs to them"
"Oh?"
How could a powerful youth like him join a declined sect like the
Sunrise sect?
The waitress thought.
"Young master Ghost, to go to the Sunrise Sect, you have to walk

down the main road for two hours and you will see a small
mountain by the river, then you'll see the Sunrise sect"
"Alright, then I'll go there tomorrow"
"Young master Ghost"
When he was about to eat, the waitress stopped him.
"Young master Ghost, none of them will be at their sect tomorrow,

tomorrow is the bright light ceremony, they'll all be at the heaven's
gate"
*******************
"Hey Gaya, what is this bright light ceremony?"
At this moment, he was lying in his bed while Gaya was sitting by
the window. Considering the customers waiting for the waitress,
he didn't keep talking and take her time.
"That's just a silly event that humans come to take part in the
heaven's gate and prove their power"
"Why's that?"
"so they can easily get accepted into their favorite sect if they
perform well that is"
The moonlight coming through the window reflected on her face

and revealed an angered look on her face.
"What is this heaven's gate?"
Her expression piqued his curiosity and he was glad that this
trouble maker isn't traveling in person with him.
"I told you it's just a silly event, why are you interested in that? Are
you going to participate?"
"Just explain everything to me"
She sighed as she turned her gaze away from the moon and
looked at him.
"Heaven's gate event has two rounds, in the first round,"
She raised her pointing finger and began to explain how the
competition works to him like a teacher.
"The three big sects will each send a Level 5 Core formation
cultivator and position them on top of the heaven's gate stairway.
They will then unleash their aura and soul pressure. Everyone
who participates in the competition will need to climb up from the
bottom to the top, but the higher they go, the more pressure they
will face. Finally, the first 24 disciples to reach the top will be
chosen to participate in the second round of the competition "
"I assume there are the requirements to participate"
She nodded hearing his question
"There are two actually, one must be under thirty years old and
not more than a level 10 Body refining stage cultivator"
??This means that I meet the requirements to participate in the

competition"
"Don't be rash human, even though the competition is meant as

an entry shot to young humans, the disciples of the sects will also
participate to show their power and earn the resources given by
the King of Bredia"
"Hmm"
He was still not sure to participate in this competition but the more
he heard Gaya, it seemed like a good place to be a badass and
earn more points before going to seclusion for a few days.
The system notified him that he has enough experience points to

reach level four of the Body refining stage. Yet, the system
required three days to upgrade his level and strengthen his body
and during the three days, he wouldn't be able to access the
system and any disturbances would cause him to fail the
breakthrough as well as lose all the experience points.
How big of a loss that would be?
That was why he didn't dare to attempt to breakthrough in this

place.
"Continue"
"Where was I? Huh the second stage, the second round is the
most entertaining and what most people will look forwards to, the
first 24 disciples who reached the higher number of steps will fight
one on one in twelve stages"
"Huh? Didn't you say the first 24 disciples to reach the top? Where
does this higher number of steps come from?"
Her expression turned more gloomy
"No one has ever reached the top, human, that's why they take
the disciples who climbed more steps rather than waiting for them
to reach the top"
"Make sense, now tell me how they arrange the fights?"
"They will give 24 cards, on top of them there will be a number

from 1 to 12. You will choose one randomly and participants who
get the same number will be fighting against each other on the
stage.the prizes for the winners vary each time, so we'll only know
about that tomorrow "
He kept running his finger through his beardless smooth face and
pondered about whether he should take part or not.
"Hey system, how many badass points do I have?"
[11000 points]
"Alright system, recommend me a way to beat this competition? I

don't care about the second stage since I have my sweet shield,
my concern is the first stage"
[Loading...]
He was waiting for the system to recommend him rather than
searching through the shop because although the system would
always try to take away his badass points, it would also
recommend him some overpowered skills for situations like this.
The Responsive Shield and the Lightning dash skill was an
example of this.
After a few seconds of waiting, a golden sheet appeared before

him.
Name: Energy devourer
Class: Legendary
Function: The host will be able to turn the Energy pressures into
Experience points
Upgradable: Yes
Looking at the amount next to the price, he deeply sighed as his

heart ached to spend that many points on a single skill.
"Hold onto it, I'll buy the skill if I need it"

Chapter 22 - Heaven’s Gate
Competition II
"Human, human, wake up"
If they were to reach heaven's gate province, they had to depart

from River town before the sunrise, and even after telling him
about this, when she woke up, he was still sleeping like a baby.
"He looks cute when sleeping"
This was the first time she was staying with a man in the same
room.
As a princess of Nagaland and a free spirit, she had traveled to

many places and met many youths who tried to court her. Every
one of them was extremely wealthy and offered an immense
amount of wealth to marry her.
Her single glance would be enough to raise their heartbeats and

drool but only this human on the bed had never lusted for her
except he called her ugly.
Weirdly it was a nice change to her since her birth no one ever
dared to disrespect her and would shower her with fake
compliments due to her status as a princess. She was sick of it
and this human had never done anything like that. Even after
knowing she was a princess, he never cared about that and
continued to scold her and ridicule her.
"I should kick his ass, literally, hehe"
She let out an evil grin and raised her leg aiming at his butt.
Thop!
"What the?"
Micheal suddenly woke up feeling the sudden kick on his butt and
saw Gaya standing before him with a huge grin on her face.
"Did you kick my ass?"
The system had never warned him about it and when he asked
the system, it didn't even reply to him.
"I told you I will kick your ass if you dont wake up"
She looked so hot and beautiful right now as it made his mind go
blank for a moment.
"Damn, she's hot"
"Come on, chop chop human, we have to leave now to reach the
heaven's gate province"
"Its seems like I need to buy an alarm from the system shop"
He opened up the system and bought a toothbrush, toothpaste,

and face wash. Although the cultivators didn't need them to keep
their body clean, he felt weird going out before brushing his teeth.
According to Abras's memories, the commoners used some kind
of powder to wash their mouths and most of them didn't spend
their coins to buy something like that.
Looking at the weird short stick and the cream he was putting on
the tip of the stick confused her.
"Eek"
She jumped back when she saw him putting the stick with the
paste into his mouth. The white foam inside his mouth disgusted
her.
Micheal kept brushing his teeth for a few minutes and put the
items back in the storage after thoroughly washing his face with
the water he bought.
Gaya couldn't help but take a deep breath of the fragrance
radiating from him as her reaction reminded him of the toothpaste
ads on the tv. She stepped forward smelling the wash and now
she was standing just a few inches away from him.
"What is that smell, human?"
But the moment she opened her mouth, he took a step back
despite her beauty. Looking at the lines on his forehead and his
twitching nose, she was bewildered.
"Such a boner killer"
No one would believe that a beautiful hot girl's mouth smells so

bad but it made sense since her meridians were broken and still
hadn't been repaired to restore her Arch energy circulation
through her body.
He quickly bought another toothbrush from the system and

covered the head with a lot of toothpaste.
"Here, brush your teeth"
"What?"
Her face turned red guessing why he would ask that.
"do it now"
He took her hand and placed the toothbrush on her hand as she
reached the verge of her patience.
"How dare you…(cough)"
While she was screaming, Micheal reflected the air coming out of
her mouth against her.
In a flash, her anger turned into an embarrassment as she

couldn't believe that her mouth had become so foul smelling.
How could a princess like her mouth smell so bad?

She couldn't look at him directly after getting embarrassed like
this.
"Come on, brush your teeth"
She awkwardly put the brush into her mouth and started to move
it as he did.
"Argh"
But unexpectedly, she put the brush too deep into her mouth and
started to gag.
"Jeez, you're like a baby, give me that"
He kindly grabbed her soft face and took the brush from her hand.
"Look carefully, I won't do this again, now open your mouth"
"Aah"
Like brushing the teeth of a baby, he moved his hand in a rhythm

and brushed her teeth without hitting her soft palate.
"Don't swallow it"
He feared that since the paste had a sweet taste, she would
swallow it thinking it as edible.
After thoroughly brushing her teeth and cleaning her mouth with
saltwater, he made her wash her face, and then he put everything
back in his system storage.
"Now say something"
"Thank you?"
She moved her head back a few inches seeing him lean closer to
her.
"Good, now it's better, but you must keep brushing your teeth two
times a day, or I'll kick your ass"
She meekly nodded since she couldn't talk back arrogantly in this
situation.
************************
The morning sunlight filled the sky, pure scattered light as its hue
ambitiously illuminating each crevice of the land. Sparrows
chirped an explicit background melody while he was on his way to
heaven's gate province.
Heaven's Province was a big city in the Bredia Kingdom. It didn't

matter if it was size or power; it couldn't be compared to the River
town. As a city built through the sole efforts of the royal family of
Bredia, the king had absolute control over the city.
As per Gaya's knowledge, in this city, three big sects had their
bases, and this caused endless conflicts within the city. Heaven's
gate City was built mainly for Heaven's gate competition which
was held once every two years. The city, fortunately, didn't have
any extraordinary value or resources because if it did, more blood
would be spilled.
Micheal and Gaya traveled for more than four hours from the river
town before finally arriving at Heaven's gate city. From the
outside, the city itself portrayed a magnificent structure and an
aristocratic atmosphere so dense that even the capital's of some
countries on earth couldn't compare with it, not to mention the
small cities and the river town.
Unlike the city wall in the River town, Heaven's gate city wall was
over forty meters tall and it wouldn't be possible for anyone under
Core Strengthening cultivator to jump over it.
When he finally arrived at the city gate, he found the city filled with
people coming towards the city from all directions. Every two
years, heaven's gate competition attracted countless warriors and
people from various kingdoms and cities of this continent.
Everyone here wanted to witness the presence of the three big

sects' genius disciples. Since the King was busy with many
internal and external troubles of Bredia, he rarely made an
appearance and today wouldn't be an exception.
Those who came here were mostly rich people with high power
and authority. One of the reasons why they came here was to
witness the presence of these geniuses. Secondly, they were
hoping for a chance to get in contact with the big sects. Thirdly,
they could recruit some new talents for their house and increase
their overall strength.
There were also many fans of certain disciples who had arrived
here to show their support. Many youngsters of various powerful
and influential families also came from many different places in
the Kingdom to get admitted into the sects by showing their talent
by competing in the competition.
This caused their families to show their presence here as well.

There were two reasons why the families would come; the first
was to show their support, while the other was to show off.
Being selected as a disciple of one of the big sects was an honor,

and being able to participate in heaven's gate competition was an
even bigger honor.
"Wow! so many people in one place"
Micheal exclaimed when he stopped using the lightning dash.
"This silly competition is a big deal for humans. Of course, it will

attract many people."
Gaya said.
"The competition will start in a few hours! We arrived just in time, I

can't wait to see the battles"
"This is my first time coming here, so I can't miss out on anything,

come let's go"
"Let's rush to the city square asap. We can't afford to miss the
show!"
Chapter 23 - The Sun Rise
Sect
Discussions regarding the competition were everywhere.
Even though the City was big, it was unable to provide lodgings
for so many people at once. Therefore, all of the traveler inns,
taverns, and restaurants were fully booked many days ago as
they all had a sign showing full outside. Luckily he didn't need to
stay the night and had the lightning dash skill to rush back to River
town when he finishes his business here.
A lot of people rushed to City Square in order to find a good spot

for the upcoming show.
"Human, follow them, the more we wait, the more humans fill
these streets"
Hearing Gaya, he followed behind the crowd and eventually

arrived at City Square.
"This square is really too big, It covers more than a dozen square
miles"
Micheal was really surprised. This was the biggest square he had
ever seen as it was more than ten to fifteen miles in
circumference. This square made the earth's biggest football
stadium look like a small tennis court.
This was beyond his imagination since this world looked medieval
and didn't have any technologies.
In the middle of this open stadium called simply square by the

people here, there was a fighting stage, and besides the stage,
there were stairs so tall that they almost reached the clouds. In
addition, there were stairs leading to platforms that were built in
order to allow certain people to watch the fights more clearly.
"Heaven's Gate Square was built by the combined efforts of his

many kings and the big sects for the sole purpose of the
competition. Would it work if it was small?"
"Leave him be, he seems new to the city, what a yokel"
"Hehehe"
Gaya burst into laughter hearing some despiteful words coming

around them. But Micheal just ignored them and kept looking
around the square in wonder since this square was really the
biggest stadium he had ever seen.
While looking at the stadium, he also concentrated on the

conversations around him to get more intel.
"Do you know the heaven's gate stairway also called the Stairway
to God?
It's said that every step is difficult, as difficult as reaching the

heavens. Imagine how difficult it is to climb to the top"
"Top? No one has ever reached the last step, my teacher said the
highest record was achieved by a mysterious young woman who
reached the seventieth step"
"Holy shit, she must have been so powerful to reach so high while
enduring the pressure created by Core formation cultivators"
Many people were discussing about the competition and how hard
it would be. There were a lot of youngsters participating in the
competition, and this Stairway was only the first round. Those who
performed outstandingly would have a chance to enter the second
round of the competition.
Some people described the competition as a Survival of the fittest

- only those with strength would be able to survive.
"I heard that people who aren't a part of the sects can also
participate in the competition"
" There was once this girl who wasn't a part of any of the four big
sects participated and created a new record. Many sects wanted
to take her as their disciples but the girl disappeared before the
second round"
"It seems like a rare scenario! The requirements set by the big
sects are incredibly high. Those who want to participate in the
competition cannot be more than 29 years old, and they must be
at the Body refining stage, a normal person can't reach that stage
before the age of 39 let alone 29. And to become a disciple of one
of the big sects, you would need to at least become one of the top
40"
"If the disciples of the big sects arent competing, many youngsters
from powerful families would even become one of the top 20,
since it's not the case, they should aim for the range between 20
to 40. To become the top twenty without any background, then
they must be a genius but such geniuses would have become a
disciple of one of the big sects long before this"
He understood the competition really well after hearing these

conversations and just like Gaya said, people who weren't
disciples of the big sects could participate as well, however getting
good results would be incredibly hard because all the geniuses in
the kingdom had already become the disciples of one of the big
sects.
"Now where can I find the Sunrise Sect?"
"They should be near the stage on the other side of the square,
human, go before the competition starts"
***********************
"Sect leader Claire, we searched all over the river town but we
couldn't find Riyan anywhere but"
"But what, elder Mark?"

A couple of middle-aged men wearing dark red robes were talking
to a gorgeous looking young lady who had a voice like the
beautiful symphony of bells and was extremely pleasant to the
ears. The youngsters behind the young lady and the elders were
looking pale and clenching their fist against their chest.
"Sect leader Claire, the blood and bone sect"
The mere mention of the name made the female disciples' heart
skip a beat and even the sect leader seemed uncomfortable.
"What of it?"
The young lady frowned and asked.
"The whole sect was annihilated overnight, Sect Leader"
The disciples and the sect leader were taken aback by shock.
Even though their Sunrise sect was declined to the point that they
only had thirty disciples in total just as the blood and bone sect,
they couldn't be compared to that evil sect in terms of power. She
might be the sect leader but she was only a body refining stage
level 5 cultivator and the four elders were more powerful than her
as they were all body refining stage level 10.
It was only because the previous sect leader, her father went
missing that made her the new sect leader. Couple of elders quit
the sect and joined the other sect when the four main elders
chose her as the new sect leader making their sect even weaker.
"Which sect did that? Or it was the king's army?"
"Not a sect or an army, sect leader, they were killed by one man"
Soon after, the two elders started recounting the story of how the
youth called the Ghost massacred the entire sect and burned
Ralphy on a stake outside the city gates. The young woman Sect
Leader and Elders were stunned and flabbergasted when they
heard this.
"That..." The pair of other elders and the sect leader was
astonished by this story. They had never heard anything as
incredulous as this in their entire lives.
"It can't be, how a young man in the body refining stage level one
could kill Ralphy, a body strengthening stage cultivator?"
One of the two elders asked
"I have the same doubt, Elder Sandra but the whole River town
saw him burning Ralphy alive"
Incredible it sounded, it couldn't help with their current situation at

all. Without Riyan, their core disciple, they had no hope of getting
into the top 40 and getting the much-needed resources, the entire
sect's survival was depending on the resources given by the king.
If Riyan did not participate and get into the top 40, they wouldn't
get anything and it'd be the end of their sect.
"If we don't find Riyan, our sect will also become like the blood
and bone, dead"
Hearing Elder Sandra, Claire felt like she was going to faint on the
spot. Her father trusted her with the sect and how could she let
the sect die under on her watch.
"It seems this is the end of our sect"
Elder Sandra's voice broke as tears were flowing out of her eyes.
A few decades ago, the Sunrise sect flourished beyond words and
their reputation was even spread across the kingdoms nearby
Bredia. Talented youngsters would line up before their sect hoping
to get admitted into their sect and powerful cultivators would try to
get a job as a teacher in their sect.
During their golden age, they had more than ten thousand
disciples, three hundred teachers, and fifty elders. But now they
were reduced to thirty disciples and four teachers who were also
the elders of the sect.
Elder Sandra practically grew up in the sect since she was a baby
with her mother who was an Elder. She loved the sect just as
much as Claire, so her heart ached to see the sect in its last leg.
"Elder Sandra!"
Thinking about this Elder Sandra felt dizzy and stumbled back as
Elder Mark quickly grabbed her hand before she hit the ground
"ELDER SANDRA!"
Claire shouted looking at Elder Sandra who was lying in Elder

Mark's hands without consciousness.
"Give me some water!"
Claire shouted at her disciples as they looked at each other for

water and some of them rushed into the crowd to get her some
water.
"You guys look like you need some help"
Suddenly they heard a voice and turned to look at a young man

wearing black robes walking towards them with a smile.
Chapter 24 - Meeting The
Sunrise Sect
The disciples looked dumbstruck and looked at the young man

walking towards them. Even in a desperate situation like this, the
female disciples couldn't help but stare and swallow mouths full of
saliva looking at the handsome young man before them. He had a
perfect facial structure and a body frame and simply, he was too
cute and too hot at the same time.
"Here"
The young man held a water bottle out and waited for them to
take it.
"Who are you, young man?"
The elder beside Elder Mark asked him doubtfully. He was

wearing neither a badge of a sect nor a uniform.
"Elders can ask the questions later, but now take this and help
her"
Claire knew he's right as she grabbed the bottle to sprinkle the
water on Elder Sandra's face.
The elders and the disciples looked suspiciously at him while he

just kept his cool smile on his face. Even though the young lady
before him looked gorgeous and resembled Jennifer Lawrence,
her beauty didn't shock him as Gaya's beauty.
"Hhuh"
When the water droplets hit her face, Elder Sandra slowly opened
her eyes
"Elder Sandra!"
The tears flowing out of Claire landed on Elder Sandra's face with
the water from the bottle.
"Sect leader Claire"
He could barely hear these words coming out of the woman's

mouth and wondered what just happened.
"Did Riyan come?"
"He will, Elder Sandra, he will"
He didn't know why they were looking for Riyan but only he knew
that Riyan will not come as they expect, he buried him yesterday.
"I raised you, Sect leader Claire, I can tell when you're lying.
Without Riyan participating, we won't be getting the resources,
sect leader Claire, you know what would happen if we don't get
that resources"
"Human, I think they are expecting the dead human to participate

in the competition representing their sect"
Looking at the saddened and hopeless faces, he decided not to

be the bearer of the bad news but help them for Riyan, a kind soul
who died defending those children.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Before he could speak any words, the sound of beating war drums
reverberated the square and the previously noisy square
immediately became silent. He guessed the beating of the war
drums signified the start of the competition.
The war drums sounded out from all four directions of the square,
each beat started out loud, but would gradually fade, shaking
everyone on the spot. The war drums had been passed down
from many generations and remained as a symbol of battle. At the
battlegrounds, warriors who heard the war drums would
immediately feel their blood start boiling.
At all four sides of Heaven's gate Square, there was a long and
wide passage. On top of each passage, a few giant golden
holographic words appeared.
Above the East passage was the famous Morning Star Sect while
above the West passage was Golden Valley Sect. The words over
the South passage were Silver Moon school and lastly above the
North passage had only one word written in plain text 'Others'
The first three were the designated passages for the three big
sects. Even though the square was crowded with people, no one
dared to get close to the sections. After all, no one wanted to do
anything that could disrespect those big sects, as they all knew
that although this competition was started as a recruitment
ceremony for the youngsters, it was now turned into a competition
between the big sects.
"Look, the disciples of the three big sects are about to arrive!" one
of the girls behind Claire whispered.
Following the beating of the war drums, some figures started

emerging from the three passages designated for the sects. They
were walking towards the center of the square with proud and
arrogant expressions. Most people respected these disciples,
while others envied them deeply.
Micheal noticed that some even had their eyes pointing towards
the skies, expressing unparalleled pride and arrogance like he
had never seen before. The respectful and envious looks of these
common people were like a drug to them that made them high.
Every single disciple who walked out from the three passages was
at the Body refining stage and even the weakest of them were
level 6. He thought he would see youngsters with his level of
cultivation for the fourth passage but even there, most of them
were Body refining stage level 5 and only a couple of them
seemed to be his level.
On the east side, where the Morning Star sect was, all of the
disciples were wearing golden robes, and on their chests had an
embroidered star symbol, this was the symbol of the Morning Star
sect.
The Golden Valley Sect disciples wore matching plain yellow

robes with a long sword decorated on their chest. As for the Silver
Moon Pavilion, the majority of them were girls. These girls were
wearing a variety of colorful, patterned dresses. All of them looked
so sexy and hot like actresses and models in Micheal's eyes.
"Why is everyone in this world so hot and sexy?"
Their tight dresses were perfectly complimenting their gorgeous

features and their curves. Which caused the men's testosterone
level soar through in their blood as soon as they saw these girls.
"Damn! Those chicks from the Silver Moon are really sexy!"
"If you have the talent then you could just join the Valley of
Happiness, then you would be able to sleep with them every
single day!"
"Fool!, the Silver Moon focuses on seducing cultivation, and it is

considered an unethical method. They'll turn your lust into a type
of energy and use it to cultivate, the more you lust after them, the
more they use you while you just slowly keep dying or worse"
"Leeches"
Gaya scowled looking at those female disciples.
...
The girls from the Silver Moon instantly attracted all eyes.
Amongst the three big sects in the Kingdom, they had the least
disciples, but their combined strength was not to be underrated,
especially their seduction skills, which were unparalleled.
Some of the female disciples from Silver Moon were also very
slutty because by using their seduction skills, they managed to get
a lot of support from the different powers. This made the Silver
Moon a very influential sect in the kingdom.
"Look, it's Evan Clark from the Morning Star" someone shouted.
Upon hearing this, many people shifted their gaze towards the
direction of the Morning star. Micheal also turned his gaze, and he
saw the last man who was walking out of the passage. That man
wearing dark greyish robes, looking handsome and tall.
All other disciples from the Morningstar sect were wearing golden
robes but he was the only person wearing a greyish one. It could
be considered a special case considering the fact that he was
powerful and famous even amongst the other geniuses.
"Many say that he is a rare genius, and his potential is even equal
to Miss Celina"
"He will most likely get first place this time!"
The appearance of this youth caused some uproar at the scene,

with his aura of a genius and handsome face, no matter where he
went, he would immediately be the center of attraction, especially
the girls'.
But the whole stadium made a gaping noise when they saw the
girl who was walking out of the Golden Valley passage.
"Oh my god! it's Victoria Parken from the Golden Valley! She's
sooooo beautiful"
"And powerful!"
She was wearing a set of blue robes with a hint of green. She
looked angelic and as calm as the ocean. The color of her robes
and the jewels she wore perfectly complimented her physical
features. Every part of her body was fascinating to the eye as she
was extremely attractive, and if Micheal had to rank the beautiful
girls he had seen in this world, she would only be next to Gaya.
"I've heard that she went directly from formation stage level 8 to
Body Refining stage level 3 and I heard she learned an ancient
spell from one of her elders. That's extremely fortunate. Only a
handful of people knew ancient spells and she's now one of them.
She might even be more powerful than Evan Clarke "
"It seems Hannah Berry and Nyla Reid from the Silver Moon are
here as well! Both of them have the ability to fight with Evan and
Miss Parker, but their chances of winning are lower."
"It's hard to predict what will happen! A lot of things have changed
this year, no one can guess the final results. Last time, Miss
Celina appeared out of nowhere and took the fourth place in the
competition and she was the youngest in the competition that
year"
"And don't forget that mysterious young girl who created a record
by climbing to the seventieth step. I wonder if she will appear
today, and if that happens, this will truly become exciting!"
Chapter 25 - Celebrity
Disciples
Discussions were everywhere and everyone was focused on Evan

Clarke, Victoria Parker, Hannah Berry, and Nyla Reid. Each of the
three big sects had their own representatives, and these four
disciples were the most obvious ones. If nothing special happened
then the top 4 spots would go to these 4 disciples.
Micheal roughly counted the youngsters on the arena. Each of the

three sects had nearly 200 disciples while youngsters standing on
the 'others' passage had less with about 100-130 of them.
Although Bredia was a small Kingdom on the Elen Continent, it

was still a huge and diverse land, with prodigies and geniuses
everywhere. In each of these big sects, there were more than five
thousand disciples, and most of them were outer circle disciples at
the foundation stage or early Body refining stage. Of those who
came to participate in this event, many of them were only here to
gain experience and to test their abilities and strength.
The rate of elimination was just too high in this competition as a

competition with more than 700 participants, only 24 of them were
allowed to advance to the second round.
"All the participants are required to come to the center in five

minutes"
A loud voice of a woman reverberated in the stadium while all the

disciples from the big sects and the youngsters from the other
passage had already walked towards the center of the square
without waiting for five minutes.
"Teacher, what do we do?"

One of the Sunrise sect girls shivered and looked at Claire as the
elder beside Mark exhaled deeply.
"Riyan is not coming, sect leader Claire, we should leave this

place now, that would at least give us some dignity rather than
ridiculed by the other sects"
Hearing him, Elder Sandra wiped off her tears and tried to let out
a smile
"Elder Miles is right, sect leader Claire, there's nothing we can do

anymore, let's leave this place and pack our things, I should
distribute the remaining books and herbs to the children before
we"
Before she could finish her sentence, her throat tightened and
tears welled up in her eyes.
"You don't have to"
Only now Elder Sandra noticed the black-robed youth standing

with them when she heard his voice.
"What if I participate in the competition and donate my winnings to

your sect?"
Everyone was dumbfounded and Claire was clearly in shock.
The Elders thought he was saying this looking at their dire

situation and the goodness in his heart.
"Young man, it's kind of you to say this but we can't put our burden
on your shoulder, especially since you're an outsider"
These people seemed extremely nice and friendly among the

cultivators that he had met. Now he knew where Riyan's kindness
came from, he was taught by good people like them.
"Then I'll join your sect, don't take this the wrong way but you
seem to have nothing to lose by letting me join, if I win, we'll get
resources to keep the sect alive"
Micheal did not beat around the bush but directly pointed out their
situation and made a valid point as the elders became speechless
for a moment.
"Why...why do you want to help us?"
Claire asked him.
"Because I want to, now don't go anywhere and trust me to win

this thing"
Before anyone could speak anything, he started to walk towards

the center leaving them stunned.
Claire and the elders didn't see any deception or bad intent in his
eyes but the initiative to help them. She was affected by this
stranger's sincerity in wanting to help them even though he had
just met them. This touched her to a certain degree while she was
looking at the youth walking towards the center.
"Well, he's right, we have nothing to lose, and looking at his

cultivation level, he will join us sooner than he thinks"
When he reached the center, the war drums were beaten again.
Boom! Boom! Boom! …
The beating of war drums was getting more rapid, many people
were holding their breath. They all knew that three Core
Formation cultivators were about to appear on top of Heaven's
gate stairway and release their soul pressure.
And just at that moment, Four figures flew in like meteors from
four different directions and landed on top of the Stairway. When
the crowds saw their faces they were startled with their mouths
wide open.
Because these four people were not like those from the previous
year. Last year they were all just teachers from the three big
sects. But now, the three people on top of the Stairway were three
young men and a woman, and they were all young.
"It's her, Celina, the youngest to reach the Body Strengthening
stage and also the youngest core disciple of the Morning Star
sect"
"Damn, aren't these the top 4 of the competition two years ago?
Celina from the Morning Star, Adam Kane from the Golden Valley,
Sadie Kaplan from the Silver Moon. OH MY GOD! Alex Fisher the
Morning Star is here!"
"Wow, It's the Alex Fisher who took the first place two years ago"
"he is so young and he really is a rare genius! Being able to see

these prodigies with my own eyes really made the trip here worth
it!"
"I think they are going to be the ones assessing the competition
this year!"
"Teachers, what do we do now? Are we going to trust that

stranger and wait for him?"
"I have a weird feeling about him, let's see what he can do"
Even though his cultivation level was low, Elder Marked sensed a
powerful aura around him and wanted to know whether he's right
or wrong.
"Human! Let's get the f**k out of here! NOW!"
Just when he was about to join the crowd, Gaya shouted in his
mind and her voice was full of panic.
"Shit"
Micheal realized why she was screaming as he noticed the girl on

the top of the stair. She was the girl who tried to kill him for no
reason at the waterfalls. Fortunately, she didn't notice him in the
crowd but he cursed his luck.
"I can??t back out now, I'm pretty sure the system would reduce
my points and do something crazy"
With the arrival of the four celebrity disciples, the atmosphere
immediately turned intense. Everyone was expecting to see the
teachers of the big sects arrive, but, they never had expected to
see these celebrities of the younger generation here today.
Micheal also couldn't stop but stare at the four youngsters on the
top as the aura around them was really remarkable and powerful.
At this point, his mind accustomed to seeing angelic beauties as

Sadie Kaplan was one of them. Adam Kane from the Golden
Valley on the other hand could be considered normal compared to
Celina and the youngster standing beside her. He was wearing a
pearl white fur coat matching his long silver hair that was waving
in the wind, and his handsome facial features like male models
making him look all-powerful as he unleashed the aura of a
superior person. There was also a thin layer of golden light around
his body and compared to him, none of these youngsters seemed
extraordinary, even Celina.
"He must be the boyfriend of that psycho. I should be ready to use

my teleportation scroll if these two try anything funny but what life
without a challenge huh?"
He thought to himself as his lips curved upward. His hot blood

started boiling. At first, he came here to inform the Sunrise sect
about Riyan's demise but now looking at the crowd and these
geniuses, he wanted to show who's the new boss in this kingdom.
What if they were rare geniuses?
He had the system to aid him and with the help of the system, he
decided to beat this competition and earn a sweet amount of
badass points.
Thinking about the badass points, his fighting spirit ignited and
adrenaline started to pump up.
Alex Fisher and Celina stood in the middle of the Stairway on the
top, like the leaders of this group. He casually raised his hand,
then the beating of the war drums immediately stopped.
"I won't waste my time by explaining this round. As usual, we only
need the top 24. I will announce the prizes for the winners, later.
He coolly said as if he was a king giving out an order, radiating an

aura of a ruler.
Chapter 26 - Standing Tall I
Where Micheal was standing, all the youngsters of the big sects
were getting ready. They all looked pumped up and ready to take
on the world, as their eyes were radiating fierce looks. It didn't
require a genius to figure out the relationship between these three
sects were not friendly. Especially the relationship between the
MorningStar and the Golden Valley seemed worse.
By looking at the way Evan Clarke and Vitoria Parker glaring at

each other revealed the enmity between them, therefore like the
sheep following their shepherd, the disciples from both sects had
started to engage in a verbal war. Not long ago, in the competition
among the three sects, Alex Fisher defeated Adam Kane of
Golden Valley within five attacks and pissed off many Golden
Valley disciples. Now they were looking forward to Vitoria Parker
to defeat Evan Clarke and wipe the shame away to an extent. So
the second round of the competition would definitely become even
more intense.
On the bottom of the stairway, the disciples of the sects as well as

the other youngsters were looking at the four persons standing at
the top, their eyes filled with envy while many boys were drooling
looking at the hot girls on the top.
"Senior Alex and Miss Celina are the definition of a perfect couple,
look at their demeanor, and aura around them. Only if I could have
a girlfriend like her, sigh"
"And a boyfriend like Senior Alex"
"Hey, look the Golden Valley dogs drooling at the Morning Stars"
"Shut the f**k up, you scoundrels, if it wasn't for our Senior Adam
being sick that day, he would have kicked your Senior's ass and
sent him back to where he came from"
"How dare you disrespect our senior Alex? Let's wait until our
Evan Clarke meet your little Miss Victoria in the battleground, then
we'll see who kicks whos ass"
"Obviously Sister Victoria gonna kick his ass"
"Hey darling, I'll visit your SilverMoon palace later"
"What the f**k, dude!?"
****************
The scene immediately became very intense. It looked like they

were about to start attacking each other. The calmest person on
the scene was Micheal, although he was irritated about Celina's
presence, he didn't give a shit about the enmity among these
celebrity disciples. As far as he was concerned, he's here to earn
badass points and help the Sunrise sect in the process, so he
could get a secluded place to break through. He was born
narcissistic and how could he admire these disciples.
"Begin," Alex said calmly but his voice was enhanced with Arch
Energy to be extremely loud, signaling the start of the first round.
Nearly 700 youngsters instantly started running up the stairway.

The stairway was extremely wide and looked like even if there
were more than a thousand people on it at the same time, it
wouldn't feel crowded.
There were a total of 100 stone steps on Heaven's gate stairway,

and each step was at least half a meter tall.
It seemed like any commoner could easily climb such stairways,
Let alone cultivators like themselves, in their eyes it was nothing.
Some of them were even jumping forward like rabbits after

hearing Alex's words. It was very funny looking at them as Micheal
chuckled inside.
"Human, what are you doing!? If she sees you, she would go
berserk again"
Ignoring Gaya's shout, he stepped onto the first step...the
second….the third. And just when he stepped onto the eighth
step, he felt a slight pressure. More and more people started to
pass him leaving behind.
"What the? am I that weak?"
He saw the others climbing the stairs easily without dropping a

sweat.
"It seems he's going to be last"
One of the disciples of the Sunrise sect said looking at Micheal on

the stairs. A bunch of steps above Micheal, the youngsters who
went past him started to slow down feeling the pressure created
by the three Core Formation cultivators.
Unlike the teachers who came to assess the competition two

years ago, these three were no ordinary cultivators but geniuses
and prodigies of this young generation. Each of them was
extremely talented and powerful and the soul pressure created by
them was no joke and this made this year's competition, toughest.
The higher the steps they climbed, the more pressure they felt.
"Human, you're embarrassing yourself, come on cast your weird

spell and disappear!"
Gaya couldn't bear to look at those ridiculing eyes of the crowd.
"System, buy the Energy devourer and activate it"
[Ding! The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Energy

devouver]
[Activating the Energy devouver]
[Loading 120...119...118...]
"Shit, I need to wait two minutes?"

He exited the system and turned his hand around to see there's
no one behind him as he was the last guy standing on the fifth
step.
"As long as you manage to enter the top 40, you can choose to
become a disciple of any of the sects as you wish"
Even though the crowd knew this, right after the words left Sadie
Kaplan's mouth, the crowd became restless.
"What about the top hundred? So that last kid could have a
chance"
"hehehe"
"I TOLD YOU, HUMAN!"
Gaya could hear a few mocking words coming in her way and she
couldn't hold her anger anymore.
Micheal tried to pay no mind to these comments but still, he

became slightly irritated since he had done nothing like bragging
or anything.
Surprisingly even some of the disciples who were above him

started to follow the crowd by mocking him. They tried to relax
their mind a bit by making fun of him.
"Look at that weakling, I bet he can't go more than twenty steps!"
"Twenty steps? Look at him where is he standing, he's stuck at

the fifth step for god sake, I'm sure that he wouldn't even cross the
tenth step"
The scornful remarks were getting more and more intense while
he was waiting for the system to activate the spell.
[30...29...28]
"Good thing he isn't wearing our sect name"

Elder Miles sighed looking at the young man standing last with
eyes closed.
"humph"
But suddenly he opened his eyes and snickered at the disciples

above him.
Brushing his shoulder-length black hair behind, he began to walk

towards them step by step.
"Teachers, he's moving"
While the disciples of the sects were sweating and trying their
hardest to climb forward, he was calm and had a smile on his
face.
[Experience points converted 2000]
The Legendary spell devoured the soul pressure and converted it

to experience points as the invisible force he had felt a moment
ago now disappeared.
In a few seconds, he reached the tenth step and looked at the

girls who made fun of him before. The two girls were only a couple
of steps above him and seeing him walking calmly towards them,
they were utterly shocked.
"Middle finger bitches"
He simply showed his middle finger to both of the girls and walked
past them as their faces turned red like beet in anger. However,
they couldn't do anything as they were trying their best not to fall
down due to soul pressure.
"How dare he!"
"Shut up they deserved it"

"Arrogant bastard!"
Some of the crowd noticed what just happened at the thirteenth

step and began to argue as Micheal calmly climbed the stairs.
"Human, were you playing with me a moment ago?"
Gaya asked, looking at him moving higher step by step without

stopping.
Once many of them reached the twentieth step, the pressure

almost doubled and started weighing down on them, each of them
felt they were being crushed by a little invincible mountain. The
knees started to bend as sweat wetted their shirts and trousers.
The higher they climbed, the bigger the pressure, and many of
them stopped moving.
"I don't think I can move any further than this, the pressure is too
strong, I can even feel my soul trembling"
"Yeah, me too"
Some of them sighed and said while wiping their sweat away. At
the twentieth step, most of them who were standing were Body
refining stage level 4 but when they saw Micheal who was only a
Body refining stage level 1 calmly walking past them, their mouths
and eyes widened in shock.
"Huh?"
From the twentieth step to the thirtieth steps, only a hundred or so

youngsters were standing tall compared to the starting 700
people.
Among this 100, the geniuses like Evan Clarke and Victoria
Parker had already reached the 30th step and still looked calm
and relaxed while many beside them looked exhausted.
"Elder Sandra, how is he climbing with his level of cultivation?"
Sect Leader Claire opened her mouth wide looking at him and
asked Elder Sandra.
"I...don't know, it shouldn't be possible "
Chapter 27 - Standing Tall II
Every single one of them was climbing with all their strength. Even
if they couldn't be amongst the top 40 disciples, they didn't want to
become a laughing stock by falling down. Especially now that
every single disciple from the big sects and their families were
here.
In a prestigious and famous competition like this, losing to their

fellow disciples of the same sect was nothing to be ashamed of,
yet losing to someone from the other sect was nothing but
disgraceful.
" look at your pathetic faces, you all should have stayed in your
dorm rooms in the first place"
A disciple from the MorningStar who didn't participate in the

competition shouted at the Golden Valley disciples as his fellow
disciples laughed out loud and ridiculed them.
"At least we are in this competition not like those cowards who
didn't have the guts to participate"
The Golden Valley disciples shouted back
"We prefer to be here rather than participate and bring shame to

our sect, unlike you scumbags, hehe"
"Hey don't spit such nasty words in front of the girls, hey girl, I'm
not like them"
"What the f**k, dude!?"
"Hey girl, yeah you from the SilverMoon, don't talk with those
MorningStar scumbags, they have skin disease"
The stairway was in an uproar and there was no shortage of
entertainment for the crowd to enjoy. Many of the disciples were
cursing each other and showing all kinds of signs using their
hands.
Fortunately fighting on the steps was prohibited or this place

would have already become a battleground. But that didn't stop
them from abusing each other using words and some of them took
the cursing game a step ahead and scolded their dead ancestors.
However, all of them froze and shut their mouth when they noticed
a black-robed youth calmly walking past them. The SilverMoon
girls almost stood there with a slightly opened mouth in shock and
wanted him to look at them despite this current situation.
"Who the f**k is he?"
"Is he from our sect?"
"No, and look at his black robes, he doesn't belong to any sect"
Inside Micheal's head, the system was rewarding him with badass
points and converting the soul pressure into experience points. He
was extremely happy as he tried his best not to laugh in joy.
"Oh my god! He's only fifteen steps away from reaching Evan and
Victoria"
The disciples of the Sunrise sect felt their heartbeats rising and
prayed to their gods that he honor his words. They doubted Riyan,
their best disciple would have reached this level as he was
making climbing the steps so easy and effortless.
"Human, it's not a shame to rest a bit"
"Rest? This is like a walk in the park to me"
"You're an arrogant f**ker, do you know that?"
While Micheal was calmly walking towards the top,

Evan Clarke, Victoria Parker, Hannah Berry, and Nyla Reid had
already reached the 45th step and by the time they reached the
50th step, the previous calmness on their face and demeanor
started to change. Their climbing speed dropped considerably as
the pressure they were feeling increased significantly.
"Look, it's the GHOST!"
Just when Micheal stepped on the 40th step and stood alone,
someone from the crowd shouted.
"You mean the Ghost who destroyed the Blood and Bone sect?!"
"Yes! He's the Ghost from River town!"
The moment the crowd heard this, all of their gazes left the
celebrity disciples and landed on Micheal as the system
continuously awarded him badass points. Not only the crowd, but
the celebrity disciples also stopped the discussion among them
and looked at the one the crowd calling Ghost.
His face still carried a warm smile as he walked towards the top
like the soul pressure they were creating was nothing but a gentle
breeze.
"Shit, we are F**ked"
Gaya sighed as Celina gritted her teeth remembering the incident

that happened at the waterfalls.
"How the f**k he killed an entire sect with his cultivation level?"
"You moron!, can a normal Body refining stage level 1 cultivation

reach the 45th step?"
The people who initially mocked for no reason felt a cold chill
running through their spine.
"News travels fast,"
He was glad that someone from the river town came here and
recognized him. On earth, he made sure that no one recognizes
him but here, the more people recognized, the more badass
points he got from the system.
"I never expected that this young man is the famous Ghost of
River town. It looks like he isn't a normal youngster after all"
Elder Mark let out a small smile and sighed.
Looking at a youth who was younger than them climbing higher

and higher, most of the disciples started to crawl towards the top
using their both hands and feet, like a baby. However, Micheal still
looked calm and step by step reached the 50th step and stood
only ten steps away from the four celebrity disciples.
"Who is he? Where did he come from?"
Hannah Berry and Nyla Reid were gawking at them as they tried
to climb forward using all their strength.
"Pervert"
Celina's heart was trembling in anger but she couldn't show it in

front of Alex. If Alex had done something to him because of her,
both of them would be punished by the sect for disrespecting the
competition, so she could only swallow her anger and watch him
showoff.
Four of them including Evan Clarke tried their best to move

forward. Each of them took pride in being the best among their
generation and didn't want to lose to an outsider like him.
Unfortunately for them, the pressure on the 60th step was just too
strong, and they knew that they were at their limits. So At this
point, they could only watch him calmly take one step at a time
and hope that he wouldn't reach the 60th step.
"Human, the pressure on the higher steps will be too strong, stop
here, you have already reached the top 10"
Micheal could sense the nervousness in her voice but he was not
in the mood to quit now, especially since the experience points
and badass points were raining down on him like crazy.
"Is he going to reach the 60th step?"
"If he did, the sects would go crazy to recruit him"
"Elder Mark, do you think he would still want to join our sect?"
Claire knew that at this point, the three big sects would give him
an abundant amount of resources and ask him to join their sect.
They even didn't have a suitable dorm room for a talented
youngster like him, let alone the resources for his cultivation.
"The people of River town said that he destroyed the blood and
bone sect because they massacred a village full of commoners, it
might sound illogical but I have a feeling that he will honor his
words"
"Then the Sun will really rise in our sect"
"Do you think he's single?"
"Look at him bitch, handsome guy like him wouldn't be single"
"I bet he has a bunch of girlfriends"
The female disciples including the ones in the three big sects
couldn't help but admire him. The SIlver Moon disciples looked at
him like they were going to eat him alive while he reached the
59th step and stood just a step away from the four celebrity
disciples.
Using their last bit of strength, Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker
took another step and reached the 61st step leaving Hannah and
Nyla behind.
"He reached it"
"Oh my god!"
The crowd became restless when they saw him standing beside
Hannah Berry and Nyla Reid. And in a blink of an eye, he took
another step and arrived beside Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker.
"Who are you?"
Evan Clarke was exhausted as he asked him breathlessly. He still

looked calm like he was immune to the pressure and for the first
time in his life, Evan felt inferior to someone of his age. At first,
when he heard about the destruction of the blood and bone sect
and the Ghost who did that, he didn't pay much attention because,
with the right plan and spells, anyone could accomplish that feat.
However, he had never thought that he would be this powerful and

talented, especially considering his cultivation level. A nobody
couldn't reach this far and looking at his calm face, he couldn't
help but admire and respect him.
"Didn't you hear? I'm called Ghost"
He gently patted Evan on the shoulder and continued to step

forward towards the top.
"How could this be possible?"
Victoria and Evan's eyes were wide open, and their face was full
of disbelief.
"He's only at the level 1 Body refining stage, how is he resisting

the pressure?"
"He doesn't belong to any sects but he managed to surpass us"
The three girls were startled and watching his back as he

continued to move forward towards the top.
"He must have used some pill to resist the soul pressure, with
weak cultivation level, I can simply blast him away with one spell if
we met on the battleground???
Victoria calmly said as the three of them could feel the arrogance
in her voice but they also couldn't disagree with her. There
wouldn't be much of a fight between her, a Body refining stage
level 8 cultivator, and the ghost, who was only a level 1 Body
refining stage cultivator. All of them were thinking that he must
have used some kind of tactic to kill Ralphy and refused to believe
that he could defeat Ralphy fair and square.
Chapter 28 - Standing Tall III
"Look! The Ghost is number one now! He really surpassed Evan

Clarke and Victoria Parker, and he is still climbing towards the top"
"Holy shit, am I dreaming?! How could he surpass those

prodigies?!"
"Two years ago, there was a mysterious girl, now we have him
and just like her, he's also not from any of the big sects!"
Many people were shouting in surprise as Micheal had become

the center of attention. Who would have thought someone would
appear out of the blue and surpass the celebrity disciples?
"Where did this young freak come from? How could he be so

strong?"
"Hmph! look at him, He must be using some kind of pill or potion,

If he wasn't, it would be impossible to be so calm and relaxed!"
" it's still not over yet, Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker will catch
up soon!"
The disciples of the sects gloomily stared at him while some of

them tried comforting themselves by hoping that their breathless
seniors, Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker, would move again and
surpass him before he breaks the existing record by reaching the
70th step.
When Micheal stepped on the 67th step, he was still looking cool
and calm.
"Is this freak going to break the record?"

Gaya was thinking to herself as he reached the 68th step and
broke Celina's record.
"Oh my god!, he broke Miss Celina's record and only two steps
away from the all-time record!"
"What a freak?!"
On top of the Stairway, Alex Fisher's and the other three's

expressions changed as well. Especially Celina's, who had been
looking at Micheal with a mix of anger and shocked expression on
her face.
" How is he able to reach the 68th step under our pressure?"
Adam Kane was surprised as his brows raised automatically.
"Interesting, he is only at Body refining level 1 still he managed to

reach this far. I guess he has some interesting secrets"
Sadie's gesture was alluring and looked at him in a provocative

manner. Her sweet gentle voice was enough to touch anyone's
heart as her blue eyes stared at Micheal from top to bottom. The
black robes he wore were nothing like anything she had seen and
it perfectly complemented his charming features and lean body.
"We should increase the pressure"
"Why?"
Adam Kane calmly asked Alex as Sadie answered him
"Although I hate to do this to him, Alex is right, we can't let an

outsider like him reach the 70th step. Remember what happened
two years ago when an outsider like him created a record, it
brought nothing but shame to our sects.by the look on his face, he
would definitely surpass the 70th step if we don't do anything"
Since she put it like that, Adam could only agree with them and
increase the pressure. The four of them were the strongest of the
younger generation in the Bredia Kingdom. If they combined their
strength to suppress a Body Refining stage cultivator, it would be
impossible for any at the same level as Micheal.
The other three unleashed their soul pressure straight away and it
was mainly focused on Micheal, still, the slight increase in the
pressure rendered Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker immobile.
They were stopped at the 62nd step and could not even move a
muscle in their body while some of the youngsters in the lower
stairs were even pushed back by the pressure.
[System has detected a sudden increase in pressure]
[Conversion will begin in 15...14….]
The System suddenly informed him as he had to stop moving.
Looking at him stop moving, Alex's lips curved, and put a cold
smile on his face. In his heart, he snorted coldly, "Trying to reach
the top under our soul pressure huh? Let me see how you take
another step"
"I think he reached his limit"
Elder Sandra stated as the other three Elders nodded while

Micheal was standing there without moving.
"Human, they increased the soul pressure and focusing it on you"
"Trying to stop me? too late bitches"
He snickered seeing the synergy devourer resumed to convert the

pressure into experience points. Until now, he only wanted to
reach the top because he wanted to earn as many badass points
as he could but since these three intentionally increased the
pressure to stop him, he couldn't wait to reach
the top and crush their arrogance.
He wouldn't be able to sleep if he surrendered to these three, he

was the greatest assassin on earth and his pride and ego were
above their arrogance.
"
Look! He stopped at the 68th step, such a shame I really thought

he would break the record and create a new one"
"It's no shame, you idiot, with his level of cultivation, he had

already created a new record and proved his prowess"
"He's moving again!"
Nobody couldn't remain calm anymore the moment they saw him
take a step towards the 69th step, everyone's vision was on the
Ghost was only a step away from breaking the record. He brushed
his hair back again as it was fluttering in the wind as he smiled at
the four of them on the top but this time his smile was not a warm
one, rather it was an arrogant one.
"What is he doing? He is in the first place now, if he took another

step, those three would feel offended?"
Sect Leader Claire said with a puzzled expression.
"that youngster possesses the aura of someone who stands

above all else. He's like the fire where his opponents are like the
oil, the more the enemies, the more he blazes through them"
Gaya's heart and mind were filled with doubt and shock,
Looking at him standing on the 69th step with his low-level

cultivation, she couldn't help but start to admire him. Although he
was young, he had proved himself a person who is both
resourceful and powerful. Every time she thought he couldn't do
something, he would prove her wrong and surprise her. Even if he
had the special body type, this shouldn't have been possible.
"There is more to him than what meets the eye"
oooohhhhh
On top of the Stairway, the combined pressure from the three big
geniuses had doubled and caused strong winds to appear.
"AH!"
Many youngsters clinging on their positions were now thrown off

from the stairway.
"Give me more!"
The crowd felt goosebumps when the words escaped his mouth
as the three of them were startled. More pressure meant more
experience points and after he said these words, the system
started to award him with more badass points.
"HE DID IT!"
Finally, he took the 70th step as the crowd went crazy and most of
them stood from their seats in shock.
Behind him, Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker looked up at Micheal

who was walking forward towards the top. Each step he took,
created a new record while the crowds in the square held their
breath, and stopped uttering any words as they stared at him
dumbstruck.
Under the gazes of over three geniuses and Celina, he kept

moving and reached the 90th.
"What the?!"
"90th step, OH MY GOD!"
Everyone gasped for air in shock and looked at the Ghost as if

they were looking at a real ghost.
"Is he even human?"
"This is insane!"
Gaya became speechless and watched him take another step and
reach the 91st step.
The four of them on the top felt like they were being struck by
lightning.
The three of them were Core Formation stage cultivators and on
top of that, Celina was also releasing her soul pressure on him,
yet, a young Body Refining stage cultivator was actually able to
resist the pressure unleashed by them, they simply couldn't
believe it.
Under their shocked gazes, he moved again and reached the 95th
step.
"Focus every bit of pressure solely on him, I don't believe he could

withstand that"
Alex said with a cold tone as the three of them immediately

focused all the pressure created by them on him.
The four geniuses increased the pressure once again, hoping to

throw Micheal out of the stairs.
If he continued to step up, he would definitely reach the top ad

stand beside them. Just by doing that, he would shatter their
reputation and make them look weak compared to him. He had
already brought shame to them by reaching the 96th step which
was something impossible and never had done before.
Micheal on the other hand did not give a shit about their reputation
and wanted to reach the top and earn more and more badass
points and experience. Humiliating them and the girl who tried to
kill him was just icing on the cake.
Step by step, he reached the 96th step, 97th, then the 98th, and
finally the 99th step. If he took another step forward, he would be
standing side by side with the three big geniuses and a small
genius.
"Impossible!"
Chapter 29 - First Place
"If he took another step and reach the 100th step, it would
definitely offend those four"
"This is exciting, really exciting! I never thought someone from my

River town will create a record like this!"
Various discussions were going all over the stadium about his
shocking performance. Heaven's gate competition had been held
for so many years, but no one had ever reached the top of the
stairway. And now he's only a one-step from creating a long-
lasting unbreakable record
The Elders of the Sunrise sect shook their heads and smiled.
When they first met them, they had never thought he would be so
special and a freak of nature.
However, when he was about to reach the 100th step, Celina

gave a death stare and spoke in an extremely cold tone.
"DON'T!"
"You already proved your worth, don't let your willfulness ruin your
life"
Obviously, Alex was threatening him who was the greatest

assassin on earth.
"With your level, I will directly make you an inner disciple at the
SilverMoon and personally help you in your cultivation"
She emphasized the word personally and let out a seductive

laugh.
"Bitch"
Gaya simply said.
"You have a bright future ahead, stay where you are and I will
make the same offer as Sadie"
Adam smiled at him and calmly said as Alex spoke to him again
"but if you dare take one more step, then you should know the
consequences of ignoring our advice"
Micheal didn't like to bully and bullied but these four were trying to
bully him. They just used different tones to make him stay where
he is.
He calmly smiled and ordered the system to activate the

teleportation spell if they tried to attack him. And then he stared
back at Alex without a hint of fear on his face.
"Is there a rule saying I can't reach the 100th step?"
They were shocked to see his calm and cool demeanor. Normally,
youngsters like him shower them with compliments and wouldn't
dare to do something they won't like. But he not only behaved
arrogantly before them but also questioned them in front of all
these people. Micheal also did not suppress his voice and made
sure every single one of them in the crowd heard his question. If
they dared to do something against him, there was no doubt that
this would bring shame to the sects but also anger the royal family
and the King of Bredia.
"No, but"
Celina gritted her teeth and tried to say something but before
those words could escape her mouth, he took another step
forward and landed on the final 100th step. He was now standing
side by side with them
Just as he did that, Alex's face completely changed as a wave of

terrifying aura exploded out of his body, and a bone-chilling frost
started to appear around his hands.
Adam on the other hand was shocked but he didn't become as
angry as Alex. He shook his head and stood beside him since
there was nothing in the rules that said someone couldn't reach
the 100th step, what he did was fair.
On the other side, Sadie suddenly let out a weird moan and
looked flushed red. These girls from the SilverMoon really started
to freak him out with their weird looks and actions.
Right now, the crowd who were watching the scene had become
very excited. None of them ever thought that someone would
break the 70th step record, let alone reaching the 100th and stand
alongside the four celebrity disciples.
"Holy! He really reached the top!"
"We have just witnessed history in making guys!"
"Where did he come from? What's his real name? Even in the
sight of these four bid shots, he didn't back down, he earned my
respect!"
"From now on, the whole kingdom would know the name Ghost!"
"But he made a mistake by offending them, Just look at Alex's

expression, he looks like he's going to kill him!"
"Offending a bigshot like him would never end in a good way, I'm
sure the Morning Stars will make his life harder in the next round"
Everybody was gossiping and expressing their opinions while the

Sunrise sect people started to worry about his safety.
"You just made a big mistake, human"
He didn't pay attention to Gaya's warning as he was looking at the

experience points. He now had enough points to reach the Body
refining stage level 6 and already earned back the badass points
he had spent for the Energy devourer spell.
"This trip is extremely worth the risk"

He knew by taking the last step, he would offend Alex, a big shot
in this kingdom but the benefits he received were worth the risk.
"No one has ever disrespected me the way you just did, Ghost,
you will pay for that!"
He radiated an extreme killing intent that would scare anybody

who looked at him. Yet, Micheal almost laughed out when he
noticed his killing intent towards him being turned into experience
points for him. This spell was really legendary and overpowered,
by making someone angry, he could now earn experience points
with this spell.
Since the time he was born, Alex Fisher had been raised with
great privileges by one of the most powerful families in Bredia. He
was a child really blessed with the god as he had a great talent for
cultivation, wealth, and an attractive body with a handsome face.
This consciousness of being born like this had been rooted deep
into his mind as ego and pride.
Who was this Ghost to disrespect him? A nobody without any

background.
Thinking about this, he felt incredibly furious and couldn't hold his
anger.
"You crossed your limit!"
Celina gritted her teeth and said angrily as Micheal tilted his head
like a puppy and frowned.
"Who are you again?"
"You really want to die huh?"
Alex's expression was getting colder, and his killing intent was
getting thicker as Micheal's heart was nursing with joy looking at
all the experience points.
"Alex, look around you. This is Heaven's gate competition, and

we're here to assess this competition. Everything you speak or do
will represent the MorningStar sect. There's no rule in this
competition which states that someone can't reach the top. Are
you going to attack him just because he reached the top?"
Adam quickly interfered before this situation turned ugly. Although

by stepping on the 100th step he tarnished their reputation, they
still needed to think about their sect before doing anything that
would bring shame to their sect.
"You can tell me what I can do when you defeat me within five
attacks Kane"
Adam expected this reply but still, he gritted his teeth in anger.
Nevertheless, after Adam's warning, he withdrew his killing intent

and decided not to kill him. Because he knew the elders would
punish him for disgracing the competition and their sect reputation
and that was the best-case scenario. The worst case was this
incident reached the ears of the king and at that point, the king
would definitely cripple his cultivation or sentence him to death.
"I let you live this time"
He said coldly and flew down to the ground standing on a flying

spear with Celina.
"Boys"
Saide snorted and tapped Micheal's shoulder
"My offer is still standing, I'll even recommend the elders to make
you a core disciple"
"Sorry Miss, I have already decided to join another sect"
At this point, the first round of the competition had concluded as

many disciples of the sects and youngsters were jumping off of
the stairway but hearing their conversation, they all paused for a
moment to hear what sect he had decided to join.
"Oh?"
Sadie was surprised since there's no chance Alex would let him
join the MorningStar and Adam seemed like he's not planning to
take him either.
Leaving those two sects, there weren't any places that fit for his
talent except her sect.
"Which sect?"
"The SunRise Sect"
His answer almost gave the crowd a heart attack. Among all the
sects, he picked the worst and declined sect to join. Even if many
of these youngsters couldn't get into the big sects, there were still
other prestigious sects in the Kingdom but none of them wouldn't
even think of joining the SunRise sect.
Sadie had a weird expression on her face as many people thought

he was mad to consider the Sunrise sect.
"Are you sure about that, Ghost?"
"Yes, I gave my word and I'm not going to back away now"
Sadie saw an immovable resolution in his eyes as she sighed
"So be it, but if you change your mind, my sect gates are always
open for you"
"Like we join your whorehouse"
Gaya mumbled inside his mind.
Lots of disciples from the MorningStar were staring at him when

he reached the bottom and their eyes were filled with enmity and
hatred towards him. Since he had just taken first place in today's
competition, and offended their seniors in front of all these people,
they marked him as their enemy.
"Don't expect the next round will be like this, on the battleground,
only the cultivation level matters"
Someone walked up to Micheal and whispered to him as he
turned back to look at a red-haired youth standing in front of him.
And behind the red-haired youth, there was a bunch of youth who
seemed like his minions.
"Who the f**k is he? When did you f**k with him?"
If someone wanted to hurt him, they must be at least Body

Strengthening stage level 2 and none of these youngsters were at
that level.
"Whatever"
He just shrugged and walked towards the Sunrise sect people

who were looking at him like they had seen a demon.
Chapter 30 - Battle Begins
The sudden appearance of a genius like him shook the square by

storm and everyone was waiting to see his battle prowess in the
next round. The intense 2nd round competition would take place
on a fighting stage, and this is what most people were looking
forward to because only the powerful ones would be able to
survive and win the round.
Although he had taken first place in the first round and set a new
record by stepping on the 100th step, some people were not very
optimistic about him considering his weak cultivation level. Since
no one had really seen him killing the disciples of the blood and
bone sect, it was logical to doubt him.
They were thinking of being able to resist some pressure doesn't

really mean that he can defeat the higher level cultivators in close
combat.
Some of them were even betting on his survival since he had

offended the celebrity disciples, especially Alex Fisher and Celina
and neither of these two were not someone who can be easily
dealt with. They were the rising stars of Bredia and heirs to two
prominent families.
All the disciples of the MorningStar and Golden Valley were

looking at him with jumbled emotions. Since the starting of the
competition, none of the competitors brought shame to their sect
and seniors like Ghost did, an outsider from nowhere. And even
after that, he didn't join any of their sects but actually decided to
join a declined sect and this angered them to an extent.
"The first round of the competition is completed. All top 24

participants proceed to the fighting stage in five minutes"
Celina announced this time and the four of them flew to the next
stage and landed on a high tower in the center of the square. In
front of the tower, twelve 4 meter tall fighting stages were waiting
for the 24 participants.
"This freak going to f**k them all up, sigh"
Gaya sighed.
Unlike these doubtful crowds, she saw him massacre each and
every disciples and Ralphy without using any dirty tricks. Even a
Strengthening stage level 2 cultivator couldn't do anything to him,
what these weaklings could do to him?
If there wasn't a chance that someone might recognize her, Gaya

would jump out and start making bets to get super-rich. The 24
youngsters who were in high fighting spirits didn't take the given
five-minute break but already reached the fighting stages as
Micheal walked towards the Sunrise sect people.
"Everyone"
The Elders and the group of disciples came rushing to him as they
surrounded him. A moment ago, he looked extremely arrogant
and cold but now his demeanor took a 180 turn and looked
friendly and warm.
"Young man, you..."
Elder Sandra's voice trailed but Micheal sighed and retrieved

Riyan's blood-stained badge from his storage.
"This"
Each of their eyes widened and their bodies slightly shook looking
at the bloodied badge on his hand.
"I'm sorry for your loss"
He sighed and started to tell what happened at the rosewood

village making Riyan the hero of this story. Some of the female
disciples dropped on their knees hearing him as tears started to
flow out of the male disciples too. Micheal was surprised to see
each of them looked truly saddened by Riyan's demise and except
Elder Mark, the other elders also couldn't hold back their tears.
"Young man, you don't have to join us for Riyan, it's still not too
late to join the big sects for you"
"No, what use of big sects if they don't even teach their students
the basic humanity?"
At the same moment, standing on the tower, Celina took a step

forward and spoke with a loud voice, "The Stairway was just a
warm-up, so it doesn't matter who took the first place and who
took the last place. It was just a filter for the second round. Only
those who have exceptional cultivation and power will be able to
survive the second round"
Celine might have said this looking at the crowd, but it was
definitely directed towards Micheal.
"Miss Celina, may we know what the rewards are this year?"
Someone from the crowd shouted as everyone stared at Celina

for her answer.
"Yeah tell us Senior, it will be an extra motivation for us!"
A youngster from the MorningStar asked and not only did the
participating disciples look up with anticipation, but even the
crowd was also filled with expectations. The competition was
organized by the Royal family and the three big sects so the
reward would be no joke.
"So be it, the first place will be rewarded with three things, Fifty
thousand gold, one storage ring, and one thousand years old
blood lotus"
When they heard about the three rewards, the crowd immediately
became restless.
"Awesome! Fifty thousand gold! With this amount, the winner don't
even have to cultivate but spend the rest of their life like a king"
"F**k the gold, the Thousand Year old blood lotus is even more
precious and valuable. When turned into the Arch pill and
consumed, it would cancel the bottleneck between the Body
refining and Body strengthening stage! This is a huge reward!"
"The storage ring is not a normal thing either! The storage ring is
small and convenient to carry, and it can imprint a person's soul
wave, making it so that only the owner can use it!"
"The second place will get..."
Celina started to speak but Micheal was not in the mood to listen
since he was aiming for the first place.
"I hope the rewards are worth my time"
The disciples felt like they had just been attacked by a huge
hammer when they heard him and looked at his face.
"Brother Ghost, don't tell me you don't know the value of these
things?"
"Not much"
He was still new to this world so he had no idea what he could do

with fifty thousand gold. Obviously, he didn't care about the space
rings, he had the system storage for that and this was the first
time he was hearing the name blood lotus.
"Young man, do you really think you can take the first place in the
second round too?"
Elder miles ask doubtfully as Micheal smiled
"I don't think, Elder, I know I can, I have a reputation to protect,

after all"
They saw no fear in his eyes but pride and confidence as the loud
boom sounds of war drums appeared again.
Boom boom boom
"Good luck, young man"
"Please be safe, brother Ghost"
Micheal waved at them and went to the fighting stage where Alex
was waiting for the participants.
When all the 24 participants were ready, they were now just
waiting for Celina's command and she casually waved her hand
as 24 phone-sized marble plates flew out in line. Each plate's
back faced each participant.
"Here's 24 plates, on top of them there is a number from 1 to 12.

Choose one randomly. Participants who get the same number will
be fighting against each other on the stage." This was the same
rule as Gaya said earlier.
"Pray to your god that we don't pick the same number"
The red-haired youth from before said with an evil smile.
"Who the f**k are you?"
He didn't even know this guy he was doing his best to get himself
killed and Micheal wondered why. Hearing Micheal, a flash of
anger appeared in his eyes
"You'll know soon"
"Aside from the top three, for the rest of you, your sect will reward
you individually depending on your results, therefore, everyone
has to fight with all of their strength," Adam Kane said loudly.
"Let the fights begin," Celina said as all the participants walked up
and chose a plate.
Among the 24 participants, Eight from the MorningStar, Six from

the Golden Valley, Six from the Silver Moon. In the remaining four,
two picked the Morning Star and one joined the Golden Valley.
Micheal was the only one who didn't come from any big
background and picked the Sunrise sect.
Micheal randomly picked and flipped the plate in his hands to see
'six' was written on it. This means that the other person who had
'six' on his plate would be his opponent, and they would be
fighting on the sixth fighting stage.
"Who's the poor f**ker who got six?"
"The fights will be deathmatches, and the only way to escape

death is to surrender. This is a Survival of the fittest competition,
there's no place for mercy here, if you have the skill and chance,
kill your opponent without giving him or her the chance to
surrender"
Most of the crowd frowned hearing Alex but Micheal agreed with
him, these cultivators were extremely cruel and ruthless. If the
roles were reversed, none of these youngsters would show him
mercy or give him the chance to surrender because as far as they
were concerned, he's their enemy. However, the only thing that
made him think deeper was Riyan, even though he was a
cultivator just like them, he was kind and died saving those
children sacrificing his life.
"Well well well, you really have such bad luck!"
Again, Micheal heard that annoying voice of the red-haired

youngster and turned his head. He was standing in front of him
with the marble plate in his hand.
"Number six"
Chapter 31 - Killing Orion
"Hey who's the other 1? You better run and hide little lamb"
A youngster jumped up onto the first fighting stage and called out
his opponent arrogantly. He wore the uniform of the MorningStar
and his face was filled with arrogance, but the next second, when
he saw who his opponent was, the arrogance disappeared from
his face, as he swallowed a mouth full of saliva. He felt like he
was going to faint on the spot because the one who just landed in
front of him was none other than Victoria Parker from the Golden
Valley.
"I surrender!"
He didn't take much time as he immediately said these words and

jumped down from the fighting stage. The speed was even greater
than the speed of him jumping up to the stage. Although he
seemed arrogant, he knew his limits. Fighting head to head with a
powerful prodigy like Vitoria Parker, was no different than
committing suicide.
On another side, the same happened when Evan Clarke

appeared. His opponent also didn't dare to fight with him, so he
did the logical thing, surrender.
The crowd felt disappointed not seeing Victoria and Evan in

action. But their disappointment quickly vanished when they laid
their eyes on the sixth stage where Ghost and the red hired youth
were facing each other.
"To be honest, you surprised me by reaching the 100th step, but

unfortunately you're going to die today"
This youngster looked extremely arrogant and when Micheal took

a closer look at his robe, he noticed a star embroidered on his
chest, the symbol of MorningStar. His red hair fluttered in the wind
as he radiated a powerful Body refining stage Level 4 cultivation
level.
"Brother Orion, please don't! We saw him massacre the entire

blood and bone sect and burn their disciples alive!"
Not far from the fighting stage, someone shouted out loud, and
when Micheal looked in the direction of the voice to see the group
of Morning Stars he had met earlier.
"No one takes what's mine, now I will make an example out of him
to let the world know what would happen if they take what's
belongs to me, Orion Kesher "
"Human, he must be the person left the mark on the quest we

took"
Hearing this, Micheal slightly shook his head and started to laugh
which made the crowd wonder why he was laughing. Orion felt
offended and frowned looking at him laughing.
"Why are you laughing?!"
"You really looking to fight me because I took a quest from the

guild, are you dumb or something? Listen to your classmates and
surrender, I'll let you live"
His laugh stopped and now he looked at him coldly while

releasing a slight killing intent around him.
"Brother Ghost is scary!"
One of the female disciples of the Sunrise sect became afraid of

him looking at his cold face.
Micheal didn't hold back, therefore many people in the square

heard him loud and clear. The other stages quickly lost their views
and everyone turned their gaze towards stage six.
"Do you believe he could have killed them without using any dirty
tricks? You believe whatever you want and stand aside, I got this"
With a wave of his hand, Orion stopped Klara's group from saying
anything.
Even the four geniuses on the top turned to look at stage six to
see what the famous Ghost could really do.
"That good for nothing Ralphy couldn't even kill a weakling like
him, humph, he was nothing but a disgrace to call himself a sect
master"
He snorted.
"Senior Orion kill him!"
"That's right, tear him into pieces!"
Some of the fans of Celina and Alex started to shout loudly and
fanned Orion's arrogance. They didn't believe that a Body refining
stage level 5 cultivator like Orion can't kill the one who is only at
level 1.
Klara felt uneasy in her mind because she had already witnessed
his terrifying power before.
"DIE!"
In front of Micheal, Orion shouted as loudly as he could. Orion

dashed at him with a silver sword in his hand while magical
symbols appeared around the sword to enhance its power.
Swooosh!
"Kill this f**ker human!"
Yet before Orion could come closer, the crowd saw Ghost's body
turn into a
bolt of lightning and disappear from Orion's view. But in a flash, he

appeared behind Orion, and from his fingertip, a blue lightning bolt
shot through Orion's forehead.
Splash!
Badass points]
The next moment, Orion dropped on the ground with a hole right
between his eyes. The youngster who acted so high and might a
moment ago did not have a chance to scream and lying on the
ground dead. A puff of smoke was coming out of Orion's wound
and his eyes were still wide open, as a terrified expression could
be seen on his face.
This scene terrified everyone and sent a cold chill through their
spine. Killings like this on heaven's gate competition was a usual
thing and the crowd didn't fear the blood and deaths. However,
what terrified them was how the Ghost killed Orion. He was quick
as lightning and Oriond didn't even get the chance to raise his
sword at him or defend himself.
"Dumb f**ker"
Gaya sighed and cursed looking at his dead body. The loud shout
was the only thing he did on the fighting stage.
Orion didn't even have a chance at attacking, he didn't even have

the time to show his combat skill and combat weapon. The loud
shout was his only performance on the fighting stage.
Micheal's face showed an expression of indifference and he didn't

even take a look at the dead body lying on the ground. Neglecting
the thousands of shocked eyes on him, he jumped down from the
fighting stage. He made living by assassinating people and killing
Orion didn't feel any different.
Micheal even gave him the chance to surrender and his

classmates told him not to fight, but he ignored all of them
because of his arrogance and paid the price with his life.
"Holy shit! What just happened?! How could he be so fast?!"
" This is too shocking, just how powerful is the Ghost, he killed
someone who was four levels higher than him!"
"He killed him like swatting a bug"
"That Orion kid should have surrendered"
"Did you guys see that?! The Ghost didn't even blink his eyes
when he killed, he's actually looking down on the Morningstar
Sect! Just with his attitude and courage alone, he has my
respect!"
Everybody was still shocked, and the square was once again in
uproar. Only Klara and her group knew the outcome a hundred
percent sure. The fear and respect towards the Ghost had once
again risen everyone's hearts.
"Thank god that bullying son of a bitch is dead"
"Yeah I too secretly wanted him to die"
"Damn it! He killed one of us!"
Some of them from the MorningStar looked relieved while some of

them looked pissed off. But many of them were looking at Evan
Clarke, their ultimate hope and the trump card in their sleeve.
"I want him to be matched with Evan! I bet Evan will beat him in
combat"
"That's for sure! Withstanding pressure and fighting head to head

is entirely two different things"
Evan Clarke was the representative of the MorningStar sect in this

competition and his abilities were extraordinary, unlike Orion.
After a few minutes, the first round came to an end. 12

participants had been eliminated, and the remaining 12 would
continue fighting.
Just like before, they would draw plates and fight the ones who
picked the same number as them.
Again Victoria Parker and Evan Clarke were having a field day as
their opponents surrendered the moment they saw them. On the
other hand, Hannah Berry and Nyla Reid from the SilverMoon
fought with the disciples of Golden Valley and killed them by
beheading them without a second thought.
This time, When Micheal came to his fighting stage, he saw a

level 4 Body refining stage youth standing before him. But the
moment he saw him, he took a few steps back and threw his
sword on the ground.
"I surrender"
After he said that, he turned around and jumped off the fighting
stage. He just witnessed Orion who was a level higher than him
getting killed in a second, so the youth didn't dare to fight the
Ghost. Looking at him retreating, he didn't make fun of him or do
anything but jumped off the stage.
After the second round, there were only 6 people left. Evan Clarke
from the MorningStar, Victoria Parker, and another girl from the
Golden Valley, Hannah Berry, and Nyla Reid from the SilverMoon
and the Ghost from Sunrise Sect.
The crowd felt goosebumps looking at the six of them because no

matter how they paired with, it would be a battle worth watching.
"Let the fighting continue."
Celina said in a strict manner as she waved her hand and threw
out another six plates again. This time, Micheal's opponent was
none other than Nyla Reid from the SilverMoon, a prodigy.
Unlike before, the three fights didn't happen simultaneously. And

surprisingly, Victoria Parker and the girl from her sect chose the
same number which resulted in the girl surrendering to Victoria.
The crowd was disappointed but it was not something they weren't
expecting either. But they didn't expect Hannah Berry to surrender
to Evan Clarke which was a huge bummer to the crowd as they
started to boo at Hannah Berry.
Chapter 32 - Final Fight I
Because of the two previous bummers, Micheal's and Nyla Reid's

fight had become the center of attention during this third round.
Everyone's gaze was on Micheal and Nyla Reid. A fight between
these two, who would be the last one standing? Even Evan Clarke
and Victoria Parker were watching this with serious expressions.
They all wished to know more about his abilities.
Under everyone's gaze, two figures simultaneously jumped onto

the third fighting stage, these two were Micheal who was dressed
full black and Nyla Reid who was wearing leather trousers and a
blue long fur coat.
"Who do you guys think will win?"
" it is hard to say who will win. We don't know the extent of
Ghost's power and we have only seen him fight once"
"It's indeed hard to tell, but Nyla's seduction skill is unparalleled.

Her's Seduction Skill and her ability to confuse someone's mind is
not something to take lightly"
On the fighting stage, Micheal stood opposite Nyla. Her body was
soft and curvy, she had a perfect muscle to fat ratio and a perfect
structure. A pair of blue eyes checked out Micheal and scanned
his body from bottom to the top.
[Warning! The opponent is trying to attack the host telepathically!

Firewall activated!]
The firewall he bought to prevent Gaya from trying anything funny

when she merged with him now stopped Nyla.
[Does the host wish to eliminate the intruder or punish the

intruder?]
"AH!"
Suddenly the people were startled to hear Nyla's scream as they

saw a golden light shot out from Ghost's eyes at Nyla.
"What's wrong?!"
"What happened?!"
The disciples of the Sunrise sect were confused and looking at

Nyla's body as blood started to pour out of her eyes, nose, and
mouth.
"AH!"
The crowd and the youngster became extremely shocked

because he didn't even raise a finger against her but she seemed
to be in agony. Even the celebrity disciples had no idea what kind
of spell he just used.
"What did he do?!"
"Oh my god!"
Another turmoil appeared in the square. Many of the people

couldn't understand the reason behind Nyla's agony and scream.
Just as she was screaming and rolling on the ground, Micheal

slowly started to walk towards her.
"Human, what did you do?"
"Look at her carefully Gaya, if someone tried to mess with my

mind, this is the result"
Gaya felt extremely afraid as she was glad she didn't try to do
anything after he nearly killed her in the tavern room.
"Is he going to kill her?"
"Why is she not surrendering?!"

Sadie and the rest of the SilverMoon girls were looking and
shouting at Nyla as Micheal grabbed her by the neck and lifted her
up. She was shaking and trying to land her feet on the ground but
he lifted her higher with just one hand and on the other hand, the
lighting cracks started to appear.
Bzzzzhhh
"Did you really think you could play with my mind?"
He asked coldly as she kept gasping for air
"Ghost, DONT!"
From standing on the top, Sadie shouted at Micheal fearing that

he would kill her junior in cold blood.
"Nyla! Surrender!"
"Give me one reason why shouldn't I kill her"
"Human, what are you doing?"
Gaya knew it was not his style negotiating without killing her.
"I...will pay you"
Sadie remembered that Orion said Ghost took his quest and one
would only take a quest from the guild for one reason, coins.
"I'm listening"
"Is he for real? He's making a deal, on the fighting stage!"
Sadie was relieved to hear him
"Five thousand gold"
Now the crowd gasped for air hearing the amount as Micheal let
out a small smile.
"Make it ten"
"How Dare you turn this competi"
"Shut up Alex!"
Alex couldn't bear to see these two turn this prestigious

competition and fighting stage into a marketplace but Sadie was
not in the mood to take shit from Alex.
"Deal, now please let her go!"
It was not his style to let someone go after they tried to kill him but
when he was about to kill her, the system warned him and
recommended him to reconsider. It was the first time the system
warned him like that and he also realized why the system warned
him because killing Nyla Reid would surely piss off the people of
SilverMoon, especially Sadie and he was not strong enough to
take on her or SilverMoon.
So he chose to use Nyla to earn some money and the favor of

Sadie because he had already messed with MorningStar and it
would be good to have an alley behind him until he became
stronger.
"Alright, a deal's a deal"
As he said, he threw Nyla towards the SilverMoon girls and

Hannah Berry was there to catch her friend.
"Nyla, are you alright?"
She was still coughing blood and trying to gasp for air.
Slowly with time, the blood flowing out of her nose and ears
stopped but her face still looked frightened and pale. When she
landed on the fighting stage, she had immediately applied her
seduction Skill on Ghost and tried to confuse him. But, she had
never expected that her Seduction skill would not affect him. Not
only his mental capacity was beyond her imagination but also her
telepathic attack backlashed and almost took her life.
"Thank you"
Nyla said looking at Sadie gratefully. She had already witnessed
Ghost's approach. He was not someone who would show mercy
just because she was a girl. There was no doubt in her mind that if
it wasn't for Saide, he would have killed her.
"You've done me a great favor by sparing my junior, Ghost, if

there's anything you require my help, feel free to ask me"
Sadie laughed as she said standing on the top. Her words were
meant to openly seduce him.
"Lucky bastard!"
Some of the disciples from the sects cursed him looking at the
way she talked to him. She was being flirty and if he wanted, he
could spend the night with her alone.
However, Micheal just nodded with an uninterested smile.

Compared to Gaya, these women from the SilverMoon are just
some run of the mill girls.
With this battle, the finalists had been revealed and the crowd
erupted in cheers for the upcoming fights. Until now, Victoria and
Evan hadn't fought a single battle, all of their opponents had given
up before even attempting to fight.
Only Micheal, the dark horse was the treat for their eyes as he
kept their spirit up without boring them. Every time he appeared
on the battle stage, with his charisma and power, he would treat
them with a memorable battle.
Nobody had expected him to be that strong as there was not

much known about his strength previously. He had won all of his
battles and after seeing his battle power, they even doubted that
Evan and Victoria could defeat him because he seemed extremely
powerful for a level 1 Body refining stage warrior.
"Final fight will be between Ghost vs Evan Clarke vs Victoria

Parker" Announced Celina and just by hearing the names, the
crowd felt goosebumps all over their bodies. The crowd was sure
that these three would definitely fight each other without
surrendering.
"Hey, do you think Ghost can defeat them?"
"I think Evan and Victoria would try to eliminate him before they
fight each other, after all, if Ghost won the final, it would bring
shame to both the sects"
"You're overestimating the new guy, he's just a level 1 cultivator

while Evan and Victoria both are level 8, it's not a small difference,
is it?"
They wanted to see how Ghost would last against Victoria and
Evan. But whoever wins the competition, this would surely be a
great battle to watch.
"The final will begin in ten minutes on the battle stage one"
Victoria and Evan were surrounded by their classmates discussing

their strategy while Micheal relaxedly came to where the Sunrise
people were standing.
"Brother Ghost!"
The girls and boys of Sunrise sect felt more attached to him due
to his easy-going behavior while the Elders too slowly started to
come to an understanding that he's now a disciple of their sect.
"Young man, what's your real name? Where did you come from?
A genius like you can't be a nobody"
Reaching the 100th step and defeating a genius like Nyla without
even laying a finger on her wasn't something a normal person
could do. With his low-level cultivation, it should have been
impossible but the youngster before them did just that.
Hearing Elder Sandra's question, Micheal smiled
"I don't have a real name, I came from a very distant land, and
back there, people used to call me Ghost, so it became my real
name"
Since he had to put on various disguises and lie constantly to
reach his target, Micheal was very proficient at lying and because
of that, the elders couldn't see any signs of him lying as they
believed everything he just said.
"What you just did, making a deal on the battle stage"
Elder Miles frowned thinking what he did was dishonorable but

Micheal waved his hand
"Does this old dog want us to go to war with Silver Moon?"
Gaya was not happy with Elder Miles's question as she shouted in
Micheal's mind.
"Elder, I think there's a fine line between courage and stupidity,

That SilverMoon girl is a genius, and killing a genius is not as
simple as killing a normal disciple. If I killed her, not only they
would have attempted to take revenge on me but also they would
have attacked our whole sect, that won't be a favorable situation
for us, would it?
"He's right, Elder Miles, we can't afford to offend these people"
Claire said as the other elders and the disciples nodded their
heads.
"But how do you plan to face Evan and Clarke? They won't be
easy as Nyla and as you have said, you can't kill them"
"I just beat the crap out of them, easy peasy"
Even though by now they had realized he's a freak of nature,

looking at him talk without a worry about the upcoming battle still
shocked them.
"Young man, don't be too cocky, I've seen them fight, they are
extremely talented and have many powerful spells under in their
arsenal"
"Elder, trust me, they can't even lay a finger on me"

Chapter 33 - Final Fight II
If someone else had said this, they would have burst into laughter
and knocked him on the head, but when it comes to this freak of
nature, they could not tell that he will lose to Evan and Victoria.
"For the last battle, the three remaining participants will step onto
stage one. The last one remaining on stage will be the winner, the
battle will begin in a minute"
"Alright, it's time to show them who's the new boss here"
Micheal brushed away the dust on his shoulder and turned around
to go to the battle stage. When he was about to take a step
forward, someone grabbed him by his hand and he turned and
saw the worried face of the sect leader Claire.
"All the best"
If he could win the tournament and give the rewards to the sect,
she could settle a portion of the debt to the debt collectors and
buy some of their lands back. With Ghost, they now had the
chance to survive without closing their gates.
"Thank you, Sect Leader"
He patted the sect leader's soft hands and smiled. Evan and
Victoria were already on their way to the stage and the crowd was
waiting for him.
While his black robes and hair were fluttering in the wind, he
walked towards the stage and landed on the stage with a simple
leap.
Looking at the two stars of the younger generation and the dark
horse of this tournament, the crowd was really excited.
The last battle was finally going to start. Victoria's strength was
obviously incredible. And Evan was just as powerful as Victoria
and when these two were fighting, their fight became more than a
battle between two individuals as their fight would represent the
clash of two big sects. And finally, there was the dark horse, Ghost
who seemed extremely powerful and a freak. After seeing what he
could do, no one underestimated him looking at his low-level
cultivation.
"Step down, you two can't defeat me," said Victoria suddenly in an
extremely arrogant way, she looked like she was showing disdain
for everything and everyone.
"Don't be too arrogant, Victoria" Evan calmly replied to her.
"You never learn," said Victoria and closed her eyes for a moment.
Immediately after, a gigantic golden phoenix made of Arch Energy
had appeared behind her back. The phoenix looked like a
holographic image but only more realistic and majestic.
"It must be the flaming phoenix spell of the Golden valley"
"She learned it!"
"They said the spell can only be learned by someone who is

worthy!"
People muttered and stared at Victoria with a dumbstruck look on

their faces and even Evan was startled to see the power coming
from the phoenix.
"She definitely deserves to be called the Princess of Golden

Valley. She learned the flaming phoenix and it looks so strong and
powerful"? The crowd was trembling but suddenly a blue light
radiated from Evan's body. On his back appeared a White tiger
and then, the holographic tiger roared and trembled the entire
area with its might.
"Cool," Micheal couldn't help but be impressed by the spells cast

by these two as he felt like he was watching a magic show from a
front-row seat.
"The majestic tiger!"
"It must be an ancient spell, I can even feel the power the tiger is
radiating!"
"This is worth the trip!"
"Evan is so strong. I still can't predict who would win this fight" ?
Many people were filled with emotion when they saw how strong
Evan was and how beautiful Victoria was. They were filled with
admiration and worship looking at these two. And since the crowd
was mostly composed of men, Victoria drew most of their attention
with her beauty. Not only was she extremely gorgeous but she
was also extremely talented. They were very excited to see how
she would develop and what other powers she would show in the
future.
" She's extremely powerful and has the flaming phoenix. With that
spell, she would be almost invincible"
"I'm not sure. Evan hasn't revealed his full strength yet, so it is
impossible to judge"
"Hey don't forget about the Ghost, my guts tell me that he would
win this thing"
Everybody was giving their own opinion about who was going to
win or lose. But many of them thought that it's either Victoria or
Evan. Only a few of them thought Ghost had a chance to win. ?
Even if he was now regarded as someone extremely powerful, the
crowd still thought that there were only two people who had a
chance to win within the three remaining participants.
Two amazing and mighty cultivators of Bredia Kingdom: Victoria

Parker and Evan. On the other side, a mysterious yet powerful
youngster. ?The three of them were on the stage, each of them
standing in a triangle formation as Victoria was staring at Evan
from the beginning. Evan was also continuously staring at her. ?
They were staring at each other as if they were fighting a one-on-
one battle.
While they were engaged in a staring contest, Micheal seemed
very relaxed thinking about which skill to invest his badass points
after upgrading his cultivation.
After a while, Victoria's attention was finally drawn away from

Evan. She had an arrogant smile on her face. ?"You're somewhat
okay, if you wish, you can leave that lowly sect and join us, the
Golden Valley. If you do so, I can personally help you with
cultivation once in a while." ?Victoria had a huge smile on her
face. She looked completely arrogant, she didn't do it on purpose,
but could not hide the arrogance which had been engraved into
her very soul.
Micheal didn't like her calling the Sunrise Sect as lowly because
compared to them, they taught humanity to their students. Even
though he was not a saint to preach about humanity, he was not
that bad to watch innocent people get massacred without raising a
finger.
In a world that was as cruel as this one, he started to value

kindness and compassion more and more.
"You… want to help me in cultivation?" he hid his true emotions

and asked. This girl seemed to have considered her as the world's
best and completely arrogant down to the last fiber of her being,
as expected.
"Indeed, I, personally, can help you in cultivation," said Victoria

who didn't know what he really meant. She even thought that he
was feeling very honored.
"you have to understand that this is a once in a lifetime

opportunity. I don't usually take on mentoring programs but for
you, I can make an exception"
"Can we kill this bitch now, human?"
Victoria's arrogance nauseated Gaya and she couldn't wait to see

him teach this arrogant girl a lesson.
Yet, Victoria's proposition was really tempting to common people,
many ordinary cultivators would have dreamt of being offered
such an opportunity. To have a mentor not only as powerful as she
but also pretty and sexy, was simply a dream come true for many
disciples of Golden valley.
"Imagine Victoria coming to my room to teach me..."
"Dude, you're drooling"
"Lucky bastard getting such offers from two of my dream girls!"
Many people in the crowd envied Micheal so much and were

looking on with eyes full of jealousy. But for Micheal, she was just
a joke since he has the best mentor in the world, the system, and
besides he already has an arrogant snake to deal with and didn't
want another one.
"Uh-huh, I should feel honored?" he asked in a joking and teasing

tone. She still failed to realize his sarcasm, unlike Evan.
"Why wouldn't you feel that way?" asked Victoria with a smaller
smile on her face than before.
"I pass, you're not good enough to teach me how to cultivate or,
anything for that matter"
The moment these words left his mouth, the whole stadium went
dead silent and in Evan's eyes, he looked far more arrogant and
narcissistic than Victoria. After hearing him, her face reddened in
anger as she started to tremble in anger.
"How dare you!" Victoria shouted extremely aggressively in an ice-

cold tone.
"Can we just fight and get this over with?"
Micheal shook his head without minding her throwing a temper

tantrum and asked Evan.
" Who do you think you are? Today I will break your arrogance
and your body," the flaming phoenix behind her opened its mouth
and breathed a stream of illusionary fire. And then immediately,
her entire body was covered with a magnificent golden light
looking like rays of the sun. This magnificent view stunned the
eyes of the people in the crowd.
"Flaming Phoenix, how awesome!" said the crowd, amazed. At

that moment, Victoria's body looked majestic and radiated a divine
aura around her.
"Evan Clarke, I will defeat you first and show who's the real genius
of our generation." her long hair was fluttering in the air and
coupled with the golden aura which had surrounded her body. The
eyes of the crowd sparkled at the sight of her.
"And then I will deal with you"
She didn't even look at Micheal as now all of her focus was on
Evan and the white tiger.
"Might of Phoenix"
"Supreme Slap"
She made an incredibly loud noise as Evan saw that she was
about to attack, he did the same and started an attack with a loud
shout. He didn't think that his majestic tiger spell was going to be
weaker than her flaming phoenix spell.
However, when they were both going to be at each other's throats,

a bolt of lightning passed right between them breaking their
confrontation.
"You two should attack me at once, I don't want the people to think
that I only beat you because you two wasted all your energy
fighting each other"
"Human, what the f**k are you doing? Let them fight each other
and then we can beat the last one standing"
For a moment, everyone in the stadium stopped moving and

looked like statues hearing him. Logically speaking, he should
have let Evan and Victoria fight first and tried to defeat the one
standing because the last one standing would have wasted most
of their strength defeating the other and wouldn't have much
strength to fight him.
Yet, he stopped them and asked them to attack him together and
they looked at him like they were looking at the dumbest person
on the planet.
"You're the weirdest human I've ever met!"
***************
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY WONDERFUL READERS!!!!
I MUST TELL YOU THAT YOU GUYS & GALS ARE THE BEST!!!
HAVE A PIECE OF YUMMY CAKE AND HOT CHOCOLATE
MICHEAL & GAYA WILL MEET YOU MORE OFTEN FROM

JANUARY!!!
PS>>>>>>DON'T FORGET TO WRITE A REVIEW AND

SUPPORT MY HARD WORK!!
Chapter 34 - Final Fight III
"Hahaha, are you kidding me? I started to respect you when you
step on the 100th step, but it seems like you let that get to your
head and turned into more like her, with your level, you'll never be
able to withstand any of my attacks" Evan Clarke sneered at
Micheal and looked offended by him when he asked to attack him
together.
"Really?" he asked indifferently and noticed the white tiger behind

him growing bigger and bigger. The power the white tiger radiated
made the people watching the scene shiver, but he was pretty
calm and cool.
Sensing the colossal oppressing straight coming from the White

tiger, Victoria waited to see how Ghost was going to defend
himself and until now he didn't take his weapon out.
"Wrath of Tiger"
Evan shouted and punched the air in the direction where Micheal
is standing as the tiger leaped at him.
"Lightning dash"
Looking at the tiger coming in his direction, he calmly activated

the lightning dash skill and moved towards Evan like a lightning
bolt. The lightning dash skill reminded him of the famous Dc
character flash as the skill made him the flash of this world.
Although he couldn't compare to the actual speed of flash, the
level 1 lightning dash made him run at an insane speed as many
people could only see a bolt of lightning whenever he activated
the skill.
In a few seconds, after he disappeared from where he was

standing, the tiger's gigantic paw hit the place and emitted an
extremely loud explosion.
"BOOOOOOM!"
Evan Clarke's facial expression immediately changed as he

sensed he struck nothing but the empty ground and felt a mild
pain on his throat like he was bitten by an ant.
"What happened?"
"How is he still alive?"
When the white tiger's figure faded away after the attack, the
crowd saw Ghost was still standing there without realizing that he
had already moved and attacked Evan.
When Micheal saw that Evan Clarke Hao had a bewildered look
on his face, he said while smiling coldly, "You lost"
The crowd was confused when he said that but Victoria and Evan
realized the meaning of his word.
"I..."
A small cut on Evan's throat started to become visible and blood

leaked out from his throat. If the cut was a few more inches deep,
he would have died, and thinking about this, he shuddered in fear.

Celina and the three prodigies standing on the top saw what
happened more clearly than Victoria and the crowd due to their
higher cultivation level. They knew that Evan's reaction speed was
much slower and if Ghost wanted to kill him, he would have killed
him.
"I lost"
After realizing that Ghost spared his life, Evan admitted the loss
right away with dignity and jumped down the stage without looking
at anyone. Micheal could only sigh in his heart as he just lost a
huge amount of experience due to the system's warning about
killing Evan.
And Evan admitting his defeat right away was a little anticlimactic
for him because Micheal had thought he would admit arrogantly
and refuse to back down which could have resulted in more fight
and more badass points.
"Why did he say he lost?"
"What did I miss?"
"Idiot, look at his throat, can you see he was bleeding and who do
you think could have done that?"
The crowd slowly started to guess what happened when they

noticed the blood leaking out of Evan's throat and swallowed a
mouth full of saliva looking at Ghost.
"How fast!"
"What kind of spell did he use?"
They used to think that even though Micheal proved himself in the
battle with Orion, most of them still didn't think he would be
stronger than Evan and Victoria in terms of actual battle prowess.
However, at this moment, they really thought that he was stronger

than both of them.
Elder Miles and the people of the Sunrise sect were also watching
Micheal and started to think very highly of him. They had thought
that Micheal wasn't that strong before but after seeing what just
happened to Evan, they realized how ignorant they had been.
"Even though we don't know him well, he's obviously a real

genius. He must have been gifted ever since his birth. With him as
our disciple, we really have a shot at reviving our sect again" First
time in a long time Elder Mark breathed a sigh of relief and he
really believed they could use him to revive their declined sect.
"You rely on your speed too much, and if you think you can do the
same thing you did to Evan, you are going to be disappointed"
Victoria sounded arrogant and self-confident again. She had

recovered from her previous emotions. Relying on her rare
flaming phoenix spell and a defense spell, she tried to break
Micheal's confidence.
"Speed? I don't need to rely on the speed to defeat you, you're

thinking yourself too highly"
Just as everyone was thinking he would do the same to Victoria,

he raised both hands as several bolts of lightning and a huge blast
of wind appeared in front of him.
"Flame of phoenix"
Victoria's pupils were suddenly dilated as she quickly shouted.

The phoenix above her breathed a hot stream of fire and clashed
with his lightning bolts and wind blast.
But when the fire met the wind blast, it was pushed away from him
and put off in a few seconds. As for the lightning bolts, it didn't
even slow down a bit as it went straight through the flames and hit
her body with enormous power. The moment the lightning bolts
plus the remnant force of the wind blast and the golden layer of
defense she had around her body clashed, a thunderous roar
spread throughout the stadium.
"BOOOM!"
Victoria groaned as she was already blown backward and looked

extremely fragile and weak. She slid back to the edge of the
fighting stage. One more step backward and she would have
fallen off.
At that moment, the crowd didn't know what was going on

anymore, they were too confused. Micheal had astonished them
too many times.
Each time Micheal moved, they found him amazing, but each
time, they also realized they had been underestimating him. It
seemed like his strength was ever-increasing. None of them
couldn't guess the depth of his powers. At this exact moment, he
bested two of the superstars of the younger generations quickly
and easily.
They remembered how they had thought that either Evan Clarke
or Victoria Parker was definitely going to win this competition and
had put no one else in their eyes.
The crowd was not the only one to think that way. Alex and
Celina, but especially the latter, when she first met him, he was
such a weakling and never even reached the Body refining stage.
He was barely able to escape her using some weird spell, at that
point, she only thought he obtained these spells through luck.
When he was put up to fight with Evan and Victoria, she had
never imagined that he would easily beat them.
"What a freak of nature"
Sadie's eyes widened looking at him and she was glad that he
made a deal to save her junior considering even Evan and
Victoria were defeated so easily by him.
"Do you still think you have the talent to teach me?" said Micheal
while walking towards her as he blatantly humiliated her. Micheal
was filled with annoyance because of this arrogant girl's behavior
but what enraged Micheal the most was, that this girl didn't show a
shred of respect towards anyone. In her mind, she thought she
was superior to everyone and expected others to worship and
respect her. He couldn't stand this arrogant and haughty girl who
didn't even withstand a single attack from him.
For the first time in her entire life, she was starting to feel
ashamed of herself when she remembered what she had said.
She felt like she was made a clown in front of all these people.
"Join your sect, meet you now and then, who do you think you
are? What made you think that I would ever want to meet you?"
Micheal continued to talk and made her understand how ridiculous
she was and that she had no right to be arrogant. Victoria had the
feeling that her face was burning. She had no words to speak to
refute back at him.
The crowd hadn't been so excited as at that moment. He gradually

was showing more and more strength, he was gradually becoming
more and more awesome. At first, he shocked the entire stage by
stepping on the 100th step and creating a new record, and now,
he had bested the two prodigies without breaking a sweat.
"There's a fine line between arrogance and confidence, think

about it"
The crowds looked forward to what he was going to do as he

stepped closer to Victoria and stood only a step away from her.
"Ah!"
Just like in the movies, Micheal Sparta kicked her on the chest
and sent her flinging from the stage.
"Sister Victoria!"
The disciples from the Golden Valley boys and girls rushed at her
and caught her without letting her hit the ground.
"He won!"
"He WON!"
"GHOST!"
The crowd erupted in cheers and filled the stadium with the sound
of their thunderous claps as Micheal stood there alone on the
battle stage.
The four prodigies from the top saw Victoria's unconscious body
and sighed because this was the first time the rewards were going
to another sect other than their three big sects.
"Brother Ghost won!"

"Sect leader Claire, Elders, he won!"
Just as the disciples of the Sunrise sect became excited, they saw
Celine throwing a small ring to Ghost from standing on the top.
"The rewards are in the space ring"
After she said that, she and Alex didn't even come down as they
flew away on their flying swords while Adam nodded at him and
left with them.
The only person who came down to the stage was Sadie
"The gold coins of our little deal are also in that space ring, keep it
safe and congratulations on your victory, Ghost"
"Thank you, Miss Kaplan, see you later, after all this, I need a long
nap"
He was obviously the biggest winner of this competition, an

unknown rogue cultivator who appeared as a dark horse,
defeating all the disciples from the three big sects and taking first
place in the first round as well as the second round. He had now
become truly famous and the name Ghost would soon be spread
across the entire Bredia kingdom, and everyone would know his
name.
"Congratulations to master Ghost for taking first place in Heaven's

gate competition, We'll be leaving first but if the master Ghost has
time in the future, you're always welcome to visit the SilverMoon
and we will personally give you a VIP treatment"
Hannah Berry let out an alluring smile and started to flirt with him.
"This bitch disgusts me!"
Gaya shouted angrily and the way she shouted was definitely not
the way she shouts at Micheal.
As she said, she and the rest of the SilverMoon students left the
square and considering he did not belong to the three big sects,
none of the disciples from the three sects remained any longer.
Please join my discord server to share your ideas and
thoughts(also you get to see Micheal and the characters' photos
~~
https://discord.gg/zTgYV9x7gZ
Chapter 35 - We Can Cuddle
At the end of it all, only the people from the Sunrise sect were still
staying.
"Brother Ghost! You really did it"
Compared to the boys, the girls were more excited as they

surrounded him like the ants around the sugar.
Elder Mark put his hand on Micheal's shoulder and gave a nod of
appreciation.
"System, transfer Thirty-five thousand gold from the ring to the

storage"
[Ding! Transfer successful]
"I should give this to you"
After transferring the amount he received from Sadie, he gave the

ring to sect leader Claire. At first, she looked reluctant to take the
ring but after looking at the other elders, she took the ring from
him.
"No offense but just don't ask me to wear these orange uniforms
because those are fugly "
Haha...
All the disciples from the sect burst into laughter hearing him
because they themselves knew the orange uniforms were far too
ugly and it was good to hear someone openly saying this to the
elders. Since the elders were in a good mood, they too laughed
and the atmosphere became very lively.
"First, we should return to the sect and settle some of our debt"
Elder Sandra sighed.
*************************
At the moment, Micheal was following the elders to the sect

through a rural road and his black robes had a tint of brown due to
the dust.
"Brother Ghost, you never told us where you came from?"
One of the girls asked him curiously.
"Well, since I was born, I never stayed in the same place for long,
I like to travel, so I can't give a direct answer to your question"
"What about your parents, Brother Ghost?"
"I don't have any"
Even though he answered this question too many times while he

was growing up, it still hurt him to say it again. A sudden change
appeared in their faces when they heard him.
"I'm sorry, Brother Ghost"
"Don't be, it's alright"
His gentle smile made the girl quickly forget about this and
because of his easy-going behavior, they felt comfortable around
him and established a good relationship with him.
"Young man, then how did you cultivate to this point? Those spells
you used looked extremely rare and precious" Elder Miled joined
the conversation and asked.
"As I said, Elder Mark, I traveled a lot, met many people, explored
many ruins. Since I don't have anyone to teach me or help me in
the cultivation path, I have to do all that not to waste my talents"
"Worry not anymore young man, even though we don't have many
resources to provide you, we can teach you and guide you on the
right path"
Elder Mark proudly said as he patted on his back. All disciples of

the Sunrise felt proud looking at him, almost putting him on top of
this world.
None of them were idiots, especially after witnessing what he was

capable of. For such a freak of nature like him, even if he was in
the three big sects, he would be amongst the top disciples, and
the sect's management would put a lot of focus on him. Besides,
after today's competition, his name would spread across the
Bredia Kingdom, so he was now a superstar of the younger
generation.
Since now even the worst of the outer disciples of the three big
sects ridicule them and their sect as well as bully them whenever
they could. However with him as their core disciple which the
elders would surely make him as one, they had the means to walk
head high in front of those who mocked them.
"And don't think that you don't have a family, young man, as Elder
Miles said, we don't have resources but we treat everyone in our
sect as our family and now you have become one of us"
Elder Sandra slightly brushed his head like a mother and smiled at
him. For the first time in his long life, his heart felt warm as he
smiled.
He had quite a good impression of the people in the sect. They

were poor in wealth but very rich in kindness. Although he was
once the greatest assassin slash hitman ever lived on the earth,
he was a lonely man as he had no family, no friends, no girlfriend,
and no one even saw his real face except for his mentor. All he
had was his job and a shit load of money in his offshore accounts
and affection towards his job.
But in this life, he wanted to change that. He wanted relatives, he

wanted a wife, and he wanted some people to rely on and friends.
In this life, he simply didn't want to be lonely.
"We must guide him to reach higher levels of cultivation, Alex and
Celina wouldn't let go of the fact he refused to back down and
stood side by side on the top of the stairs"
Elder Mark said worriedly while walking. Everyone's happy

expression turned gloomy, even Elder Miles furrowed his brows.
"Don't worry about them Elder Mark, it's just a matter of time
before I surpass them and then if they cross my path, I'll kill them "
He said with a casual smile but the disciples noticed the

murderous intent in his eyes and felt a little afraid.
********************
Micheal and the Sunrise sect disciples were talking along the way
until they finally reached their destination.
SunRise Sect used to be an extremely prestigious and strong sect

several decades ago. It was even more prestigious and powerful
than the three big sects at its peak. However, since Claire's
grandfather died during one of his adventures and the previous
sect Leader, her father disappeared, the entire sect's prestige fell
drastically.
Claire relied on her extraordinary innate talents and the scarce

amount of resources at her disposal to cultivate up to her current
stage. In just a short span of 26 years, she reached the Body
refining stage and took the helm of the Sect Leader position after.
The entire SunRise Sect relied heavily on her and the pair of Sect
Elders to uphold the entire sect. Their days were difficult and
rough and the minute he stepped through the gates of the sect,
their poor situation became obvious to his eyes.
Many of the buildings he had seen were broken down and old. It
was clear that it had been many years since their last renovation.
Several backyards were full of dried leaves and the numerous
cobwebs show how long it's been uncared for.
During their conversation, the disciples told him that the total
number of disciples within the sect was around 30. Next to him,
the strongest disciples were at the Foundation stage level 8. And
the rest of them were below foundation stage level 5.
Since the sun was almost down and he was pretty tired, sect
leader Claire gave him their best house with a yard to live in.
At this point, he was already at the first level of the Body refining
Stage. But he only needed three or four days to reach level 5 of
the Body refining stage with the experience points on hold.
"Brother Ghost, it's not much but this is the best house we got"
The disciple called Jack led him to an old worn-out house and
according to him, it was their best house.
"If this is their best house, just imagine what the other house
would look like, even my maids wouldn't stay in there"
Gaya growled looking at the dried front lawn and the old house
behind it.
Jack looked embarrassed but Michael smiled and gave a small

pat on his shoulder.
"Its okay Jack, this is good enough for me"
With a smile and nod, Jack left him on the lawn as he sighed and
entered the house. The house had a small hall and a room with an
attached bathhouse and that was it, there wasn't even any
furniture to sit on except the old bed in the room.
"Look at that, the tour ended before even it begins"
Gaya jumped out of his body and kicked the pebble lying on the
ground.
"We can renovate the place later, but for now"
As he said, he entered the system shop and purchased a huge

white sofa, a small-sized golden silk bed along with high-end
blankets, and placed them all around the room.
"What the f**k? Where did you get those? You carry these in your
space ring everywhere"
Her eyes sparkled looking at the sofa and the bed in front of her.
She wanted to jump into the fluffy bed considering it was too long
since she ever laid on a bed.
Before Gaya, he jumped into the bed as an evil grin appeared on

his face thinking of a new way to tease her.
"Come on, don't be shy, the bed is small so we can sleep while
cuddling each other, hehe "
"You..."
Gaya became extremely furious and shocked as she stared at

him. After stuttering for a few minutes, she couldn't find a fitting
word to curse him.
As a princess and a powerful cultivator of Nagaland, she had

never been shamelessly hit on like this before. And what made
her even more furious way the way he asked her.
"You f**king f**kery f**ker!"
She leaped at him with mouth open like a wild dog to bite him. Yet,
he moved to the side as she landed face-first on the bed and
when she turned around, he was on top of her.
"YOU!"
She tried to shout but her throat tightened and face turned red
because this was the first time she had been this close to a man.
She swallowed a mouthful of saliva and looked at his eyes while
her heart started to punch against her chest as she could feel the
heat coming from his nose and sense the fragrance of his face.
"What...are...you"
She was powerless and she knew if he wanted to take advantage
of her, there was no stopping it.
"Jeez, would it kill you to apply some makeup!?"
As he asked, he moved to the side as she was frozen by his

comment for a moment.
"AH!"
Micheal suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hand and looked at his
arm to see she was furiously biting it in anger like a little girl.
"Did you at least brush your teeth?"
"I'll...ka...ll...yo..."
She became even more furious when she heard him and put more
strength to bite his hand.
***********************
Micheal laid down on the bed as he stared out of the window,

watching the beautiful moon, and the beautiful girl on the sofa
before him. The light from the moon reflected on her figure and
made her look extraordinarily beautiful. Even if she tried to dress
as a ghost to scare him, it would have been impossible due to
how beautiful she is.
"Hey"
"What?"
After what happened on the bed, there was a tint of shyness in

her eyes but she masked it with an annoyed expression.
"I'm going to break through, so you have to keep anyone from

disrupting my cultivation" Micheal sat upright and said.
"This soon? You just had reached the Body refining stage two
days ago!"
She frowned and didn't believe he could breakthrough again but
after spending time with him, she knew this freak of nature might
be telling the truth.
"Cultivation is a walk in the park for a talented person like me"
He winked at her. Gaya had never met a more narcissistic self-

praising human like him before as he now looked like the
definition of pride.
"What can I do? Bite whoever comes knocking? You have to give
me something to get back some of my power" For a moment she
resembled a sly fox. As for what she meant by something, he
knew she wants a healing pill to heal her meridians.
"Here, you greedy snake"
He already bought one pill from the shop as he threw it at her.
"Only one?!"
She growled when she realized he only gave her one pill and at
this rate, it would take at least two hundred more pills to
completely repair her broken meridians and start cultivating.
"One now and do this successfully, I'll give you two pills "
"Four pills"
Gaya raised four fingers and bargained
"Three pills"
"Deal"
She proudly smiled praising her bargaining talent and suddenly

she remembered something.
"Why didn't you ask those old f**kers to do this?"
"I forgot it and it's too late to knock on their doors"

Chapter 36 - Upgrade (Mini )
And just when he was about to close his eyes and start upgrading
his cultivation, he heard Gaya's shout.
"Human, I just remembered that I can't show my face to anyone, if

someone saw im here, the whole Nagaland army would be here
along with that bitch"
"Jeez, I have to take care of everything for you and you didn't
even give me a kiss on the cheek"
Micheal rolled his eyes and said like he was really disappointed
with her.
"Stop playing, human! this is serious, you want me to protect you

or what"
"System, do you have something for this situation?"
Hearing her dilemma, she sighed and entered the system to see if
he could find anything that could solve this problem. And after a
few seconds, a marble face mask appeared before his eyes.
Name: Chameleon
Class: Rare
Function: Enable the wearer to change their face to look like

someone else
(Cultivators above or at the Soul refining stage would see through

the effects of the mask)
Cost: 800 badass points

[Does the host wish to buy the Chameleon?]
[Only the host and the subordinates can use the Chameleon!]
"Yes, I'll buy it"
Since now he had a lot of badass points to spend, he bought the

mask without growling at the system.
"What is that?"
Gaya saw the marble mask in his eyes and frowned but without
answering her question, he tossed the mask towards her.
"Wear it"
"But"
The marble mad didn't look very special but it did look ugly in her
eyes, so she was reluctant to wear this ugly thing on her face
thinking that he's asking her to hide her identity by wearing it on
her face.
"Just wear the damn thing!"
But before she could make her case, he raised his voice slightly
as she decided to put the mask on and curse him afterward.
However, the moment the mask touched her face, it came to life
and stuck onto her face as she felt a sharp pain all over her face.
"AH!"
She screamed in pain and tried to peel the mask away from her
face but she couldn't. After a few seconds, the pain disappeared
and opened her eyes to see the human was holding a mirror in
front of her.
"Now better"
The mask had completely changed her face and lowered her
beauty by many notches but even then, she looked pretty and hot
as she even slightly looked like Margot Robbie with black hair.
"How?! Where?! Forget it"
Looking at a new face staring back at her in the mirror, she ran
her fingers through her face. In her mind, she felt like she could
transform back into her old self and wondered where he got such
a precious item.
And when she finished looking at her face, he placed his knife on
her hands and said
"Use this only if you absolutely have to"
"Okay"
He didn't want to take any chances and after consuming the pill,
she would regain some of her powers and with the Knife, she
could hold the fort until he woke up. And settling everything with
her, he jumped on the bed and sat crossed legs to start the
upgrading process.
"Let's start"
**********************
Chapter 37 - Gaya As
Bodyguard
Early morning mist began to clear as the sun rose casting orange
and pink onto a thin layer of cloud. The lively chirping of the early
birds filled the air.
"Brother Ghost would have woken by now, I need to hurry"
At this moment, a pair of legs rushed forward hurriedly in the

direction of the lone house in the mountain.
He was no one but Jack, the disciple who settled down Michael
and Gaya yesterday. Usually, Jack would feel tired if he ran from
his dorms to the core disciple house, however, today he felt
energetic. The number one genius of his generation now
belonged to the Sunrise sect which catapulted their reputation
among the sects.
"Why is the door still closed?"
Reaching Micheal's house, Jack halted his steps to catch his

breath and wondered looking at the closed doors.
Knock!
Jack knocked on the door but he was careful not to knock too
loudly in case it would disturb Ghost's cultivation.
"Brother Ghost"
There was no reply from inside as Jack knocked again and this
time, he increased the sound of his knocking.
"Brother Ghost"
"Who the fuck is there?"
Jack almost jumped back when an annoyed voice came from

inside.
"Huh?!"
A few seconds after his brain processed the voice, he realized the
voice sounded feminine and nothing like Ghost.
"Brother Ghost?"
I must have misheard it, that's what he thought.
Thud!
"Go away!"
Jack heard the same voice again and this time, the voice sounded
even more annoyed as he heard something heavy as a stone
hitting the door.
"Who is there?!"
Panic and uncertainty hit Jack's core. He clenched his fist and
shouted loudly.
"Fucking idiot, I'm gonna beat your ass for disturbing my sleep!"
Jack quickly stepped back from the door as the door opened to
reveal a black hair girl staring at him furiously.
He had no idea how the girl got in or who was she?
All he knew was Ghost came alone with them yet, there was
another girl inside his house.
"Who...are..you?"
The girl didn't answer him but stared at him while tying her ruffled
hair into a ponytail. Nonetheless, he could tell that the girl is
annoyed but he subconsciously relaxed seeing that the girl is just
a commoner and not a cultivator.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Wait..what?...you!"
Jack couldn't believe what he had just heard. He never thought a

delicately beautiful girl like this would have such a foul mouth.
For a moment, he had no responses as the girl walked towards

him.
"Cat got your tongue? Why did you wake me up this early, you
little shit? "
Jack was still in shock when Gaya flicked his forehead to make
him talk
"Who are you? What are you doing in Brother Ghost's room?"
After a few seconds, Jack was able to speak these words while
caressing his forehead
"Me? I'm your Brother Ghost's mentor, you ignorant fool"
"Hahahaha"
However, Jack couldn't help but burst into laughter when he heard
the girl. The girl before him spoke these words with a straight face
and didn't even bat an eye speaking such a huge lie. She was
shameless beyond words.
How could a mortal girl who is at the Arch sensing stage teach a
genius like Ghost? The Arch energy in her body was too weak
and even some newborn babies would have more Arch energy
inside their bodies than her.
"What the fuck?!"
Gaya didn't expect such a reaction from this boy, she knew that
she had blatantly lied but he didn't have to rub it in her face like
this.
"You mentor...Brother Ghost..hahaha, AH!"
His laughter suddenly turned into a scream as he felt a sharp pain

across his butt.
He turned to see the girl holding a long stick in her hand and
swinging at him with full force and before he could react, he
received another attack
Chit!
"Damn! Stop AH!"
For a girl who had no Arch energy or rather too little energy, her
moves were too quick and swift.
In a few seconds, his butt suffered five or six attacks and he

started to fiercely stroke his rear disregarding his pride as a man
in front of a beautiful girl.
"Stop it! Ouch ouch!"
Gaya wasn't going to stop beating his ass, no matter how loud he
shouted.
"Don't make ouch...me hit you!"
His eyes already welled up and his butt turned red but still, he was
taught not to hit a girl, outside of serious battles and tournaments,
especially not a mortal girl like her.
"Hit me and I'll make Ghost rip your throat out"
"At least AH! Tell me...who you..are"
Since he didn't want to take any chance by hitting her, Jack did
the next best thing, dodge, and ran away from the reach of her
stick.
"I told you, I'm his mentor"

"But?"
"What's going on here?!"
Just as Gaya was chasing Jack around with the stick in her hand,
Elder Mark came to the scene.
"Jack, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!"
He shouted and felt extremely wronged here considering this girl

kept attacking him with the stick for no reason, he was the victim
here, yet, Elder Mark asked what did he do?
"Teacher, I didn't do anything, I came to bring Brother Ghost to the

assembly hall but instead of Brother Ghost, I saw this mortal girl
coming out of the house"
"Mortal? How dare you?!"
She shouted in anger but didn't try to attack Jack who was hiding
behind Elder Mark.
"Girl, who are you?"
"I'm Ghost's friend"
"Friend?! You said..."
"Let the girl speak Jack"
Jack quickly shut his mouth but he was so angry and shocked
seeing the honest expression she made while talking to Elder
Mark.
"Where is Ghost?"
Elder Mark however seemed not to care about Jack's protest as

he asked Gaya.
"He's attempting to break through, he asked me to don't let
anyone disturb him but Jack tried to do exactly that"
"She's lying!"
"Breakthrough? This soon!"
Elder Mark's brows almost touched his head when he heard Gaya
and forgot about the ruckus that happened between her and Jack
a moment ago.
"Yes"
But soon, Elder MArk's reaction changed from shocked to panic

as he tried to rush forward into the house.
"Hey! Stop"
Gaya jumped in front of him and stopped Elder Mark from taking
any steps further
"Girl move aside, if he tried to prematurely tried to break through,it

will hinder his cultivation in the future, he must first strengthen his
cultivation base"
Even after hearing Elder Mark, Gaya didn't move an inch as she
put both her hands on the hip and said.
"I don't care about that, he asked me to guard him while he's
cultivating, that's what I'm going to do. Besides, that freak wouldn't
have entered into the breaking through process if he wasn't sure
about this. Leave him be "
"What do you, a mortal girl know about cultivation? Move or I'll

move you"
Elder Mark threatened Gaya as she took out the knife Micheal
gave her angrily
"Who the fuck are you talking to? I know more about cultivation
than you old fart!"
Chapter 38 - Upgrade
Completed
"What did you just call me?" Elder Mark froze in his steps as
Jack's jaw dropped down in shock.
"I said you can't go in there and disturb Ghost, he strictly ordered
me not to let anyone inside" Gaya feared if he failed to
breakthrough, Ghost would refuse to give her any more pills, so
she stood before Elder Mark like a stone pillar refusing to let Elder
Mark go inside.
"How am I going to hold this old man back?" She thought to

herself while Elder Mark was stunned. If she had her cultivation,
she would have sent Elder Mark flying with a single spell but now,
she was crippled and the only reason for her body to have a little
Arch energy was the pills that Ghost gave her.
"How dare you disrespect my teacher?!" Jack clenched his fist

and roared at her.
"Look, he's deep in cultivation and already started to break

through. If you stop him now, it might break his meridians and
cripple him, you know that " She reduced the volume of her tone
and explained it to Elder MArk before he cast a spell to throw her
out of the way. In front of Gaya, when Elder Mark heard her
words, he sighed because he knew she was right. Also, he didn't
decide to pursue the matter that she just called him an old fart as
he didn't want to lower himself to argue with the mortal girl with his
status as an Elder.
"What's your name, girl? And how do you know Ghost?" Since he
couldn't stop Ghost's cultivation, Elder Mark turned his focus to
the haughty girl before him and tried to get to know Ghost better.
"Pri..." She almost forgot her place and introduced herself as
Princess but she quickly swallowed the remaining words and
cleared her throat.
"I'm called Aelia, I help Ghost in his cultivation by finding him ruins
and places to explore" Her words made Elder Mark slightly raise
his brows but when he remembered Ghost's previous claim saying
that he explored ruins and places, what she just said made sense.
"When did you come here? I didn't see you at the competition"
"I was in the river town packing our stuff to move here, speaking
of the river town, Ghost wanted Jack's help with something " She
slowly turned her gaze from Elder Mark to Jack as Elder Mark
asked frowning
"What is it?"
"He asked Jack to go to river town and bring Raylene Agner"
"Who is that?"
"She's one of the survivors we rescued from the Rosewood

village"
*************************
(After two days)

stage is Body Refining stage Level 2]



Slowly, the interface appeared before Michael as the darkness
that surrounded him since he started to upgrade faded away.
"Finally"
He heaved a sigh of relief looking at the interface as he ordered

the system to bring him the status window.
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage, level 5
Badass Points: 15000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Responsive Shield - LVL 2
Environment Scanning - LVL 1
Ignitia - LVL 1
Lightning Dash - LVL 1
Energy Devouver - LVL 1
Occupation: Disciple of Sunrise sect
Status: Healthy
Goals: Be the strongest Predator in the world
[DIng! Host 'Micheal' has received a lucky draw. Does the Host
wish to access the lucky draw? ]
While he was looking at the refined status window, another
notification tab in bright blue appeared before him.
"Lucky Draw? What is that?"
[Every time System goes offline for a while, the system would offer
one Lucky draw as compensation for its absence!]
"Cool, I like free stuff, open it"
As he said, the bright blue tab transformed itself into a golden box
and then, the box exploded with sparks as it presented three
cards wrapped in red ribbon before him.
[The host can choose one item for free. 200,000 badass points
will be charged for each additional card!]
"Holy shit! 200,000, are you kidding me?!"
[No]
"It was a rhetorical question, you bastard"
The number made him go mad at the system but he soon calmed
himself and inspected the first card. The red ribbon on the first
card unwrapped itself and presented a beating heart with
descriptions about the card.
Spell name: Seducer
Effect: Make the target instantly fall in love with the host
Upgradable: Yes
Current Level: Can affect anyone under the Core Formation stage
"Seriously?! I don't need this, system are you playing with me?!"
He was annoyed by the spell and would have punched the system
in the face if it had a physical body.
[The spell would be useful if the host wants to build a harem of
beautiful maidens!]
"Harem?! It's a glorified word for cheating and no, I don't want to
go from place to place collecting beauties. In every novel I read,
harem would just bring the mc more troubles to deal with, so no,
I'm not going to build a harem"
Pushing the card away from his view, he opened the second one
hoping for something better than the previous one.
[100,000 Experience points]
The second card had no fancy effects such as beating hearts or

sparkling pink letters like the previous card rather it looked simple
as a card with 100,000 numbers written on it.
"Hmm, tempting, certainly better than the Seducer. Let me see the
last one"
The red ribbon wrapping the third and the final card unwrapped
itself as the descriptions about the card appeared.
Function name: Banker
Function: Enable the System to convert gold coins into Badass

Points
Upgradable: Yes
Current Level: Conversion Rate between Gold coins and Badass

points = 1000:1
He blinked in disbelief as his eyes opened wide looking at the

card. Then, after a few seconds, his lips curved in an upward arc
"This is it! The one I've been waiting for. With this, I can earn
badass points more easily"
His joy seeing the card made him ignore the outrageous
conversion rate and also, he knew that the system won't change
the rate because he's whining about it.
"System, I choose this one"
[Ding, The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Banker]
"Awesome, System how much to upgrade this function to the next

level?"
[10,000 Badass points!]
"And the conversion rate will be?"
[1000:5]
"You're worse than those in the pawnshops, System, you know

that right?"
Even though he knew about the System's habit of taking his

badass points faster than it gives him, he couldn't help but curse
the system when he saw the conversion rate for the Level 2
Banker which would cost him 10,000 badass points to upgrade
from Level 1.
"Put a lid on the upgrade, first I should find a source of income. To

do that, I might need badass points"
He closed the Lucky draw window and then, he took a final glance
at his status window
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2

Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy
Goals: Be the strongest Predator in the world
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 1 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 1badass

point(s))
"Time to rock this world"
He exited the system full of excitement in his heart. At this

moment, his next fun-filled adventure started again.
Chapter 39 - Guest Of Sunrise
Sect
The bright sun rays made him close his eyes as soon as he
opened them.
"It's great to be back" He turned his head left and right as his neck
made a popping sound. Then he brushed away some dust bits on
his shoulder and got up from the bed to leave the room.
Hisss! Grrrr!
Ggggrrr!
"What is that noise?" He heard some weird noises coming from

outside as he made his way out to see what's making these weird
noises while looking for Gaya.
It didn't take him long to locate the source of the noise and find
Gaya. It turned out his couch was occupied by the snake. She
was sleeping on the couch like a drunken old man as her one leg
was on the couch while the other was on the ground. He could
see her knee cups and wide opened mouth, his pillows were
drenched in drool. Besides her ungirly posture, there were half
licked clean food bowls and cups lying around. He could tell that
this snake-filled its belly full of food and drinks before going to
sleep on his couch.
"Princess my ass" Looking at the snoring and drooling snake, he

sighed.
"Ignitia"
He conjured a tiny bolt of lightning as he sneaked towards her to

give her a shock treatment, literally.
Gaya on the other hand had no idea of the incoming attack as she
was walking towards her throne in the dream.
Bzzhh!
"AHHH!"
And just when she was about to sit on her throne in the dream,
she was pulled back from the dream world by a sharp tingling pain
in her leg.
"What?! YOU!" She gritted her teeth and quickly rubbed her feet
to make the tingling pain go away as Michael chuckled.
"Did you miss me?" Instead of answering, she threw an empty

bowl at him in anger as he flicked the bowl away with a smile.
"What the?! You reached the Body Refining, Level 5? How?!"

when she took a closer look at him, her mind froze in shock. He
just reached the Body refining stage two days ago but now in two
days, he leaped from level 1 to level 5.
"It seems like you had a good time" She saw him glancing at the
empty bows and cups lying around her. Yet, she was too stunned
to say anything
"Come, we have work to do" he didnt wait for her as he walked

towards the door and stopped, "And clean your mess," said
Micheal before stepping outside.
"Im a princess, you bastard" she mumbled under her breathe but
she reluctantly cleaned the bits of food on the couch while cursing
him.
"Brother!"
A fluffy ball collided with him the moment he stepped outside as

he looked down to see Cindy hugging his leg and trying to climb
up on his body.
"Cindy? What are you doing here?" he lifted the girl up and ruffled
her head playfully.
"Brother, everyone is here. That kind sister invited us here"
"Who?" Cindy tried to remember the name closing her eyes as he

saw the other kids and Raylene came running to him.
"Brother"
"Young master! You're awake"
In a few seconds, the little kids swarmed him like ants swarm
sugar.
"Raylene, what are you guys doing here?"
"Sect leader Claire brought us here and offered us a place here to

permemntly settle down, young master"
"She did?" he was genuinely surprised by Raylene's words as the

kids nodded their heads.
"Young master, what should we do?" asked Raylene.
"Brother, please can we stay with you?" the little girl looked at him
with puppy eyes while Michael thought about this arrangement.
"It's indeed better if they stay here," Michael said to himself and
then turned his gaze away from Cindy to Raylene.
"Make yourself home, Raylene"
"Yey!" Cindy and the kids hopped in joy as he gave Cindy back to
her mother.
"I'll see you guys later" he then turned towards the house and saw
Gaya finally making her appearance.
"Come, let's go meet the Elders" He took Gaya and walked

towards the direction of a group of two-story buildings.
"How long was I cultivating?" On their way, he asked Gaya.

"Three days, you freak of nature. Now give me the pills you
promised"
"Deal's a deal, here, you greedy snake" he already bought and

stored the pills in the system's storage, so he quickly retrieved the
pills and gave them to her.
"You're drooling" he made fun of her as she looked at the pills like
a starved dog looking at a piece of meat. She grabbed the pills in
a flash and swallowed them with a huge grin.
"You're happy?"
"Yes, but don't you have bigger pills?"
"She who is greedy is always in want," he said as he knocked the

back of her head.
"Ouch, you bastard, where did you read that, Dumb town?"
"You mean your home town"
"Asshole"
"Bitch"
Two of them fight their way to the Elders' place where Michael
saw a fancy carriage standing outside. Surrounding the carriage,
there were a couple of men who stood guard in light blue metal
armor.
"Who are they?" Obviously, Michael knew that neither the carriage
nor the guards belonged to the Sunrise sect because the guards
and the carriage looked so distinct compared to the worn out
buildings and decayed structures of the sect.
"An alchemist's carriage," Gaya said and pointed at a symbol of

two green lives in a silver circle etched onto the carriage's side.
The guards gave them an indifferent look when they saw Michael
and Gaya as the two of them entered the building to see what's
happening inside.
This hall they were in was mainly used to receive distinguished
guests. Undoubtedly the one inside was a distinguished guest. As
Micheal reached inside, he saw a middle-aged man sitting in the
hall and drinking tea leisurely. He seemed wealthy because of the
high-quality robes, the big red gem on his finger, and the rich aura
he was radiating. His cultivation was
however not very higher as he was just at the Body strengthening

stage, level 2.
"Lord Hart"
Micheal was surprised to see the Elders calling him as Lord and
sitting on the edge of their chairs while the silver-haired man was
sitting before them like he owned the place. The reason for this
was very simple. He was a two-star Alchemist and could concoct
pills with 15-30% purity. In this world, cultivators were everywhere.
But possessing special skills such as alchemical skills and
reaching the two-star level was not common.
Even if one's cultivation realm was high, it was no guarantee that

one would possess special abilities, but with special abilities, it
would serve well the path of cultivation. Also, just possessing this
profession would definitely heighten one's status and fame.
"Lord Hart, we need your help to concoct a heart healing pill this
time, you don't need to worry regarding the price." Sect Leader
Claire walked over with a smile, her attitude was very humble.
The other three elders including Elder Mark and Miles were
keeping a small smile on their faces.
Hearing Claire, Hart said to them indifferently: "Heart healing pills

are not so easy to concoct, and the cost is not low either. I have
several conditions for this, if you don't comply, the deal is off."
"What conditions?" Claire asked: "As long as it is within our power,

we will agree"
"Actually, my conditions are very simple. The first condition is to

let my students use your herbal garden" he said.
"Umm… ok, no problem." She thought quite hard about it, but
considering their herbal garden had almost dried out and only had
a few herbs growing there, she agreed to let them use the
remaining herbs.
"The second condition, the price of the ingredients for the pills are
expensive since you agreed to my first condition, we can continue
the negotiation. As for the materials for concocting the pills, my
students will buy them but you need to pay for them"
"No problem on that as well, the price of the ingredients is

obviously expensive, but I do not know how much you need?"
"Not too much, with my fee, 5000 gold coins is enough" he

casually stated an astonishing price.
After they heard it, they were stunned, 5000 gold, this was too
expensive!
For a declined sect like theirs, five thousand gold coins were not
something they could give just like that.
Chapter 40 - Alchemists
"This price… Can you lower it a little?" Claire said embarrassedly.
Sunrise sect was not a big organization and it was declined to the
point that they would have closed the doors if it wasn't for Michael.
As for the 5000 gold coins, It was not that they didn't have that
much money, but using that much at once would hinder the
functional operation.
"This is the lowest price I can offer, Sect Leader Claire, I believe
you will understand the price of the required ingredients for the
pills and the fee of a two-star Alchemist. Buying the pills outside
will at least cost you 6000 to 7000 per pill, compared to that, the
price I offer is way cheaper."
They were all well aware of their current condition of treasury but
they needed those heart-healing pills as soon as possible, so they
could only stomach the high rate and accept the price that he
asked.
"Well, then, if that is the price you want…." Claire sighed and
nodded.
"idiots, he's clearly ripping them off" Gaya leisurely leaned on the
wall and said looking at the Elders and Claire.
"How come?"
"You didn't notice?" Gaya asked him with a slightly surprised face
as he shook his head.
"He's a two-star Alchemist yet, the price he asked is the price of a

three-star Alchemist. And 5000 gold coins are for pills with
45percent purity which is a maximum level a three-star alchemist
could reach "
Michael knew about the star levels of special abilities because
Abras learned about that stuff but when Michael searched his
brain for the prices, he realized that weird enough, Abras didn't
know about the prices of the pills.
"Do you know about the current rate for pills here?"
"Of course I knew, pills concocted by 1-star alchemist is 100 to

200 gold coins, 2-star alchemist 200 to 1000, 3-star alchemist is
1000-5000" She paused for a second and recollected the price for
the remaining alchemist levels.
"4-star alchemist's pills will be 5000-9000 gold coins as for the 5-

star alchemist, they would often take artifacts and valuable
treasures as a payment rather than gold coins, but if you want to
buy a pill concocted buy 5-star alchemist with gold coins, the price
will start at 10000"
"What about 6-star Alchemists?" He asked casually even though

according to Abras's memories, 6-star Alchemists were a myth as
no one could surpass the purity level 90%. But because Abras
had little to no contact or knew about the outside world, he
decided to ask Gaya who seemed to know everything about this
world, unlike him or Abras.
"Don't be stupid human,6-star alchemist doesn't exist, it's a myth"
"Hmm," He matched the prices Gaya described and the star level
information in his mind when Hart stated his last condition.
"My final condition is and this is the important one" Hart's voice
trailed as the Elders and Sect leader Claire curiously looked at
him.
"What is it?" her eyebrow wrinkled as this guy was really putting a
lot of conditions.
" I fell in love with someone here so I wonder if she can become
my concubine. If she says yes, I will concoct the pills for free!" The
Elders' expression changed drastically upon hearing his last
condition, this was obviously a sweet deal.
Concubines were basically mistresses and it was usual for a man
who was rich and had high status in the society to have many
concubines.
" I did not expect Lord Hart to make this request, as long as she
accepts to be your concubine, we do not object," Elder Mark said.
"Concubine my ass, he only wants to have sex with the girl and
cast her aside. I know his type " Michael sensed a tinge of disgust
in her tone as he curiously looked at Hart to see who that girl is.
"I agree with Elder Mark, as long as she accepts to be your

concubine, I have no problem, but who is your choice?" Claire
asked with patience
"It's you, Sect Leader Claire, I want you to be my concubine," Hart

said with a smile.
"I knew it!" Gaya almost shouted when she heard him as Michael
too raised his brows in surprise. He didn't intervene as he wanted
to hear Claire's answer but he entered into the system's interface
to turn this situation in his favor.
"System, tell me you have a way to make me an Alchemist"
[The System recommends the host to buy the book of Alchemist

in the system store]
"If I buy that, what star level would I reach?"
[The host will be able to concoct pills and potions with the purity
level 90%]
"So I will become a 5-star Alchemist, wonderful! Now give me the

bad news, how much is it?"
[20,000 Badass points only]
He almost spat out blood when he heard the system say only with
a tone of a salesperson in the tv ads. However, if he could
upgrade the Banker skill to the next level, he could earn 5000
points converting 1million gold coins. And after hearing what Gaya
said, a 5-star Alchemist could easily earn more than 1million gold
coins. Yet, he didn't have enough badass points to buy the book
and upgrade the Banker skill to the next level.
[If the host wish, the system can give a loan to the host with an
interest rate of 10%.The host can settle the loan whenever he
could but the system would increase the interest rate by 5% every
ten months]
"You can do that? Nevermind, I'll take the loan. Upgrade my

Banker skill to level 2 and buy the book of Alchemist" He ordered
the system and prepared himself to endure the sharp pain that
would appear in his mind every time he buys a new skill.
Just as he expected, he experienced a sharp tingling pain in his

brain. The etched the skill of Alchemy into his brain cells as he
slowly became a 5-star Alchemist. And when the pain
disappeared, he felt like he could concoct pills as easy as writing
and reading.
"I'm going to be so op with my sweet system" he laughed heartily

and praised the system. Normal people had to learn and work
extremely hard to master the Alchemy skills but he became a 5-
star Alchemist in a few seconds.
"Why are you smiling?" He still had a grin on his face when he
exited the system and seeing the smile on his face, Gaya asked.
On the other side, Claire's body went rigid after Hart's request.
Her sect only had girls who belong to poor families, so if any one
of those girls got an offer like this, their life status would be
catapulted to the next level. However, she was a born noble and a
sect leader, for her to be a concubine, it would be a disgrace to
her family and herself.
"No, I'm sorry Lord Hart but I can't comply with your request"
Claire looked at him and immediately shook her head to refuse.
After this refusal, Hart's face was twisted to a frown. He

considered himself a talented Alchemist and his future
achievements were limitless. He did not expect that she, a sect
leader of a declined sect did not even consider his proposal and
straight-up refused him.
"I am a two-star Alchemist. You'll have a better life as my

concubine than as a sect leader of this decayed sect. I will reach
the 3-star in the future" his eyes were full of resentment.
"Thank you for your kindness Lord Hart, but I don't want to be
anyone's concubine. I hope you can understand that and I'm sure
there are other women who would be willing to be your concubine"
even though her sect was declined, it was still her sect and she
resented him for calling her sect decayed. But still, she wouldn't
show her true emotions as they needed the heart healing pills,
because of that, she felt extremely helpless and the helplessness
in her heart made her eyes well up.
"Humph, my maids are in a better situation than you, yet you dare
to reject me!" Hart punched the sofa he was sitting on and looked
at Claire coldly
"If you don't want to be my concubine, then forget the pills"
"Lord Hart, please sit down" Elder Mark hurriedly said and tried to
calm Hart down but Hart threw the tea on Elder Mark's face in
anger.
"How dare you!" Claire's face turned red in anger as she shouted
"I addressed you Lord as a form of respect! I didn't expect you to
be this arrogant, I've had enough. Leave before I throw you out!"
She was only a Body Refining stage level 5 cultivator, yet when
she became angry, an intimidating aura radiated from her which
surprised both Gaya and Michael. Gaya felt like the reason for
Claire to act so mighty because she noticed Ghost standing in the
hall who had killed a Body Strengthening stage level 2 cultivator
before.
Chapter 41 - If You Fail, I Will
Kill You
"YOU BITCH!" Hart's anger erupted like a volcano as he raised

his hand to slap Claire when he saw a bolt of lightning fly between
his hand and Claire's face.
"That's enough, haven't you heard of a phrase, no means no" the

bolts of lightning danced around his fingers as he made a grand
entrance to the scene.
"Sect Leader Claire, I can concoct the Heart healing pills in my

sleep, you don't need him"
The moment he finished his sentence, they all froze and stared at
Ghost, even Gaya looked at him with disbelief at first. Being an
Alchemist was not something one can do overnight or not as easy
as cultivating.
One needed to be born with a special talent to comprehend the

Alchemy knowledge and even with talent and resources, it was
extremely hard to concoct a pill or brew a potion without practicing
and learning for decades.
So when a 19-year-old youngster spoke these words, they were

shocked beyond words.
"I thought he stole those magic healing pills, is he really an

Alchemist?" Gaya on the other hand didn't think that he's boasting
but actually confused hearing him.
"Brat, who are you?" Hart sneered and said, "you retarded trash,
you think you can concoct pills"
"He's dead" Gaya had already marked Hart as a dead body but
surprisingly, he seemed calm and cool.
"Yes, I think I can concoct the heart healing pills better than you,
any time of the day"
Hart's eyes were full of disdain, and he felt that he was being
provoked. He did not expect to be humiliated too after being
rejected by Claire.
"If you can't, what then? She'll warm my bed tonight, how is that?"
Just like Gaya said, his real intention came to light as he sneered.
"She is not a tool, nor a bet!" he said coldly "If I can't concoct a
pill, I will kill myself, how is that?" If he couldn't concoct a pill even
after the system etched everything about Alchemy into his brain,
he did deserve to die but Micheal knew that he could easily beat
him.
"Ghost!"
Elders and Claire tried to intervene but he stopped them with a

wave of his hand.
"Kill yourself?" Hart smirked and said with a smile: "Alright! If you
are willing to go that far. It's a deal! Begin immediately. If you fail,
then kill yourself, trash like you doesn't deserve to live anyways! If
you can't do it, I'll kill you myself"
"But what if you lose?"
"Lose? Lose to you? If you concoct a pill with one percent higher
purity than mine, I'll run around the kingdom naked"
"Gross" Gaya exclaimed as Micheal shook his head.
"Who wants to see you naked? If I beat you, I'll kill you, how about
that?" There was a flash of hesitation in Hart's eyes but looking at
Ghost from head to toe for a second, he decided to bet his life
because there was no way a kid like him could concoct a pill with
higher purity than him.
"No problem" Hart nodded as Micheal took a quill and paper from
the desk before him and wrote all the ingredients needed for the
pill.
"Gaya, I'll need everything in this list"
They all looked dumbfounded in this scene, especially the three

elders, who still couldn't believe that he's an Alchemist. Gaya took
the list and a pouch of gold coins dumbfounded as Hart also
called one of his guards and gave the list.
Obviously, this was just plain impossible. Hart was forty years old
and he was still at this level, it was almost unbelievable if Ghost
could actually do this!
Taking the list, Gaya ran outside with eyes full of excitement to
see whether he's really an Alchemist or not. In her mind, if he was
an Alchemist as he was claiming, she would be one step closer to
know the secrets behind how he got the pills that could heal her
meridians.
"Jack! Jack you little shit, where are you?!" They were standing in
awkward silence hearing Gaya's shout outside. Micheal motioned
Sect Leader Claire to lead the way and after following Claire,
everyone came to the temporary room, which was originally built
for Hart to concoct pills in peace.
***************************
After thirty minutes or so, Gaya and the guards entered the room
carrying the ingredients needed to concoct the pills. During this
time, the Elders and Sect Leader Claire didn't ask a question to
Michael because he pretended to be in meditation. He knew that if
he stood there waiting for Gaya, they would ask annoying
questions as he would then need to say something to assure
them.
It was easier for him to show them what he could do than tell
them.
"Ghost, I brought everything you asked" Gaya gave the herbs to
Micheal and a furnace, "You forgot to write furnace, here"
"I don't need one" Hart and everyone in the hall was dumbstruck
by what he said.
"You idiot, how do you plan to concoct the pill without a furnace?"
Hart sneered, his eyes and face showed nothing but disdain
towards Michael.
"Furnace is for amateurs, I'm more of a legend when it comes to

Alchemy"
"So shameless!" Hart gave a death stare and sat on the floor
crossed legs to start the process.
"Human, I bought you an extra badge of herbs, in case you mess

it up" Gaya whispered without anyone noticing before Micheal
slipped a tiny vial into Gaya's hands.
"Slip this into the guards' drinks"
"Is this what I think it is?" Gaya asked with an evil grin as Michael
nodded.
"Let's start shall we?" Hart gave a sneer as an answer and under
the curious and worried eyes of Elders, Micheal conjured flames
in one hand and took the herbs in the other.
Alongside Michael, Hart flicked his wrist as a furnace was about

the size of a clay pot appeared before him. The furnace had many
strange inscriptions written all around it and gave off an extremely
mysterious feeling.
"Sect Leader Claire, we should stay back" Elder Mark exclaimed

as the other two elders agreed with him and took a few steps back
from Michael.
Indeed, pill concocting was not a joking matter but an extremely

difficult process. The main difficulty of concocting pills was
controlling the fire. That was why almost every alchemist would
use an alchemy furnace so they could adjust the heat going to the
pill through the furnace. However, Micheal had no need for a
furnace because the system made him extremely talented in
controlling the fire, so until he reached the six-star level where the
system required him to buy a Legendary furnace and a mythical
fire if he wanted to concoct Legendary pills.
The reason for the Elders to step back was if he did lose control of
the fire, he might cause an entire batch of pills to go to waste. Or
even worse, he might cause the furnace to explode. Should the
furnace explode, they wanted to save Sect Claire and themselves
from getting burnt.
"If I were you, I would save myself the embarrassment and run
away brat!" he cast a shield around himself and mocked Michael.
"If I were you, I would start begging because I'm going to kill you
painfully because of your mouth"
"Let's see who kills whom"
"Sect Leader Claire, how many pills do you need? I can concoct
four heart-healing pills with these herbs"
"Oh?! Four...four is enough..." she was overwhelmed by shock as

she barely managed to speak these words.
He nodded and did something that made everyone in the hall

almost faint. He threw all the herbs into the fire directly while Hart
was still refining the first herb with utmost caution.
Elders were at a loss for words. Don't tell me that your pill refining
process is done so carelessly? Do you just empty the ingredients
into the furnace and hope for the best?
Even though they were not trained Alchemists, they knew that
each herb had a different temperature point where they would
release its medicinal qualities but everyone around him was
stumped.
Was there really such a method?

"This method had been lost a long time ago and is now a lost art.
Many 5-Star Alchemists had tried to regain this method, but
wasted many ingredients in their failed pursuit and failed to
accomplish anything." Elder Miles spoke out gravely in a low
pitched voice.
Lost art? I have a system. With the system, I'm going to play God
in this world. Just a mere pill refining art, how can it ever pose a
challenge to me?
Micheal's narcissistic self put its head out in his mind and he
wanted to speak these words loudly but he controlled himself and
pretended not to hear Elder Mark.
"If he's unable to exert absolute control over the fire, it will result in
an explosion big enough to kill him" Again, Elder Miles whispered
this to his colleagues.
"Don't worry Elder Miles, I can brew a potion or concoct a pill with
a 100% success rate" Micheal casually replied to Elder Miles.
"NO! Concentrate on controlling the fire" ELder Miles shouted and

jumped back when he heard him talking as he feared that he
would lose control of the fire and cause an explosion.
"I want to see how long you can keep this farce up!" At this
moment, Hart finally refined his first herb and responded to
Michael.
Michael completely ignored him and sensed the herbs were

almost finished refining.
"Elder Miles, do you think he could do it?" the third Elder who's
called Reiner asked Elder Miles as only Elder Miles had some
experience in teaching Alchemy.
"He's a freak, we don't know what he's capable of, look at his
cultivation level. He just reached the Body refining stage level 1
when we met him but look at him now, he reached level 5 in just
two days"
"We can't question his abilities now, for the sake of our sect
leader, he must best Hart at this," said Elder Mark.
"Quit whining you oldies, he wouldn't have put his life on the line if
he wasn't sure of his abilities" Elders turned around to see Gaya
walking towards them proudly like she had done something
fabulous. The two Elders and CLaire was shocked to hear her
tone but Elder Mark sighed
"Ignore her manners, this girl is a friend of Ghost"
During the conversation, Hart finished refining the second herb

and had only six more to refine.
"Haha, How long are you going to make a fool out of yourself?
Throwing all the herbs at once in the fire, you really are dumb!
Even if you want to pretend, at least make it believable!" Hart
pointed at Michael's behavior and laughed.
"Watch this" this time Michael sneered as he put his hand above
the fire. Then when he lifted his hand, one by one, colorful shiny
beads floated up from the fire. There were eight beads floating
above the fire and soon after, he started merging the beads into
one fist size ball.
"This, this is impossible… To refine all the herbs at once... you

need absolute control over the fire. This is... absolutely
impossible!" Hart's face lost all of its colors and turned pale. He
thought Michael would fail but he refined all the eight herbs even
before Hart could refine three herbs. Also, the beads floating
above Michael's fire were shiner and purer than the two beads
before him.



...
[Ding! Subordinate Gaya killed a Body Strengthening stage, level

3 cultivator. The reward is 15000 experience points]
The sweet notification bell sound started to ring inside his mind
making him grin.
Chapter 42 - The Most
Dangerous Kind
"System, I'll get experience points for Gaya's killings too? "
[Yes, The host will receive experience points for killings of host's
subordinates]
"How many points do I need to heal her?"
[3000 points to repair her meridians, 20,000 points to restore her

previous cultivation level. The system recommends the host to
heal her again when the subordinate reach at least 75% loyalty
level]
"I know that System, now tells me what was her original cultivation
level, you know, before they crippled her?"
[Core formation stage, level 7]
"Woah! She was a prodigy? Now I understand why she acts so

arrogant and overbearing. Nevermind, for now, I'll keep giving her
the pills to keep her on a leash and increase her loyalty"
When he exited the system, he raised his hands as the big silver
bead split into four small fist-sized pills. Hart saw this scene and
began to tremble, especially when he saw the extremely purer
pills.
"90% purity! Holy shit!" Just as the words escaped Gaya's mouth,
the Elders, Sect Leader Claire, and Hart felt like they were being
struck by lightning. The first two had never seen a pill concocted
by a 5-star Alchemist but Gaya had consumed many of those to
enhance her cultivation, after all, she was a princess.
"Impossible!" Hart mumbled and stumbled back clumsily as three
pills floated into Sect Leader's hand and one floated towards Hart.
At this moment, the three elders succumbed to silence. Although

they hadn't seen pills with this much purity, they knew that the pills
in Claire's hands were superior in quality as the pills radiated an
extremely sweet fragrance and Arch energy.
The elders start to murmur behind him: "He's a 5-star Alchemist?!"
They were stunned to disbelief. The whole continent had only a

handful of 5-star Alchemists, finding them was not an easy task
and even if they found one, their services would not come cheap.
Before this, they only thought of him as a genius but now, they
considered him as a youngster blessed by the gods themselves. If
he could reach this level at a young age then that meant his future
achievements would be countless. Not only he cultivated at a
monstrous speed but was also a 5-star Alchemist! How did he
learn all this?
They couldn't help but look at Gaya after staring at Michael. They
thought Gaya could somehow explain his origins but she quickly
shrugged.
"Don't look at me, I didnt know he's a freakin 5-star Alchemist"
"But you are his friend?" Elder Mark asked.
In fact, it was not only them, but even Gaya was completely
stunned. Alchemy was not easy, and that was a completely
different challenge than cultivation. She thought the reason for his
monstrous cultivation speed was because he had a special body
type but now she realized he has more secrets than she
assumed.
"Bastard kept this as a secret"

….
Several ding sounds again rang inside his head.
"A puny little two-star Alchemist...look, this is how the pill concocts
by me, a 5-star Alchemist would look like," Michael said with a
smirk as he slowly walked towards Hart terrorizing him.
As Micheal took a step forward, Hart took a step backward in

shock and despair. The three elders were stunned but slowly their
minds began to jump in joy. They didn't need to use Hart's service
any longer. Ghost could be his replacement, and of course, he
might not charge for his service thus reducing the cost they
needed to concoct heart-healing pills for Elder Sandra. Sunrise
Sect now not only had the number one genius of the younger
generation as their disciple but also a 5-sta Alchemist. This was
just too good to be true.
Gaya immediately grabbed one pill from Claire's hands and

inspected it. After a second, she looked at the Elders and Claire
"Yes, this pill is 90% pure, I'm sure"
"No!" Hart was furious, looking at Michael with full of hatred in his
eyes
"I didn't expect you to really concoct pills, you all deceived me by
hiding the fact that you have an Alchemist!"
"You should have thought this before accepting the challenge" He

sneered.
"Now, I'm going to kill you, as I said before, painfully"
How could he let him live after Hart repeatedly insulted him?
Hart's actions earlier couldn't be forgiven easily in his eyes
"Hahaha" Suddenly Hart stopped walking backward and laughed

maniacally.
"Don't get ahead of yourself! I don't know what stunt you just
pulled with the pills. But I know you can't kill me, you're just a
Body refining cultivator, I'm at the fucking Body strengthening
stage, I can crush you, GUARDS!"
Hart stood there expecting his guards to arrive at any second with
a wicked smile on his face.
Yet, there was no one coming inside the hall as Hart shouted
again.
"GUARDS!"
"They are not coming, asshole" Gaya stepped forward and stood
beside Michael fiddling with the Knife he gave her. When Hart
looked at the Knife, his heart skipped a beat as he saw the fresh
bloodstains on the blade.
"What did you do?!"
"A seductive smile and few flirty lines, that was all it took to make
your guards drink my special tea, hehehehe" The little vial Michael
gave her before he started concocting pills was the remaining
paralyzing potion in his system storage.
Because of his responsive shield, he didn't need to fear anyone

under Body Strengthening stage level 2 but those guards were at
level 3 and 4 which would possess a threat to Michael if he fought
them head-on. So, Micheal used Gaya to paralyze them and kill
them easily.
"Why did you kill one guard?" Michael asked Gaya, ignoring Hart
for a moment.
"Fucker tried to get all touchy, so I stabbed him in the face after
paralyzing him. Now dibs on killing this asshole"
"No, he's mine" Michael conjured the bolts of lightning as Elders

watched the scene dumbstruck. Especially, what Gaya did and
trying to do stunned them considering she's just a mortal girl, yet,
she was trying to kill Hart herself.
"Ahhhhh!" Hart screamed and tried to cast a spell before a wave
of wind blasted him outside.
"Ghost wait!"
Sect Leader Claire quickly stepped forward and tried to stop him
from killing Hart.
"See ya, human!" Seeing Micheal halt his steps, Gaya laughed
and ran outside with full of excitement to kill Hart before he
steadied himself and cast another spell.
"Don't come crying to me when he kicks your ass" Micheal

shouted at the running figure of Gaya and couldn't help but laugh
seeing the snake's craze to kill Hart.
"Ghost, let him go, don't kill him"
"No, Sect Leader Claire, if he doesn't kill Hart now, he would go

back to his kingdom and bring reinforcements to take revenge"
Elder Miles exclaimed as Michael nodded with a smile.
"Elder Miles is right, besides, I told him that I would kill him if he
failed, I must keep my word, Sect Leader. Now if you excuse me, I
have an Alchemist to kill" As he said, he dashed outside to kill
Hart before he escaped from Gaya who had no ability to cast
spells.
"What? Let's see you cast spells now, hahaha" When Michael
came outside, Hart was lying on the ground like a statue as Gaya
was laughing and kicking him maniacally.
"What did you do to me?!"
"What happened to him?" The elders and Claire looked confused

seeing the guards' and Hart's rigid bodies. By looking at the green
ooze on the blade in Gaya's hands, he realized that she coated
the blade with the paralyzing poison and cut Hart with it, hence,
he was paralyzed.
"Stop playing with the prey"

"RELEASE ME!"
"Ignitia" While walking towards Hart, Michael sent a few bolts of

lightning to the guards and killed them instantly.






"Nooooooooo!" The anger in Hart's eyes disappeared and fear

clutched his heart after seeing the charcoaled bodies of his
powerful guards.
"You called me a retard, idiot, and trash. Do I look anything like

that to you?"
Bzzzzhhh!
The electric humming produced by the lightning bolts around his

fingers struck the fear of god in Hart's heart. Then soon after,
Gaya twitched her nose and saw a wet circle forming under Hart.
"Human, I think he peed, hehehe" her laughter fueled Hart's fear

and embarrassment as Micheal crouched in front of him. He then
ran his finger across Hart's face
"Diddle diddle, we are so..." the intensity of the lightning bolts
increased as Hart felt his face burning.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Hart's scream echoed through the mountains and

then it was abruptly stopped.

"He's dead? So quickly?" Gaya kicked Hart's body and said. The
reason for Hart's death was not because of the lightning bolts but
overwhelming agony and fear which made his heart stop.
Looking at the scene, the elders and Claire trembled in fear. The
charming cool youngster seemed like a devil a second ago. He
not just killed Hart but actually tortured him to death. What more
terrorized them was the fact that he seemed to neither enjoy nor
regret killing Hart but rather, he appeared to be cool and calm
when killing people. That indicated one thing to them, he killed so
many people to the point that killing became like breathing to him.
Chapter 43 - Base Of
Operation I
"Use this to dispose of the bodies" Micheal retrieved the highly

flammable liquid he bought from the system and handed it over to
Gaya.
"And don't forget to take their space rings if they have one, don't
call Jack this time," He said and turned his gaze towards the
terrified elders and Claire.
"Sect Leader Claire, Elders, those heart-healing pills, who needs

them?"
A sudden sadness emerged in Claire's eyes when he asked. She

then sighed
"Follow us"
With Claire leading the way, they arrived at a house adjacent to

the building where they met Hart. A couple of girls and boys in
orange uniforms respected them when they arrived. Inside the
house, he was led to a room that seemed clean and well
organized. Also, he immediately smelled a strong medicinal smell.
Surprisingly in the middle of the room, Elder Sandra was laid

down in bed, unconscious and really pale. He could immediately
sense that this was not something caused by injury but a terminal
illness, like cancer. However, unlike earth, he had the ability to
concoct pills to cure Elder Sandra.
"How long has she been like this? The last time I saw her, she
was fine"
He sat beside Elder Sandra on the bed and observed her
condition.
"She had been like this for the last three years, she would only get
better when she took a healing pill but lately the healing pills
stopped working. That was why we wanted to give her the heart
healing pills" Claire's words made sense as the heart pills were
much effective in healing terminal illness like this better than the
normal healing pills.
"Although you were right to give her healing pills, it only kept the
illness from spreading to her whole body, not to cure her. Sect
Leader Claire, you should have used the heart healing pills in the
first place, then the illness would have gone by now "
"We can still cure her right?" Claire didn't act like a sect leader at
the moment but she seemed like a helpless weak girl who was
concerned about a mother figure like Sandra.
"We can't cure her with Heart healings pills, it's too late, we can
slow down the illness "
"No! it can't be" tears already started to well up in Claire's eyes as

the elders looked worried and shocked.
"Sect Leader Claire, don't cry, I said we can't cure her using the
heart healing pills but we can use another potion to completely
cure Elder Sandra"
"Really?!" She quickly wiped off the falling tears and asked with
delight.
"Yes, I can brew the potion, no problem at that but it's hard to get
the required herbs and ingredients, let's wait for my friend, she
would know where can we buy and how much the prices are "
"Are you talking about me?" Gaya made a timely entrance to the
scene and halted her steps when she saw Elder Sandra's pale
body
"She doesn't look good, what happened to her?"

"Black bite" This was the terminology they used in this world for
cancer and when she heard the name, her brows went up.
"Now before you say something, tell me where we can buy these
and how much it would cost us?" He quickly wrote everything he
needed to brew the potion that could cure Elder Sandra.
"I've never heard of a pill or a potion that could cure Black bite"
Gaya shrugged as the elders and Claire looked at Michael.
"That's because no one knew about this potion except me"
"And what potion is that?"
"Dew of Angel lotus, DAL for short" None had any idea or never
heard of such potion before, including Gaya. So they could neither
deny nor confirm the existence of such potion.
"Petals of green rose, a tooth of a wyvern, Siren's blood, virgin

dew..." the more she read the items on the list, the more she was
shocked. And even though the elders or Claire hadn't heard some
of the items in the list, looking at Gaya's reaction, they could tell
how difficult it would be to get those items.
"I know places where we can buy these items but it won't be
cheap, you need a small fortune to buy all these"
Claire's eyes immediately lit up when she heard that Gaya said
she knew the places to find the items, but they darkened shortly
afterward hearing the last part.
"How...how small?" Elder Mark slowly asked like he was even

afraid of asking this question.
"Something between 400,000 to 500,000 gold coins" What Gaya

had said had stunned everyone. Claire's facial expression had
turned pale, and her entire body was shivering.
"Oh my god, I'm going to faint" Elder Reiner lurched aside and
held onto the wall to stop his body from falling down.
''How are we going to get that much?"

"Ghost, please save her"
After a few moments of gawking at each other, Claire swallowed

the hesitation and came in front of Michael, pleadingly asking. She
clutched his hands as tears rolled out of her eyes.
"Sect leader Claire!" This sudden act of her really stunned him
"I will brew the potion for Elder Sandra but I really don't have half
a million gold coins in my purse " he was no longer sitting beside
Elder Sandra but stood up immediately.
Claire still didn't let go of his hands while the Elders also came
closer to him and surrounded him.
"Sect Leader Claire, we can't expect him to have 500,000 gold

coins with him. Even if he had, we can't ask him to give it to us "
"We can plead for a loan from King Bredia"
"Also, if we can sell the rest of our lands, we may be able to get
another 60,000 gold coins"
Each elder was speaking their minds and all of them wanted to
save Elder Sandra no matter the cost, this showed Michael the
bond they had between them. Still, he didn't have half a million
gold coins to buy the items and even if he had, Michael wasn't
going to empty his purse for them. Saving the survivors of the
Rosewood village was a different thing as he only had to buy
some upgrades which would always be a help to him in the future.
He might have helped them if he had hundreds of millions of gold

coins but currently, he only had 75000 gold coins. Besides,
500,000 gold coins were equal to 2500 badass points which were
more valuable to him than Elder Sandra's survival.
[Ding! THE BASE OF OPERATION FEATURE UNLOCKED!!]
"What the?" he heard a ding sound as loud as a church bell inside

his head and was instantly taken to System's interface.
A new window that he had never seen before in the system
appeared before him.
[The host now can accept the Sunrise sect as his Base of
Operation!! ]
[Does the host want the Sunrise sect to be his Base of

Operation?]
"Wait, what is this base of operations feature? Explain yourself

System, before you ask me to do anything"
[The Base of Operations is a similar function to the Subordinate

feature. The Host can acquire a whole organization as his Base of
Operation]
"What's in it for me? Even though Gaya was not a jackpot, she
had proven her worth by giving me some valuable intel, and also,
she's keeping me entertained. What can a declined place like the
Sunrise sect give me ? I've already done them a huge favor by
joining them"
[When the Status and Legend of the base of operation increase,

the host will receive badass points]
His objection to making Sunrise sect his base of operation slightly

wavered after he heard the system.
"Hmm, like I received experience points for Gaya's killing?"
[Any actions like killings performed by Subordinates can only give

the host experience points, not badass points. The Base of
Operation can give the host both Experience and Badass points]
[Higher level the Base of Operation is, More points will be

awarded to the host!]
"How many points are we talking about?"
[That depends on the level of the Base of Operations!] he was

sure that he felt a tinge of irritation in the robotic voice of the
system.
[The lowest level of the base of operations can give the host 50
Badass points and 500 Experience points for a week]
"The highest level?"
[...]
There was no response from the system to his last question as he

started to think about making Sunrise sect his Base of Operations.
"Tell me, I can have more than one base of operations?"
[Yes]
"System, why now? I mean I've been here for three days and
you've never said anything about making the sunrise sect my
base of operations"
[There are three main requirements to be met for an organization

to be Host's Base of Operation ]
[The Organization's survival must depend on the host ]
[Every member of the Organization must be weaker than the host

]
[The Leader of the Organization must be at least have 60% loyalty

to the host]
"It seems me killing Hart left a mark in the young maiden's heart,
hehe, so easy"
Chapter 44 - Base Of
Operation II
"Alright, System, I'll take this risk and accept the Sunrise sect my
first base of Operations"
[Ding! Congratulations to the host, the Sunrise sect is now the

Host's Base of Operation!]
Base of Operation: The Sunrise Sect
Current Leader: Claire Marigold
Level: 1
Debt: 450,000 Gold Coins
Number of Members: 34
Status: Declined
Legend: 0 / 1000 (Crappy old sect)
"System, what is this Legend, and what the hell is that debt
amount?!"
[Legend is a type of evaluation points of the Base of Operation.

The BOP must reach the points limit to upgrade it to the next
level. As for your second question, The Current Leader can give
you the answer]
The system didn't even wait for him to close the interface but
threw him out
"Fuck!" he cursed the system in his mind and the scene in front of
him resumed.
"Sect Leader Claire, Elders, I have an idea to get 500,000 gold

coins"
"You do?" Elder Mark's face showed a surprised expression.
"I'm going to create an Alchemy enterprise" he calmly said but in

his mind, he was excited to create something huge in this word
and finally start earning real coins.
What's the point of being a 5-star Alchemist if he couldn't get rich?
"Slow your horse, hu...Ghost, we need to talk" His excitement was

brought to a stop by Gaya's voice as everyone turned their gazes
from Michael to Gaya.
"You are a 5-star Alchemist who can concoct pills with 90% purity,
what does that tell you?" The Elders seemed like they had a
sudden realization hearing her question but Michael just proudly
grinned.
"I'm awesome" Gaya rolled her eyes and punched him in the
shoulder
"It means you are the number 1 Alchemist among all four
kingdoms of Elen Continent" The grin on his face got even
brighter but the Elders looked frightened rather than being
delighted about this. After seeing that he had no idea of what
she's talking about, Gaya deeply exhaled and said
"It means you dethroned the Alchemy King Gabriel Keswick "
"I see your point" Michael realized what she's trying to say and the
reason for the elders to be afraid.
"If he knew that you can concoct pills purer than him,best-case
scenario, he would just kill you. The worst-case scenario is, he
would enslave you and make you concoct pills and brew potions
while he's reaping the fruits of your work. That's what I would do"
Although what she said last shocked them slightly, they had
bigger concerns now.
"Aelia is right" Elder Miles sighed and agreed with Gaya.
"Either way, you're fucked, Ghost" She really worried about his
safety, not because she cared for him but if he died or enslaved,
she wouldn't get the magical pills to heal her meridians. So for her
sake, she had to do and say everything in her power to keep him
safe.
"I assume you have a solution for this" He understood Gaya

enough to know that the reason for her to worry about his safety
was to get more pills from him.
"Although Gabriel can't guarantee 100% percent success rate of

brewing positions, concocting pills, his outcomes are 84% pure.
So, you must not reach 84%. Then, you will be second and I know
him, he's too proud to mess with the second, or at least he
wouldn't kill or enslave you "
"You know him, how?" Elder Reiner suddenly asked because

even many influential cultivators would try their hardest to get an
appointment with Gabriel, let alone, Aelia, a mortal girl.
"I mean I heard about him during my travels, so Ghost, I suggest

you aim for something between 60 to 75% purity" She swiftly
changed the topic back to Michael before the Elders dig too deep
into her life.
"Are you kidding me? 80%, that's the worst I can do. It's mentally
and physically impossible for me to concoct or brew anything less
pure than that" The Elders and Claire opened their mouths to
make him lower his level but after seeing the adamant look on his
face, they shut their half-opened mouths.
"It's settled then. Aelia, tomorrow we'll set up our first shop" Gaya
nodded as he turned back to look at Claire.
"Sect Leader Claire, give the heart healing pills to Elder Sandra,
they would stop the Black bite from getting worse and make Elder
Sandra feel better"
"I wish we had gold to help you start the shop, Ghost but..." Elder
Mark's voice trailed and the other two elders looked a little
embarrassed.
"It's fine, Elder Mark, I can take care of everything. From now on,
we'll change our sect's future for the better" He said and walked
away from the scene as Gaya followed him behind leaving the
Elders and Claire to worry about Elder Sandra.
**********************
It took them both a couple of minutes to reach the home given to

Michael.
"Are we in the right place?" Gaya tilted her head confused as the
house in front of them looked different than what they saw an hour
ago. The cobwebs and dust on the windows and wall were
nowhere to be found. Little green saplings replaced the dried
plants on the lawn. Plus, there was noise coming from the inside
along with a mouth-watering aroma of cooking.
"Did we leave the door open?"
"No shit" Micheal walked towards the house when a familiar face
came out to greet them both.
"Young Master, Young Miss" It was none other than Raylene and
she had two glasses of lemon juice on a tray.
"Thank you for cleaning the place, Raylene"
"It's the least I can do for you, Young Master. I should have told
you before taking the liberty of cleaning the place" Raylene smiled
as Michael took the glass and drank it before scanning the drink,
just in case.
Gulp!
Considering the lemons she used to make the drink was bought
from the shop and had Arch energy-infused at the molecular level
of the lemons, the juice was rich in fragrance and taste. Looking at
Michael gulping the drink, Gaya grabbed the second cup and
chugged it before he drank it himself.
"That was refreshing. Raylene, how would you like to earn some
gold coins?"
"Bastard is going for it...hehehe" The smile On Raylene's face

froze hearing him while Gaya giggled inside having some nasty
dirty thoughts because what can the woman actually do to earn
some gold coins rather than pleasing him physically. After all, he
was a youth and Raylene was a good-looking woman.
"Young Master..." Raylene's body trembled as Michael quickly

realized that she's thinking something else.
"Soon, I'm planning to open up a few shops, and I'd like you to
come and work for me as a cook, Raylene"
"Oh?!" Raylene let out a short squeal and deeply exhaled as Gaya
frowned.
"Let me know what you think later, Raylene "
"Yes, Young Master, I will work for you" Raylene was relieved
realizing that he's not going to ask her to be his mistress as it was
not unusual for a powerful youngster like him to have many
mistresses.
"Good, now go and take care of Cindy, We'll eat later" Raylene
nodded and ran back inside the house to put the tray and glasses
back.
A few minutes after Raylene left, Gaya and Michael plunged into
the comfy sofa to discuss their plans for tomorrow.
"Are you going to tell me?" Gaya asked skeptically.
"Tell you what?"
"What made you suddenly change your mind and help that old
woman? I saw you, Human, you would have brewed the potion to
cure the old woman for free, but you had no intention to buy the
items yourself, at first. But I saw you change your mind in a few
seconds, so I'll ask again, what made you change your mind in
those few seconds?"
Chapter 45 - Dealing With
Gaya
"Can't you believe that I'm a good guy?" He laughed it off as she
rolled her eyes.
"You're far from a good guy, human. I know your kind, the kind
who do good here and there when there's no harm but wouldn't
raise a finger if you have to lose something or face serious
consequences. You're just a borderline villain, human, not a good
guy as you made those old bastards believe" Gaya said without a
doubt and accurately identified his personality. She and he had
more similarities than they like to admit.
"Why do you care anyway?"
"Although I hate to admit it, my survival depends on you and the

pills you have. Therefore I don't want you to get killed trying to
play hero"
"You really want to know the answer?" He laid back on the couch
and asked.
"Yes"
"First, answer my question, what do you really want in your life?"

She was slightly taken back by surprise but she knew that she
had to answer him if she wants an answer from him.
"Me? I want the throne of Nagaland"
"Let's just say, you will get the throne, then what?" She didn't
know where he's going with this but she decided to play along with
him.
"Then I will rule Nagaland for a couple of decades and head to the
lonely mountains to reach higher levels in cultivation"
The lonely mountain was a place where cultivators head towards

to enter secluded cultivation for decades or even centuries. The
harsh cold environment of the mountain would push the cultivators
to their limit and make them break through to the higher levels of
cultivation. Of course many would die in the cold mountains and
only cold-hearted, as well as talented cultivators, would choose to
go to the mountain leaving all the ties to the outside world such as
wealth, social status, etc.
In the world of cultivation, the higher one's cultivation level, the

higher the life span. Hence many powerful cultivators had seen
their loved ones die with time but they will continue to live
because of their cultivation level. This often made them severe
ties with the outside world and lose their interest in mortal
pleasures such as sex, money, and power after a point and would
fully focus on reaching immortality to explore the universe outside.
"Do you know what I want to do with my life? I want to rule this
world, control everything, enjoy everything that this world has to
offer" His words expressed his ambition and startled Gaya.
"Don't be a silly human, you have talent. If you enter the lonely
mountain and cultivate for a couple of centuries, you will reach
immortality"
Micheal snickered, "what's the point of immortality if I can't even

enjoy simple pleasures. I'd rather live fifty years enjoying my life
than sitting in a cold cave cultivating in the hope of reaching
immortality"
With the system as his secret companion, Michael had the

resolution in his mind to reach immortality but unlike typical
cultivators, he was neither going to sever his ties to the outside
world nor stop enjoying the worldly pleasures.
"So I would need a place suitable for a man like me, that place is
the Sunrise sect. You can think of this place as a place from
where I would start to control the rest of the world"
"You are serious?" she asked with a shaky voice in shock. If these
words had been spoken by someone else, she would have
laughed her ass off but when it came to him, she couldn't neglect
anything. Yet, she now had more questions than answers,
"Tell me this, why choose this place?"
"In the big sects, I'd just been another prodigy, another feather in
their hat but here" he didn't finish his sentence but laid back and
put his leg on the other and sat like a king.

"If you help me achieve my dreams, I'll not only heal you and get
you the Nagaland throne you long for but also assist you to reach
immortality"
"Big words coming from a guy who's just at the Body refining
stage "
"A few days ago, you thought you had no chance of reviving your
broken meridians but I proved you wrong. A few minutes ago, you
thought there isn't anyone who could reach 90% purity in
Alchemy, again I proved you wrong, so tell me Gaya, you really
think I can't do everything that I said I can" She knew he was right
about everything and deep down, she had already started to
believe that he's going to turn this world upside down.
Therefore she decided to stick with him and help him along while
reaping some sweet rewards like the pills that can heal her
meridians as well as pills and potions he would brew with 90%
purity which would help her in cultivation.
"First you have to help me out here human, give me some pills to
get my cultivation back, then I can really help you. You know get
my juice back" she clenched her fist and punched the air
frantically. Her actions however not surprised him the least as he
expected her to ask for more healing pills.
He wanted her to ask for more pills so he could put his plan of
making her loyal to him in motion.
"First, I need to check your meridians" He lied with a straight face

and controlled his urge to laugh.
"How are you going to do that?" seeing him stand up and coming
closer to her, she moved back on the couch and asked. Her face
had a mix of skepticism and doubt.
"Turn back and cough"
"Huh?"
"Do as I say, turn back and cough" she stared at him for a couple
of seconds confused at the point why is he asking her to do that
but she turned around and coughed as he said.
(cough) (cough)
"Now breathe in and breathe out"
"Hey!" she wiggled and shouted when she felt his hand on her
back
"Don't be a baby, do you want me to check your meridians or

what?" He chuckled inside and said.
"Just get it over with quickly, and FYI, the last fucker who tried to
touch me ended up being burned alive" He ignored her and ran
his hand around her back for a few more seconds before letting it
go.
"System, how many pills do I have to give her to heal her

meridians?"
[50 pills]
"Do you have a less effective pill? I want her to believe that I can
heal her but I don't want to heal her before she becomes more
loyal to me"
[Cheap tier Revitalizing pills]
"Great, how much?"
[500 pill bottle is 500badass points. The pill would temporarily

enable her to feel her meridians and create an illusion of repairing
the meridians]
"That should do the trick. The system I'll buy the bottle"
Exiting the system, he sighed as Gaya's face quickly turned

gloomy
"What is it? I can still be cured right?" he also put his serious face
and said
"Yes, but your meridians are still in bad shape. We need to

carefully treat your meridians, any small error would permanently
destroy them and kill you"
"Fuck! Tell me you and your pills can fix this" her hands shivered
and her face lost all its color in terror. This was the first time he
had seen her this much terrified.
"I thought my pills alone can cure you eventually but now that I
took a closer look, I realized that I have to concoct another batch
of pills, a different one than what I previously gave you. it's very
difficult to concoct the new pills" he made his voice sound worried
and when she looked at his face, her fear grew even more as she
tightly clenched his hands.
"Human, please heal me! I don't want to be crippled forever" she

pleaded with him.
"Don't worry I'll do my best to heal you, after all, you're my

assistant aren't you?"
"Yes, I am! You can't let your assistant die" she vigorously shook
her head up and down and let out a wide smile.
"Alright, I have to check you every week and give you the newly
concocted pills. Remember, you must only take two pills a week,
so I will only give you two pills. If you do everything I say, you will
be able to cultivate in a year, try to do anything behind my back, I
will throw your ass out and you'll stay a cripple for all your life, do
you understand?"
Chapter 46 - Two Henchmen
Subordinate: Gaya
Status: Merdeans repaired - 10%
Loyalty towards the host: 25%
"Look at that, she became 25% loyal to me" He started at the

subordinate interface, and looking at the increased percentage, he
knew that his plan was working.
"System, open my status window"
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 7000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy
Goals: Control the world
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 2 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 5 badass

point(s))
Special Trait: 5-Star Alchemist
Base of Operation: Sunrise Sect
"Hmm, looks like my goal has changed" Previously his goal was
'Be the Strongest Predator in the world' and now it changed to
'Control the world'.
Obviously one had to be the strongest to control the world.
So as his first step to control the world, he decided to set up an

empire of pill businesses to create a steady income flow. At the
current level of the system, he could turn Gold coins into Badass
points but not the other way around. Since he couldn't use Badass
points anywhere except in the system and gold coins were the
universal currency in this world, he chose to earn himself some
coins.
With a rough plan in his mind, he exited the system and saw Gaya
was licking the porridge bowl clean.
"Don't eat the bowl"
"Fuck you!" she cursed as she kept picking up the rice grains on
the bottom of the bowl and put them into her mouth.
"Come on, let's go. We need to choose a suitable place to set up
my shop"
"But I only ate three bowls'' Yes, she ate three bowls of porridge
and showed Michael that she has a pretty big appetite. She
wouldn't have a need to eat this much if she could cultivate as the
Arch energy would keep her body fed but it wasn't the case, thus
she had to eat a lot to keep her body functioning. Also, Raylene's
cooking talents and the Arch energy-infused ingredients that
Michael bought from the shop increased the taste of the food
several-fold.
"If you keep eating like this, you're going to be fat" the moment
these words escaped his mouth, the food in Gaya's mouth also
came out as she coughed up.
"What did you say?!" he could see her face turning red in anger
and realized that even in this world, girls didn't like to be called 'fat'
"You heard me" One could see the puffs of smoke coming out of
her ears and nostrils if they looked closer but suddenly, she began
to laugh
"Hahahaha" A sudden laughter surprised him
"Alright, I'll bite, why are you laughing?" she still continued to
laugh and after a few seconds, she stopped and looked at him
"Even with all your talents, because of your mouth, you're going to
end up dying as a virgin" she paused for a moment and then said,
"unless you pay for a girl to do you, hahaha"
"Hahahaha" Now this time, Gaya was surprised to see him burst
into laughter.
"Why are YOU laughing?!"
"It's just...even if you pay, no one would do you, ugly. Hahahaha"
"Hahaha, great comeback, hahaha" both of their laughter echoed

through the house and both felt refreshing to laugh like this after a
long time.
**********
Michael and Gaya finished their supper and came outside of the
house when the sun reached the middle of the sky. Because the
sect had only a few disciples, the mountain seemed lonely.
"How far is this Bradford?"
"If we start walking now, we'll reach Bradford in six or seven

hours"
"Next option"
"We go to River town, which we can reach in thirty minutes using

your speedy spell. From there, we can rent a pegasus, and fly to
Bradford in two hours'"
"Flying on a pegasus, cool!" He was barely able to contain his

excitement from showing on his face when he heard the words
pegasus and fly.
Although he flew in airplanes countless times, how could that be

compared to actually flying on a pegasus, the white feathery
horses!!
"Let's go!" He was about to take Gaya's hand and use the
Lightning dash when he saw two familiar faces walking towards
them.
The two familiar faces were none other than Daniel and Ricky, the
two guards Michael met in River town. They looked rather tired
and drenched in sweat as their light brown clothes turned into
dark brown because of their sweat.
"Young master Ghost!"
"Why are you guys here?" This was the second time he asked the
question today as both Daniel, the older guard, and Ricky, the
younger one, breathed heavily.
"Young Master, we came to make sure Mrs.Agner and the children
reached here safely and ask whether they need anything from
River town" Daniel said while Ricky stared at Gaya as he had
never seen a girl in his life before.
"Seriously?" Gaya questioned Ricky with an annoyed voice as he

didn't even try to hide the way he was looking at her. Michael had
no intention to stop Ricky as even with the mask on to change her
face, she looked pretty, hence, it was natural for a youngster like
Ricky to be mesmerized at her beauty.
"Ricky!" Daniel pinched Ricky and brought him back from his
stupified state.
"It's nice of you two to do that but don't you guys have to be at the
gates, all the time?" Daniel sighed and shook his head.
"The higher-ups transferred us, Young Master Ghost. We are

going to Larton today"
"Larton?! What did you two do to deserve that? Hehehe" Gaya

chuckled sadistically and raised Michael's curiosity. According to
Abras's memories, Larton was a desert of Kingdom Bredia that
had a lesser population.
By looking at her sadistic laughter and terrified face of Daniel, he

could understand how bad is Larton
"If Larton is that bad, can't you guys ask your higher-ups to
reconsider? Besides, why are they transferring you?"
"It's…." Daniel seemed like he was hiding something as Michael

turned his gaze towards Ricky who's more talkative than Daniel.
"It's a punishment, Young Master Ghost" as expected, Ricky

talked and his tone had a tinge of anger
"Punishment? what did you do?"
"It's because of what we did not do, Young Master. The letter we
received from the higher-ups stated that we should have stopped
you from burning Raplhy alive at the gates" Michael frowned after
hearing Ricky complain.
"Also they said we won't get any promotion in the near future"
"You really fucked the lives of these two Ghost, weaklings like
them wouldn't survive much longer in Larton. If the beasts and
poisonous creatures didn't kill them, the scorching sun would"
Gaya loved to pour hot oil into the guards' wounds by describing
the worst in Larton and Michael slightly felt guilty for these two.
But soon, he realized that he could use these two as his

henchmen. Gaya was obviously not a person who would run
errands for him and he couldn't use Jack always. Daniel and Ricky
seemed like good men and perfect henchmen material.
"Fuck your higher-ups, how much salary you guys are getting?"
his question shocked Ricky and Daniel,
"120 gold coins"
"Per month?"
"Yeah they wish, its per year human" Gaya snickered and said
"Throw away your jobs, come work for me. I'll pay you what you
get in a year for a month" before Daniel and Ricky could respond,
he retrieved two pouches and threw them to the two guards.
"This is your hiring bonus, from now on, you two work for me"
Ricky and Daniel trembled in surprise and shock. Just by feeling
the weight of the pouch in their hands, they could tell that there
are more than 100 gold coins inside.
Ricky was the first to fall down to the ground and hug Michael's
leg.
"Fuck those old bastards in the capitol, I'll work for you, Young
Master Ghost!"
After seeing Michael's generosity and their monthly salary under

him, Daniel also knelt down and shed tears of joy.
"Alright, get up you two. Be loyal to me and you'll know what it's
like to be rich"
****************
Alright, Character introductions and fillers are over. Upcoming

chapters will be fast-paced, action-filled, and fun!!!!!
Chapter 47 - Opening A Store I
"So COOL!!!" At the moment, Michael was flying on a pegasus

behind Gaya. Because of Gaya's previous experience flying the
pegasus, she rode it while Michael sat behind.
But that didn't stop him from being extremely happy. His one hand
was on Gaya's shoulder to maintain his balance while with the
other hand. He constantly tried to grab the fluffy clouds even
though he knew clouds are made of water vapor and dust
particles in the sky.
"For god's sake, human, you can't catch the clouds! You're going
to fall and die if you keep trying" she screamed and elbowed him
in the gut.
"Hey, Gaya!" because of the wind resistance, he had to shout.
"How much does this pegasus cost? I need one!" Pegasus were
horses with wings and the most common color of these noble
creatures was pure white. They were intelligent creatures that
could understand the orders of the owner and were protected by a
special spell that prevented the riders from stealing them.
Hence, the pegasus taxi owner didn't need to travel with who hired
it but simply sit in his office and let the pegasus finish its route and
come back.
However, if the riders had no experience flying on pegasus, the

pegasus owner would provide one with experience but that would
cost additional cost. Since Gaya had the experience, Michael
didn't pay this cost but let her fly the pegasus.
"You can't, if you want one, you have to get permission from the
four kings of Elon continent"
"Seriously?! Why?"
"I don't know, it has been a common law of Elon since forever "
"Fuck them, I'm planning to make a dragon my pet and fly on it"
Ever since he found out that this world has dragons, he couldn't
wait to get his hands on a dragon baby or a grown dragon.
"Make a dragon your pet? You're one crazy mother fucker, you
know that!" Gaya shouted and now, she had grown quite familiar
with his grand ideas and plans.
He would have bought one from the system if the price wasn't in
the millions.
"We're going to land, hold tight!" she giggled evilly as the warning
beep sound in his mind went crazy. She galloped the pegasus and
turned the pegasus to do a barrel roll in the mid-air. Michael's
reflexes were outstanding therefore when the moment the warning
sound rang in his head, he wrapped his hands around her waists
and held onto her tightly.
"Bastard! Get your hands off of me!" she didn't expect him to act
quickly or wrapped his hand around her waist. She wanted to
scare him off but the situation turned against her favor.
"Do it again!" He already enjoyed the ride tremendously but the

last part of him touching her waist was icing on the cake.
On the contrary to his demand, she stopped barrel rolling and

landed the pegasus on the ground.
"You perverted bastard!" the moment her feet touched the ground,
she shouted at him as he waved her off.
"What did you expect? Me falling down from the sky? Just be glad
that held onto your waist" she quickly covered her chest like she
was naked when she looked at where he was looking at.
Neighhhh!
The pegasus beside them neighed and took off leaving them
behind at the outskirts of the marketplace
Erected on the light side of Bredia, Bradford was a town led by

Baron Totonk. This town wasn't built by a mountain by accident,
as it has ancestral grounds, which was of great importance to the
people of Bradford and its success.
The town itself looked imposing. With its spruce wood rooftops,
limestone walls, and silent mountain range, Bradford had a
pleasing atmosphere.
Bradford had a booming economy, which was mainly supported

by mining, baking, and wine brewing. But their biggest strengths
was the reason for Michael to be here, Alchemy.
Despite its strengths and weaknesses, Bradford was most likely

headed towards a gracious future under the leadership of Baron
Totonk. But this remains to be seen.
Despite their rough landing, people didn't pay mind to Gaya and
Micheal as they continued to do what they were doing. Compared
to the River town, the people around Michael seemed healthy and
clean. Most ladies wore at least one jewel on their body and
occasionally, he could see ladies who had armed escorts, lavish
jewels, and wore fancy robes.
"These must be noble ladies" The noble ladies slightly looked like
Roman noble ladies in the Spartacus television show he watched
on earth. Obviously, Michael took a few peaceful minutes to enjoy
the hot ladies and girls on the streets which frustrated Gaya as he
never looked at her like he's staring at these noble ladies now.
"Shall we move now? Or do you need another hour to finish eye

banging them?" she pitched his ears and interrupted his eyes from
feasting on the beauties.
Through the bustling streets of Bradford, both of them passed

many food stalls, bakeries, and various other stores. For a
second, he felt like he was back in the streets of Los Angeles
back on earth.
"Wow, there are only two alchemy stores" After finishing checking
out all the stores on both sides of the street, Michael realized that
Bradford only has two Alchemy stores owned by two and one-star
alchemists. Of course, the shop keeper in those stores weren't
Alchemists but just salespersons.
"Hey, look, this building is on sale" He and Gaya came before a

newly built building next to a bakery and jewelry. The building had
two floors and huge glass windows that almost made the inside of
the building transparent.
"Good condition and location. Because of the jewelry, we can

draw the attention of nobles quickly, come let's go see the owner
of the building "
"Hey, is that Ghost?"
"Yeah, it seems like him"
"Who's that girl with him?"
"Can we get an autograph?"
Seeing that Michael had stopped, some of the people in the crowd
recognized him.
The people who had seen him stopped, and kept watching him
from afar. He entered the door and saw a bald-headed man
wearing golden robes sitting in the rather empty building. He was
meditating and hearing the footsteps, he opened his eyes.
"How can I help you two?"
"I saw the sign outside, I'd like to buy this building, state your
price" the man stood up and rubbed his shaved chin for a second.
"Young man, my price is not cheap, forgive me for being blunt but
you or your friend here don't seem very rich to me" Since Gaya
said that at most, a building would cost 25,000 gold coins
therefore he didn't have to worry about the cost as he had 30,000
gold coins plus 10,000 gold coins he got from Hart's space ring.
"Alright, 20,000 gold coins, non-negotiable" Michael looked at
Gaya as she gave a nod of approval indicating he's not ripping
them off.
The shopkeeper had built this store using most of his savings to
open a gem business. But his son became a father and his wife
was urging him to leave Bredia to go live with his son. Therefore,
he decided to sell this building and because he used most of his
savings, he wanted to get most of his coins back, hence he stated
a high price which left him with no buyers.
However, Gaya knew a 5-star Alchemist would earn 20,000 gold

coins with a couple of pills, so she had no problem buying this
place.
"I'll take it" Michael nodded and ordered the system to stack
20,000 gold coins in front of him.
He gave the gold coins to the shopkeeper who was quite

surprised but he quickly took the coins into his space ring. The
shopkeeper then gave him a contract and in a few seconds, the
deal was done.
"Now we have a building, let's go shopping for the pill ingredients"

Chapter 48 - Another Enemy?!
Successfully buying the building to set up their Alchemy business,

Michael and Gaya once again took on a stroll through Bradford.
Bradford was a huge flourishing city. As Gaya led him throughout

the city, they came across several thriving streets of Bradford.
Then the two finally came to a stop right in front of a massive

building with the words, "Green Heaven" written in elegant
calligraphy.
"Human, this is the biggest treasure store in Bradford. If you want

anything rare or valuable, you can find it here. Also, they have the
biggest collection of everything we need to set up our business"
He noticed that she uses the word 'we' more often and begins to
be a team player.
"Let's go inside then"
Within Green Heaven, many richly dressed men were walking

around along with several sturdy-looking guards that were all
looking with an attentive gaze at the merchandise around them.
"Look at that, idiots looking for fancy items to add to their

collections, what's the point of spending millions of gold for a
single painting?" She said glaring at the group of people who were
checking out a fancy painting. He agreed with her in his mind as
he too had the same thought when he saw people spend millions
on french paintings or weird statues.
He only spent his money on mansions, guns, and video games

that had a practical use.
"I miss my Xbox, PlayStation and my PC" he sighed inside and

continued to follow Gaya.
"The first floor is mainly for useless things for rich good for
nothings"
Afterward, Michael and Gaya climbed up to the second story. As

Michael approached the second floor, two soldiers in full metal
plate armor blocked his path to the stairway. One of them looked
at Michael before speaking out politely, "My Lord, my lady, show
us your way of payment before entering"
"Human, take out the gold coins" She whispered to him and said
to the guards
"We don't use pay cubes, we deal with cold hard coins" Michael
retrieved the remaining gold coins and stacked them before the
guards.
"Can we go inside now?" Gaya said, "Of course, please enter my

lord, my lady!" The two men instantly gestured for him to go past
them.
Pay cubes were a way of storing and saving money, within the
Elon continent, the color of the pay cube also signified one's
wealth. It was a symbol of status that was a requirement for
entering some businesses.
Fortunately, Abras's memories had some knowledge about the

pay cubes so he was not entirely clueless.
"Where do I get a pay cube?" after entering through the door, he

quickly asked Gaya.
"Of course you don't know, you can't get a pay cube whenever
you want, you need to have at least 100 thousand gold coins in
your pocket. And then, you can get one from a Grand spire bank
branch"
"Remind me to get one"
"I'm not your notebook you know" she rolled her eyes but he knew
she would do that.
Throughout the entire floor, there were many strange and bizarre
plants and items on display. Ranging from many different colored
flowers to strange lumps of iron. There were even many animal
parts and organs in glass bottles. Among the items, there was a
small pile of iron sand. The iron sand was darkly colored and
exuded a constant black flame. Nothing for fuel but the air around
it, the fire burned constantly without ever being extinguished.
Aside from that, there were a few other strange crystals that
glowed brightly along with a few ancient looking Alchemy
furnaces. In short, there were many fantastical things to be seen,
some from the past and many weren't ordinary-looking things at
all.
The Second Floor of the Green Heaven didn't have as many

people as the first floor. There were only twenty expensively
dressed men that casually walked around and selected an item
that caught their interest.
"Stop gawking around, human, you're embarrassing me" of

course, he gawked around as a child entered a museum for the
first time. Every time he thought that this world couldn't surprise
him anymore, new things would do just that. In his previous time,
he had to avoid going to public places in his free time as there
was a risk of exposing himself. Even though none had seen his
real face, he preferred better to be safe than sorry. So places like
these brought the child inside him. Gaya exaggerated things by
saying he's embarrassing her but in truth, she liked messing with
him.
She dragged him to the counter herself after he had taken too
long gawking around. Right in front of them on a counter were
countless bizarre-looking plants, items, and crystals. He already
decided what kind of pills and potions he's going to make and
everything he needed in his mind.
Calling over the manager of the second floor, he placed a list on

the counter,
"I need everything in this list"

The manager was a white-haired elder. Although he was quite old,
both of his eyes shined brightly as if both pupils were a shining
star. The manager looked at the list and then him as if to size him
up before speaking with a small smile,
"My lord, the items in this list, are you an apprentice of an

Alchemist?" Gaya became irritated about the old manager's
inquiry as she was about to open her mouth for a snooty reply,
Michael kicked her leg.
"Ouch"
"Something like that, Manager Ti"
"We have everything on the list, my lord but the total price will be
rather high" Manager Ti took a few seconds to do the math and
said
"How much?"
"6000" Place as big as this and popular as this wouldn't swindle a

customer like roadside stores, therefore, even though Gaya wasn't
completely certain about the price of the items in the list, she
nodded when he looked at her. Besides, she knew that the prices
are fixed and no point in negotiating.
"I'll take it"
"Stop following me! You're irritating me to death."
He was about to take the gold coins when he heard a girl

shouting. He momentarily stopped and turned back to see a few
people entering the floor. He counted ten bodyguards who
adorned silver kevlar like armor and held spears in their hands.
They seemed to be following a young woman who shouted a
moment ago at the young man who was trying to persuade her
while following her. The girl seemed to belong to a wealthy family.
Both Gaya and him looked at the young girl. She was good-
looking and suddenly, the angry girl's eyes fell on Micheal as he
was in the midst of staring at her. She shouted, "You lecher! What
are you looking at?"
Michael was taken back by surprise as the young girl had decided
to take out her anger on him. Although the girl seemed to be at
Body refining stage 3, the guards around her were at Body
Strengthening stage 2 and 3 which indicated the mighty
background of this haughty girl. Hence, he decided to ignore her
rather than say something that could bring unnecessary trouble.
"What is with me and angry girls?" he ignored the girl and turned
his gaze at the manager back. Gaya, on the other hand, looked at
the girl from top to bottom and when she noticed the symbol the
guards had on their chests, she quickly turned around.
But when the young girl noticed him ignoring her without showing
any emotions, she became more enraged and shouted at him,
"You rascal, no point of turning your head now, I saw you gawking
at me, haven't you seen a beautiful girl before?" It was true that he
was an assassin and always preferred to avoid as many troubles
as possible but now, the girl crossed the line. If he didn't say
anything now, he wouldn't be a badass, would he?
"Excuse me" Gaya knew very well that he has two sides of him,
one side of him was the funny cool calm side and the other was
the evil cruel killer side. Now she could tell the other side of him
sticking its head out.
"I never gawked at you, I just heard you shouting and turned my
head, like everyone else in this room," he said and then pointed
his finger at the youngster who was following her in the first place
"If you have one guy following you, it doesn't mean you are the
miss world and everyone is courting you" When he finished
replying to the girl, everyone was dumbfounded, especially
Manager Ti and the bodyguards.

Chapter 49 - Shall We Dance?
One of her female bodyguards couldn't keep her straight face as

she looked at him in shock. In the meantime, Gaya tried to pinch
his hand and let him know who the girl in front of them is before
he does something that puts both of them in trouble. But Gaya
couldn't help but admire him when it comes to making enemies
out of beauties.
Moreover, his guts were worthy of being praised. Not many people
could dare to speak in such a manner in front of the most irrational
and overbearing girl in Bradford.
The girl stared at him with fierce eyes. She then said, "Do you
know who I am? As you can see… I'm already not in a fine mood
today. I can help you in getting rid of your bones… if you want"
"Bitch is trying to get herself killed" Gaya cursed the girl in her
mind and grabbed Michael's hand sneakily.
"Look, Lady Jane, Daughter of Baron Totonk " the last part was
unnecessary but Gaya used it to reveal the identity of the girl to
Michael.
He was obviously shocked and cursed at his luck but he was not
going to back off as it was too late to back off without being seen
as a coward.
The boy who followed the girl was startled. He recalled that this
woman – Jane Totonk was the biggest terror of Bradford. He had
been beaten up by this girl in the past because of his love for her.
The beating had been so severe that it had taken him nearly a
week to get off his bed.
"Without your father's identity as Baron, you're just another girl

who thinks too highly of herself, now if you excuse me" Michael
turned to look at Manager Ti as he wanted to leave this place as
soon as possible. Michael feared that if she talks too much, he
would beat her to a pulp.
Jane's face turned red in anger and she seemed as if she was
about to pounce on him and give him a good beating. According
to the things Gaya heard, the young woman had great fighting
abilities even though she was extremely young. She could easily
defeat a normal Body refining stage level 5 cultivator due to the
powerful spells and fighting techniques she learned. However,
Gaya knew that Ghost is far from normal and he could not only kill
her but also her bodyguards.
"Hahaha" the girl started to laugh maniacally "I can't wait to see
how are you going to talk when my guards knock all your teeth
out," she said to Michael and looked at her guards "I want to see
him beg for mercy, as for his whore, throw her out of my store"
"Whore?! Human, kill them!" Hearing the girl call Gaya a whore,
Gaya lost all her reasonings. Compared to a princess and a
prodigy like her, how could a girl like Jane, a mere daughter of a
baron insult her like this in front of all these people?
"Stop!" Michael raised his hand and said as the guards halted
their movement.
"Don't tell me you're going to beg just like that" Jane held her
head high, and arrogantly looked at him. "Why don't we take this
fight outside?" Since the fight is unavoidable, he wanted to make
the best out of it. If he fought inside here, only twenty or so people
would see, but if he fought outside, more people would see him,
hence, more badass points.
Even though he knew he's going to face some bad consequences

because of this bitch, he couldn't help but feel excited thinking
about the badass points he's going to reap from this fight.
For a moment, the girl and the bodyguards looked like a bunch of
sheep walking towards the Lion without any ideas of the slaughter
that's about to happen. Gaya knew that there's no stopping him
now as Jane sealed her fate by her mouth.
"Why did you have to provoke her? You're indeed a big deal in
Bradford. But, you messed with a wrong human"
An idea crossed Jane's mind as she looked at the arrogant face of

the youngster standing in front of her, "Very well, if you want the
whole city to see my guards beat you, so be it" She had spoken
these words without any hesitation. She was clearly an extremely
bold woman.
"Miss…" One of Jane's female bodyguards tugged at her sleeve in

an attempt to discourage her. The female guard didn't know what
was Jane's motivation to mess with the young man but looking at
his black outfit, she seemed to recall a person called Ghost who
massacred the entire Blood and Bone sect and killed the Sect
Master Ralphy. The female guard also heard that Ghost wore a
full black outfit that seems unique like the ones the youngster
before is her wearing.
If he was the same person who killed Ralphy, the guard wasn't
sure that she could defeat him. Also, if what she heard that
happened in Heaven's gate competition was true, he's a prodigy
and prodigies are extremely unpredictable.
However, Jane wasn't in the mind to care about anything. Jane

said excitedly, "Come on then"
Michael was still calm and did not show any expression on his
face while Jane's bodyguards looked at each other and smiled
bitterly. Then, they walked towards the door to exit the building.
The people on the floor also followed them as they didn't want to
miss the entertainment. The bodyguards were feeling pity for the
youngster but no one among them was in a position to do
anything. They blamed the youngster's bad luck and bad mouth to
mess with Jane who was renowned for being arrogant and
overbearing in Bradford.
Although Gaya knew about Jane's personality, Gaya felt like the
girl wanted to pick a fight with Ghost. She wondered why and
planned to ask her after he terrifies Jane by killing all her guards.
"Oh fuck, the little devil Jane! "
"Shut up, if she hears you, she will kill you"
"Het, look its Ghost"
"What is he doing with her?"
They finally arrived outside and caught the eyes of many people
on the streets. Many people's expressions changed, and their
faces became as pale as a white sheet when they saw Jane.
In Bradford, Baron Totonk had more authority and power than the
King of Bredia himself. It was not because of Baron Totonk's
leadership but because of Jane's grandfather, Reginald Totonk
who was a Core Formation, level 7 cultivator. He was one of the
characters in the kingdom Bredia who had the capabilities to
challenge Bredia's finest warrior under King Bredia.
Jane was the only daughter of the Totonk family. She had three
brothers who were serving in the military and two uncles who
were also great generals in the army. Therefore, the might of the
Totonk family could not be underestimated. She had been greatly
pampered as she was the only daughter of the family. So, she had
become spoilt and conceited. However, she was extremely skilled.
Her level of cultivation in Arch Energy had reached a superior
level even though she was very young.
The people had given her the nickname 'Alpha girl' because she
was blessed(or cursed) with a strong feminist mentality who
looked won on all males. Most of the Young Masters present at
the scene had a bitter experience with her in the past. Also, she
was often seen with one of the prodigies of Bredia, Celina.
"Young man, if you want to blame something, blame your bad

luck" There were sixteen male and female guards around Jane
and one of the men said looking at Michael.
"Oh shit, they are going to fight?
"Who is that kid in black?"

"He's the one who won Heaven's gate competition, you moron,
Ghost, the Ghost"
"Holy shit!"
"Ghost vs Devil!"
"Holy moly, what the hell is going on here?"
The crowd went crazy and murmured looking at the scene while
walking backward away from the scene as they didn't want to be
collateral damage by standing in their way.
"Human beat them to near death but do not kill them" Gaya
whispered into Michael's ears before walking away from him. As
much as he loved to disagree with Gaya, he knew she's right.
Beating them to a pulp was bad enough but if he killed them, the
consequences would be disastrous, at least until he became
strong enough, he couldn't afford to be the number one target of
the Baron. So for now, he had to settle for only badass points, not
experience points.
"I hope you have good health insurance" His smile freaked the
guard as if one was smiling at a time like this, he must be either
crazy or extremely powerful. But showing the doubts aside, the
guard lifted his sword and rushed towards Michael.
Michael just merely sneered as bolts of lightning rushed out of his

fingers. On the opposite, a powerful aura surged from the sword
and completely enshrouded the guard's entire body.
With the Responsive shield and his current strength, there was no
need for him to use his full power unless he wanted to kill the
guard. He reduced the power of the bolts of lightning and it would
be enough to bring the guard to his knees and break a few bones
in the process.
This was a battle between a Body Refining stage, a level 5 fighter,

and a Level 2 Body Strengthening stage fighter!
The guard had just approached Michael but in an instant, an
enormous force had enveloped him. His expression changed
drastically as te guard realized that something was wrong.
"Lightning dash"
Thud, thud, thud!
The guard halted his steps when he saw the youngster in front of
him disappear and then he felt a sharp pain all over his body. The
crowd could only see a light dance around the guards as his body
bled more and more. Jane's face also turned pale because she
could see what's happening more clearly than the commoners. He
was punching the guard back and forth with the force enough to
damage his metal armor and break his bones.
A few moments after the guard started to move his body in weird
shapes, he was sent flying a few feet. He fell to the ground with a
loud thud, immediately coughing up a spurt of blood and then lost
his consciousness.
The whole crowd went so silent instantly that you could hear a pin
drop!
"Damn" Gaya raised her brows looking at the bloodied bones

sticking out of the guard's body.
"Now, shall we dance?" Michael flicked his wrist as the blood of

the guard splashed on the ground.
Chapter 50 - Breaking Bones
Boom!
Michael's Level 5 Body refining power had been released to its full
potential, to the amazement of everyone in the crowd.
"How… how is this possible?"
Everyone stared wide-eyed and incredulously at him, their minds

completely blank at the sight.
How could such a young fighter at the Body refining stage defeat
a Body Strengthening stage warrior?
...…
Jane's face was full of shock and confusion as she could hardly
believe what had just happened. What was even more difficult for
her to accept was that it had been only a few days since he
competed in Heaven's gate competition as a Formation stage
cultivator. How had he achieved Level 5 of the Body Refining
Stage at such a terrifying speed?
"It's impossible! It's utterly impossible…" muttered Jane but she

quickly hid her shock and shouted at the remaining guards.
"What are you waiting for?! GO!"
The rest of the guards stepped forward and surrounded him.
"I suggest you all attack together?" jeered Michael with a snicker.
He was not surprised by them ganging up at all. It was a viable

and correct strategy to deal with someone as powerful as himself.
But because of the Responsive shield, he had no fear towards the
guards.
"Wow, look at him, he seems so cool and calm"
"I think Jane met her match"
"Let's wait and see, I can't believe he can beat all the guards, after
all, he's just a Body Refining stage cultivator " The onlookers
started to murmur among themselves looking at the scene as a
continuous beep sound rang in Michael's mind.



….
However, instead of starting to attack Michael, they gave the

injured guard a healing pill and then locked their ferocious eyes on
him, ready to pounce at him.
One of them was a powerful woman who was the best amongst
the other guards, at Level 4 of the Body Strengthening stage. She
was Jane's personal guardian, and she was deeply enraged by
the sight of her friend's as well as her colleague's heavy injuries.
"System, how much for upgrading the Responsive shield to the

next level?"
[The Level 3 Responsive shield will be able to block all the attacks
of or under the Body Strengthening stage level 6 ]
[The upgrade cost will be 9,000 badass points]
It was a huge jump in upgrade cost as it only cost him 1500 points
to upgrade the shield from level 1 to level 2. Yet, to upgrade to
Level 3, he had to pay 9000 points, and also, the shield's effect
would be only increased four levels of the cultivation. Previously it
was able to protect him from the attacks of Body Strengthening
stage level 2 and now, at level 3, it could protect him from the
attacks of Body Straightening stage, level 6.
"Upgrade the Shield, System, I don't want to underestimate my

enemies or overestimate myself" He played far too many RPG
games and movies to know what would happen when you either
overestimate yourself or underestimate the opponent in a battle.
Because of this and his gut feeling, he quickly upgraded the shield
and exited the system to continue to reap the badass points off
this fight without any worries.
"Get on your knees and apologize now!" shouted the woman

angrily at him when he exited the system. Her tone was icy cold,
and she seemed to be out for blood.
Many of the people in the crowd were shocked. They had never
expected
Michael beat the guard to near death. He would have to wield

extraordinary power to achieve such a feat!
Now all eyes turned automatically to the female guard and

Michael.
Michael, however, merely smirked at the woman.
"I'll give you the same offer, kneel down and apologize. I may
leave a few bones in your bodies unbroken" His smile on his lips
turned into a cold scowl.
Gasp!
Everyone in the crowd was horrified at his attitude. Even though

some of them had seen what he could do in Heaven's gate
competition, they still couldn't believe that he could defeat a
powerful warrior such as this woman in front of him.
...…
The guards were even more enraged now and Jane was
trembling in anger. Only one of them remained beside Jane,
keeping her from jumping into a fight with Michael. The rest all
stepped forward and unleashed their powerful swords, all
simultaneously charging towards him.
A group of lions was now pouncing on a rabbit with all their might
and only Gaya knew who's the lion and rabbit in this scene.
They all knew too that his strength was not to be underestimated,
so they each use their most powerful moves to besiege him.
However, he remained calm and was not the least bit afraid of the
oncoming attack. He had every possible move in his arsenal to
fight against these bastards. For instance, he could just use Ignitia
and easily eliminate a few of these fighters without much effort.
He didn't choose to use lightning bolts, though. Instead, he

stomped the ground as the sword which was previously wielded
by the guard flew up and landed in his hand. He then dashed
straight towards the guards who were approaching him.
"Lightning dash"
Obviously, he was not going to care about gender when it comes

to battle. With every swing of his sword, his cuts were neat and
precisely on target.
The whole crowd was so shocked by the scene that was unfolding
that they could hardly blink. Many were unable to see what's going
on, including the guards because of the speed of his movements.
Ah!
At this point, the air in their surroundings grew colder and colder,
as if something mysterious was closing in on them. But none of
them noticed it yet.
Jane was now blinded by fury, and her face turned bright red. She
had been practically ruling Bradford and everyone would tremble
in front of her, yet today, her own guards were being beaten to
death one by one. Moreover, her guards were struggling to even
land a single blow.



...
Michael left the main female guard who asked him to kneel down
alone for desert and only beat the others to a pulp. Seeing her
colleagues and friends fall one by one bathed in their own blood,
her murderous aura intensified.
"You piece of filth! I'll break your bones with my bare hands! You'll
fucking die today!" cursed the guard as Michael deactivated the
lightning dash.
Around him, the guards lied on the ground in their own pool of
blood. Many bones were sticking out of their body and their faces
were messed up to the point that their own mothers would have a
hard time recognizing them.
"Shit!"
"Oh my god!"
The crowd trembled at the sight and weak-hearted ones looked

pale. Only Gaya had a wicked smile on her face and craved some
snacks.
"Let me go" on the other side, Jane tried to dash forwards and
fight him herself but the guard with her didn't let her go.
"Miss Jane, I don't think you can defeat him, hell, I doubt even
Maria could defeat him. The best move is now to leave this place
and tend to their wounds before they bleed to death" The guard
told Jane and he didn't care about Jane throwing a temper
tantrum because his first priority was to protect her.
At Morningstar sect, she was ranked within the top 50 of her batch
before she joined as a personal guard to Jane. She personally
recruited everyone in Jane's protection detail and trained them
herself and considered the guards as her own elite students. But
now, he almost killed them and prepared to do the same to her.
Thinking about this, her blood boiled in anger and this was not
about Jane's order anymore but personal for her.
She stared at him furiously. "Just like what you did to them, I will
break all your bones and bathe in your blood!" she snapped.
Following what she said, a flying sword materialized in front of her

out of thin air. Fierce sword light appeared like flames and made
the people close their eyes for a moment with its brightness.
The sword light was like an overwhelming storm that rushed

fiercely towards Michael. This was beyond her level of endurance.
There was no need to tolerate further!
The female guard wanted to defeat him by any means necessary

as the crowd of onlookers gulped in mouthfuls of cold air, their
faces looking grim.
"This sword technique… can it be the Sun Flare Art of Morningstar

Sect?"
"This is too strong, such momentum, this technique clearly

contains formidable sword will!"
"She's really infuriated. By using such a potent attack, she

obviously wants him dead no matter what!"
"The Morningstar sect is truly powerful!"
Many people among the crowd felt a chill that made them numb in
the head. Even Gaya frowned when she noticed the formidable
aura the sword is radiating.
On the other hand, Michael still wore a serene expression, facing
what was to come calmly.No matter how powerful or fancy the
spell, she was just a Level 4 of the Body Strengthening cultivator.
"break him, Maria!" Jane shouted as the guards dashed at

Michael who had no intention to move his body.
Boom!
There was a loud collision as the sword clashed with the

Responsive shield. The after waves produced by the clash swept
across the area and pushed many people to the ground as well as
broke some glass windows around them. The crowd stared in
horror as Gaya murmured,
"This bastard really is very powerful!"



Chapter 51 - Punching Bag
When the dust rose by their clash cleared, they saw Michael
standing there without even a cut on his body. Everyone's eyes
landed on him in aghast and the female guard couldn't believe
what she's seeing.
"How could he survive that?"
"What spell he used?"
"There's not even a cut on his body!"
This kind of power somehow seemed too formidable to the crowd.

He snickered again and brushed the dust off his shoulder as
badass points kept increasing in the system.
"I don't know why your Young Miss picked a fight with me but it's
not going to end well for you"
The guard beside Jane and Jane wore severe expressions on

their faces. The female guard, Maria, who had fought him was
already their strongest member. She had even executed the
Morningstar sect's Sun Flare Art, and yet it couldn't even touch
him. They had now realized why he was calm and cool in the face
of battle with them. The female guardian was so enraged that she
was shaking.
Although her cultivation strength was higher than him, her sword
technique had been so easily dismissed by a teenager. This was
difficult for her to accept. The more she thought about it, the
angrier she became.
However, he didn't care about her anger at all as he casually

walked towards her. Each step he took forward, she took a step
backward subconsciously in fear. Gaya now strolled forward head
high and her hands behind her back to join Michael to share bask
in his spotlight.
"What is he planning to do?"
"Is he going to kill her?"
"Yeah I think so, he's crazy"
"I hope he breaks that bitch Jane's teeth"
"Shut up!"
The crowd looked at Michael with fear and excitement.
"Bastard! If you touch her!" On the other side, Jane screamed and
struggled to free herself from the clutch of the guard. She didn't
expect him to be so powerful even though she was warned by
Celina.
But ignoring her shout, Michael clutched Maria's neck as she

gasped for air and wiggled. She had used most of her Arch
energy in her last attack and now, she didn't have much energy
left to fight him. The system's red warning about killing a person
already appeared in his mind, just like when the time at Heaven's
gate competition.
Since he was not going to kill her, he ignored the warning and
smiled at Maria wickedly. A cold chill ran through her spine when
she saw his smile and before she could do anything, he punched
her in the face. She felt like a hammer hitting her face and almost
blacked out.
"No, stop!"
Almost at the same time, a cry was heard from afar and it was
Jane who seemed boiling in anger.
However, he did not stop or let Maria go. His eyes were cold and
without any hesitation, he continued to use her as a punching bag.
Each of his punches had enough force to break her bones, and
after rapidly landing twenty or thirty punches, Maria completely
lost her consciousness and his fist started to ache.



….
A long series of system messages popped up and rang in his

mind, In a matter of seconds, his Badass Points skyrocketed! He
checked the total number of h Points on the interface screen and
discovered that in the blink of an eye, he'd accumulated a total of
6,000 Badass Points!
But of course, if you take into account the 22,000 Badass Points
that he still owed the system, then he was in fact still very poor—
but this was indeed a good harvest.
"Bastard!" Jane cursed in an angry manner as she finally used

Arch energy to break free from the guard's clutches. She then
rushed towards him and leaped at him with a fireball in her hand
"Miss Jane Stop!"
"Wind Blast" Michael just sneered and raised his hands to send a
wave of wind to blast her mid-air. Her anger and arrogance
overcame her reasoning and as a price, she was sent flying
before even she could attack him with the fireball.
"Ah!" The guard was quick enough to catch her in the air before
she hit the ground and suffered some wounds.
"Lightning dash" And when she realized what just happened,

Michael appeared before her. As much as Gaya loved to kill Jane,
she knew what would happen if he killed Jane, therefore, she
rushed towards Michael.
"Ah huh" the guard immediately placed his hand on his sword
fearing that Michael would hurt Jane but Michael raised his finger
and stopped him.
Jane's eyes contained uncontrollable anger than fear as he

smiled,
"The reason I leave you alive is I don't like wars and I'm not going
to start one with your daily because of you. But if you mess with
me again, you and all the Bradford will know the power behind
me" He said in a rather hushed voice as only Jane and the guard
could hear.
"Let's go" He turned back and said to Gaya. She nodded and
gave Jane the middle finger before following him behind. The
crowd instantly moved away from his path and stared at him
terrified but many youngsters who had a bitter experience with
Jane looked at him with eyes full of respect and worship. He
taught the little devil a true lesson today and earned their respect.
Many of course thought that he was afraid of killing her because

of her status as Baron's daughter. But those can go screw
themselves as far as Michael was concerned. Beating the guards
alone messed up his plans and might bring him some bitter
consequences, let alone killing Jane, which would bring down the
wrath of a powerful local ruler.
That was why he bluffed about the power behind him to Jane. The
reason he said quietly was he didn't want to scare off the potential
badass points givers. How could he earn more badass points if
everyone became afraid of him thinking that he has a mighty
background?
He only wanted the Baron to think like that. A genius leader like
him wouldn't act quickly without getting all his information
checked, and if Michael's guess was right, the Baron would buy
his bluff and would not do anything rash, at least for some time.
Michael could use that time to grow in strength and forge powerful
connections within Bredia.
"That bitch! Because of her, we couldn't buy what we needed.

Human, what do we do now?" Gaya was pissed off about Jane
messing with their plans.
"You tell me, it's obvious Green Heaven won't sell anything to us
anymore, so we have to look for another store," He said but Gaya
shook her head
"You don't understand human, no one would sell anything to you,

the first thing she will do is blacklist you. So good luck buying
anything in Bradford unless you reveal your star level to the Baron
himself"
She was right and although he was extremely frustrated at the fact
that he couldn't kill Jane, he calmed himself to think of another
plan. He already bought the building for 20,000 and wasn't going
to let the coins go to waste. However, he couldn't directly reveal
his secret as he planned to surprise everyone after he opens the
shop.
"Hmm, Sunrise sect has a herbal garden right? I have to use that,
get in" he raised his sleeve and motioned her to attach herself to
him.
Yet, she seemed reluctant, "You became too powerful, your soul
energy will resist"
"So you can't attach yourself to me like before?"
"I can but it will be only for two or three hours," said Gaya.
"It'll be enough, come get in" He was relieved to hear that she
could do that as he didn't want to buy anything from the system to
remedy this situation.
She then closed her eyes and in a few seconds, she transformed
into a small light ball. The light ball merged itself with Michael and
when he saw his forearm, he saw the black snake tattoo appear
again.
Together they dashed towards the Sunrise sect where Daniel and
Ricky were waiting for them.
Chapter 52 - Returning To The
Sect
Michael activated the lightning dash and moved towards the

direction of Sunrise sect like a bolt of lightning. The battle with the
guards had made him completely understand his current combat
strength and capabilities, so the battle had provided him with lots
of insights on what part he needs to improve and focus on. For
instance, he relied on the Responsive too much and didn't have a
powerful nonlethal attack.
"Hey Gaya, do you think I beat them enough? How long will it take
the guards to heal?" he asked while dashing towards the Sunrise
sect.
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious," he said but Gaya knew that he's brewing

something evil in his mind and wanted more information from her.
But when it comes to evil things, she liked the way he thinks and
considered him a fellow evil-doer.
"I could have beat them more and crippled their cultivation, still,
you did mess them up, especially the last guard. Without any
expensive healing pills or portions, it will at least take them a year
to get out of the bed, even then, they have to use a wheelchair or
crutches for a couple of years to move around" He had no
sympathy for the guards because they would have done the same
to him if he was weak.
"What if they took a healing potion brewed by me?"
"Hahaha" Suddenly Gaya burst into evil laughter after hearing

him,
"You're planning to sell Healing potions to the guards, the same
guards who were beaten to half death by you in the first place,
aren't you?"
"Yes"
"There's a 90 percent chance Jane would buy your Healing

potions if you sell them in Bradford. Considering the way she was
looking at the guards when you were beating them, I can tell she
has a soft spot for them and hate to see her guards broken, after
all, she was the reason for their state. I have to tell you human, I
like the way you think"
"Thank you, snakey" he chuckled.
"Don't call me that" she shouted at him but he loved making her
angry so her shout only made him more amused.
"So the last thing you said to her, is it true?" Although his bluff to
Jane before leaving the scene was hushed, Gaya heard it loud
and clear.
"What do you think?" instead of answering, he questioned her to

see what's her take, after all, she wasn't a simple-minded person.
"I think what you said is half true, you don't have a family but you
do, however, have someone powerful behind you. How else would
you have learned Alchemy and these weird spells you use?" He
was slightly surprised by her answer because it was spot on. The
only thing she missed was the powerful person behind him is not
an actual person but the system, the all-mighty badass system.
Of course, he wouldn't tell her about the system as only a stupid

person would do that.
"Am I right?" Gaya asked and he sensed a tinge of proudness in

her voice.
"Maybe" was his answer and then in a few minutes, they reached
the outskirts of the Sunrise sect.
The Sect was located between River town and Bradford. Until
now, he didn't pay much mind to the location but now he scanned
everything while moving towards his house. It was a land with
splendid mountain ranges and tall mountain peaks. The natural
Arch energy was rich on top of the mountain compared to the
mountain base or foothills.
Everywhere he turned, he could see nothing but lush green

grasslands and various sizes of mountains. The scene vaguely
resembled the Torre a Castello of Italy, only greener and more
hills. If this place was on earth, it would have been a paradise for
trekkers but he wondered why or how many plants surrounding
the sect buildings dried up.
Adding to the beauty of the place, the mountains were surrounded

by a faint fog. This place truly gave off a holy and noble feeling.
This mountain range was called Scarlet summit before it was

named Sunrise Mountains by the founders of the Sunrise sect.
Countless mountain peaks spread across the mountain range. It
was said that the founder of the Sunrise Sect had discovered an
underground Arch energy vein here, therefore, he occupied this
place and established the Sunrise Sect. However, the energy vein
of the Sunrise sect grew weaker and weaker with time and
became one of the many reasons for the sect's current situation.
The energy vein, aside from it being able to provide the best
cultivation environment and gather natural energies, was also a
representation of fortune. Each of the three big sects had
occupied land with energy veins, this was the reason why they
were eternally prosperous and had produced countless geniuses.
"This place is beautiful!"
Stopping at the foothill, he stared at the beautiful scenery filled

with light fog and couldn't help but praise it.
"Beautiful but the Arch energy density is weak, no wonder they

cant produce powerful cultivators as the other three sects"
Gaya's voice sounded in his mind and her reaction was not like
Michael's. Her experience was much richer compared to him. A
small sect like the Sunrise sect wasn't qualified to even be ranked
in Nagaland.
"Your royal highness, can you get out of my arm now?" Michael
said sarcastically,
"For a moment, you sounded nice" she growled and appeared

before him in her human form. Both of them started moving to
walk up the mountain.
"Brother Ghost"
"Master Ghost!"
Just when they had ascended half the mountain, they heard some
shouts, and then a few girls dressed in orange clothes walked
towards them with a wide smile on their faces. But when some of
the girls saw Gaya standing beside him, their faces lost the color
and seemed discouraged.
Others quickly surrounded Gaya and curiously looked at her.
"You must be Sister Aelia"
"And who told you that?" She answered with her trademark
scornful attitude as the girls laughed.
"You just like Teacher Mark said, hehe"
"And Brother Ghost, did you kill something on the way? You reek
of blood"
One of the girls asked twitching her nose
"Just beat up some guards in Bradford" he casually said and

continued to walk up the mountain.
"Yeah, the guards of Bradford Baron's daughter" the girls almost

tripped when they heard Gaya and looked terrified
"Oh my god, you messed with Evil Jane? Please tell me, you
didn't do anything to her"
"We left that bitch unharmed, for now," She shamelessly boasted
to the girls while he chose to remain silent rather than spoiling her
moment.
Since Gaya was said to be Ghost's friend, the girls didn't mock her
for being a mortal girl as Gaya continued to describe everything
that happened in Bradford and centered herself as the main
character.
"Then Ghost stopped me from teaching the guard a lesson, if he

didnt stop me, I would have broken a few more bones in his body"
he stopped walking and stared at her but she gave him a 'let me
have my moment' look as he sighed and continued walking up the
mountain.
He was really surprised at her talent of lying so convincingly as

the girls had already started to believe that she fought the guards
beside him despite being a mortal. Looking at the girls eating out
of her hands and Michael didn't say anything, Gaya lied through
her teeth more boldly and enjoyed the worship and admiration in
the girls' eyes.
Although the girls were terrified at the fact these two just messed
with one of the most influential and dangerous persons in Bredia,
the girls couldn't help but admire Ghost's valor and after Gaya's
story, they also admired Gaya's courage, of course, only Michael
knew what Gaya boasted was nothing but hogwash.
Chapter 53 - Wakanda Forever!
"Sect Leader Claire, Brother Ghost is back" Jack, who saw

Michael at his home from a distance, quickly ran to Claire's
mansion and informed her.
Elder Reiner and Elder Mark were busy teaching the students as
only Claire and Elder Miles left the building to go meet Ghost.
Claire was in a good and lightened mood today as Elder Sandra
got better after taking the pill concocted by Michael but she didn't
know her mood was going to hit rock bottom soon.
While she and Elder Miles were following Jack to Michael's home,
Michael was busy scrolling through the cloth section of the
System. He loved black outfits and even though he filtered the
section to show only black ones, he was still left with a huge
number of choices.
"Tuxedo?! I'll look like a freakin clown in this world if I wore a

tuxedo"
If he wore a tuxedo in this world, it would be like a teenage girl

among a group of old women; he would be in the spotlight. He
already had enough of attracting bad people like Jane.
"System, do you have Black Panther outfit?" He excitedly asked

the system after recalling the black outfit King T'challa wore in the
Black Panther movie.
However, his smile froze on his face when the system showed him
the Black panther's vibranium armor that cost 500,000 badass
points. Fortunately, he didn't want the Vibranium outfit but the King
T'challa robes that he wore when T'challa welcomed Bruce
Banner to Wakanda.
"Not this armor system, the black robes he wore in the movie"
Then in a few seconds, the outfit finally appeared in front of him
with its stats.
Item Name: T'Challa King Robes
Durability: 1 year
Special Traits: None
Price: 500 Badass points
"Awesome, for WAKANDA!!" he laughed happily and equipped the

outfit. The main reason for his purchase was the neo costume had
started to reek blood and he wore it ever since he came to this
world, so it's time for him to makeover. He then wore the Mark 3
grappling hook under his sleeve and left the system.
"Young Master Ghost is taking quite a long time to change dress,"

Ricky, who was in an elevated mood thinking about his monthly
wage, said.
"Obviously Young Master Ghost is rummaging through his clothes

to choose one" Daniel replied as Gaya couldn't wait outside
anymore and rushed into the house to drag him out.
"Why is he taking this long? Is he wearing makeup or something

like girls?" Gaya complained. She was not the kind of girl who
would get ready for a few hours wearing all the makeup from top
to bottom. When she was a princess, she rarely wore fancy cloth
or makeup, and instead, she used the money allocated for her
personal expense to bribe officials and ministers in Nagaland.
Only because of these bribes, she was able to escape the prison
before her stepmother, the current Queen of Nagaland orders her
henchmen to kill her.
She was already frustrated by waiting for him and when she saw
him standing before a mirror and checking his hair, she became
furious.
The way he looked at his reflection was like a husband enjoying
his wife's beauty for the first time.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" She shouted. Although he could
see himself in the system's status window, looking through the
mirror had a unique feel, and he loved what's in the mirror.
"Jeez, quit shouting and let me correct my hair" On earth, he had

short length hair but now, he had shoulder-length hair that
required some time to tie back.
"You're weird as hell, now come out! everyone is waiting for you"
He sighed and followed her back outside where he saw the girls
narrating the events to Sect Leader Claire. Daniel and Ricky
trembled as Claire looked pale.
"Ghost is it true? Did you attack Jane's guards?" Elder Miles

asked as his voice broke in fear.
Michael however seemed calm and smiled at Claire and Miles
"I didn't attack them, they attacked me first, I just defended

myself," He said with a straight face but it didn't reduce their fear
"Sect Leader Claire, I want some herbs and items from the sect,
can I take them?" While Claire was still in shock and Miles was
searching for words, he calmly asked her.
"Yes" her mind was not properly processing what she had just
heard and said instinctively.
"Daniel, Ricky, go to River town and hire me two pegasi" he

ordered his newly recruited henchmen as they quickly nodded
despite their shock. He then tossed a pouch of coins and gestured
at Jack to lead the way to the herbal garden.
Gaya also ignored Elder Miles and the female disciples as she
followed him behind.
What's the point of worrying now?

Besides Michael hated to console Claire and Miles and as far as
he was concerned, these people needed to grow a spine. If one
wanted to destroy this sect, they would have already done it.
"Brother Ghost..." On their way to the herbal Garden, Jack opened

his mouth to ask something but Michael stopped him midway.
"Jack, no one is going to attack the sect, just let me deal with
Jane"
After following Jack for a few minutes, they reached the herbal
garden. There were not many herbs and even calling it a garden
was a little too much. He could only see a bunch of pots with
herbs and most of the land was occupied by nothing but grass.
Luckily his expectation was low and therefore, he didn't expect

much from the garden. He went straight into the garden and
picked all twenty herbs in the garden as Jack's mouth opened
wide because it was all they had left.
"Why are you acting so shocked? These are just common herbs"
Plop!
Gaya slapped the back of Jack's head and said while Michael
finished picking all the herbs he needed to concoct some pills. Of
course, it was not the pills he initially planned but this would kick
start his master plan.
Among the pills, he could concoct and potions he could brew, he

still needed some advice from Gaya.
"Aelia, follow me, I need to talk to you"
Plop!
"Ah!" Jack cried because she slapped Jack again for no reason
before following Michael into the nearby building.
"Human, what's the plan?"

"I can do many things with these pills, but I think Healing potions
and Revitalizing pills would bring more crowd and money."
Revitalizing pills were pills that could cleanse the body to remove
the impurities of the body which would increase cultivation speed.
By taking many less pure pills and potions, cultivators' bodies
would have impurities in the bloodstream, and Revitalizing pills
were a way to remove the impurities.
"Good choices, what else can you make with them?"
"Arch Energy boosters, strength enhancements, and breast

enlargement pills which you desperately need"
"Ok, wait WHAT?!" she clenched her fist as a flash of anger and
shock swept across her face. He loved making her angry by
teasing her, maybe he loved this a little too much.
"You perverted asshole!" she picked up the vase and threw it at

him aiming for his face but he easily caught the vase. He then
placed the vase near him.
"I don't need those pills, you blind bastard!" Despite being angry,
she didn't miss the opportunity to proudly show off her ample
bosom.
"Back to the topic at hand, which pills do you think would attract
more crowds?" It took several seconds to calm her down and
when she calmed down, she gave her opinion.
"Whatever a 5-star Alchemist makes, people would buy them, but

considering we don't have many ingredients to work with, I'd
recommend we sell Healing potions, Revitalizing pills, and Arch
Energy Boosters"
"Do you have a price point for all these pills?" she thought about
the question regarding the prices for a few more seconds before
answering it.
"Healing potions, 13,000 gold coins, Revitalizing pills can be sold

for 11,000 and Arch Energy boosters, I'd say 10,000" For Gaya,
these amounts were simple but for Michael who barely had any
gold coins left became extremely happy. Besides, these were all
just low-level pills and potions he had to make due to the lack of
ingredients but with enough Badass points, he could buy rare herb
seeds from the store and grow it in the sect rather than buying
them from the stores.
After seeing the outrageous price for the herbs in the system
store, he decided that it would be cost-effective to buy the seeds
that were way cheaper than the grown herbs and grow them in the
sect's garden.
The seed pack cost 6000 badass points and an extra 1000 for a
compost that would make the herbs grow in two days. The seed
pack sold by the system had various rare herbs and items to
concoct and brew special pills and potions.
"Alright, Gaya, time to earn some sweet gold!"

Chapter 54 - The Majestic
"Young Master Ghost, is this your shop?" Amidst the busy bustling
streets of Bradford, two pegasuses(or 'pegasi') landed on the
street as two youngsters, one young girl and a man in his early
thirties descended on the ground.
Obviously, the two youngsters were Michael and Ricky, the young
girl was Gaya and the last was Daniel. The one who asked the
question was Ricky. Apparently, Ricky's eyes opened wide in
surprise, but his surprised face turned gloomy after seeing the
empty interior of the shop.
"Ricky, Daniel" Instead of directly going into the store, Michael

called his two henchmen to step closer to him.
"From here on, call me Master Ghost, drop the Young, it's really
awkward, especially when you use it" He looked at Ricky when he
said the last part.
Michael would have ordered them to call him 'Sir' but apparently in
this world, calling someone Master was more respectful than
calling him, Sir.
For the 'Young' part, he felt awkward when someone called him
'Young Master', especially someone who was just a year or two
older than him like Ricky.
"Huh?" Ricky and Daniel tilted their heads and looked at him
confused but a few moments later, they nodded as they had no
plan to go against his orders considering the pay he promised.
"And I'd like to hear them call me Your Royal Highness" Gaya
mumbled under her breath.
"You two put the pegasus on the side and clean this place"
Then he bought out some decorative objects from his System
store to decorate his store with. These include things like
wallpaper, fancy sofa and chairs in a modern style, some
decorative ornaments meant for the glass window, and some
colorful lights, which had never been seen by anyone in the
Cultivation World before.
"You got another one?!'' When he put down the sofa, Gaya
couldn't hide her shock but she quickly landed her butt into the
fluffy sofa.
"Quit playing and come help me with this, you damn snake" he
knocked on the head as she stood up massaging her head where
he knocked.
"Ah! jerk"
Daniel and Ricky missed this little quarrel as the four of them
began to clean and decorate the store.
With the help of the two hardworking henchmen and one lazy
snake, he set about doing his job quickly. He dispersed all the
beautiful, modern decorations around the store, illuminating the
lights with Arch energy.
Little by little the people who were roaming on the streets noticed
this and were surprised by what they had seen but because of the
dark curtains covering the windows, they still couldn't see clearly
what's going on inside.
They worked for almost two hours and though some of the
onlookers left, soon, many other people arrived. After all, these
objects were all very fancy and included things that they had
never laid eyes on before. Even though the decorations were
temporary, he did his best to make the shop look the best.
Finally, after all the decorations had been done, he bought a giant
blank board and placed them on the ground.
"What do we name our shop?" Of course, he needed a badass

name for the shop because he didn't plan to be done with one
shop but create an empire of businesses.
"Aelia Alchemy! Aelia Alchemy!" Like the only kid who had done
the homework, Gaya raised her arm and excitedly shouted. And
just like the kids who never touched the homework, Ricky and
Daniel gawked at each other awkwardly.
"You wish, humph"
"You have no taste!" she pouted but he ignored her and picked his
mind for a better name.
"The Majestic"
"Ah...what?" Who would name a single shop The Majestic, Gaya

thought, and even the two henchmen frowned.
"Yes, We name this shop The Majestic" he could imagine

hundreds of branches all over this world with the name 'The
Majestic'.Just by mere thought, he felt extremely excited.
A suitable name for an Alchemy empire!!!
"Are you seriously thinking to name this shop The Majestic?!" she
air quoted the last two words and snickered.
"Just imagine" he stepped closer as he put his hand around her

neck and surprisingly, she didn't resist.
"Hundreds of shops, all over the world, The Majestic. And when
we build our main headquarters, we can call the place, The
Majestic City, how cool is that?"
"Hmm, when you put it like that...it does sound not so bad" she
said as she also put her hand around his neck. Both Daniel and
Ricky scratched the back of their head looking at these two.
"Now, who's going to write the name on the board?" He asked

looking at Gaya as he expected her to write the name considering
his handwriting sucks. Usually, girls would have beautiful
handwriting compared to the boys, therefore, he looked at her.
"Gimme the brush" Looking at his gaze, she rolled her eyes and
grabbed the brush to write the name on the board.
After a few minutes, she finished writing the name and it looked
gorgeous.it even shocked Michael because her handwriting
looked computerized.
'That's how you do it' Pride in her work and arrogance oozed out
of her face.
Without giving any snarky comments, Michael gestured at Ricky

and Daniel to hang the sign outside. As soon as the people saw
the sign and the store, they were greatly surprised.
Amongst all the buildings in Bradford City, it was really rare to see
such a new, smart, and modern-looking store.
This store had a strange name, too—The Majestic.
...
"Hey, have you heard the news that Ghost beat up Jane's
bodyguards, in front of her?"
"I have already heard this news, he has way too many balls if you
ask me!"
"Yeah, no shi but I bet he would have realized by now who he had
messed with and never return to Bradford"
"That's baloney! He just opened up a store. Its name is The

Majestic."
"My God! Really? Can that guy open a store? Who would dare to
visit his store?"
"Exactly! It's a pity that his store hasn't opened to the public yet. I
wonder what its main commodity would be."
"I've heard that he is planning to sell meat."

"No, I've heard he is going to open a brothel and the girl with him
is the merchandise"
....
Michael had no idea about the rumors and the tales spreading
across Bradford about his shop.
The portions and the pills were not very complicated. As long as
ingredients were available, everything could be made easily in a
few minutes.
As the main pillar of the shop, Alchemist, what he could do was

concoct the pills and brew the potions while Ricky and Daniel
stand guard outside.
Gaya on the other hand, wrote down the effects of each pill and
potion on the billboard so that the customers could place orders
accordingly.
Now, everything was ready.
"Okay, let's set a small goal of earning three hundred thousand

gold on an opening day!" He calmly said to the three in front of
them.
Hearing his goal, Ricky and Daniel freaked out as they only knew
that he's an Alchemist but they had no idea what star Alchemist
he is.
Is he planning to earn three hundred gold on an opening day?
How… how could this be possible?
Regardless of whether or not the two were believing this, he was

quite confident himself, so was Gaya.
"Alright, Aelia, put the menu outside, and let's make some
money!!"
"MONEY!" Gaya shouted with vigorous spirit and paced towards

the outside where a lot of curious onlookers had already gathered.
Many people were discussing the commodity of the store, for the
renovation style was so novelty that none of them had ever seen
anything like in the past.
Also, some people were looking forward to witnessing the Baron's

wrath for beating his daughter's bodyguards.
Finally, he ordered Ricky to remove the curtains and let the people
outside bask in the glory of his new shop. Being fully surprised, all
onlookers stared at the store with curiosity.
Along with the lifting of dark curtains, a typical Manhattan

boutique-style shop came into view of the onlookers. All onlookers
were totally shocked and dumbfounded.
"Awesome! It's really beautiful!"
"Look at that! It really turns me on!"
"Wow look at those spotless windows and the interior!"
"Gee, look, it seems it's an Alchemy store!"
"Woah! A healing pill cost 13000 gold?!"
"Shit, he has Revitalizing pills for sale!"
"I can't afford this, this is day time robbery!"
'Why don't he go rob the king?!"
As these onlookers started to read the menu on the billboards,

they trembled at the sight of the prices. Their eyes widened in
great shock.
"My God! This must be one wicked store!"

Chapter 55 - Ghost Is A 5-star
Alchemist?!
Hearing this, Michael didn't react at all but waited for Gaya to write
the last part on the board. He lounged on the sofa and relaxed his
body.
The store was full of people, but no one dared to take a step
forward and make an order, as everything was just so expensive.
"Oh, wait a moment, look over there!" a man suddenly yelled,

pointing to the shop-sign after Gaya finished writing.
"Holy moly, 80% pure pills!"
"Oh my god, are the pills and potions made by Alchemy King
Gabriel?!"
"If this is true, then the price is actually very reasonable!"
"This cannot be true! Just think, Lord Keswick didn't have any
shops anywhere"
"Yes, you are right. If this store is his, he would have come here"
Besides, the prices were really high, so no one was willing to try
anything.
But the written introductions were really alluring, especially for

cultivators who were now experiencing a bottleneck in the
development of their powers. They were desperate to ascend to a
higher stage in a short time.
That was why the price of the Arch Energy boosters made by
Gabriel had gone up to 15000 gold coins in the auction.
Now, one just needed to spend 10000 coins, and they could
possibly enjoy the same effect as the difference between Gabriel's
pill and here, only 4%.
"Excuse me Miss, what if I fail to get into a higher stage after I

take your Arch Energy booster?" asked a middle-aged man, who
was at level 2 of the Body Refining Stage.
"He is the master of the Wincent family, a very influential family in

Sarton. I never thought that he would come here alone."
"It is said that he has been in a bottleneck for twenty years, I think
he might never enter the next stage in this life without a powerful
pill or portion"
"I guess he would like to take this opportunity."
"Anyway, he should tell us what he will do if the pill does not

work."
All of a sudden, everyone stared at Gaya as she scanned the man

from top to bottom. After a few seconds, she agreed with the man.
If this man took an Arch Energy booster purer than 80%, he would
break the bottleneck and breakthrough to the next stage.
"Ghost" she turned around and nodded at Michael. He slowly sat

straight on the sofa.
"According to your current state, if you take the 80% pure Arch
Energy booster, I'll guarantee you that you'll break through to the
next level, if not, I will pay you back with ten times the pill's value.
Not only that but we also give ten times the coins you spent if the
products were not 80% pure "
Seeing this, people at present took a deep breath.

"He did not only give a guarantee but also said he would
compensate him with ten times' the product's original value?"
"Really?! He would pay 100,000 gold coins?"
The master was a little hesitant. After all, 10,000 gold coins was
not a small amount of money. He had to think carefully before
making any move but Michael's confident voice and guarantee
somewhat reassured him to take the gamble.
Right at this moment, many more onlookers came.
"Do not be tricked by him! He must be lying!"
"Yes! No one would dare to ask for compensation from him if the
pill does not have the effect he claims it does."
"You all know who he really is, you can do nothing about him…"
Hearing this, all people at present were in agreement.
Yes, even if the pill was fake, no one would dare to ask for
compensation from him, especially after he beat the crap out of
Jane's bodyguards.
Bang!
Gaya suddenly dashed towards the crowd with a cold look on her
face.
"Ah!"
"What are you doing?!"
A few onlookers were dragged out and thrown onto the street by
her while Michael sat still without stopping her because they were
bad for his business.
She then stepped on their chests so hard as bone-cracking noises

came from their chest. The next minute, they all began to spit out
blood and passed out.
"You bastards are really brazen! How dare you speak ill of our
shop, the Majestic?!" Gaya sneered and even though she was just
a mortal, no one dared to raise a finger against her because of
Michael.
Then she walked slowly back to the store as people backed off
and got out of her way.
They realized that not only Michael but his beautiful charming
girlfriend was also a cruel devil.
"If you can't afford our products, no problem but if you dare speak
ill of our establishment, I will kick the shit out of you all"
Everyone felt furious and stunned including Ricky and Daniel. Just
a moment ago, she seemed so harmless and cute but in a few
seconds, she turned into a scarier version of Jane or even worse.
Even with her mortal status, she's this arrogant, and imagine, if
she has the cultivation level of Ghost
Damn! even his girlfriend is exactly like him
Bitch!
How dare she treat them like this?!
But they all noticed Michael standing there calmly, so no one

opened their mouth to complain about Gaya's behavior. As far as
Micheal was concerned, most of these poor bastards can't afford
his price and didn't care about their feelings. Like Gaya said, if
they have the guts to speak ill of his shop, they better be ready to
get their asses kicked.
"Ghost, since you are running a business, you should not treat
customers like this" The Master of Wincent family said.
"In the Majestic, we put the customers first but we also do not
tolerate any kind of false claims against our products" Michael
calmly said as the people at present were stunned.
Put the customers first? Seriously!?
The master of the Wincent Family also shook his head. "Ghost, as
a businessman, you should always be honest! You said that if the
products are not 80% pure, you will compensate us with ten times
the product's original value, do you really mean it?" Everyone
knew even the pills and potions made by Gabriel wouldn't be 84%
pure at all times but Michael said otherwise.
"Of course I mean it! Buy or don't, it's your choice." he shrugged.
"Fine! Here are 10,000 gold coins, give me the Arch Energy
booster"
The Master of the Wincent family took out a grey cube and put the
cube heavily on the desk beside Michael.
Michael however did not take the cube but instead, he nodded at
Gaya to process the payment. Gaya quickly came to him and took
the pay cube
"10,000 gold coins" she said without any kind expression on her
face. The man hated their attitude but with the gritted teeth, he
placed his hand on the cube as a blue holographic image of
10,000 appeared above the pay cube. In a few seconds, a neatly
stacked 10,000 gold coins appeared on the table. Ricky and
Daniel and every single person who saw the scene sighed and
looked at the gold with sparkling eyes. For Ricky and Daniel, this
was the first time they had seen a huge amount like this up close.
Micheal was extremely excited to see the sparkling gold coins but
he controlled his emotions and ordered the system to take the
coins into his storage.
"Wait at the waiting area until I call you" Michael said.
Ricky quickly stepped forward and gestured at the man towards

the line of office chairs as the man followed Ricky.
Meanwhile, everyone waited to see the 80% pure Arch Energy pill
and scanned the entire room to see where he was keeping the
pills. Until now, people couldn't find a single pill in this store and
expected Michael to retrieve the pill from his space ring which he
didn't have.
The shop was divided into two halves by a glass wall. One half
was the waiting area where fancy office chairs lined up for
customers and a large comfy executive chair and table for Gaya.
The other half behind the glass door was Michael's domain. Since
this store was a temporary place, he only placed a large sofa and
nothing else.
"Oooh, I like this chair" While everyone's gaze was at Michael,

Gaya sat on her executive chair and rotated the chair playfully.
"Whoosh!" On the other side of the glass, Michael flipped his left
hand, exposing his palm and revealing a bright red flame,
hovering on it.
"What is he doing?!"
"Is he going to concoct the pills?"
"Idiot, look there's no furnace!"
"Then what the heck is he doing with the fire?!"
As they were looking at him confused, he tossed all the ingredient

right into the flame
"What?"
"What… What is he doing?"
"Oh my god! Is he really an Alchemist?"
"What the fuck?!"
"I'm not an Alchemist but I know enough not to throw all the
ingredients directly into the flame"
Everyone was stupefied by the turn of events as no one thought
that he's an Alchemist or he would try to concoct the pill himself.
Their faces had looks of utter shock and disbelief.
In that next second, however, their jaws almost hit the ground and
eyes bulged out of the sockets. The pearls and beads of herbal
essences emerged from the flames but took no damage at all.
Then the green beads merged into one round shiny pill that
radiated Arch Energy and a sweet aroma.
"Holy fuck! look at the pill, it looks perfectly pure and flawless."
"80% pure!"
The crowd who were seeing this remained rooted to the ground in
shock. Their hearts were trembling, unable to believe whatever
they were witnessing.
"5-star Alchemist!"
"Ghost is a 5-star Alchemist!"
Several people among the crowd shouted as the entire shop

became dead silent.




….
Finally, the moment Michael waited appeared. The sweet sound of

rings of notifications rang inside his head without a stop.
Chapter 56 - Jane Is Not Done
With Michael
"He's not a genius, he's a frickin monster…There are no words to

describe this kind of talent!"
Many people were rolling their eyes, feeling dizzy and struggling
just to not fall on the ground. They simply couldn't accept this, this
was just too unbelievable.
They managed to calm themselves down after a few more

minutes but the way they looked at Michael had changed. And
currently, they realized one thing; he's in a different league than
the other prodigies of his generation.
The more they became shocked, the more badass points he

earned.
"Daniel, take this pill to the gentleman over there." Holding the
Green shiny pill in his hand, Michael called Daniel. It took several
seconds for Daniel to respond as he came to Micheal.
Michael placed the pill in Daniel's shaking hands. Before this

Daniel had never even seen 30% pure Alchemy pills or potions
this close, let alone an 80% pure pill. Realizing that he was
holding a 10,000 gold value pill in his hand, his whole body
trembled.
"Go on" Michael gave a pat on the back to move Daniel faster.
After a minute, Daniel carefully handed over the pill to the man.
Receiving the pill, he could feel the warmness and the Arch
Energy radiating from the pill. The fantastic smell of the pill wafted
into his nose.
The onlookers were eager to know whether the pill was a real
80% pure one or not, and all tightly fixed their eyes on him.
"You will be able to feel the effect after taking the pill," Gaya
stopped rolling and rotating the chair and reminded him slowly at
that moment.
The master said nothing more. Either he would break through to

the next level after taking the pill or receive ten times the amount
he paid. Both outcomes were favorable to him.
Puff!
He opened his mouth and put the pill into his mouth. The next
moment, the man's eyes widened in disbelief.
The pill melted in his mouth and released a rich aroma. He could
instantly sense his body devouring the Arch Energy like crazy. The
master was shocked. He had been taking many pills and portions
for a long time expecting a breakthrough.
"Is the pill working?" someone in the crowd shouted at that

moment.
However, the master had no time to answer the question as his

whole body was going through a change.
"It is so…" He was about to open the mouth and all of a sudden, a
force of energy gushed out from his meridians and rushed through
his body, roaring like a tsunami.
"What?" The master was totally shocked.
He didn't have enough time to think more. The next moment, he

sat down on the ground with his legs crossed and started to draw
that force in with cultivation arts.
Boom!
After a few breaths, a formless airwave gushed out from his body.
Then he opened his eyes suddenly with brand new momentum.
His eyes were even clearer than before and his skin became
glossy.
Level 3 of the Body Refining Stage!
"I did... it?" The master murmured to himself. His mind remained
unclear for a while.
Did I break the bottleneck which has entangled me for so many

years?
All of the onlookers were also dumbfounded!
All of them had sensed the change in the master.
"Level 3…of the Body Refining Stage!"
"How…how could this be possible?"
"My God! He really realized a breakthrough to the next stage!"
"That was really an 80% pure Arch Energy booster! There was no
doubt about that"
"I can't believe he's a 5star Alchemist!"
"He's not even thirty years old"
Everyone was exclaiming with disbelief.
There were no right words for them to describe their shock.
Whoosh!
The master of the Wincent family stood up immediately and

bowed at him. Then he said with immense gratitude, "Thank you,
Young Master Ghost! My whole Wincent family is in your debt"
The man even addressed him as 'Young Master' because he was
not only a prodigy but also a 5-star Alchemist. Even the King
would treat a 5star Alchemist like him with the utmost respect.
Standing on the other side of the glass, Michael waved his hand
calmly.
"It's okay. The next time you need any pills or potions, come to the
Majestic"
"Of course, Young Master Ghost. Can I order another ten Arch
Energy boosters and a couple of Revitalizing pills for the members
of my family?" The master asked excitedly. His breakthrough this
time could greatly promote the status of his family and with these
pills, his entire family could increase their power.
If the other elders who were also entangled with bottlenecks could
also make a breakthrough, a complete transformation would
happen in his family, and their status in Sarton would reach a new
level.
Therefore, spending a hundred thousand or more gold coins was

not a bad thing but a great investment.
Seeing this, the onlookers could hardly standstill.
"Holy shit! This is for real!" Usually normal people including the
rich people couldn't get a chance to meet a 5-star Alchemist as
they were extremely rare in the Elon continent. And even those
few would often deal with rare treasures and artifacts rather than
gold coins, therefore, when they realized the golden opportunity in
front of them in the shape of Michael, they rushed into the store
and gathered in front of Gaya's counter. Then they started to
shout loudly, "I will also order five Arch Energy boosters!"
"Me too!"
"I will take three healing potions!"
"Six Revitalizing pills for me!"
Instantly the store was in chaos and Ricky and Daniel struggled to
keep the people in the line.
At this moment, Gaya stood up with an evil smile and shouted,

"Behave yourselves, this is not a market! Form an orderly line and
place your orders one by one. If you don't, we will close the shop
and leave"
The crowd instantly stopped the chaos they were making and
quickly formed a line. They feared that she would really close the
shop and leave.
They all knew that at the same time tomorrow, the whole street
would be crowded with people to buy a pill from him when the
news spread. Before that happened, they wanted to buy the pills
and potions. Of course, the people who had no gold coins to
afford such products could only step aside and let the rich people
move forward.
At the same time, a fat old man who stood in the line took a deep
breath before talking to one of the young guards beside him, "Rio,
I'll stay in the line, you go and inform the Baron about this"
******************
In the main hall of the Baron's mansion, a middle-aged man was

sitting on a large chair. The man, wearing loose silk clothes, was
muscular and 6 feet tall. He was the mayor of Bradford, Tobias
Totonk. In front of him was a young girl who was shivering and
walking back and forth with a red face.
"Father, I need him dead now! Send him 50 no...60 men, I want
them to chop him up!" She was none other than Jane.
"Don't be impatient Jane, let's investigate the matter properly

before taking any decision"
"Fuck the decision! My guards are at death's door because of that

bastard, I want justice for my people, why can't you understand
this?" her eyes slightly welled up when she talked about her
guards but her anger was too great to let the tears roll out.
"If you don't, I'll go directly to the Capital and bring my big brother"
"I'm not saying I won't take action against Ghost but I'm saying we
can't act on impulse, especially at a time like this," Tobias patiently
explained but Jane was not in the mood to listen to him.
"What's our war with Sarton Barron has anything to do with this?
Grow a spine father!"
"Jane!" Tobias raised his voice but he soon calmed himself.

Sometimes he would think he pampered her too much and spoiled
her but he couldn't get mad at his little princess as he loved her
too much. Not only him, everyone in his family loved her dearly.
Her mother died when she was little and because of that everyone
raised her giving her everything she asked as they didn't want her
to feel motherless.
Even when she ran amok in Bradford, no one reprimanded her.

The only one who kept her in line was Celina, Jane's cousin. Jane
loved her cousin like her own sister and Celina too loved her
deeply since she was little.
However, no one could have known at this point that Celina will be
the reason for what's going to happen to Jane.
Chapter 57 - First Day
Collection
Suddenly a guard rushed into the main hall, his face filled with
excitement but when he noticed Jane, he cowered like a scared
cat. The guard wouldn't have felt excited if he knew what
happened to Jane's guards. He just reached Bradford with
Minister Liam, the fat old man who was waiting in the Majestic.
"What is it, Rio?" Looking at the guard, Tobias asked.
"There's a 5-star Alchemist in Bradford, Lord Totonk"
"WHAT?!" Tobias immediately stood up like his chair was on fire.
"Where is he? Is he coming here?! Why did no one inform me?

Who is he?" Tobias ignored Jane's temper tantrum and rapidly
fired questions at Rio.
"Father!"
"Lord Totonk, he opened up a shop in Bradford, Minister Liam is

there to order some pills and potions"
"Let's go meet him now" A 5-star Alchemist was not a joke, if he

could form a relationship with one, he could gain a massive
advantage over Sarton Baron and who knew, he could even avoid
war altogether.
"Do you know his name?"
"Lord Totonk, the people called him Ghost" and just when Tobias
was about to take another step, he received a huge blow in the
form of Rio's answer.
"What did you say?!" Tobias felt like he was going to faint as he
looked at Jane with the mixed emotions of anger and uncertainty.
Of all the people in Bradford, she just messed with the one person
who could have saved Bradford from going to war with Sarton.
Thinking about this, he wasn't sure whether to blame himself for
spoiling her too much or blame his bad luck.
"I don't care if he's a Six-star Alchemist, he must pay the price for
his crimes"
"SHUT UP!" Tobias's anger exploded and his shout echoed

through the main hall. Jane stumbled back a few steps as this was
the first time she had seen her father angry at her. Even when she
killed a Minister's son, he didn't shout at her like this.
"Do you not understand the seriousness of your actions? You

messed with the 5-star Alchemist, people like him wouldn't be a
nobody or some run of the mill rich brat who you can kill and
punish as you wish!" The guard who escorted Jane back to the
mansion informed Tobias about everything that happened at
Bradford and what Michael said to Jane before he left.
'The reason I leave you alive is I don't like wars and I'm not going
to start one with your family because of you. But if you mess with
me again, you and all the Bradford will know the power behind me'
The words he spoke made more sense to Tobias now than it did
before.
"Gather our men, Rio, we're going to greet this Ghost. I hope he's
not furious at us"
"As you wish, Lord Totonk"
"Father, wait I'm coming with you!"
*****************
At this moment, Michael finished using the last batch of

ingredients and heaved a long sigh. The ingredients might have
run out on him but the crowd was much bigger than when he first
started. However, he still had one batch of ingredients to brew
Healing potion in his system storage as he expected the Baron to
visit him soon. A large portion of the crowd came only to see the
fiasco rather than buying his expensive products.
Michael stood up with a smile and shouted, "my dear customers,

we're going to close the shop now"
Hearing that, everyone in the store was totally surprised.
"What the hell?"
"Are they going to close the store now?"
"No, Young Master Ghost, let me buy some Arch Energy boosters
first."
"Yeah, I'm waiting here for so long!"
"Please! Don't do this!"
"Did we do something wrong, Young Master Ghost?"
Many people shouted as some even begged him not to close the
shop. They were cultivators who had been stuck in their current
stage for many years, and most of them had lost hope in making
breakthroughs. People who had severe injuries hoped to treat
their wounds with healing potions, those who polluted their body
with various pills and potions hoped to revitalize their bodies by
using the Revitalization pills, and finally people like the lord of
Wincent family had a chance to breakthrough by taking the Arch
Energy Boosters.
All of them now had found hope! Their long-lasting problem could
be solved by Michael. He was their savior!
"People, We're not permanently closing the store but I've run out
of ingredients and it'll take a day to get the special items I use. So
there's nothing I can do" The crowd looked disappointed but they
couldn't argue with him as he made a valid point.
"If you want to buy our products tomorrow, I'll be at my new shop
in the Sun Rise sect. We open at seven in the morning and close
at one o clock. Now leave the store in an orderly manner"
"You heard the man" Gaya stood up from her executive chair and
motioned the crowd towards the door as Daniel and Ricky
stepped forward to deal with the reluctant crowd.
"If you dare do or say something, we won't do any business in

Bradford again!"
"This…" All the onlookers were tongue-tied and wearing gloomy

expressions. Expressions of regret appeared in the faces of many
people. They harbored bitterness in their hearts as they cursed
themselves for having hesitated and not coming here soon.
Before such a great temptation of 80% alchemy potions and pills,
none of them could wait to come back the next day.
They all wanted to ask why he was moving the store from
Bradford to Sunrise sect but having heard Gaya, they didn't dare
to question Michael.
"Never mind. Let's go to the Sunrise sect earlier tomorrow," The

onlookers turned around and walked to the outside in a line.
"Don't forget to bring your pay cubes tomorrow, we are not

charity!" As they stepped out of the shop, Gaya shouted at them
and chuckled happily.
"Not bad for a first day" At last Michael sighed in relief and smiled.
Honestly speaking, Gaya contributed much to the successful first
day. He was able to concoct and brew potions without worrying
about the crowd only because of Gaya. The flood of people
overwhelmed the two henchmen but Gaya handled the situation
pretty well by keeping the crowd in line and throwing the bad
crowd out of the shop. In simple words, she was like a mix
between cute Manager and ruthless bouncer.
"You two go and have a break, meet us here in two hours"

Michael ordered Daniel and Ricky.
"Yes, Master Ghost!" their voices now full of energy and they
looked extremely happy like they hit the jackpot with this job.
After Ricky and Daniel left the shop, both Michael and Gaya
plunged into the sofa. Previously he gave the space ring he got
from Heaven's gate competition to Gaya, so she could store the
gold coins inside rather than piling them in the shop before all the
people.
"Tell me how much we earned?" he rubbed his hands in

excitement as Gaya flicked her wrist. A bright light emerged from
the silver space ring in her hand and then, huge neatly stacked
gold coins appeared in front of them.
Whooow!
The glistening of the gold coins lit the room with a golden color.
He had seen a stack of money before but this was the first time he
saw a huge pile of gold coins this close.
"There are 359,000 gold coins. We sold 11 Arch Energy Boosters

for 110,000 coins. 12 Revitalizing pills for 132,000 and 9 Healing
potions for 117,000 coins. If we had more batches of ingredients,
we could have milked the suckers dry" she let out a disappointed
look.
"I do have one last batch of ingredients to brew healing potions"
"Good, I do expect the Baron to visit us" Gaya nodded, "And what
did you ask the people to come to the Sunrise sect? What's wrong
with this place? No one would dare to touch us now and we could
even buy what we need from the Green Heaven"
"First of all, they would definitely raise their prices knowing what
we are charging the people. Secondly, why should we go to the
Green Heaven when we can grow our own herbs at the sect? We
don't have to pay for the ingredients and we can promote the sect
more by setting up the shop there" After hearing him, she took a
couple of seconds to think about this and nodded.
"You are right and I don't think that bitch Jane would let us run a
business in her city after what you had done to her guards. So
what are you gonna do about the ingredients for tomorrow? We
cleaned the sect's herbal guardian clean remember?"
"Don't worry about it, I got it covered" and when she was about to
ask how, they heard galloping sounds and heavy footsteps.
Michael looked outside through the dark curtain to see a group of
soldiers dressed in metal plates and chainmail walking towards
their shop.
"The Baron is here"

Chapter 58 - Mc + Restaurant +
Girl = TROUBLE
With a wave of his hand, Michael opened the door for the Baron
and his guards. Two guards in a full metal plate and chainmail
entered through the door first and following them, a red-haired
sturdy man came inside. His fancy robes and aura gave out his
identity without an introduction.
"You!" behind the Baron, Jane walked with the gritted teeth.
Michael completely ignored her and smiled at Baron.
"Welcome to the Majestic, Baron Totonk" He said and reached his

hand out to shake Baron's hand as the Baron seemed stunned for
a moment before shaking Michael's hand.
"You are Master Ghost?" The Baron didn't expect him to be this
young as he seemed like he's nineteen or twenty years old. He
was not wrong as Abras was only 19 years old when he died.
"Yes, Baron Totonk," Michael said. The guards quickly brought two
customer chairs and placed them behind the Baron and Jane to
sit.
Michael and Gaya sat on the sofa to hear the purpose of Baron's
visit.
"Master Ghost, my men said you are a 5star Alchemist?"
How could the Baron believe a boy like him is a 5 freakin star
Alchemist?
Was he studying Alchemy since he was in his mother's womb?

"Apparently I am, a lot of people ask me that. So Baron Totonk,
what brought you to my shop, is it anything to do with what
happened to the guards?"
"Forgive my silly daughter for what happened Master Ghost, I

spoiled her too much"
"Father!" Baron knew when to raise his head and lower his head.
Compared to a 5-star Alchemist, his position as Baron was
nothing, even the King of Bredia would treat Ghost with the utmost
respect.
Not only was he a 5star Alchemist but one who could concoct pills
and brew potions with the purity of 80% which made him the
second-best to Alchemy King Gabriel himself.
"Don't worry about that, Baron Totonk, I'm not going to hold that
against you but how are the guards?"
"What do you think, you devil?!"
"Jane!" Jane snapped when Michael asked about the guards but
soon, she closed her mouth when Baron raised his voice at her.
"Mast"
"It's fine, Lord Totonk. I'm a very tolerant guy"
"Tolerant my ass!"
Gaya was laughing her butt off inside when she heard this but
kept a straight face.
Unlike Gaya, the veins on Jane's face popped and her face turned
ugly.
This guy nearly beat her guards to death but shameless claiming
that he's a tolerant guy, how ridiculous is that?
"I'm glad that you have such a big heart Master Ghost" Baron
Totonk was planning how to cool him off after Jane's little
squabble with him. He was even ready to gift him a huge chunk of
the treasury if that is what it takes Ghost to forgive Jane but now
he sighed in relief hearing that he already forgave them.
"I would however, recommend you to buy some Healing Potions to

treat the guards"
"Oh?" The Baron was again stunned by Michael. For a moment

Totonk thought he saw a fox in human form. Baron understood
that by recommending he's urging him to buy Healing potions from
him.
"Of course, Master Ghost" if that would make Ghost happy, Baron
was willing to spend the gold for the Healing potions. Looking at
the Baron's pay cube, Gaya's lips curved upwards
"The guards would need six Healing potions"
"That'd be 78,000 gold coins"
"Are you seriously asking us to pay for what you have done?! This
is too much!" Jane screamed and puffs of smoke came out of her
nostrils.
"Do you know how much it cost me to reach the point where I am
now? Compared to that, this is just a drop in the ocean"
"Don't mind my spoiled daughter, Master Ghost, here's the pay

cube" Baron Tototnk handed his pay cube as Gaya took 78,000
gold from it with a small chuckle. Gaya knew Jane must be going
crazy seeing this and it made Gaya extremely happy and
satisfied.
"Now wait a few minutes, Baron Totonk" Michael smiled.
He immediately took out the batch of ingredients to brew the

Healing potions in front of Baron and his men, so he could gain
more Badass points.
Michael merely waved his hand, and under the control of his Arch
energy, all the required herbs and ingredients floated up in front of
him. After that, he immediately unleashed his Arch Energy. With
its aid, he would be able to gain precise control over every single
herb.
Pop!
Followed by a soft vibration, the bright red fire in his hand

exploded and turned into a small stream of flames that engulfed
all of the herbs.
"Woah!" Baron immediately leaned back when he saw he's

brewing the potion without even a furnace.




….
The beep sound of the system rang continuously in his mind.

Even Jane looked stunned by the sight of his ability to brew potion
without a furnace. Even though she was not an Alchemist, she
knew how hard it is to practice Alchemy without a furnace as even
the Alchemy Teachers in the Morning star would risk concocting
pills or brewing potions without a furnace.
Under the intense heat of the flame, all of the impurities within the
herbs were being burnt. Although the purification process looked
simple, it was an important step that couldn't be neglected. His
action of purifying dozens of herbs at once was simply shocking.
He had a calm expression. His black hair was fluttering backward,

and his eyes were brimming with vigor like a pair of dark
gemstones. With all his focus, he kept staring at the sea of flames
in front of him. Within the flames, all the herbs were floating in
different positions and were being burned with different
temperatures that suited them individually.
There were no doubts about purification being a very difficult step

in alchemy. Therefore, when ordinary alchemists concocted pills
or brewing potions, they would use a furnace to help control the
temperature of the flame. Besides, since each herb had its own
melting point, the alchemist would need to purify them one at a
time or purify herbs with the same melting point at the same time.
If two herbs with different melting points were purified at the same
time, it would usually result in impurities remaining or essence
being burned off, which then makes the pill or the potion low
quality.
Even the alchemists with rich experience might at most purify a

few herbs together at once. The fact that he was able to purify
dozens of herbs together at once was simply astounding. Only the
renowned alchemists dared to do so, and none of them would be
able to do it so leisurely like he was doing.
After a few minutes, six vials of green glistening liquid landed in

his hand.
"Here you go, Baron Totonk" he handed over the vials to the
Baron.
"If you want anything else, you have to come to the Sunrise sect,
we are moving the shop"
"Why?!" The Baron was surprised and shocked at the same time.
"Master Ghost, is it because of my daughter? Why are you

moving?" Although the Sunrise sect was a part of Bradford, it was
an independent territory unlike here.
"It's not Baron Totonk, staying here never was my plan. The
Sunrise sect is my home now and I like working from home.
There's nothing you can do or say that would make me stay here.
Besides, I think it's better if we stay off of each other" Michael
looked at Jane when he said.
Baron Totonk let out a long sigh. He knew Ghost was right
because he knew his daughter. It wouldn't take Jane to find a way
to mess with him if he stayed in Bradford, therefore, the Baron
reluctantly accepted Ghost's move.
As far as the Baron was concerned, he's on Ghost's good side

and he could use this to build his relationship with him and use his
reputation and status to gain an advantage over the Baron of
Sarton.
"Then I will wish you luck Master Ghost and if you need anything,
please just send someone to my humble house, I will do my best
to help you"
"Of course, Baron Totonk"
After a few pleasant words, Baron left the store. Jane gave him a
cold stare before leaving and indicated that she's not done with
him.
"437,000 gold" Looking at the disappearing figures of the Baron

and his men, Gaya said.
"Not bad, not bad at all"
"Human, counting all these gold makes me hungry, let's go grab a

bite" Since she had no Arch energy to sustain her body needs, her
stomach started to growl. She would literally kill to eat the porridge
cooked by Raylene but she was too hungry to go to the sect.
"Alright, lead the way"
Not long after this, Michael, and Gaya arrived at a Restaurant. It

was a magnificent restaurant with luxurious decorations, and on
top of the entrance hung three words, 'The Ruby Cuisine' It was a
two-story building, and the decorations were magnificent and
luxurious. Anyone could sense an aristocratic aura from this
place.
Obviously, those who could dine at this place were the noblest
and richest men in Bradford. It was noon, and this was the busiest
time each day for the Restaurant. Many rich and famous people
wearing expensive clothing kept arriving.
And on their way to here, Michael earned Badass points just by

walking. It was clear that many people now recognized him and
were shocked by his talents thanks to the System.
A young man who looked like a waiter was bowing and greeting
the customers while shouting out orders at the door. When the
waiter saw Michael and Gaya he hurriedly came forwards and
greeted, "Young Master, Young Miss. Please come in!" the waiter
said but Gaya could sense a hint of panic and fear in his voice.
Gaya nodded thinking that probably the waiter heard of Ghost's

reputation and was about to enter the restaurant when she
noticed Michael standing without moving.
"What's going on?" Michael's environment scanning ability

revealed to him that there are two extremely powerful entities
inside the restaurant and made him reluctant to get in.
"Is this going to be one of the restaurant fights that would happen
in novels?" He loved reading cultivation novels and in most of
them, the main character would find himself in trouble whenever
he enters a place to rest or eat, especially if the mc had a
beautiful girl beside him.
Of course, he knew face slapping an arrogant young master in

front of all the people would get him badass points but the two
entities inside the restaurants seemed way out of his current
league. Therefore, he had second thoughts of entering the
restaurant. He would rather choose to be careful and calculative
than depend on the system and his luck to save his bacon.
"Come on, I'm hungry!"
"I changed my mind, let's head back to the sect, I'll ask Raylene to
make something for you" He had to be alive to be a badass and
his instincts told him not to enter the restaurant. So he listened to
his instincts and immediately turned back.
"A good man won't let his friend go hungry, Ghost" Just when he
was about to leave, a voice appeared out of nowhere and formed
an invisible wall around him.
"Shit, here we go"

Chapter 59 - Gaya’s Flashback
When Michael entered the restaurant and started walking towards

the tables, he could immediately feel a pair of eyes looking at him.
When he turned around to look at the source of these eyes, he
could see two girls staring at him. One of them was blonde and
the other was red hair. Obviously, both of them were super hot but
Michael was not in the mood to enjoy their beauties as they could
simply kill him like swatting a fly as the blonde was at the Core
Formation level 6 and the red hair was at Core Formation level 3.
At the moment, two of them were checking him out and not in a
good way.
"Take a seat" the blonde one gestured at Michael. She had shiny
blonde hair, perfect facial structures, and silky smooth skin. The
red hair beside the blonde was even hotter and younger than the
blonde.
"Huh?" but when he took a step forward, he felt a tight grip around
his hand and looked at Gaya who was shivering for some reason.
Although she acted weird, he had his own problems now and
walked towards the table without showing his worries on the face.
"System, at the sign of the first trouble, activate the teleportation

scroll"
[Noted!]
Immediately he noticed the tension in the hall and people in the

restaurant tried their best not to look at the two girls and him. The
atmosphere was quiet and gloomy like everyone was afraid of
these two beauties.
"Sit down," the blonde one said as Michael calmly sat before
them.
"Wine?" the blonde girl asked but Michael shook his head.
"I don't drink booze, just water for me and waiter" he signaled the
waiter to come. One of the waiters slowly approached them
"Bring whatever my friend asks"
"I'm... not... hungry" The waiter was already tense and when he
heard Gaya's cold voice, he didn't dare to talk back to her.
"What's your name? Your real name" the blonde girl asked as
Michael took a short sip of water
"Ghost, that's my name, I know it's hard to believe but that's the
truth" He tried hard not to sound arrogant. These two were not
someone he could mess with, at least not yet.
[Warning! The system detected a telepathic intrusion! Firewall

Activated]
[The system's level is too low to retaliate!]
[The system can only stop the telepathic Intrusion!]
"This bitch is trying to hack me?"
For a moment, the blonde seemed surprised but she quickly hid
her surprise.
"You made name for yourself in this small kingdom, Ghost"
"Thank you, Miss..."
"You don't get to know my name, at least not yet"
"Okay," He didn't know whether the blonde knows it or not but she
sounded extremely overbearing.
"Is every pretty girl in this world an egoistic bitch? No, it can't be"
he sighed inside and thought.
"What do you want from me, Miss?" Since these girls didn't even
give their names, he was not in the mood for small talks.
"You don't have anything that we don't, Ghost" The red hair girl
snickered.
"My friend is right, Ghost. We don't want anything from you, on the
contrary, we are here to give you something"
"This is different" Micheal thought in his mind and asked," what is

it, Miss?"
"How'd you like to join the Guardians Guild?"
"Woah"
"Holy moly!"
"Guys, they are Guardians, holy shit!"
"I knew it"
"What are they doing in Bradford?"
"It seems they are here recruit Ghost to their guild"
The people who were staring at them silently until now began to
murmur immediately when they heard the blonde girl's last words.
Unfortunately for Michael, Abras had no knowledge about the
Guardian Guild; however noticing the people's reaction, he
realized that it would be suspicious if he said he didn't know
anything about the Guardian Guild.
Therefore he decided to ask questions without revealing his lack

of knowledge about their guild.
"Am I not too weak to join the Guardian Guild Miss?"

"Of course you're too weak and that's why you won't join the
Guardians" The blonde's words confused him and looking at his
expression, the girl put the wine glass in her hand down and
explained
"We are searching for promising talents and forming a group of

trainees to serve the Guild and Guardians"
"Serve?" he sneered inside and wanted to punch her in the face.
"What about after training, Miss?"
"Why are you asking too many questions? You should be thankful
for us to even consider you" The red-haired girl lost her temper for
a second and slightly raised her voice. If it was a normal
circumstance and she was weak, he would have taught her a
lesson. However, these two girls were extremely powerful and
seemed to have a powerful guild behind them.
Although the blonde girl didn't seem to like him asking questions,
she still had a small smile on her face.
"After training, you will continue to work with your fellow trainees
and serve the guild. The Guardians will evaluate your
performance and if you're good enough, they might take you as
their subordinate" The girl made it sound being a subordinate as a
huge honor and opportunity but Micheal didn't give a shit about
their Guild. How could he serve someone else other than himself?
Yet, he had only one last question to ask before rejecting their
offer
"Miss, can I ask you one last question?" he asked humbly

because he didn't want the two girls to get mad and attack him
which would threaten his life.
"Go on" the blonde girl nodded.
"Is there any chance for a trainee to become a Guardian?"

"Hahaha" the red-haired girl's eyes went wide for a moment as the
blonde girl burst into laughter. Michael still had a calm face but he
could sense Gaya was trembling.
The blonde girl stood up when she stopped laughing and put a
silver round medallion on the table.
"If you want to join the Guild, bring this to the Capitol before
tomorrow night" In a flash, the two girls disappeared from the
place leaving everyone stunned.
He took the medallion and saw a logo of a crown etched into the
surface. After storing the medallion in the system storage, he
stood up to leave the place but saw Gaya didn't move a muscle.
"Hey, come on, we are leaving" he shook her shoulder and felt her
body trembling.
"I know something's wrong but this is not the place, come" He
forced her up as she reluctantly followed him outside.
When they stepped outside, Michael grabbed her hand and

activated the Lighting dash. In a flash, he and Gaya left the place
leaving a trail of dust.
Except for the stop he made in front of his store to leave a note for
Daniel and Ricky, he dashed straight outside Bradford and
reached the outskirts of the city.
"Alright, now we can walk and talk" the outskirts of the city looked
deserted and they had no one but trees to accompany them.
"What happened back there?" He asked but she still remained

silent which was a rare thing when it comes to Gaya.
He sighed "usually I don't give a shit about your past but when it
comes to my subordinates, I do give a shit. So tell me before I
make you"
After looking at his serious face, Gaya took a deep breath and
opened her mouth "The girl back there"
"Which one? the blonde or the red hair?"
"The red hair" she gritted her teeth and said
"What about her?"
"She is the reason for my state, human, she's my half-sister"

Michael halted his steps in surprise. He never expected this twist
and now that he thought about this, it really made sense.
"So that's why you went quiet. You have to tell me what happened
in Nagaland, what did you do?" She hesitated to open up but
Michael knew what would cheer her up and make her talk.
He retrieved a shiny white pill from the system storage. It was the
cheap tier pill that would create a false sense of repairing her
crippled meridians.
"If you tell me what happened, I will give you this pill I concocted
just for you" her face slightly lit up when she saw the pill and
reached out to grab the pills.
"No flashback no pills" the pill was too tempting for Gaya and
looking at her expression, he laughed inside because it was like
taking candy from a baby, he manipulated her easily.
"It all started..."
"Short version would do, tell me only the good bits"

Chapter 60 - Tell Me Lies,
Sweet Little Lies
"After my mother died, my father married a bitch called Salesi.

Together they had Xanali, the red-haired bitch "
"Xanali huh" he noted her name and continued his walk while
Gaya narrated the short version of her flashback.
"Since the moment she was born, she got everything I didn't, my
father's attention, mother's love, and everything I longed for" her
voice slightly broke and revealed the sadness in her heart.
"A few years ago, I asked one of my minions to collect information

the Naga land's population and food consumption level"
"Why?"
"Because I saw my father asking for a loan from nearby human

kings, he wouldn't have done that if he had any other choices"
"You thought it has something to do with the population and food

consumption of your people?"
"Yes, and I was right. According to my minions and spies, my

father is liquidating the assets and taking loans from the nobles to
run the kingdom. That bastard was driving my mother's kingdom
to the ground and I wanted to fix the situation before he could sell
the kingdom piece by piece with that Salesi bitch" It was obvious
to Michael that Gaya didn't love her father very much by her tone
and expression.
"What did your minion find out?"

"That was the weird thing, from the information I gathered, I
realized that most of the wealth in the treasury was going to
sustain the demand for food. And what made me loathe that
bastard of a king was, most of the food we bought went to the
prisons, to feed the prisoners"
"Huh?"
"Shocking right? I know. My mother died when I was six months

old but I learned that when she was ruling, Nagaland was
prosperous and a powerful Kingdom. One of the reasons for my
mother's success was her rules, my mother made sure that
rapists, murderers who killed innocent Nagas, and all other kinds
of evil bastards die painfully. Because of that everyone feared
committing a crime which kept the prisons from overflowing with
Nagas"
"What changed?" Michael asked as her face twitched in anger
"Salesi and Xanali, they canceled many of my mother's rules

saying that it was too cruel. My spineless father went along with
them"
"Not all who commit a crime deserves to die, Gaya"
"But when the crimes were ****, killing innocent Nagas, and
slaughtering children, they deserved to die. You killed an entire
sect for the Rosewood village"
"You're right, those deserved to die"
"Except Salesi and Xanali thought they deserve a second

chance.Five years for a Naga who slaughtered an innocent family
and three years for serial rapists, what kind of punishment was
that? Those bastards treated the prison-like a picnic spot and my
father sold my mother's kingdom piece by piece to feed those evil
bastards. It drove me crazy and that was why I always ventured
out to calm my nerves because I feared I would kill that bitch and
my half-sister if I stayed in my castle"
"You still didn't say what you did to deserves to get your meridians
broke" she took a deep breath after Michael's question and stayed
quiet for a few seconds before continuing
"I wanted to bring Nagaland back to its former glory after I take the
throne which rightfully belongs to me. But when I returned to
Nagaland after one of my adventures, I heard my father and most
of the ministers chose Xanali as the next queen and decided to
marry me to some prince of a distant kingdom"
"That's cold, why did they choose Xanali instead of you?" It was
true that Gaya is an arrogant bitch but she was also the rightful
heir to the throne. From what he heard from Gaya, Michael could
tell that her father is too soft to be a king and Nagaland seemed
like a place that needed a queen like Gaya rather than a softie like
her father who was clearly controlled by Salesi and Xanali.
"Because my father loved her more than me and Xanali earned

the people's support with her fake charity works and donations"
"She seemed like a bitch to me back there"
"That was her real face, human. I should have killed her years
ago"
"Yet, she broke your meridians, how was she able to do that? If
my memory serves me right, you must have been stronger than
her" Gaya's face reddened in anger.
"When I heard they chose Xanali to be the next queen, I lost my

temper and questioned my father about all the debts and revealed
the kingdom's status, crime rates, and every dirty little secret he
was hiding, in front of every noble and minister. Except instead of
answering, that bastard threw me out of my castle, my own
fucking castle but not before I killed his fucking guards and broke
his jaw" she made a boxing posture and punched the air.
"So you broke your father's jaw, things are getting interesting"
After hearing about her father and what he was planning to do,
Michael couldn't blame Gaya for losing her temper.
"He wanted to feed the prisons despite the wellness of my
kingdom, so I went straight to every prison in the kingdom and
burned them to the ground before they could do more damages to
my mother's kingdom. When I burned down the last prison, I lost
most of my Arch energy and power, that bitch Salesi and Xanali
attacked me at my weakest state. They captured me and brought
me to my father, do you know the sentence he gave me?"
Michael shook his head but he had a feeling that it was not a
community service. Tears already started to roll out of her eyes
"He wanted to kneel down and ask for forgiveness from the kin of
the evil bastards I burned down. I'd rather die than kneel down
and beg for forgiveness. And human..." she paused for a moment
and when Michael looked at her face, he saw her eyes welling up.
"You were wrong human, Xanali didn't break my meridians,

my...father...did...my own father" she then stopped walking and
dropped to the ground in sorrow. Her father's betrayal and actions
saddened her more than they angered her.
"I may have a father, half-sister, and half mother, human but I'm
no different than you, an orphan. I was, am, and always will be"
this was the first time he saw Gaya crying and honestly, it startled
him to see her like this. However, he hatched a quick plan to
exploit this situation in his favor.
" for what it's worth, I think of you as my family, Gaya" he wiped
the tears off from her face and wrapped his hand around her
shoulder to console her.
Just like he planned, her loyalty towards him jumped from 30% to
42%.
She was far from being his family but a simple lie made Gaya's
loyalty towards him increase by 12% in one go. He would only
consider her as his friend when she reaches at least 70% loyalty
and until then, he decided to lie to her more often to increase her
loyalty.
"Now take this pill, you'll feel better. Besides, you look horrible
when you cry, hehehe" He chuckled as Gaya quickly pushed his
hand around and punched him in the shoulder
"You bastard! Give me that" he honestly preferred this version of

Gaya to the silent sulking Gaya. And by giving the fake pill, he
managed to soothe her sadness and anger.
"So are you going to join the Guardians?" after swallowing the pill
and wiping away her tears, she asked.
"About that, what is this Guardian Guild?" Surprisingly, Gaya didn't

seem shocked but let out a stifled laugh"
"What would you do without me? Guardian Guild is like the

Adventurer's guild but more powerful and influential. They are the
law enforcers of the Elon Continent, in other words, if you want to
rule this kingdom, they will stop you unless you join them and
abide by their laws"
"Law enforcers" he was allergic to that word. Back on earth, the

law and the law enforcers were his biggest enemies. However, on
earth, he had no power to fight the law units head-on but in this
world, he had all the means to destroy them if they stood in his
way. He dreamt to control and rule this world from the shadows
and he wouldn't let anyone stop him from turning that dream into
reality.
"Where were they when Ralphy burned down an innocent

village?"
"They may have done something if anyone survived the massacre

and complained to the Guardian Guild. Even then, it was highly
unlikely because the Guardian Guild would send someone to
investigate and they will take their sweet time. When they finish
investigating, either Ralphy would have killed the witness or he
would have bribed someone in the Guild to make his case
disappear. You have to be rich and powerful to get justice from the
Guardian Guild, human. The Guardian Guild may have served
everyone when it was found but now, it's all politics. And that's
why no matter how great you are, you can't become a high
Guardian, at best, you can become a bronze tier Guardian"
"Typical" It was not a big surprise to him to hear about the

Guardian Guild because it was like every law enforcement unit on
earth, slow, inefficient, and plagued by politics. Of course, they
kept everyone in order on earth and all hell would break if there
wasn't a law unit like police in a country. Considering Michael was
a criminal, he never liked the law enforcers and never would.
Chapter 61 - Assassin Vs
Assassins
The cloud failed to blanket the sky, instead, it was irregular,

chaotic in where it chooses to be thick or sparse. In the gaps, the
sky had darkened; the clouds were no longer white or paler grey,
instead, they were blackened shadows that shift with the wind.
There were times they moved just enough to reveal the half-
moon, but for the most part, there was no light in their way to the
Sunrise Sect.
Eventually, both of them reached the outskirts of the sect and

started to climb the steps leading to his house. During their chat,
Michael learned that the Guardians is categorized into five classes
or tiers: Bronze Class, Silver Class, Gold Class, Platinum Class,
and finally the Palladium Class.
The bronze class was the lowest in the order and the powerful
class was the Palladium. The blonde he met was a Silver class
Guardian as she wore a silver pendant on her neck while Gaya's
sister managed to earn a spot in the Bronze class but after looking
at the way the blonde treated the Xanali, Michael was sure that
Xanali would get promoted to the SIlver Class soon.
When they finished climbing the steps, he vaguely saw the

structure of his house because of the darkness. Gaya was
extremely tired after a long walk and couldn't wait to jump on her
bed and have a shut-eye. She mustered her strength and rushed
towards the house but when she was about a few meters away
from the door, Michael grabbed her hand and stopped her.
"Don't make a sound, come with me" Although she couldn't see
his face clearly, she could sense the seriousness in his tone. She
walked with him without making any loud noise and arrived behind
a huge tree.
"Human, what is it?"
"There are assassins waiting for me in the house"
"What?! How? I didn't see anyone, how could you tell?" Gaya's
heart skipped a beat and her body slightly trembled. She was no
longer a powerful cultivator and now she had to depend on Ghost
to survive.
"I can sense them, there are six powerful assassins inside the
house to kill me"
"Shit, what do we do? you can kill them using some of your weird
spells right?" Gaya believed that he could always perform some
miracles and save the day but she vaguely saw him shook his
head.
"It's not that simple," he said and opened up the System.
"System, status window"
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy

point(s))
"System, if I upgrade the Environment Scanning to the next level,

can I sense the cultivation level of the assassins inside?"
[Yes, the upgrade cost will be 9000 badass points]
"Jane you bitch! you will pay for every single badass point you're
going to cost me. System upgrade the scanner to the next level, I
want to know the power level of those who are waiting to kill me ''
It didn't take long to figure out who sent assassins to kill him. Until
now, he only made two enemies, Celina and Jane. If Celina
wanted him dead, she had the power to kill him herself and there
was no need to send assassins after him, which left him with only
one culprit, Jane.
He gritted his teeth and endured the acute pain in his mind. After
Environment scanning reached level 2, he was able to sense the
cultivation level of the assassins inside without laying eyes on
them.
However, when he sensed their cultivation level, dark lines

appeared on his forehead.
"Six Level 10 Body Strengthening stage, hmm. System, can Level
4 Responsive shield withstand the attacks of the assassins?"
[No, the level 4 responsive shield can only withstand the attacks
of anyone on or under the Body Strengthening stage level 8. Level
5 Responsive shield can withstand the attacks of the cultivators
from the Body Strengthening stage level 10]
"Let me guess, I don't have enough points"
[Yes]
This situation made him realize one of his biggest weaknesses but
at the moment, he had no time to be angry at himself. He then
took a deep breath and calmed himself. Just after a few seconds
of picking his brain, a small grin appeared on his face
"Alchemy my darling, System, I want to buy a potion"
[ahhuh?] The system sounded curious for a moment.
"How much is the Devil's breath potion in your store?"
[5000 points]
"How much are Bugbear Tooth, King's Basil, Silver Bay Leaf,
Serpent Barbs?"
[2000 points but the System recommends the host to buy the
potion] there was a hint of tension in the System's voice but
Michael's grin grew wide.
"No thanks, just give me the ingredients I asked"
[Does the host really wish to buy the herbs and not the potion?]
"You bloody system, are you trying to swindle me? I know what
you're up to, you wanted to make me buy the potion and an
antidote separately so you could take all my badass points away,
it's not going to happen. Just give me the damn ingredients I
asked, I can brew the antidote and the potion myself "
[The Devil's breath potion from the system can weaken the
enemies for 5minutes whereas the potion brewed by the host will
only weaken the enemies for two minutes]
"The Devil's breath will weaken any Body Strengthening stage

cultivators by five levels, System. That means those assassins will
become level 5 Body strengthening stage cultivators for two whole
minutes after breathing the potion. Two minutes is more than
enough for me to kill them"
"Human, what's the plan? should I scream and wake up the entire
sect?"
When Michael finished his purchase and closed the system, he

heard Gaya's idea.
"I have a plan that not involves you screaming"
"What is it?" she leaned forward and asked.
"Devil's breathe" he conjured flame on his hand to brew the Devil's

breath using the ingredients he bought from the system.
"I never heard of such a potion, what's it do?" she curiously

peaked at the flame and the house from hiding behind the tree.
Michael was cautious not to alert the waiting assassins and stood
behind the tree to hide the light coming from the flame.
Gaya waited curiously for another five minutes and saw him pour
a dark red ooze into a glass vial and a silvery liquid into another
vial before he put away the flame.
"How do you feel about using the Mark 3?" he pulled his sleeves
up and showed her the Grappling hook. Even though the sky was
dark, she could vaguely see the silver linings on the device
around his wrist.
"You want me to use this? Heck yeah! finally!"
"Shhh!" in her excitement, she almost shouted.

[Does the host wish to give the Mark 3 Grappling hook to the
Subordinate Gaya?]
"Yes only for a moment" he then removed the grappling hook from
his wrist and put it on Gaya's wrist.
"Just aim at"
"I know how to use it, Human, I saw you do it," She said
confidently.
"Alright, reach the top of the house and pour the potion down
through the roof without alerting the assassins. They have to
breathe the potion for a few seconds for the potion to work"
"What if it stinks and they run away before breathing it in?"
"The potion is odorless and the darkness will conceal the color of
the potion"
"Wonderful, let's go and kill those fuckers!"
"And Gaya" he stopped her "after pouring down the potion,

barricade the back door, we don't want our guests to escape, do
we?"
"Of course, we don't, leave that to me"
Gaya nodded excitedly and sneaked her way around the house to
reach the rooftop using the Mark 3 grappling hook. He waited for
her to reach the rooftop and just as she said, she used the
grappling hook perfectly and landed on the rooftop without making
a loud noise.
Michael then walked towards the door and before he entered the
house, he drank the antidote so the devil's breath wouldn't
weaken him. After a few seconds, he sensed the assassins'
cultivation power slowly declining.
"The devil's breathe is working, time to greet to unwanted guests"
Creak!
The door made a creaking sound when he opened it. He didn't
forget to lock the door after entering his house. Then he took a
few steps forward and retrieved his Seal Knife from the system's
storage.
"Guys you can come out from hiding, six Body strengthening level
10 assassins to kill me?! I'm honored" when the moment he
sensed everyone became level 5 Body Strengthening stage
cultivators, he started to countdown in his mind.
"There are two of you under my bed, one behind the sofa, one on
the kitchen, and two of you are hiding behind the curtain" After a
few seconds, he saw six figures appearing before him one by one.
"How did you know? It doesn't matter, what matter is you were
dumb enough to mess with you shouldn't have and now, you're
going to lose your life" One of the assassins opened their mouth
and spoke. Even though Michael couldn't clearly see their faces,
he could vaguely notice their costumes resemble the Ninja
costumes back on earth. But thinking that he's about to kill the
assassins in Ninja costume, he laughed.
"Hahahaha" his laughter confused the assassins
"Check your cultivation level, you're no longer at Level 10" when

he stopped laughing, his face turned serious and cold. The
Assassins were initially for a second, they thought he was
mumbling in fear but when they checked their cultivation level,
their eyes went wide and their legs trembled in terror.
"And do you know what that means?" His grip on the Knife
tightened and the killing intent in his pitch-black eyes risen.
The devil's breath was a dangerous potion that would lower

someone's cultivation level without even the target realizing until
it's too late. The darkness prevented Michael from seeing the
terrified expressions on their faces after they checked their
cultivation level.
"It means you're shit out of luck"

Chapter 62 - Midnight
Slaughter
"Diddle... diddle..." Above Michael and the assassins Gaya was

watching the scene through the roof. Although she couldn't see
the scene below clearly because of the pitch black darkness, the
lightning bolts around Michael's hand provided enough light for
her to see the assassins taking out their daggers.
"We..are...so" Even though they were stunned to see their

cultivation level suddenly drop by 5 levels, they refused to believe
a Body Refining stage, level 5 cultivator could harm them in any
way. Plus, they thought they had the advantage in numbers.
"Little" when the last word of his killing slogan escaped his mouth,
he disappeared from the place he was standing.
Pulch!
The assassins saw one of them got stabbed by Michael. The one
who got stabbed quickly tried to grab Michael before he turned
into a lightning bolt and disappeared again.
"He's fast!"
"Watch your backs!"
Michael previously aimed his knife to stab the assassin in the

heart but he was able to see his movements and dodge at the last
movement. Yet, instead of being shocked, a small grin appeared
on Michael's face as he discovered the extent of his Lightning
Dash spell's current capabilities.
"90 seconds..." he dashed around the assassins while counting in

his head.
"One! behind "
Pulch! pulch!
Michael used his full speed and stabbed one assassin in the
shoulder and the neck. The pain made the assassin a little slow
and when he tried to dodge again, he felt an intense pain in his
neck and his legs dropped to the ground.

level 10 cultivator. The reward is 40,000 experience points as well
as 1000 Badass points.]
[Ding! The Host has successfully killed a powerful cultivator above

his level for the first time. The reward is one gift box!]
"Attack him together!" After seeing the comrade falling, the rest of
the assassins circled Michael and leaped at him to attack at once.
"Why isn't he moving?" From above Gaya saw Michael standing

there without dashing away as the Assassins got closer and
closer.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Because the assassins leaped at him at once, Michael easily

grabbed one assassin by the hand and continuously stabbed him
in the chest.
"Die!'' However, when the rest of the assassins stabbed Michael in

the back, their daggers couldn't get to his body and they were
stopped by a light blue shield around Michael's body.
"60 seconds...four to go..."
Whoosh!
The remaining four assassins were momentarily stunned when

they saw the shield. They quickly tried to move out of Michael's
grab and they were able to get away except one. From above
Gaya fired the grappling hook at one of the assassins as the
grappling hook hit the assassin in the back and slowed him down.
Michael used the assassins' momentary clumsiness and grabbed
him by the neck from behind.
Then without wasting a second, he slit the assassin's throat and

kicked his body towards the remaining three assassins.

"50 seconds...Ignitia"
The three assassins dashed away from the body as they didnt
want to be slowed down. Yet, when the body got closer to them,
the body exploded and the bits and pieces splashed on their
faces.
"Awesome!" Gaya never expected Micheal would blast the dead

body and use the blood and body parts as a distraction.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Because the splattered blood hit them on their eyes which were
the only part uncovered by their costume, their vision got blurred
and two assassins instinctively moved their hands to wipe off the
blood.
Michael used this opportunity and stabbed both of them in the

chest using the Lightning dash spell to speed his movements.

In his rush, he stabbed one in the throat and ended the life but the
second assassin survived because he was stabbed through the
ribs. Michael didn't stop his movements to end his life but turned
his focus on the last assassin who remained without suffering any
wounds.
Pulch!
Pulch!
When Michael and the last assassins were dashing and fighting,
Gaya used the grappling hook to hit the assassin who survived
Michael's attack.
The Grappling hook was not a weapon and it was certainly not
enough to kill him but she kept firing it at the assassin's wound to
keep him from escaping or conjuring a spell.
"AH!"
The last assassins saw Gaya torturing his comrade from above
and wanted to end Michael's life soon.
"30 seconds..." The last assassin proved troublesome as he was

able to dodge and evade Michael's knife and Lightning bolts.
"DIE!" The assassin's hands suddenly glowed and his dagger let
out an unearthly humming sound.
"Ah"
"Human!" Gaya shouted seeing Michael's body sent flying by the
last assassin. Michael's body hit the nearby wall and dropped to
the ground.
The assassin wasted no time and dashed at him to finish him off
quickly.
"(cough) (cough)" The assassin saw him struggling to get up and

coughing. He thrust his dagger straight between Michael's eyes,
Pulch!
Just when his dagger was about to touch Michael's skin, he

coughed up blood and experienced a sharp pain in his chest. He
slowly looked down at his chest to see Michael's dagger sticking
out of his chest.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
"You..." When the assassins realized that Michael was faking his
injury, it was too late as he coughed up more blood.

"I was just faking with you" Michael chuckled and withdrew his
knife from the assassin's chest. These were the words the
assassin heard before closing his eyes.
"10 seconds"
"Where do you think you're going?!"
Boom!
When Michael turned around to deal with the last assassin, he

saw Gaya land directly on his back.
While Gaya was crushing the assassin with her knees, he
activated the lightning dash and stabbed the assassin in the back,
shoulders, legs, and arms. Michael kept stabbing him in the body
but he avoided going for the kill as he wanted to ask one last
question.
Considering the assassin lost most of his blood and suffered

many wounds, he didn't worry about the Devil's breath time limit.
"You're dying but I can still hurt you," he said and stabbed the
assassin in the collarbone.
"Who hired you?"
"Kill...me" the assassin stuttered. Gaya punched him in the face

while Michael twisted his knife to inflict more pain.
"Usually, I don't like torturing but if you don't give me an answer, I

will make you suffer"
"AHHHHH!" the pain he felt when Michael twisted his knife was
unbearable and the assassin blurted out the name in agony.
"Ja...ne..."
"Thank you" Michael took his knife from the assassin's collarbone
and stabbed him right between the eyes to end his suffering.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for leveling up. The current level
is the Body Strengthening stage, level 6]
Host: Michael

Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy

point(s))
Wealth: 440,000 Gold
[The host has one gift remaining to open!]
"Let me deal with the bodies first" Michael exited the system. He
conjured a flame in his hand and saw his walls, carpet, and his
sofas were painted in red with the assassins' blood. Fortunately,
he knew a potion that would get rid of the bloodstains but if he
wants to get rid of the bodies, he had to get his hands dirty.
"I'll go to the forests and bury the bodies, you stay here" Other
than burying the bodies, he had another thing in his mind which
he didn't want Gaya to know.
"Aren't you going to inform the sect?"
"No, they must not know what happened here. Until I return, don't
let anyone"
"Who would come at this time of the night?"
"But if they do"
"Yeah, yeah, I won't let anyone in. Don't take too long, I can't
sleep if the house reeks of blood" Gaya twitched her nose and
pointed out the mess he made.
"I know a way to clean all this blood but first, I have to deal with
the bodies"
Chapter 63 - Dressing Up
Leaving Gaya back at his home, Michael rushed towards the thick
forest near the sect premises. The forest was pitch black and filled
with nothing but sounds of insects. With the help of his
Environment Scanning skill, he was able to move through the
forest without tumbling down.
After he came quite far into the forest. Michael stopped running
and climbed the top of a tree using his grappling hook. The Naga
girl took a liking to the Grappling hook as she reluctantly parted
with it when he took it back.
Sitting on the branch, he used the Environment Scanning to make

sure there's no one around him because he's going to put a
dangerous but important plan on the motion.
"System, open the Gift Box" The blue box wrapped in red ribbons
flashed across his eyes, and four cards jumped out from the box.
"Two Spell learners, Special Fertilizer," he read the first two cards
when his gaze landed on the third card, he grinned ear to ear.
"The bow of Legolas" the dark wooden bow looked nothing

extraordinary from the outside look but Michael knew this bow
killed many powerful orcs in the Lord of the Rings movies.
[Ding! The Host must be at least 70% proficient in Archery to use

the bow]
Just as he was grinning at the bow and imagining himself running

around firing a volley of arrows upon his enemies, the system
bombarded him with a surprise warning.
"Seriously?! Let me guess, I need to buy something from you"

[Duh!]
[Yes]
He could swear he heard a snarky reply from the system before

the familiar robotic voice.
"How much?"
[The System recommends the host to buy the Archery pack which
contains special types of arrows and Book of Archery. By using
the Book of Archery, the host will become 80% proficient in all
long-ranged weapons]
"It does sound cool but give me the price first"
[24999 Badass points only!]
"The fuck! Why don't you round up to 25k? You sound more and
more like the tv ads, System" First of all, Michael knew he has not
enough points to buy the Archery pack, and second, even if he
does, he wouldn't buy the pack at the moment because he
needed the Badass points to accomplish more significant tasks.
Putting the Bow in his storage, he stared at the fourth and final
item he got from the gift box. The card had two swords on the
surface as he began to read the description.
"The host will be able to dual wield swords and gain 70%
proficiency in sword mastery" he breathed out as his face
brimmed with a smile for he was filled with glee.
"I always wanted to fight using swords, it seems I got my wish.

Hey System, does this skill come with swords?"
[No, The host have to buy the swords separately]
"Alright, my plan does require a new set of skills, System, list all
the swords I can buy between 5000 to 8000 badass points"
[...] he waited for a few seconds and the system showed him
nothing, not a single sword.
[The system recommends the host not to be stingy with the
badass points]
"Stingy? Do you know how hard it is to earn XP and Badass

points without pissing off powerful people?. Doesn't matter, how
much are the least expensive swords you got?"
[10,000 Badass points]
"Does it come with the pair or do I have to buy another one to dual
wield?"
[Yes, the Host has to buy two swords if you wish to dual wield]
After hearing the System, he wanted to shout at the system but
soon, he realized he doesn't always depend on the system to
accomplish things.
"System, I can use any two swords right?"
[Yes, but the system recommends the host to buy swords from the
store]
"And why is that?"
[The items brought from the system store are unique and the host
will not find them in the world. Plus, the items in the store are
superior in quality]
"I know system, but I have already taken a loan. So I must spend
each point very carefully and I need badass points to buy
something else for my grand plan"
[What is that host?] Michael took a deep breath and asked the
system,
"System, I need a new suit, I'm applying the following filters. The
suit must be black and under 8000 badass points"
[Does the host wish the suit to have a special ability? Special
ability suits cost more]
"if there's a suit with special ability under 8000, I'll be glad"
[The Suit with special ability starts on 20,000 Badass points]
"Then no thanks, I settle for suits with no special abilities for now"
The system started to search for the suits as he saw the loading
icon before his eyes. He eagerly waited for the system to come up
with the new suit. A few moments after, three iconic suits
appeared before him. The Zorro costume, the X Men suit from the
Xmen Last standing, and the Nightwing Suit from the Titans.
"Although I like zorro, it doesn't suit the purpose, pun intended" he

put away the Zorro costume and stared at the Xmen suit and the
Nightwing suit. Compared to the Xmen suit, the Nightwing suit
seemed more refined and cool. The only thing that irked him was
the blue Nightwing logo on the center and the blue linings on the
armor.
"Let's put on the other items and see which one looks intimidating.
System, do you have the cape of Doctor Doom?" Michael wished
the system to say yes as Doctor Doom was one of his favorite
Marvel characters. He always wanted to dress as Doctor Doom
and go trick or treat like normal kids when he was little but until he
reached this world, he didn't have much chance to enjoy his life to
the fullest.
[The black colored Doctor Victor Von Doom cape will cost the host
1000 Badass points]
"Good! put the cape on both the suits, I need to preview before
finalizing my purchase" he couldn't hold his excitement. The
System luckily cost him nothing to put the cape on the suits,
therefore, he was able to design what kind of suit he needs
without worry about the Badass points.
With Doctor Doom's cape and hood, the Nightwing suit looked
way better than the Xmen suit. Looking at the Nightwing suit, he
almost decided to go on with this suit but he still had to buy one
important piece to finalize his new suit.
"System, give me the Black mask from the Birds of Prey film"
[500 badass points]
"Thank god, I thought it's going to cost more. System, show me

how I would look in both suits" In a flash of time, two naked bodies
appeared before him and then, then the System put the Xmen suit
and the Nightwing suit on him. Just like his previous thought,
when the cape and hood added, the latter looked way better in his
opinion. As the last piece, the Black mask covered his face.
"Wow," the Black skull mask really looked intimidating under the
hood and perfectly suited for his purpose which was to inflict fear
into his enemies and spread his Legend.
Under the two suits, the cost of buying them emerged. The X Men
suit surprisingly cost 7500 with the cape and Black mask while the
Nightwing suit cost was 7000 badass points.
"System, I'll buy the Nightwing armor and after that, I need four
more items"
[Does the host wish to equip the suit of armor now?]
"Not yet, I need Roc Feather, Grim Aconite, Ent Bark, and black
metallic spray paint"
[Does the Host wish to brew the Fear potion?] He wouldn't have
thought it would be possible for him to create something similar to
the fear toxin that Scarecrow used back on earth. Although
Michael learned chemistry as a part of his training, he was not a
master in Chemistry. However, this changed when he learned the
Book of Alchemy. After becoming 5Star Alchemist, he knew the
properties of a vast amount of herbs and plants in this world, as
well as which can be used to concoct pills or brew potions.
With this knowledge, he was able to figure out the formula to a

potion that would induce fear.
"Yes"
[800 Badass points]

"I'll take them" After buying everything he needed, he exited the
system and started to work on the suit. He first painted the Blue
Nightwing logo with his metallic black spray paint and then he
painted everything that had blue with the help of his Alchemy
flame.
"Shit, I have to look for a Batcave. Working on top of a tree branch

is not a straightforward thing"
Chapter 64 - The Calm Before
The Storm I
"I cannot wait to wear this bad boy and terrorize my enemies,
hahaha" Michael evilly laughed looking at his suit of armor. He
then stored the armor in his system storage and started to brew
the Fear toxin. He was being extremely cautious not to inhale the
toxin. As a precaution, he wore the Black mask he just bought.
Unlike the Devil's breath, the Fear toxin had no antidote, if he
inhaled the toxin, he would experience hallucinations and absolute
terror for a few hours.
According to his calculations, the weaker the cultivation level, the

stronger the effects would be. For an instance, the Fear toxin
would affect a Body refining stage cultivator for three to five hours
whereas it would affect a Body Strengthening stage cultivator for
two to four hours.
After fifteen minutes of careful brewing, he took a medium-sized

bottle and poured a black goo like liquid into the bottle. The Fear
toxin had a low boiling point so it would vaporize very quickly and
spread to a large area in a matter of seconds which was perfect
for his upcoming plans.
"Damn! Alchemy is so overpowered" The only thing he lacked to

milk full use of his Alchemy talent was the ingredients and herbs.
Many powerful, overpowered pills and potions required very rare
herbs and precious ingredients which he currently had only one
way to get, System's store. However, the ingredients and herbs in
the System store were extremely costly. Therefore, he decided to
grow them old-fashioned since he could buy the seeds from the
store cheaper than the grown herbs. As for the items such as
wyvern claws, dragon scales, and items he can't grow like herbs,
he planned to buy them using gold coins in auction houses.
The fight between the assassins made him realize his biggest
weakness that is depending on the system too much. Anytime he
could run out of Badass points and face a situation like that again
and if he had to solely depend on the system, he would be
screwed. Because of this, he decided to take advantage of the
world and the people around him. For instance, he planned to
grow a large Herbal garden at the sect for his Alchemy rather than
buying from the system.
"I may as well brew the blood cleaner" Using the Grappling hook
he comfortably landed on the ground and began his searches for
the herbs required to brew the blood cleaner. He collected most of
the herbs near the area where he buried the bodies of the
Assassins and now only needed a particular mushroom as the last
ingredient.
"There it is" Considering the mushroom had a fluorescent effect,

he was able to quickly find the mushroom. He carefully plucked a
couple of glowing green mushrooms and put them into his system
storage.
*********************
"Huh?" At the moment, Gaya noticed a shadow outside through

the window.
In the darkness, she couldn't make out the face but barely saw the
figure with the help of the half-moon.
"Bastard didn't even give me his Knife!" she cursed Michael and
picked up the vase to defend her.
"Hey, it's me, open the door" Only now hearing Michael's voice,
she heaved a sigh of relief.
"What's the code?"
"There's no code, you damn snake" she chuckled inside and

continued to mess with him
"You have only two tries remaining, what's the code?"

"Gaya is a bi" before he could finish his words, she slammed open
the door with a furious expression on her face
"What did you call me?"
"I was going to say Gaya is a big girl, what did you think?" he
pushed her away and entered the house.
"You fucking liar! You were going to say Gaya is a bitch, weren't
you?"
"Your words, not mine" ignoring her scowl, he took out the blood
cleaner which was a milky white potion and poured it in the
bloodstains.
"What is that smell?" Gaya twitch her nose and sniffed the air
"What smell?" he kept pouring the potion as the bloodstains

began to disappear.
"I don't know, it smells like paint and metaly" Michael's hands
stopped pouring the potion when he heard her and looked at her
coming towards him sniffing the air.
"It's coming from you but not from this potion" She walked closer
to him and took his hand.
"Hey, what're you doing?" She sniffed his hands and nodded
"Yes, it's definitely coming from you" Michael never expected a

snake-like her to have a sense of smell like a dog. Even though
he washed away the paint stains on his hands and could no
longer smell the pain, he realized she could still smell the metallic
paint.
"Of course it's coming from me. Do you think potions magically
appear? One of the herbs I used to brew the Blood cleaner smells
like paint, that what you're smelling "
"Well, make it go away, it stinks' ' she put his hand back and
loafed into the sofa since the blood on it now disappeared.
"Do you smell everything that stinks?"
Thop!
She threw a piece of broken wood at him instead of answering as

he chuckled a little.
When he finished pouring all the blood cleaner, he heard hissing

and snoring and turned to see Gaya fell asleep on the sofa.
Looking at her curled figure, he went to his room and brought her
bedsheets.
"I should plant the seeds before they come in the morning" he left
the house after covering Gaya with the bedsheet. He expected
small gestures like these would help him increase her loyalty to
him and then, he could finally cure her and get a powerful
subordinate.
The herbal garden of the Sunrise sect was previously cleaned off
by him and now had nothing but grass and weed.
"For now, this small garden would do but in the future, I'm going to
create the largest herbal garden in Bredia'' The herbal garden
before him was only 200 square feet in size and had no protection
around it. Not that someone would rob a small garden in a
declined sect.
Taking out the seed pack and the compost he bought from the
system, he started to get his hands dirty. Maintaining his garden
would be Ricky and Daniel's job but for now, he chose to do it.
After he finished preparing the soil, he remembered about the

special fertilized he got from the system's gift box. The fertilizer
was a green powder packed inside a paper bag.
"System, tell me about this"
[The Special fertilizer will permanently increase the land's fertility

and growth speed of the herbs. According to the System's
calculation, the seeds would take two days to grow in this garden
and the fertilizer would make them grow in a day]
"Then, it's a good thing I ordered Ricky and Daniel to buy the
herbs from Sarton. It's bad for business to send back the
customers on its very second day" After he met Gaya's sister and
the blonde at the restaurant, he left a note and a pouch of coins
for Ricky and Daniel. On the note, he ordered them to go to
Sarton and buy everything he listed as he needed the items to
concoct pills and brew potions. The items were enough to keep
the shop open for two days and after that, the herbs in the garden
would be ready to be plucked and used to make the potions and
pills.
Soon after, he left the herbal garden and made his way back to his
house. Today was a very fruitful day, he broke through to the next
level by killing the Assassins, he finally bought the suit of armor
for his plan, brewed the fear toxin, and planted the seeds to cut
the purchasing cost of herbs.
One last thing he had to do before putting his suit of armor was to
get the list of all the criminals in the Kingdom. If his plan to go as
smoothly as he planned, he must kill some criminals and
introduce his second persona to Bredia.
And when everyone starts to fear and worship his second

persona, he would finally end the life of the one who sent the
assassins to kill him, Jane Totonk.
"Since I come to this world, I killed many but Jane, you're the first
person I'm going to Assassinate"
The Storm II
The very next morning, the sound of carriages and chattering of

people interrupted Jack's peaceful cultivation. He had no idea
where this noise was coming from. On the busiest day of his sect,
there would be only one or two carriages and even those
belonging to the debt collectors. Yet now he heard continuous
commotion and noise of carriages.
he could no longer concentrate on cultivation. He opened his eyes

and walked outside to check what's happening.
"What the hell?!" When he stepped out of his tiny room, he was
welcomed by the sight of a huge number of people walking
towards their sect. Particularly they head directly towards the
place where Ghost was staying.
"Who are all these people and why are they coming here?"
"Brother Jack, do you know what's going on?" Some of his juniors
also woke up by the commotions and they came asking Jack.
"I don't know but I should go and inform the Elders"
Meanwhile, countless noblemen of Bradford and Sarton were all

rallying into their mountain range after hearing about the 80%
pure pills and potions. Some people from the influential factions
had come too.
As time passed, more and more people came. Soon, people filled
the whole area. Some people even wanted to buy places earlier in
line in front of Michael's home, but no one was willing to sell their
place.
"What's going on? Why on earth are there so many powerful and
influential people here?" Raylene woke up early to make breakfast
for the children and clean the sect building and when she saw the
crowd this early in the morning, she was surprised.
…..
Inside Michael's house, Gaya's eyelids twitched, and the

commotion outside disturbed her slumber. Soon, she heard soft
knocks on the door as she finally opened her eyes.
"I swear to God if that little shit Jack!" Just as she was about to
finish her curse, she remembered about the store and realized the
people had come before even the morning sun.
Throwing aside her bedsheet and tying her hair into a ponytail,
she went to open the door. The moment she opened the door, she
was stunned by the crowd that greeted her. For a second, she
stared at the sea of people before her speechlessly before talking.
"The sun hasn't even risen yet, people! Wait a few hours,
Alchemist Ghost will be here with you soon" Gaya shouted out
loudly.
"Miss Aelia, I came here first, so I'll be the first person to order!"
"I have come for the Energy boosters"
"I want Healing pills, my grandpa is dying!"
"I want five Revitalizing pills!"
Their shouts almost broke her eardrums as she shouted again
"Fine, stand in line. If anyone tries to cut in line, we won't open the
shop"
"Do not worry, we will behave ourselves."
"If anyone dares to cut in line, I will kill him."
"Yes, kill him!"

On her way to his room, she hatched a quick plan in her mind.
After seeing the crowd of customers at their doorsteps on the very
second day, she wanted to put her fingers in the pie.
"Does asking 50% on the profit is too much?" asking this question,
she kicked opened Michael's room door to see him peacefully
sleeping on the bed. She was surprised to see him sleeping rather
than cultivating because only mortals had to sleep to refresh their
minds and bodies. She wouldn't have slept if she was still a
cultivator as a few hours of meditations and cultivation would
make her feel rested.
However, she didn't expect a genius like Michael to sleep like a

baby despite the commotion outside.
"Hey! Wake up!" she came beside his bed and dragged the quilt
away like an angry mother waking up her kid.
"Go away..." he didn't let go of his quilt. Like many school students
and workers, he failed to fight the ten times the gravitational effect
of the bed in the early morning. If he was on earth, he had to use
every minute and second honing his skills because people on
earth would age and become sloppy at what they do with age.
However, he was not on the earth anymore, he was in a world
where he could use the system to become an immortal, therefore,
he wanted to enjoy little things such as morning sleep more.
He didn't plan to go from place to place often, piss off powerful

people and fight all the time. He intended to enjoy this life to the
fullest and experience every earthly pleasure he could. However,
his earthly pleasure was being currently interrupted by this
princess.
"Don't make me pour water down on you Ghost, because I will do

it!"
"Give me a kiss and I will wake up" he reached out his hands as
his eyes were still shut.
"Sure thing, come closer" Instead of being angry, she sounded

sweet and moved closer. He could feel the hot breath coming from
her and a tint of jasmine. Although he knew she's not going to kiss
him, he curiously moved closer and closer to see what she's
planning.
"Ah!" his curiosity soon answered as she took a bite out of his left
ear.
"That's what you get for a kiss, you damn bastard! Now wake the
fuck up Ghost, we have rich goats to milk" Finally the thought of
getting richer made him jump out of his bed.
"Master Ghost!"
As Micheal and Gaya were standing in the room, Daniel and Ricky
came running but when they saw Gaya, both of them halted their
steps.
"Oh?! forgive...us..Master Ghost" Ricky blushed and bowed

asking forgiveness as he thought Gaya and Michael were busy on
the bed.
"Why the fuck are you blushing?" Gaya shouted at Ricky and
when he opened his mouth, she yelled again
"No, I don't even want to know, if I did, I would beat the shit out of
you. Come, we have a business to open" She took both Ricky and
Daniel to set up her executive chair that she recently fell in love
with and her workplace.
"Ghost go get ready!"
"Daniel wait, I have another job for you"
"Make it fast," Gaya said and walked away leaving Daniel behind.
"Daniel, I want you to go and get the list of all criminals or anyone
we shouldn't sell our products from the guild or anywhere you
can" A while ago, he saw bounty posters on the Adventurer Guild
notice board. Considering he needed to be here, he decided to
ask Daniel to get the posters. However, the reason for this was
not about selling his products but putting his plans in motion.
"As you wish, Master Ghost" Daniel didn't ask any questions as he
bowed and turned to leave as Michael stopped him
"Be discreet"
…..
After sending Daniel on his way to the Adventurer Guild, Michael

brushed his teeth and put on his Neo robes.
"Human" Gaya came looking for him before he steps out of his
room again
"Claire and the oldies are here"
"Let's go meet them"
Right at the moment, Claire and the Elders were standing in the
hall and the sight of this much crowd outside the house stunned
them. They knew the people were waiting for Michael but they
didn't know why they came here instead of going to his shop at
Bradford.
When the elders and Claire turned their gaze away from the
crowd, they saw Michael as their mouths slightly opened.
"You had a breakthrough?! AGAIN!?" Elders Miles's heart skipped

a beat. Only yesterday he was at the Body Refining stage level 5
but just in a day, they saw him reach level 6.
"A true genius"
"Brother Ghost is a freakin monster"
"With this rate, he would reach the next stage in a couple of

months"



Just by impressing the Elders and the few disciples behind them,
he reaped a bunch of Badass points. While the Elders were
staring at him shocked, Claire had a gentle smile on her face as
the more he grew, the more chance they would have to revive
their sect.
"Sect leader Claire, Elders" he greeted them with a wide grin and
a nod
"Sorry for not informing you about this, I would have moved the
shop here if it wasn't for what happened in Bradford with Jane. I
realized that if she messes with me again, I would do more than
breaking her bodyguards' bones. I didn't want that, so I decided to
move the shop here, I hope Sect Leader Claire and the Elders
don't mind. I wanted to inform you yesterday but meeting with the
Guardians took some time"
"Guardians?!"
"From The Guardian Guild?" Elder Miles felt the world around him
spinning in shock and dropped onto the chair behind him.
"What did they talk to you about if you don't mind us asking?"
Elder Sandra asked with a soft voice.
"They asked me to become their trainee but I rejected them"
"You did what?! Oh my god, I'm going to die!" Elder Miles

screamed again and fainted on the spot as the other Elders also
looked quite startled.
Claire heaved a sigh of relief inside. If he left the sect to join the
Guardian Guild, how could she revive her sect?
"Ghost, tell us everything that happened," Elder Mark asked and
the elders sat down on the sofa.
"Of course, Elders. Just give me a moment" He grinned widely

because he realized that if he concocted pills and brew potions
while talking to them, he would look more badass and accumulate
the much-needed Badass points, not to mention the gold coins.
"Aelia, start taking the orders, we are opening"

The Storm III
"Show off" Gaya mumbled under her breath and opened the doors
to the customers waiting outside.
"What are you doing?" Elder Sandra frowned. After taking the pills
he gave her, Elder Sandra's complexion looked better and she
seemed healthier than before.
"Multitasking, Elder Sandra. These people are waiting for me from

early morning and you're here for an explanation, I can't make
either of you wait any longer" Michael calmly explained and
conjured the flame on one hand while sitting on the sofa to
concoct the pills.
"It's dangerous not to solely concentrate on what you're doing

Ghost" The Elders were genuinely concerned because if he made
a mistake, not only him but they would also get burned by his
mistake.
"Trust me, this is a walk in the park for me. Now, where was I?"
"Rejecting the Guardians" Elder Mark said as Michael started to

tell everything that happened in the restaurant except the fact
Gaya's sister is a Guardian.
"Look, he's concocting pills while talking to the Elders!"
"I've never seen an Alchemist concoct pills so casually"
"Yeah, I heard even the Alchemy king wouldn't let anyone inside
his work hall as concentration is crucial in making pills and
brewing potions"
"Are you saying that Ghost is better than the Alchemy King?"
"He might be because Alchemy King Gabriell is fifty years old but
look at him, he's not even twenty-five. Imagine where he would be
in another twenty-five years" Just like Michael planned, the people
were stunned by him multitasking and murmured among
themselves.




….
Inside the house, Michael heard the continuous ringing of the

system notification. His heart jumped in joy looking at the Badass
points increasing.
Eventually, Michael finished telling the Elders what happened with

the two Guardians. The Elders and Claire let out a deep breath.
Because they were immersed in Michael's story, they failed to
notice the money he just made but Jack was more interested in
the money than Michael's story.
He slowly walked to Gaya's counter and looked at the pay cubes

over her shoulder. At the same, the next customer came to Gaya's
counter and placed his order
"Miss, I'd like to order, 2 Revitalizing pills, 2 Arch Energy boosters,

and 3 Healing potions"
"81,000 gold"
"What do you think you're doing?" Gaya turned back to see Jack's
eyes sparkling at the amount of gold she just took from the pay
cube.
"Can I... touch it?" Jack had never seen a pile of gold coins before
and in front of him, a huge pile of gold coins lighting the room with
their shine.
"No, you can't touch it you little shit, go away" Gaya shushed him
away from the stack of gold coins.
Michael noticed this scene but didn't say anything. After being
shushed away by Gaya, Jack went to Ricky who was busy taking
the pills and potions from Michael's hands and delivering them to
the Customers.
"Do you need any help?" Jack asked Ricky
"No, my lord. I'm doing just fine"
"I'm not a lord, I'm just like you, a commoner. I'm Jack Reuban,
what is your name?" Jack reached his hand out as Ricky
reluctantly shook his hand because lord or not a lord, Jack was a
cultivator at the Foundation stage level 4 while he was just at the
Arch sensing level 3.
"Ricky, Ricky Mervan"
"So Ricky, how much are you earning working for Brother Ghost?"
Ricky was surprised by Jack's sudden blunt question but he
sighed inside and answered
"120 gold, Jack"
"Per year?"
"Per month"
"Oh? Wait..what?!" Jack's body shook for a second hearing Ricky.

He was barely able to send ten or twenty gold coins once a year
to his home but Ricky was earning way more than he ever could.
What disturbed him more was Ricky was just a mortal while he
was considered a cultivator.
"I wasted my life cultivating, oh god!" Jack mumbled continuously

and went to join Elder Miles on the sofa.
*******************
"Alright people, we are closing the shop for today. We'll open
again in two days and we will have more varieties of pills and
potions. Spread the news, if I see anyone knocking on my door
tomorrow, I won't be responsible for killing the one who knocks "
"Oh come on, we didn't get to order anything"
"This is unfair!"
"I need Healing potions to save my grandma"
"If you love your grandma so much, come before anyone else!"
Gaya yelled at the person who tried to use his dead grandma to
buy pills.
The ones who got to buy pills and potions left the mountains with
a wide grin while the people who didn't get the chance walked
away with gloomy faces.
After she shut the doors, Gaya started to count the gold coins
under the shocked gazes of the Elders and Claire. Jack still tried
to touch the pile of gold as Elder Mark swallowed a mouth full of
saliva looking at the scene.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Debts of the Base of Operation are increasing!]
"What the?" Michael's smile disappeared hearing the warning

beeps inside his mind. He then entered the system to see what's
going on and why is the system yelling at him.
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy

point(s))
"Seriously, you're giving me warnings about Base of operations

and showing me my stats ?! open the Base of Operations"

Level: 1
Debt: 3,057,543 Gold Coins
Status: Declined
Legend: 20 / 1000 (Crappy old sect where a 5 Star Alchemist

resides)
"What the fuck is that debt amount? Is there a bug or something in

you System?!"
[Nope]
"Then how the hell did the amount of debt go from 450,000 to 3
million?"
[The host should ask the Sect Leader. The Sect took a debt with
variable interest rate. Considering the sect hasn't even paid their
interest and just a minute ago, they crossed a two-year time limit.
Hence, the System calculated the total debt amount and showed it
to the host]
"Variable interest rate? Two-year time limit? Fuck!"
[The System recommends the Host to pay the debt sooner than
later or the System would deduct the host's badass points on a
regular basis]
"Oh come one, why would you do that? What's the connection
between debt and you deducting me Badass points?" Michael was
really frustrated by the System's blackmail and wanted to punch
the system in the face. He was planning to buy new swords and
renovate his house using the gold coins he earned through hard
work but now, he had to pay the debt as soon as possible.
[The answer is simpler than you think Host. You are not a badass
if you are neck-deep in debt] He really tried to calm himself by
closing his eyes but what the system said next almost made him
lose his cool.
[Host, when are you planning to upgrade the System?] The

system's robotic voice sounded like it was messing with him.
"Let me first deal with the debt, jerk"
He exited the system with a gloomy face and Gaya noticed the
change on his face. But before she could ask what's wrong,
Michael turned his gaze towards Claire
"Sect Leader Claire, I need to ask you something" His voice

brought Claire front the daze of looking at the shining pile of gold.
"What is it, Ghost?"
"How much debt are we in?" The question surprised the Elders
and Claire. His face didn't have his usual smile as he looked quite
serious.
"Why are you asking that?" It was quite an embarrassing subject

for Claire to speak in front of the disciples and outsiders like Ricky
and Aelia.
Knock! Knock!
Suddenly someone knocked at the door and turned everyone's

gaze at Michael's door.
"Because of that," Michael guessed the ones knocking on the

door are the debt collectors.
"Can I have one peaceful day without someone trying to kill me or

take my money?" Michael sighed inside and prepared to give all
his money because Badass points are harder to earn than the
gold coins and Badass points were more valuable compared to
gold coins.
"The fuck?! Didn't I say we closed the shop? Prepare yourself to

get wrecked you asshole outside the door" However Gaya had
zero ideas about the ones outside as she thought it's someone
who came to buy pills or potions ignoring her order. She clenched
her fists and rushed angrily towards the door
"Stop Aelia, it's not who think it is"

Chapter 67 - Lucifer Is Coming
I
Before Gaya could mess with the newcomers, Michael waved his
hand as the door opened. On the other side, he saw a group of
men in fancy clothes standing and they entered his house
following a plumpy middle-aged man.
Looking at the man's big belly, a wicked smile, and bald head,
Michael recognized this man as the loan shark of this world. Back
on earth, he met his fair share of loan sharks. They would lend out
money to anyone without asking for any official documents like a
bank but after their client took the money, the loan sharks would
dry them out by collecting the money with inhuman interest rate by
any means necessary.
Only a few had escaped the clutches of a loan shark after taking
the loan. At first, the Loan sharks would look like an angel but
soon, they would turn into a devil.
"Greetings Sect Leader Claire and Elders. You never told me you
have a 5-star Alchemist for a disciple" Gaya counted the
bodyguards behind the man and noticed all of them were at Body
Strengthening stage level 2. Although Gaya was haughty, she
knew when to back off, therefore, she quietly walked back and
stood behind Michael.
Without even asking Michael's permission, the fat man kept

walking around his home and touched the things like he was
prizing them. As usual, the bodyguards scanned every female in
the room without hiding the lust in their eyes. Michael didn't get
angry at them for this because, in their line of work, they would
have taken many girls as payment from their clients.
Besides, there was no harm done in the bodyguards checking out
the girls.
Sweat drops appeared on Claire's face and her rosy cheeks

turned pale.
"You basically have a cash cow in your backyard"
"Ew" The man licked his lips staring at Michael and it grossed
Gaya. Then the man came in front of Michael and the Elders. The
bodyguards dragged Michael's sofa and placed it behind the old
man to rest his bottom.
Michael watched everything calmly without uttering any words and

waited for the man to come to the point.
"Nice sofa, very comfortable," The man said and moved his butt
around the sofa feeling every inch of the sofa. Seeing this, Gaya
almost lost her cool because only she and Michael used the sofa
and at night, she used the sofa as her comfy bed. The man was
practically rubbing his butt all over Gaya's bed.
"Hey, look at that, bring me that. It looks comfier" The man's eyes
lit when he saw Gaya's back executive chair and ordered his
guards to bring it over to him like he owned the chair.
"Human!" Gaya gritted her teeth but Michael gently grabbed her
clenched fist and calmed her down.
"Lord Vandan" Claire stepped forward and said
"My legs are hurting" Ignoring Claire,Vandan, the fat man pointed
at the last remaining sofa.
"Does he have a fetish for sofas?" Michael said to himself as the

bodyguards dragged the sofa and placed it before Vandan. The
loan shark then lifted both his legs and rested them on Michael's
fancy sofa which he bought for 100 Badass points. In his mind,
every badass point was precious to him and the man used his
sofa as a leg rest irked Michael.
"Why are you all standing? sit down" Vandan smiled and said but
the Elders frowned because there were no sofas left in the home
for them to sit.
"What? Sitting on the ground do wonders for your bodies"
"System, give me the Royal Luxury corner sofa set" what kind of
Badass would stand in front of a loan shark like a servant? And
because the Elders and Claire were members of his Base of
Operation, they kinda represented him. Therefore, Michael spent
200 Badass points and bought the luxurious sofa this sect has
ever seen.
When the elders were about to bend their knees to sit on the
ground, Michael waved his hand as the Royal sofa set appeared
behind them.
"Woah"




Vandan and the bodyguards opened their mouths widely looking

at the pearl white sofa with golden pillows and pads. The sofa was
so big as it took up most of the hall space, that's why Micheal
didn't buy the sofa before. However, looking at the Badass points
he earned by showing off, he was glad that he bought the sofa.
Gaya was the first one to appreciate its beauty as well as sit. She
bounced around the sofa excitedly.
"Sect Leader Claire, Elders" Michael gestured at them and took
the center seat on the sofa to directly face Vandan. Claire and
Elders felt tough when they were with Michael. Claire nodded and
sat beside Michael while Gaya sat on Michael's other side. He
was sitting between two beauties but his eyes were locked on the
loan sharks.
Vandan stared at Michael again and a wide grin appeared on his

face again.
"So how much do we owe you, Lord Vandan?" Before Claire could
open her mouth, Michael took the lead because this was his time
to take the things into hands. He decided to turn his focus on
turning this sect the other way around to start earning Badass
points.
"Everything" Vandan calmly said and for the first time since
Vandan came to the house, Gaya saw Michael's expression
change.
Michael frowned and asked, "what do you mean everything?"
"Take a look at this" One bodyguard retrieved a parchment and

placed it on Vandan's hand. Vandan then threw it at Michael.
Gaya looked over his shoulder and read the parchment and the
more she read, the more she was stunned by the stupidity of the
Elders and Claire.
The parchment had many paragraphs but Gaya read many

reports like this when she was a princess. The Elders and Claire
basically put the entire sect's land and any income earned by the
sect's land as the security deposit for the amount of 250,000 gold
coins. According to this parchment, what they owned wasn't theirs
but Vandan's, and technically, what Michael earned on the sect's
land belonged to Vandan.
"We needed the Gold coins to treat Elder Sandra and keep the
sect's door open" Claire apologetically said to Michael as he
sighed.
"Give us a number, Lord Vandan. If there's a way for us to get
released from the bonus of this agreement, I want to know"
"Hahaha, why are you worried about money? you're a freakin 5-

star Alchemist"
"Yes, I know that. But even a 5-star Alchemist cannot provide you
an infinite number of gold coins and the agreement basically asks
just that. Since my sect took a loan from you, I'll settle the debt if
you give me a number"
"Gho..."
"We'll discuss this later" Michael's stern voice made Claire shut up
as Vandan rubbed his chin for a moment and shook his head.
"You know, I was going to settle for measly 4miilion gold

considering the sect's status but now" he paused and grinned ear
to eat.
"Now, 4millions is nowhere near enough because you're making

money on my land and it's only fair for you to pay me. After all, it's
my money that kept the sect's door from closing"
"Lord Vandan"
"SHUT UP!" when Elder Mark tried to say something, Vandan's

smile instantly disappeared as he shouted at Elder Mark.
Then at the next moment, his smile returned and he looked at

Michael
"I'm a reasonable man who runs a business helping people in

need, so I will make you a fair deal. I'll let you keep running your
business on my lands and in return, I'll get, hmmm, let's just say
75% of the profits you make. You can keep all the rest to yourself"
"Are you kidding?!" Gaya finally had enough of Vandan and

shouted.
"I'll take the deal"

"Wait what?!" Gaya was stunned by Michael's answer and not
only her, everyone at the scene was stunned, including Vardan
and his men. They didn't expect him to accept the deal so quickly.
"Wonderful, this is the start of a mutually beneficial relationship.

So how much did you earn today?" Vandan had no idea what's
going on inside of Michael's head right now and neither did
anyone.
"Gaya" Michael turned his gaze at her as Gaya stared at him and
Vandan for a moment. But soon, she realized Michael is probably
planning something evil, so she decided to go along with it instead
of questioning him.
"600,000"
"Well I take your word for it, men, take only 450,000. And
Ghost,im trusting you here,dont break my trust by doing
something like reporting to the Baron or leaving the sect. Of
course, I can't stop you from either of those but accidents happen,
you know" It was a plain threat masked by Vandan's fake smile.
Yet, even after being threatened, Michael didn't lose his cool but
smiled.
"Why would I do that, Lord Vandan? If I'm right, you must have
researched about me before coming here, and I'm sure you know,
Baron's family and I are not best pals"
"I like you Ghost, let's just keep it that way" Vandan smiled again
and stood up to leave after the men took most of Michael's hard-
earned gold coins.
"Let's shake hands for our new deal, Lord Vardan '' Michael
stepped forward and reached his hand out. Vandan was surprised
by this gesture. Vandan was not a fool, he knew very well that he
blackmailed and threatened the youngster before him. Vandan
couldn't figure out why he looks so calm despite his threats and
blackmails. Prodigies like him are known to have a quick temper
and pride as they wouldn't like to be threatened but this youngster
before him seemed not to be a typical prodigy.
However, it didn't matter what he thought. As far as Vandan knew,
Ghost had no known major power backing in Bredia and even if
he did, they can't touch Vandan and his company because they
had no headquarters or places as Vandan's company traveled
around the continent to avoid being located by their enemies.
Therefore even if Ghost had someone behind him, they wouldn't
be able to locate Vandan and his men to attack and if they try,
Vandan would burn this place to the ground when no one is
expecting.
"Why not?" Vandan smiled and shook Michael's hands before

leaving the house.
*********************
Lucifer will finally make his appearance in the next

chapter.....You're going to love this!!!
Join my discord to see the character images of the novel.If you

want to see how hot Gaya is or How badass Michael is, head to
my discord and check the characters under Hitman with a Badass
system section. And Don't forget to shout out for me in the
discord....
Chapter 68 - Lucifer Is Coming
II
"So, are you going to tell us what you're going to do?" Gaya asked
the second Vandan's figure disappeared from their sight.
"I'm not going to do anything" Everyone stared at Michael

bewildered as Gaya tilted her head like a confused puppy.
"Are you fucking with me Ghost, there's no way I'll let that
motherfucker take our money!" Michael patted Gaya's shoulder to
calm her down
"Accidents happen, Aelia, Accidents happen" after saying this,

Michael turned towards his room and walked to his room but
before he closes his door, he stopped for a moment
"I'm going to cultivate, don't disturb me" He then closed his door
leaving everyone with the question 'what did he mean by
accidents happen?'
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2

Ignitia - LVL 1
Status: Healthy

point(s))
Inside his room, he sat in a meditation posture and closed his

eyes. When he opened the system, he checked the host window
"System, I need a vial of chloroform"
[why don't the host buy herbs and brew it yourself?]
The system sounder angry as Michael realized the system is still

holding a grudge for not buying the Devil's breath from the store.
He didn't know whether to laugh or yell at the system for throwing
a tantrum
"Oh don't be like that system, this time I'll buy the chloroform from
you"
[200 badass points]

"Take it" Right after, a vial with colorless liquid appeared in his
hand.
"Is that bastard really cultivating?" from the other side of the door,
Michael could hear Gaya mumbling and saw her gawking through
the keyhole. She was probably wondering when he was going to
jump out of the window and chase after Vandan. However,
Michael still sat there with closed eyes and sending a stream of air
with chloroform mixed in towards Gaya.
Since Chloroform had a distinct smell and Gaya had an acute

sense of smell, he made sure the amount of Chloroform he
vaporizes and sent towards her is limited. Eventually, when the
sun disappeared below the horizon, Gaya fell asleep on the
ground due to the effect of the chloroform.
"Sorry snakey, this is something I have to do alone"
When he was about to stand up and jump out of the window, the
system stopped him
[does the host plan to put on your new suit of armor and kill
Vandan?]
"As a matter of fact, I am"
[Then you should do one last thing Host]
****************************
Amidst fark woods far away from the Sunrise sect, a small party of
men was navigating through the path not by sight yet by their
memory. Around them, the dark woods stand as noble black
knights, fresh from the fields of legend. Although the sound of
heavy downpour reverberated the forest, the thick canopy
prevented the rain from bestowing its full wrath on the group.
Despite the rain and the darkness, the group kept moving through
the woods.
"Lord Vandan, do you really think that kid has no backing? Without
major power behind him, how the hell did he reach the 5star
level?" It was Vandan's group, they would always use the jungle
and thick forest as their preferred route instead of roads. That
way, no one could follow them and guess where they were going.
"I'm positive that he has no major backing, Remus. My guess is,

he stumbled upon a heavenly treasure and used it to reach the
5star level. There's no point in asking how he reaches that level,
that's not our concern. As far im concerned, he's our golden
goose, we shouldn't kill it but patiently take its golden egg one by
one"
"What if he runs away from the sect?"
"Then we will kill the male disciples and sell the girls to the slave
traders, girls like Claire would fetch us a sizeable sum of money"
"After we each take turns with them" the bodyguards and Vandan
laughed evilly without knowing the danger upon them.
"Typical" Vandan and his group's steps halted by a sudden

unearthly voice.
"What?!"
"What is that?!"
They immediately took a defensive stance and looked around.

There was fear in their eyes because the voice was not of a
human but it sounded supernatural and frightening.
"It's not dying" the creepy voice echoed through the forest again.
"Who the fuck is that?"
"Come...come out"
"That scares vermin like you" they had no clue where the voice
was coming from but they were sure it did not belong to a human
and that's what scared them the most.
"But the moments before"
"It's up there!" they noticed branches above them swaying and

they all looked up branch to branch but the darkness of the forest
prevented them from seeing clearly.
However, they all could vaguely see a dark shadow jumping

around from branch to branch like a big spider monkey.
"That scares the most"
"Get down...you...fuck!" Vandan yelled looking up. His legs

couldn't stop shaking in overwhelming fear.
"I'm here" Vandan and his group jumped back in fear when the
voice sounded very close to them. Their bodies shook violently as
overwhelming fear lowered their senses. Slowly, they lowered
their heads and saw a humanoid figure standing before them.
The figure had mysterious black armor and a black hood covered
its face but they could vaguely see the skinless face. Through the
holes in the place where eyes should be, they saw two red lights
staring at them. They felt like their very souls were looked at.
"Who...what...are..you?" None of them couldn't sense its

cultivation level.
Vandan and the bodyguards agitated when they saw the figure
raising its hands at them.
Zzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhhhhh
Another unearthly sound emerged from the figure as cracks of

lighting coiled around its hand.
"What?!"
"Ho!"
The weapons they had in their hands flew directly at the figure
without their control. They tried to hold back their weapons such
as swords and spears but an invisible force seized the weapons
from them.
The weapons landed on the figure's feet as it slowly stepped

towards them.
"De...vi...l" the red eyes, terrifying face, and the ghostly voice
made them think of the devil they heard in the stories. (Not the
devil of Earth but this world's devil)
"Devil, hahaha" the figure's evil laughter echoed through the

forest. Vandan was the weakest of the group so when he heard
the laughter, he wet his trousers.
"You're right, welcome to hell"
"Ahhhhhh!" Vandan screamed as the figure disappeared from their

sight but in the next moment, he felt something warm splash on
his face. He turned to see Remus's headless body clumsily move
around for a moment before collapsing onto the ground.
Right after he saw Remus die, the figure appeared next to another
bodyguard and crushed his head with its bare hand. The figure
struck the fear of God in their hearts and plummeted their senses
and courage. Every time the figure disappeared and appeared
again, a bodyguard died a horrible death.
Vandan's instincts told him to run without looking back but his legs
refused to move. When the figure snapped his last bodyguard's
neck like a twig, he threw the dead body away and turned its gaze
towards him.
Vandan stumbled upon a log and fell down as the figure walked
towards him. Each step the figure took forward made Vandan's
heart pounce against his chest.
"You...and...I" the figure spoke looking at him "are... in the

same...line...of work" the figure paused every time for a moment
before speaking the next word
"You collect debts'' the figure came upon him and lifted him by his
neck. Vandan's legs floated on the air as he struggled to breathe
through the figure's grasp.
"I collect... souls" The last thing Vandan felt before everything
turned black was the sharp pain right between his eyes.
Throwing aside Vandan's dead body, the figure looked around to

see its handy work. Then the figure gaze landed on the tree log
that Vandan stumbled, its slowly walked at the log and crouched
beside it.
On the log, the figure etched the letter 'L' using its sharp claw.
At this exact moment, coincidently, a bolt of lightning struck the

nearby and following the lightning, a loud thunderclap echoed
through the forest.
******************
(Somewhere else in the Elon Continent)
A lonely figure sat atop the mountain peak, eyes closed. The
onshore breezes climbed the mountain slopes until the air
became cool enough to condense its vapor to rain and showered
the mountain peak and the figure. The man's golden hair fluttered
in the icy breeze and his face was a symbolization of peace and
serenity. He seemed calm as a peaceful river.
Yet, his peaceful face suddenly showed an expression of concern

as he abruptly opened his eyes.
"An Evil has born"

Chapter 69 - Shameless Snake
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 6500
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 1
Status: Healthy

point(s))
Back in Michael's room, he was meditating but there was a small

smile on his face. A few hours ago, he successfully introduced his
other persona to this world. He was going to make an entrance in
Bredia but Vandan, unfortunately, made himself a target of
Michael, thus ending up being the fertilizer to the dark forest.
Michael didn't shake Vandan's hands for anything but to place the
tracking dot he bought from the system for 200 Badass points.
The tracking dot was so tiny as Vandan didn't even feel it on his
hand. When he was about to put on his new suit of armor and
chase after Vandan, the system recommended he upgrade it to
version 2.
He thought about it and finally decided to upgrade the system

because of a few reasons. The first and the important reason was
the system's new functionality, the Mentor function. The Mentor
mode enabled him to learn any spell that was not bought from the
system store. The function would also improve the spell or skill's
efficiency and power. The only downside for this function was,
unlike the spell or skill bought from the system, he couldn't get to
reach 100% mastery out of the box. The spell or skill learned
through the Mentor function could only reach a certain percentage
of mastery and if he wanted to reach 100% mastery, he had to
practice the spell or skill often like normal people.
The second reason was another new functionality, the Masking

function. It was the function that prevented Vandan and his group
from sensing his cultivation level. However the function could only
work for 10 minutes and after 10minutes, he had to wait for one
hour before using it again.
He liked the two reasons but he loved the third one, which was the
decrease in Experience points limit to reach the next level. The
system hooked him to upgrade it when it mentioned the decrease
in the XP limit from 300,000 to 200,000.
That meant he had to kill fewer people to reach the next level.
Also, the system mentioned every time he upgrades it to the next
version, there would be a huge decrease in the XP limit.
After he upgraded to the next version, the system was generous

to gift him one coupon that let him buy a skill or spell for free and
a few items. Of course, the system limited his choices as it knew
he would try to buy a Legendary level spell or skill. Among the
choices given by the system, he chose a skill called Death Range.
The reason why he chose the skill was it perfectly complemented
the Fear Toxin. After he activated the Death range, anyone within
a few radius from him would be terrified for some limit. The
weaker they were, the more they would fear. Coupled with his fear
toxin, the effects of the skill were almost doubled. That was not
the only sweet thing about this skill, within the Death range,
Michael's strength and speed would increase by 25%. That was
how he crushed a few skulls like crushing an egg.
The only downside of this skill was it could only be upgraded to

level 3 where his strength and speed would increase by 50%.
However as far as he was concerned, a 50% boost is not a joke.
To upgrade the system to version 3, he needed a whopping

amount of 30,000 badass points. For now, he was happy with
everything as it is.
Another change he noticed after the upgrade was the system's

voice. Until now, the system sounded like a robot but now, it
sounded less robotic.
"System, convert 450,000 gold into Badass points"
[Starting the conversion...]
[Conversion success...The host received 2250 Badass points]
[The host's total Badass points is 8750]

"Alright, now I should have a talk with the Elders and Claire"
He stood up and walked towards the door. Gaya was still sleeping
on the floor after inhaling Chloroform. With a smile on his face, he
carried her and put her on the sofa.
"Master Ghost" when he stepped out of his house, he saw Daniel

was waiting for him with a stack of posters in his hand.
"Daniel, I see you got what I asked"
"Yes Master Ghost, this is all the posters of wanted criminals in

Bredia we should avoid selling potions and pills" Daniel handed
over the posters to Michael as he put the posters in the system
storage to use later.
"I also brought this, Master Ghost" Daniel retrieved a rolled

parchment and gave it to Michael.
The parchment on Michael's hand was a high-quality paper and

had some weight to it. When he opened the parchment, Michael's
brows went up in surprise because he instantly recognized the
person on the poster, Gaya.
The poster didn't mention Gaya's crimes or her origin but it only
had her last known location and the bounty amount.
"4 million gold coins and a chance to join the MorningStar sect in
the Nether Realm" Although he didn't quite understand the latter,
he knew the value of the first.
"Where did you get this?"
"At the Adventurers Guild, Master Ghost. This poster is all over
the Kingdom. Every sect and adventurer is searching for this girl. I
thought you should see this" right this moment, Michael realized
that Gaya is in real trouble now and if she removed the mask he
gave her, even he wouldn't be able to save her from being
dragged back to Nagaland.
"Do you know who put the bounty on her?" The poster only
mentioned that they report any information they find about her to
the Adventure Guild or any sect in the kingdom but not a word
about the person who put the bounty on her. Michael had some
idea who would have put this bounty
"No one knows Master Ghost and I didn't ask around too much
because I wanted to be discreet as possible"
"You did great, I'll raise both of your salaries later. Now take the
day off"
The tiredness of traveling faded away from Daniel's face when he

heard Michael. He bowed at Michael with utmost worship and joy
"Thank you, Master Ghost" after this, Daniel rushed to find Ricky
to share this wonderful news while Michael went back inside his
house. On his way, he saw Gaya yawning and coming towards
him.
"Did you say you are going to raise their wages?"
"Yeah" Michael chuckled inside because she had no freakin idea

how deep in trouble she was.
She followed him inside and saw him leisurely sitting on the new
sofa he bought.
"Since you are being so generous, I wanted to discuss something

with you" she leaned on the wall and said.
"Oh? Go ahead"
"You know I've been working hard and turning the Majestic into a
successful business right?" Michael nodded controlling his urge to
rub the poster on her arrogant face.
"And you are also generous enough to hand over most of the
coins we make to that bald fucker" she was still furious about the
decision he made to keep paying Vandan.
"Can you get to the point?" Michael said

"Im not going to work my ass off to pay that fuck, Ghost. If you
want me to do what I've been doing, we should discuss my share"
"Sure, come take a seat" Michael said with an honest face like he
was really going to negotiate with her.
"Huh" Gaya was surprised as she didn't expect him to agree just
like this and wondered what's going on with him today because he
was agreeing to everything since the morning.
However, she was delighted to hear him agree and hopped to the
sofa as a happy bunny. She sat beside him and cleared her throat
to enter the negotiating mode
"Although you are somewhat good at being an Alchemist, I'm the

one who does all the heavy lifting such as crowd controlling,
taking the payments, customer relationship, maintaining a public
relation, etc, etc. Therefore after thinking long and hard, I came to
a number that we can both agree on" he was an expert in lying
because being a hitman required lying to maintain his cover yet
even he had to admit this girl's talent of speaking so shamelessly
and lying with a straight face.
"Maintaining public relation my ass" Michael laughed out loud in

his mind but kept his real emotions from showing up on his face.
"How much are you thinking?" said Michael while Gaya took a
deep breath.
"I was thinking we should split the profit by fifty-fifty"
He was stunned by this shameless snake but at the same time, he

couldn't wait to see her face when he showed her the poster.
Chapter 70 - Crappy Old Sect
"I thought we are friends who work together," Michael said and put
an innocent look on his face that fooled Gaya to think he was
serious.
Thinking he was really going to agree to her terms, she gently

patted his hand and said,
"Of course we are human, but favors like working for free break
friendships. We can share the profit and continue to taste the
fruits of our friendship, what do you say?" Michael could notice
even she was trying to fight the urge to burst into laughter after
shamelessly lying like this.
If she was born on earth, she would have made an excellent

politician.
"You're right, friends should not continue to work for free and we
shouldn't owe each other anything, am I right?" Micheal asked as
Gaya nodded with a grin.
"I will give you 50% of the profit"
"REALLY?! I mean... you will?" She almost screamed out loud in

surprise but she quickly regained her composure and asked. Her
face brightened and she wanted to dance around in joy.
"So when are you going to give the 5million gold you owe me?"
The smile froze on Gaya's face. she knitted her brows in
confusion.
"What 5 million? What're you talking about?" Micheal retrieved the

bounty poster and showed it to her with a devilish grin on his face.
Gaya's hands started to tremble when her gaze fell on the poster.
The reason for her reaction might be because of shock or fear but
one thing was sure, she's in deep shit.
"Xanali, that bitch!" she tore the poster into pieces and threw it
away.
However, her anger turned into panic and fear when she saw the
look on Michael's face. She couldn't help but swallow her saliva as
she thought he's going to hand her over to them for 4 million gold.
Right this moment, she wanted to punch herself for asking 50% of
the profits.
"Hu..human" she put on her best pleading face and meekly called
Michael like a scared kitten.
"So when are you planning to give me the 5million gold?"
"Isn't it 4million?"
"You said friends should not work for free right? 4miilion for not
handing you over to Xanali and 1million for the pills you have
swallowed until now, for free" Just as he said, she leaped at him
and hugged him tightly. This reaction of her surprised him but he
knew this snake was trying to use this hug as a bribe.
"Forgive me for asking 50% human. Please don't hand me over to

that bitch, you know what they do to me" she was even able to
conjure enough tears to wet his shoulder. Michael was having fun
laughing out loud in his mind and continued to mess with this
shameless snake.
"But you said friends shouldn't work for free and that would break
friendships"
"Fuck what I said, I was just messing with you. I will never ask
something like that for real, hoo..hoo" she sobbed hugging him
"But what about the fruits of our friendship?" he could feel her grip
around his neck tighten. She continued to sob and talk
"What kind of friend charges for helping a friend. Only heartless
horrible fuckers would try to take advantage of their friends"
"So you're not going to ask for 50% of the profits?"
"Of course not, I'm happy as it is. Just don't hand me over to
them" He chuckled and hugged her back. If this snake was using
this hug to her advantage, he also deserved to enjoy this hug.
"Alright then, I won't hand you over to Xanali. But remember,

you're in deep shit. Poster like this is all over Bredia and every
adventurer and wannabe disciple is searching for you" she tried to
wiggle herself out of the hug but he didn't let her
"You are safe only as long as you are with me. Without the mask I
gave you, you are good as dead"
"I promise, I won't leave you human" she tried to sound truthful as
she possibly could.
"You know how many girlfriends said this before they became
exes"
(No offense to my female readers, it's Michael who said this)
Michael's inner voice reminded him while he patted her on the

back.
"I know you won't"
"Thank you human, now can you let me go?" she tried her best to
wiggle herself out but how could a mortal like her overpower
someone like Michael.
"It feels good, doesn't it? Let me hug you for a little longer"
"Speak for yourself, let...me go, you bastard" she came back to
her usual self and scolded Michael. He was chuckling while she
kept punching his back
"I will... bite you if you don't...let me go" after teasing her for a few
more seconds, he let her go. She stood up angrily and corrected
her dress while cursing him under her breath.
However, her loyalty towards him increased and reached 50%.
"Come on, I have to meet Claire and the Elders"
"Those dumb fuckers! Tell me you killed those fuckers when I was
sleeping"
Michael annoyed her but Vandan and his men made her furious.
Therefore when she remembered them, she forgot all about
Michael's little play with her and cursed Vandan.
"I will soon but for now, they can live. When I get stronger, I will
make them suffer" Seeing his honest expression, she believed
him.
"Good, I want to burn that bald fucker's ass on fire before we kill
him"
"Damn girl, hahaha" Although he didn't want to, his brain showed
him the sight of Gaya burning Vandan's butt on fire.
"I've done worse" she proudly said and followed him behind to
meet Claire and the Elders.
*****************
it was almost in the evening where the entire sky was painted red
with the setting sun. Looking at Michael and Gaya approaching
the building where the Elders and Claire were staying, a couple of
female disciples came running.
"Brother Ghost, Sister Aelia"
"Hey you two" Michael smiled and waved at them.
"Are the Elders and sect Leader Claire inside?"
"Yes, yes they are Brother Ghost. The Elders just finished their
lectures"
The two girls said and tried to lead them inside
"Where are you two coming, the grownups are going to the
meeting. You two little things could go and do whatever you do"
Gaya slapped the girls on the back and sent them away. The girls
rubbed the back of their heads and ran away before they stuck
their tongues out at Gaya.
"Do you really have to be such a bitch?"
"What can I say, I love bossing around, hehe" Michael knew he

can't change this snake's personality and chose to ignore her
atrocities for now.
Soon after he entered the building, he realized the sorry state of

the sect. The broken wooden beams, mold-covered walls, ceiling
with countless patches, and many things like that made him feel
ashamed because this wasn't only his sect but it's also his Base of
Operation. No wonder he didn't get any Badass points from the
sect yet.
"Wow, I feel like I stepped into another realm" Gaya's nose

witched as she frowned looking at the place. There wasn't even a
proper chair for her to sit in this place.
"Ghost" Just as they were looking around, Elder Mark came from
one of the rooms. There was a hint of shame in Elder Mark's eyes
and he tried to avoid direct eye contact with Michael.
"Elder Mark, I want to talk with all the other Elders and Sect
Leader Claire for a moment" After settling their debts and
becoming a representative of the sect, Michael's authority in the
sect reached the level of Claire's. His reputation among the
disciples was sky-high as they basically worshipped him.
Therefore when Michael asked Elder Mark to set up a meeting, he

nodded without asking a second question. When Elder Mark went
to bring the elders and Claire, Michael turned his gaze towards
Gaya.
"Hey, do you think you can transform this sect to look at least
somewhat decent? This place is gonna mess my reputation"
"Yeah, no shit. My ma"
"Your maids have a better place, that's what you were going to
say right?"
"It's the truth" Gaya shrugged and looked around the place again
before asking Michael.
"So you want me to fix this place?"
Michael nodded, "yes, I know you must have seen many sects.
So, I want you to remodel this place and not only this place, the
entire sect. What will the people think of me if they see the current
status of the sect" As a first step of getting Badass points out of
his Base of Operation, he decided to renovate the sect and who
else would be a better person to lead the task other than his
haughty assistant?
"Hehehe, you're right, I have seen many sects and places. I can
turn this place around to suit my...I mean our tastes but it's not
gonna be cheap"
"Money is not the problem. Let me first have a talk with the Elders
and Claire about my place in the sect first, then we can start
turning this place around"
Chapter 71 - Guardian
A few minutes later, Claire and the Elders appeared in the hall one
by one. Since he decided to focus on developing this sect to earn
more badass points through it, he took a closer look at everyone
before him. Elder Mark, the powerful amongst them all looked
serious and solemn. Michael could sense Elder Mark is just a few
months of cultivation away from breaking through to the Body
Strengthening stage. After Elder Mark, Elder Reiner stood there
with a wide grin on his face for no reason. He vaguely resembled
Gandalf the Grey to Michael. In Michael's eyes, Elder Miles looked
like a goofy fun-loving old man and the first to get mad. Lastly,
Elder Sandra quietly stood beside Claire. Even though she was
sick and fighting with death every day, her composure and calm
look on her face made her look like the wisest among the Elders.
Unlike Elder Mark, these three were at least a year of cultivation
away from reaching the next stage.
After taking a look at the Elders, his gaze fell on Claire to get
slightly surprised by her because, in less than a month, she went
from Body Refining Stage level 5 to Level 7. When he met a few
hours ago, he didn't try to sense her cultivation level but now, he
realized that Claire might be a prodigy in the making.
Claire's face was not calm and in fact, she was very troubled by
the events that happened a few hours ago. She knew it was her
fault that made Michael pay the price, literally. Her face betrayed
her and revealed her internal struggle.
"Sect Leader Claire, Elders, the reason I called you everyone here
is to speak about the future of the sect"
"You aren't leaving the sect, are you?" Elder Miles jumped the gun
and asked him before Michael could finish his sentence. Hearing
Elder Miles, Michael shook his head and smiled.
"Of course not Elder Miles, on the contrary, I'm here to talk about
my position in the sect"
"Yes, we were just talking about that Ghost. It's not fair for you to
remain as an outer disciple anymore, so we decided to make you
the one and only core disciple of the Sect" Leaning on the wall,
Gaya snickered. Usually in sects like the three big sects, a Body
Refining stage cultivator would never get promoted to a Core
disciple position no matter how talented they are.
Only after a disciple reaches the Core Formation level, they would
get promoted to Core Disciple status. However, the Sunrise sect
made Ghost a Core Disciple before he even reached the Body
Strengthening stage.
Looking at Elder Reiner's grin grew wide, Michael realized this

was his idea.
"Elder Mark, I'm honored to be the Core Disciple but I don't want
just to be a Core Disciple, I want all of you to form a new position"
Gaya's face lit realizing Ghost is weaving some kind of plan to
take over this sect. She liked stuff like hostile takeovers.
The Elders were visibly troubled when they heard him but before
anyone could raise a question at Michael, Claire opened her
mouth.
"After all you've done for us, we are grateful to you Ghost. So I
would grant anything that's within my power" If making him the
Sect Leader would help her sect enter the golden days, she was
ready to do just that.
"A position called Guardian, Sect Leader Claire. For the outside
world, I'll be a Core Disciple but in secret, I'll be the Guardian.
Before any of you ask, I won't put my nose into any day-to-day
decision-making, Sect leader CLaire is a great leader and I have
no intention to share the Leader Chair. I only wish to part take in
important stuff"
"Like an Ancestor?" Elder Miles quickly asked him. When a

current leader of the sIect or a family decided to enter the lonely
mountain or secluded cultivation, they would become an Ancestor
of that sect or family. All the decision-making and control of the
place would go to the next head.
An Ancestor would only make an appearance if the sect or the

family in a catastrophic disaster or to take part in the utmost
important ceremonies.
"Not exactly but something like that. As a Guardian, I'll be around

and look after the sect now and forever so the Sunrise sect will
never decline again. From now on, our sect would only move
towards glory, I'll make sure of that. Sect Leader, Elders, are you
with me on this Sect leader?"
"Hell yeah, kid, let's do it. I'm so sick of being an Elder of a

declined sect! Before I die, I want to feel how it feels to be an
Elder of a prestigious sect" Elder Reiner laughed happily and gave
his heartfelt support to Michael.
"I'm with Elder Reiner on this one" Elder Miles knew the potential
of the youngster before them. Normally, he and Elder Reiner
rarely agreed on something but he knew that Sticking with a
heaven blessed prodigy and a 5-star Alchemist would never go
wrong unless Michael gets killed by someone.
"Elder Sandra, you are the head of the Elders, what's your
decision on this? " Instead of agreeing to Michael's request like
Leder Reiner and Miles, Elder Mark turned to ask Elder Sandra.
Gaya saw the old woman scanning everyone from top to bottom
before landing her gaze at Claire.
"Sect Leader Claire, I think you should be the person to have the
final say on this, after all, you are the Sect Leader" Michael didn't
worry about Claire because he knew Claire would agree to this.
After this meeting, he quite liked Elder Reiner and Miles.
Her beautiful blue eyes slowly blinked as she stared at Michael

without saying a word. Then, she took a deep breath,
"If making Ghost a Guardian would set our sect on the path to
glory, then that's what I must do. As the current Sect Leader, I
name you Ghost as the Core Disciple and the Guardian of the
Sunrise sect" A golden ray emerged from her hand and showered
Michael before it vanished.
[Ding! Congratulations for the host to become the Core Disciple]
[Ding! Congratulations for the host to become the Guardian]
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 8750
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 1
Occupation: Core Disciple of Sunrise Sect
The Guardian of Sunrise Sect
Status: Healthy

point(s))
"Now as a Guardian, I'll clear all the debts of our sect in the
coming weeks"
"But Ghost" Claire still seemed reluctant to put all the debt on his
head.
"No need to worry Sect Leader, what's mine is yours, and what's
yours is mine. Stop hesitating and worrying Sect Leader, you
should be strong and tough, I got your back"
When Michael finished his words, he could see Claire standing

there, staring at him blankly. She then nodded with a gentle smile
"I will try to be the Leader everyone expects me to be"
*********************
"What was that human? Great leader my ass, she put the entire
sect in trouble to save one person. She's just a naive young girl,
not a great leader"
Gaya threw herself on the new sofa and complained while Michael
prepared to make pills and potions for his customers. He could
have done this in the night but he had plans for the night.
"I know, but I'm here now and this is my sect. She won't make
stupid mistakes like that again in my watch"
"So not putting your nose into day-to-day decision-making is just a
lie?" she was confused as Michael smirked.
"When I become stronger, who do you think Claire and Elders see
as the head? Me. But I'm not the person to sit behind a table and
manage this place, that would be Claire's job. With a little nudge in
the right direction, I believe she will turn into a good Sect Leader,
under me" Michael continued with a smirk on his face.
Gaya realized that this was his plan all along and acting as a
savior of the sect was just a facade. Yet, she still didn't completely
understand why he is putting his money and efforts into making
this sect great again. In her mind, he was not the kind of a guy
who would do something noble without expecting something in
return.
"Tell me the truth, human, what do you really want with this
place?"
"When you become trustworthy, I might tell you the answer. Now
stop asking questions and start planning to make this place look
better or I'll take that sofa away "
"Don't you dare!"

Chapter 72 - The Devil Of
Bredia
In the early morning, daylight not only unwrapped the hues of

Bradford but also the terror that struck the town. A dark alley that
rarely saw more than five people hangout now had half of the
town surrounding it. In front of the crowd, there were a couple of
girls who wore revealing clothes to tempt the youngsters.
However, no man was in the mood to enjoy the beauties as their
eyes were locked on the bodies hanging on a rope between two
buildings.
Many people were afraid to look at the large puddle of blood

below the dead bodies. After seeing the blood splatters and the
terror on the faces of the dead ones, some people guessed that
they weren't killed by a person.
While the people were staring at the bodies, a girl who had perfect
curves and glossy skin was looking at the nearby wall. If not for
the gory scene in front of them, many men and women would
drool and hope to get a glimpse of what's under her purple dress.
"Sister Sadie, do you think whoever or whatever killed them left

behind that?" The girl in the purple dress was none other than
Sadie Kaplan, the core disciple of the Silvermoon and one of the
judges of the last Heaven's gate competition.
Although the girl who asked the question was also a great beauty,
she was overshadowed by the beauty of Sadie. If Michael was
here, he would have recognized the girl as Nyla Reid, the same
girl who almost got herself killed by trying to use a telepathic
attack on Michael.
"Yes, I saw the same symbol on the scene at Sarton"

"What do you think it means?"
"I don't know but it's not my job to know. My teacher wanted to find
these guys and technically I did find them"
"Who? Teacher Hazel? what did she want with them?" Nyla
pointed her finger at the hanging dead bodies and asked.
"Apparently these guys were harassing some of Teacher Hazel's

clients and recently they took the harassment to the next level.
Initially, they were a group of twenty men and when they heard the
Silver Moon was searching for them, they started to run. Some of
them went into hiding in Sarton and the rest of them came here
only to get slaughtered by someone eviler than them"
Even Sadie had a hint of fear in her eyes. She had seen many
killings but this felt dark and different. These guys were given no
chance to fight or even take out their weapons. Whoever killed
them was quick and cruel. All of their manhoods were cut off while
they were still alive yet, none of the residents nearby heard a
sound. However, Sadie felt no pity for the dead ones.
"So in Sarton"
"Just like here, all of them were slaughtered and hanged.

Whoever killed them left no trace but this one symbol, L"
"What does it mean?"
"MOVE AWAY!" Suddenly, someone shouted from the crowd and

Sadie turned to see a soldier of Bradford bringing a dirty-robed old
man. Sadie could tell the old man was obviously a beggar by the
look of his ragged tunic and the stink coming from him.
"Miss Kaplan, this old man is claiming that he saw what

happened"
"De...vi...l..." the man stuttered something under his breath. He

was pale and shivering like he's in the middle of a snow mountain.
"Tell me what you told the people back there" the soldier shook
the old man by his collar as Sadie waved him to stop.
"Old man, did you see the person who did this?" Sadie asked the
old man but his mouth stuttered in the horror he witnessed the
night before.
"No...per...son...de...v...i...l" the old man still sounded unclear. His

voice broke and the shivering wasn't any help.
"Nyla" The disciples of SilverMoon were very good at psychic

attacks and playing with someone's mind. Nyla might have picked
the wrong person to use the psychic attack but the old man in
front of her wasn't a challenge.
Nyla stared into the old man's eyes as his eyes glowed for a
second. Following this, the old man shivered less and somewhat
looked better than he was.
"Tell us old man, what did you see?"
"I saw him" the crowd didn't make a sound as everyone's focus
was on the old man.
"Saw who?"
"The devil" the moment these two words escaped the old man's
mouth, there were several gasps from the crowd and some
dropped onto their knees and started to pray.
"What nonsense are you spouting?!" Nyla had enough of this old
man's mumbling but when she was about to slap some sense into
the Oldman, Sadie stopped her
"Did you see his face?"
"Yes" the old man nodded but when he recalled the face he saw,
Nyla had to use her powers to calm him again.
"Red eyes, wore nothing but black" Hearing the old man's
description, the people trembled as he continued
"He came with darkness, the whole alley turned dark. I could only
see his red eyes. Mere mortals like them didn't stand a chance
against him"
"Mere mortals? All of them were Body Strengthening stage

cultivators, you old fool" Nyla yelled again but the old man shook
his head.
"We all are mere mortals in front of the devil"
"Save us, God!"
"Pray to the Almighty!"
"Save Bradford!"
Many people went crazy and shouted at the sky hoping God
would save them from the devil. Ignoring the people, Sadie asked
a few more questions to the Old man, not because she wanted to
find the person but her curiosity got the better of her.
"Did he see you? Why did he leave you alive?"
"Again?!" Nyla Reid yelled and used her mind powers to calm the
Old man again because he started to shiver after Sadie's
question. It took him longer than before to calm down.
"He...wanted me to...announce...his presence" even after Nyla

calmed him down, the old man's voice slightly broke in
overwhelming fear.
"Did he say something to you?" The old man slowly nodded and
conveyed the words of the devil to everyone.
"He...said" the people stopped their shouting and prayers and

looked at the old man with eyes full of fear and terror.
"He..is here...to claim...the souls..of..the sinners and..." Some of

the people who committed crimes such as stealing, beating their
wives, or children fainted on the spot. Because they just paved
their way into the devil's hit list.
However, the old man was not finished as he had few more words
to tell the people.
"Lucifer...is...watching"
"L for Lucifer" Sadie turned her gaze towards the wall where the
letter L was written on by blood. She felt a cold chill running
through her spine because if he was really the devil who's here to
kill the sinners, what could the people in this world do except sent
to hell by the Devil.
She didn't even want to think about it.
"Take him to Baron Totonk, my task here is completed" she saw

no reason to hang around here at the devil's hunting ground, so
she took Nyla and left the scene.
Because Nyla couldn't use a flying sword with her level of

cultivation and Sadie was in the mood for horse riding to calm her
nerves, both of them bought two horses to travel.
"Where to, Sister Sadie?"
"River town, I want to buy some Iron ore"
**********************
Following their departure from Bradford, Sadie and Nyla traveled

in silence thinking about the devil the old man talked about. The
huge trees on both the side of the mud road supplied them with
shadow and a cool breeze to calm their minds.
On their way to the River town, they saw no carriages or people.

But when the outskirts of the River town was in their eyes, they
also saw a trio before them. Sadie's lips curved upwards while
Nyla swallowed saliva because they both recognized the person
who was tiding before them.
"Is that who I think it is?" Sadie galloped her horse to catch up
with them as Nyla followed her behind.
"Ghost!" The one who was traveling before them was none other
than Michael. Sadie ignored the blonde guy on the other horse
and shouted at Michael.
"Miss Kaplan, what a pleasant surprise" she was surprised to see

him reach the Body Refining stage level 7 in such a short amount
of time.
Other than his cultivation, he looked sexier and hotter than before.
Just by looking at that smile of his, she wanted to eat him up.
However, unlike Michael who showed a warm smile, the girl riding
behind him had rather a cold look on her face.
The girl was a mortal yet she had a noble aura around her that
made Sadie feel inferior to her.
"What's with the Miss, call me Sadie. I assume you recognize my

sister here" Sadie chuckled as Nyla's face turned red in
embarrassment
"Hiya, Nyla"
"Hi, Ghost" He seemed to have completely forgotten about what

happened at the competition. His smile made Nyla feel somewhat
less ashamed.
"I heard you're a 5-star Alchemist Ghost, why didn't you say so?"
Ignoring the cold look of the girl behind him, Sadie brought her
horse as close to him as possible.
"What can I say Sadie, I like to surprise people"
"Oh, you really surprised me," Saide said with a flirty smile. The
blonde guy who was traveling with Michael was Jack and seeing a
beauty flirting with Ghost, Jack almost fell off his horse because
he was too focused on Saide and Nyla rather than the road before
him.
"Hi Miss Reid, I'm Jack"

Chapter 73 - Netherels
It was the system's new feature that made Michael travel to River
town accompanying Jack. This new feature's purpose was to help
Michael choose the right person to be his subordinate and
manage his existing subordinates.
Subordinate: Gaya
Status: Meridians repaired - 10%
Trait: Warrior
The Trait feature would inform him about the person Michael is
considering to recruit as his subordinate by letting him know
his/her special trait. For instance, Gaya's trait was Warrior. He
wouldn't be able to make her an Alchemist even if he gave her the
Book of Alchemy unless he changes her trait from Warrior to
Alchemist for 500,000 Badass points or adds the Alchemist trait
on top of her current trait for 1.5 million Badass points.
Michael had no plans to change Gaya's trait and the reason for his
departure from the sect was not Gaya but Jack. After an eventful
night, Michael woke up in the morning to continue making pills
and potions. While he was picking up the herbs from his new
herbal garden, he met Jack and heard he was going to River town
to buy scrap metal to repair his fellow disciples' weapons.
After a small chat with Jack and the sudden notification from the
System, Michael realized Jack was a Blacksmith. Apparently, Jack
learned the trait from his uncle and even though Jack was not an
expert in forging, Michael decided to give Jack a chance before he
makes any decision. He could however, wait and depend on his
luck to find a better Blacksmith who is willing to be his
subordinate. Nevertheless, Michael was not the person who would
depend on his luck rather than seizing the opportunity in front of
him.
Besides, Jack was poor and weak, so earning his loyalty would be
simple. All Michael had to do is pay him handsomely for his work
and Jack would be as loyal as a puppy. With the help of the
system, he could also improve Jack's forging skills and have his
own personal Blacksmith. Still, before officially making Jack his
subordinate, he wanted to see Jack's skill with his own eyes.
But Michael never expected to see Sadie, a remarkably hot girl on

his way to River town.
"Nice to meet you, Jack" If it wasn't for Jack seemed like Ghost's
friend, Nyla would have given him a cold shoulder. But because of
Ghost, Nyla showed a polite smile and shook Jack's hand.
"Awww, she...she... shook my hand" Jack's eyes sparkled and he

couldn't hold his joy. He felt like he was flying.
"I'm not going to wash this hand," Jack told himself.
"So will you concoct a pill or two for me?" She came so close to
Michael as both of their shoulders made contact. He didn't blush
or move away like a beta mc but enjoyed the company of a hot girl
like Sadie.
"Of course I will, you have to pay for my services of course" Gaya
would have strangled him from behind if he had agreed to concoct
pills for free. But hearing he would still charge her despite her
seduction, Gaya calmed down.
Sadie on the other hand pouted," I thought you won't charge me a

coin, Ghost"
Michael laughed and winked at her," come on Sadie, you know I
like money and you don't lack gold coins"
"Can this sister pay you with other means? I guarantee you, It will
be much better than gold coins" Her seduction skill was on the
next level and any youth with a weak heart wouldn't be able to
resist her charm. Even Michael was tempted to take upon her
offer but he didn't want to mix business with pleasure.
"I believe you but let's keep the business and pleasure apart, shall
we?"
"Ah, a man of principals, I like it" she moaned for a second and
continued with a seductive smile on her face.
With the company of three hot girls, Michael had a pleasant

journey towards the River town until he saw the soldiers of Baron
Totonk and disciples of MorningStar swarming into the city gates.
"huh? What's going on there?" Sadie threw a look of uncertainty

and they rushed towards the town to see what's happening. When
Michael passed through the unguarded city gates, he witnessed
people screaming and running around chaotically. Sights of a
couple of wrecked buildings entered his eyes.
"What the hell is going on here?" Nyla dismounted her horse and
the others did the same because the streets were full of panicking
people to ride through. The people seemed to have been running
from the other end of the town where Michael first met Ricky and
Daniel.
"Hey you!" Gaya had enough of this as she grabbed one of the
men who was running for his life.
"What's going on here and what are you running from?"
"Nether...Netherels!" he broke Gaya's hold and ran like hell

without turning back.
"Netherels? In river town" Nyla, Sadie, Jack, and Gaya wondered

why are the Netherels here at River town while Michael wondered
what the hell is a Netherel.
"Hey" Michael leaned back and scratched Gaya's shoulder
"What's a Netherel?"
"Seriously?! come I'll introduce them to you" Gaya led Michael

towards the danger as Nyla and Saide followed them.
While he was walking against the crowd, he noticed the Tavern he

spent his first night became a ruin. The more he walked towards
the forest on the other side of the town, he saw more disciples of
the MorningStar and Golden Valley.
The city gates were shut close and being barricaded by some
disciples of the Golden Valley. Since there was no way to see
what's happening on the other side through the gate, Michael and
the group started to take the steps to stand on top of the city
walls.
When he was climbing the stairs, he could smell a putrid smell in

the air. The air stank rotten corpses as Gaya covered her nose
with her hand.
"What the?!"
When he reached the top of the wall, his body went rigid, and felt
a cold chill running through his spine.
"Zombies"
In the distance, there were hundreds of Humanoid figures and

animals.
However, their skin was arctic-white and glistened in the light.

Their bones were visible through the peeling skin and their
maniacal eyes that burned with madness. And then, there was a
yelp, a whine, and two cracks. The blood-slurping began. One of
the Netherels munched his way through a deer in no time. It was
spine-chilling to watch him at work, his eyes fixed on the deer as
he slobbered Rottweiler drool down his chin. Soon, the nearby
zombies joined him to feast on the deer.
"Zombies? Is that what you called them where you came from?"
Sadie asked Michael. He had never expected to see Zombies in
this world and suddenly felt like he was transmigrated into a world
of walking dead.
It took him a couple of seconds to take his gaze away from the
army of zombies in the distance ready to swarm River Town.
"Where in the hell THEY came from?" Michael didn't fear many
things in the world but in front of an army of zombies, he began to
fear.
[The host does not need to worry much. You won't turn into a
zombie if they bite you. Netherels are just corpses reanimated by
a dark power]
What system just said calmed his nerves as he took a closer look
at the zombies. Gaya noticed his serious expression changing as
he began to grin.
"Fro"
"Nether Realm" Gaya was interrupted by Sadie. Sadie's

interruption infuriated Gaya because it was her place to explain
things to Michael. She didn't like being replaced, especially by
Sadie.
"Every three years, the layer between our world and the Nether
Realm gets weakened. All the great cultivators in our world use
this time to open a rift to Nether Realm so the younger generation
could enter and gain experience as well as get some treasures
from the Nether Realm if they are lucky. During this time, some
Netherels would be able to pass through the layer and come to
our world, but not this many"
"It's because someone is using dark magic to summon them" A

voice filled with arrogance sounded as they turned back in the
direction of the voice to see Victoria walking towards them with
her followers.
When he met her at the competition, she was a Body Refining

stage level 8 Cultivator but now she was at the Body refining
stage Level 10. Despite her defeat at the competition, she now
looked more arrogant and cold. However, her cold expressions
changed suddenly when she saw the face of the youth near
Sadie.
"YOU!" the words he spoke to humiliate her and the sight of her
sent flying from the stage flashed across her eyes. In her eyes full
of anger, there was also a hint of shock because compared to the
jump in his cultivation level, her accomplishment was nothing. He
was able to defeat her without breaking a sweat when he was just
at the Body Refining stage Level 1 but now, he reached level 7,
only three levels below her.
Standing behind Michael, Gaya pretended to control her urge to

laugh at Victoria to fan her anger and mess with her mind. Michael
on the other hand didn't even take more than a second to
acknowledge her presence as he started to count the zombies
happily. The reason for his joy was he sensed the zombies have a
cultivation level and that meant, he would get experience points
by killing them.
A moment ago, the Netherels freaked him out however now, they
were not walking dead but walking experience points waiting to
get slaughtered.
Chapter 74 - Let’s Party With
The Zombies
"Calm down Victoria" another voice sounded at the scene and

Gaya noticed Evan, the other one who Ghost defeated at the
finals. However, unlike Victoria, he had a warm smile on his face
and seemed more approachable than his rival.
"Nice to see again, Ghost" Evan reached out his hand and
surprised Michael with this gesture.
"Likewise" Well, if Evan was chill about what happened before, he

wasn't going to hang on to it as he shook his hand with a gentle
smile.
"Our scouts informed us that the sorcerer who is summoning them

is at the ruins in the forest. Brother Alex and Sister Celina are
currently on their way to apprehend the sorcerer. We should all go
and help them because they need our help"
"I think I stay here and take care of the problem in front of us"
Why would he help that arrogant bitch and her boyfriend wasting
his time and efforts? Besides, if Alex, a Core Formation cultivator
was searching for the Sorcerer, the Sorcerer had to be at the Core
Formation stage too. With his current strength, he was far from
defeating a Core Formation Stage Cultivator unless he took a risk
depending on his luck and the system. But taking risks and
depending on luck was not something he would do, especially not
when he could harvest Experience points like crazy.
His answer slightly surprised Evan as he expected Ghost to go

hunt down the Sorcerer who was the root of all the problem rather
than stay here and kill the Netherels.
"Our Senior Adam is on his way too and with him, the sorcerer is
as good as dead" Victoria snickered as Evan looked at Sadie.
"What about you Sister Sadie, will you come with us?" Sadie
stared at both Michael and Evan for a moment before letting him
know her answer.
"Nah, Alex and Celina have all the backup they need. I stay here
and keep the Netherels at bay" Most of the Silvermoon disciples
practiced and excelled in psychic spells and mind-controlling
techniques. These were their main weapons in their arsenal when
it comes to battle. Sadie was not an exception to this and she
knew her strengths and weaknesses well. That was why she
chose not to go chasing the sorcerer because the sorcerer who
was summoning the Netherels must have stronger Netherels
around him. Since Netherels had no consciousness or living brain,
none of her mind-controlling techniques would work on them,
therefore, she chose to remain on the top of the wall where it's
relatively safe, and when the time comes, she decided to slip
away.
"Everyone from Golden Valley, stay here and keep the Netherels
at bay if they choose to attack the town. If push comes to shove,
kill as many Netherels as you can and collect their cores" One of
the girls who was standing behind Victoria ordered Golden Valley
disciples.
Michael hid his irritation from showing on his face as he didn't

want to share the kills with anyone else. The more Netherels the
disciples kill, the more XP he would lose.
"My fellow brothers and sisters from MorningStar, your priority is

to keep the town safe from the Netherels. Do not go provoke the
Netherel army standing outside. We must hold them until our
Senior Alex and Sister Celina apprehend the Sorcerer who is
summoning them "
While the disciples from Golden Valley and Morningstar were

taking orders from Victoria and Evan, Michael planned to make
the most out of this chaos.
"Aelia, come with me for a sec" Michael took Gaya and stepped
away from the prying eyes for a moment.
"If you want anything, why don't you ask your new friend, that
bitch over there?" before even Michael could say anything, Gaya
cursed Sadie.
"This is no time for temper tantrums, you jealous snake," Michael

said with a low-pitched voice and knocked her on the head.
"Ah!" Michael covered her mouth before she could cry out loud as
she rubbed her head where Michael knocked.
"Now listen, do you know how to handle a bow?"
"Hmm" Michael's hand was still covering her mouth so he could

only hear her muffled answer.
He took his hand back ignoring Gaya's scowl.
"Are you any good?" Considering his subordinates' killings also

would give him XP, he planned to put the Legolas Bow in Gaya's
hand and double the killing.
Hearing Michael's question, she didn't answer him but took two
little stones from the ground. Under his gaze, she threw one stone
high into the air and while the stone was in mid-air, she hit the
stone with the second stone with deadly accuracy.
Even Michael couldn't stop his brows from arching up in surprise.

Despite the height and the wind's strength, she was able to hit the
stone with another stone with perfect precision. As the Earth's
best assassin, he knew how difficult the feat was and
acknowledged her talent. Initially, he was just hoping for her to kill
some Netherels with the bow but now he realized he has a female
Legolas with him.
He didn't worry about her cultivation level because she could stay
on the wall and hit the Netherels in their head to kill them without
stepping on the battlefield.
"Is that answered your question? if it didn't, put a fruit upon your
head and stand there" She said like she really wants him to do
that but he sighed and retrieved the bow from his storage.
The rather ordinary-looking bow may have gone unnoticed in

others' eyes but the moment she saw the bow, she recognized its
capability and value.
[Does the Host wish to give the Bow to Subordinate Gaya?]
"Yes"
The bow came with the quiver but not with arrows. The system
already prompted him to buy 100 arrows for 1000 Badass points.
Except Michael decided not to spend 1000 badass points for
something that he could buy using Gold coins.
"Not bad, not bad for an uncommon bow. Where did you get it?"?
She examined the bow and said. Every weapon and spell in this
world was categorized into five types, Common, Uncommon,
Rare, Epic, and Legendary. The Legolas bow was actually a Rare
weapon but Michael purposefully made it release an energy
signature of an Uncommon weapon as he didn't want to attract
many eyes towards the bow.
"In a ruin"
"You didn't find any arrows with it?"
"I saw a blacksmith store on the way. He was packing his bags, so
we can probably buy what we need for a cheap price"
"Yeah, he would be grateful to unload anything before running

away from this place"
"Jack" Jack was busy using Ghost's association to try his luck with
every beautiful girl he saw. When he heard Michael's voice, he
immediately stopped flirting and came running to him. Sadie,
Evan, Victoria, and everyone wondered what was Ghost planning
but Evan and Victoria were busy organizing the team to go into
the forest as a backup to Alex, Celina, and Adam.
"Brother Ghost"
"I need you to go to that blacksmith we saw on the way and buy
something for me" Michael retrieved a pouch of coins and threw it
at Jack.
"Buy all the Iron headed arrows with red eagle feathers" Gaya
knew her arrows and in this case, the iron-headed arrows were
more effective on the Netherels than the normal arrows.
"All of them?"
"Yeah, all of them you little shit" she slapped him on the back of
his head and said.
"And buy two of the best swords he got" after Jack ran away to
buy everything they needed, Michae gave the Mark 3 grappling
hook to Gaya and joined back with Sadie.
"Isn't it dangerous for her to fight the Netherels?" Gaya wanted to

give Saide an answer in her way but Michael's stern look stopped
her from opening her mouth.
"You have no idea what she's capable of" Gaya's face was full of
haughtiness and appreciated Ghost's vote of confidence.
With the Mark 3 Grappling hook, she could reach the trees outside
the city walls and rain arrows of death on the Netherels from a
higher vantage point.
"System, I wish to learn the duel wielding of swords" He finally

used the card he got from the gift box he got after killing the
Assassins. As usual, an acute pain appeared in his brain and after
a few moments when the pain disappeared, he achieved 70%
mastery in swordsmanship.
He could further increase the power of his swords skills by

learning spells and techniques associated with swords but his
current state was enough to slaughter these mindless Netherels.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Evan wondered and spoke what's in
everyone's mind.
Michael also noticed this. The Netherels were standing and

munching on some poor animals of the forest but they didn't move
forward towards the River town.
"It doesn't matter why. What matters is stopping the Sorcerer"

Victoria said and prepared to leave the place to join Adam while
Jack returned carrying two bags.
"Brother Ghost, Sister Aelia" Jack handed over one bag to

Michael and the other to Gaya.
"Not the best but it'll do" Gaya commented about the arrows and
put them into her quiver as Michael opened his bag to see two
ordinary-looking broadswords. They were nothing fancy but
common swords made of steel.
Since he liked the black color, he approved the black hilts of the
swords.
The sight of him swinging the swords raised Sadie's heartbeat and
put a slight redness on her cheek. Evan preferred to use a spear
and focused on mastering the spear but Victoria was a
swordswoman, so she was surprised and shocked at the same
time.
"Is he a swordsman?" Victoria thought but her train of thought was

interrupted by Sadie's shout.
"What are you doing?!" Michael was standing on the edge of the
wall with a sword in each hand.
"Starting the party" As these words left his mouth, Sadie saw him
throwing his swords up in the air and jumping down startling
everyone on the wall.
Chapter 75 - Battlefield
Romance
The fall was deep but using the Arch energy, he landed with the
iconic Iron man pose. When he stood up, the two swords he threw
up in the air landed on his hands with the perfect timing.



….
The beep sound of the system ran continuously in his mind and
put a grin on his face. He realized what he just made impressed
many disciples and couldn't wait to reap the benefits of this
opportunity in front of him. He wanted to thank the Sorcerer for
summoning an army of Netherels as now, he could not only earn
XP but also precious Badass points.
With the Responsive shield and healing potions in the storage, he

started to walk towards the army of Netherels fearlessly.
"What the hell is he doing?!" Sadie shouted
"What does it look like? He's going to send those all damned
creatures back to hell where they belong" Even though his
intention was obvious at this point, Gaya's answer still startled
many.
"Humph, they are going to feast on him before he could even kill
five or six Netherel" Victoria sneered and she couldn't wait to see
the Netherels tear him apart.
"If he had a brain, he would have brought back up, real backup
rather than a mortal with a bow " Jack felt a cold chill running
through his spine because he knew how nasty Aelia could be
when someone pisses her off.
When he saw her lowering the bow, he swallowed a mouth full of

saliva looking at the disciples of Golden Valley behind Victoria.
"You dumb bitch! while you were planning to go as a backup and

suck up your senior, he just made you all his backup. You just
don't realize that" Gaya didn't hold back her voice and yelled at
her in front of all the disciples.
"YOU!" Victoria's face turned red like a ripped tomato in anger and
what made her even furious was the mortal girl was right. If
Michael's attack on the Netherels made them rush towards the
city walls, they had to protect the town with all their strength
because they were righteous sects and couldn't let Netherels
cross the River town into the Kingdom.
"What you? Are you going to bully a mortal girl like me? If you
bitch dare touch a hair on my head, my friend there would beat
the living shit out of you. He won't go easy on you because you're
a bitch" Gaya had three reasons to speak so boldly without getting
her ass kicked. One, she really believed Ghost would come in
time to save her from Victoria. Second, even if he didnt, she had a
weapon that could fire an arrow before Victoria could cast a spell.
Victoria was still at the Body Refining stage and that meant, her
body was not completely strengthened yet.
If Gaya were to fire an arrow through Victoria's heart or any vital

organs in her body, she would still die, no matter whether Gaya
was a mortal or not. The final reason for her boldness was Sadie.
Gaya didn't like Sadie a bit but she knew Sadie would cover for
her to stay on Ghost's good side.
"How dare she talk to our Sister like that?!"

"The audacity!"
"Insolence!"
"Look over there!" while the Gaya shocked everyone on the wall,
someone shouted as they turned their gaze towards Michael and
the Netherels.
Sensing the upcoming threat, a few Netherels started to move

towards Michael.
"Ignitia" when they came into the range of Ignitia, Michael sent
several bolts of lightning towards the Netherels and killed them on
the spot.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Refining stage, level
4 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 100
Badass points.]

level 6 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points]

level 7 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as
100 Badass points.]

200 Badass points.]
Although he killed Netherels at various cultivation levels, he got

the same XP for every Netherel. He wanted to enter the system
and asked it about this but the system answered him before he
could open up the system interface
[Netherels are mindless creatures that don't use any strategies or

tactics. Therefore they cant be compared to living cultivators,
hence, the host won't get the usual amount of experience points]
"But"
[Be grateful host. You're at least getting some Experience points
and Badass points]
After getting upgraded, the system became more egotistic. He

was not in the place or mood to debate an unwinnable argument
with the system as he continued to slaughter the Netherels.
"Lightning Dash" Considering the disciples would soon join the

fight and he wouldn't get as much XP as he thought, he decided to
kill as many Netherels as he could and as fast as he could.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Just as he was slashing the heads of the Netherels, a bunch of

arrows brushed past him piercing through the Netherels' heads.
The arrows went straight through right between their eyes.
He never used to have someone watching his back in the field as

even pink never actually came into the field but remained
somewhere else and provided him information through the
earbud. He felt like he could get used to this unfamiliar feeling of
having someone watching his back.
The two of them wreaked havoc among the Netherel army and
finally pissed off the entire army to rush towards the city walls.
"GOLDEN VALLEY ATTACK!"
"BROTHERS AND SISTERS, SHOW THEM WHAT YOU GOT!"
Following the battle cries of Victoria and Evan, all the disciples
who had the guts to face the Netherels jumped out of the wall and
rushed towards the approaching army of Netherels.
Many may have on the battlefield but everyone's eyes were fixed
on only three, Evan, Victoria, and Ghost. It was a rare sight to see
the superstars of the younger generation fighting together against
a common enemy.
Michael made sure most of their focus is on him by drawing their
attention using bolts of lightning and his fancy dual-wielding sword
skill.
"Where did he learn to fight like that?" without Michael's

knowledge, he astounded and drew Victoria's attention towards
him. She was studying under one of the best swordmasters in the
Kingdom but she still was not at the point of using two swords
simultaneously. One needed absolute concentration and talent to
reach Ghost's level and Victoria became shocked at his level of
mastery in swordsmanship.
On the wall, Gaya was raining arrows on the Netherels with

deadly precision and every arrow fired from her bow put down a
Netherel or two.
Nyla and a few other disciples of Silvermoon stared at Gaya like

they were going to eat her. Even Sadie felt fascinated by this
mortal girl but her eyes were glued to Michael.
Every time he cleaved Netherel heads, her heart would pound

against her chest, and experienced tingling sensations in her
body. If he wasn't fighting the stinking Netherels, she would have
surrendered to her feelings and joined him for some action.
More and more Netherels appeared from the forest to make

everyone worse. However, only Michael felt excited to see more
and more Netherels.
In front of the huge number of Netherels like this, even Victoria

and Evan struggled to keep them from getting injured by the
Netherels.
It was difficult especially for Victoria because her concentration

was being messed up by Michael's cool sword skills. Jealousy and
shock prevented her from fighting with her best.
"Victoria!" Fighting on the other side, Evan noticed Victoria's

struggle but before he could do anything, one of the Netherels
punched her on the chest.
"Cough" Although her armor absorbed most of the force and
saved her organs inside, she still pushed away several steps
backward and spurted out blood.
"Hehehe, one less annoying bitch in this world" Compared to

Evan, Michael was closer to Victoria and saw everything that
happened just now and had a chuckle over it.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Just when the Netherels were about to
take a chunk of Victoria, the huge white tiger appeared behind
Evan. The white tiger made of Evan's arch energy crushed every
single Netherel on its way to Victoria and blasted away the
Netherels that surrounded her.
"What the fuck is he doing?" Michael was annoyed by this saving

the damsel in distress act of Evan. They were supposed to hate
each other but Michael realized the haters may have just turned
into lovers.
"Love is the only thing that can turn an enemy into a friend"
Michael gritted his teeth and recalled the saying back on earth. He
then settled his frustration on the Netherels in front of him by
cutting them in halves.
"Fuck you love"

Chapter 76 - End Of Netherel
Attack
"I had it under control!" Victoria's pride didn't allow her to say
thank you to Evan for saving her from the Netherel attack.
Instead, she yelled at Evan.
Meanwhile, on Michael's side, many disciples fighting beside him

had a face full of alarm and shock looking at the detached heads
spinning through the air as the bodies of the Netherels spasmed
spaying dark goo.
At this moment he had easily killed a bunch of Body

Strengthening and Body Refinish stage Netherels without taking a
single scratch, allowing himself to feel more confident about his
strength.
Michael quickly collected the fist-sized red cores of the Netherels

he killed before anyone could put their hands on them. Not that
someone would stop him, he didn't touch the cores of the others.
Having Michael around seemed like a blessing to many disciples

because they didn't have to fight the stronger Netherels but only
the Foundation stage Netherels. He focused and targeted mostly
on the Body strengthening and Body Refining stage Netherels.
"Fuck you, you and you! Die you evil sons of bitches!" on the wall,
Gaya was screaming excitedly and killing the Netherels with her
new bow.
"Sister Aelia, Is cursing them really necessary?" Some disciples

who decided to stay behind now kept staring at Jack and Gaya
because of her swearing.
Jack felt very uncomfortable looking at all the prying eyes on him.
"Shut up, you little shit!" Only because she was busy with killing
the Netherels, she forgot to slap the back of his head as usual but
Jack's hand instinctively went to cover his head.
"Hey, you all want to see something cool!"? Sadie and the others'
focus on Michael momentarily halted by Gaya's shout. All the eyes
were now on Gaya as she nocked three arrows on the bowstring
and turned her head away from the battlefield.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
She released the arrows without looking at the battlefield.

Including Sadie they all followed the trajectory of the three arrows
she fired and their eyes went wide in surprise when all the three
arrows pierced the heads of three Netherels accurately.
"That was so hot!"
"Now I understand why Ghost keeps her around"
"That girl is really not normal!"
If Michael was here, he would have knocked her again on the

head for showing off but he was busy on a killing spree and had
zero clues about Gaya's display of Archery.
"Sister Aelia, Where did you learn to shoot like that?" After seeing
all the shocked faces of the other disciples, Jack felt proud to
stand beside her even though she yelled at him and thrashed him
on a regular basis.
"I taught myself" Many refused to believe her answer and thought
she was lying but it was really the truth. Ever since Gaya was
little, Xanali got most of the attention and love from everyone in
the castle, so Gaya learned to depend on herself rather than on
anyone else. Among many other reasons, lack of love and
attention from her father and the death of her mother were the
main issues that turned Gaya into a cold overbearing person.
Xanali's mother always views her daughter as the next queen and
Gaya as the glorious gift that could be married off to some prince
in exchange for an alliance between two kingdoms. Because of
that, she brought teachers to teach Xanali the arts of war and rule
while nagging Gaya to learn knitting, cooking, and many other
chores to satisfy her future husband and his family.
To avoid a fight with Xanali's mother and learn what she liked, she
went on many adventures and honed her skills.
Back on the battlefield, Michael continued to slaughter the

Netherels. The Badass points he was earning began to decrease
as he was killing them for some time. He noticed this but cared
little because his sole focus was to get as much as XP to reach
the next cultivation level.
He deliberately told the system not to consume the experience

points to breakthrough because many would become suspicious if
he broke through on the battlefield just by killing the Netherels. He
knew it would be badass to breakthrough now but it may or may
not bring some unwanted trouble to his doorstep wondering what
kind of cultivation technique he was using.
"Aoooooooo!" a shriek of howl suddenly ran out from the forest as

the Netherels stopped moving.
Puff!
Puff!
Puff!
Following the howl and the Netherels stopped moving, they all
started to vanish into thin air.
"Hey come back, I'm not done with you!" the disciples around
Michael almost spurted out blood in shock and anger when they
heard him. Everyone was sighing in relief but not him, he was
yelling at the disappearing Netherels and calling them back.
Evan and Victoria also speechless as they turned back to leave

the battlefield. Victoria suffered some internal damage and
scratches while Evan also sustained some minor injuries. Initially,
they wanted to go chasing the Sorcerer But now, they needed rest
and healing potions.
Many disciples were not as lucky as Evan and Victoria. After the
Netherels disappeared, the battlefield was filled with groaning and
cries of pain. Few had lost their friends, their limbs, or at least a
chunk of flesh from their bodies. Most of them blamed Ghost for
starting this battle with the Netherels in the first place for their
losses. However as far as Michael was concerned it was normal
to suffer or lose one's life in a battle and if they valued their lives
very dear, they should have stayed back instead of following Evan
and Victoria to battle.
"Go bring me a table and chair quickly" while they were coming
back from the battlefield, Gaya hatched a plan to turn their
sufferings into gold.
"Why?"
Plop!
Since she was not firing arrows, Jack received a slap from her as
usual.
"Ah! I'm going" Jack ran off to find her a chair and a table
immediately after receiving a slap to the back of his head.
On his way back to the wall, Michael put his swords in the system
storage and used the wind blast after lowering its power so he
wouldn't blast himself.
Whuf!
Still, the wind blast was powerful enough to let out a muffled blast
sound and clean all the bits and pieces of the Netherels from his
clothes. He then circulated the Arch energy around his body and
his clothes to remove the stink.
"I need a bath but it'll do for now,"? Michael said to himself and
Lightning dashed towards the wall leaving a trail of dust and a few
cracks of lightning.
The disciples from the other side of the wall opened the city gates
for everyone.
"What?!"
"Ha!"
"Wow"
"Finally something good came out today"
As Michael ran past the girls, they had to quickly stop their skirts
from soaring up due to his speed. Now some male disciples who
stayed behind blamed Michael less after feasting their eyes on
milky white legs of some of the beauties.
When Michael halted his steps, he saw Gaya was sitting on a

chair behind a table.
"What are you doing?"
"What took you so long! come on, give me all the Healing potions
you got"
Both Michael and Gaya let out an evil grin as Michael put a bunch
of healing potions on the table without asking a question.
"Listen up everyone!" Gaya's shout drew the attention of

everyone, including Evan and Victoria who were applying healing
oils on themselves.
"Why didn't they buy my healing potions in the first place? What is
that crap on their hands?" Michael questioned himself looking at
the low-quality healing oils in Evan and Victoria's hands. In reality,
they were not at all low-quality as they were 60% pure healing oils
yet compared to Michael's 80% pure Healing potions, they were
indeed low quality in his eyes.
"Hrrggrr" Gaya cleared her throat and spoke
"Did you suffer a life-threatening wound? Are you afraid of the

wounds turning into ugly scars? " She sounded like the
salesperson on the TV ads for Michael.
"do you want to feel less pain? Or do you simply want that chunk
of flesh you lost to a Netherel?" She paused for a moment as all
the eyes were now fixed on Gaya. She winked at Michael and
continued her sales pitch
"Worry no more, you have the Majestic's Healing potion with 80%
purity. The first lucky fifty buyers will get a 20% discount on the
price"
She scheme momentarily shocked all the onlookers. For a

second, Michael and Gaya seemed like two human-sized vultures
in their eyes.
Michael stood there laughing inside when he saw a MorningStar

disciple who had a chunk of meat missing from his shoulder
walking towards them.
The disciple's skin was pale because of the blood loss and one
could see the shoulder bone through his wound.
"How...much?" Looking at the space ring on his finger and the

expensive diamond chain on his neck, both Michael and Gaya
realized he is rich.
"Oh wonderful, the first customer!" Gaya greeted him with a foxy
smile.
Following the injured disciple, many gathered around and behind

him to buy the healing potions because all of them suffered some
injury from the Netherel attack. They all wanted to be the first 50
customers to get the sweet 20% discount however what they
heard next almost made them faint on the spot.
"9000 gold coins only"
Chapter 77 - Gaya’s Kindness
"What?! 9000?"
"Aren't you selling at the same price as in your sect?"
"Yeah, where is the 20% discount you told us?"
The scene became turbulent and many disciples were expressing

their frustration without holding back. Michael also waited to see
how she was going to explain herself rather curiously.
"Of course the price for a Healing potion is 7200 gold coins but
what about the taxes such as road tax and transport tax? Back in
our sect, we don't have to transport the products, sit under the
scorching sun smelling the stink of Netherels in the air. No one is
forcing you to buy" Michael could tell everyone who is here to buy
had suffered a major wound and without a proper healing potion
and treatment,? they would have to face nasty consequences.
Therefore, if they had some brains and coins, they would buy the
potion while they still can.
The 20% discount was just to rile up the crowd. Many who had
only 9000 gold coins or so and suffered some minor may have
decided to keep the coins if she didn't give the 20% discount.
However now, they couldn't back off because of 1800 gold coins
as that would make them look bad and hurt their image in front of
all the girls.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you don't look good," Gaya said looking at the pale
body of the first disciple who came to buy the healing potion.
"Fuck it, give me the potion" the disciple gritted his teeth and gave
his pay cube to Gaya. With a wide grin on her face, she took the
payment and handed over the potion to the disciple.
She waited patiently for the disciple to drink the Healing potion
without rushing him as it would get them free advertising. Just like
Gaya planned when the others saw the nasty wound on the
disciple's shoulder closing up at a visible speed, they were
stunned. The disciple's skin slowly started to show redness as his
face revealed a relieved expression. 80% purity was not a joke
and at this moment, they all realized it.
"Now step away for the next customer"
"Give me one!"
"I need two!"
"Ouch! You're stepping on me, you blind bastard!"
The disciples became restless again and now, they all wanted to
get their hands on this miraculous healing potion. Many regretted
not buying Healing potions from Ghost when they heard about it
days ago.
"Form a line! Or we'll close up the shop!" Gaya shouted like a

dictator and looked at Jack.
"You're in the crowd control duty! I'll throw your ass off the wall if I
see anyone jump the queue"
"Yes, Maam!" Jack saluted and started to oversee the crowd. He

really believed this psycho girl would throw him off the wall if he let
anyone jump the queue.
Due to the big crowd between Michael and her, Sadie couldn't go
and talk to him but she had to wait patiently. The selling was going
smoothly as more and more disciples joined the queue to buy the
potion. Surprisingly while Jack was bossing around the disciples
using Ghost and newly found Aelia's reputation, he saw Nyla
waiting in the line with a few of her friends.
"Jack!" when the girls and Nyla saw Jack coming towards them,
they all showed a seductive smile which made Jack feel like he
was flying. As a disciple of a declined sect, he had never
experienced something like this. Male or female, no disciples
would talk to him due to the status of his sect but now, a group of
beauties were smiling and calling him.
Jack was not Michael to resist their charm. He ran towards them
like a puppy dog with sparkling eyes.
"Miss Reid, why are you standing in the lie? Are you injured?"
"Oh Jack, call me Nyla" Jack's heart almost jumped out of his
chest when he heard Nyla's seductive voice.
"I'm not injured but some of my friends from Golden Valley are, so
can you please help us?" she said and whisked Jack's face with
the tip of her finger.
"Owwww god..." Jack felt high as a kite while the male disciples
from the other sects looked at him with eyes full of jealousy and
envy.
"We are the ones who risked our life fighting"
"Yeah we should get the chicks"
"Lucky bastard!"
"I ever thought I would say this but now, I wish I was a disciple of
the Sunrise sect"
Jack was not in the mood to hear their comments as all his focus
was on the beauties before him.
"What...what can I do for you, Ny...Ny...Nyla?" Jack stuttered

before finally calling her by her first name. He was not at all used
to all this.
"Oh Jack, can you use your influence to get us some Healing
potions?" the smile on Jack's face froze. He knew if he goes to
Aelia asking for healing potions, she would kick his ass in front of
all the people. However, this was too good an opportunity to pass.
If he could get the potions for Nyla, he may have a chance with
Nyla.
"You can do that, right?" Nyla and the girls brushed his face with
their fingers. Jack's face turned red as his heartbeat doubled by
the girls' seduction.
"Yes...yes, I can" He decided to take the risk. Even if Aelia didn't

give him some potions, he would beg Ghost to lend him some in
secret.
"I told you girls Jack will be able to help us" Nyla giggled and
placed her pay cube on Jack's hand.
"Buy us three Healing potions Jack" Jack mustered all his courage
and made his way back to Gaya.
Michael was busy showing off his Alchemy skills by brewing

healing potions on the spot while Gaya was sitting on her chair
with her legs up on the table. She was relaxingly fiddling with pay
cubs and selling the healing potions when she saw Jack walking
towards her with puppy eyes.
"Didn't I put you on crowd control?"
"Sister Aelia, please... help me" Jack swallowed air in

nervousness and silently begged Gaya without allowing others to
hear his plea. Looking at Jack's eyes welling up and the shivering,
Gaya thought someone had beaten him up while he was on guard
duty. Micheal on the other hand didn't stick his nose between
Gaya and Jack because he noticed everything and knew why
Jack is here.
"What? Did someone attack you? Who the fuck dared to attack
my minion?"
"Sister Aelia please don't shout!" Jack stopped her before she
could make a big scene and spoil his image among the girls.
"Tell me who attacked you? I'll kick their ass before I kick your ass
for getting your ass kicked" Michael chuckled while all the
disciples who heard her became astounded by her talent of
swearing.
"No one Sister Aelia, no one attacked me. Now can you please
calm down?"
"Huh? Then why are you here?" She lowered her voice and
asked.
"Can I explain quietly?" he pleaded and looking at his face, she

sighed and nodded. He then whispered everything that happened
with Nyla into Gaya's ear and begged her to give him three
Healing potions.
"Please please please Sister Aelia, help a brother out. I'll do

anything for you if you do this, I'll even name my first child after
you, even if it's a boy"
"Alright, alright, here take it" after his plea and the offer to name
his child after her, she decided to show some kindness to Jack.
"You better name you kids after me if you ever get married, that is"
"Really?! Oh Thank you, Sister Aelia, you're my goddess" Jack's

face brightened hearing Gaya and if it wasn't for the crowd, he
would have kissed her feet and showed his gratitude.
"Take these and go before I regret my choice" Gaya tossed Nyla's

pay cube back after taking the gold coins for three Healing
potions.
"Hey we are standing in the queue here" some disciples

expressed their objection at Gaya after they saw Jack taking three
healing potions and leaving.
"Shut up, are you my minions?" she asked the disciples
"No"
"Do you want to be?" the disciples were bewildered by the

question but shook their heads after a few seconds.
"No"
"Then shut the fuck up before I make you"

The sale went for another couple of minutes before Michael ran
out of ingredients to brew more potions but fortunately, he had
enough to sell it to all the disciples in the wall.
"You did a good job by setting up a shop here" Michael reaped

more Badass points and became richer because of Gaya's quick
thinking. He patted her on the back and decided to gift her the
bow as he had no use for it unless he spent his badass points
buying the Book of Archery.
"You can keep the bow as my gift to you"
"It's only fair since I'm the one who knows how to handle a bow"
Despite her haughty answer, her loyalty towards him increased by
2% and that was good enough for him.
"Ghost" suddenly Michael heard Sadie's gentle voice and turned

to see her breathing heavily. Her face was red wh scanning from
top to bottom.
She rushed towards him and halted her steps just a couple of
inches away from him. He could feel her hot breath and her sweet
scent.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"What?! Girlfriend?! NO!" Sadie's sudden question startled Gaya

as she shouted.
"N" Before even he could say no, Sadie wrapped her hands
around his neck and closed his mouth with her mouth.
Chapter 78 - Michael + Sadie
Sadie's kiss was not at all the same as those movie stars, but one
steeped in a passion that ignites. In that moment of the kiss, their
chemistry became an ever-bright flame and fanned the jealousy
and envy of the others.
Gaya and Jack were speechless as Michael leaned back after

tasting the sweetness of Sadie's lips but Sadie's hands were still
wrapped around his neck.
"Take me Ghost" Sadie didn't hide her feelings and the lust in her
eyes at all. Michael was not a beta or shy person to blush and
avoid a beauty like her but he still had to verify some things before
taking the kiss to the next level.
"Are you going to use your techniques on me?" He had to ask this
because it was not a secret that SilverMoon disciples used some
secret techniques to harness someone's lust into Arch Energy.
Michael didn't want to end up as a guinea pig just for a one-night
pleasure.
"Only the techniques you want me to use" Sadie's voice sounded

so seductive as it instantly charmed everyone who was hearing
her.
She again locked her lips with Michael's and resumed the kiss.
"No strings attached?" He wiggled his head back from her clutch
and asked, ignoring all the prying eyes on him.
"What the fuck are you two doing?!" Gaya couldn't hold back her
annoyance. The two of them were acting so shamelessly and she
had enough of that.
"No strings attached, just some old-fashioned lovemaking" The
moment Sadie said this, he swept her off her feet from the ground.
Sadie's both milky white legs were wrapped around his hip as she
hanged onto him like a koala bear holding onto a tree branch.
"Hmmhh" Sadie's moan from his hard kiss made the male
disciples wish they were Michael.
"Get a room!" Gaya screamed as Michael showed her thumbs up.

The next moment, Sadie and Michael disappeared from the wall
leaving all the disciples in shock.
"Brother Ghost is...awesome!" Jack worshipped Michael and fixed

him as his role model of picking up chicks. While he was trying his
luck with Sadie's junior sister Nyla, his brother Ghost picked the
Senior putting little to no effort. Everyone at the acne knew Sadie
was the one who made the move. Most of them thought only Core
Formation guys had a chance with Sadie but Ghost proved them
wrong.
"What just happened?"
"A Body Refining stage picked up a Core Formation stage beauty"
"Not a cultivator but Sadie Kaplan, the Sadie Kaplan of

SilverMoon!"
Right at this moment, Michael was getting continuous rings of

notification from the system as his Badass points started to
increase.
"That shameless bastard and that slut" Jack saw Gaya gritting her
teeth but he didn't want to become a punching bag, so he chose
not to speak a word.
"Come, we are not waiting for that bastard!" She kicked the table
away and marched out from the wall furiously. Unlike Gaya who
was furious at Ghost's actions, Jack walked with his head held
high and chest puffed out like he was the one who ended up with
Sadie.
************************
The very next morning in a house that was abandoned due to the
Netherel attack in River town, Michael opened his eyes and saw
the curtains add an orange glow to the morning light, a perfect
sunrise. It reminded him of the times he slept in a beach hut,
watching the ocean emerge under the golden shimmer. For a
moment his mind conjured the rhythmic waves, soft on the sandy
shore, and felt his heartbeat at the same slow pace. He breathed
in deeply and turned aside. He was welcomed by Sadie's sleepy
face as he brushed the strands of hair off her face. He reached his
hand out to the fabric, noticing how close the light pours through
every open space between fibers. The material was warm
beneath his fingers, and when the sun flooded the room, painting
the colors anew, he felt a little of those golden rays soak into his
naked body.
"Good Morning" Sadie's body felt weak and tired but her voice
sounded quite vigorous.
Both of them had the best night of their lives.
"Goodmorning Sadie" Michael put his clothes on and raised the

curtain open to let the sun rays bask Sadie's half-naked body
exposed out of the bedsheet.
"Did you have a good time?"
"Did you?" Michael asked her back.
"Very" It was the truth as Sadie didnt think someone else could
satisfy her as he did.
"So what now? Are you going back to your sect?"
"Yeah, I have many things to take care of. What about you?" He
leaned on the wall and asked her.
"The same, I need to tell my teacher that the people she asked
me to find is dead"
"Dead? Who killed them?" It was a genuine question with curiosity
because he had no idea that she was talking about his own
handiwork.
"Apparently the Devil, do you believe in the Devil?"
"We all have devil and god inside us, Sadie. It's us who decides
which to let out " He had realized that she was talking about his
killings and gave her an indirect answer.
"Someone decided to let the Devil out," Sadie said.
"So are you going to chase this Devil?" Michael wished Sadie
won't come after him like a detective because he didn't want to kill
her. But if she decided to stand in his path, he would end her.
"Why would I? We SilverMoons don't play good guys unlike

Golden Valley and Morningstar. If they want to catch the Devil,
they can go for it but SilverMoon will stay out of it" Michael sighed
inside hearing her answer and by the look on her face, he could
tell she was speaking honestly.
"Enough of the Devil stuff. How prepared are you to enter the
Nether Realm?" He kept hearing about this Nether Realm and
really became curious to find out what secrets and treasures it
holds.
"I'm prepared, how about you?" Michael's question made her

chuckle
"I can't go in there silly, only cultivators under Body Strengthening

stage can enter the Nether Realm. That's why some disciples like
Evan and Victoria didn't break through to the Body Strengthening
stage"
"It makes sense now, when I saw her Victoria was so close to
reaching the next stage"
"I know you're new to this place but you should prepare yourself
well, Nether Realm is no joke. As a senior I recommend you to go
to the Phoenix auction manor in Sarton, they are holding an
auction just for this occasion. Who knows, you might find
something very useful to you in the auction"
"How big is the auction?"
"Very, there will be hundreds of people and disciples" She got him
when she said hundreds. Big crowd meant anything he did would
get more Badass points. Besides, he didn't lack gold coins, and if
something handy appeared in the auction, he could buy it.
"Then I'll check it out and even try to make some coins out of it"
Her brows slightly furrowed
"What's up with you and coins? We cultivators won't have much

use for gold coins when we reach higher stages. You know what
they say, coins won't buy happiness"
"Whoever said had apparently never used the money"
"Even so, what you and your friend did yesterday at the wall would
have pissed off many disciples of Golden Valley and MorningStar,
Ghost"
"What're you talking about?"
"First you started the fight with the Netherels dragging everyone
into the battle and then, you and that mortal girl turned their
misery into gold" The more Michael spent his time with the
cultivators, the more he realized the gap between the normal
people and the cultivators. Sadie seemed like a cool person but
even she looked down on Aelia because she was a mortal.
"That mortal girl has a name, Sadie. It's Aelia" Gaya may have not
completely earned his trust but she was still his subordinate. He
didn't like Sadie looking down on her.
"Why do you keep her around?" Sadie noticed the change in his
tone and asked. He was silent for a moment as Sadie continued
but this time she referred to Gaya by her name rather than calling
her 'mortal girl'
"Aelia seemed like a rather unique person but you can't get too
attached to her Ghost. She is what, twenty-six or twenty-seven,
yet she still didn't cross the Arch sensing stage. That means, she
is a mortal, not a cultivator"
"So what?" Sadie had no idea Gaya was a prodigy and the
Princess of Nagaland. Even if she wasn't a prodigy and princess,
if Gaya swore her loyalty to him, he would treat her as his friend.
"So she would become old and die in a couple of decades

considering she didn't get any mortal illnesses. If you get too
attached to her, it'll hurt and hinder your cultivation path"
"Dont worry about me Sadie, nothing can stop me from reaching

immortality and if there's something better after that, I'll reach that
too"
Chapter 79 - Gaya’s Feelings
"Miss Aelia" Back at Michael's house, Raylene was trying to wake

up Gaya.
Gaya would always stuff her belly with the food she put in
Michael's kitchen but when Raylene saw the food she left last
night untouched, she became worried.
She put the breakfast on the table and gently shook Gaya's
shoulder to wake her up.
"Wake up, sleepyhead sister" Cindy also accompanied her mother

to see Ghost and Gaya. Seeing Gaya was snoring and refusing to
wake up, the little girl giggled.
After a few seconds, Gaya's senses picked up the aroma of the

breakfast as her nose twitched. Slowly she opened her eyes to
see Raylene and the tiny human standing before her.
"Goodmorning Miss Aelia"
"Goodmorning Sister"
Both mother and daughter greeted her while Gaya stretched out
her limbs.
"Where is big brother Ghost?" Cindy curiously gawked at

Michael's room but when Gaya heard his name, she became
annoyed and angered.
"That bastard went whoring, tiny human"
"Miss Aelia!" Raylene immediately covered Cindy's ears. The little

girl tilted her head and stared at both of them confused.
"What? She's gonna turn big one day"
"She's still little to know those things, Miss Aelia" Raylene said
and looked at Cindy
"Cindy go play with the others"
"Okey-dokey" Cindy laughed and hopped outside happily.
"What happened Miss Aelia? you seem upset" Raylene knew

although Gaya had a cold demeanor, she was a warm person
inside. It was not like her to scold Michael in front of Cindy and go
to sleep without licking the bowls clean.
"Am I jealous? Why am I feeling like this?" ever since she saw
Michael and Sadie kissing on the wall, she lost her appetite and
was feeling frustrated for some reason.
"That bastard can bang whoever he wants, I don't care" She

consoled herself and decided to direct her focus on the delicious
breakfast before her.
Raylene was a teenager and a girl like her before and she could
somehow tell what's going on inside her mind. However, she
remained silent because deep down Raylene knew a mortal girl
like Aelia had no chance with a Prodigy like Ghost. She didn't
want to fan the feelings inside Aelia's hearts with her words and
gave her any wrong ideas.
She was not eating her with her usual speed but still, she kept
stuffing her mouth.
"I'll leave you to it" Raylene gave her some space and left the
house leaving Gaya with her food.
******************
"See you later" Michael waved off Sadie and stepped out of the
house he occupied for the night. Compared to the first time he
came here, now River town seemed less crowded because of the
Netherel attack. But he could see many people coming back to
the town while he was taking a stroll through the streets.
"Master Ghost"
"Greetings Young Master Ghost"
The people on the streets quickly smiled and greeted him. He

smiled back and gave a small nod towards them and continued
his morning walk.
Before he started the attack on Netherel, some of the Netherels

attacked a few buildings and left them in ruins. One of the
destroyed buildings was the tavern he stayed in before.
As a citizen of earth, he knew River town is now in for taking and

every destroyed building of the town is free real estate.
Particularly he had his eyes on the tavern building. For some time
he was planning to open up a restaurant chain and make Raylene
his head chef. The grocery items needed to run the restaurant
were not expensive in the System store and after the upgrade, he
had seed packs for a cheaper price. Buying the seed pack and
farming the vegetables needed for the restaurant was more
plausible than him supplying the vegetables every single day.
Even if he bought the vegetables in bulk, they wouldn't be fresh
after a few days and freshness was very crucial to run a
successful restaurant.
The meat was a whole other matter. The meat he was giving
Raylene to cook had Arch Energy infused in the molecular level
by the System. However, if he bought the meat from outside, the
taste would not be as good as the meat from the System.
If he wanted to control his world from the shadows, he needed

money, and businesses like these are a great way to get a stable
revenue. Ever since he came to this world with the system, he
never forgot to ask himself the question 'What if the system went
offline?'
He didn't want to depend on the system too much and in his mind,
the next best thing after the System was money. So he planned to
invest his money to make more money.
If the system really went offline, it would indeed be a huge

blowback from him but with enough wealth, he could survive and
continue his path to reach Immortality.
"What should I do for the meat situation?" he kept thinking and

walking towards the tavern. He knew the System would have an
expensive way to solve this issue but before he asked the system,
he picked his mind searching for an Alchemical solution.
After a few minutes of thinking, he came up with the potion to

solve this issue but he decided not to go with the potion because it
required him to set up an animal farm, growing rare herbs, and
search for various ingredients that were hard to get.
"Hey snakey" Just as he was about to ask, he realized she's not

with him.
"I do miss that haughty snake it seems" Michael chuckled and

continued his walk.
He desired to ask Gaya if there's a way to keep the meat fresh for
some time. Considering this world had Arch Energy and many
other things that wouldn't have existed back on earth, he wanted
to find a replacement for the Refrigerator.
Moments like these made Michael get mad at Abras because

Abras had very limited knowledge in stuff like this. He was a very
naive youngster who lived a simple peaceful life until the princess
betrayed him.
[The system does have a solution for the host's problem]

Suddenly Michael heard the system's voice inside his head
without even opening the system interface.
"Oh? What is it?"
[System Store Refrigerator, it will keep the raw ingredients and

food fresh for two months] In the beginning, Michael would be
excited to get a solution from the system but now, he always
looked at the system cautiously as he didn't want to fall for any
traps.
"How much is it?"
[Just 99,999 badass points only]
The system's reply halted his steps and made him grit his teeth in
frustration at the system. Then he took some deep breaths
"System, with enough badass points you can do anything right?"
[Of Course Host] the system exclaimed with a tint of pride in its
voice.
"Then one day I'll make you take a physical form and beat your
ass down"
[Don't be rude Host!] the system went silent like it was mad at
Michael and didn't speak with him.
Eventually, he came in front of the tavern which was now turned

into a ruin by the Netherel attack. Before it was a two-story
building where the ground floor used to be the tavern and the
upper floor was allocated for guests to stay the night. Not the
upper floor of the building was completely crushed and the ground
floor was missing a wall on the side.
Most of the tables and chairs were missing as probably the

robbers salvaged the place.
"Young Master Ghost?" While he was standing before the

building, someone said his name and he turned back to see a girl
running to him.
He remembered this golden hair girl as the waitress who served

him when he was here.
Michael could tell the girl was crying by noticing her puffy eyes.
"Your name... Gloria is it?" Michael remembered her name. The

girl was surprised as she nodded.
"Young Master Ghost still remembers me" Even the onlookers
who were staring at Michael from a distance were shocked. No
Prodigy or a celebrity of Bredia had remembered the name of a
commoner before yet, he recalled the name of a waitress like
Gloria.
She felt honored and the image of him in many people's hearts
grew bigger.
"Young Master Ghost, as you can see the Lucky cat tavern is no
more. The next tavern is in Bredia a few hours walking distance
from here" He was not a hero who would go save every person in
need of help but in this case, Gloria was in luck as he had planned
to buy this place.
"Who is the owner of this place and where is he now?" Gloria

didn't know what his intentions were as she answered truthfully.
"A couple of rogue Netherels killed him, Young Master Ghost.

Poor Bass tried to chase away the Netherels and defined this
place, but he didn't stand a chance against those vile creatures."
"What are you going to do for a living now?" Michael asked. In his
life, he had some moral codes and he ulstrictly followed them.
One of them was, never to help those who don't need help or
don't want to be helped and, never to help those who don't
appreciate the help, ever.
"I...don't know, Young Master Ghost" he knew no idea about her

future was the reason for her puffy eyes and probably she has a
family that solely depends on her.
"Then if I want to buy this place, who should I visit?"

Chapter 80 - Struggle Within
"Go away tiny human, I don't want to play with you!" Since
Michael was not here and they had closed their store today, Gaya
was alone and bored.
She wanted to have some alone time and deeply think about the
unfamiliar feelings she was having since she saw Sadie and
Michael together at the wall.
However, she was getting nagged by Cindy as the little girl kept
asking Gaya to play with her. No matter how many times she had
shushed away the little girl, she was leaving her alone.
"Come on Sister Aelia! Play with me" the little girl tightly held onto
Gaya's hands and tried to get her up from the sofa using all her
strength.
Gaya lifted Cindy by the back of her collar while the little girl was
laughing and trying to grab Gaya's long hair.
"Where are your friends?"
"They are with Brother Jack"
"Jack? what is that little shit doing with them?"
"Hehehe" Cindy's childish giggles filled the house as even Gaya

couldn't help but slightly smile looking at the little girl's laughter.
"He's watering big brother Ghost's herbi garden"
"Herbi garden?" Seeing Cindy couldn't pronounce herbal, Gaya

chuckled.
"It's not Herbi garden, it's called the herbal garden" Because of
this little girl, Gaya forgot about everything for a moment and
tickled Cindy.
"hehhe...sto….Si...hehehe"
"Don't you want to play with me?" Cindy was wiggling like a fish
out of the water but Gaya kept tickling her showing no mercy.
Just when the two of them were playing, the door opened as
Michael walked in with his usual smile.
"Big brother!" Like a puppy saw its owner, Cindy wiggled out of
Gaya's grab and ran to him. The little girl leaped as Michael lifted
her up.
"Who's a good girl? yes, you are, yes you are" Micheal threw the
girl up and down in the air and played with her.
While he was playing with Cindy, Michael noticed the gloomy look
on Gaya's face.
"Cindy, go play with your friends. I have something to take care of"
"Will you play with me later?" The girl showed him the puppy
eyes.
"Yes, I will play with you later, now run alone"
Cindy bounced in joy and left the house with a brightened face.
After seeing the girl's figure disappear from his sight, he turned to
look at the Gaya who was sitting straight on the sofa while
avoiding direct eye contact with him.
He walked to her and sat beside her to see her squirming away
from him.
He again moved to sit beside her as she also again moved away
from him.
Looking at her silly behavior, he grabbed her by her hand as she

turned around angrily.
"So, are you going to tell me why you are in such a bad mood?"
"I'm not in a bad mood"? She was a pretty good liar but now, she
lied like an amateur.
"I know what this is about, you're mad because of what happened
between me and Sadie on the wall" He was not a naive guy and in
fact, he already knew Gaya was jealous and she only didn't
realize it yet.
"Why would I be mad? You can screw whoever you want, I simply
don't care"
"But you do and that's why you're acting like this. Why don't you
just woman up and say what's on your mind, like a princess of
Nagaland?" By speaking these words, Michael touched her nerve
as she furiously took a few breaths and decided to give him a
piece of her mind.
"Yes, I'm mad at you! You left me and Jack alone on the wall with
that slut did you think about how we travel back to the sect
carrying all the gold coins? What if I get robbed on the way? If you
were my friend, you would have thought about my safety" Michael
was slightly surprised by her words. Then when he noticed the
52% loyalty, he realized she has now started to consider him as a
friend.
"It's time to increase her loyalty," Michael told himself.
"Did you really think I would let anything happen to you? If I didn't
care about your safety, I would have handed you over to your
sister. You think so less of me, I'm really hurt" Gaya was taken
aback by surprise and shock. She didn't think her words would
impact him in such a way as she saw him really get sad.
The more she looked at his sad face, the less mad she felt at him.
"Human" she tried to console him but he stood up and went

straight into his room.
"Did I really hurt him?" Staring blankly at the closed door, she
asked herself.
Her anger now faded away after seeing the way he reacted. She
had never seen him like this and it really bothered her.
"System, how did I do?"
[Not bad Host but you should consider buying the Book of Acting
from the system store] back inside his room, Michael's sad face
was instantly replaced by a proud grin. He turned the table and
increased Gaya's loyalty by 2%.
"System, in the future only recommend me things that I can

actually buy"
[Noted]
For a couple of hours, Michael stayed inside and made several

badges of pills of potions to restock the Majestic and keep the
business going while he's attending the auction that Sadie told
him about.
"Now I should make one more pill" He picked out a few

ingredients and started to concoct the pill. A few minutes after the
concoction, a blood-red pill floated above his hand and radiated a
pungent smell.
"No pain no gain" he mumbled and put the pill back in the system
storage.
"Human" he heard Gaya's voice coming from the other side of the
door.
"Heartless girl, she took this long to make a move" he quickly put
his sad face on and said
"What are you still doing here? Didn't you say we aren't friends
anymore"
He intentionally spoke these words to make her panic.

"I never said that!" just like he planned, she slammed open the
door and hastened into the room.
"You fucking liar, when did I speak those words?" she really
panicked thinking he wouldn't care for her anymore and stop
making the pills to cure her.
Earlier when he sat beside her, she kept moving away from him
but now, she sat very close to him on his bed. His reaction and
words totally agitated her.
"I lied to you before when I said I don't care about what happened
between you and that bitch, human"
"I know but I don't understand why you are pissed off about that?"
Hearing Michael's question, she had no direct answer to give him

as she sighed
"Honestly I don't know why, maybe I hate those bitches in

Silvermoon too much" He could tell she was telling the truth by
looking at her eyes. Although Michael understood what she had
been feeling was a sort of jealousy, he chose not to ponder too
much, and instead, he directed the topic towards where he could
exploit her jealousy to increase her loyalty.
"You hate everyone"
"No, I don't" She pursed her lips and said. She then stared at him
for a couple of seconds and said, "I don't hate you" It took a great
amount of strength for her to admit this as she had never had a
friend or someone close to her before like Michael.
"So you're saying we are still friends?" Words had power and by
making her admit their friendship, he wanted to increase her
loyalty.
"Yes, we are still friends"
[Ding! Congratulations to the host. Subordinate Gaya reached

60% loyalty]
"Now we are talking" the system notification made him grin inside.
"I still don't like the fact you chose to bang Sadie. Those evil sluts
will drain your Arch Energy and damage your meridians"
"Didn't you hear what Sadie said? It was old-fashioned love

making. There was no harm except the slight pain in my muscles"
"Gross, stop talking about that!" She furiously rolled her eyes and
punched him on the shoulder.
"Go change your clothes you bastard, you stink of that slut"
"If you want to see me naked, you can stay here" the moment she
heard these words, she leaped out of his bed and rushed outside
before yelling at him with her usual haughty tone.
"Who wants to see you naked except that Sadie bitch!"
*************************
Alright, this chapter took longer than I expected to write because

of all the dialogues and stuff. I know this might be boring but I had
to write this chapter to keep the story flow naturally as well as
show the friendship blooming between two lone wolves.
The real badass action-packed fun begins from the next chapter!!!
Chapter 81 - Body Refining
Stage Level 10
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 1
Techniques: Swords of Destiny - 78% Mastery
Status: Healthy

point(s))
"System, consume the experience points I got from the Netherels"
He rubbed his hands together and entered the system. He was

excited to reach the next levels and face stronger enemies.
[The host has killed 20 Body Refining stage Netherels, 30 Body

Strengthening stage Netherels, and 25 Foundation Stage
Netherels]
[Ding! The host has received 100,000 Experience points for Killing
20 Body Refining stage Netherels]
30 Body Strengthening stage Netherels]
25 Foundation stage Netherels]
"385000 Experience points, not bad, not bad at all" He was

pleased to see the amount of Experience he got after slaughtering
all those stinking Netherels. Even though the night with Sadie was
a great bonus, it didn't make him happy as the Experience points
which would make him reach the next levels without months of
cultivation.
He was not done yet as he retrieved the cores he collected from

the Netherels. The fist-sized cores were extremely fragile and
some of them shattered when they hit the ground. In the system
store, he had 10 Bod Refining Netherel cores,18 Body
Strengthening Netherel cores, and 15 Formation stage Netherel
cores.
[Does the Host wish to activate the Energy devourer and consume
the cores?]
[The host would get 1000-2000 Experience per one Formation

Stage Core]
[The host would get 3000-4000 Experience per one Body Refining
Stage Core]
[The host would get 4000-6000 Experience per one Body

Strengthening Stage Core]
The system informed him of the number of Experience points he

would get by consuming the cores using the Energy Devourer.
"Leave the Formation stage cores and consume the others' ' the
system soon activated the Energy Devourer and one by one, the
Netherel cores disappeared from the system storage.
[Experience points converted 30,000] when all the Body Refining

stage cores disappeared, the system notified him and continued
to consume the rest of the cores.
[Experience points converted 90,000]
"120,000 huh? I feel like I should have gotten more from them"
[The Experience points received from the cores vary depending

on the quality of the core host. Next time, consider going after the
head rather than fighting the cannon folders] the system sounded
like it was bothered by Michael's decision not to go after the
Sorcerer.
"I know what I'm doing, System. The Sorcerer must have been a
Core formation cultivator to get pursued by Alex and Celina. If I
went into the forest chasing the Sorcerer, not only I would have
lost all these Experience points and Badass points, I may have
also ended up in neck-deep trouble. No offense to you system but
I don't want to depend on you too much"
[Still, the host should have taken a risk]
"Agree to disagree" he didn't want to keep arguing with the system

and explain everything on his mind. He very well knew that the
system wants him to take risks because risks may require him to
spend more badass points.
"What are we waiting for? Let's begin the breakthrough process"

Body Refining stage Level 8]


The surge of power inside his body warmed his body. He could
feel that his strength had increased by at least two times than
before. Coupled with his own strength and the Responsive shield,
he could defeat a Body Strengthening stage level 7 and fight
without sustaining major injuries with a level 8 cultivator.
After killing all those Netherels, he had already made enormous

progress in his cultivation level. Moreover, his mastery of swords
went from 70% to 78%.
However what made him really excited was the number of badass
points, 18000 Badass points. After earning a few more thousands
of Badass points he could finally settle the debt of 22,000 Badass
points he got from the system and be debt-free.
Regarding gold coins, he earned nearly 300,000 gold coins by

selling the Healing potions to the injured disciples. Many disciples
also bought more than they needed for future use.
Michael recalled clearly how Gaya's evil mind had contributed
significantly to his wealth. Among the 75 killings, Gaya killed
almost 25 Netherels and injured many more using her new
weapon, the bow of Legolas. She was turning into a valuable
asset and a friend to him. He couldn't wait to see what she can do
after he heals her and restore her cultivation level. At that point,
he would have a Core Formation level bodyguard.
"Okay, let's do some shopping" He opened the system's store with

another badass costume in his mind. The system automatically
filtered everything and showed only the items that he could afford.
In front of his eyes, there were many unique costumes as well as
iconic costumes from the movies and video games. He saw Squall
Leonhart's costume, the Robin costume from the 80s, and many
more, but none of them wowed him like the one particular
costume that's floating before him. It was none other than the
Matrix 1999 movie costume. The current one in his storage was
the Neo costume of Matrix reloaded, and the one in front of him
was the Neo costume from the first installment of the Matrix
series.
He had a weak spot for cool costumes and without bitching at the
system, he bought the complete costume for 1000 Badass points.
Yet, he was not done with shopping as he still had some tweaks to
do to the costume.
"System, I need back-mounted dual sword sheath, black of

course"
Luckily the sword sheaths he asked for only cost him 200 badass
points and it fitted perfectly with his new costume. He then
removed gun holsters on the trouser and the sunglasses because
he realized he would look weird with sunglasses in this world. But
he didn't completely rule out wearing sunglasses.
"This is going to make me look like such a badass" with wasting

no time, he put on his new clothes and exited the system.
"Awesome!" Although the system showed him how he would look,

seeing himself in the mirror still gave him goosebumps and
feasted his narcissistic personality. Especially the X-shaped
swords on his back made him look more badass. He realized it's a
good thing that Gaya took the bow because a quiver on his back
would have messed up his style and ruined the look.
Sling!
The two swords let out a little slinging sound when he unsheathed
them from the back. If he didn't reach 78% mastery with swords,
he would have cut the back of his neck or his hair when
unsheathing. It was considerably difficult to unsheathe the swords
from the back compared to unsheathing from the waist holder, but
one couldn't deny that it looks badass to unsheathe from the back.
"I'm still missing something" Since he would always take a long

time before the mirror, he realized that something's missing and
finally found the problem.
"System, how much is tactical fingerless gloves?"
[Really?!]
[300 Badass points]
For a moment, even the system lost it's cool seeing him take this
long to get ready. He would always get yelled at by Gaya for
taking a long time before the mirror, and now he even made the
system mad. However, the system quickly returned to its usual
self and stated the price before he changed his mind about buying
the gloves.
The system presented him with the black tactical fingerless gloves
as he put them on to finish his look.
"Now I'm ready to attend this auction"
Since he already sent Daniel to assist Gloria in rebuilding the

Lucky cat tavern, he left Ricky in charge of the Majestic while he
and Gaya are away. If someone tried to mess with his business,
then it was a job for Lucifer to take care of.
***************************
I'm receiving some cool suggestions from you readers in my
discord. I hope you'll make time to join the server and share your
thoughts about the novel. Also, if you want to see how the
characters in the book look like, the link is in the synopsis.
Im grateful for the power stones and the gifts you've been giving
me my wonderful readers!!!
Chapter 82 - Phoenix Island
"Took you long enou...what the fuck?! How...shit you're freak"

when he opened the door, Gaya came rolling her eyes and started
to yell but her face froze in shock. Her words stuttered as she
looked at him horrified.
It took her a few seconds to come out of her shock and opened
her mouth.
"War God body is so overpowered" she came closer and circled

him while feeling his new clothes with her hands.

She was impressed by his new clothes, hence, he was awarded

500 badass points. Then after circling him for a few more
seconds, she came before him and put her hands on the waist,
and asked,
"Does it kill you to wear something not black?"
"I'll stop wearing black when someone creates a darker color," He

said and made his way towards the door as she followed him
behind.
"Where are you going?"
"We are going to Sarton, to participate in the Phoenix auction"
"Now?! I still haven't eaten my lunch yet" Michael sighed hearing

her protest. She was becoming more and more addicted to
Raylene's cooking, and this time, he was really afraid she would
get fat or worse, a heart attack.
"Besides, what's the rush? The auction main starts on the day
after tomorrow. Even if we leave from here tomorrow morning,
we'll reach Sarton by evening"
"I heard merchants from all over the kingdom will set up their
shops before the main auction begins, I want to check them out"
"At least let me pack some snacks for the journey" She didn't even
wait for his answer as she began to run towards Raylene's house.
She was clearly afraid that he wouldn't let her have her snacks.
"You're gonna get fat soon" he shouted at her. "Fuck you!"

because she had no Arch Energy to amplify her voice, she used
her full-body strength to yell at him while running.
Micheal couldn't help but chuckle and he made his way towards
Claire's place to inform her about his departure. Plus, he wanted
to tell her to look after the Majestic's business while he's away as
Ricky was still pretty weak.
************************
Right at this moment, a pegasus was soaring through the clouds

carrying two persons on its back.
"Hey don't eat all of them, leave me some you greedy bastard!"
Michael was sitting behind her and let her fly the pegasus. Both of
her hands on the rein and it made it easy to steal her snacks.
"Wow, this meat pie is really delicious" he intentionally teased her

and took a bite out of the pie.
"I'm gonna drop you down if you don't leave my snacks alone!"
"Snacks?! You have enough food to feed three people for three
days. Let me see, apple pies, meat pies, chicken drumsticks, lamb
shanks, stuffed veggie rolls, egg rolls, and what are these?
Biscuits and puddings?" The space ring he gave her now is
stuffed with foods and he wondered how the hell is she going to
finish all these foods.
"Now I understand why I have to restock the kitchen every freakin
two days"
"Stop looking into my things, you creep!" She tried to grab the ring
but she was unable to let go of the reins.
"This is why I didn't tell you that I bought the Lucky Cat tavern"
Earlier he told her that he bought the Lucky Cat Tavern for 5000
gold coins. At first, she growled for not discussing with her his
plans but when he told her he's planning to transform the tavern
into a high-end restaurant, she stopped bitch about it.
"Then cure me quickly so I can cultivate again"
"We can't rush your treatment. It'll take some time but until then,
don't die by eating too much"
"With this mouth of yours, you'll only get sluts like Sadie. Even
they would chase you away if you say things that you shouldn't
say to a girl"
"But Sadie didn't chase me away, instead"
"Gross! stop talking and at least give me a piece of the apple pie"
the mouth-watering aroma was too much for Gaya to resist and
wanted to stuff her mouth with that delicious pie.
"Alright alright, quit whining and open your mouth"
"AH"
Michael sighed and stuffed her mouth with the apple pie. And on
the rest of the journey, both of them experienced the goodness of
Raylene's food.
*************************
"Hey, why aren't we landing?" After a few more hours of flying,

Michael could see more and more human-made buildings appear
below after the thick forest canopy yet Gaya kept flying towards
the vast ocean on the horizon.
"The Phoenix auction Island is on an island"
"Oh?"
The duo continued flying with great speed, rushing toward the
ocean. A few more hours later, they had arrived at the border of
the ocean. In front of them was a vast ocean, and he could only
see water that stretched to the ends of the earth.
While they were flying above the ocean, they bumped into a lot of
people along their way. Michael maintained a low profile to avoid
unnecessary troubles along the way.
"I want to travel across this Crystal ocean," Gaya said, impressed.
"Tell me more"
"What can I say, the Evetica realm is extremely vast. There are
tens of thousands of territories here, and its size is unmeasurable"
Although Abras learned about the territories and geography of this
world called Evetica realm, Michael knew the information Abras
learned might be old and wanted to get the more current
information through Gaya.
"Besides the Elen, Ozer, Awor, and Midrand Continents, there are
also a lot of vast oceans and tiny islands. This Crystal ocean
separates the Elen continent and the Ozer Continent. We are just
at the border of the Elen but there is still a great way to go until we
reach Phoenix Island" said Gaya.
"It seems like these people are also heading to the auction"
Michael threw his glance at the people flying in front of them. Most
of the people were in groups of three to five men, some of them
rode on flying demon beasts, and some wore the same clothes
and had more people in their group compared to the other. Those
people were clearly from some big powers. This could also be
seen from the prideful expressions on their faces.
"Are you searching for a dragon?" She looked over her shoulder
to see him gawking at all the flying beasts and realized he's
searching for a dragon. She knew his fantasy about getting a
Dragonling and she hoped he wouldn't find one because Nagas
and Dragons had a long rivalry between them.
"Stop looking for a freaking Dragon and keep your guard up.
Although the place is full of people, the Crystalocean is still a
place filled with dangers"
Splash!
The water suddenly splashed underneath them as a huge red

shark leaped out from the water with its mouth wide open.
"Holy shit" Michael realized what she meant by dangers when he

saw the shark swallow a solo cultivator who was flying on a
sword.
"Poor bastard leaped out of the ocean wasting energy to get that
bony human" She pitied the shark instead of the man who just
became an appetizer to the shark.
"Just fly faster" The shark he just saw was a Body Strengthening
stage beast and although he could fight the shark, he didn't want
to because the shark had the home advantage, the sea.
...…
"The fuck are you looking at? Never seen a girl fly a pegasus
before?"
"Bitch what's your problem?"
Along the way, she was quick enough to antagonize a few people
who stared at her. Because of her low cultivation level, they threw
a scornful look and she immediately replied to them in her style
until Michael twitched her ear.
"Ah!"
"Keep your mouth shut, you damn snake!"

Michael felt really helpless. Fortunately the few youngsters she
cursed were weaker than him. Still, Michael didn't want to offend
them because of her nasty mouth.
"It's physically impossible for me to keep my mouth shut when

they look at me like that," she said.
"Then I will shut it for you, how about that?!" he playfully choked
her from behind and shook her.
"Okay okay, I'll try to be quiet"
She said and flew with extreme speed. In just a few minutes, they
had ditched all those people behind. Soon after, they saw another
group of people in front of them.
The group seemed to be discussing something. Gaya and Michael

sped up and eventually got closer to them.
"It's Lord Julius who owns Phoenix auction house as well as this
entire Phoenix island. I heard he is extremely rich and has many
beautiful girls in his harem" Someone said.
"Yeah, no shit. With just the trade fair between the two continents,
he's able to earn an enormous amount of wealth and resources.
Despite being a demi-human, he has good relationships with
many of the influential people in both Elen and Ozer"
Chapter 83 - The Big Boys
Hearing this, Michael and Gaya exchanged glances.
"He owns the entire island huh? " Michael started at the large
island on the distance as Gaya noticed the desire in his eyes
."Having a big ambition is good but just don't let it consume you
human. Julius holds major auctions and has many trade deals
going on. Each event he holds is massive and it took them years
to set up this operation. This is one of those massive events
where many great warriors from different powers in the continent
will participate. A lot of rare and unique treasures can be found
here and many shady deals will take part on this island. So, if you
want to become rich like Julius, first you must become more
powerful"
Michael nodded and agreed with Gaya. She was right; he's still
too weak to expand his businesses on a scale like the Phoenix
manor.
"Man this place is getting crowded! I'm sure most of these

youngsters are going into the Nether Realm "
"Not only that, I heard this time there will be more rare treasures.
Lord Julius is using this event to expand his influence, therefore,
he's putting some of his valuable possessions to attract powerful
people"
"Of course, even the Big Sects will send someone over. And there
might even be someone from the House of Edrene and Royal
Family"
"I wonder how much is the entry fee to participate in the auction
this time?"
"I bet it won't be a small fee"
"Sigh… this is really making me jealous!"
...
Michael listened to the conversations around him discreetly and

from these conversations alone, he gained a basic understanding
of Julius and the Phoenix Island. It had also made him want to
expand his influence and businesses.
For the next few hours, more and more warriors could be seen
flying toward Phoenix Island. Most of them came from the various
Kingdoms in the Elen Continent, and the rest seemed to have
come from the Ozer continent as well as islands on the Crystal
ocean. All of these strange men wore distinctive clothes and none
of them were weak. The majority of them were Core Formation
and Body Strengthening stage cultivators. All of these people
were heading in the same direction for a single purpose; to
participate in the main auction.
The ocean waves were rumbling, wave after wave and the
occasional furious roars emerged from the sea followed by people
emerging from the sea. They looked like humans but when looked
closer, they had a shiny thin layer on their skin.
When beasts like the red shark who were causing trouble in the
ocean sensed the powerful auras radiated from the people who
emerged from the sea, they immediately hid underneath the
ocean surface, not daring to show their heads.
"(Whistle)" From Abras's memories, he knew the existence of the

people who live in the ocean but when he saw them with his own
eyes, he was still surprised by them.
"Look at those arrogant sea fuckers'' In front of Michael, Gaya

growled at the Sea folks. They both continued to fly towards the
Phoenix island and passed a lot of islands along their way. Some
of the islands had splendid sceneries and looked like paradises on
top of the ocean. Michael was mind mapping all those beautiful
islands as he wanted to occupy at least a bunch of them.
"This ocean and all those islands look gorgeous" Michael was
amazed.
"Not only that, did you feel the dense Arch energy? It's one of the
many reasons that the Crystal ocean is home to many wondrous
treasures. However, I find this place boring, I want excitement and
this place has none" She rolled her eyes and said.
A little while later, they both came much closer to Phoenix Island
and saw the majestic island floating on the ocean. Under the
sunlight's shine, the entire island was glowing brightly. Floating
above the ocean's surface, with Michael's extraordinary eyesight,
he could see the Island slightly resembles a sleeping Eagle as
well as a white fog hovering in the sky above the island.
"Welcome to Phoenix Island," Gaya said.
Michael could see the entire island from the back of the
pegasus.IT was almost a month since he came to this world and
this world is still surprising him. There were no sky-high
skyscrapers or man-made wonders but this world was a painting
painted by mother nature herself.
The scene before him enchanted him with its beauty; lofty and
strong pine trees and palm trees stood everywhere, there was a
magnificent waterfall constantly pounding the rocks underneath,
and white fog covered the entire ocean, causing the island to look
like a paradise on top of the ocean. On top of those, the trees with
red and golden leaves added more charm and color to the
scenery.? Just the view alone pleased everyone's spirits and
made their hearts feel relaxed.
"Dang, I want to enjoy my immortality in a place like this" He

couldn't help but praise.
"I can't argue with that, this place really does looks beautiful"
Gaya appreciated it as well. The man who picked this island was
truly someone who knows how to enjoy life.
"Right, now we have to wait for someone to come out and give
permission to enter the island" Gaya took her hands away from
the rein and started to rummage through her space ring to find the
right snack.
Both of them relaxedly sat on top of the pegasus and munched on

the food they brought...Gaya brought.
Right at this moment, more than a hundred people had gathered

around the island. They all hovered above the surface of the
ocean in small groups, and there were more people arriving.
Swoosh… swoosh… swoosh…
During the next few hours, more and more people arrived.
Regardless of where they came from, none of them dared break
the rules set down for Phoenix Island. Before the trade fair
started, no one would step onto the island.
Bang!
All of a sudden, a loud explosive sound could be heard from

behind. Above them, the storm clouds appeared out of nowhere
and darkened the place.
From those dark storm clouds, a figure appeared in the sky above
like a sudden clap of thunder. They could see that it was actually a
quite majestic figure.
This man looked to be in his late thirties and seemed he was at

least 7 feet tall. He adorned in dark brown robes with thick fur
around his shoulders and neck while his long brown hair fluttered
in the wind.
"Core Strengthening warrior" Michael mumbled as this was the

first time he had seen a Core Strengthening warrior. Without even
fighting him, Michael could tell this man could easily kill him.
"Victor Hagen? I never expected to see him here." Gaya

recognized the person and before Michael could ask more about
him, the people around him began to chatter.
"Even Victor is here"
"Is it true that he's a lonely cultivator?"
"Yeah but no one dares to mess with him. Even the Big Sects and
the noble families in Elen treat him with caution and respect"
"This time, the Nether auction is turning out to be something big"
I have a feeling that Victor isn't the only Core Strengthening

warrior will see here. Those big sects will definitely send their
Core Strengthening warriors here as well"
...
Unlike before, Michael had to listen more closely as they were

whispering to each other. They were scared that if they spoke too
loud, they might offend Victor in some way. A Core Strengthening
warrior was not someone they could afford to offend.
This was power... this was fear...
The dark storm clouds disappeared after a few moments as Victor

moved towards the Island. He didn't even look at the crowd; he
just walked toward Phoenix Island unlike the rest of them.
None of them stopped him or dared to speak any words. When

Michael looked at Gaya, even she remained quiet and stopped
chewing the food inside her mouth.
"Welcome to Phoenix Island, Lord Victor"
A crystal clear voice suddenly sounded out from Phoenix Island.

In the next moment, everyone saw a bright beam shoot out from
the island. To everyone's surprise, it was a young girl. Of course,
she looked amazingly beautiful, and her two big eyes were
brimming with energy. She wore a sparkling red gown and top.
What surprised Michael was not her beauty but her cultivation
level. She was a Core Formation Level 7 cultivator.
"Where is your Lord?" Victor's voice was imposing. The girl bowed
towards him and smiled but Victor already moved past her before
she could answer him.
"Too bad we're not eligible for such preferential treatment like
Victor"
Someone really envied Victor and the preferential treatment he

received. He was personally received by someone who's close to
Julius and entered the island paying nothing.
"Wait till you break through to the Core Strengthening stage and
I'm sure you'll get the same VIP treatment then"
Chapter 84 - Michael’s Match?
Swoosh!
All of a sudden, a loud cry was heard from a distance. When

everyone glanced at the source of this cry, they immediately saw a
huge grey ape with a powerful aura flying toward them. It carried
several men on its back and a couple of them were old men; the
remaining were young men. The old men were at the Core
Formation stage while the youngsters were at the Body
The leader of this group seemed to be in his fifties, and his aura
was the strongest amongst the group. Michael could tell the man
was just a few more months cultivation away from reaching the
Core Strengthening stage level 2. Although he couldn't be
compared to Victor who was at the Core Strengthening stage level
5, he was still a mighty existence.
All of them wore the same bluish robes and their eyes were filled
with anger. They didn't seem too friendly but it was as if they could
kill anyone at any time.
"Hey, who are these guys?" Michael nudged Gaya and asked.
"They are from the Spring Garden Sect. It was not as big and
powerful as the three big Sects but they weren't that weak either"
She said but Michael could see the slight frown on her face.
"Why did they send their Elder to the auction instead of one of the
teachers?"
"They look pissed off" She nodded hearing Michael and

continued, "Their leading man is Porter Findlay and you're right,
they do seem pissed off, I wonder why"
Just like the both of them, many had the same question running in
their mind but fortunately, a few of them had the answer.
"You don't know what happened? I heard some of their inner

disciples were killed by someone in White jungle during some mini
event organized by the Guardian Guild. All of them were Body
Strengthening stage level 2 cultivators. And one of the disciples
was Milan Finlay, Porter Finlay's grandson"
"Holy shit the Guardian Guild?! and who the hell dared to kill a
Finlay, whoever killed him is simply courting death! No wonder
why Porter looks so mad, it's all because his grandson was killed
by someone"
People were discussing the events everywhere.
"Hehehe, finally some entertainment" Gaya giggled and watched

the scene munching on those snacks like she was watching a film.
The men from the Spring Garden Sect walked off from the ape.?
The grey ape furrowed its brows as if it had just smelled
something familiar. The Ape gawked around the area and stared
at every single one of them including Michael. After looking
around for some time, the ape stopped looking. It couldn't find
anything as there were too many people around.
"You guys just wait here until the main auction starts."
Porter Finlay told the disciples from the Spring Garden Sect, then
he simply floated toward the Phoenix Island. This was the
preferential treatment given to a Core Strengthening stage warrior,
not only could they enter the Phoenix Island whenever they
wanted but they would also be welcomed to stay as long as they
wish.
"What's up y'all bitches! Your daddy Paul, Paul Berry has come to
bless yall with my presence!"
Following a sudden roar of laughter, a bald old man with a couple

of beauties around him came from far away and landed next to
Porter.
"Yo Porter, I heard your grandson is visiting the heavens,
congratulations!"
What Old Paul said nearly caused the crowd to spit out their
saliva. Porter's grandson just died but this old man not only
laughed at him but also congratulated Porter.
"Get lost!"
Porter stared back at Paul like he was going to rip Paul's throat
out.
"Haha…"
Still, Paul laughed out to his heart's content. After that, he just
went straight to Phoenix Island. Clearly, he wasn't afraid of Porter
or didn't care about his feelings.
"This old fucker hasn't changed a bit," Gaya said with a little
chuckle.
"You know him?"
"Yeah, we crossed paths a couple of times. He's actually a rogue

cultivator, just like Victor. The last time I met him, he was at the
Core Strengthening stage level 1 and now it seems like he
reached level 2 "
"He seems like a funny guy," Michael laughed.
"Don't be fooled by his play full demeanor human, that old man is
dangerous, very dangerous" Gaya warned Michael, and by the
seriousness of her tone, he nodded and took a note in his mind.
"Why don't I see any familiar faces from Bredia?"
He whispered to Gaya. He was shocked after seeing so many

powerful warriors and wondered where the disciples from the Big
Sects.
"What's the big deal about Bredia? The last time I checked, there
are 5 kingdoms in Elen and Bredia is the weakest one. If this
auction was exclusive for Bredia, those fuckers would have come
first showing off but now, they just another disciple, not a celebrity
disciple"
"Of course I'm in the weakest part in the weakest kingdom in the
weakest continent" Michael rolled his eyes. Just like many main
characters, he was dropped in the weakest place possible and
had to start from the bottom. However, after accessing his current
strength and the powerful people around him, he would rather
choose to start from the bottom than getting his ass kicked in the
powerful regions of the continent. Besides, he could make a name
for himself quickly in Bredia and earn more badass points than if
he was in powerful kingdoms.
However, he wanted to increase his strength as soon as possible

and visit those powerful places because by impressing powerful
people, he could earn a significant amount of Badass points
compared to Bredia.
"Look!"
"What now?!" Both Gaya and Michael had enough of people

making fancy entrances showing off their superiority and wealth.
Micheal looked at the horizon to see a huge silver sword over 30

meters long was soaring toward them. The speed of the sword
caused the water to spatter like a speed boat wherever it passed.
The sword's size made Michael raise his brows as this sword was
the biggest sword he had ever seen. It was over 30 meters long. A
group of men and women remained firm upon the sword and each
of them wore prideful expressions on their faces.
The group all wore glimmering silver clothes, and they all carried a
miniature version of the huge sword on their waists.
"They are from the Aragoth! One of the powerful sects in the
Entire Elen continent"
"Hurry up and make way for them, I don't want to be in their way
and skewed by that giant sword"
"Yeah let's move away. Even the Royal Family of Elen anyone
from Aragoth with respect because of their Sect Master"
"Why won't they? He's is one of the few people in Elen who
reached the Soul Refining stage"
"I heard that a Prodigy disciple from Aragoth was killed by a young
man named Winston in the Red Summit! That Winston is either
really brave or stupid to offend the Aragoth"
"Aragoth isn't the only power he dared to offend. He even killed an

Elder from the house of Nickmon. The House Nickmon is one of
the major powers in the Kingdom Kethen. Rumors say that this
guy ruthlessly killed countless Body Refining and Body
Strengthening stage cultivators from great powers inside the
White jungle. What's the most shocking thing is, he was just a
Body Refining stage level 4 cultivator when he killed them"
"What a freak?!"
"Would you believe he's also a 3-star Alchemist?"
"Are kidding me?! How old is he?"
"I heard he's just reached 21"
" How can he be talented at such a young age? I wonder what this
Winston looks like."
"Someone told me that an ice-cold angelic beauty always follows

him around. If you see a young man with a girl like that, it is
definitely Noah!"
...
After the men from Aragoth arrived, the topic switched to Winston
and by hearing all these conversations, even Michale and Gaya
were curious about him.
"Human, I think you met your match" Gaya teased him with a
nudge to his elbow.
"Another Core Strengthening stage cultivator" Michael ignored
Gaya's tease and stared at the old man who was standing in front
of the group.
Not long after the people of Aragoth arrived, a few more powerful
auras could be sensed from a distance. Another group of men
were flying toward the Island standing on top of a circular object.
These men also had the same overbearing and prideful
expressions as the men and women of Aragoth.
"They are from the House Nickmon!"
"This auction is indeed turning out to be a massive event!"
Many people started exclaiming. A scene like this was certainly a

rare one.
Chapter 85 - Rival In
Badassery?
A few minutes later when the sky got slightly darker, a loud
explosive sound reverberated the Crystal Ocean indicating the
beginning of the event.
Dozens of men wearing golden armors appeared beside the girl.

All of them had imposing auras, and although their cultivation
bases weren't powerful, they were at least at the peak Body
Strengthening Stage level 10. Only the leading guard who had a
bigger armor was a Core Formation warrior.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Nether Auction is going to begin soon.

If you want to enter Phoenix Island and partake in the event, you'll
have to obey the rules set down by our Lord Julius and pay
50,000 gold coins as the entry fee"
The girl spoke with a crystal clear voice, making sure that every
single warrior here could hear what she said.
"What, fifty thousand per person? This is ridiculous! I remember it

only cost 10,000 coins last time, why did the price go up by five
times?"
"Fuck, there are so many people here! There are hundreds of

people here and just by this entry fee, he's going to become filthy
rich!"
...
Just as the girl finished speaking, the entire scene became

chaotic. The entrance fee was being five times higher than usual
made many people growl and express their frustrations.
"This is the new rule set by our master. If you aren't willing to pay,
you can just leave now. No one here will force you to pay" The girl
spoke once more and this time, she sounded cold and distant.
"Haha, It's just measly fifty thousand coins per person, that's not
too much. Miss, here are five hundred thousand for all of us"
A Core formation youngster from the Agaroth said with a burst of

proud laughter. He led all the disciples from his sect to the girl,
then he casually tossed the pay cube to the girl.
"We welcome the Agaroth to Phoenix Island"
The girl transferred the amount and handed over the pay cube
back to the youngster. After that, she replied to the disciples with a
smile on her face.
"Half a million, just like that."
Michael muttered. Compared to those superpowers like the

Agaroth, he and his Base of Operation, the Sunrise sect was just
too inferior.
"Yeah fuck it!"
A rogue cultivator casually walked over and handed his pay cube
over to the girl. After that, he flew towards the Island passing the
girl and the guards.
Following the Aragoth and the rogue cultivator, more and more
people started paying the entrance fee. Although Julius increasing
the price left some people with frustration and jealousy, the
majority of the people didn't really mind that much, as they chose
to pay and enter the Island.
Since they had traveled far to get here, and no one wanted to
return empty-handed because of fifty thousand gold coins.
"human, do we really have to enter the island giving our hard-

earned coins?"
Gaya asked as Michael took a deep breath.

"We didn't come all this way to return now, let's just pay the fee
and enter the island"
Gaya sighed and took the reins to move forward towards the girl.
Just when Michael and Gaya were about to pay the girl, a
powerful roar reverberated through the Crystal ocean.
"Stop right there!"
With many others, Michael and Gaya also turned in the voice's
direction to see the gray ape pointing its finger at someone in the
crowd.
The grey ape moved its body and arrived in front of an old man
and an old woman. The duo of old people didn't seem suspicious
at all until the ape started to point fingers at them.
"They are the ones!"
The disturbance immediately alerted many of the people around

as many eyes looked at the ape and the old people and wondered
what the cause of the conflict was.
"Minnie, what's going on?"
Looking at the sudden response of the grey ape, all the disciples
from the Spring garden Sect came forth and threw their glances at
the old man and the old woman.
"They are the ones who killed Milan and the others! They were all
killed by him!"
The Ape's words attracted almost everyone's attention. Many

people here who came from Kingdom Dradel, heard the news
about Milan's death. Most of them really wanted to know who was
brave enough to kill the Spring Garden sect elder's grandson.
Instead of showing any signs of panic or urge to flee, the old man
before the ape unveiled a small grin on his face.
"I told you this is not going to work, Alicia" the old man calmly said
and closed his eyes for a moment. The next moment, the wrinkles
on his skin disappeared as his whole body transformed into a
vigorous youth.
His raven black hair fluttered in the wind while his brown robes
became pure white. Many girls felt their heartbeat rise and many
men couldn't help but become jealous of his perfect tanned body
and the jaw-dropping handsome face.
While everyone was stunned at the transformation of this youth,

the old woman beside him closed her eyes. Just like what
happened to the old man, she also started to transform into an
angelic beauty.
"Wow," many gasped for air when they saw the golden hair beauty
beside the youth. Standing on top of a flying sword, the girl
radiated an aura of a goddess, and coupled with her ice-cold look,
she became an unparalleled beauty in many people's minds. Even
Michael had to appreciate the youth's tastes when it comes to
women. Ever since he met Gaya, he saw no girl more beautiful
than her but now, he found a girl who could be compared to even
Gaya in terms of beauty.
The ape was even more certain when he saw the girl. During the
last few hours, it had sensed a familiar aura lingering within the
air. But, because there were too many people around and the fact
that both were in disguises, it couldn't discover them. However,
when the crowds started moving, it was luckily able to discover
the killers of Milan and the other Spring Garden's disciples.
"It's you! Noah!"
"How dare you kill our brothers!"
"Go tell Elder Porter that we found his grandson's killer!"
Spring Garden disciples were boiling in anger as their killing intent

was soaring. They immediately surrounded the youth and the girl.
"He is completely done for! Killing is prohibited inside the

premises of Phoenix island but technically they still haven't
entered the Phoenix island, so there's nothing stopping Porter
from killing those two"
"Pass me those biscuits" the few people near Michael and Gaya
raised their brows and stared at her while she was munching on
the biscuits and watching the scene.
Michael who was watching the scene calmly became curious to

know how Noah is going to handle the situation.
While watching the calmness on Noah's face despite the shit he

was in and the sword on his back as well as his 3-star Alchemist
status made Michael think of him as his rival.
The ape then turned his eyes towards the girl and spoke
"Hahaha, we are going to have such a gre-"
But suddenly it stopped talking. Michael saw a bright beam shoot

out from Noah's body and the next moment, the pervy ape was
sliced in half by the bright beam. It was separated into two parts,
then it fell into the ocean, staining the surrounding water with
blood.
"Respect women"
Noah only spoke those two words with a cruel tone. He had just
killed another one from the Spring Garden sect, yet there was no
panic or any signs of an urge to flee on his face. Just this attitude
alone impressed even Michael.
No one expected this would happen. Noah was brave enough to

kill another one from the Spring Garden sect on the spot. In their
minds, he should be apologizing to them right now, because not
only was he outnumbered, there was also a Core Strengthening
stage Elder around somewhere in the island.
Even though Noah was a Body Refining stage level 5 cultivator,

Michael had a feeling that none of the Spring Garden disciples are
his match. The girl named Alicia also radiated an aura of a
powerful cultivator despite her Body refining stage level 4
cultivation.
In Michael's mind, they seemed like an ideal novel mc and a

female lead. One was a peerless handsome genius and the girl
was an ice-cold kingdom toppling beauty.
This was the first time since he came to this world felt threatened
by someone. Even when he saw Celina or Alex or any other
prodigies he met, he knew they weren't his match, and them being
stronger than him was only temporary. However, Noah's
cultivation jumped from Body Refining stage level 4 to level 5 in a
few days, his sword mastery, and the fact he's a 3-star Alchemist
irked Michael.
At this moment, everyone was looking at Noah. As for those

Spring Garden disciples, they had clouded expressions on their
faces. Although they were angrily staring at Noah and Alicia with
intense killing intents, none of them dared to attack. They might
be arrogant, but they were not fools as they realized they were no
match for Noah despite the fact they were Body Strengthening
stage level 4 cultivators.
"You killed Minnie! Arrrrghh, wait till our Elder comes"
A disciple gritted his teeth.
"If you don't want to follow Minnie into the afterlife, get out of my
face" Again Noah said in a cruel tone.
"Hmph! You are dea!"
Another man coldly harrumphed but right as he was speaking,

Noah attacked once again. A longsword suddenly appeared in his
hand, and with a casual fling, the sword slashed forward with
lightning speed. It swept through the disciple's throat, and in the
next second, a severed head flew high into the sky.
"60% mastery in swords" With the speed of his movements and

the way he handled the sword, Michael could sense Noah's
mastery over swords.
The disciples shouted out in disbelief. Their expressions changed
dramatically in an instant. No one could have thought that this
young man was such a daring maniac.
" Elder Porter!"
Another disciple immediately shouted out loudly at Phoenix Island.
"Since I already killed Milan and Minnie, it doesn't make a

difference if I kill you all too" A cold killing intent erupted from
Noah's body and swept across the scene. With a sway of his
body, he flew on his flying sword towards the group of disciples
like a breeze of wind. He swung the longsword in his again as all
these disciples tried to fight back with their full strength yet, none
of them was a match for Noah.
Aaahhh!!! …
Accompanied by some blood-curdling screeches, in just a few

breaths of time, Noah killed every single disciple of Spring garden.
Their bodies fell into the water and slowly sunk to the bottom of
the ocean making the water turn red for a few seconds.
"He may be going to end up dead soon but I admire that guy's
boldness. If I were him, I would definitely do the same! He was
already marked for death when he killed Miyan or whatever he's
called, killing a few others doesn't change shit" Evan Gaya
seemed like she was impressed by Noah, and looking at her
reaction, Michael realized if this Noah guy had a badass system,
he would have earned at least 10k points by now.
******************
Bear with me guys, I know you want to see Michael being Michael
but Noah is not a passing character or just a side character. He's
a major character and he needs some screen time to mark his
presence. I could have just established his character in just a few
hundred words but I want my readers to read quality stuff, not
some rushed work. Please be patient; when everything comes
together in the future, it'll be worth it.
Besides, Michael could only be a super badass if has some
badass rivals right?!
Chapter 86 - Typical Novel MC
Bang!
Michael heard the sound of something or someone breaking the

sound barrier. A powerful light beam shot up into the sky. Hearing
this, Alicia coldly spoke, "Everyone, move aside!"
With a sway of her hand, Alicia arrived in front of the girl who was
collecting the fee to enter the island. Without hesitation, she
handed over the pay cube from her space ring and said, "We'd
like to enter the island now"
Many people seemed like they were just realizing Noah and
Alicia's plans but as the world's best Hitman, Michael already
recognized Noah's escape plan. Noah and Alicia wouldn't be able
to outrun a Core Strengthening cultivator but if they successfully
entered the Phoenix island, they would be under the protection of
Julius as fighting or killing in Phoenix island is prohibited. A man
like Julius wouldn't take lightly if someone broke the rules set by
him.
The girl who was collecting the fee took the pay cube as she
hadn't noticed a thing that happened here,
"Young Miss, Young Master welcome to Phoenix Island"
Buzz…
Right at this moment, the air around the Island started twisting
"Let's go"
Noah and Alicia dared not delay even a single second. They
turned into two trails of light and dashed toward the Island. The
pretty girl stared at Noah's back as a look of awe emerged in her
eyes, "Ruthless, decisive, extremely daring; I'm sure Lord Julius
will love a guy like him." The girl smiled.
Right after Noah and Alicia flew into the Phoenix Island's air
space, Elder Porter immediately dashed out from the island. Many
powerful warriors followed him as they had sensed what was
happening outside the island and wanted to see how this incident
would end.
"Why did they stop flying?" Michael barely heard Gaya as she
stuffed her mouth full of biscuits. He was not interested in
answering her and stared at Noah and Alicia.
When Porter arrived at the scene, he immediately stared at the

spot where all his disciples were killed. He could still see blood
floating on the surface of the water, and some of the dead bodies
sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The ape's body had also
resurfaced from the bottom of the ocean. Looking at all this, he
became extremely furious.
Swoosh!
His eyes turned blood red and veins on his body popped up. He
threw a death stare at Noah and Alicia who had stopped flying.
"Rascal, you did all this?" His voice reverberated the ocean like a
thunderclap.
" They tried to kill me first"
Noah casually shrugged his shoulders with an unconcerned

expression on his face. Even though he was facing a Core
Strengthening warrior, there were no signs of nervousness on his
face.
"Did you also kill my grandson, Milan?"
Michael could see the old man was burning in anger by looking at
his shivering body. He seemed like he was going to explode in
anger.
"He too tried to kill me" Noah indifferently said. Looking at
everyone's expression like Noah's going to get killed made
Michael crazy because they had missed the obvious.
" bastard, die now!"
Porter was really furious right now. A massive amount of energy

was rolling around his body. He was preparing to attack with all his
strength; he wanted to kill Noah and Alicia in an instant.
With intense killing intent, he struck out with his palm toward
Noah. Michael and the others saw the surrounding air immediately
ignite into flames. The mighty strength of the attack swept across
like a gigantic wave as it pushed toward Noah.
Bang!
Right at this moment, another huge hand approached from Noah's

back. The two huge hands made of glimmering Arch Energy
collided in the mid-air and the shock wave almost shoved Gaya's
snack away. Following a loud explosive sound, both hands were
destroyed at the same time. To Michael's surprise, he recognized
the one who counter-attacked Porter. The golden-haired girl he
met in the restaurant. He expected the Guardian guild to interfere
because he heard Noah was competing in some kind of test in the
White jungle arranged by the Guardians. So naturally, they were
searching for Guardian trainees and Noah happened to be one of
their choices.
"Xanali" Soon, Michael saw the red-haired beauty appear beside

the golden-haired girl and heard Gaya mumble her name in anger.
"Who are you? and how dare you get in my way?!"
Porter was so mad that he failed to notice one thing, how could a
Core Formation level cultivator like this girl be able to stop his
attack?
"Name is Peyton, Peyton Wright. I'm a Guardian from the

Guardian guardian guild" The entire scene became deathly silent
when the words escaped her mouth.
"Oh my god, a guardian!"
"Why is the guardian guild protecting Noah?"
"It doesn't matter. Compared to the Guardian guild, the Spring

Garden sect is an ant. Porter won't dare to make a move against
him unless he was extremely stupid or suicidal"
"Yeah I heard there's a mini tournament going on in the White

jungle ordered by the Guardian Guild but I thought"
"You thought what?"
"I thought they were just selecting someone to complete a quest

or task for the Guardian Guild"
Just as a conversation between two cultivators from Dredel was

going on, Peyton and Xanali came before Noah and faced Porter
"What does the Guardian Guild want with that bastard?! He killed
my only grandson, I need to avenge him"
He had been looking for the person who murdered his grandson,
and now, the murderer stood right in front of him. Furthermore,
this murderer had
once again killed a lot of people from his sect.
"During the white jungle test, your grandson and his friends
interfered with Noah's testing process and tried to kill him, so he
can steal the opening spot in the Guardian Guild. Interfering with
the Guardian's business is alone a crime, your grandson
committed a crime. Noah killed your grandson and his friends in
self-defense"
Again when the crowd heard the words 'opening spot in the
Guardian guild', they became restless and quietly started to
chatter among themselves.
Porter's body shivered in anger and helplessness. His grandson's

killer was standing in front of him, yet, he could even touch him.
This made Porter really furious and mad.
"Respectful Guardian, he also killed my disciples before you
came. Was that also in self-defense, don't they deserve justice?"
Swallowing his anger, Porter spoke these words staring at the
dead bodies in the ocean.
"The Guardian Guild will investigate this matter to the full extent
meanwhile, I don't want anyone from your sect or anyone related
to you take any actions against Noah"
Peyton said and by the tone of her voice, Michael could tell that
she's going to do nothing.
"Respectful Guardians..."
Porter still didn't want to give up.
"I don't want to hear more of this. He's one of us now and if he did
something wrong, we'll investigate and take appropriate actions.
But if you still hold this grudge and try to do something, I can
guarantee you that you'll face the full wrath of the Guardian Guild"
Peyton coldly harrumphed and became hostile. Then, she waved,

turned back, and flew back towards the Phoenix island.
Due to controlling intense anger, Porter's veins inside his body

popped as he started to bleed through his nostrils and ears. . At
the same time, his heart was pounding extremely fast. It wasn't
difficult to imagine how angry he was right now, his trip to Phoenix
Island had caused him to lose a lot. Not only had he lost a lot of
disciples, he even received a huge blow to his dignity and made
him feel helpless by two girls.
If he could kill someone with his gaze, Noah would have been
ripped into a thousand pieces by now. Porter hated Noah to the
core as he really desired to devour Noah alive. It was all because
of this young man that he had lost so much including his only
grandson.
"bastard, just you wait, I'll definitely make you pay one day!"
Porter gnashed his teeth in anger as he spoke.
"old fool, hurry up and get the fuck out of here" Just as the crowd
was preparing to pay and move towards the Phoenix island, they
heard a childish voice.
All of them turned their gazes towards the source of the voice and
saw a golden fur monkey standing on top of Noah's shoulder and
cursing at Porter.
"A golden Babaroo?!" Gaya almost shouted when her eyes saw
the monkey. Although this was the first time he had seen a talking
infant monkey, Gaya's shocked tone assured him that this is not
an ordinary talking monkey.
"Do you see my butt? Do you see my butt?"
The little monkey was happily bouncing around Noah's shoulder

and shouting at Porter.
"Damn it, where did this monkey come from?!"
"What the fuck? Even his monkey is at Body refining stage level 2
"
"That monkey is really showing its butt and insulting Porter,

damn!"
...
Many people became speechless. This monkey was just an

amazing creature. He looked cute but he seemed like a really bad
monkey,
"Hmph!"
Porter could only coldly harrumph. Then, he just turned around

and flew toward Phoenix island before this monkey made him a
bigger laughing stock.
"Hey look at my plumpy butt!!"
The Monkey's words caused the flying Porter to stagger, but he

just continued flying without turning back.
Finally, it all came to an end. A famous yet mysterious young man
had killed many disciples from the Spring Garden Sect and nearly
survived a Core Strengthening cultivator. The name Noah had
become pretty famous now.
"Noah you're an extremely daring guy" Before Michael and Gaya

fly past Noah and the girls around him, he heard Xanali comment
on his bravery making Gaya choke on the biscuits.
"Thank you for your compliment, Miss Xanali"

Chapter 87 - Gaya’s Crisis I
Michael and Gaya were flying at a low altitude after being

separated from Noah and the girls, so low they almost touched
the mountain peak while admiring the island's splendid scenery.
The entire island's landscape caused them to feel extremely
relaxed. The more they saw, the more they felt that this Julius was
someone who truly knew how to enjoy life.
"Do you know how this auction works?" While flying, Gaya asked
him.
"Nope, no idea," Michael replied with a smile.
"Human, this auction fair is divided into two parts, and it will last
for two days. There is a huge square on the south side of the
island, and it can hold over ten thousand men at any point in time.
The first part of the auction fair is held within this square, and
many humans will put treasures with hopes of selling them. Some
will sell pills, potions, weapons, spell scrolls, and many other shits.
If you were lucky, you could find something precious for an
affordable price here"
"What about the second part?"
"The second part is the auction that's held within Julius's Manor.
Many people who have precious treasures will entrust them to
Julius, and auction them off on the second day. Of course, he will
take a small cut if this treasure is successfully sold. Unlike the first
day, you'll definitely find something precious and valuable if you
can pay the price.
Those who participate in the auction are all? filthy rich men, and
the treasures that appear in the auction are something that
ordinary people could afford."
I do wonder, can I find a dragon baby here?" After seeing that
golden fur monkey on Noah's shoulder, he too wanted a pet so
badly and not an ordinary pet but a dragon.
Gaya rolled her eyes and lightly elbowed him in the gut "what is
up with you and dragons? Those thieving lizards are good for
nothing except bringing trouble"
He noticed a tinge of enmity and fear deep in her tone. Although

nothing she could say would make him change his mind, he did
wonder why she is so adamant and trying to stop him.
"Did you see Noah and his pet? If he can have a pet, why can't I?
But I don't want a monkey, I want a dragon. If you want me to
change my mind, name something that is more badass and
awesome than a dragon"
"I can name one"
"Do tell"
"A Naga" she proudly said as he put his hands on her shoulder
"So your kind is more badass and awesome than the dragons?"
"Of course, we are superior to dragons in every way" Again, she

couldn't help but show her pride on her face while talking.
"Then will you be my pet?" He moved closer and whispered in her

ears.
"Arrghhh!" She never expected this question and when she heard
him, her face slightly reddened in anger. However, he held her
hands tightly,? therefore, she couldn't vent his anger using her
hands but only her mouth.
"How dare you! Pet? Fuck you bastard! You'll never find a dragon
in your life or a girl, I curse you!"
She looked so cute while she's angry. Michael couldn't help but
smile and feel light whenever he teased her and made her mad. It
was a new kind of feeling for him to have someone who could
become a friend in the future. However, Michael didn't know one
thing, the loyalty meter in the system wasn't as straight forwards
as he was thinking, especially when he and Gaya were on the
same wavelength.
"Don't worry honey, I will find both"
"Eww, who're you calling honey?! Don't you ever call me that or I'll
do something to you"
"Hahaha'' He laughed and the duo landed on the island to see a

huge manor standing magnificently. Looking ahead, he could find
rows of finely built buildings, green hills, and clear water almost
everywhere. There was even a waterfall there. The manor
reminded him of the Biltmore estate in North Carolina. He had
never lived in a mansion like this and everything on the island,
including the whole island, made him desire the life of being the
wealthy powerful immortal more and more.
On the south side of the island, there was indeed a huge and
empty square. The Heaven's gate square that held Heaven's gate
competition was big, but compared to this square in front of him, it
could only be considered a small square.
The square was filled with carriages and people wearing all kinds
of dresses. He walked towards the square to check it out leaving
the pegasus in Gaya's hands.
" Come closer, come closer! 78% pure cultivation focus pill, a
must-have item for all cultivators! With this pill, your concentration
will go up by many folds!"
"Flying swords for rent! Only 5 gold coins and you can take a tour
around the Phoenix island despite your cultivation level!"
"Top-level uncommon spell scroll for only twenty thousand gold

coins!"
Around him, he could see merchants and peddlers everywhere,

and more and more warriors began to set up a small hut and took
out items to sell.
"Old man, is that really 78% pure cultivation focus pill?"
"Of course it is! Young man, I've been in this business since
before you were born and I never, I mean never in my life sold
something that's not what I claim"
"Alright, how much is it?"
"You can have it for only forty thousand gold coins"
With a self-flattering smile, the old white-bearded man held a fist-

sized pill in his hand. The pill was glowing like a shiny crystal.
"Forty thousand?! Dang that's expensive, I'll give you twenty"
"twenty? Do you think I'm selling fruits? Forty thousand is the best
I can do. if you don't want to buy it, move aside, I'm sure that
someone will buy it"
"Fuck! You win old man, here's your forty thousand!"
The young warrior took out his pay cube and handed them over to
the old man. The Cultivation focus pill had a great effect on
ordinary cultivators, it could help them focus their mind quickly
and enter a state of cultivation.
Michael saw this deal from a few meters away and shook his
head.
"What is it human?"
"That pill is just? 20% pure and barely worth the price that guy
paid "
Gaya wasn't looking very surprised to hear what he just said, "this
place is filled with con men and swindlers, human. if you are not
smart enough, they will sell you a Gecko as a dragon"
Nodding at her, he strolled through the square to find something

interesting and when they passed a shop that seemed like a
female clothes shop, Gaya halted her steps.
"Human" he saw a hint of awkwardness in her eyes.
"What?"
"Can you..."
"Here" before Gaya could finish her words, he took her space ring
and transferred two hundred thousand gold coins into her ring.
She was not the type to horde fancy dresses and jewelry like
normal girls but when Michael rummaged through her space ring,
he found that she had only three pairs of dresses and one was
torn in the back. So after seeing her stop in front of a clothes
store, he realized her intention and gave her enough coins to buy
as many clothes as she wanted.
"Go crazy. We'll meet at the center of the square in two hours" he
left her before she could say anything and when she looked into
her space rings, she couldn't help but be surprised at the amount
he left her with. She wanted to ask only a couple of thousand gold
coins because, with that amount, she could buy some really nice
clothes but he gave her enough coins to buy the entire shop and a
few more. Moreover, she could tell that he didn't give her these
coins as a loan. This gesture of him slightly warmed her heart as
he let out a small smile and entered the shop.
**************
Leaving Gaya to go on a shopping spree, Michael wandered

around the square in the hope of finding something interesting
because most of the novel MCS would find rare and valuable
things that normal people overlook in places like this.
With more people coming to the place, the business was getting
hotter. All sorts of things and strange items began showing up,
and the entire place became very lively.
[How long does the host plan to blindly wander around the
square?]
Suddenly the system's voice appeared in his head.

"Until I find something valuable"
[4000 badass points] the system said with a lazy tone.
"For what?"
[To find something that host will love]
"Dragonling?" his face lit thinking about him riding a majestic and
powerful dragon but the system's silence disappointed him.
He still chose to spend two thousand badass points because if the

system wants 4000 badass points, he knew he would really get
something worth that price.
"Take it"
[The system marked the location on your Environmental scanning]
Just like the system said, he saw a white dot on his Environmental
scanning and made his way towards it wasting no time.
When he came closer, there was a crowd gathered around the

white dot as he entered the crowd before someone could buy
whatever item that system marked.
In front of the crowd, he saw an old white-bearded man with a stall

before him.
"Noah?" Michael's heart jumped when he saw Noah and Alicia.

His shock was because he didn't want Noah to get his hands on
the mysterious item he paid four thousand badass points.
Noah and all the crowd were looking at a rusty scrap metal on top
of the stall. Clearly, it seemed like part of a broken sword in
Michael's eyes as it looked really old.
"Old man, who are you trying to fool? Claiming that this scrap
metal is a broken piece of an Epic weapon… you're nuts!"
"Yea! Isn't that just a rusty old metal?"

"Why don't you claim it as a Legendary weapon?"
The crowd burst out into laughter.
"You guys know nothing! Although this broken sword looks

terrible, it's really a precious treasure! You guys simply don't have
enough knowledge!"
The old man wore torn clothes, but his cultivation base was quite
decent. He was at level 6 of the core formation stage.
"Haha, old man, how much are you selling this scrap metal for?"
Someone mockingly said.
"I'll sell it for a rare combat weapon," The old man said.
"Fuck! A Rare Combat Weapon? You're too greedy!"
The old man's words caused the crowd to burst into laughter once
again. It was really funny, trying to exchange a Rare Combat
Weapon with just mere scrap metal. Every spell and weapon in
this world was categorized into five classes; common, uncommon,
rare, epic, and legendary. Although a rare combat weapon may
not be a big thing for a powerful sect or a family, it was eye-
catching for the rogue and young cultivators who had limited
resources would.
"Young Master, do you want this broken metal of an Epic

weapon?" the old man turned his gaze away from Noah and
asked Michael.
"I want that"
A voice sounded out from within the crowd, instantly stopping all
laughter.
Everyone threw their glance at the young man in black including

Noah and Alicia. When they saw the cultivation level of the young
man and his young look, they knew he's one of the monstrous
talents.
Noah was the most handsome and manly man Alicia had ever
seen but the youngster in the black fell no short in comparison to
Noah. Both Noah and he looked like they were the same age.
Noah was slightly astonished to see two swords on his back
because only swordsmen with high mastery and talent in swords
can wield two swords at the same time.


"Hehe, young master surely knows the value of this treasure!

You're not going to suffer any losses by trading a Rare Combat
Weapon for it" When the old man saw Michael, a flattering smile
immediately emerged on his face. He knew he has an incredible
cultivation base, so he already thought of him as someone filthy
rich.
Noah was already prepared to buy the scrap as he took the scrap
metal in his hand.
"I don't want that, I need this" Fortunately the white dot was not
the scrap metal in Noah's hand but a book on the stall. Everyone
was surprised including Alicia and Noah as they quickly took a
glance at the thick old book that Michael pointed to.
"Young Master, you want this?" By the look of the old man,
Michael knew the book was not as expensive as the metal scrap
because if it was, the old man's smile wouldn't have grown
smaller.
"Young Master, I found this book on an ancient ruin..."
"How much?" Michael was not in the mood to hear the old man
spin a crazy story about the book as he interrupted the old man
and asked.
"Ten...no..twenty thousand gold coins"

"Damn it, this old man has steel for balls. He's even trying to sell a
fucking old book for twenty thousand gold coins"
"Old man, sometimes, wanting too much will leave you with
nothing. I'll give you five thousand gold coins for this book" Most
people agreed with him with a nod after hearing Michael. When
the old man stuttered to name a price, he knew that the old man
had no idea about the book's value and he would be glad to sell
this book for anything. Although he could have simply given the
twenty thousand gold coins and bought the book, the people
around him would have thought of him as a fool instead of a
badass.
"Five thousand it is then, here you go Young Master" as Michael

said, the old man didn't want to lose the chance of earning five
thousand
Michael waved his hand as stacks of gold coins appeared beside

the old man. The old man didn't even count the coin as he
respectfully handed the book to Michael, but he was laughing in
his mind, "Lucky me! I sold nothing but an old book for five
thousand coins, hehe"
"Sigh! Although the young man didn't pay twenty thousand, he still
paid five thousand for a book"
"I don't know, the kid seemed to know what he's doing"
People were puzzled by Michael's action but they were afraid to

ask for an explanation.
Noah and Alicia cautiously stared at the black-clothed young man

turning around to leave. Noah met his fair share of arrogant
prodigies in Kingdom Dradel and Kethen but he never met
someone like the black-robed youngster before. He came here
without bearing an arrogant look or the prideful demeanor of a
prodigy, he was calm and didn't show off his wealth even though
Noah could tell he's rich by the clothes he wore.
Usually, prodigies at his age would feel threatened by his and

Alicia's cultivation level yet Noah felt like he wasn't threatened by
them. However, it was Alicia who felt threatened by the black-
robed youngster as she only thought Noah was the only one who
could match her cultivation talents.
Whoosh!
Just as they were looking at the black-clothed young man leaving

and turning their eyes back at Noah, an arrow flew straight
towards the black-robed youngster and pierced into the ground
just an inch away from him.
Michael abruptly halted his movements when he saw the arrow

and crouched to pick the arrow up with a frown on his face.
"Gaya?"
*****************
Normally if a chapter reaches almost 2700 words, I would split it

into two chapters but now that my readers are using the free pass
and other means to unlock my chapters, I didn't want to split the
chapter. Therefore, this chapter might have felt like a long read. I
hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Chapter 88 - Gaya’s Crisis II
(A couple of moments ago)
"Fuck! I can't find a single dress that has some tactical advantage"
After separating with Ghost, she was going in and out of all the
clothing stores.
Considering she wouldn't be able to cast spells as when she was

a cultivator, she needed a dress that would let her move around
freely without restricting her movements when firing arrows.
All the clothing stores and the clothes they had for women were
fancier but none of them were what she was looking for. After
checking the 7th shop, she stepped inside the 8th clothing store.
The store had red brick walls and greyish tiles to give a unique
charm and several mannequins in glistening dresses. A bunch of
cultivators including a few girls and boys was rummaging through
the neatly hanged clothes racks while a sales girl approached to
welcome the new customer, Gaya.
"Welcome Miss" As the girl noticed Gaya's cultivation level and

realized she was only a mortal, the brightness on the sales girl's
face dimmed.
Gaya was too tired to bicker with the girls as she had seen 7
people like this girl earlier.
"I want something less glittery and black will be great," said Gaya.
"Follow me Miss" the girl gestured at her to follow her to the

corner while a couple of youngsters in pink uniforms were
adorning a pretty girl with new clothes.
The girl seemed so happy and in such a good mood seeing the
boys paying all her bills. The salesgirl beside the girl was carrying
new clothes up to her neck and stumbling because of the weight.
Gaya obviously ignored this and minded her own business.
"Miss, you can find less glittery clothes for women in this rack"
The sales girl used Gaya's words and pointed at a rack full of
ordinary clothes.
"Hmm" If she was a princess and a cultivator, she wouldn't have

even looked at the dresses before her but now, they seemed like
her only choice.
"Oh?" the sales girl's browser arched upwards when she saw
Gaya taking all the black clothes including tops, pants, and
innerwear without even checking the size or price.
"Miss..."
"Shush, my friend and I are crazy rich. so yes, I can pay for all
these" the salesgirl heaved a sigh hearing Gaya's proud confident
voice.
The sales girl's face instantly brightened thinking about the

commission for this sale and the high probability for a significant
tip.
"Miss, if you want, you can see the new stocks over there" the girl
pointed at the area where the cultivators and the girl was
shopping and led Gaya there.
Up until now, the youngsters didn't notice Gaya but when she
approached the area they were in, all eyes fell on her. Ignoring the
gazes, she followed the sales girl and began to check the racks.
The pink uniformed girl had already taken all the glittery and
expensive clothes on the rack that had no tactical advantage.
However, that worked in Gaya's favor as the girl already filtered
the clothes making Gaya's life easier.
"Why didn't you show these to me before?" She asked the

salesgirl and picked all the remaining dresses on the rack.
"Who is this peasant?" the pink uniformed youngsters were
bewildered because these dresses were very costly and a
peasant like her couldn't afford it, or at least that's what they
thought.
Of course, by default, they branded her as a peasant looking at

her cultivation level. The arrogance and pride of being cultivators
dulled their brains.
Gaya heard the remark but she remained quiet because she didn't
want any trouble.
"Looking at this peasant buying all these clothes, I feel cheap.

Who the hell is she?" the pink uniformed girl thought to herself
and kept staring at Gaya with the furrowed brows.
"Solomon, give me the juice bottle," the girl asked one of the boys
as he quickly retrieved the mango juice bottle from his space ring
and handed it over to the girl like a servant to impress her. The girl
loved the attention and wanted to be the center of everything,
therefore, when the people in the store and some of her friends
started to notice Gaya instead of her, she felt pissed. In simple
words, the girl had a narcissistic personality disorder.
The girl took one sip and then she walked towards Gaya to turn all
the attention back at her.
Plop!
"Oops," the girl pretended like she tripped and spilled the juice all
over Gaya and the new clothes in her hand.
"The fuck bitch!" Gaya lost her cool when she saw the devious
look on the girl's face.
However, the devious and wicked grin on the girl's face took a turn
to the worse when she heard Gaya's words. Gaya was not like
Michael who spent years controlling his anger as she shouted at
the girl.
"What did you call me?"

"I called you a bitch because you blind bitch spilled the fucking
juice all over me" Although Michael was not with her, the no fight
in the island rule gave her the guts to yell at the girl without
holding back her anger.
The girl's face turned red and almost puffs of smoke came out of
her nostrils in anger and embarrassment. She picked the wrong
chick to mess with.
"How dare you!" the boys around the girl bared their teeth at Gaya
like angered rottweilers.
"The nerve! " the girl furiously pointed her finger at Gaya and
yelled, "If you don't drop to your knees and apologize, I will cut
your tongue out peasant!"
"Please calm down my lords and my ladies, fighting is prohibited

on the island" Both the salesgirls beside Gaya and the bitchy girl
quickly reminded them before the citation escalates.
"Even if it doesn't, my friend will skin all you sons of bitches alive if
you touch a hair in my head," Gaya said and didn't bother to hide
the arrogance in her voice.
"We'll be in trouble only if someone alerts Lord Julius. You're just a

mortal, even if we killed you and someone did alert Lord Julius,
we'll only get a fine and that's like a small slap on the wrist" The
girl spoke as Solomon ran to the entrance to shut the door and the
windows.
Gaya's face turned dark and gloomy because she knew the girl
was right.
She clearly miscalculated the girl's character but no matter what,

she was not going to apologize to the girl.
How could the Princess of the Nagaland and a heavenly blessed

prodigy drop to her knees and apologize to another girl?
"Five thousand gold coins for those who keep their mouth shut"
the girl threw a pouch of coins to the middle of the store and made
the people turn a blind eye to the situation.
Obviously, Gaya had coins to counter offer but she knew it won't
work because she's alone and the girl had 8 Body Refining stage
cultivators and one Level 4 Body Strengthening cultivator with her,
therefore, even if she offered them more coins, the people
wouldn't help her especially if they were weaker than the girl's
group.
"Boys, grab her" the girl grinned evilly and ordered her minions.
"Fuck it" the bow of Legolas appeared in her hands as she fired
an arrow at the girl's step at lightning speed.
"Wooh" the girl jumped back and the youngsters were taken
aback by surprise. They were cultivators but even for them, her
movements were too quick and caught them by surprise.
"If you take one more step, the next one will go right between your
eyes" she warned the girl and carefully walked back towards the
door while still aiming the arrow at the girl.
"You're fast for a mortal but I'm faster" Just as Gaya was a few
steps away from the door, the bitchy girl said and waved her hand.
Plap!
The next moment, the girl appeared beside Gaya and slapped
her. The force of her slap threw Gaya up against the wall and
made her spurt out blood.
"Poor girl" one of the men who were watching this mumbled.
"(cough) (cough)" Gaya's vision blurred for a moment because of

the slap. Her head was spinning and if the girl used a little more
force, Gaya's neck would have broken.
"(Whistle)"
Chill!
The glass window suddenly exploded into pieces following Gaya's
whistle as the white pegasus came to the rescue. The sudden
entrance of the pegasus stunned the girl and the youngsters for a
moment. Gaya mustered all her strength and jumped on the
pegasus to escape the store.
Pulch!
"Ah!" Just when Gaya was about to fly away, Solomon grabbed
the arrow Gaya fired earlier and threw at her viciously. The arrow
pierced Gaya's chest just a couple of inches away from her heart.
Blood immediately rushed out of her mouth as she gave one last
weak kick to fly away.
"Get her!" the girl panicked and screamed. The girl knew if that
mortal girl attracted too many eyes, they would get more than a
slap on the wrist because even if the girl was mortal, Julius would
be forced to severely punish them to protect his reputation. Since
the mortal girl jumped out of the store with her pegasus, they had
to capture and kill her before she could draw more attention.
"Hit the pegasus!" The girl quickly hatched a plan and screamed
at Solomon. People outside didn't see what happened inside the
store, therefore, the girl planned to hit the pegasus from inside the
sore and make Gaya fall to death. That way, she had the chance
to pay the people inside more and cover up what happened
before the shit hit the fan.
"Kiss of death!" Solomon was an expert in long-ranged attacks

and learned a few handy spells to attack a target in the distance.
Pulch!
"neigh!" In the sky, the pegasus violently neighed as a long green

dagger pierced straight through the pegasus's abdomen.
"Hu..man" Gaya's vision kept blurring as she fired one last arrow
at a crowd gathered on the ground below her and hoped Michael
would see the arrow by some chance.
"Shit! How is she still flying?" Solomon panicked and looked at the
girl for guidance.
"Fortunately the poison is driving the pegasus crazy and taking

her away from the Phoenix island. Here's what we're gonna do,
we're going through the backdoor and chase her without making it
obvious. And if she falls to death before leaving the island, that's
good but if she doesn't, we have to kill her the moment she leaves
the island"
"But Maria, do we have to chase her? We should first escape the

island before Julius hears what happened here" one of the
youngsters questioned the girl.
"It's too late, if we had killed her inside this room as I planned, no
big trouble. However, now the people outside will start to question
and these people inside the store will start talking. Mortal or not,
Julius has to punish us for breaking the rules. Besides, I have a
bad feeling about the friend she mentioned"
She was partially right. If this happened inside the four walls and
only a few people witnessed a group of cultivators killing a mortal
girl, Julius might have let the killers go with a small fine after
making them bribe the witnesses to protect his reputation.
Especially, he wouldn't have gone to the lengths to severely
punish them for a mortal. However, right at this moment, many
people had seen an injured girl and a pegasus, they would start to
question and the best thing Maria and her group could do was kill
Gaya outside the Phoenix island and turn the story as she broke
the no fight rule first and tried to attack them first.
Chapter 89 - The Playground
Of Powerful Men I
"Gaya?" Michael picked up the arrow and looked up at the sky to

see a familiar pegasus clumsily flying away from the Phoenix
island.
[500 Badass points for learning how to fly an object]
[1000 Badass points for integrating the skill with Lightning dash]
"Do it!" Michael wasted no time thinking about the Badass points
as he ordered the system.
"Lightning dash" He turned himself into a lightning bolt and

dashed towards the stall where everyone was renting flying
swords.
"Hey!" When Michael reached the stall, he didn't even stop as he

threw a pouch of coins and jumped on a flying sword. The next
moment, everyone saw him turning himself into a lightning bolt
and launching himself into the sky.
"Alicia, let's go see what's happening" Noah was curious to see

like everyone else and followed the black-robed youngster behind.
"Wow" they never expected the black-robed youngster could fly

that fast as they only saw a flash of lightning and then he
disappeared from their view.
"Who is he?" Even Alicia could barely track his speed and
wondered about the origin of the youngster.
In the sky, Michael saw a group of pink-robed youngsters circling

around Gaya and one guy was lifting Gaya by her neck.
Zzzzzzhhhhh!
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Body Refining stage

level 8 cultivator. The reward is 6000 Experience points and 800
Badass points]
"Marki!" Maria screamed out loud in shock a few seconds after her
friend's body exploded into a red mist.

The reward is 300 Badass points]




….
Michael was not in the mood to lay back and enjoy the sudden
outburst in badass points. His full focus was on Gaya who was
bleeding and barely holding herself together without falling off the
pegasus.
Whoosh!
The next moment, Maria saw a flash of lightning and then, a

black-robed youngster appeared before the mortal girl.
"Hu..ma"
"Here, drink this" Due to all the years of intense training and anger
management, he was able to think clearly as he quickly retrieved
a healing potion and gently poured it into her mouth. He noticed
green veins spreading all over her body and realized she was
poisoned.
"What is happening here?"
"Who is this girl?"
"I don't know but I guess it has something to do with these pink
uniformed youngsters"
"80% pure Healing potion"
While Michael was treating Gaya, many people surrounded them

and started to gossip. Among this crowd, Noah noticed the potion
and slightly raised his brows because as an Alchemist himself, he
quickly realized the potion's purity.
"Human, where."
"Shh! just drink another one" he shushed her and poured another
bottle of Healing potion into her mouth.
"Neigh!" just as she was drinking the healing potion, the pure
pegasus lost its consciousness and started to fall down. The flying
sword Michael grabbed from the stall was fortunately big enough
for two people, so he quickly saved Gaya from falling down by
grabbing her by the waist.
"Maria" Solomon, Maria, and every pink-robed youngster heaved

a sigh of relief seeing they were away from the air space of
Phoenix island as well as Michael's cultivation level.
Because Maria's personal bodyguard was a Body Straightening

stage level 4 cultivator and the rest of her group was Body
Refining stage level 8 Cultivators, she was confident enough to kill
this black-robed youngster, after all, he killed one of her minions
named Marki.
"Who did this?" Michael asked without showing any emotions in

his voice. He knew the healing potions could momentarily stop the
poison from spreading further.
Although Michael knew very well about Gaya's attitude and toxic
mouth, he also knew she was not dumb enough to start a fight
without him by her side. As far as he was concerned, even if she
did something wrong, none had the right to kill her because for
two reasons; one, he invested hundreds of Badass points on her,
and two, she was his subordinate as well as his friend.
Unless Gaya went mad and massacred a large number of

innocents crossing his line, he wouldn't let anyone hurt her let
alone kill her.
"All... of... them"? Considering she barely had Arch energy in her
body and never came this close to death, her body kept shivering
because of the shock.
Even with all those years of training to control his anger and
emotions, when he saw the blood on her and the tears welled
eyes, he started to get really really really angry. The reason was,
back on earth he never had a friend or anyone close to him.
Because he never cared about anyone except him, he never felt
an emotion like he's feeling now. This long flying journey and the
interactions he had with her strengthened their friendship and
helped him bond with Gaya.
He was starting to think of her as a friend and someone nearly

took her away from him and that made him furious.
"This is gonna hurt," Michael said and pulled the broken piece of
the arrow out of her chest.
"Ah!"
He gave another healing potion and turned back to look at all the
pink-robed men with the bloodied broken arrow in his hand.
"Miss Maria, stand behind me" the Body Strengthening stage

cultivator behind Maria moved in front of Maria while all the pink-
robed youngsters prepared for the fight.
"Kid stay your hand" the man warned Michael when he saw the
cold killing intent in his eyes.
"Diddle...diddle"
However, Michael moved towards him while silently muttering

these words.
"Death Ray!" The man didn't waste a second as he raised his

hands and sent a golden scorching hot energy beam towards
Michael.
"What?!"
"How is this possible?!"
"Holy!"
Many people looking at the scene thought the beam was going to
turn Michael into ashes but the beam didn't even scratch him as a
light blue energy shield appeared before the beam could touch
him.




The system continuously ran inside his head. When Noah and
Alicia saw the beam completely disappear after clashing with the
light blue shield that appeared and vanished in a flash, they were
amazed.
"Miss Maria, go ba"
"We are so little"
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
…..
Before even the man could finish his warning and attack again,
Michael suddenly dashed at him and began to stab him with the
broken arrow.
"Ah Ah AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The blood of her bodyguards kept spattering on her face and in a

few seconds, her pink top turned red because of the blood.
Many weak-hearted cultivators slightly turned away their gaze

from Michael. Although Michael felt furious inside, he didn't show
his emotions on the face.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Body Strengthening

stage level 4 cultivator. The reward is 18000 Experience points
and 1000 Badass points]
"Kill him!"
"RUN!"
Among the remaining pink-robed youngsters, one could hear two

shouts. A few of them including Solomon wanted to fight Michael
while the rest of them wanted to flee the area rather than fighting
Michael.
Whoosh!
However, Michael quickly targeted the three who were preparing

to flee and dashed at them.
"Ignitia"
Zzzzzzhhhhhh!

Badass points]
With one hand, Michael sent a powerful bolt of lighting towards a

youngster. The lightning bolt pierced straight through the heart of
its target leaving a large hole in his body,
He had a quick death but his two friends were not so lucky as him.
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
Pulch
….

Badass points]

Badass points]

….
Michael disregarded the notifications as he was busy stabbing the

two youngsters to death.
The blood and pieces of organs continued to splatter out of their

body but he didn't stop stabbing them. The people were terrified
looking at his ruthlessness.
Thu!
After a few seconds, Michael spat some of the blood that

splattered on his mouth and turned his murderous look at
Solomon and the two men and the girl behind him who couldn't
help but shiver in fear.
Including some of the senior experienced cultivators, many were

stunned and terrified as they watched everything without uttering
a word.
"He's too ruthless"
"He killed a Body Strengthening stage cultivator just like that"
"Where did he come from and who the heck is he?"
"Those guys are so screwed"
"They are outside the airspace of the Phoenix island so the no

killing rules won't apply here"
The people began to chatter.
"Do...don't...come near...us" Solomon stuttered. His face pale and

his hands were shaking in fear.
"He's the one who killed our ride, Ghost"
Boom, the moment the people heard Gaya call him Ghost, the
system notifications started to repeatedly ring inside his head
again.
"He's Ghost!"
"The 5-star Alchemist of River town!"
"Holy shit!"
"The Ghost who won Heaven's gate competition and stepped on

the 100th step?"
Noah and Alicia had a look of realization when they heard the
astounding conversations around them. Noah heard nothing about
Heaven's gate competition but he did hear about the 5-star
Alchemist who could concoct pills and brew potions with 80%
purity, only second to the Alchemy king Gabriel himself.
For the first time in their life, both Noah and Alicia felt threatened
by someone, Michael.
Chapter 90 - The Playground
Of Powerful Men II
The pink uniformed disciples looked at Michael with some

hesitation as Solomon stuttered in fear, "You...you have no...idea
what've you done. If you….come-"
His words stopped coming out of his mouth as he saw Michael

moving towards him. Overwhelming fear paralyzed the other two
disciples behind him and the girl and stood there shivering.
Michael said nothing. He just stopped moving for a second before

his body shook slightly before appearing instantly right in front of
Solomon.
With the broken arrowhead right between his fingers, he made a

fist and
slammed it into the face of Solomon with no fancy movements.
"Ah!" Solomon cried out in agony as he tried to cover his face in

instinct.
However, Michael grabbed him by the neck and punched him

again and again and again and again.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Zzzzzhhhhhhh!
Zzzzzhhhhhhhh!
Looking at the ravaged face of their friend, Solomon, the disciples

screamed out aloud as their scream reverberated the Crystal
ocean.
But two bolts of lightning through their heads cut their cries short.

Badass points]

Badass points]

Badass points]
Immediately after ignoring the continued rings inside his head, his
body disappeared and reappeared right in front of Maria.
"Kill...her...Ghost" From behind, Michael heard Gaya's weak voice.
Michael still didn't know what happened back there but he had a
gut feeling that everything started because of this girl before him.
"Don't….kill..." her words barely escaped her mouth as Michael's

hold around her neck tightened. Although he slaughtered the male
disciples, when he grabbed the girl and raised his hand, the crowd
looked flabbergasted.
"Stay your hand!"
At this critical moment, a loud shout echoed out from the inner
area of Phoenix Island. The shout was so loud that it sounded like
a thundering roar. It swept across Phoenix Island and stirred the
ocean waves. After that, everyone saw a man with a powerful
aura and grandeur rushing over with great speed. In just the blink
of an eye, he appeared a few meters away from Michael.
This adult man was in his forties. Behind him stood the girl who
collected the entry fee before and a group of soldiers in armor.
However, his armor was much shinier and mightier than that of
those soldiers behind him. The entire armor was covered with
countless symbols, giving it a touch of mysteriousness. His
angular face carried a domineering expression, causing him to
look mighty and vigorous. His aura was actually surpassing Porter
and matched the aura of Victor.
"That's Lord Julius! Never thought he would come here."
"Lod Julius?!, what an incredible cultivation power! Core

Strengthening stage level 5"
"Since Lord Julius is here, that young girl might be safe now"
......
Lord Julius's arrival had attracted many eyes. He was one of the
most influential men in the Elon Continent and the greatest man of
this auction fair. No one dared disrespect him even a bit. For
those who had come here from afar, they felt their effort had just
paid for itself just by getting to someone great with their own eyes.
Micheal also turned his gaze away from the girl and threw his
glance at Lord Julius. The man had bulging muscles, a tall body,
and long brown hair.
Michael was slightly shocked because even though Julius looked

mostly human, he could sense an animalistic aura and see furry
sideburns as well as a hairy neck. In Michael's mind, he slightly
resembled the beast in X-Men movies except this man had fair
skin instead of blue.
Julius looked down and saw the blood on the ocean's surface. His
face turned cold and unfriendly.
"What's happening here?"
"System, if he tried to attack us, activate the teleportation scroll

and get us to safety" He opened the system to give it an order and
momentarily slow the time to plan his next moves.
[Yes]
Lord Julius stared at Michael with an unfriendly expression. He

had held the auction fair for a long time, and the rules set by him
were final; no one ever dared break them. Breaking the rules set
by him was equal to disturbing the peaceful order of the trade fair,
and it also meant that the person didn't take his words seriously.
The killings may have happened outside the airspace of the
Phoenix island but once they paid the entry fee, they would
become a guest of the Phoenix manor and he wouldn't let his
guests kill each other because it was bad for business.
"What's your name?"
"Ghost."
Michael replied and he had no fear on his face.
"Why did you kill them?" Julius asked and expected Michael to let
go of the girl but unlike his expectation, Michael didn't let go of
Maria.
"They tried to kill my friend" He coldly answered. If he wasn't a

Core Strengthening stage cultivator, Michael would have killed
him by now because they broke the no fighting on Phenix island
rules and almost killed Gaya yet Julius had done nothing to
prevent that.
After Julius's sudden appearance, the people saw more Core

Strengthening cultivators who entered the island previously also
making their appearance. Noah and Alicia greeted Xanali and
Peyton with a nod and stared at the scene in silence but Noah
noticed the sudden change of expression on both Xanali and
Peyton's faces when they saw Ghost.
Noah could tell they knew him by looking at their face. On the
other side, Paul and Victor also appeared out of nowhere but
remained silent and let Julius deal with Michael.
Lord Julius was a ruthless demi-human, and he wouldn't just stick

to one style when dealing with people. Many expected him to kill
Ghost on the spot because of the way he looked and answered
Julius. Despite standing in front of a Core Strengthening stage
cultivator, there was no anxiety or fear could be seen on his face
but instead, he still seemed cold.
"Don't you know the rules of Phoenix island? No killing" Julius's
voice sounded loud and cold. Michael felt immense pressure
building up around him.
[Energy devourer activated...]
Suddenly Michael heard the system's voice in his mind and

realized Julius was trying to suppress him by using his cultivation
pressure on him. Julius's cultivation pressure was solely focused
on Michael and because of that and the way Julius controlled his
Arch Energy, anyone under the Core Strengthening stage didn't
notice or feel the pressure. When Julius saw him withstand his
pressure, there was a hint of shock in his eyes. Victor scanned
Michael from head to toe while Paul stared at the mortal girl
behind him and had a sense of familiarity.
"They tried to kill my friend on the Phoenix island, why didn't no

one stop them?" The pressure disappeared after he questioned
Julius. The question made Julius turn and look at the girl beside
him who looked anxious and nervous. Soon after turning his gaze
away from the girl, Julius coldly said,
"It's me and my men who decide the punishment for such crimes,
not you. Let go of the girl or"
"Or what?"
"You'll become an enemy of the Phoenix manor!"
Lord Julius coldly harrumphed and became hostile. His words

sounded so loud as they almost gave many weak-hearted
cultivators a heart attack.
"Gho...st" Gaya tucked his sleeve and tried to let go of Maria. She
wanted to kill Maria more than Michael but she knew it's
impossible to kill Maria now since Julius has ordered Ghost to let
go of her. Besides, she had more pressing concerns than killing
Maria.
"If you ask politely, we might consider helping you Ghost" Peyton
moved forwards a little and snickered. Michael slowly turned his
sharp gaze at Peyton.
"I don't need the Guardians to save me" the crowd was again
taken aback by the tone of his voice. He sounded colder and
hostile. Before Peyton could say anything he turned to look back
at Julius. For a few seconds, one could hear nothing except for
the waves as they stared at Michael for his answer.
And then after a few seconds of silence, he opened his mouth
"And I don't give a fuck about Pheonix manor. She hurt my friend,
so she will die"




….
Michael's words brought a storm to the crowds as Julius's face

turned dark in anger.
"Oh heavens! This Ghost is really a daring guy!"
"He's dead, he is D-E-A-D!"
"He not only offended a guardian, he even disrespected Lord

Julius in front of all these people"
"You little bastard! Do you think you can come to my island and
disrespect me and leave this place alive?" Julius's killing intent
skyrocketed as many people moved a few meters away from
Julius terrified.
"Brat, are you really going to get yourself killed for a mortal girl?"
Paul moved forward and asked before Julius could strike him
down.
"Old man, she's my friend and that's all it matters to me" Paul
helpless shook his head and said, "well, nice seeing yah brat"
Paul moved back to where he was before while Victor glanced at

Michael with a small grin on his face.
"Prepare to die!" After these words left Julius's mouth, a gigantic

bear claw appeared from Julius's hands and stunned everyone in
the scene.
"What if he could leave this Crystal ocean alive Julius? " Just as
everyone was staring at the gigantic bear claw made of Arch
Energy of a Core Strengthening cultivator, they heard a voice.
Then in a flash, Victor appeared beside Julius, "humph, if he can

move? 10 meters away from where he's standing now, I will let
him and that girl live"
Michael didn't need any help from Victor however, he knew Victor
was trying to make an ally.
"Kid, do you think you can kill that girl and escape a Core
Strengthening cultivator's wrath?"
"Watch me"
Chapter 91 - Too Easy To Get =
Just As Easy To Forget
"You gonna be alright" In a thick forest far away from the Phoenix
island, a girl was resting under a large tree while a young man
was tending to the girl.
This girl and boy was none other than Gaya and Michael.
After Victor intervened between Michael and Julius, Michael killed

Maria by breaking her neck and used the teleportation scroll and
disappeared from everyone's sight in a flash. The teleportation
wasn't anything fancy but the moment the system activated the
scroll, he and Gaya vanished into thin air.
He got a crazy amount of Badass points and he wished he could

see the looks on their faces. Also before their
disappearance,Michael paid the system a 100 Badass points to
leave a note inside Victor's coat.
"No...I'm...not(cough)...(cough)" Gaya's face was full of green

veins as she coughed out more blood. The blood emitted a
pungent smell and had a tinge of green shade to it.
"Keep drinking the healing potion" He poured another bottle of

healing potion while scanning his surroundings.
"Fuck, I never thought I would be poisoned by my own poison"

After drinking the healing potion, she was able to speak more
clearly without vomiting blood.
"You coated the arrows with your own poison huh? This poison,
where did you get it?" Michael was very interested in getting more
of this poison because, from the first day he brewed Fear toxin, he
was trying to make an antidote as he didn't want to be accidentally
affected by the Fear toxin.
To successfully finish the fear toxin antidote, he missed one vital

ingredient. The ingredient needed to be extremely potent poison,
high acidity level, thicker than the blood. With his knowledge in
Alchemy, he could find a few poisons matching these
requirements except one, the ingredient had to be nonflammable
even at an extremely high temperature. And now, he finally found
it.
"I always keep a bottle of my poison in my space ring, here take it"
She removed the space ring and handed it over to Michael as
tears started to roll out of her eyes.
"Human, I can't believe that I'm going to say this but the past thirty
days were the happiest days of my life " Michael gently smiled as
she continued,
"I only wish you bastard had cured me but it doesn't matter now,
human" she reached her hand out and grabbed Michael's hand.
"Tell me the truth, Do you really consider me as your friend?" She

squeezed his hand and weakly smiled
"I wouldn't have offended Julius and his entire Phoenix manor if
you weren't my friend" Her loyalty had already passed the 70%
and reached the 76%, therefore, he really did consider her his
friend now. However, he still had one more trick up his sleeve to
massively increase her loyalty.
"Bury me(cough) in Nagaland(cough)...(cough) beside my(cough)

mother, human" The healing potion lost its effect and the poison in
her body started to get worse.
"You're not going to die" Michael wiped her tears and opened the
system
"System, how long does it take me to heal her?"

[Host, the subordinate has been poisoned by a very potent
poison. Simply healing her meridians will not save her, you have
to restore her cultivation level for her body to take control over the
poison]
"I hope this is the last thing I do to manipulate her" Michael

heaved a long sigh and took the blood-red pill he concocted
before leaving the sect.
[Host, are you really going to take this pill?]
"System, what is too easy to get is also too easy to forget," He

said and put the pill into his mouth.
"System, Heal her meridians and restore her cultivation level," he

said before swallowing the pill and exiting the system's interface.
"Gaya, I'm going to cure you using an ancient technique, hold my

hand tight and never let go" She was bewildered by his words and
before she could ask any question, he gritted his teeth like he was
in extreme pain.
"Hhhhgrrr" The pill he took started to show its effects. It was a

pain inducer that would activate all his pain receptors and make
him feel an extreme amount of pain for a short amount of time.
He knew what he had done maybe dumb or stupid but he wanted

to make sure Gaya's loyalty get as high as it could. In the future,
he has to trust her completely, and to get to that certain trust level,
he decided to go through this trail of pain in front of her. According
to his plan, by seeing how much pain he's in, she would feel
grateful and become more loyal to him. Just like he said to the
system, if he had healed her easily, she may or may not have
forgotten it quickly and felt less grateful towards him.
He could have faked the pain but he knew she can tell the
difference as he was not an oscar-winning actor.
"Human" Gaya suddenly sensed a hot wave passing through her

body and felt her meridians being healed quickly.
"Arrggghhhh!" Michael growled and fought against the pain. Each
and every pain receptor in his body got activated by the pill. He
was experiencing a pain hundred times more than being shot by a
revolver.
"Im..healed" a few seconds after, she sensed her fully healed

meridians and almost shouted in delight.
[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has reached 85%

loyalty]
"Human, what is happening to you?!" She couldn't feel happy

seeing the blood coming out of his nostrils and ears. She leaned
forward and clenched his hands. Soon after a few moments, his
hands started to twitch as Gaya reached the Body Strengthening
stage. Yet, she was not in the mood to celebrate or wonder how.
She was extremely worried looking at the amount of blood coming
out of his nostrils and ears and wanted to stop his suffering.

loyalty]
"Human, tell me what is happening to you?! Please stop this, I'm

healed!" she screamed and couldn't stop her tears from rolling out
of her eyes.
"Ghost!" There was something in that shout of hers, a pain behind

it. She watched Michael's eyes. She felt desperate, angry, and
helpless seeing him go through this agony just to save her.

loyalty]
[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has been

completely healed and reached the Core Formation Stage level 7]
Ten minutes after, the pain he was feeling disappeared but he was
exhausted. His body betrayed him as he fell backward but instead
of hitting the ground, Gaya's ample bosom cushioned his downfall.
His face twitched when her tears landed on his face as he let out
a gentle but weak smile."I told...you not..going to die"
"You bastard!? Don't you dare die on me" Gaya cried and laughed
at the same time. Right after that, the healing potion appeared in
Michael's hand and she immediately grabbed the potion and
poured it into his mouth.
While the healing potion was tending to his aching organs and
muscles, he opened up the system and checked his status.
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 1

Status: Healthy

point(s))
The number of Experience points and the Badass points eased

his pain.
"The trip to the Phoenix island is absolutely worth it"
He exited the system with an elevated mood disregarding the fact

that he just made an enemy out of Julius and probably the pink-
robed disciples' families or sect.
After exiting the system, Gaya's smiling face welcomed him. She
removed the mask and stood before him with her real face. She
was extremely beautiful even when she was just a mortal but now,
she reached another level in terms of beauty and elegance.
"How are you feeling?"
"How are you feeling?"
Both of them asked the same question at the same time.
"Let me"
"Let me"
It happened again as the both of them chuckled a bit and waited a

few seconds to let the other speak. However, instead of speaking,
Gaya walked forward and hugged him tightly.
"Oh never expected this" Michael smiled and embraced her back.
Unlike before, now she was stronger and powerful than him and
he could feel it by the strength of her hug.
He knew that if she desired, she could easily crush him just with
her physical strength.
"What the fuck did you expect? This is what best friends do"
Michael had? never been hugged before like this. There was
something so warm, something that felt right, smelt right. On the
other hand, Gaya felt her body press in, soft and warm. This was
something she'd waited for, prayed for. She inwardly thanked her
mother and hugged all the tighter.
A friendship like this was to be cherished for life. Finally, both of

them felt like they were home.
Chapter 92 - Mysterious Of
The Dark Forest I
"You can let go of me now" Michael patted her on the back and
said.
"Right" Finally after embracing him for a long couple of minutes,

she stepped back with a wide grin on her face.
Considering she was healed and reached her peak cultivation

level, there were no worries in her heart and that joy brightened
her face. Moreover, she finally found a true friend who risked his
life to save her twice.
"Can we go and slaughter that Maria bitch's family now? Because

of that bitch, we had to leave the Phoenix island without attending
the auction" she seemed so fearless and dominant. It made her
hotter than before.
"Jeez, cool down. Yes, you're healed but it doesn't mean you can
go running around the kingdom killing people" Instead of using the
flying sword, Michael felt like taking a walk through the forest as
Gaya walked beside him.
"You're right, that Xanali bitch has wider reach now since she
joined the Guardians" she gritted her teeth and said
"What happened back on the island after I left you anyways?"
"Sigh" with a long heave of sigh, Gaya began to narrate the

events that happened with Maria and her group. He silently
listened to her without asking a question. While hearing her story,
he was mad at Julius, and his incompetence in enforcing the rules
than Maria and her friends. Julius prevented not only Maria and
her friends from attacking Gaya but he also tried to stop him from
killing Maria who was the main reason for what happened to
Gaya.
Just a few moments before Michael started to kill Maria's group,

Julius was working on a new deal with a group of people from the
Ozer continent and failed to seal the deal. Julius was already
frustrated by this and how Michael acted in front of him made him
even more furious. He tried to take that frustration on Michael but
he ultimately failed to do so.
"The fact we left Phoenix with empty hands is making me furious"
Thop!
She vented her anger on the old log on the ground by kicking it.
The log of wood instantly broke into pieces and surprised Michael
with her strength.
Soon, a grin appeared on his face as he stopped walking.
"What's so funny?" seeing the grin on his face, she asked and
saw an old book appear in his hand.
"Who said we left Phoenix with empty hands?" she curiously

grabbed the book and opened it to see worn-out yellow pages.
The words made little sense as they were written in an ancient
language.
She continued to rummage through the book but she couldn't find
anything interesting about the book.
"Please tell me you didn't spend a fortune on this" She shut the
book frustrated and stared at Michael.
"No, I did not, just five thousand coins"
"What?! Why?!"? Although five thousand coins weren't much,

there was no way this old book in her hand worth that price.
"System, show me its secrets" Michael had zero worries about the
book because he knew the book is worth more than mere 5000
gold coins.
[1000 Badass points to reveal the book's secret]
"Again? I already paid you four thousand Badass points'' The

system didn't even sound like asking but instead it sounded more
like demanding. When it comes to the system's tricks like this, he
felt so helpless.
[The host can of course try to scour this world for clues while
avoiding the deadly traps, decode the book, and find its secret or
you can pay 1000 badass points to know the secret now]
"This is better be worth it"
[is that a yes?]
"Yes," he gritted his teeth and said yes to the haughty system.
[Loading...] the system entered into the loading screen as he

patiently waited for the system to finish decoding the book.
Surprisingly it only took fifteen seconds for the system to work its
magic on the book
[Bleed on the book to reveal its secrets!]
He sighed and exited the system.
"Why did you pay five freakin thousand gold coins for this book?!
Didn't I tell you that place is filled with swindlers" she yelled at him
like his mother as he grabbed the book from her hand with a
smirk. Then a small crack of lightning appeared from the tip of his
finger and cut his palm.
"What are you doing?"? He didn't answer her but let his blood flow
onto the book.
Zzzzz Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Suddenly the book let out an unearthly humming and began to

vibrate while making their surroundings darker and darker.
"huh?!" Michael's eyes opened wide when he saw a familiar

symbol appear on the book's cover, L.
Soon, a puff of smoke emerged from the book and transformed
into a key and an old piece of paper.
"What is it?" Gaya grabbed the piece of paper while Michael

grabbed the key and put the book back into the system's storage.
She then opened the piece of paper and stared at it, "Human, it's
a map of the dark forest" her face became clouded when she
mentioned the dark forest.
He could see the gloominess in her eyes and the words dark
forest alone irked him differently as he couldn't describe the
feeling.
"Is it pointing towards somewhere?"
"Yes, to the middle of the dark forest" he took the paper from her
hand and saw the symbol of L marked on the middle of the dark
forest.
The mark of L piqued his curiosity because it seemed like the

exact L he left after killing the wanted criminals as Lucifer. He
couldn't believe this is a coincidence and wanted to go to the
place on the map.
"Let's go there now"
"Human no!" Gaya quickly grabbed his hand and stopped him.
Her tone was filled with unwillingness and terror.
"Why? Are you afraid of the dark forest?"
"Who doesn't? Even the most powerful cultivators avoid that evil
place"
As usual, Abras was taught nothing about the dark forest and
Michael had to depend on Gaya to know more about the dark
forest.
"And why is that?" Normally she would make fun of him for having
a lack of knowledge and self praise her before answering him but
now, she looked like she is not in the mood for jokes.
"Because that forest is evil and haunted as hell. Only a few
entered the dark forest and they never came out of the forest alive
except one"
"What happened to him?"
"He lost his mind and killed himself a few days after, that's what
happened"
"Interesting, let's talk more on the way," Michael said and took out
the flying sword.
"The fuck? Didn't you hear what I just said?"? She tried to stop
him but he already jumped on the flying sword ready to fly towards
the dark forest.
"If you are so afraid then you can go to the sect and wait for me,"
He said but he knew she would come with him despite her fear of
the dark forest.
Normally he would have also felt reluctant to enter this place after
hearing Gaya's warning but the symbol L piqued his curiosity and
the abundance of Badass points gave him the courage to do so.
She breathed heavily and looked hesitant to jump on the flying

sword. Yet, after a few moments, she gritted her teeth and
decided to venture into the dark forest with him.
"I'll definitely haunt your ass forever if I die there"
"You can't haunt the Ghost, hahaha" He chuckled and took off with
Gaya. Luckily the system marked the location of the L in his
environmental scanning map and therefore, he didn't need Gaya
to show the way.
"Hey, where did you learn to fly like this?!" She had to hug him
from behind not to fall down because of his flying speed. They
flew like a bolt of lightning.
"From Sadie" Gaya pinched him when she heard his answer
making him laugh out aloud.
"If I see you banging that slut again, I will burn her alive"
"Why? Are you jealous?"
"Because I don't like her, you jerk"
"Do you know a way to hide your cultivation level? At least until
you reach the Core Strengthening stage"
Obviously, it would raise questions if a mortal girl turns into a Core

Formation stage cultivator in a single day and Michael didn't want
to attract the attention of the Guardians or Xanali.
"I know a spell that would mask my current cultivation level and
make me look like a Body Refining stage cultivator"
"How reliable is this spell? Can Xanali or anyone find out your real
cultivation level?"
"Don't worry, it's an epic class spell. Only cultivators above the
Soul Refining stage can see through the spell"
"Great, I will tell the people that I gave you a ten thousand years
old black lotus to revitalize your meridians and increased your
cultivation level"
"Make sense" As an Alchemist he knew the medicinal qualities of

all the herbs in this world and Black Lotus was a rare flower that's
used to revitalize the meridians. It would transform a mediocre
cultivator into a genius.
"By the way human, how did you heal me?"
"I transferred some of my soul energy into your meridians and

nearly died"
"Oh?" She embraced him more tightly thinking about what he did
for her.
"Thank you, human"

Chapter 93 - Mysterious Of
The Dark Forest II
"There it is, the... dark forest" After a few hours of flying away, the
dark forest appeared in their eyes. Gaya stuttered in fear and
Michael didn't blame her because the sight freaked him out too.
He halted flying and floated there without moving any further.

When Gaya said Dark forest he didn't expect the forest to be
literally dark. Back on earth, the tallest tree was 115meters tall and
in the dark forest, each tree seemed 100-150 meters tall. Each
tree looked gigantic and the mist around the dark forest gave out
a dreary atmosphere.
Above the dark forest, the stormy clouds and cracks of lightning
added another layer of terror to the forest. There was nothing
beautiful about this forest but terror.
"Human, do we really have to enter that evil place? Can't we just

go back and call it a day?" He had never seen her terrified like this
before as she was shivering, stuttering, and sweating
continuously. He was familiar with Gaya's symptoms.
"If you are so afraid, hold me tight," He said and slowly flew
forward as clasps of thunder reverberated the area.
[Warning! The firewall is failing!]
"Ah!"
"What?" suddenly he heard Gaya scream and the warning sound

from the system in his mind and quickly stopped moving forward.
He then turned back and saw her mouth stuttering like she was in
an extremely cold place.
"I saw...i...saw...something"
"Saw what? What the?!" he too saw something flash across him
and disappear.
[Warning! The firewall is failing!]
[Recommend the host to leave the area as soon as possible!]
[The System found high traces of Fear toxin in the air!]
"Shit!" the moment he heard the word fear toxin, he turned back
and bolted out of the white mist.
"Hu..man"
"You're just seeing things, stay calm" In front of him, he saw

witches and old women on brooms flying around him. This was
one of his fears buried deep in his mind. When he was six years
old, he broke into the orphanage library and read Hansel and
Gretel at midnight. Ever since then, he was afraid of witches and
freaky old women. His mentor locked him with twenty freakishly
dressed-up old women in a room for weeks to get him out of his
fear.
However now, the fear toxin brought one of his deepest fears and
made him see old witches on brooms everywhere.
"Hey, Mickey!"
"You want some candy! Hehehehe"
"Come to grandma!"
He then soon began to hear screeching voices, "I'm hallucinating!"
"Ah! Go away!" from behind him, Gaya started to scream and fired
arrows into the air.
"System!"
[want some candy….] even after he opened the system, he still
continued to hear the voices and saw the wrinkly old faces in front
of him.
"Where is it?! Got..it" he was glad to see the failed fear toxin
antidote and immediately grabbed it to add the one last ingredient
to finish the antidote.
"Hey"
"Go away!"
Plop!
"Ah!" he slapped Gaya on the back of her head to momentarily get

her attention towards him.
"Give me your poison!" her eyes were opened wide. He could tell
that she's hallucinating and probably seeing something else
instead of his real face.
"NOW!" Because of the firewall, he was able to remain mostly

sane. Fortunately, his shout snapped out of her hallucination for a
second and it was enough for her to retrieve and give him a tiny
vial that contains her poison.
Shhhhhhhhhh!!
He didn't waste any time as he immediately poured the dark green

poison into the antidote vial. The poison reacted with the rest of
the antidote and let out a boiling sound. Just as she was about to
completely lose her mind and aim her arrow at him, he poured the
antidote into her mouth and forced her to swallow.
Only then did he drink the antidote because he didn't want Gaya,
a Core Formation level warrior to go berserk on him in mid-air.
Following the intake of the antidote, the old witches on brooms

started to disappear from his sight one by one.
"Come out you ugly fucking lizards!" she screamed and continued
to fire arrows at nothing but air.
"Stop, it's alright" Both of them stood on the flying swords for a
couple of minutes before the effects of the fear toxin completely
disappeared. Gaya slowly lowered her bow and started to see
things clearly.
"What the fuck just happened?! I told you bastard not to come
here, let's get the fuck out of here before it's too late" she urged
him and grabbed his hand to fly away but instead of flying away
from the dark forest, he flew straight towards it.
"Hey! Stop!"
"Just shut up and come with me" despite her strong protest, he
didn't back off because after being affected by the fear toxin, his
curiosity reached the next level. He didn't activate the lightning
dash but flew slowly and cautiously expecting more traps.
"We were poisoned and hallucinated, didn't we?" Gaya asked and
tightly grasped her bow.
"Yes and we won't be poisoned again"
"I know all the poisons there is to know but I have never seen
such a dangerous poison. Good thing you had an antidote in hand
and speaking of which, did you ask for my poison?" Her memories
when she was affected by the fear toxin were still blurry but she
could vaguely remember him asking her poison.
"Your poison is the last ingredient I needed to finish the antidote"
"That means you were trying to create an antidote way before

today and you must have known about this poison right? No one
can create an antidote without having the full knowledge about the
poison. How the hell did you know?"
"Because I created it, the fear toxin" His grave voice stunned her
for a moment.
"You created it? Are you from the freakin dark forest? Is that why
you have no knowledge about the outside world? Are you really a
human or a fucking spirit? holy shit, that's why you call yourself
Ghost!" She fired questions like arrows while Michael slowly
passed through the outskirts and entered the dark forest.
She became silent when they entered the dark forest. There was
no sunlight or any light passing through the monstrous blackish
trees and the thick canopy. The day became night, a misty bluish
night as they slowly flew towards the L that was on the map.
"I can't believe I'm in the dark forest" she vigilantly looked around
and whispered.
CawCah!
The sudden sound of a crow halted their flying and when they
looked up in the direction of the sound, they vaguely saw a
gigantic crow with blood-red eyes through the mist.
"Shit" just a second after, there were hundreds of blood-red eyes

staring at them through the mist and sending a chill through their
spines. What shocked them most was all these gigantic crows
were at the Body Refining stage and Michael could even see a
Body Refining stage level 9 crow among them.
"Even the crows are at the Body Refining stage and this is just the
border of the forest " She whispered and didn't make any sudden
movements to startle the crows. The crows slowly turned their
heads and watched them while they were flying forward like
sentries.
The more they fly into the forest, the more dark and gloomy it got.
The bone-chilling breeze, an ominous smell, gigantic webs of
spiders, and occasional rattling sounds accompanied them
through the forest.
"Hey look down, bones" through the darkness, Michael looked

down to see bones lying around the ground.
"How far do we have to fly?" she questioned.
"Not far, we are near" In the Environmental map, he could see

he's getting closer to the mark but in front of him, there was
nothing but giant trees.
"We are at the mark" he didn't land as the ground was filled with
thick interwoven roots and which seemed like a net of thorns.
"But there's nothing here" She was having mixed emotions. On

the one hand, she was glad that there's nothing here as she could
get off this evil place, and on the other hand, she was
disappointed as she expected something more dramatic to
happen.
"The key" Michael remembered the key and retrieved it back from
his system storage.
Zzz Hhhhhhhhhhhhh
A few moments after he took out the key, the key vibrated and let
out a humming sound but soon, the key stopped vibrating and
remained still in his hand.
"That was weird, human, take out that book" it was also Michael's
thought as he took out the book.
Boom!
The moment the book came out of his storage, a loud booming
sound echoed through the forest and made all the crows in the
distance fly away.
Soon, they noticed the roots above the ground and the mesh of
thorns slowly moved away to reveal a black metal door with the
mark L on it.
"I think that's the place" Gaya pointed out the door as the door let
out a creaking sound and slowly opened.
Both Michael and Gaya didn't utter a word but they descended
and flew down through the door. After flying down for a couple of
minutes, they finally saw the ground and landed on the cold floor.
Chapter 94 - The Abyssal I
After stepping down from the flying sword, he shifted his attention
to his surroundings and began to look around.
Creak!
Right after a few seconds, the door above them let out a creaking
noise and closed itself," Fuck, now we are stuck" She cursed and
menacingly looked at Michael like he was to blame for all this.
"Spit it out, did you build this place too without telling me?"
"What are you talking about? The fear toxin is my own creation, I
don't know how it ended up here in such a large amount, the air
was filled with fear toxin"
Gaya deeply sighed and said," obviously you were only thinking
that you created it first but someone or something created it way
before you "
"That seems to be the case," he said and began to walk forward

while thinking about the fear toxin in the air and the mark of L on
the door. The fear toxin, the mark of L, and everything in this dark
forest seemed like they were all connected to his other persona,
Lucifer.
Gaya conjured a ball of green fire to light their way. While walking
into what seemed to be like an underground shelter, they noticed
the surrounding walls around them have dense cracks on them,
and several stone columns already collapsed. It was clear that this
place has already corroded by time.
From the looks of things around them, Gaya was pretty sure that
there is no treasure around them. However, she sensed the high
density of Arch Energy as it was at least several times stronger
than the outside.
"This place is perfect for cultivation. I think, whatever this place is

has some kind of mechanism to increase the density of the Arch
Energy"
Michael nodded blankly and kept walking. He was more

concerned about how the dark forest has the fear toxin and the
mark of Lucifer.
He followed the path in front of him and walked for quite a while
until he saw a spacious hall with a large circular table in the
middle.
"Welcome, Lord Lucifer" suddenly a deep voice appeared.
Both of them were shocked. They didn't expect there's actually

someone inside and Michael didn't sense anything. Moreover, the
voice clearly said Lucifer.
"Lucifer?" Gaya was confused and prepared for a battle as black

smoke started to emerge from the table before them. Soon, the
black smoke transformed into a middle-aged man. He floated
above the table and then, he raised his hands and lit the torches
around them. Michael tried to sense the cultivation level of the
apparition before him but he simply failed and Gaya was not an
exception.
"Who are you?"
"Lord Lucifer, I'm Damien Duke, the last member of the Order of
Death. This is the recording I made in the year of Procavia, star
position Squalus"
"Three thousand years ago?!" Gaya instantly recognized the year

the recording was made. She was stunned and so was Michael.
"We lost the war with the Guardians, the Supreme Guardian, and
the Elder Guardians killed all of my brothers and sisters. They
destroyed all of our hideouts and this is the last one but they won't
find this one as I made sure of it" Damien Duke said and Michael
could see the anger and sadness in Damien's eyes.
"If you're seeing this, it means the prophecy has begun. From the
Ashes of the order, Lord Lucifer will rise and with Lord Lucifer, the
order will once again rule the world" There was a fire in Damien's
eyes when he spoke the words.
"Lord Lucifer, the abyss will serve you as your home. Forgive your
subordinate's incompetence for leaving you nothing, the Supreme
Guardian and the Elder Guardians destroyed all of our resources
and secrets except the book that led you here. It's not much but
with the help of the book, you can rebuild the order to serve you in
your path against the Guardians and your enemies" Michael
looked at the old book in his hand, and then he noticed the hollow
that was shaped like this book on the table.
"If you're lucky, you can still find some of the ruins of the order and
pillage what's left of it. Also, Lord Lucifer, be careful, the Supreme
Guardian and the Elder Guardians may even still be alive the time
you watch this. I don't know whether they know about the
prophecy or not but if they do, I'm sure that they are still searching
for you. I did my best to protect the abyss but the beasts and the
hell gas won't stand a chance against the Elder Guardians...."
Suddenly the apparition blurred and Damien's voice was abruptly

cut off. Soon after, Damien's figure completely disappeared from
their sight leaving with more questions than answers.
Especially Michael, he was still in shock and surprise. What he

created to kill his enemies and earn experience points turned out
to be a prophecy.
"System, do you have any connection with this order? And how
did they know about me three thousand years ago?"
[System level is too low to answer the host's question]
"Human, take a look at this" a few meters away from the hall,
Gaya called out for him. While thinking about everything Damien
said, he came to Gaya and received another shock.
"Lucifer" He mumbled and looked at the painting hanging on the
wall. It was the painting of his other persona, Lucifer. In the
painting, he was wearing a more enhanced and different suit of
black armor but the red eyes, as well as the skull mask, clearly
indicated that the figure on the painting was none other than
Lucifer.
"I have a weird feeling that you know this Lucifer, human. Besides,
he said the dark forest is protected by hell gas and beasts but we
saw no beasts on the way, and coincidentally, you said that you
created this fear toxin" Michael could tell she's already started to
suspect him that he's Lucifer.
"I'm Lucifer" before Gaya could beat around the bush further,
Michael revealed the truth to her.
"I knew it!"
Creak!
Following her shout, another creaking sound appeared and made

them quickly turn away their heads towards the round table.
She showed away all her questions aside and vigilantly followed
Michael behind to the table. When they came to the table,
everything was the same except, there was a throne in front of the
round table.
The throne resembled the iron throne except instead of swords,

this throne was made of skulls and bones. The throne radiated an
ominous aura that made her feel disturbed and slightly afraid. It
was almost 2.5 meters in height and 2 meters in width. She
silently stared at him feeling the skulls and bones on the throne as
his lips began to curl upwards.
Then with the grin on his face, Michael sat on the throne and felt
something powerful run through his body.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host, the abyss is now the Host's

Base of Operations!]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for becoming the Lord of the
Order of Death]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for acquiring a Legendary class

Item, The Abyssal throne. The Host's skill Death range has
upgraded to level 2]
The system sounded in his mind and widened his grin. He knew
he can't change what happened in the past or what has happened
to the Order or why did the Guardians destroy them, however, he
can decide what's going to happen in the future as Lucifer and
Ghost.
"So are you going to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Gaya
came before him and leaned on the table.
"System, equip the Lucifer attire"
"Shit!" The next moment, Gaya jumped back in shock because

she saw Michael transform into someone else or something else
in a flash.
"Lucifer" she mumbled and stared at the red eyes. Although she
was a Core Formation cultivator now, she couldn't help but feel
afraid looking at him in front of her.
"Hu...Human"
"I'm Lucifer," He said again but this time, his voice was inhumane
and terrifying.

He slowly stood up from the throne as Gaya stepped backward.

She could sense the antidote in her body fighting against the fear
toxin evaporating from his body and preventing her from
hallucinating as well as feeling terrified again.
"What I'm about to tell you must stay between us" because the
suit made him somewhat look taller and bulkier, she had to slightly
look up.
Since she had reached 95% loyalty towards him, he had no

problem trusting her. Therefore, he told her what happened to
Vardan and the many criminals he killed in Sarton and Bradford.
He obviously didn't tell anything about the system's involvement
as he said he found the suit of armor in a cave during one of his
travels.
After silently hearing everything he said, she let out a long sigh
and looked directly into his red eyes.
"What's our plan here Lucifer?"
"We are going to fulfill the prophecy"
"You mean?"
"Yes, we will rebuild the order and conquer this world. I will kill
anyone who stands in my way"
Chapter 95 - The Abyssal II
Inside the dark gloomy walls of the Abyssal, Michael leaned back
on his throne after revealing his goal to Gaya. This was not the
first time she heard him saying he wants to conquer this world and
after seeing the miracles he performed, she really believed he
could rule this world.
"Give me the book," She asked for the book after taking a look at
the book-shaped hollow on the table. Micheal tossed the book and
waited for something to happen as she placed the book on the
hollow.
Tap tap!
Seeing nothing is happening, she lost her patience and dabbed

the book a couple of times.
"Great, this thing is not working. It seems we have to rebuild this

order from the ground up with no help " said Gaya.
"It's alright, we don't need any help from the people who were
crushed by the guardians. Give me your hand" as he said, he
stood up from his throne and came to her.
She obediently reached out her right arm. He then took his knife
out and cut her palm as she slightly flinched.
"Why did you do that?" Instead of answering her, he kept a hand

above the table and let her bleed on the table for a couple of
seconds.
"From this day onwards, you're my second in command. I name

you the Queen of the Abyssal" There was shock, delight, pride,
and shyness hidden in her eyes when she heard his words.
"I accept your offer, human besides who else will put up with you
except me?" She quickly regained her composure and said. With
a pride grin on her face, she walked towards the throne to sit as a
Queen of this place.
"Auch!" however when she was about to place her but on the
throne, she was kicked away by a sudden force that emanated
from the throne. The force was so great that she lost her balance
and came flailing towards Michael.
"It seems you have bad luck with thrones" Her hands wrapped
around his chest as she could feel his hot breath. For a few
moments, she lost herself looking into his red eye and he lost
himself looking into her radiant black eyes.
He had never been in love or shared his life with anyone else
before but something about this girl attracted him towards her like
a magnet. She was beautiful, brave, witty, moreover, she was
loyal to him.
Both of them remained still very closer to each other letting their
hearts rule their emotions rather than their brains.
"hhrrggr" Michael cleared his throat and stepped back as she

quickly tried to hide the red blush on her.
"I'll... go and check the place out" This was the first time he had
seen her blush and before he could fully digest this rare sight, she
ran away from the hall.
Back inside the black skull, Michael also gently smiled and went
back to his throne.
***************************
"Look what I found" After staying out of his sight for almost half an
hour, she came back fiddling with two identical silver rings.
"Why are you still on that creepy chair? Never mind, see this''
Since she couldn't sit on the throne, it became just a creepy chair
to her. She tossed one ring to him and kept the other.
"A space ring? Where did you find it?"
"Not a space ring human, an interlinked space ring. Anything you

store in one ring can be accessed from the other. These space
rings are extremely hard to forge and these are not even marked
which means no one used them before" Considering she
recovered her cultivation, it was time for him to give the resources
she needs to cultivate as well as keep maintaining her lifestyle.
Therefore he decided to put the gold coins in the space ring to
share them with her. The interlinked space ring could only be
accessed by no one except their owners, so he didn't need to
worry about someone stealing it. Compared to gold coins, he
valued badass points more and no one in this entire world could
steal them from the system. Also, both of them were not someone
who would let someone steal the ring.
"Gaya, what's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine" he claimed

ownership of this ring by marking the ring with his Arch Energy,
and then he transferred all the gold coins into the space ring.
"I like that," Gaya said and put the ring on her finger with a smile.
"So what did you find other than these rings?"
"Follow me" Michael followed her through the dark halls passing a
couple of empty rooms and after a few minutes of walking, he
came before a door that had the L mark etched on it.
"I couldn't open this door, I guess only you can" Michael wondered
how Damien was able to design this place to recognize him three
thousand years after.
For now, he was glad that they were able to do this because this
place is way safer than the Sunrise sect. Moreover, he could plan
his moves freely without worrying about someone spying on him.
Simply, this was his Batcave.
Kachak!
The moment he touched the door, it shook violently and slowly

opened. He could smell the ancient air coming through the cracks.
The air had an extremely high concentration of fear toxin and if
they didn't take the antidote before, they would have ended up
dead in a matter of seconds. Damien obviously assumed that the
fear toxin won't hurt Lucifer and technically, he was right as
Michael was able to finish the antidote.
Thinking about the antidote, he couldn't help but feel thankful

towards Gaya. If he hadn't saved her from the snakemen in the
forest, he couldn't have finished the antidote. Although it was
highly unlikely he would have ended up dead, he would have
certainly lost a huge amount of badass points to the System
buying the missing ingredients.
He stepped into the darkroom and when Gaya conjured the flame
to brighten the room, he was disappointed as the room seemed
nothing but empty. The room was not as large as the throne hall
but it was not small either. While looking around the empty room,
he frowned when he noticed another small door at the end of the
room.
"What's up there?"
"Probably another empty room?" said Gaya and followed him

behind to the door.
"Wow," his disappointment disappeared in a flash because he was

startled by the sight after he opened the door.
The sight was so stunning as his eyes and mouth opened wide. In
front of him were a waterfall and a small lake. He looked up to see
how there could be light coming considering they were actually
underground. Yet, he could see the sky and the clouds.
"This is a pocket dimension" Since she was a Core Formation

level cultivator, she could sense the runes around the place and
be able to recognize its true nature.
"Is it safe to be here?" What if the pocket dimension cut from the
real world, this was the first question that appeared in his mind.
He quickly stepped back.
"It's perfectly safe. Once a pocket dimension gets attached to a
place, it stays there, not even an immortal could destroy it. This is
definitely a work of a 5star Rune Master and a talented one at
that" He sighed in relief. Looking at the beautiful waterfall as well
as the blood stink coming from his body, he wanted to undress
and take a long relaxing dip on the small lake before him.
In a flash, he entered the system's interface and unequipped all

his armor except the black boxers he's wearing.
"Hey!" seeing him suddenly half-naked, she screeched and turned

around.
"You're fucking naked"
"Not completely, hehehe" he laughed and dashed straight into the

lake to relax. After all, he deserved a day off after all the killings
and trouble he went through.
"How long are you gonna stand there and watch, you perverted
snake" after a couple of minutes of swimming, he teased her to
make her angry.
"I'm a pervert?! Says the guy who undressed in front of a girl" She
wanted to kick his ass for speaking so shamelessly but she
ultimately smiled and walked towards him.
"There you go, hop in, the water is at perfect temperature"
"Don't mind me if I do, CANNONBOLT!" Unlike he was expecting,

she didn't change her dress as she jumped straight into the water
cannon bolt style.
"Don't you have a bathrobe or something?" when she emerged

from the water, he asked.
"I left all the clothes I picked at the Phoenix island, and now I need
to go shopping again. I hate that Maria bitch"
Both of them soaked in the water and enjoyed the calmness of the
place.
After a few minutes, she saw a smile on his face," what?"
"Do you know what we need to make this place even more
awesome?"
"No, don't say it"
"A dragon"
******************************
This is one of my calm before the storm chapters and from the
next chapter, the action-packed ride will begin. Also, I'm getting so
many questions and comments about the FL, well I will reveal the
FL in the next chapter!!!!
Chapter 96 - The Dark Lord
(Female Lead Reveal)
In faraway land from Bredia, a group of four people was kneeling

in front of a monument. Other than the tall silver monument, there
was nothing in the room. The only light came through the hole
directly above the monument and encircled the monument.
Shhhhhhh!
All of a sudden, the monument vibrated and glowed as the entire

room started to brighten up. Among the four people, two of them
were male and the remaining two were women, and one of the
women had a long pointy ear and glowing gold hair. They were all
god-like existence in the world because they were at the Fusion
stage, only one stage behind reaching the Half Immortal stage.
However, despite their cultivation level, they were devotedly
kneeling in front of the monument with their heads down.
Soon a white smoke emerged from the monument and began to

take the shape of a man, a white-haired old man. The four of them
slowly looked up with eyes full of devotion and respect.
"Elder Guardian," the four of them said in harmony as the old man
let out a weak smile. Behind his weak smile, there was a concern,
despair, and a hint of dread in his eyes.
"Stand up Guardians, you should only kneel before the Supreme

one" His voice was soft but at the same time, it sounded like an
order.
The four of them didn't disobey his order as they stood up to learn
why they were summoned because no one was summoned to this
room in a thousand years.
"Guardians, I know what you're wondering" the old man looked at
the four of them quietly for a few seconds and continued," before I
tell you why I summoned you all here, tell me what you know
about the Dark age" Each of the four had a different expression on
their faces when they heard the Elder Guardian.
"And what do you know about the Dark Lord?"
The moment they heard the name Dark Lord the expressions on
the guardians' faces changed dramatically. No one spoke a word
for a few moments as they all blankly stared at the Elder Guardian
like they didn't understand the meaning of his question.
Soon, the woman with the pointy ears answered with the deep
frown on her face,
"Elder Guardian, we all read the grimoire about the Dark Age and
the Dark Lord but..." the pointy ears woman's voice trailed without
finishing her inner thoughts. The four of them clearly didn't believe
the stories about the Dark Lord but they were afraid of telling the
Elder Guardian yet, the Elder Guardian could see it on their faces.
"What you read about the Dark Age is real, very real"? His voice
was grave and the four of them couldn't help but recollect
everything they read about the Dark Lord in the grimoire. For a
few moments, no one uttered any words but one of the men
behind the pointy ears woman slightly shivered in fear.
"Then the Dark Lord..." After a long silence, the woman next to the
pointy ears woman asked the Elder Guardian as he took a long
deep breath before answering them.
The Guardian guild library was one of the most secure places in
the entire world. The library was separated into four levels but
only a few knew that there's another level, a fifth level. Apart from
the four guardians in this room, there were only five powerful
people who had access to the fifth level in the library. Unlike the
other levels, the fifth level had no spell scrolls or skill books but it
had just one book, the Grimoire. No one in the current generation
of the Guardians knew who wrote the book but it was mandatory
to read the book after a Guardian reaches the Alpha level.
The Grimoire contained two chapters, one chapter about the Dark
Age and the last chapter was about the Dark Lord. Although the
book barely had more than 3000 words, every sentence in the
book described an age of Darkness and horror. For an instance,
the book stated that in the Dark age, people would be stripped
away of their free will and enslaved to one master, the Dark Lord.
"The Dark Lord is here somewhere in the world Guardians" Until

now, the four of them thought the book was just something to
keep the Guardians in the line by making them afraid but now
looking at the Elder Guardian's face, they realized the truth and
felt a chill running through their spine. If what they had read is
true, the Dark Lord's first enemy was the Guardian guild and they
couldn't imagine a world full of slaves who were stripped away of
their free will.
"Elder Guardian, where is he now?!" the four of them immediately

asked in alarm as they now knew the threat is very real.
"I cannot sense his location, something or someone is preventing

me from sensing his location. However, I can sense his powers
grow by each day and he's already gained a powerful ally to aid
him in his war with us"
"Elder Guardian, how can we help you? Just say the word, the
entire hunter Guardians are at your disposal"? The pointy ears
woman put her hand on the chest and said.
"The Sorcerer Guardians are ready to serve justice!" One of the

men who stood behind the woman stepped forward and did the
same as the pointy ears woman.
"The Warrior Guardians are waiting for your command, Elder

Guardian!"
"The Beast Guardians are at your disposal, Elder Guardian!"
There was only a weak smile that could be seen on the Elder
Guardian's face as he knew that no one in this world can stop the
Dark Lord except one person, the Supreme Guardian.
However, the Supreme Guardian had sacrificed himself a long
time ago to keep the Dark Lord away from this world three
thousand years ago. The Supreme Guardian was not the only one
who sacrificed himself for this cause as all the Elder Guardians
also made the same sacrifice except the one before the Alpha
Guardians.
Everyone in the Guardian guild believed the Supreme Guardian

and the Elder Guardians were still alive considering they had all
reached the Immortal level a long time ago. Yet, the truth was not
what they believed till now.
"Elder Guardian, if what the Grimoire is real, then Elder Guardians

and the Supreme Guardian can stop the Dark Lord again right?"
Hearing the Guardian leader of the Hunter Guardians, the pointy

ears woman, the Elder Guardian decided that this is the time he
tells them the truth before he too passes away because he was
nearing the end of his life.
"You are confusing the Order of Death with the Dark Lord, Alpha
Guardian. Three thousand years ago, we stopped the Order of
Death, a cult with the purpose of serving the Dark Lord in his way
to world domination. It's time you know the secrets we kept from
the Guardian guild all these years. Until three thousand years ago,
the world was controlled by a dark cult, they called themselves,
the Order of Death. They had people everywhere, even in the
Guardian guild " the four of them were momentarily stunned by
the words of the Elder Guardian because the Guardian guild was
the hardest guild to get into as they had numerous ways to test
one's intention and purpose before making someone a Guardian.
Therefore, when they heard the Guardian guild was infiltrated by
the Order of Death three thousand years ago, they realized the
true power and the reach of this cult.
"It took us almost a hundred years to find out all the members of
the cult before waging war on them. We lost many Elder
Guardians in the war but eventually because of the SUpreme
Guardian, we killed all the cultists and destroyed everything they
had. However, after we dismantled the cult, we eventually
discovered that the cult believed, in the future, someone with
godly powers will appear and begin the Age of Darkness, the
Supreme Guardian called that someone the Dark Lord. For many
years after the war, the Supreme Guardian went such lengths to
confirm the information about the Dark Lord"
There was a small pause in the Elder Guardian's voice as his

mind recalled? that day the Supreme Guardian shared what he
found. That was the day the Elder Guardians had seen the
Supreme Guardian frightened for the first time in their life. Even
when he fought the Leader of the order, Valerin, the Supreme
Guardian wasn't afraid but that day, they saw the fear of God in
his eyes.
"The Grimoire you read is not just a book, it's the last words of the
Supreme Guardian himself" The words that came out of the Elder
Guardian stunned the rest of them because they didn't expect the
Gromiure was written by their leader, the Supreme Guardian. And
what shocked them most was the last part of what he said.
"Elder Guardian..."
"Yes, the Supreme Guardian is not with us, not for three last
millennials. And I'm the last living Elder Guardian" The day got
even worse as they received another blow to their heart by the
Elder Guardian. They didn't even know how to react to this grave
news.
"Without the Supreme Guardian, how are we going to face the

Dark Lord, Elder Guardian? Please guide us" The pointy ears
woman imminently dropped to her knees and pleaded and soon,
they all dropped to their knees because they didn't underestimate
the upcoming threat, a threat that was not only to the Guardians
but to the entire world.
"You cannot face the Dark Lord alone, there's only one person
who could defeat the Dark Lord"
"Who is he Elder Guardian?! My hunters will scour this world to

find him" The Alpha Guardian of the Hunter Guardians, the pointy
ears woman said with the newfound hope in her voice.
"The ring left behind by the Supreme Guardian has already found
its new master. I can sense he's still young and he's in the Elon
continent. Find him, find your new Supreme Guardian before the
Dark Lord. The fate of the world is now resting on that youngster's
shoulder" This was the Elder Guardian's last words before he
vanished from their sight and with this began the search for the
new Supreme Guardian.
At this moment, they had only heard very little about the Dark Lord
and the Dark age because the Supreme Guardian didn't write
everything he had seen in the future. What he wrote and
mentioned about the Dark Lord was just the tip of the huge
iceberg. Three thousand years ago, he knew if he had written
everything he knew, the future generations would have lost all
their hope and courage to fight the Dark Lord and his army. He
and his Elder Guardians sacrificed themselves to the gods to cage
the Dark Lord in a universe where there were billions of planets
with no energy to cultivate.
He hoped the Dark Lord would be born and die on a planet with
no energy but even the gods that helped him couldn't stop the
Dark Lord from coming to his world.
*************************
Many of you have already guessed our Female Lead but I want to
confirm the Female Lead myself.
Our Female Lead is none other than ....Sadie...
Hehehehe just kidding….It's our beloved snakey ===>>>> GAYA

!!!!!!!
Hail the QUEEN!!!!
Hope you all are happy with her being the FL and if you're not,
wait till you see the badass moments of Gaya in the future
chapters!
Chapter 97 - Another Day In
Noah’s Life I
At the moment, three figures were standing inside a temple atop a

mountain. The lush green forests and the waterfalls made the
scenery magnificent while giving them a soothing feel.
"If my guess is not wrong, they are planning to ambush us at

tomorrow's prayer ceremony" the one who said this was a young
man in pure white robes. On the youngster's shoulder, a golden
furred monkey sat relaxedly and munching on juicy red fruit. He
was none other than Noah and behind him, Alicia was standing in
silence.
"It seems Uncle Levi has no idea. Should we tell him?" The
youngster beside Noah said.
"We cannot alert anyone because that will also alert the assassin.
He may be an enemy of the Cooper family from a long time ago.
The Cooper family is one of the prominent families in Kethen and
they built this temple here. So I think the Cooper family would
have some kind of protection for such a grand ceremony" Noah
shook his head and explained.
"Quit worrying Abel, we will take care of everything, just keep

these juicy treats coming" The golden babaroo on Noah's
shoulder swallowed the last fruit and said as it turned its gaze at
Alicia with the wicked grin on his face.
"I don't have anything for you to eat" Alicia coldly said but it didn't
stop the golden babaroo from jumping onto her shoulder.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
The ringing of a large bell resounded as soon as daybreak began.

Warm sunlight shone on the big piece of land, the lights that
struck some parts of the temple reflected off the building, as
though a layer of the golden shield had covered it.
The ringing of the large bell lasted longer than usual. It was
because today was a special day, a day of the annual prayer
ceremony.
The second head priest of the temple, Levi who was middle-aged
and with red hair and a red goatee came in-person to invite Noah
and his friends. The three of them followed him to the front of a
big hall and stood beside a group of monks, waiting for the
Cooper family members to arrive.
Soon, a harmonious cloud appeared in the sky. On top of the

cloud, seven to eight people were standing, each of them was
wearing a luxurious robe. The person standing at the front-most
was a little girl who was merely about thirteen years old. She was
wearing a silky red dress and her hair was tied into two pigtails.
She looked extremely cute in her attire and had a face of an
angel.
Despite her little figure, she radiated a noble aura. It wasn't only
because of her cute-looking face, but her cultivation level. A girl as
young as her had already reached the Body Refining stage level
5, she was a god blessed child.
"Holy! This girl is a Body Refining stage level 5?"
Abel's eyes widened, unable to believe what he had just seen. A

Body Refining stage cultivator at the age of twelve or thirteen?
There were only a few of them like her in this continent. She must
have started cultivating while she was still in her mother's womb.
"This is Lord Cooper's daughter, Maisy Cooper. She is thirteen

years old this year and has just reached Body Refining state level
5. She is recognized as the Prodigy of the Kethen" Levi explained
as his words were full of pride and joy. Having a dazzling young
genius in the Cooper family was truly something to be proud of. In
truth, a Body Refining stage cultivator who was as young as her,
not only would be a genius in Kingdom Kethen but also across the
entire continent.
"The Cooper family is very fortunate to have such a genius," Noah

said.
Maisy Cooper and her family landed outside of the temple. It was
a rule that they had to walk from outside of the temple to the
temple, they were not allowed to do the opposite, which was
landing on the internal part of the temple. The rule was set to
show respect to the God of Peace.
Lord Cooper and his wife who were both Core Formation warriors
had gone to seclusion. Today's prayer ceremony would be led by
the Cooper family's genius and the heir to the Copper family,
Maisy Cooper. It was the family's honor to have her represent the
Cooper family and she would be the most eligible to lead the
ceremony in front of the Head Priest.
Maisy Cooper along with six others, three of them were the same
grade as her and three Body Strengthening stage level 3 and they
all reached the top of the mountain after a few minutes of climbing
the steps.
Maisy Cooper bounced in the direction of Levi and hugged him

the moment she saw him, "Uncle, I missed you so much!"
For a little girl, she possessed an inhuman strength. After

wobbling her uncle for two rounds, Levi almost lost his balance.
"Maisy, don't mess around, this is the temple"
Levi gave Maisy Cooper a fond and affectionate look. Although he

had become a priest, he couldn't help growing very fond of this
descendant of the Cooper family.
"huh? why are there so many outsiders here today?"

Maisy Cooper glanced at Noah and the others in surprise. She
didn't notice the monkey on Alicia's shoulder because the
mountain and the temple were home to hundreds of monkeys.
"These are guests. Maisy, go, kneel and bow down in front of the
Head Priest. I will introduce them to you later, I believe you will
like them," Levi said.
"Alright…"
Maisy Cooper hid her smile and returned to her serious face. She
took big steps towards the statue. She was only twelve years old,
but she was a lot more thoughtful than the other kids who were
the same age as her.
Boom!
When the little girl made her first step and was just about to make
the second, a rumbling as if from thunder was heard outside,
which shook the entire mountain.
"They are here"
Noah squinted. The planned assassination was for the Cooper

family or perhaps only for Maisy Cooper. Yesterday Noah couldn't
figure out the real intention of the assassination, but after seeing
Maisy Cooper today, it all made sense to him now. An exceptional
talent like her should be eliminated to clear off any obstacles in
the future.
"Who is it?" the smile on Levi's face disappeared as his face

turned serious.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
As soon as Levi's voice faded, silhouettes of different people flew

out from multiple directions towards the temple. There were about
twenty of them. Many of them were at the Body Strengthening
stage and the rest of them were all Body Refining stage level 10
except the leading man who was a Core Formation level stage 1
warrior.
"Haha…It seems today will be the last time of Cooper family's

annual thanksgiving ceremony."
A person laughed. He seemed to be in his forties or fifties, he had

a sturdy body behind his blue clothes.
"Stefan, what is the meaning of all this?"
An elder of the Cooper family gritted his teeth and said as hatred
filled his face.
"What is the meaning? You stupid old man, we are here to end
your pathetic lives. The surrounding areas are all sealed, so don't
even think about getting help from the Coopers outside"
Stefan announced without trying to hide his true intentions and the
killing intent in his eyes. There were two major powers in the city
of Oxfell in Kethen, the Cooper family and the Lane family. As the
saying goes 'a forest cannot be ruled by two lions', these two
families had been in a power struggle for so long, but the Lane
family had never intended to raid the temple of Peaceful valley
before. This was the reason that the Cooper family permitted
Maisy Cooper to lead the prayer ceremony and did not send
powerful warriors as her protection. They hadn't expected that the
Lane family would launch a surprise attack on the temple as this
place was always considered a neutral area.
"Humph you gathered all these men just to attack a little girl, Lane
family really has no shame"
"Maisy Cooper, the little genius of the Cooper family. You have
grown fast and I have to admit, your existence is a threat to the
Lane Family. Also, the Guardians are recruiting disciples, they
have only one slot remaining, thus only one can join the
Guardians guild. If you're alive, they will definitely choose you and
the Coopers will be untouchable but if you're dead before joining
the Guardians, the Lane family will have one less problem in the
future"
Stefan smiled maliciously. Apparently, the Lane family had been

preparing for this very day to come. They were informed that Lord
Cooper and Lady Cooper had left for seclusion leaving Maisy to
attend the thanksgiving, therefore they would be able to get rid of
Maisy Cooper in the temple while she was vulnerable to attack.
Noah's eyes glittered when he heard of the recruitment to join the

Guardians. He and Alicia were told not to reveal their identities as
the Guardians trainees while they were in Kethen because Peyton
already had enough mess to clean and didn't want Noah to make
more. Therefore, if Noah wanted to save the little girl from getting
killed, he had to do it without using the Guardians as his shield.
"Despicable!"
Levi's eyes were full of rage. "You people of the Lane family are
really despicable to come to the peaceful valley with such ill
intentions!"
"Fuck you and your God. After I'm done with this place, there will
be nothing but ashes. Then while the Coopers were searching for
their lovely daughter, we'll make our move and finish the Coopers,
once and for all"
Stefan was extremely cocky, today, he wouldn't let anyone from

the temple escape their deaths.
"Go! Kill everyone!" Stefan shouted. The warriors of the Lane

Family unleashed their auras, one of the Lane family's Body
Refining stage warriors broke the parts and decorations of the big
hall and stepped on the head of the statue of the God of Peace.
"Haha…You all worship this useless God, this is ridiculous." He

mocked and landed on the statue of a man, the God of Peace.
Boom!
A powerful aura suddenly rushed out from Abel's body and shot
out in all directions. Both of his eyes turned red and stared at one
of the Lane family members who was stepping on his God's head.
He had crossed Abel's line, it was totally unacceptable.
"Get down this instance!."
Abel's voice sounded like a clap of thunder and his words carried
a horrifying murderous aura. No one had expected that a calm
and insignificant youngster would suddenly step out to fight. All
the attention was shifted to him, including Maisy's, Stefan's, and
especially the one who was stepping on the statue's head.
Chapter 98 - Another Day In
Noah’s Life II
Those of the Lane Family who were placing their attention on their
arch-rivals, the Cooper family, and also on Levi, never once had
they thought that a young man would get mad. As far as they
were concerned, the ones that were provoked the most should be
the Cooper family and Levi. They had zero clues why a nobody
like him would get so furious about it, and the fiery aura unleashed
by him shocked them. He was also at the Body Refining stage as
the rest of the youngsters beside the little girl.
"huh? Who is this fool? It seems the Cooper girl brought some
friends of her own but too bad, all of you have to die today" Stefan
smiled coldly.
Abel didn't look at him. Now he was full of rage and glared at the
bastard who stepped on his God's head. He swore in his heart
that he wouldn't let this person live.
"Haha, kid Why are you so angry? Do you want to see me

breaking this statue with my feet?."
The Body Strengthening stage warrior ridiculed Abel's pointless

anger. His leg began to step harder creating a creaking sound as
tiny cracks started to appear on the statue's surface.
Noah and Alicia shook their heads helplessly. They felt pity for the
Body Refining stage. He was finished, no one on earth or heaven
could save him anymore.
"Come and die!" Abel roared. His whole body turned into light and
raced to his target. An illusion of a golden chakra struck the man
who was standing atop the statue. The speed and power of Abel's
attack made the man's expression change dramatically as he
didn't have time to react. The impact of the ferocious attack sent
the man flinging from the statue.
In the mid-air, Abel gripped the man by his neck and slammed
onto the ground below the statue. Abel had become like a
ferocious beast.
"You dare step on our God's statue? Die now!"
Abel exerted all of his strength and moments later, a sound of

'cracking' noise emerged. The scene became quite gory, they
were seeing a Body Strengthening stage level 8 warrior struggling
and screaming in pain under Abel's hold. Before anyone from the
Lane family could make a move to save him, his entire body was
torn in half as blood was pouring out from his body.
"Hiss!"
Everyone gasped in horror, especially the men from the Cooper

family, their eyes widened in shock. Everyone had underestimated
the youngsters because of their cultivation level but in reality, For
the next hour, Noah, Alicia, and Abel could easily kill anyone
under Body Strengthening stage level 9. It was because of three
reasons, first, the three of them were not normal cultivators, they
were freaks of nature, secondly, they had an Epic class spell in
their arsenal which boosted their power by multiple folds.
The last reason was before they came to the temple, Noah and
Alicia were chased by the hunters of Aragoth and this made Noah
concoct a rare pill that enhanced their power to battle anyone
under Body Strengthening stage level 9. The pill's effect would
only last for two hours and after two hours, they would be weak as
Foundation stage level 10 cultivators for three hours. However,
after killing the Lane family members, they would be perfectly safe
until they recover their strength in the temple.
Abel's power was beyond the Lane family members' expectations.

He was just at the Body Refining stage level 6, the gap between
him and the man he just killed was huge.
The Cooper family members' mouths opened wide out of surprise.
They didn't imagine a heaven-defying youngster like him had
come to the temple.
Judging by his means of killing, they instantly saw through that the
Cooper family's genius, Maisy, was no match for him.
"Fuck! Kill him! Kill everyone!" Stefan couldn't hold back his anger.
The attack made by the youngster was too fast as he didn't even
have a chance to save his underling. The Lane Family had lost
one valuable asset, a Body Strengthening stage warrior. He was
ordered to assassinate Maisy and everyone in the temple but one
of them was taken down before they could even attack their
enemy, this fact made him very furious.
"Norvin, you know what to do"
While everyone was momentarily stunned and focused on Abel,

Noah handed over a dark red vial to the golden babaroo. The
monkey let out an evil grin and sneaked towards Stefan without
making any noise.
"Crushing the statue…You have committed a mortal sin. None of

you can leave today, I will cleanse your sins by taking all your
lives" The fact he was on a super drug and Noah behind gave
Abel the courage to take on them with no hesitation.
Abel's tone was cold and serious. A thick murderous aura was
coming out from him. He was unquestionably furious. Despite the
fact he was studying to become a priest in the God of Peace
temple, he was a cold-blooded killer who killed people without
blinking his eyes. Now he couldn't stomach the fact that his God's
statue was being disrespected.
"I will get rid of you first"
Stefan raged and thrust forward without noticing the tinge of dark
red smoke under his feet. He was moving really fast but a
youngster in white clothes moved faster than Stefan and blocked
his way like a ghost.
"If you want to kill my friend, You have to go through me first"
The young lad in white clothes wasn't a stranger. He was Noah,

twenty years old now, slowly turning into an adult and filled with
heroic spirit.
"Fuck off!"
Stefan looked down on the young man that blocked him because
the youngster in front of him was just a? Body Refining stage level
8 cultivator. He couldn't find a reason to regard him as a threat as
he launched a simple palm attack summoning strong wind
towards Noah.
Noah confronted the attack simply by his fist, both attacks met
and created an impact and a loud explosion. Lines of cracks
appeared on the spatial area. Noah stood rooted at his position
and didn't move, while Stefan stepped three steps back to find his
balance.
"What?!"
Stefan exclaimed and stared at the white-clothed young man with

his big eyes. It was like he had seen a ghost. Both families
couldn't believe what they just saw.
"Who is this dude? He is only a level 8 Body Refining stage

cultivator but how did he force a Core Formation warrior to back a
few steps by just using his fist?"
The members of the Cooper family were amazed. A young man

with extraordinary power who was more powerful emerged in front
of them before they could even come out of the shock Abel gave
them.
"Wow!"
Maisy's little mouth opened. That time when she came in, she had
seen Noah, Alicia, and Abel, but she didn't pay much attention to
them, treating them casually. She hadn't expected that they had
hidden their powers so well.
When Noah was at Body Refining stage level 4, he could kill
anyone under Body Strengthening stage level 6. Now that he had
reached level 8 and took the strength-enhancing pill, killing
anyone under Core Formation level would be effortless. In truth,
Abel was never stronger than Noah even after he took the pill, but
he was powerful enough to kill a Body Strengthening stage level 8
cultivator. Since the effects of the red smoke would only last for
two minutes, Noah didn't want to waste any time as he decided to
kill Stefan as soon as possible. He left the rest of the Lane family
to Alicia, Abel, and Maisy to deal with and the Golden Babaroo
was another trump card that could kill any Body Refining stage
cultivators with its innate abilities.
"This young man, this is between us and the Cooper family. I hope
you won't interfere." Stefan was staring at Noah.
" I can't just stand here looking at you attack a little girl and
destroy the temple. If you dare to touch anyone or anything here, I
will take your souls" Noah coldly said. Sparkling light rays
emerged from his palm as he thrust in the direction of Stefan.
"Mythical Ray," Stefan shouted. Strong winds blew as his palm

moved, his eyes were red in anger. He couldn't believe that a
Core Formation warrior like him could not defeat a Body Refining
stage cultivator.
*Bang!*
Stefan's eyes were filled with terror when the light rays from
Noah's hand and his Mythical ray clashed. It was one of the skills
that he was so proud of but it wasn't effective to Noah. His
Mythical ray disappeared the moment it clashed with Noah's
attack. Again, he was pushed back and stumbled. He could only
find his balance to stand again moments later, but the unpleasant
feeling inside of him could not be expressed.
"Kill them all! Don't leave anyone alive."
At this time, Maisy roared and rushed towards one of the Body
Strengthening stage warriors.
"Kill!"
The Cooper family screamed, intensely and excitingly as they

couldn't help but feel excited after looking at the turn of events.
They thought that they were going to die today as the Lane
Family's number was overwhelming and they had no Core
Formation warrior with them to face Stefan. They hadn't expected
to see these two freakish youngsters. They were extraordinary
rescuers and one of them was even made a Core Formation level
warrior to his balance. This was a big turnaround of the situation.
Now they couldn't give their enemies any chance to live.
Bang!
In the intense battle, both parties were fighting with one another
with their skills, wanting to kill as many as they could. Alicia and
Abel quickly cast a layer of a seal as protection for the statue of
Peace God. They were afraid that the temple was going to be
destroyed by all the attacks and spells in the battle.
"Argh!"
Right after they finished casting the spell, a person screamed in

agony. He was a Body Refining stage who was taken down by
Maisy. Her little fist went straight through his forehead, it was as
violent as Abel's. This little girl was emotionless after killing him.
She possessed unlimited brute force, which was a rare attribute,
this made her extremely stronger and none of her peers who were
in the same grade as her could match her strength.
Levi and Alicia also attacked. With just a sway of her hand, Alicia
sent a couple of ice spikes at a Body Strengthening warrior and
before he could put a defense spell around him, the ice picked
pierced through his heart instantly taking his life.
*********************
Don't fret my dear readers, Overwhelming Badass moments of

Michael coming on the way and this is just me setting the stage!!!!
Chapter 99 - There Is Someone
Else
"Argh!"
"Argh!"
The intensity of the chaotic battle increased, followed by more

screams of agony. Abel and Maisy fought like a ferocious beast as
even some of the Body Strengthening level warriors were not their
match. Alicia was also scared the hell out of the Lane family
members with her powerful spells. Each time she moved, she took
a life.
The battlefield was tragic. All the buildings in the monastery were
almost destroyed, blood vaporized into the air, a stinging stench of
blood could be smelled everywhere. Such a massive battle
happening inside the monastery did not alert anyone outside
because Stefan had sealed the entire spatial area around the
temple.
In this intense battle, both parties suffered injuries and casualties,

especially the Lane family, but unlike Stefan's initial plan, only a
few members of the Cooper family suffered injuries. The Lane
family had lost more than half of their group not very long after the
battle had started. The remaining people were frightened to death
as their fighting spirit had dropped to almost zero. While the
Cooper family was just getting started.
As for the battle that was happening between the two strongest
men, Stefan was pressed on the ground and hit by Noah. One of
his arms was broken and torn away from his body, blood had
soaked his clothes in a helpless situation. Although the weakening
effects of the red smoke ended a couple of minutes ago, Noah
had done a number on Stefan and wounded him as he could.
When Stefan raised his head to look at Noah, he could see a very
relaxed and easygoing expression on his face. He suddenly felt
that Noah was toying with him. Noah could easily take his life at
the beginning.
"How did this happen!"
Stefan spurted blood. Even until now, Stefan had no clues that he
inhaled a cloud of smoke that weakened his cultivation level
temporarily.
He coughed up more blood because of the injuries he suffered,

both physically and mentally. As for the mental part, he felt
extremely miserable to be defeated by Body Refining stage level 8
cultivator.
"Master Lane, unlock the seal now, we can't fight anymore."
Someone shouted at Stefan while fleeing for his life from Alicia but
his life was ended by Alicia the very next moment. The seal was
supposed to lock the spatial area to prevent their enemies from
escaping. However the situation had changed, they realized that
they had trapped themselves instead, with no way to escape from
the place. The only person who could unlock the seal was Stefan.
Stefan himself also couldn't stand the battle any longer. He

summoned a talisman in his hand and threw it into the air. After it
rumbled, the invisible seal in the spatial area disappeared. Stefan
fled instantly, flying out from the battlefield.
"You damn kid, I will never forget this day, we will meet again!"
Stefan left a vengeful message and chose to flee. Too bad, Noah
wouldn't allow him.
"If you have chosen to flee in the very beginning, I won't be able to
chase you, but with your current state, fleeing is not an option for
you."
Noah's revealed a cold smile. At the moment when he struck
Stefan, he had already given him the death sentence. Noah
wouldn't allow a threatening enemy to escape from his grasp.
Someone like him, a Core Formation warrior would bring trouble
in the future.
Sling!
Noah slashed with his Sword and his slash sent a crescent shape
wave flying straight towards Stefan.
"No!!"
Stefan felt his life was endangered by the energy wave. It was too
fast and strong to defend himself with his current state.
"AH!" Stefan screamed and tried to cast a defensive spell but he

was too slow as the crescent shape wave cleaved his body in two
halves.
"What?!"
"Stefan is dead…We have to escape now!"
"That man is too strong. Our plan has failed. Let's run for our
lives!"
.....
Stefan's death was a fatal blow to the Lane family's fighting spirit.
From fearless fighters, they had become timid birds that flew away
in all directions.
"Kill them all, Don't let a single one from the Lane family escape!"
Maisy ordered and chased one of them at lightning speed while

swaying her fists in the air, crushing his head. Even though they
couldn't fight them anymore, they still had the ability to escape.
Despite the Cooper family and Abel frantically killing as much of
them as possible, several of them managed to escape.
To the Cooper family, this was an amazing battle that needs to be
recorded. The Cooper family was supposed to be the prey, but in
the middle of the fight, they had turned the situation around and
caused the Lane family to suffer many casualties, which included
a Core Formation warrior, Stefan. The Lane family would really
feel extremely disappointed and at the same time, they would
regret the decision of this attack on Maisy.
The battle had ended, but they couldn't calm down. They were
now staring at the demolished monastery. Fortunately, Abel and
Alicia's spell protected the buildings from being completely
destroyed by the battle. Many of them stared at Noah as this
handsome and white-clothed youth was undoubtedly their savior
today. They could imagine the tragedy that would happen if he did
not help out today. Their lives would all be in danger despite the
fact that Maisy possessed great talent.
"What's your name, big brother?"
Maisy came to Noah's side. Her sparkling eyes were fixed on him.
It was really hard to imagine an adorable girl like her had a violent
side when battling: as ferocious as a beast.
"I am Noah, Noah Winston"
Noah smiled and extended his arms to pinch Maisy's cheek. Noah
naturally felt pleased when a sweet little girl wanted to find out
about his name.
"Praise the God of Peace for sending all of you to help us. If not,
the consequences would have been disastrous."
Levi walked over, his words were full of gratitude. He felt very
fortunate that he had invited these three guests into the
monastery and gave them shelter disregarding Noah's situation
with Aragoth.
"Noah. This name is somewhat familiar."
An elder of the Cooper family tried to recall where he had heard

the name before.
"You are the one who caused trouble in the western Dradel!"
One of them recalled his identity and exclaimed when he saw the
golden babaroo and the ice-cold beauty beside him. He heard that
Noah had killed a disciple of Aragoth, which was very
extraordinary. There was also an angelic beauty and a monkey
that was always following him. Therefore, he found the connection
between them and determined that the young man is Noah.
"It seems that my name is well known, even in Kethen" Noah

smiled calmly, confirming his identity.
"Wah! So that Noah is you, big brother? I have heard the things
that you have done in Dradel, it was too awesome. I also heard
you're the second-best Alchemist of the young generation" Maisy
cheered. Her eyes stared at Noah in admiration, as though her
eyes were blinking like stars. The little girl's words reminded Alicia
the black-robed youngster who stunned everyone during the
Phoenix auction fair. The killing intent she saw in his eyes and his
disappearance without even a single scratch on him after facing
Julius's attack gave her goosebumps.
"So you are brother Noah. No wonder you were able to kill a Core
formation warrior. If it wasn't for your intervention today, our
Cooper family would have lost our little miss. This is a great
kindness to us, please accept my gratitude."
One of the elders of the Cooper family said solemnly. The others
followed his actions and also showed their gratitude to Noah.
They tried to think about what would have happened if Noah
wasn't here and felt extremely grateful towards Noah for saving
Maisy and them.
"Not much courtesy is needed. Big brother is one of us now."
Maisy was very mature for her age. Despite seeing Noah for the
first time, she didn't regard him as a stranger anymore and began
to see him as her own brother.
Noah couldn't help but laugh. This little girl did really have a good
attitude and reminded him of his little sisters. Therefore, he liked
her instantly.
"I'm here you know"
Abel couldn't stand the situation anymore. His contribution on the

battlefield was not meager, but everyone turned their attention to
Noah, totally neglecting his presence.
"Erm, this is Abel, he is also studying under one of the Peace

God's temples to be a priest" Noah quickly introduced him to
Maisy.
"A fellow priest, welcome to the peace valley Abel," said Levi.
Everyone's attention now shifted to Abel, including Maisy's.
"What about me? If it wasn't for me gassing Stefan, Noah couldn't

have defeated him" The golden babaroo rolled its eyes and
complained.
The members of the Cooper family were astonished as Alicia

pitched the monkey's cheeks to shut his mouth.
"What a cute little monkey? What's his name?" Maisy immediately

reached her hands towards Norvin to pet him with sparkling eyes.
"Hey!" Norvin tried to escape from being petted by the little girl but
Alicia grabbed him by his neck and handed him over to Maisy.
"So cute!" Maisy squeezed Norvin and rubbed his head while
everyone watched the little girl with a gentle smile on their faces.
"Big brother, you and I hit it off even if we just met for the very first
time. All of you must come to our Cooper family and be our guest.
When my mom and dad know about this, they will be more than
thankful to you"
Maisy's tone was aggressive and determined, it gave them a very

hard time to decline her offer.
"Alright, since you're being gracious, we will definitely come with

you"
Noah said with a smile. He was very clear that once he entered
Oxfell, he would be involved in the strife between the Lane and
Cooper family. Although he had killed one of the Lane family's
members, this wasn't the end and they wouldn't just leave it like
that. He sighed inside thinking about Peyton as she told him to
stay out of trouble but he just did the opposite.
"So brother Noah, are you going into the Nether Realm?" while
they were walking towards the main temple, Maisy asked
curiously.
"Of course"
"Yey! We should go together" Noah was surprised but he had no

intention to stop the little girl because she needed real-world
experience to hone her skills and the NEther realm was a perfect
place to do so.
"Why is a little girl like you entering the Nether realm?" Norvin
asked after getting tired of trying to get out of the little girl's clutch.
"Grandma said I will find a baby dragon if I go there!"
"Eek" when she mentioned the words baby dragon, she squeezed
Norvin more in excitement as Noah could tell Maisy's desire for
getting a baby dragon.
However, the little girl didn't know there is someone else also
looking for a baby dragon and would do anything to get his hands
on a baby dragon.
Chapter 100 - No Secrets
Between Two Best Friends
"Finally I have some time to check my stats'' After taking a bath in

the small lake in Abyssal, Michael and Gaya cleaned the place. Of
course, Gaya protested to clean the place but after Michael
agreed to let her sample the dishes in the restaurant he's going to
build, she did her part without bitching about it.
Since Michael had no need to cultivate like others, when he

returned to the sect, he hit the bed and took a long nap. Gaya
went to the forest to practice her archery and hunt some wild
boars. She planned to hand over her hunt to Raylene and stuff her
belly as usual. He was alone in his room and entered the system
the moment he woke up.
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 2
Lord Lucifer of the Abyssal
Status: Healthy
Rebuild the Order of Death

point(s))
The Abyssal
He almost forgot he checked his stats after taking the pain inducer
pill. The pain he felt at that time was the reason for his negligence.
"First things first, system how much I owe you?"
[22,000 badass points, Host!]
"Take it and make me debt-free" he didn't feel upset or bad to see

22,000 badass points fade away in a second but on the contrary,
he felt relieved. Now that he's debt-free, he could take another
loan if ever needed it.
"Let's do some upgrades, Ignitia" he selected his main offensive

spell and stared at the upgrade details. The next upgrade would
cost him 8,000 Badass points and after upgrading it, he could fire
lightning bolts from both of his hands. Plus, the power of the
lightning bolts would double as anyone under Body Strengthening
stage level 8 would be severely injured or killed in an instant if
they didn't cast a powerful defense spell to defend themselves
from the lightning bolts.
"System, upgrade the Ignitia to level 2"
[Good choice host] he was now quite familiar with the system's
occasional human-like comments, he watched the badass points
drop from 56,000 to 48000 and it was totally worth it as far as he
was concerned.
Then he gazed at another one of his main spells, Lightning Dash.

Ever since the assassins tracked his moves when he was using
the Lightning dash, he wanted to upgrade the spell. Because
Lightning Dash enabled him to move extremely faster than his
enemies, he utilized this speed to attack his enemies before they
could even react or cast a defense spell. After upgrading the
Lightning dash to level 2, he could use it with the Ignitia, as usual,
to become literally untouchable in a battle.
"System, upgrade it to level 2"
In a flash, another 10,000 Badass points disappeared leaving him

with 38,000 Badass points. With these two upgraded spells,
anyone under Body Strengthening stage level 8 had no chance of
surviving a battle with Michael but he wanted to increase his
power further to the point that he wanted to kill anyone in the Body
Strengthening stage with not much trouble. Of course, while he
was on Lucifer's persona, no one in the Body Strengthening stage
could match him because of the fear toxin and Death Range skill.
"Do I have to buy a new spell?"

Michael asked himself and began to rummage through the
system's store but not a single spell appeared to be a must-have
or increased his strength.
Therefore, he decided to find or buy a new spell and learn it

through the Mentor function without spending any more Badass
points on spells.
"Open the Subordinates window" Right after he exited the system

store, he entered the subordinates window with two people in his
mind. One was Jack who had the trait of Blacksmith and Raylene
who Michael guessed would have the trait of a Chef considering
her cooking skills.
Both of them would be good investments to him, especially

Raylene as he was about to open up a restaurant to make more
gold coins.
"System, assume Raylene has the trait of a one-star chef, how

many badass points it would cost me to make her a 3-star or a 4-
star?"
[10,000 Badass points to upgrade her ability to 3-star chef and

15,000 Badass points for the latter]
"Alright, what about Jack?"
[30,000 Badass points to turn him into a 3-star Blacksmith and

40,000 to turn him into a 4-star Blacksmith. Remember Host, 3
star Blacksmith cannot forge anything above medium quality
Rare. If you want your subordinate to forge you a high-quality
Rare weapon, you have to make him a 4-star Blacksmith]
"What about Epic weapons and Legendary Weapons?"
[Epic weapons can only be forged by a 5-star Blacksmith and

Legendary Weapons require a 6-star Blacksmith who must be at
the Core Strengthening stage]
"Hmm, makes sense. For now, I'll only take Raylene as my

subordinate and make her a 4-star Chef"
The reason for the cost difference between turning Raylene into a
star chef and Jack into a star blacksmith was the latter had the
ability to increase one's power, unlike a chef. Fortunately, the low
cost of making Raylene a 4-star chef worked in his way as he was
planning to build not just one restaurant but restaurant chains all
over this world.
Other than the high cost of making Jack a 3 or 4-star level

blacksmith, he first wanted to first enter the Nether realm and
search the realm for a better weapon. Since he already bought the
Lucky Cat tavern, a chef to cook delicious food took the top place
on his priority list.
"Should I make her a 5-star chef?"
[yes you should host! It's only 20,000 Badass points]? the system
sounded very excited but Michael hesitated because of Raylene's
safety. He wouldn't always be around to save her if someone tried
to capture her because of her talent.
Therefore Michael wanted to know Gaya's thoughts before

deciding because she would know more about the chefs and their
demand in this world more than him.
He exited the system and jumped down from his bed to check out
his herbal garden. It was time he had new pills and potions to the
store other than the Revitalization pill, healing potion, and Arch
Energy boosters.
Just as he was about to step out of his house, he saw Gaya

dragging a huge wild boar and when she saw him, she waved and
smiled at him.
She then picked out the arrow that was sticking out of the boar's
head.
"I want this boar roasted, where the heck is Raylene?"
"Walk with me," He said and began to walk in the direction of the
herbal garden as Gaya followed him behind reluctantly leaving the
boar behind.
"What do you know about star chefs?"
"What star-level chef are you talking about?"
"Tell me about a 4-star?"
"They are hard to find but not impossible. Back in Nagaland, we

had two 4-star chefs, now that you reminded them, I'm craving for
some lamb chops they used to make me " Even after she was
healed, she still continued to eat like usual. This very morning she
ate two pies and a whole lot of biscuits before going into the forest
to catch something for lunch.
"Don't tell me you're also a 4-star chef" Michael shook his head
with a soft smile as she sighed.
"Then what about the 5-star chefs?" she became very curious and
wanted to know why he was asking about the chefs.
"Those bastards are very rare, just as rare as a 5-star Alchemist.

There's only a couple of 5-star chefs in Elon, I heard there's one in
the Royal land and one in the main branch of Ruby Cuisine in
Kethen" The Ruby Cuisine was the restaurant he met Peyton and
Xanali and offered to join the Guardians as their trainee.
"Let's assume Raylene is a 5-star chef, do you think someone will

try to kidnap her?" His words made her halt her steps and frown.
She sensed he's up to something and wanted to know what.
"Are you hiding something from me?" She valued honesty in this
friendship and didn't want any secrets between them. That was
why she decided to reveal everything about her over a slice of
juicy boar meat.
Except for the existence of the system, he too wanted to share

everything with her because she regarded her as his best friend
and partner in crime after she reached 95% loyalty. After seeing
Damien and hearing about the prophecy, he had a feeling that
there's something more to his transmigration from the earth. His
instincts told him that soon he would learn more about his
transmigration and at that time, he didn't want it to be a secret
between them that might break her trust.
[Also, if you tell Gaya that you and Abras are the same person,
the system will deduct badass points. Abras is a textbook beta
and the system does not want the host to accept a beta persona]
just as he was thinking about what to tell her and whatnot, the
system sounded in his mind. It was a tone of warning and he
could feel the gravity of the system's warning.
Fortunately, he had a perfect cover story that had a mix of truth

and lies that would perfectly make sense to Gaya without
exposing his biggest secret, the system.
"It's time I tell you who I am and where did I come from"
Chapter 101 - I Will Take
Everything From Him
"We are alone, now tell me about your past" the two of them were
at one of the mountain peaks of the Sunrise sect, alone. Sitting on
the edge, they could see the entire Sunrise sect and even the
river town in the distance.
Michael used the time he spent getting to the mountain peak to

piece all the lies and truths together so she wouldn't doubt him.
Looking at her face, he took a long deep breath.
"What I'm going to tell must stay between us"
"You can trust me human, I'm your friend" It wasn't a surprise to

Michael seeing the sincerity in her eyes, after all, she reached
95% loyalty. Besides, Michael regarded Gaya as his only friend
nowadays.
"I'm not from this world Gaya, I came from another world"
"What?! You're kidding me, hahaha hilarious"? she began to laugh

and it was obvious that she didn't believe his words but her
laughter faded away when she stared at his serious face.
"You're serious?" she asked with a shaky voice as Michael

nodded.
"Yes, I was brought here from my world by a mysterious light"

Michael saw the confusion on her face and continued, "after the
light brought me to a place called the sanctuary, where a group of
people protected the-"
"The Cosmic stream" Gaya finished his sentence and began to

shiver with no control over her body. For the moment Michael
ignored her shock and went on, "when the light brought me there,
the sanctuary was burnt to the ground by the soldiers of Thusia.
One of the men they killed looked just like me, his name was
Abras. Before he died, with the help of that mysterious light, he
merged his soul fragment with me leaving all his memories and
knowledge to me" Except for the part about the mysterious light
and the truth about his original body, what Michael said was true.
Gaya stared at him blankly for a few moments in silence and
analyzed everything she just heard in her mind.
First of all, he didn't look like he was lying and the more she
thought about this, what he said made sense. Most people in the
world had no clue about the sanctuary and the cosmic stream and
only a few people had heard about the two but they considered it
as a myth. However, the ancestors of the Nagas believed in the
existence of the Cosmic stream and the sanctuary. Some of the
ancestors were somehow able to leave clues about their
existence and the treasure they were protecting. The Nagas also
believed the sanctuary was home to countless secret long-lost
knowledge and only the protectors were able to grasp this
wisdom.
By taking all the memories of Abras, Gaya believed that Michael

was able to get hold of this ancient knowledge, hence, he was
able to heal her crippled cultivation and perform many
unbelievable feats.
"System, do me a favor"? Gaya saw him close his eyes for a

moment and then open after a few seconds.
"Close your eyes" Gaya felt his warm hand on his shoulder as she
closed her eyes. The very next moment, she felt a hot surge in her
brain as she started to experience Abras's betrayal and pain. With
the help of the system, Michael made Gaya feel what he feels.
"AHHHHHHH!" Soon, Gaya's body twitched violently as she

roared in anger and pain. Michael was able to control his anger
and pain because of the many years of training and meditating but
she had no training, therefore, when Michael made her feel
Abras's pain, she lost her mind for a few moments because of the
immense grief and anger.
Following her mad roar, she started to bleed through her ears and
nostrils. Michael withdrew his hand and waited for her to break out
of this misery.
"Is...this..how you feel?" He saw her teary eyes and heard her
stutter.
"Yes, Abras and I may be two different people but when the light
merged his soul fragment with mine, I have not only his
knowledge and memoirs but also his pain, grief, anger, and all of
his feelings. Before he left this world, I promised him I'd avenge
him and his people, no matter what"
"How are you still here and not on Thusia?" Since Gaya felt
Abras's feelings, she wanted to burn the entire Thusia to the
ground and rip Layla into pieces.
"Because I'm not stupid. Thusia seized the cosmic stream, which
means they have a powerful source of energy in their hands, the
only way to get my revenge is to become stronger, stronger than
King Thusia and then, I will take everything from him"
"WE will take everything from him, human" She squeezed his
hand and decided to avenge Abras together after experiencing his
emotions.
"But the longer we wait, the stronger they grow human, we should
act sooner rather than later" She feared that with the use of the
Cosmic stream, the king of Thusia and all his men would grow
exponentially stronger and become impossible to kill.
"The Cosmic stream is a source of pure energy, much much more

powerful than the Arch Energy but although he has the Cosmix
stream, he can't absorb its energy continuously, unless he wants
to explode into million tiny pieces"
"Still, his cultivation speed would be insane"
"Yes but don't forget I have a Wargod body, courtesy of the

mysterious light. Let him have his fun with the Cosmic Stream for
now" They fist-bumped and grinned devilishly.
"Did you see the mysterious light you were talking about again?"
Since she believed he told her everything, she felt happy. She
could tell that he trusts her as she trusts him.
"No, after Abras's soul fragment merged with my soul, I woke up

days after near the forest of the River town. You know what
happened next"
"You saved me" she grabbed his hand and held it against her
chest tightly. Even to this second, she could close her eyes and
recall the first time she saw him vividly in her mind. At that time,
she didn't know he would be her savior and best friend. Both of
them came a long way since then and now, they were like a nail
and flesh.
"Will it hurt you to turn Raylene into a star chef? The last time you
used your knowledge to heal me, you almost died" he could sense
the concern in her voice and it warmed his heart because no one
ever worried about him before. He wanted to treasure this feeling
and her friendship. The arrogant haughty snake is his best friend
now and he would do everything to protect her and he knew she
would do the same for him.
"Don't worry, it won't but you have to keep an eye on her when I'm
in the Nether realm. We don't want to lose our head chef, do we?"
"I'll take care of our business while you're away, human and
speaking of human, is Ghost your real name?"
"I will tell my name when you do something nice for me, until then,
you have to call me Ghost"
"You ruined a perfect moment, bastard" Rolling her eyes, she

punched him on the shoulder seeing she failed to know his name.
"Also, while I'm in the Nether Realm, you have to kill these people,
Lucifer style" Michael retrieved a list of criminals in his list and
their whereabouts and handed it over to Gaya. He wanted to
spread the legend of Lucifer around the kingdom more so people
would come to believe him as a Vigilante who kills the criminals
and cleanse the kingdom of the sinners.
"Kill 8 random criminals and 2 enemies of our own and people
would think that two as the victims of Lucifer rather than the
enemies of Ghost, nice plan. Do you want me to dress as Lucifer
too?"
"I have something for you" Michael closed his eyes and entered
the system to get her something awesome like his suits of armor.
"I put the armor you should wear in our space ring" a few seconds
after, Michael opened his eyes and said. The suit of armor he
chose for her was none other than a female version of his Lucifer
armor. It cost him 5000 Badass coins to buy the new suit of armor
for her and now he had 33,000 badass points remaining.
"Cool"
"I also put a few bottles of fear toxin inside, remember to apply the
fear toxin on the suit and leave no evidence behind except the
mark of Lucifer"
"Finally some action" Excitement filled her eyes and she couldn't
wait to hunt some criminals at night like her friend.
"We should go now" Since he told her everything she has to do

while he's in the Nether realm, he could enter the Nether realm
with no worries. For now, the only things he had to do was turn
Raylene into a 5-star chef and start his first high-end restaurant as
well as making new products for the Majestic.
As for the interior and the design for the restaurant he had
ristorante la sponda in Italy in his mind. He dined in this fine
restaurant when he was on a job in Italy and liked the elegant
atmosphere. Plus the Lucky Cat tavern was a perfectly suitable
place for this makeover. During the daytime, Gaya could put
together a group of talented builders to achieve his vision and
continue to renovate the sect.
***************************
Now that I'm finished establishing the backstory and necessary

fillers, I can jump onto the juicy action part!!!!
Nether Realm Ark / Lucifer will begin from the next chapter….Stay
tuned!
Chapter 102 - To The Nether
Realm
From the Earth comes the bounty of diversity, the herbs were
rising toward the sun, showing off their lush green and sparkling
colors as if they were in a carnival parade. The green herbs made
a green quilt for the senses upon the flower bed. Michael's herbal
garden was a sort of binary - the neat areas were very, very neat
and the wild areas were very, very wild. The two extremes right
next to one another enhanced one another. The garden was
neither too small nor too big but it was the size of a typical green.
Because of the effects of the fertilizer Michael got from the

system, the herbs had grown quicker and healthier. Some herbs
grew as tall as an average man while some flowers were as big as
a ten years old child.
"Don't water the Dragon root too much and Jack, get away from
the Angel Catnip" Elder Reiner who taught herbology in the
Sunrise sect was walking through his new favorite place,
Michael's herbal garden.
He was supervising the disciples and ensuring the herbs grow as

healthier as they could. Ever since Michael began to grow the
herbs in the garden, the old shaggy land became a lush garden
that filled the surrounding air with soothing therapeutic fragrance.
While Elder Reiner was supervising the disciples, he saw sect

leader Claire rushing towards him.
"Elder Reiner, have you seen Ghost?"
"No-"
"Jack!"? She didn't even wait for Elder Reiner to finish his
sentence as she shouted at Jack.
"Are you searching for me, Sect Leader Claire?" Just as Jack was
about to point his fingers at the figures walking towards them,
Claire heard Michael's voice and turned back.
"Thank god you're here, why aren't you at the auction fair, and
WHOA!" when her eyes fell on Gaya, shock and surprise took
aback Claire. The mortal girl who was following around Michael
had turned into a Body Refining stage level 3 cultivator in just a
matter of days.
Everyone except one person swarmed around Gaya like ants

around a sugar cube. Michael stepped aside and let Gaya have
her moment. He knew the snake loved attention and admiration.
Claire and Elder Reiner stared at Gaya speechlessly while Gaya
stood there with a smug face.
Michael could tell she is itching to reveal her real cultivation level.
"How do you…?"
"I was lucky enough to find a ten thousand years Hazel lotus on
my way from Phoenix island to here. He made me a potion using
it and boom, my cultivation talents went straight up" said Gaya
proudly. The Hazel lotus was not a made-up herb but a real rare
herb that could revitalize the Arch Energy roots in one's body. A
ten thousand years old Hazel lotus could indeed make an
incompetent cultivator into a genius and although they didnt find
the herb in truth, its medicinal quality helped the both of them
come up with the story to cover up Gaya's sudden transformation.
"Come here" After Claire came out the shock, she let out a wide
grin and reached her arms to embrace Gaya.
"Hey" Gaya tried to step back but her effort was wasted as Claire
took her into her arms in a loving embrace.
"Oh shit" In the scene, the only person who seemed horrified and
kept his distance from Gaya was Jack. Even when she was a
mortal girl, she beat him on a regular basis, and now Jack couldn't
even imagine what she would do to him. He cried inside and
prayed to the gods, "Oh mighty God, please bless your child with
enough strength to endure the beating he's going to receive"
Michael chuckled inside seeing Jack praying looking at the sky.
"I'm so happy for you Aelia, we should celebrate this" Claire spoke
while squeezing Gaya as she tried to wiggle herself out of the hug
and threw a 'help me' glance at Michael.
"Why did you want to find me, Sect Leader Claire?" Michael
helped his friend by asking Claire.
"Oh yes," Claire seemed like she remembered something

important and let go of Gaya.
"The Nether realm is not opening next week, they are opening the
gates today"
"What? Why?" Gaya asked as Claire sighed, "I think it's related to
the recent Netherel attack in River town. Summoning the
Netherels may have weakened the layer between our world and
the Nether realm. However, it doesn't matter why, if you want to
enter the Nether realm, go to Sarton now"
"Then I guess I'm leaving now" Michael had good feelings about
the Nether realm and wanted to steal all of its riches.
"Girl, are you planning to enter the Nether realm with him?" Elder
Reiner looked at Gaya and asked.
"Nah, he can have this one" Considering the Nether realm has
security measures against people who were above the Body
Refining Stage, she didn't dare to try to enter the Nether realm.
The last time when someone tried to enter the Nether realm hiding
his Body Strengthening cultivation, he was turned into ashes the
moment he stepped into the Nether Realm.
"Brother Ghost, watch out for the Broad river sect. They tend to
pick a fight with our sect every time we enter the Nether realm"
One of the female disciples said and drew Michael's attention.
"Lena!" Claire's shout immediately made the girl shut her mouth
before she could say more.
"Are we forgetting who he is, Sect Leader Claire?" Elder Reiner

asked Claire and his words reminded her of Michael's position as
Guardian.
"Broad River sect huh, they are from Sarton, right? What's their
beef with you guys?" Gaya curiously asked Claire.
"No reason, they just like to bully our disciples whenever they get
a chance like everyone else" On earth, people needed a reason to
become enemies but in this world, cultivators tend to follow the
rule of the jungle, the strong prey on the weak. Michael
understood the meaning of Claire's words, since the Sunrise sect
was weak, it became an easy target for everyone to bully and this
Broad River sect was just another bully on the block.
"Let's hope they will cross paths with me," Michael said with a
calm face but they could see the cold killing intent in his eyes.
Killing them would be like hitting two birds with one stone for him
as he could earn experience points and declare to everyone that
not to mess with his sect.
Unlike before, Michael had a Core Formation level cultivator with

him, therefore he didn't have to worry about killing them. Only the
big sects like Golden Valley or Morning star had Core Formation
cultivators for the inner and core disciples but in a normal sect,
Elders or the Sect Leader would be the Core formation-level
cultivator.
Now that he had to leave the sect as soon as possible, there were
still some things he should take care of. "System, I need a pair of
long-range earpiece,"
"1000 Badass coins and you can talk to each other across realms"
"I will buy those and add a transmitter on one of them so I can
keep track of Gaya"
"Sure thing but it'll cost you another 500 badass points"
"Just take it and add her location to my Environmental scanning"

Compared to 500 badass points her safety was more important to
Michael. After what happened at the Phoenix island, he didn't
want to be in the dark again when she's in danger.
Besides, he could use her help inside the Nether realm because
she told him that she entered it once. Also, if Jane tried to do
something stupid again like sending assassins to kill him, he
would be able to walk Gaya through what to do next.
"I'll go see Raylene before I leave, Aelia come with me"
"Yep," He nodded at Claire and Elder Reiner, and then, he gently

grabbed Gaya's hand before activating the newly upgraded
Lighting Dash for the first time.
Whoosh!
Literally in a flash, both of them disappeared from their sight.

Before upgrading the Lightning Dash to level 2, one could see tiny
blue bolts of lightning left behind after Michael disappeared and
now the blue bolts turned into gold ones. For Michael, he could
feel his speed had almost tripled.
"Eeek, my head's spinning"
"Brother Ghost!" Before even Gaya could steady herself, she

heard little Cindy's voice and looked up to see the little girl
throwing herself at Michael.
Gaya couldn't understand why this little girl became so excited

and happy every time she saw Michael and he too seemed
delighted to see her.
"There you are" Michael pecked on Cindy's soft cheeks and lifted
her up. Soon after seeing Michael's sudden appearance, Raylene
rushed out of her house which was given to her by Claire.
"Master Ghost, Ricky said you went to Phoenix island"

"Yeah I did, Cindy go play with your friends, your mom and I have
to talk alone"
"What about Sister Aelia? Can I play with her?" Cindy excitedly
asked Michael, "You can play with her later, now go play with your
friends" Michael placed the little girl down and received a loving
kiss on his cheek from Cindy.
Cindy then ran happily in the direction of her friends.
"Raylene, come with me" Hearing Michael, Raylene followed him

and Aelia into her house. It was time he made Raylene his
subordinate.
Even though the house was old and small, Raylene kept it clean
and presentable. Gaya's nose twitched because of the delicious
aroma in the air and suddenly felt hungry.
"Raylene, do you trust me?" Michael asked with a serious face.

The question surprised Raylene but she took a deep breath and
answered honestly,
"Master Ghost, you saved us and gave us a home when I and the
children had nowhere to go. The food we are eating is yours, I
have nothing to give it to you except my life if you ask for it, my life
is yours " Without her control, Raylene's eyes became watery.
"Will you be my subordinate and serve me well?"
"Yes," Gaya surprised to see Raylene drop to her knees asking no

questions.
[Does the host wish to accept Raylene as a subordinate?]
"Yes"
Subordinate: Raylene
Cultivation Level:
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
Trait: Cook
Right out of the bat, she was 97% loyal towards Michael, unlike a
certain someone. He was happy to confirm her trait was indeed
Cook and now he could turn her into a 5-star chef.
While she was kneeling in front of him, he placed his hand on her
head
"I'm going to make you a 5-star Chef and head chef of all my
future restaurants and hotel chains. I will give you 30% of the
profits and the resources for you and Cindy to cultivate. Serve me
well" Raylene was speechless and almost fainted on the spot
"System, make Raylene a 5-star Chef" Right after this, Gaya saw
a bright light emerge from Michael's hand and cover the body of
Raylene for a few seconds as she closed her eyes.
When the light disappeared, Raylene slowly opened her eyes and
looked at Michael like she was looking at a god.
"System, I need the blueprint and the interior design of ristorante

la sponda"
He spent another 500 Badass points and bought the blueprint and
the interior design to transform the Lucky Cat tavern into a stylish
high-end Restaurant.
"Here, put this in your ear" Michael then looked at Gaya and
handed over the small earpiece to her. While she was staring and
curiously fiddling around the earpiece, he took out the thin book
that had the blueprint and the interior designs.
"Master Ghost-"
"Show your gratitude and loyalty in your actions" Michael

interrupted Raylene with a wave of his hand and said.
Raylene was still in shock but the tears of overwhelming joy
gushing out of her eyes like water breaking out of a dam.
"I will, Master Ghost" It took several seconds for Raylene to wipe
away her tears and exclaim. Michael just nodded with a smile and
disappeared out of her sight with Gaya.
"I want our restaurant to look like this, you can make a few
changes if you want" In a few seconds, Michael reached the
border of the Sunrise sect and handed over the book to Gaya.
"Just don't die alright?" She punched him in the shoulder playfully.
"I'll try"
Chapter 103 - Nether Realm I
"What is this thing, how can I still hear you?" While Michael was
on his way to Sarton, he heard Gaya's voice through his earbud.
"It's called earbuds, I can talk to you even after I entered the
Nether realm"
"Where did you get it?"
"It's among the few things that mysterious light left me with. We
can not only talk to each other through this but also I can find you
wherever you are, so you won't get your snakey ass kicked like at
the Phoenix island"
"You're not going to drop this, are you?" She could tell he was
enjoying teasing her.
"Nope!" She proved the much-needed entertainment on his way to

Sarton.
"Now that I think about it, I don't have to put up with your shit for
five long days and I'm gonna enjoy every second of it" She
sounded elated.
Yet, he knew she's going to miss him. After running for half an
hour, he began to see the outer walls of Sarton and carriages on
his way. Inside the city walls, Michael could sense a fluctuation in
Arch Energy and saw a crowd of people going towards the center
of the city.
"Hey!"
"What was that?'
"Is that lightning?"

After a golden lightning bolt passed by them, people were stunned
and they had no idea it was Michael who just ran past them.
Michael's full focus was on the center of the city where he sensed
the Arch Energy fluctuations, so he didn't stop by to look around
his surroundings and enjoy the view in the daytime. The last time
he came to Sarton, he came by the night to slaughter a group of
criminals to spread the legend of Lucifer.
**********************
At the moment in the center of Sarton, Noah was standing in there

and waiting for the portal to the Nether realm to open with his
friends. Beside him, Abel was gawking around and looked
extremely nervous.
"Calm down Abel, Peyton said she will take care of it and we
believe her" Norvin lazily lied on Noah's shoulder and said.
Suddenly, five groups of people flew towards the crowd from

different directions at a very fast speed. Many people who were in
lower level cultivation such as the Body Refining stage couldn't
even catch a glimpse of their silhouettes and even Noah and his
group of geniuses barely caught a glimpse of their figures. They
appeared above the sky within a split second.
It was like they had made an appointment for a meeting as they

had all appeared at exactly the same time.
Their emergence quietened the crowd down at the scene. An

intense Aura was released from their bodies like a high tide wave
in the sea, totally covering the sky. The people felt pressured by
these auras that their souls shivered slightly, stirring up their
sense of admiration for them. One group wore casual but noble
clothes while the other four wore clothes that looked like uniforms.
The silhouettes were Gerard Atkins of the Guardians Guild, Royce

Camden of the Morning Star, Hazel Belmont of the Silvermoon,
Edgar Godfrey of Aragoth, and Dean Byrne of the Golden Valley.
If Michael was here he would recognize his one-night stand, Sadie
Kaplan who was standing behind Hazel Belmont, her teacher.
Besides Sadie, there were also familiar faces of Evan, Victoria,
and Celina among the people in the sky.
"Sigh" Abel sighed when he noticed Peyton and Xanali behind

Gerard Atkins who was a dark-haired man with a sturdy body.
Everyone's gaze fell upon them with burning eyes, especially

those rogue cultivators and some disciples of minor powers. They
were all excited to be able to see the legendary figures of Bredia
and Elon in person. It wasn't something that they had even dreamt
of, especially seeing the famous legendary Guardian, Gerard
Atkins. This matter was enough for them to boast in front of those
who didn't have the chance to come when they returned.
Edgar was wearing greyish armor on his sturdy body. After he

arrived, one of the youngsters behind him murmured something in
his ears looking at Noah and his group immediately after he saw
them. The youngster recognized Noah by his pure white clothes
and the Golden babaroo on his shoulder.
"Who the heck is Noah Winstons and how dare you kill one of my
disciples?"
Edgar raged. A strong aura suddenly rushed out of his body,

inciting fear among the crowd.
After his sentence was finished, everyone both in the sky and land
fixed their eyes on Noah. Gerard was the one who was surprised
the most. Back when Peyton told him that she found the
replacement for Ghost of the River town, Noah was merely a Body
Refining stage level 4 warrior. Within a short period of time, he
had reached level 8, this kind of cultivation speed really startled
him.
Yet, even though he was surprised by Noah, he was the calmest

of all. Gerard gave a nod of approval at Peyton for finding a
genius for the trainee guardian position.
"Humph! Do you think you can kill my disciples and escape the
wrath of Aragoth?" Edgar made a cold humph. He launched an
attack with his palm-like claw at Noah. Who wouldn't know how
powerful a Core Strengthening stage level 10 was? The powerful
aura he radiated was strong enough to immobilize Noah.
To Edgar, he was a very rare genius, but he was an enemy now.

He was as fragile as an ant in front of a Core Strengthening stage
warrior and could be pinched to death easily.
Swoosh!
At the same time, another hand made of Arch Energy clashed

with Edgar's and destroyed Edgar's spell.
"Edgar, he's a member of the Guardian guild, you can't kill him as
you like."
Gerard was enraged. His relationship with Edgar hadn't been very
good, and Noah was his responsibility. If he didn't stop Edgar from
killing his subordinate, everyone would laugh him at for his
cowardice.
"Gerard, you wish to start a war with me just because of a

trainee?" Edgar's face was solemn.
"What if I am? " Gerard calmly asked him,
"Haha…Edgar, this is too shameful. The famous Aragoth sect is

bullying a kid "
Hazel laughed, not willing to let go of the chance to send an insult

to Edgar.
Edgar's expression changed, he made a cold humph and stopped

his attempt to attack. To personally handle a Body Refining stage
cultivator by himself was really a shameful act. There were more
than enough inner disciples who could get rid of him.
Edgar gave the orders secretly using his telekinetic Sense to his
disciples. "Listen, don't let me see this kid walk out of the Nether
Realm alive."
One youngster behind him nodded and bowed at Edgar after

receiving the order. Meanwhile, Hazel flicked her wrist as
numerous space rings appeared in the air and each of the rings
floated towards a person.
"You can't use any space rings inside the Nether realm except the
one in front of you. Utility space carefully by taking what you really
want"
"Avoid fighting with each other and concentrate on getting the

treasures for your cultivation" After Hazel, Royce Camden of
Morning star gave a piece of advice to all the youngsters.
"Alright. No more delays. We should open the rift with no delays"

Dean said after everyone grabbed the space rings.
Right after that, the five masters came together and formed a
portal on the ground connecting this world to the Nether Realm.
"We are finally going to enter the Nether realm for an expedition, I
have been expecting this for a long time."
"I must get something good when I enter."
.....
Many had started to feel nervous. This was the day that they had
been waiting for. They have all been preparing for this big event to
happen and would rush into it as soon as it was opened.
"Let's go, we are going in."
Some had flown up wildly and rushed into the portal like there's no
tomorrow. The entrance of the portal was enormous, big enough
for them to enter in a large group like a swarm of wasps.
The geniuses of the three big sects and disciples of Aragoth were
also entering the portal excitedly. Meanwhile, Xanali and Peyton
descended from the sky and landed near Noah and his group.
"Big brother, let's go in together."

Maisy stood beside Noah.
"Who's this little girl?"
Peyton asked with a smile on her face. She could tell that there's
a special relationship between the two.
"This is Maisy, my good foster sister. This is my friend, Abel"
Noah introduced them to one another as Peyton seemed like she

just realized something," She's the one you recommended us to
recruit, not bad, not bad at all" Peyton was slightly shocked to
learn a thirteen years old little girl had reached the Body Refining
stage level 5. She was a genius who could be compared to Noah
or even Xanali's step-sister.
"Ah Peyton, Xanali, this is Abel. He is also one of my good friends.

We have faced life-and-death trials before."
Noah patted Abel's shoulder while introducing him.
"Miss Peyton, Miss Xanali"
Peyton put one palm on his chest and said with respect.
"Nice to meet you Abel" Peyton and Xanali responded with a

friendly smile.
"You should go. The others have already entered. You can't be left
behind" Peyton said as Noah and Alicia nodded.
"Let's go" Right after that, he and his group rushed into the portal
but just as they were about to step into the portal, they halted their
steps when they saw a flash of gold lighting bolt into the portal.
"Wow, what was that?" Maisy and Abel did see nothing while
Noah and Alicia barely caught a glimpse of a man in the flash of
lightning.
"That was the guy who rejected our offer of joining the Guardian
Guild in the first place, Ghost " Noah and his group were stunned
for a moment. They wanted to probe into this matter but Gerard's
sudden appearance pulled their attention more,
"Guardian Captain" Peyton and Xanali immediately lowered their

heads and bowed with the utmost respect towards Gerard while
the others awkwardly lowered their heads
"I have an important task for all of you in the Nether Realm"
Chapter 104 - Nether Realm II
After staying for one and a half hours in the portal, Michael finally
saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I think I'm here" Seeing this, Michael's spirit rose.
"Remember to take shelter in the abandoned buildings at night"

He heard Gaya's serious voice through the earpiece and agreed
in his mind. According to Gaya, powerful Netherels such as Core
Formation and even Core Strengthening stage Netherels would
come out of their hiding place at night. Therefore, roaming outside
at night in the Nether realm with their Body refining stage
cultivation level was nothing but suicide.
" I'll take shelter at night," he said and reassured her. After a few
seconds, the light at the end of the portal became brighter, and
soon after, he finally arrived at the end of the tunnel.
Swoosh!
Michael felt a tremendous gust of force from behind and in a flash,

he was falling from the sky. Fortunately, he didn't fall from too high
as he landed on the ground comfortably breaking none of his
bones.
After leaving the portal, he heard the excited cries of people. He

was standing on a vast grassland and the sight slightly surprised
him. When he first mentioned the Nether realm, he imagined it to
be a desolate place with ashes in the air and streams of lava on
the ground. Yet, the place before him seemed like a perfect place
for a picnic with friends.
"Let's go towards the ends of this plain field, I'm sure we'll find
some treasures there!" At the moment, someone said and ran
past Michael.
Soon, more than a hundred warriors were scattered around in
different locations, and all of them were rushing toward the end of
this plain field at the same time.
"Lightning Dash"
A few minutes, Michael overtook them and reached the end of the
plain field before anyone else could. A white fog suddenly
emerged in front of him, and when people came closer to the fog,
they discovered there were seven paths in front of them! Each
path had appeared out of nowhere, and they looked illusionary,
and none of them seemed to be real.
"How come there are so many paths? How are we going to

choose which to take?"
"We must be extra careful! Although this place seems harmless,

I'm sure it's filled with great dangers. Some paths must lead to
real treasures, and some must lead to great dangers."
"Precisely. Let's wait and see. It's best not to be too impulsive. If
we enter some dangerous situation, our lives would be thrown
away in vain."
...
The crowds immediately stopped moving. Everyone stared at the

fork in the road, the seven paths in front of them. They did not
know which path they should choose. When there was a great
opportunity, the great danger would usually lurk nearby. No one
wanted to risk their lives for nothing. Therefore, they had to be
really careful when picking which path they should take.
White fog hovered around all seven paths and made it even more
difficult to choose the right path. Everything seemed quiet and
calm, but the crowds felt an eerie feeling as they looked at the
seven paths and the white fog.
"Hey, there are seven paths in front of me, which one should I
choose?" He asked Gaya and he also directed the question to the
system.
"Choose one randomly and go, that's what I did"
[The System level is too low to scan the paths]
Unfortunately, both Gaya and the System were unable to help

Michael choose a better path, so he decided to choose a path
randomly. While the others were hesitating to step forward,
Michael chose the third path from his right and began to walk the
path.
Tap… tap…
The path he chose was really quiet, and silence filled his journey.
The only sound he could hear was the sound of his footsteps. He
walked the path with a solemn expression trying to be as careful
as possible. He was glad that he bought the Environmental
scanning that's helping him be aware of the surroundings.
"What's happening?" Gaya asked him.
"There are cracks everywhere on this path, and it's emanating an

ancient aura. I wonder how many years it has existed, it's really
giving me a spooky feeling" He furrowed his brows.
"Just be careful and ready for a fight, you don't know when a
Netherel would jump out of the fog and drink your blood, hehe"
she tried to scare him with her spooky voice but it only made him
chuckle. Yet his instincts told him that this path wouldn't be as
peaceful as it seemed.
He walked forwards for nearly an hour at a consistent speed.

Suddenly, he heard a miserable shriek sound out not far in front of
them and his Environmental scanning alerted him that there were
hostile enemies in front of him a few meters away from him.
The shriek sounded really spooky as if it came from an inhuman

creature.
He sped up, and shortly after, he saw a man motionlessly lying in

a pool of blood about 20 meters in front of them.
It was a shocking scene, the man's throat had completely ripped
off and blood flowed out from the neck.
"It seems he entered this path before me," He said, and weirdly,
instead of worrying, a grin appeared on his face and his eyes lit
up.
"Finally some action and XP!" Michael suddenly shouted out. With
extremely fast speed, he unsheathed his sword and swung the
sword around.
EEEK!
A loud shrill was heard. Michael's sword had cut something.

200 Badass points]
After he heard the system, he found a dark goo splatter and soon
found a Netherel human lying on the ground in his own pool of
dark goo.
"What is it?" Gaya asked curiously.
"Just a Body Strengthening stage Netherel'' After reaching level

10 of the Body Refining Stage, killing this Netherel felt like
stepping on an ant. The Netherel was too weak and didn't even
have time to dodge Michael's sword slash.
"There are more of them here" an evil grin surfaced on his face
before golden bolts of lightning cracks began to dance around his
fingers.
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!

200 Badass points]

200 Badass points]

200 Badass points]

200 Badass points]

200 Badass points]
Michael just kept walking the path while sending bots of lightning
into the fog in all directions. With the help of his Environmental
scanning, every lightning bolt he fired killed a Netherel or two. The
people who were walking the same path as Michael saw golden
flashes of light through the white fog and heard loud shrills.
"They are so weak"
"Why are you being so proud? If I was there, I could have killed
them with a flick of my wrist" The proud and arrogant voice of
Gaya sounded in his head.
"You better finish all your tasks when I return Gaya or I'll take
away your breakfast, second breakfast, and night snacks"
"Are you blackmailing this princess, your damn bastard?"
"Yes I am,"
During the next two hours, he continued walking this path, and it
was as if there was no end to it. Along his way, he continued to kill
the Netherels, and with their weak strength and Environmental
scanning, no matter how good a Nethrel hid itself, it would still die.
Along the way, he had killed more than a hundred Nethrels and
earned enough Experience points to reach the Body
Strengthening stage. But soon, the following situation made him
lose the smile on his face because the Netherels that continuously
attacked him didn't appear once more. The path had suddenly
become extremely quiet. Then after a few minutes of walking, the
path had finally ended. The white fog hovering around him also
disappeared.
Michael continued moving forward with a sad face because of the

disappearance of the Netherels. In the blink of an eye, he left the
path and arrived at the mountain range.
This mountain range covered 60 kilometers in all directions, but

there wasn't a single plant on sight.
"Have you left the path?"
Buzz…
Right after Gaya finished speaking, Michael's lips curved upwards

as hundreds of stone Netherels suddenly appeared within the
mountain range. They instantly started sprinting toward Michael
"So many Netherels!"
"Those Nethrels aren't that strong, just fly above them" Hearing
Michel's voice, she suggested flying above the Netherels to avoid
being annoyed by the weak Netherels.
However, in his eyes, these Netherels appeared to be Experience
farms which could make him jump from Body Strengthening stage
level 1 to level 3 and also increase his sword mastery to 85%.
"I love Nether realm!"

Chapter 105 - Netherel Ash &
Treasure Garden
Right at this moment, a group of youngsters was walking the path

quietly. Although their journey was uneventful, their eyes were
filled with terror because their path was painted with dark goo,
Netherel limbs, and body parts.
"Who did this?" a girl in the group asked while tightly clenching
her sword
"Shhhh" the boy who was leading the group shushed the girl as
they began to hear loud shrieks in the air.
"Oh my god, Netherels" the boys in the group swallowed their

saliva and the girls moved closer to each other in fear.
"Guys, I think the Netherels are fighting the group walked this path
before us" the boy who was leading the group said and prepared
himself for an intense fight with the Netherels.
"Come on guys, we have to help them"
"Denis wait!" The group behind him however didn't want to fight
the Netherels and tried to stop him from moving forward.
"Guys, dont be stupid, we cannot turn back after coming all this
way. The fight is inevitable, let's join the fight with that group and
fight together" Despite their fear of fighting the flesh-eating
Netherels, they could see the point of joining another group and
fight the Netherels together rather than facing them alone.
"There's strength in numbers guys, come on" Denis urged them

and advanced to join the fight. His group soon followed him
behind through the mist and after a few minutes, the white mist
around them disappeared. They continued to move forward in the
battle's direction sound. The sounds of the shrieks sounded louder
as the group halted their steps for a moment and took deep
breaths.
"Are you guys ready?" Denis could see the battle is happening
just around the corner and wanted to make sure his group is
ready to face the Netherels.
"Yes," they knew it's too late to turn back and wanted to face the
Netherels with courage and valor.
"Good" Denis nodded and turned back, "FOR GLORY!"
"FOR HONOR!"
"FOR WEST VIEW!"
The group dashed forward letting out high-pitched battle cries,

however,? their battle cries were cut short by the sight in front of
them.
Though the terrain was covered with greyish pebbles and ashen
soil, the ground wasn't clear grey but blackish crimson color. Their
eyes were fixed on the Netherels before them yet they lowered
their weapons subconsciously. In front of them, they saw a mound
of Netherels. They stood still staring at the golden bolt of lightning
moving around the Netherels. Everywhere the golden lightning
bolt traveled, they could see a Netherel fall losing either its head
or half of its body or both. Soon, the mound grew bigger by one or
more inanimate Netherel.
This scene continued for another ten minutes and the mound of
Netherels grew bigger and bigger. The group stood there with
their mouths opened as they witnessed a mob of Netherels being
reduced to zero in a short amount of time.
The very next moment after killing the last Netherel, they saw the
golden bolt of lightning slowing down transform into a black-robed
youngster.
Dennis and his group were stunned beyond words when they
realized that all the Netherels were killed by not a group but a
single person.
"My sword broke" Michael lifted one of his swords and shook the
sword as a chunk of the blade fell off from the sword. He picked
up the chunk of the blade and put it inside his space ring along
with the broken sword. Since these were his first swords, they had
sentimental value for him.
"Let's burn these suckers" Michael walked towards the mound of

Netherels and on his way, he saw the terrified faces of Dennis and
his group.
"Hey" he waved shortly at Dennis and his group and took out a
can to burn all the Netherels.
"Oh...Hi," it took several seconds for Dennis to respond but

Michael was busy pouring the green liquid on the Netherels.
"What...is..he doing?" A girl behind Dennis asked him.
"Ignitia" the girl's question was soon answered by Michael as a

tiny bolt of lightning hit the mound of Netherels. Instantly, the
mound was on fire and they all closed their noses due to the
stench radiated from the burning Netherels.
Soon, the mound was reduced to nothing but ashes. They saw
him gathering all the ashes into a large bottle and storing it in his
space ring. They had no idea why he collected the Netherel
ashes. Unlike the Netherels he killed in the River town, these
Netherels had a special property in their body and it made their
ashes one of the best fertilizers for his herbal garden.
Besides this ash, he earned enough Experience points to reach

the Body Strengthening stage level 3 through killing the Netherels
and absorbing their cores. He kept a bunch of cores for the Elders
and Claire so they could also reach the higher stages. The
stronger his base of operation, the more badass points he could
earn.
After collecting the ashes, he turned around and disappeared from
their sight in a flash leaving them dumbstruck.
*****************************
"Did you kill them all?" After leaving the battleground, Michael
heard Gaya's voice.
"What do you think?"
"Move your ass faster human or you would lose the real
treasures" she yelled at him as Michael said, "Did you forget
about my wargod body? The more I kill, the stronger I would
become"
"Freaky but I wish I could cultivate like you" Gaya sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll help you cultivate faster"
"You better" She didn't feel ashamed of asking for his assistance
but on the contrary, she felt thrilled.
While chit-chatting with Gaya, he exited the mountain range, and

right before he left the mountain range, a white fog suddenly
appeared in front of him again. The white mist prevented him from
looking further into the distance. At the same time, he felt a
cooling sensation.
"I sense no Netherels within the white fog in front of me. Once I
cross this white fog, I might enter another mountain range."
Michael said with an excited smile. Thinking about another

Experience farm, he began to walk forward. Soon after, he passed
through the white fog. Yet, unlike his expectation, what was in
front of him after passing the white mist was a great plain with a
bright sky. But, what attracted him wasn't this beautiful scene, it
was the huge garden that was floating high above them in the sky.
"Is that a garden?" Wasting no time, he stepped on the flying

sword and dashed towards the garden.
Right at this moment, figures of warriors could be seen lingering
around the garden. All of them had the same excited expressions,
and some of them had even started fighting each other.
Furthermore, more people were dashing out from different
directions. When these people saw the garden in the sky, they
immediately flew toward it. Michael knew that these people were
from the other paths, and there were more people on those paths
than the one he chose.
But, none of this was important. The important thing was, the
temptation caused by the garden in the sky was really powerful.
Even from far, he could smell the refreshing air coming from it, as
well as a strong smell of herbs. The smell of herbs caused all
those who smelled it to feel relaxed and refreshed.
"Move! I found this Cavern Petal!"
"Fuck you, I found this!"
"What is that? An Oglio root? damn!"
"Look at that! That is the Diamond Leaf! An extremely rare herb in

the outside world! Oh heavens, there are rare herbs everywhere!
This entire garden is a gigantic treasure!"
...
Everyone arrived at the garden in the sky and were excitedly

yelling and shouting. This was because they kept finding rare
herbs, herbs so rare there was no way they could see them in the
outside world.
"haha, precious treasures! There are indeed precious treasures

here!"
"Fuck, this garden is at least 7 kilometers long in all directions!

There are herbs everywhere, and many of them look really old! If
this garden was in our world, all superpowers would fight to the
death for it!"
Swoosh, swoosh...
More and more people arrived and dashed toward the garden.
After the first batch of youngsters came to the Nether realm, more
and more warriors came from all over. As long as they survived
the Netherel attack, many youngsters had the chance to come
here and seek an opportunity.
Michael had noticed all these warriors as well. Some of them were
clearly injured, and it looked like they had experienced a
dangerous situation back on the paths they had chosen. However,
it seemed like the danger they faced was less devastating
compared to Michael's. Also, there were some paths where no
one emerged from. Clearly, those who stepped onto those paths
had encountered great dangers, and perhaps they wouldn't even
be able to leave that place.
As for those warriors who didn't encounter any dangers, they had
long ago emerged from the path and were hanging around in the
sky garden right now. Who knew how many benefits they had
gotten so far? It took Michael several hours to reach this garden.
Regardless of which path the people emerged from; they were

faced with the biggest opportunity in their lifetime. This garden in
the sky by itself was a gigantic treasure. Each and every single
herb here would provide significant benefits to those who obtain it.
Looking at all these herbs, Michael couldn't hold his excitement as
a wide grin appeared on his face.
"Let's begin"
Chapter 106 - One Stone, Two
Birds
The eyes of the people turned red, and everyone was excitedly
yelling and shouting.
"Haha, this Tiger Cress belongs to me!"
A youngster joyfully started laughing. He stretched his arm

forward and tried to grab the herb. However, right before his palm
could touch the herb, a light curtain suddenly appeared and
stopped his hand. At the same time, he was forced 3 steps
backward.
"Haha, idiot, all these herbs are protected by a defense

mechanism! You won't be able to put your hands on them without
breaking the mechanism first!"
"All these newcomers are just idiots."
...
Some people started laughing. Those who had arrived here first
had discovered how it works.
"This is strange, why are all these herbs protected by defense

mechanisms?" One of the youngsters near Michael glared at the
herbs and wondered.
"Without it, do you think there would still be so many herbs here?
Not to mention this is only a garden with a 7 km circumference.
Even a 70 km circumference garden would be emptied in an
instant if there were no defense mechanism. Every single herb
here is protected by a defense mechanism, meaning we have to
break the mechanism before we can get the herb. Also, according
to the rarity of the herb, how many years it has grown, and its
value, the strength of the defense mechanism will be different as
well. For the herbs with a higher value than others and who are
also old, their defense mechanisms will be more difficult to break."
Micheal heard someone explain how the mechanism works to the
youngster who raised the previous question.
Indeed, Michael both saw many warriors restlessly working to

break the defense mechanisms of those high-value herbs. One of
the warriors stood in front of a Diamond Leaf, and his face had
turned red. No matter how much strength he used, he just couldn't
break its defense mechanism.
Although everyone's eyes were on the rare and oldest herbs like
Tiger cress, Michael's eyes were on the other herbs that did not
attract as many eyes as the Tiger cress.
[why is the host not fighting for the Tiger Cress?]
When the system realized that Michael is not walking towards

Tiger Cress or any other precious herbs, the System asked in a
curious voice.
"Because I didn't want to lose the chance of getting all these

herbs fighting for one thing" As he said, he came before a herb
called Wolf pepper and reached out to grab the herb.
[100 badass points to break the defense mechanism] A golden

dome appeared around the herb and at the same time, he heard
the system's voice in his head.
"100 for Wolf pepper? Sigh" he sighed and paid 100 badass
points to break the shield to acquire the herb.
Right after he paid the system, the golden dome dimmed and
disappeared. Michael grabbed the herb while everyone was
focused on Tiger cress and moved to the next one.
The herbal garden had hundreds of rare herbs but only a few of
them had extremely tough defense mechanisms and attracted the
most eyes. Also, the people in the garden had already begun
fighting for these rare herbs ignoring the herbs that were less rare
than herbs like Tiger Cress.
Michael exploited this situation and grabbed all the herbs he could
without attracting the eyes of the cultivators. The other reason
Michael decided to go after these herbs was the rare herbs had
people from powerful sects and families fighting for.
[The host should really hunt for more rare and precious herbs]
"And start a fight with most of the major powers in the continent?
No, thanks. Besides, I know what I'm doing"
As a 5-star level Alchemist, he knew everything there is to know

about the surrounding herbs. For a normal cultivator, the Tiger
cress would help him/her breakthrough from the Body Refining
stage to the Body Strengthening stage in one go after consuming
the pill concocted using the Tiger Cress as the main ingredient.
However, for Michael who uses Experience points and Badass
points, herbs like Tiger Cress didn't matter too much. Also, these
herbs would only have desirable medicinal quality if they matured
for more than a thousand years and if not, their medicinal quality
and worth would be subpar at best. Although Michael had the
system, he still couldn't fast forward the time and grow a bunch of
Thousand years old Tiger cresses.
Michael's sole intention was to get as many as the herbs he could

and grow them in his herbal garden to make more varieties of pills
and potions without making too many powerful enemies in the
process. The herbs he was collecting could be easily grown in his
herbal garden and didn't need to mature for thousand years to get
the most out of them.
"Nacciabacca, Sotteder, Yatoth, Koneasbi, Uwogon, Autumn

Licorice, Swamp Leaf, Star Cumin, Moon Oregano, Mountain
Vanilla..." While recalling the herbs he collected, he continued to
collect more and more herbs. Because of the size of the garden
and Michael's quick work on the defense mechanisms, many did
not even notice him as they were busy trying to break the defense
mechanisms on their own.
The system urged Michael to steal precious herbs like Tiger Cress
hoping to make him piss off many powerful people so it could reap
the badass points from him by helping him in battle. He did the
opposite of the System's intention and didn't fight with anyone.
Yet, it was not true for others as he could see intense battles all
over the garden for rare herbs like Tiger Cress or Diamond Leaf.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"Yes, it's that Ghost who won Heaven's gate competition"
"And he's also a 5-star Alchemist"
"Fuck! He looks younger than me"
"Why isn't he fighting for those rarest herbs?"
Many people who were from Bradford and River town instantly
recognized Michael and started chit-chatting. They all wondered
why he was not fighting for the rarest herbs but picking the
ordinary herbs. Because of the rarest herbs, these people had
forgotten that the herbs Michael was picking only became ordinary
when they were compared to the rarest herbs. In the search for
the rarest herbs, they were losing the chance of obtaining these
'Ordinary herbs'.
"My herbal garden is going to be awesome" the more herbs he

picked, the more he felt excited.
He continued to avoid battles and collect herbs. Although the

Garden was massive, with the help of Lightning dash, he covered
a lot of ground and obtained hundreds of herbs. While he was
obtaining these herbs, he also avoided many groups who were
fighting for some herbs because the garden was so big and had
thousands of herbs; there was no need for fighting.
Michael's goal inside the Nether Realm was to collect as many

treasures as he can without making too many enemies. He liked
to grow stronger in shadows and only show his power when
necessary until he became stronger than everyone else in this
world.
"Now it's time for some money-making"
"Oooh sounds fun!" He grinned hearing Gaya's excited voice and

walked towards the Tiger Cress where a large group of people
was fighting over it.
"Tiger Cress belongs to Morning Star, we found it first!"
"I don't see you or your sect's name on the Tiger Cress!"
"The Tiger Cress belongs to whoever breaks this defense

mechanism"
"Yes, that's fair!"
All the major powers like Aragoth, the three big sects, and many
prominent families in Elon Continent were arguing over the Tiger
Cress.
"I can break this defense mechanism" Suddenly the atmosphere

became silent after Michael's voice reverberated the area.
Everyone in the place turned their head and saw a black-robed
youngster walking towards them with a small grin on his face.
"Who do you think you are?"
"What makes you think you can break this defense mechanism?"
"He's just an attention seeker"
None of them thought Michael could break the defense

mechanism and returned to bitch about how to get their hands on
the herb.
"You can stand here all day trying to break the spell or let me do it
for you" Michael spoke again but this time, his voice was louder
and serious.
"Humph, do you really think you can break this mechanism?" A

disciple from Aragoth asked arrogantly.
"Let's assume you can break this mechanism, aren't you going to
claim ownership of the herb?"
"What if you can't break the mechanism as you said?"
They fired question after question at Michael as he just stood

there with a smile, "I know I can break the mechanism and as for
the ownership, I will sell the herb to the highest bidder. I will say
this again, You can stand here all day trying to break the spell or
let me do it for you. Whoever has the most gold coins will get the
herb"
Everyone stared at the Tiger Cress and Michael for a few

moments before the arrogant youngster from Aragoth spoke,"
Alright if you can do what you have said, you'll be richer when we
return to the outside world"
Michael knew this youngster was making a threat, but he didn't

mind his tone because he's going to break this defense
mechanism with the help of the system.
"Step aside people, it's time to crack this baby open,"

Chapter 107 - Ultimate XP
Farming Trick I
Many people including the ones who were trying to break the
defense mechanism dropped what they were doing and quickly
gathered around Michael and the Tiger Cress. Some of them
wanted to see whether or not Michael could break the
mechanism; some of them wanted to witness the entertainment of
Michael getting his ass kicked in case he couldn't break the
mechanism.
Michael noticed all the various expressions and thinking about the
badass points he's going to get, he turned his focus on the tiger
claw-shaped fruit before him.
"System, break this baby open"
[You have to pay the system 500 Badass points] Michael's

expression was neutral but inside, he was cursing the system for
its arrogant tone.
"Take it and break it," he said to the system inside. Following his
command, he closed his eyes and pretended to be drawing
shapes above the herb.
"What is he doing?"
"He better breaks this defense mechanism"
"Is that Ghost of River town?"
"Ghost? The 5-star Alchemist?!"




People who went to the Majestic or from River town recognized

Michael when they saw him and by hearing those people, many
realized that the youngster in front of him was the famous 5-star
Alchemist of Bredia.
Because of this recognition, he accumulated thousands of badass

points in a flash without even actually breaking the mechanism or
doing anything awesome.
"So he's that 5-star Alchemist everyone was talking about?" there
was a hint of surprise in the eyes of the disciples of Aragoth,
including the one who talked to Michael before.
Creeekkkk!
Right at this moment, the surprise in everyone's eyes turned into

shock as they saw cracks appear on the golden dome's surface
around the Tiger Cress.
"What the fuck?!"
"The heck!"
"How did he..?"
"What?! How"
Many of the people were speechless as the number of cracks on
the dome multiplied before shattering into bits of golden light.
While everyone was in shock, Michael grabbed the herb in one

hand and conjured his Alchemical flames on the other.
"What are you doing?!"
"DON'T!"
The disciples of Aragoth were the first to respond as Michael said,
"As I said before,? you have to pay me for this herb, if anyone
tries to do anything funny, I will burn this Tiger Cress to ashes"
By looking at the green flames in his hand and the seriousness in

his eyes, they knew he wasn't kidding.
After a few moments, the youngster from Araogth stepped forward

and this time, he wasn't as arrogant as before.
"We will honor our word. Aragoth will pay you 200,000 Gold Coins
for this Tiger Cress"
"MorningStar will give you 300,000"
"350,000"
Without even Michael stating the starting bid, the bidding war
began between the rich youngsters.
"Golden Valley, 450,000"
"550,000 gold coins"
"600,000"
"700,000 Gold coins plus we will hire you as our Alchemist and
pay you handsomely" Finally, the youngster from Aragoth raised
his voice and placed his bid, and also, he sweetened the pot by
making another offer.
"Morn-"
"Sold" before even the disciples of Morning star could place the
next bet, Michael sold the Tiger Cress to Aragoth. The
Morningstar Sect and he didn't have a smooth relationship
because of his enmity between him and Celina. Moreover,? he
would prefer to be on the good side of Aragoth's rather than on
MorningStar's.
After knowing the history between the order of Death and the
Guardians, Michael realized that he would need powerful people
with him to fight a giant power like the Guardian Guild. Unlike
Noah who antagonized many powers in Bredia, Michael preferred
to work in shadows while making fewer enemies as possible.
Then with the help of the system and his planning, he would
become stronger and build a faction strong enough to subdue all
the sects and the major powers.
In his path of world domination, he planned to make Aragoth his

first ally through working with this youngster.
"Here you go" Micheal tossed the herb at the youngster and then,
he reached out his hand, "Ghost, happy to help Aragoth"
"Nathen Bradley of House Bradley" The youngster shook

Michael's hand after giving a thought.
"Human, what the fuck is going on there?! You sold what?"

Ignoring Gaya's frustrated shoutings in his ears, he smiled back at
Nathen and shook his hand before turning his gaze towards the
Diamond Leaf which was another precious and rare herb in the
garden.
"Why don't you give me 1.8 million gold coins for Diamond Leaf,
Oglio root, and Cavern Petal?" Michael asked Nathen with a wide
grin while others looked at him with vexed faces.
"1 million and the Alchemy product supply contract for the outer
disciple section of Aragoth is yours, if you can handle it that is"
"Deal" compared to the 800,000 gold coins, what Nathen
promised was valuable and helpful to Michael because by
supplying potions and pills to Aragoth, he could earn 800,000 gold
coins or more in a few months. Therefore, Michael agreed to this
deal immediately and bore a wide grin on his face.
"Hey, I thought you're going to auction the herbs, not sell them to
only Aragoth,"
"These are not your herbs to sell"
"This is not fair" because of Michael's sudden change of mind and

his actions, many were riled up and began to express their
objection.
"Life is not fair" the smile on Michael's face disappeared and a

serious look replaced his previous smile as everyone who tried to
bad mouth him instantly shut their traps.
"Now that we made the deal, let's go get you all the herbs I
promised" Michael gestured to the disciples of Aragoth to follow
him to the Diamond Leaf. Since many have tried to break the
defense mechanism and ultimately failed to do so, they could only
follow and watch Aragoth get their hands on every precious herb
through Michael.
"Where did you learn to break defense spells?" while they were
approaching the Diamond Leaf, Nathen curiously asked Michael.
"I traveled a lot and picked up a few tricks along the way"
Fortunately Nathen didn't ask him to reveal or teach them the
tricks.
Just like its name, each leaf of Diamond Leaf herb glistened like a
diamond. After consuming a pill or potion made using a Diamond
Leaf, one can experience a sudden boost in their cultivation speed
for an entire month or more depending on the Alchemist's skill
without polluting their body.
"Beat it" Noticing the few youngsters struggling with the defense
mechanism, Nathen chased them away with the wave of his hand.
Because of the sword symbol on Nathen's chest, they didn't dare
to disobey his words as they sighed and ran away before glancing
at the Diamond leaf for one last time.
"You're a 5-star Alchemist and you also seem to possess a talent

for runes, so why did you join a sect like Sunrise?" Nathen didn't
even try to hide the disdain as he asked Michael.
"It's simple, if I'm a disciple of Aragoth, I'm just another talented

disciple. But in Sunrise, I'm the only one and I can do whatever I
like whenever I like" Michael answered with a smile and
continued, "I value my freedom above anything, that's why I
turned down the Guardian Guild when they asked me to join as
their trainee or whatever" Again, Nathen was taken aback by
surprise and shock as he stared at Michael speechlessly for a few
seconds.
"You did what?" The others behind Nathen also felt a chill running
through their spines because being a guardian was the highest
honor in this world yet he turned down that honor and merit.
"I said that I'm not interested to Peyton"
"Why?" Until now, Nathen bore a proud and arrogant look on his
face but after hearing what he just said, his face showed only one
expression, confusion.
"As I said, I value my freedom above anything. I don't enjoy

following orders and being a good soldier. I heard someone from
Aragoth tried to join the Guardians? " Michael changed the topic
to something else before Nathen asks too many questions about
his actions.
Like Michael wanted, when he asked this question, Nathen's

expression changed drastically.
"Yes, his name is Lodin Otkelsson.He was brutally killed by that

Noah and his lackey in the Red Summit. Aragoth will avenge
Lodin by killing both of them "
"Good luck with that" Michael snickered inside because he had a
feeling that Noah is not only being protected by Guardians but
also something or someone else.
However, the more enemies Noah makes, the more allies Michael
could have in the fight against him and the Guardian guild in the
future. For now, Michael focused his efforts on becoming stronger
and rebuilding the Order of Death in silence rather than provoking
all the major powers like Noah.
As they were speaking, the system broke the defense mechanism

around the Diamond leaf leaving everyone to think that Michael
broke the mechanism.
"Here you go" Michael handed over the herb to Nathen and turned
his gaze towards another herb.
After taking the Diamond leaf, Michael fastened his work before
the nightfall approaches. He was able to see the people leaving
the garden hastily. Looking at their actions, he realized that
nightfall in the Nether realm is not a joke and left the garden after
setting the meeting place with Nathen to get the coins.
This trip to the garden alone was worthy of his time as he

gathered hundreds of herbs and earned a contract to supply pills
and potions to one of the best sects in the continent, Aragoth. He
couldn't wait to tell Gaya about all of this and surprise her.
Farming Trick II
"Ahhhhhh!" Just as Michael was dashing towards a small cave, a

bunch of Netherels was feasting on a group of youngsters in the
distance. Their shrikes sent a chill running through many spines
who saw this scene. Michael ignored this and dashed straight into
the cave wasting no time.
However before he completely dashes into the cave, he saw a

familiar ice spike penetrating through the Netherels saving some
of the youngsters from being the appetizer for the Netherels.
The cave was small and had just enough room for him. Yet, this
small cave was a sanctuary and a calm place to stay safe.
Michael sat on the ground and because of his full black clothes,
he merged with the cave's darkness and one could not see him in
the cave.
"This is mine!" When he was just about to open the system

storage and count the herbs he collected, he saw a rogue
cultivator rushing towards the cave.
"Leave" Michael calmly said as the cultivator halted his steps

suddenly and looked closely into the cave.
Yet, instead of turning his back and leaving the cave, the cultivator
decided to step in and chase the previous occupant, Michael.
"Wind blast"
Whoosh!
The moment he took another step towards Michael, a gust of wind

sent the cultivator flung back like a kite without an anchor.
"Who the fuck dared to attack me?!" the cultivator who was
attacked forgot about the approaching nightfall in anger and
rushed towards the cave after picking himself up.
"Ghost" however this time when the cultivator heard the voice
from the cave, he felt a cold chill running through his spine. He
then immediately lowered his sword and stood there shivering in
fear.




"Forgive me Master Ghost, I didn't...know it was you...don't...don't

kill me" Michael was surprised to see the cultivator dropping to his
knees and starting to beg. He didn't expect a rogue cultivator like
him to know his name. He just told his name so someone from the
River town or someone who knows him would recognize the name
and stay out of the cave as well as want the others. However, this
rogue cultivator recognized his name and even went to the
lengths to beg made Michael pleased because finally, his legend
has started to spread across the land.
"Leave" he hid his joy and said with a serious voice.
"Thank you Master Ghost!" the rogue cultivator groveled and ran
as fast as he could from Michael's sight.
"It feels so great to be feared at," he thought to himself, and deep

down, he craved for this feeling. Ever since he was little, he didn't
root for heroes but rooted for the villains. This did not change
even after he grew up. For example, his favorite characters were
Sauron and Voldemort. His love for villains influenced him more
than he realizes.
[Does the host fear Aragoth?] Suddenly the system asked and
surprised him.
"Why do you ask?" he switched off the earpiece and asked the
system.
[Because you could have taken all the herbs for yourself and
showed that you're the boss but instead, you gave all the precious
herbs to Nathen and lost the chance of earning badass points]
"And also few powerful enemies. I'm not that guy Noah, system. I
know what you're trying to do, you want me to make more
enemies and buy things from you to survive them. I don't know
what you are and what your end game is, but you should have
known this by now, I'm not suicidal and you cannot make me do
anything unless I want to" he calmly explained. The system stayed
silent because it knew Michael isn't easy to manipulate as it first
thought.
Now that the system stayed silent, he was able to count the herbs
and plan his next movements. Deep down, he was glad that Noah
and his group did not come to the garden and even though he
wasn't afraid of Noah, he wanted to avoid the fight until he could
gather enough information about Noah and the power behind him.
Joosh!
"What the?" in a flash, the light outside disappeared like someone

switched off the lights of the Nether Realm. There was no dusk as
it turned dark without a sign.
"When I was young my friend had an accord.
I waz kicked out without a record.
I never thought I'd see that award.
Ain't a soul alive that could take my friend's board.

A cruel power is quite the shower.
Thinking of death. Yaz, thinking of death" when he switched on

the earpiece, he was welcomed by Gaya's rap.
"I don't know who wrote this song but I guess it's you" Michael
laughed and the moment she heard his voice, she stopped
rapping.
"Where the fuck did you go?" she was annoyed when he went
radio silent and he listened to her singing made her feel even
more annoyed.
************************
"You did the right thing, a contract with Aragoth is more valuable
than those herbs" after he explained what he did in the garden,
Gaya agreed with him and supported his decision.
Just when he was about to reply, the environmental scanning

detected a hostile activity nearby.
"Hello, is this thing broken again? Krk krkkkkk"
"Stop biting the earpiece, I'm sensing a Netherel horde nearby, is

that normal in Nether Realm?"
"Netherel horde? Weird" by hearing her tone, he could tell that it is

not normal. He wanted to check what's going on outside but at the
same time, he didn't want to get killed because of his curiosity.
"They are marching towards somewhere, like soldiers" if the

Netherels were moving chaotically, Michael would have felt this
curious. They were marching towards somewhere like trained
soldiers.
"Are you sure because the Netherel horde is not capable of

marching like soldiers" said Gaya.
[For 1000 Badass points, the system can mask your scent and
project you from getting detected by the Netherels] while he was
stuck between curiosity and safety, he heard the system's voice.
"That's more like it" when it comes to situations like this, the
system had perfect solutions. Considering he had no solution of
his own, he decided to get whatever the system is selling, so he
could check out where the Netherels are heading.
Just after 1000 badass points disappeared from the stat menu, he
felt a strange sensation in his body.
[The host is now ready to explore the Nether realm without fearing
the Netherels]
"I have a way to find out what's going on here," he said and stood
up to leave the cave taking advantage of the darkness.
"Of course you do, you freak"
"I'm masking my scent using a special potion" Gaya believed him

because she knew that the mysterious light and Abras's soul
blessed him with ancient knowledge which enables Michael to
perform miracles like this one.
He slowly stepped forward while checking whether anyone near

him and after confirming that no one would see him leave the
cave, he left the cave.
He didn't use the lightning dash as it might draw some unwanted

attention and because of his black clothes, he perfectly merged
with the darkness and disappeared.
While heading towards the Netherel horde, he couldn't see the

garden in the sky. It made him realize that after nightfall, the
places which had treasures may not appear for him to loot.
However, the purpose of this night visit was not looting but to
unveil the mystery behind the marching Netherel horde.
"There they are" after walking in the direction of the Netherel

horde, Michael saw hundreds of Netherels marching towards
somewhere. Fortunately, what the system did, worked and none of
the Netherels in the horde could detect him following them.
"What's happening there?" Gaya asked in a husky voice.

"I will keep you posted, now stay silent," he said and continued to
follow the Netherels. Eventually, the Netherels entered into a thick
forest but the uneven ground and obstacles were unable to slow
down their marching speed.
After entering the forest, Michael climbed up the trees and

followed them by jumping from branch to branch using the Mark 3
grapple hook. And because of this height advantage, he noticed a
bonfire at the distance,
"I bet these Netherels are heading towards there" Slightly

increasing his speed, Michael moved towards the bonfire but he
was cautious not to make any sounds that could bring him
unwanted attention.
"Eekasn wasnenes kewannks neekkssdw llsees nifen" As he got

closer to the bonfire, he began to hear someone chanting
something in an unknown language.
"Is that...an orc?" When he got close enough, he saw a figure

standing in front of a bonfire and sculptures made of bones. The
figure looked just like one of the orcs from the movie Lord of the
rings, ugly and evil.
"This is getting more and more interesting"

Farming Trick III
"An orc with a summoner trait" Standing atop a branch, Micheal

scanned the orc and identified its trait. The orc wore ragged robes
and the robes had mud and bloodstains on them.
While the Netherel horde was walking towards the orc, Michael
kept looking around the place to see if there's anything or anyone
stronger than him nearby. The Orc was only at the Body Refining
stage level 9 and the strongest Netherels were only at the level
Body Strengthening stage level 5.
If he fought as Lucifer, no one in the Body Strengthening stage

could survive the battle with him and if he fought without using
Fear toxin or Death Range, only Body strengthening stage level 9
and 10 could fight him head to head.
However, now that he had enough Experience points to reach the

Body Strengthening stage level 3, no one in the Body
Strengthening stage could win a fight against him after he reaches
the Body Strengthening stage level 3.
As he was watching the orc from above, he saw a small journal in

the Orc's hands and realized the Orc is chanting the lines in the
journal.
"Come my children, kneel…. before me" The Orc's voice was

rough and animalistic, just like in the movies. To Michael's
surprise, the entire horde of Netherels kneeled down.
"I did it! hahahahaha" The Orc's mad laughter echoed through the
silent hills and forest. In its eyes, Michael saw pride as well as
anger.
"Father, brother I'll avenge you. Soon, I'll plague the world with
undead and kill every single one in the Guardian Guild"
"This day gets better and better"? Seeing the orc could summon
and control the Netherels, Michael already planned to start a
Netherel farm and hearing that the orc has a hatred towards the
Guardians was like a cherry on top.
"System, can we take this orc outside without getting detected by

the Guardians?" By looking at the wounds on its body and what it
just said, Michael figured out that the Orc's life is in danger. He
didn't give a damn about the Orc's well being but if he could save
the Orc from the Guardians, he could use the orc to level up
rapidly. Therefore, he wanted to stop the Orc from doing anything
stupid like going to war with the Guardians and take Orc to the
Abyssal where the orc could stay safe and summon Netherels for
him to kill. Plus, the Abyssal may be the safest place to summon
Netherels without getting detected by the Guardians.
Of course, Michael would make sure they won't find out anything
about his little secret activity in the Dark forest with the help of the
System.
"Oh oh" Suddenly Michael detected another presence nearby and

it wasn't a Netherel. When he turned in the presence's direction,
he noticed a dark red-haired youngster rushing towards the
bonfire with a long spear in his hand.
"Is that the guy who was with Noah before?" Michael saw this
youngster before when he dashed into the portal, he was with
Noah and Alicia.
**************************
(An hour ago)
Inside a worn-out cabin, there was a group of youngsters sitting

on the floor.
"Damn it Noah, I told you we should look for treasures instead of

that Orc"? Norvin, the golden babaroo curled up against Maisy's
chest and complained.
"I heard Ghost and some disciples of Aragoth picked all the rarest
herbs in the sky garden," Abel sighed thinking about those
precious herbs, and said.
"Capturing that Orc is our first priority, Abel. If we don't, there will
be another Slyhaven Massacre" Abel and the others didn't talk
back after hearing Noah's serious voice while only Maisie looked
confused,
"Big Brother Noah, what's Slyhaven Massacre?" There was an

awkward silence for a few moments before Alicia opened her
mouth,
"Slyhaven was a village far away from Kethen. A few weeks ago,
someone summoned Netherels from this realm "
"Why?" asked Maisy before Alicia could finish her sentence.
"We don't know but the Guardians suspects that the one who
summoned them was practicing an evil ritual. The one who
summoned picked two places and summoned the Netherels,
River town in Bredia and Slyhaven in Kethen"
"Apparently River town was just a distraction to keep the

Guardians away from Slyhaven," Abel said gritting his teeth.
"The Netherels attacked the village and massacred every single

one of them. When the Guardians and the Baron's men came, it
was already too late" Just by hearing the story, Maisy felt sad for
the villagers, and then, her little face reddened in anger towards
the culprit who summoned the Netherels.
"Did you get the vile creature who was responsible for their
death?"
"The ones who summoned the Netherels were three Orcs. Peyton
and Xanali killed the two of them but the last one escaped. We
must capture the last Orc and investigate it to know more about
their plans and how did they manage to summon the Netherels
from this realm to the outside world in the first place" Noah said
and before Maisy ask another question, he continued,
" Guardian Captain Gerard believes the third Orc somehow

entered the Nether Realm and since only Body Refining
cultivators can enter here, we have to search and capture the Orc
before there's another massacre"
"Oh that's what you were talking with him," Maisy said as Noah
nodded.
"Big Brother you should have said this earlier, I will help you scour
through this entire Nether Realm with you to find that Orc" Maisy
stood up as she put her hand on the chest and said. Noah smiled
at the little girl, "I know you will Maisy"
"Big Brother, what happened in River town?" After hearing about

the Slyhaven, Maisy wanted to know what happened in River town
because even though Abel said it was a distraction, she wanted to
know what happened to the Netherels that went to River Town.
"They were all killed by Ghost" Abel answered Maisy as Alicia

scowled when she noticed a tinge of admiration in Abel's eyes.
"He did not kill all of them, he just stupidly started a fight with
Netherels without thinking about the people in River town or
waiting for the Guardians to arrive. Do not admire him Abel, he's a
selfish bastard, you saw what he did to that man who tried to take
shelter in the cave" Alicia spoke with a cold look on her face.
"That's not what the River town people think of him, they say he
saved him from the Netherel attack. And also, I don't admire him, I
just wish he doesn't turn up to be another bad guy, the world has
enough bad guys as it is"
"I don't know he's bad or not but he's definitely not a good person
"
"Stop it Alicia, what did he do to you? You're just jealous that he's
better than your sweetheart" the golden babaroo let out an evil
grin and teased Alicia.
"Shut up monkey!"
"I'm sure Big brother Noah can kick his ass any day" Maisy
proudly said as everyone turned their gaze at Noah to hear his
answer.
"I honestly don't know" After seeing him kill a group of youngsters
on the Phoenix island and how he vanished after facing Julius,
Noah wasn't sure that he could defeat him. Deep down, Noah
knew he's a better swordsman than him yet, Noah also knew that
it's only temporary as Ghost doesn't have what he does.
"You're just playing with me big brother, I know you can beat him,
hell if I get the chance I'll show him who's the boss" After the fight
with the Lane family and the pills and potions gifted to her by
Noah, she was able to reach the Body Refining stage level 8 in a
matter of days. Coupled with her cultivation level and her innate
ability, she was damn confident that she could face any Body
Refining stage cultivators except Noah and Alicia.
In her eyes, only Noah and Alicia were powerful and people like
Ghost are just overrated. Noah just smiled and didn't answer
Maisy as he was thinking about the Orc.
His train of thoughts was stopped when he saw Abel stand up to

leave the cabin, "what are you up to?" asked the golden babaroo.
"Did you forget what I said to you before?" he said and showed
his wrist to the monkey. On his forearm, there was a star-shaped
mark and in the darkness, it glistened
"This is the mark of God, no Netherel or any evil forces can sense
my presence"
"But-"
"Let him go Alicia, this is the reason I brought Abel here. Only he
can go search all the caves and shelters for that Orc"? Noah
interrupted Alicia. At first, they worried about Abel's safety but
after Noah explained the effects of the mark, they agreed to let
Abel go outside.
"If you face any trouble that you can handle, use this" Noah
tossed Abel a circle talisman.
"A long-range teleporter talisman, where did you get this?!"

Looking at the glistening talisman in his hand, Abel asked in
surprise.
"Xanali, now go find the Orc so we can focus on finding treasures"

Noah waved him off as Abel left the cabin to search for the Orc. At
this moment, Abel did not know that the Orc is not the only one
he's going to find.
Chapter 110 - Lucifer Strikes
Again
Abel was roaming around and searching the shelters when he

saw a horde of Netherels marching into the forest. Because of the
mark on his forearm, he was fearless of the Netherels and
followed them behind to see where they were going.? The Orc's
laughter didn't help it but revealed its location to Abel.
Standing on top of a branch and hiding within the darkness,

Michael noticed Abel approaching the Orc with his spear raised.
The distance between the Orc and Abel rapidly decreased but the
Orc had no idea of the upcoming danger.
"What's on his forearm?" Michael frowned looking at light radiating

from Abel's forearm.
In a few moments, Abel leaped out of the darkness and landed

near the bonfire startling the Orc.
"Who?!"? The Orc stumbled back in shock and before it could

order the Netherels to attack the intruder, Abel's spear tip glowed
and let out golden rays of light.
"Holy Blast"? the rays of light transformed into a small orb and
dashed at the Orc who was still trying to stand on its feet.
Boom!
However just as the Orc was struggling to stand up, the light orb
Abel sent blasted the Orc and nailed it onto the tree behind.
"You will pay for all the lives you took, you filthy miscreant" Abel's
eyes were filled with rage. He was doing his best to control his
anger and killing the Orc on the spot. The golden light soon
wrapped around the Orc's mouth as well as its body leaving the
Orc with no room to wiggle or even move its finger.
"I'll take care of these later but for now, you're coming with me"
Although the Orc was at Body Refining stage level 9 and Abel was
at only level 8, the wounded the Orc suffered weakened it to great
extent. Coupled with Abel's attack speed and surprise entrance,
he was able to capture the Orc without much trouble.
Abel looked at the Orc struggling to move but it could only move
its eyes. Those eyes were filled with shock and fury. If looks could
kill, Abel would have died a thousand times. Ironically, even with
the army of Netherels in its control, the Orc couldn't save itself
from getting captured. It desperately tried to open its mouth and
gave an order to the Netherels in front of it as without its order, the
Netherels literally wouldn't do anything.
"Hmmm hmmmmmm!" Suddenly Abel noticed the change in the

Orc's eyes. Previously they were radiation anger and shock but
now, they were wide and filled with immense terror. He saw the
Orc wildly wiggling its body to escape as Abel could tell the Orc's
gaze is not on him but on something behind him.
Puff!
Just as Abel was about to turn back, the bonfire doused out as the
surrounding turned pitch black.
"What….?" In the darkness, Able saw a pair of red eyes looking at

him. With no control over his body, he began to shiver and feel
overwhelming fear.
"Leave, the Orc is mine" Abel's heart skipped a beat when he

heard the unearthly voice and stumbled back. His meditation to
keep himself calm despite the situation started to fail him as he
couldn't stop being afraid of the red eyes before him.
"Ahhhhhhhhh" Nonetheless, Abel mustered all of his courage to

fight his fear and screamed.
Soon, the tip of the spear glowed again and in the light, he
vaguely saw the red eyes' face.
"HMMMMMMMMMMMM!" The Orc shook its body and fought to

escape the light shackles. The skinless face, red eyes, and
ghostly voice freaked out the Orc and wanted to escape before
the red eyes changed their focus towards it.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Because of Abel's lack of concentration on the shackles around

the Orc, they became slightly weaker and gave enough room for
the Orc to smash its head against the tree.
Michael who was in his Lucifer form was surprised to see Abel
fighting the Fear toxin's effects. Michael gave Able the chance to
escape but if Abel decided to fight, he had no problem killing Abel.
"The Orc is-"
Whoosh!
Michael's words were abruptly stopped by Abel's spear throw.

Abel was fast but Michael was faster. When the spear was just an
inch away from him, he caught the spear "So you've chosen
death"
Abel's eyes went wide in shock looking at the spear helplessly

vibrate in Michael's hand. He tried to summon the spear back to
him with all his remaining courage but the spear couldn't escape
the clutches of Lucifer.
"Who...are….you?" Abel asked while trying to crawl back in fear.

He tried to see the red eyes' cultivation level but shockingly, he
was unable to.
"Death Range" Michael knew people like Abel would have

something up their sleeve so he instantly activated the Death
Range which would make him 35% stronger and faster inside the
range. Right after he activated the skill, Michael overpowered the
spear completely as the spear stopped trembling.
Looking at his weapon surrender itself, Abel knew he couldn't fight

the being in front of him. While fighting against the overwhelming
fear in his heart with his last bit of courage, he tried to take out the
teleportation talisman that Noah gave him.
"No, you don't" Michael was glad he activated the Death range
when he saw Abel take out something. Thanks to the Death
Range and the speed boost, he was quick enough to prevent Abel
from using the item by throwing the spear at Abel.
Pulch!
The spear soared through the darkness and struck Abel on his
shoulder. The teleportation scroll slipped away from Abel's fingers
as Michael dashed at Abel to finish the job before he could use
something else or Noah and his group arrive.
"Noah...will...come...fo-"
Pulch!
Before Abel could finish what he was about to say, Michael took
out the spear from Abel's shoulder and stabbed him through the
chest.
"*Cough" Abel coughed out blood as Michael stabbed him again

Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing the ally of a powerful

foe. The reward is an Epic mystery box]
Thud!
After Abel died, the light shackles that wrapped around the Orc
disappeared making the Orc fall down to the ground. Michael
gave no time for the Orc to act as he dashed at the Orc and lifted
the Orc by its neck.
"Order them to devour his body" With the help of Arch Energy,
Michael controlled the amount of Fear toxin radiating from his suit
of armor and let the Orc inhale just as much as he wanted it to
without killing the Orc.
The Orc could barely breathe as it slowly nodded with difficulty.
"Eat... him" The very next moment the Orc uttered these two
words, the Netherels came back to life again and swarmed around
Abel's body like a pack of hungry vultures around a lump of juicy
meat. In mere seconds, they chewed through Abel's body and
even ate most of his bones.
Looking at the few remaining bones of Abel, Michael didn't regret

his decision to kill Abel a bit because he gave Abel the chance to
escape but it was he who chose to fight and ultimately die. He
then turned his gaze back to the Orc,? "You can either die here
with him or come with me to live, your choice"
"Don't...kill...me" The Orc could barely speak these words and

after grinning behind the skull mask, he activated the lightning
dash and disappeared from the area taking the Orc with him.
Michael didn't stop running until he put a few miles distance from
where he killed Abel. He also didn't forget to store Abel's spear in
the system's store before scanning the spear for any hidden traps.
As far as he was concerned, he didn't leave any evidence that
could identify him as Abel's killer. Soon, the gates to the Nether
realm would close and after that, the name Abel would be lost in
the time.
Michael stopped at a place where he was sure that there's no one

around them. He and the Orc reached a deserted cabin in the
middle of the forest.
Thud!
Michael threw the Orc onto the wall and watched it stand up with
difficulty. He stopped using the Fear toxin on the Orc and let it
breathe the fresh air for a change.
"What..are you?" The Orc asked and stood on the corner still
shivering in pain.
"You don't need to know that just yet" He wanted to know more
about the Orc before revealing his identity. Of course, he wouldn't
reveal his identity as Ghost.
"You summoned those Netherels to attack River town" By

connecting the dots of controlling the Netherels, the Orc's
summoner trait, and the wounds on its body, he guessed the Orc
might be the sorcerer who was chased by Celina and Alex.
"You lie, you die" Michael warned the Orc before it could spin a
web of lies.
The Orc stood on the corner swallowing the saliva in terror as it

even avoided looking directly into his red eyes.
"I just... helped my father and...brother"? The Orc surprised

Michael with this answer and by looking into its eyes, he could tell
that the Orc wasn't lying.
"Tell me everything"
Chapter 111 - The Beginning
Of The Darkness
For the last couple of minutes, the Orc told everything Michael
needed to know. According to the Orc, he was named Dular and
he belonged to a long line of summoners, a faction called Death
wakers. The Orc said his father and brothers were the ones who
summoned the Netherels but he also said, they did that as an
experiment and not to attack anyone.
Obviously, Michael was not a fool to believe the last part yet he
chose not to cross-question the Orc because he didn't bring the
Orc here to punish him but use the Orc to level up quickly. As for
the enmity between the Orc and the Guardians, the matter was
simple; the Guardians chased and killed Dular's father and brother
as well as all their family including little orcs.
Dular said he was learning summoning from his father and brother
to build a kingdom unifying all the Orc villages that were scattered
throughout the continent. He somewhat believed Dular because
he did see Dular let out mad laughter after summoning the
Netherels showing Michael that it was Dular's first time
summoning Netherels. Besides, if Dular was an expert in
summoning Netherels he would have summoned stronger
Netherels.
In his path to world domination, he knew the Guardians would

stand against him. Therefore a fight with the Guardians was
inevitable and if Dular could help him in the fight, he would let
Dular live to serve him as his subordinate.
"You can't win the fight against the Guardians, you almost died
back there and he was only a friend of a trainee Guardian. Now
tell me Dular, do you really think you have the chance against the
Guardian Guild?" Despite their look, Orc was generally an
intelligent race so Dular could understand the power gap between
him and the Guardians. Now that the entire Guardian Guild was
searching for him, Dular realized that he needed someone
powerful enough to protect him and the being in front of him
looked more terrifying than any Guardian he had met.
"Serve me well and you'll not only get to see the Guardians
destroyed but also get a kingdom for your race" there was a glint
of surprise hidden within Dular's eyes but also doubt and
suspicion.
"Will you serve me as my subordinate?" asked Michael.

Considering he couldn't threaten the Orc to be his subordinate, he
had to offer Dular something and make him agree to be his
subordinate willingly.
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[SYSTEM….ERROR….!]
[OMEGA…..THREAT…..!]
However, the next moment, Michael's vision completely turned red

and the system was screaming inside his mind. He instantly
opened the system and saw the multiple warnings in the interface.
"System, what's happening?" his heart was beating rapidly

because, without the system, his plans and path to domination
would take a huge hit.
[Need….1000 Points...to System...reboot...]

"Take it" he didn't think the system was faking it but it sounded like
screaming in pain. Soon after he gave permission to the system,
his vision turned blank and the system's interface faded away
from his sight.
[System back online] a few seconds after, the familiar system

interface appeared before him and only then he heaved a sigh of
relief.
"What the heck was that?"
[System recommends the host not to make Dular his subordinate]
"Why?"
"Weird" The System's behavior puzzled him. Dular was indeed a

powerful ally but he wasn't worth the trouble if making him a
subordinate would mess up the system.
Although Michael wouldn't be able to see Dular's loyalty if he

didn't make him Dular his subordinate through the System, he
didn't require Dular's utmost loyalty to use Dular's summoning
ability. However, unlike Gaya, he had to keep Dular under his
sight all day to make sure the Orc doesn't plan anything on his
own to rebel or betray him.
For that Michael decided to keep him locked up in the Abyssal

and keep him under surveillance.
"I will my lord" When Michael closed the system, he saw Dular
stepping forward and kneeling down in front of him.
"Very good" As he said, Michael bought a syringe and stabbed

Dular in his neck.
"Ah! What-"
"You said you opened up a secret portal to come here, open up
the portal again and go to the Dark Forest's border. You'll meet my
second in command and she will give you the antidote or you'll die
in six hours" Dular stumbled back again and felt a cold chill
running through his spine.
"Do you have a problem?" Michael released a small amount of

Fear toxin to subjugate Dular and as he planned, Dular shook his
head up and down rapidly after inhaling the Fear toxin.
"No...No problem..my lord" Michael very well knew that if Dular's

loyalty is due to fear, it's not loyalty but fear disguised as loyalty.
Yet for now, Dular's fear of him would work in his favor.
"Now leave" He ordered Dular when he noticed the cultivation

masking function had only a few minutes left before it stopped
working and revealed his cultivation level. Therefore, Michael
urged Dular to leave his sight because he didn't want to reveal his
cultivation level to Dular.
"Yes...my lord" Because Orc had natural healing ability, the

wounds he suffered almost disappeared and Michael did not need
to give him a healing potion. Dular picked himself up and quickly
ran away from the cabin to open up the portal and reach the Dark
forest before he dies.
After he saw Dular disappear from his environmental scanning,

Michael also left the cabin and dashed towards the cave. On his
way to the cave, he transformed from Lucifer to Ghost. The night
was still dark and silent when he reached his cave. Inside the
cave, Michael instantly opened the system and bought another set
of suit of armor for Gaya. The armor was exactly like his Lucifer
armor except he asked the system to change the armor to fit her
body. He also bought another black mask for her to hide her face.
Due to the changes to the armor, he paid extra 1000 badass
points but it was worth the points and he couldn't wait to see Gaya
in her new suit of armor.
**************************
After he told Gaya what happened to Abel and everything about
the Orc, he opened up the system to see his current stats as well
as to see what the mystery box contained which he received after
killing Abel.
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Experience Points: 180000/200000 (960,000 Experience points

remaining to be consumed)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2
Status: Healthy

point(s))
The Abyssal
"System, open that mystery box" He was excited because the

system's gift box would have something extremely valuable or
useful to him. This time, he wanted a Legendary weapon or a new
spell. Soon, a greyish box appeared in front of him and trembled
before it exploded into millions of tiny pieces leaving Michael
stunned, "huh? Where are my rewards?"
However soon, he saw a white spot on his environmental

scanning map, just like the time when the system marked the
book of Abyssal during the Phoenix manor auction fair.
Surprisingly, the location was not out there in the outside world but
the Nether realm.
"A point of interest eh, I wonder what I would find there. Oh

speaking of locations, the system can you scan the Nether realm
and reveal me the treasures in here"
[System level is too low to scan the Nether realm. But the system
can tell you that treasures wouldn't appear during the night time]
"Bad luck, I was planning to steal all the treasures overnight"?

Michael sighed thinking that his plan won't work but still, his
unlimited system storage space gave him the absolute advantage
over everyone.
"System after I killed that guy in the forest, you said I killed an ally
of a powerful foe, by a powerful foe, did you mean Noah?"
"Oh come on! Can you at least tell me yes or no" The system
went radio silent hearing the question and Michael could only sigh
and hope to receive an answer after he upgrades the system to
the next level. For now, he decided to let the matter rest as he
wanted to go check out the location that the system gave him as a
gift.
Meanwhile somewhere else, Noah and his friends were waiting for
Abel to return but they did not know that Abel had just left this
world. By killing Abel, Michael started the age of Darkness as the
Dark Lord.
How far would Michael go in the path of Darkness to achieve his

goals?
How many innocents is he going to kill in the process of becoming

the ultimate overlord of this world?
Chapter 112 - Maisy Meets
Ghost
"Stop it, stop it! That is mine!" Maisy shouted out loudly and
lashed out of the thick forest into a lush grassland.
At the same time, a sound echoed from the front. The sound was
coming from a puppy that was injured as it limped while it ran. A
group of youngsters was chasing after the puppy and Maisy and
Alicia were chasing behind them.
However, those youngsters completely ignored Maisy. Instead, a

pair of archers turned around and faced Maisy as they nocked
their bows and released several arrows towards her and Alicia, all
the while maintaining an eye on the puppy.
Shiu! Shiu!
At the same time, a pair of cold steel arrows darted in the air and
made a whooshing sound as it soared threateningly towards both
girls.
"Shit! Where did these bloody thieves come from! I'll kill? you all!"
Maisy was enraged. Alicia knew she couldn't control this little girl
as she decided to let Maisy deal with these guys. Besides, she
was more concerned about Abel and Noah who went to search for
him.
Tightening her fist, she leaped into the air and she charged
towards the pair of archers. Their faces turned serious as they
retreated hurriedly. At the same time, they shouted out to their
accomplices, " kill them first before we decide what to do with
that"
The few of them listened to the instructions and hurriedly turned to
Maisy in an utter surprise of his skills.
A man held onto a sharp spear as he cast a glance at Maisy and

Alicia and spoke out in shock, " what the heck? That kid's a Body
Refining level 8?!"
"Let's just kill the kid and her friend and get the real prize"
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The pair of male archers and Maisy exchanged several blows,

their faces were grave as they spoke out in fear, "Don't
underestimate her. She's strong as fuck. Luckily, we managed to
dodge her blows just by an inch. If not, we would've been fucked"
"Oh?" The three of them listened to his words and cast their gaze
at Maisy.
Looking at all their gazes turn towards Maisy, Alicia frowned

because, among the group who were chasing after the puppy, 5 of
them were Body Refining stage level 9. The pair of archers were
in the 8th level of the Body Refining Stage. The rest of them were
level 8 Body Refining stage cultivators. Their combined number
was 20 and Maisy and she had no chance of surviving the battle
without Noah with them.
Initially, only Maisy and she were chasing the puppy but because
of the disciples from the Broad River sect who couldn't keep their
mouth shut, many rogue cultivators joined the fight for the puppy.
"You go after our prize and we'll deal with them" After giving the
order, the rest of the group blocked Maisy and Alicia's path.
Maisy's face turned red in anger as she kicked the ground and
spoke out loud, "I was the one who found it first. The rest of you
started chasing it without saying anything and wanted to steal it
from me, run away before I'll break all your bones"
All of them listened to the little kid speak and paused for a second
before bursting out into intense laughter.
"Break our bones? Hahaha! That's hilarious. You two seemed to

be one of those freaks of nature, we get it but look how many of
us are here. You can't win this fight"
"It was us who saw it first and it was you two who's trying to steal
it from us"
"Besides, so what if you saw it first? This is Nether Realm, not

your house. Even if you came from a big and powerful family, you
are nothing but a chicken waiting to be slaughtered here"
"Maisy" Alicia tried to stop Maisy before she does something

rashly but the little girl was too cocky." Fine, we'll do this the hard
way then. Do you wish to battle us alone or together? I suggest all
of you attack together so that I could go and break your
underling's hands before he puts his dirty hands on my pet"
The group paused again in shock at her big words. Their mouths
were wide open like fools before they burst out in laughter again.
"Haha! I didn't hear wrongly did I? Did this kid ask us to attack
them all together?"
"Hehe… Kid, please don't assume that just because you've

reached the Body Refining stage at this young age, you are
unrivaled in this world."
"You should have taught that kid to keep her mouth shut girl"
"People who think too highly of themselves will always meet their
dooms sooner rather than later. Clearly, your time to die isn't very
far away!"
As they finished speaking, the few of them had mocking looks on
their faces as it turned to cold laughter as they began their
assault.
Maisy's eyes squinted as she laughed coldly as well, "Don't worry,

my death date is still very far away. However, for the rest of you,
you already have one foot into the realm of the dead'' Alicia knew
it was too late to back off as she prepared to fight off them and
hoped Noah would come to their rescue. At this moment, she
missed having Noah's pills and potions to boost their power level.
"Haha! What a sharp tongue you have. What an ignorant fool, kill
them!"
"Good!"
The man and woman duo acknowledged before casting their

spells. Their flying swords flew up into the sky and circled around
their heads before conjuring a flaming ring that hovered just above
them.
They both pointed towards Maisy and Alicia in unison. The pair of
archers took several steps back in order to gain some distance.
They summoned their Arch energy to their hands and prepared to
fire arrows.
Boom!
Just as the two sides about to clash, a body came back flying
while spurting out blood all over them. The body collided heavily
with a boulder, some distance away, and the collision force left
deep cracks onto the boulder. The sudden appearance of the
body caused the ring of fire to disperse.
Everyone including Alicia and Maisy stared at the headless body

as one of the arches screamed out in horror, " It's Bowen!"
"Ghost" While the group was staring at the body, Alicia looked up
to see Michael walking towards them. She also saw Maisy's pet
sitting comfortably on his shoulder.
Soon one by one, everyone turned their gaze away from the body
and noticed Michael.
The man wielding the spear had an ashen look as he cast a

glance towards Michael, his face showed both fear and shock.
"Did you kill him!?" The pair of them spoke out furiously through
gritted teeth as they nocked another arrow. Michael's face was
bright as a day because he had found it, a little baby Dragon. Yes,
the puppy they were chasing was not a puppy but an actual baby
dragon. Only Maisy and few others recognized it as a baby
Dragon while many others thought of it as a rare magical beast
cub.
When Michael reached the System marked location, he saw the

baby Dragon crying for help from the clutches of Bowen. The next
and the last thing Bowen saw was just a flash of light before his
head was separated from his shoulders. Michael then gently
picked up the Dragon and saw the wounds on its body. He
immediately gave the baby dragon the healing potion and even
gently poured it into its mouth. The Baby Dragon didn't feel any ill
intentions from him and after he cured its pain and made it feel
safe, the baby dragon licked his face and wrapped its tail around
his neck. Besides, he bought a piece of meat that the system
recommended to him and fed the baby Dragon on his way to kill
everyone who tried to harm his Dragon. Surprisingly more than
the healing potion, it was this piece of meat that made the baby
dragon love him so much in an instant.
"That's mine!" Michael suddenly heard a childish voice and looked

down to see a little girl raising her fist. Only then he saw Alicia and
although he didn't show any expression on his face, he was
surprised to see Alicia.
"Let me guess, another heaven-defying genius friend of Noah"

Michael sighed inside as the archers shouted at him again
"Answer the question, did you kill him!?"
"Are you stupid? of course I did" Michael mocked the archers. His
answer and the way he answered pissed off the entire group as
the archers released the arrows. However, even before the arrows
could reach him, they saw him disappear from their sight.
Every one of them froze in shock and in a blink of an eye, they

heard a sword slashing sound and the ones who stood beside the
archers felt a hot splash of blood hit their faces.
Pu! Pu!
The pair of archers fell to the ground as their heads rolled off their
bodies.

Badass points]

Badass points]
The next moment, he returned to the place where he stood before

killing the archers.
"You're dead meat. You dare to kill my Broad River Sect brothers.
You're finished" The man wielding the spear stopped in his tracks
and glared at Michael in rage.
"Blood River Sect?! Holy shit I'm lucky, I was searching for you
guys"
Chapter 113 - Bully Becomes
Bullied
Why was he searching for them?
Everyone was thrown into a moment of confusion as they looked

at each other. Indeed, nobody knew the meaning of his words.
Only the man who was wielding the spear glared coldly at Michael
and had a faint cold smile on his face.
"Searching for us? well, you drew out attention in a most stupid
way"
The minute he spoke out, everyone paused to listen before they

started to react.
"He killed Bowen, what are we waiting for!"
"Damn it, that's our baby Dragon!"
"Catch him! Let's show him what would happen to those who
mess with the Broad River!"
"DIE!"
In that instant, even without their leader to instruct them, the

Broad River Sect disciples rushed towards Michael with faces of
evident rage.
"Stop" however their steps were halted by Michael's voice and

although he spoke quietly, the Arch Energy made his voice sound
loud.
"What?!" the spear-wielding man and the archers asked Michael
while Alicia looked at him curiously to see why he asked them to
stop.
"Why did you scream die before attacking?"
All of them were stunned hearing Michael's question including

Alicia and Maisy. Initially, Alicia thought he's going to talk this out
because she didn't think he could kill all of them by himself. As far
as she was concerned, only Noah could kill them without anyone's
help.
The Broad River disciples and their lackeys stared at him for a few
seconds before gritting their teeth in anger because they thought
he was mocking them.
"DIE!"
"What did I just ask you?" They screamed Die again and surprised
Michael as he sighed.
"Diddle Diddle..."
Just like before, his body disappeared from their sight in a form of
a flash of lightning.
"Who is he?"
"Although he's a Body Refining Stage level 10, he can't beat all of
them"
"He seemed familiar"
Meanwhile, those who were watching the scene from the distance
wondered. Some of them watched the scene with gaping mouths
as Michael transformed into a bolt of lightning and charged
straight towards the Broad River Sect disciples fearlessly.
"We are...so...little"
For a few seconds, Alicia and the others heard slashing sounds
and saw the bolt of the lightning dash around the disciples before
witnessing Michael return to his previous position.
The spear-wielding man and the few others saw their friends
stand in their running posture like statues and before they could
realize what just happened, their bodies fell apart from within.
"Uwakk!"
"Shit!"
"AHHHHH!"
Looking at the organs and chunks of body parts, some of the

onlookers threw up on the spot while some looked pale. They
didn't see Michael swing his sword but they all now realized that
he cut them like a piece of meat and he was too fast to see his
motions.
"Just one move was able to do this?"
"He had killed 10 Broad River Sect disciples in a few seconds and
they were all level 9, Body Refining Stage cultivators!"
"How… How was this possible?"
...
The remaining Broad River Sect members were shocked as their

mouths were opened wide in fear. The way they looked at Micheal
took a tremendous change. Their arrogant facial expressions gave
way to that of fear as though they were looking at a strange beast.
Alicia was shaken as well. She gawked at him, her mouth was
slightly opened in surprise and shock.

Badass points]

Badass points]
Badass points]

Badass points]

Badass points]

Badass points]
There were continuous beeps that echoed in his head and they
continued to ring without stopping for a couple of seconds.





….
His unconsumed Experience points reached almost 1million

points which would let him break through to the Body
Strengthening stage level 3 in one go. Also, his badass points
were nearing the amount 40,000 after dazzling everyone including
Alicia and Maisy.
"Are you alright, Baby Dragon?" he would have killed them all in
one go but he stopped using Lightning Dash as the Baby Dragon
was not very familiar with the feeling of being moving that fast. Its
little face already seemed slightly green and Michael feared that it
would barf on him.
"Hu, hu" He already realized that the Baby Dragon could

understand the human tongue and after hearing his question, it
tried to say something but only the 'huhu' sound came out of its
mouth.
"What happened to your smug faces? don't like being bullied?"

Looking at the Broad River disciples who had now lost their
fighting courage, Michael snickered. Those who were watching
the scene had looks of fear and surprise etched across their
faces. They were standing still from shock and didn't move an
inch.
"Diddle"
With a devilish grin on his face, he stepped forward instead of

using the Lightning Dash. With each step he took forward, the
remaining group of Broad River Sect cultivators took a step back
unconsciously due to fear.
"Diddle"
At the very last moment, the group of Broad River Sect disciples
regained their senses and started conjuring different spells in a
bid to defend themselves but were still scared stiff.
"We..are...so little"
Regardless of whatever spells or skills they cast, they couldn't

touch Michael through his responsive shield.
After their futile attempts to defend themselves were made

apparent, they stared right at the silver sword as it descended
down upon their faces. At the next moment, everything turned
black as they bade farewell to this world.
To the future Dark Lord, all these attempts to defend themselves

were pointless. The onlookers stared at him wide-eyed,
completely astonished, and somewhat fearful.
"Why is he this powerful?! Who the heck is he?"
"He must be using some epic to defend himself from their attack.
Also, did you see the spell he used before, I couldn't even see
him"
"He mumbled something before attacking, that must have been

the reason for his power!"
Alicia's face showed a gloomy expression looking at Maisy and

the reason she came into the Nether Realm, the Baby Dragon.
Now the chance of her getting the Baby Dragon seemed much
less possible. Even Noah wouldn't fight him for the Baby Dragon
because it didn't belong to Maisy but she only found it first. She
could see the Baby Dragon had already started to feel safe
around him and thinking of him as its friend.
Meanwhile, Michael was killing the rest of the Broad River Sect
happily as well. The system was repeatedly beeping in his mind,
informing him of the rewards he had received!



"Plop!"
At the very end, Michael slapped the last one standing, the one
who was wielding the spear. He then stood in the middle of the
wreckage of dozens of bodies and grabbed the man by his neck
and lifted him up. He then shouted out loudly, "what's your name?"
The man struggled to breathe and barely managed to say his

name, "Sa...nder"
"I need you to deliver this message to your sect master, Ghost of
Sunrise sect asked him to come to Sunrise sect the next moment
he hears this from you or the next day, there won't be a Broad
River sect " he threatened Sander and shocked everyone around
him. In his mind, he had plans for this Broad River sect.
"Ghost?!" Sander hesitated for a moment as he searched his

memories before realizing he had heard this name before. His
eyes went wide and then slowly asked, "what's...your..feud
with...us?"
"Seriously? Do you think I don't know your history of bullying my

sect whenever you get the chance? The time of bullying my sect
is over, from now on, it will be us who do the bullying" Michael
chuckled while saying the latter part.
"..." Sander felt an ache in his chest as he nodded and wanted to

escape with his head attached to his shoulder.
Alicia and Maisy were trying to keep their mouths closed but had
weird expressions on their faces. Unlike Abel believed, after they
heard what he just said, they realized that he's not any different
than an arrogant young master. Alicia thought that even if the
Broad River sect had bullied the Sunrise sect before, killing them
brutally like this and threatening to end their sect didn't go well
with her.
"Now run along" he patted Sander on the cheek playfully and

threw him away. Sander felt extremely relieved and didn't even
take his spear from the ground as he ran as fast as he could from
the sights of Michael.
"Huhu" The Baby looked happy to see him run away as it
affectionately licked Michael's face.
In Maisy's mind, the baby dragon was her, and seeing it play with
Michael made her little face turn red in anger. And just as he was
about to turn and leave, Maisy stepped forward and raised her
voice at Michael.
"Stop right there!"

Chapter 114 - Ghost, Maisy
Cooper And Baby Dragon
Michael was surprised at the little girl and turned to face her. She
was nearly Cindy's age but in his eyes, this little girl was nowhere
near Cindy as she seemed extremely arrogant and tyrannical.
"It's mine!" Even though there was no need to raise her voice to
reach him, she shouted in a domineering way. For a moment, he
stared at Alicia and hoped she would warn this little girl yet, Alicia
did nothing.
He kept staring at the little girl and didn't speak a word as she
stepped forward and pointed her finger at the baby dragon, "that
baby dragon belongs to me, Maisy Cooper" Alicia almost forgot
how domineering this little girl could be. They didn't see this side
of Maisy because when Noah was around, Maisy would behave
like an obedient kitten.
Alicia would have advised Maisy to back off but she knew how
much Maisy loved to have a dragon as her pet and no matter what
she would say, the little girl would not back off and let go of the
baby dragon. Therefore, Alicia decided to back Maisy and if push
comes to shove, she would fight Ghost until Noah and Abel arrive.
"Oh?" on the other side, Maisy saw him gently grab the baby
dragon and search its body for something.
"Hhhuuuhhuu" the baby dragon giggled as it felt ticklish when he

lifted its wings and examined its body.
Maisy and Alicia frowned watching him before he placed the baby
dragon on his shoulder again and looked at Maisy, "Nope, can't
find your name on it" Many who assumed the entertainment was
over now started to believe that the real entertainment has just
begun. Many chuckled inside hearing his answer and Maisy's face
turned redder in anger.
"He's really not putting the little girl in his eyes"
"The little girl is crazy, he just killed? massacred a group in front of

her eyes and she still dared to raise her voice at him"
"She's either too stupid or belongs to a big power, let's just wait
and see" The onlookers murmured looking at him and Maisy.
"Give me my dragon before I make you, do you think I'm afraid of

you?" Maisy palmed her fist and looked like she was ready to fight
for the baby dragon which only made Michael chuckle.
"You should be afraid of me if you think you can take the baby
dragon from me"? He didn't raise any killing intent or looked cold
but said with a calm face.



[The System suggests the host challenge Maisy and get the Ring
of Fire] He ignored the badass points notifications but when he
heard the last notification from the system, he momentarily
opened the system and read it again to make sure he heard right.
"Ring of Fire? Is it a Legendary class spell?" his eyes glistened in

excitement as he saw a blue description box appear in front of his
eyes.
Spell name: Ring of Fire

Effect: Creates a shockwave of flames and a ring of fire around
the caster for a short amount of time.
Upgradable: Upgradable through Mentor Function
Current level: Rare
The spells from the system had no current level stat and unlike
the system bought spell, he wouldn't be able to unleash the
maximum potential of the spell right out of the bat but he had to
pay badass points as well as practice or use the spell more often
to unleash the spell's maximum potential.
Although Michael preferred not to hurt a little girl like Maisy, it

didn't mean that he won't teach her a lesson and in the process,
get the Ring of Fire from her by exploiting her arrogance and her
yearning for the baby dragon.
"So you're ready to fight for the baby dragon?" Michael quickly
asked before she says something wrong and cross his limit.
"Yes," Alicia noticed a grin hiding behind Michael's face and

frowned thinking that he's planning something.
"Since I don't like bullying little kids, I'll make you a deal. If you can
make me even take a step back, I'll give you the dragon. But if you
couldn't, you have to give me something as valuable as this baby
dragon, tell me, little girl, do you think you can do this in one
move? Don't worry, I won't move or fight back" by calling her a
little girl, he flamed the fan of her arrogance. No one except Body
Strengthening stage level 7 cultivators could touch him through
the Responsive shield. Maisy was only a Body refining stage
cultivator, so no matter how hard she tries or the level of spells
she uses, she wouldn't be able to even move him an inch let alone
make him take a step back.
Maisy gritted her teeth and tightened her fist looking at the grin on
his face. She wanted to knock his teeth out and prove him wrong
by sending him flying back.
"Maisy, don't hold back, use your strongest attack" Alicia bent over
to reach Maisy's ears and advised her. During the phoenix auction
fair, she saw the battle between him and a group of youngsters. It
was not even a battle but a one-sided massacre and she knew
about the light blue shield that protected him from their attacks.
They couldn't even touch him through the shield but Alicia knew
Maisy wasn't like those youngsters. Maisy was blessed with the
innate talent that makes her stronger than anyone in her
cultivation stage.
Although Alicia doubted Maisy's chance of winning the fight

against Ghost, she believed that if Maisy used the Mystic fist skill,
Maisy could break the shield and make him take a step back.
The Mystic fist was a spell that let Maisy conjure a fist made of
pure Arch Energy and after Noah made some changes to the
spell, the spell became stronger than it was.
"I broke many faces of people who underestimated me, your face
will be the next on the list," Maisy puffed out her chest to show her
courage and exclaimed proudly and in Michael's eyes, arrogantly.
"This is a Rare class spell, I'll place this as the bet"
"System, is that the Ring of Fire spell?"
[Scanning...]
[Yes]
After hearing the confirmation from the system, he smiled and

stroked the baby dragon's face while it showed a troubled
expression on its face. The baby dragon worried that he might
lose the bet and give it to the little girl but the smile on Michael's
face reassured the baby dragon.
Alicia took the spell scroll from Maisy's hand and made her way to
the middle to be the judge of this bet. Since Michael made sure
that no one can take away the baby dragon from him by paying
the system 5000 badass points, he handed over the baby dragon
to Alicia without fretting about her escape with his dragon.
He almost felt bad for them because yesterday, he killed their
friend, and now he's going to take what the little girl desires the
most, the baby dragon.
Plus, he was going to take a Rare spell scroll from her like taking
candy from a baby.
"Huhuhuhu" the baby dragon reached out its claws and cried
while he was handing it out to Alicia.
"Get tough baby dragon, it'll be over in a moment" Michael patted

the baby dragon in the head and said. The onlookers were
surprised to see the baby dragon stop crying after hearing?
Michael's words.
"He's so lucky!"
"Why didn't I get a baby dragon?!"
"What a majestic creature, one of them is going to have a fully

grown dragon as their pet in the future, I can't even imagine it"
"Be glad that you didn't get a dragon, the one who's going to end
up with the dragon is in for a ride when rogue cultivators and
adventurers hear about the baby dragon"
"If you ask me, neither of them can protect the baby dragon and
raise it as their own. Many powerful families and sects will try to
get their hands on it"
Michael heard these conversations going around him and agreed

with some of them but he didn't worry about someone stealing his
dragon because if anyone tried to harm the baby dragon, the
system would raise an alarm and teleport the baby dragon to
either Abyssal or s special storage unit of the system. Of course,
he had to pay 5000 badass points per six months to keep this
function activated yet compared to the baby dragon, 5000 badass
points were not too much.
"You can't fight back and if you take even one step back, the baby
dragon will go to her. If not, the baby dragon and this spell scroll
belongs to you, do you agree?" Alicia coldly asked Michael as he
nodded and then she looked at Maisy to see her give a small nod.
"Remember, She has one move" Michael calmly said and Alicia
could only nod and hope that the Mystic fist would let Maisy win
the baby dragon.
"Let's see what you got little girl"

Chapter 115 - Ultimate Face
Slapping
Because of the drama and curiosity, many people stepped closer

and curled Michael and Maisy. Michael was happy to see the
crowd around him and expected to receive at least 2000 badass
points by impressing these crowds. On the opposite side to
Michael, Maisy let out a cold snort and closed her eyes to conjure
the Arch Energy to use her strongest attack, the Mystic fist.
Although Alicia advised her to use the Mystic fist, the main reason
for her to go with Mystic fist was she wanted to humiliate Ghost
who was said to be on the same stage as Noah.
She wanted to prove Abel and everyone wrong by defeating

Ghost and in her mind, she really believed that she could win this
bet and defeat him. Ever since she started cultivating, she never
lost a battle.
Zzzzzhhhhhhhh
Just a few seconds after she closed her eyes, the onlookers felt
the ground slightly trembling and heard an unearthly humming in
the air. Soon, their jaws dropped and their eyes went wide as they
could in shock looking and feeling the pure Arch Energy that's
being gathered around Maisy.
Alicia was not an exception to this as she also seemed amazed by

the spell.
"Holy shit, is that an Epic class spell?"
"Yes, it is, I heard only someone from the Cooper bloodline can
use this spell"
"Can he really withstand this attack? He did say he won't move or
fight back"
"This spell seems like it could kill even a Body Strengthening

cultivator"
"Look! The fist is taking shape"
Michael calmly watched a huge fist made out of nothing but

glistening silvery Arch Energy appear above Maisy's head. The
fist was tall as a coconut tree and as wide as a couple of busses
lined up and it grew bigger by the seconds.
However, there was no fear in Michael's eyes but excitement

because the more powerful and fancy the attack, the more badass
points he would get after defending himself from the attack. Also,
he was laughing out loud inside looking at Maisy and Alicia's face
because, unlike their expectation, the fist wouldn't be even able to
touch him let alone sending him flying back.
"Huhuhuhuh" The Baby dragon however sensed the

overwhelming power of the fist and cried and tried to claw its way
out of Alicia's hands to Michael.
Looking at his scaly fried being terrified by the spell, Michael

turned and winked at the baby dragon to reassure it. The baby
dragon seemed to have calmed down a bit as the fist reached its
full power. The fist now looked gigantic and it almost reached the
size of a three-story building. The Mystic fist was only able to
reach this potential because of Noah who did some changes to
the spell and unlocked its full potential. Of course, the downside of
these changes was the time it takes to cast the spell.
Since Michael said he won't fight back and gave her the time,
Maisy didn't worry about the casting time. The very next moment,
the little girl opened her eyes and looked extremely domineering
in many eyes. Alicia stepped back a few meters in case the
aftershock was too powerful and pushed her away.
"Let's step back away," Many people thought the same and
rushed back away from Michael and Maisy while not taking their
gazes away from them.
"Are you finished? I have places to be" Maisy's body shivered in

anger seeing the calm and careless look on his face.
"Why is he so calm?"
"If he's acting like he's cool, he's the damn best actor I've seen"
"I don't think he's acting"
"Shut up and watch!"
"If I cannot wipe that smile off your smile, my name is not Maisy
Cooper!" She shouted as loud as she could and sent the fist
soaring towards Michael.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh
The gigantic fist let out an ear-piercing howling sound. Everyone's

eyes gazes were changing between Michael and the fist. Many
watched the fist approaching Michael while biting their nails in
anticipation.
Fifty meters…
Forty meters...
Thirty meters…
Ten meters…
Michael's raven black hair and his long coat fluttered back in the
wind and even when he stood just ten meters away from the fist,
people noticed no fear or alarm in his eyes.
Seven meters…
Two meters…
Boom!
They saw the fist strike him and create a small dust storm in the
place where he stood. Some of the people who stood relatively
closer to Michael flung back due to the aftershock and the rest of
them may have kept the distance but still felt the force of the
aftershock. Many including Alicia were forced to take a few steps
back. People saw Maisy stand a few meters back from where she
stood initially and turned their gazes at the dust storm.
"What?!" Alicia's voice was quiet but Maisy and some of them
could hear her. A few seconds after, the dust storm settled and
revealed Michael, and only then they realized the reason for
Alicia's shout.
Maisy, Alicia, and every single one of them who witnessed the
clash stood still in utter shock because there stood Michael,
neither did he have a scratch on his body nor moved an inch from
where he was before the attack.





He expected 2000 badass points but he got double the amount

than he initially thought. He thanked Maisy and Alicia for this
wonderful opportunity.
"That was it? Humph" he snickered and his gaze was full of
content and ridicule which shook Maisy's pride and self-
confidence.
"How...what..." Maisy couldn't help but mumble under her breath

in utter shock. Not in a million years she thought he would stand
still taking the Mystic fist head-on.
What shocked her more was Noah's words as he said no one in

the same cultivation stage as she would survive the fist. But not
only she was unable to kill him, she couldn't even make him take
a step back.
" arrogance has to be earned and if something needs changing-"

he didn't complete his sentence but raised his hand as the scroll
and the Baby Dragon came flying into his hands.
The Baby Dragon's eyes were filled with joy and it quickly clawed
its way to his shoulder from his hand and wrapped its tail around
his neck to sit comfortably on his shoulder.
Usually, Maisy would have a snarky come back for everything but
now, no words came out of her little mouth because of the shame
and shock. His words flamed the fans of her humiliation.
"It's your attitude" After the onlookers digested the fact that he
actually survived the Mystic fist, they looked at him with utmost
admiration and respect.
"Don't think too highly of yourself because you reached this level
at a young age and have an Epic class spell, I could have killed
you hundred times before you finish casting that spell of yours"
Michael continued to roast her and her face turned redder and
redder. For the first time in her life, Alicia felt afraid of someone.
After seeing him survive the Mystic fist without a scratch, she
realized that he was right, he could have indeed killed Maisy if he
wanted to.


...
At this moment, she doubted even Noah could defeat him. Now
she finally understood why Peyton and Xanali wanted to recruit
him first. Amidst the shocked gazes, Michael gave a last glance at
Maisy before turning himself into a lightning bolt and disappearing
from their sight.
Even after he left the place, no one was able to close their mouth.
Right this moment, none looked at Maisy as a young genius but a
loud-mouthed brat.
Michael did not know that he attracted many eyes and spread his
legend across all the kingdoms in the Elon Continent.
Without Noah knowing, Michael killed one of his closest friends

and destroyed the self-confidence of Maisy, the girl he thought of
as his little sister.
In just two days after coming to the Nether realm, he gained a lot
more than everyone else. First, he obtained most of the herbs in
the sky garden, and then, he gained a contract to supply pills and
potions to Aragoth and now, he got what he wanted the most ever
since he came to this world, a dragon.
Besides, he gained a new underling but who knows what the orc
hides beneath his ugly face. While Michael was celebrating his
gains, his old enemy has begun the plot to destroy him and
everything he built once and for all. Obviously, this old enemy was
Jane and she had no idea that there's someone just as bad as
Ghost is waiting to mess up her revenge plans.
Now that we had enough Badassery of Michael, the Lord of

Darkness, it's time to witness the Queen of Darkness in action.
Chapter 116 - Gaya Being
Gaya
"Sister Aelia!"
"Sister Aelia!"
Inside Michael's home in the Sunrise sect, Gaya was cultivating

until she heard Jack calling her out. She sensed panic in Jack's
voice as she stood up and walked towards the door. It's been five
days since Michael left as time flows differently in the outside
world than the Nether realm.
For the last five days, she was busy as a bee. She spent half of
her day in Majestic and half of the day overseeing the construction
of their new high-end restaurant as well as the renovation of the
Sunrise sect. Because of the works, she didn't even talk to
Michael through the earpiece but fully focused on the work at
hand.
Today was supposed to be her holiday and planned to spend the

day cultivating.
"This little shit better has a valid reason" She cursed him under
her breath and opened the door to see Jack outside the door with
five finger marks on his right cheek. On the corner of his mouth,
there was a red smudge. All of his clothes were stained with mud
and dust and there were even some scratches on his hands. He
seemed like he went skating on the ground with his body.
"Sister Aelia" seeing Gaya, Jack felt relieved. Despite her

cultivation, Jack thought of her as someone he could rely on or
ask for help.
"What happened?" She knew the red smudge was blood and also
she didn't fail to notice his legs shiver.
"Sister Aelia, some adventurers stopped the renovation work and

they are asking for more gold coins. I tried to negotiate with them
but-"
"Did they do this to you?" She interrupted him before he finishes

his sentence as Jack nodded his head.
"I'm going to beat the crap out of them for attacking my minion,
come!" She tied her raven black hair into a ponytail and rushed
towards the student quarters because that's the place they were
renovating.
"Sister Aelia, those adventurers have a Body Strengthening level

8 cultivator with them! We should go and get the Baron's men"
While the sect is being renovated, Claire and the Elders went to
Capital to meet the King of Bredia and settle their debts. Daniel
and Ricky were working with the dwarven engineer to build the
restaurant according to Michael's plan.
That left the sect with Aelia and she appointed Jack as her minion
and gave him the job to oversee the renovation while she's away.
"Shut the fuck up and follow me!"
Plop!
She slapped the back of his head hard and continued to walk.
After he was slapped and thrown away from the student quarters
by those adventurers, his first instinct was to run to Ghost's home
and call Sister Aelia. He didn't think anything about her cultivation
or how weak she is compared to a Body Strengthening cultivator.
For Jack, Ghost was the highest existence in his world as he
basically worshipped him in his mind. Because of Ghost, he had
tremendous respect towards Aelia even though she would beat
him regularly whenever she gets the chance.
However, he never got mad at Aelia after a while because he

knew she might be the only person who would fight for him and
protect him like a big sister. He ran behind her like a little kid and
hoped that she has a way to resolve this conflict with the
adventurers.
A few minutes after, Gaya and Jack came to the renovation site.
"No one can work until someone pays us what they owe us" the
disciples and the workers stopped what they were doing and kept
their distance from a group of adventurers who just beat Jack.
All the adventurers in the group were a Body Strengthening stage

level 3 cultivator except the one who was shouting orders at the
workers; he was a Body Strengthening stage level 8 cultivator. In
Gaya's eyes, they all had one thing in common, they didn't seem
like they came to do construction and renovation work as they
were strong enough to get more paying quests.
Their armor alone was worth at least 100 gold coins a piece and
they certainly did not need to work for 20 silver a day.
"Who hit you?" asked Gaya.
"Sister Aelia!"
"Sister Aelia is here!"
"Sister Aelia!"
Many disciples shouted the name Aelia when they saw her. The
adventurers however just snickered looking at her cultivation level
except for the strongest adventurer who looked Gaya with eyes
filled with lust.
Many girls who saw him staring at Gaya made them feel
nauseated and they prepared themselves to fight the adventurers
if they dared to touch Aelia. After Ghost joined their sect, the
reputation of the Sunrise sect took a turn and many who bullied
them for fun now wouldn't even dare to look at them in a wrong
way. Only because of him that they were able to settle their debts
and receive the needed resources to cultivate with no hindrance.
Therefore, how could they let Ghost's girlfriend be violated by
these adventurers?
"It was me, pretty girl" a middle-aged man who was thin as a stick
made his way towards Gaya with a wicked grin on his face.
Plop!
"Ah!" the middle-aged man halted his steps when he saw Gaya
suddenly slap Jack.
"Did you really let this walking stick slap you?! Look at him!"
Everyone was stunned by the words coming out of Aelia,
especially the thin man. He didn't think he would be mocked by a
body Refining stage girl.
"A gust of wind could have killed this fucker"
"YOU!"
"How did you even climb the stairs against the wind? Hahahaha"
Gaya couldn't keep a serious face as she burst into laughter.
"Sister Aelia" Jack tried to stop her from antagonizing the man any
further as he already looked pissed off.
" Your mom was also so thin as," she said laughing "she ate a
meatball and thought she's pregnant" Gaya began to abuse the
man's family and continued "but it turned out she was really
pregnant...pregnant with you, hahaha " her joke might have been
a bad one but the man's reaction made even his friends chuckle
for a moment.
"How dare you..."
"Whoo"
"AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh....." however when he stepped forward

at Gaya raising his fist, she let out a blow of wind, and shockingly,
the wind came out of her mouth really did send him flinging away
like a kite without an anchor in a storm.
The scene stunned everyone as they watched the man disappear
with their mouths wide open. She only looked like a Body Refining
stage cultivator but in reality, she was a Core Formation level 7
cultivator. For her, killing a Body Strengthening stage level 3
cultivator as easy as stepping on an ant.
"Was that me or the wind?" she looked at the sky and said while
the rest of the adventurers stared at her speechlessly.
"Sister Aelia, you..." Gaya ignored Jack and looked at the leader,
"I heard you want more gold coins, here's my counter offer, pay
my minion's healing cost, apologize to him and run away as fast
as you can" there was no smile on her face as she said seriously.
"Healing cost? How much would that be?" the leader who was a
bulky old man with a white beard asked.
"9000 gold coins plus 2000 for the psychological pain my minion
experienced because of you"
"Is Sister Aelia serious?"
"Did you do that? How did she do that?"
"Am I seeing it wrong or she's just a Body Refining stage

cultivator?"
"I bet Brother Ghost gave something to her making her this
powerful"
"I think so too or how could have she done that?"
"Do you think she can kill him too?"
"I don't know that but if they hurt her, Brother Ghost will tear them
to pieces"
"He's not here, let's hope Sister Aelia can beat their ass"
The disciples already began to chatter while the adventurers had

weird looks on their faces after hearing Gaya's words. They did
not know whether she's joking with them or not but they knew that
she's not normal.
"Are you hit on the head girl? I don't know what you used to do
what you did but-"
"Ah-ah, no buts, you either do what I told you or die" Gaya

interrupted the leader with her words, and seeing the careless
look on her face, the leader glanced at the man on his side as he
stepped forward to take care of Gaya.
"Jack keep an eye on that guy, I have a feeling that this is now
what it seems to be" While the man was on his way towards
Gaya, she ordered Jack and rolled her sleeves upwards.
After looking at the confidence in her eyes, Jack felt powered. He

gave a quick nod and started to watch the leader as she said.
"I need to torture your leader, so I suggest you all six to come at
me together. I don't like my time being wasted" the more everyone
heard her words, the more they became surprised and shocked. If
anyone else was in this situation, they would be afraid but in her
eyes, there was no fear, no fear at all.
"Bring me all the teeth on her mouth" The leader had enough of
her. He never expected a Body Refining stage cultivator like her
would mock them to this extent without showing any signs of
distress.
"Good way to torture someone, I'll pull your teeth one by one, just
wait a few seconds"
Chapter 117 - Too Late To
Regret
Gaya spoke with a voice like a great bell while portraying an

incredibly imposing manner. The disciples heard her words and
they couldn't help but feel goosebumps all over them. Since Gaya
seemed like she has a way to kill them all, they trusted Gaya
instead of doubting her.
"Hmph! You're just a small Body Refining warrior, you haven't

even reached level 8, yet you dare threaten me and kill one of my
men? You're simply courting death! Three of you, go beat the crap
out of these disciples, I'll handle her"
The leader let out a cruel snort. While giving orders to the others,
he stared at Gaya with a blood-thirsty look. Once he finished
speaking, he stuck his tongue out of his mouth and licked lips.
"Understood!"
The other three dashed towards the disciples at the same time.
They were fast, but Gaya was faster. With no warning, Gaya
blocked the way in front of an adventurer, then she smashed his
skull with just a single palm strike.
"Holy!"
"Ah!"
The disciples and the workers who just saw this scene were
terrified beyond words. They never thought a Body Refining stage
cultivator like her could kill a Body Strengthening stage cultivator
simply like this. She just slapped him but his head exploded like
an overfilled balloon.
After brutally and quickly killing the first person, Gaya didn't slow
down as she punched the second one through his chest. A hot
splash of blood spread across many disciples' faces and Jack saw
Gaya's hand sticking out of the man's back with the still-beating
heart in her hand.
"What?"
The leader shouted out in disbelief, he could finally react and

halted his steps. He just stood still like a statute speechlessly. He
never expected that this young girl whom he looked down upon
could have such a ferocious approach and kill two of his men in
an instant, making their adventuring party suffer a great loss.
"You're gonna die!"
The leader became furious. He quickly retrieved his mace and

raised the mace high up into the air, then he forcefully threw it
towards Gaya. With this action, he tried to save the third man's life
before she could brutally kill him. However, she grabbed the man
by his neck and threw him towards the mace which was still
soaring through the air.
Plop!
Blood and pieces of flesh flew off in all directions. The mace
produced a buzzing sound after it collided with the man's body.
Because of the force of Gaya's throw and the power of the mace,
the mace split opened the man's head in the mid-air. The terrified
expression on everyone's face became thicker.
None of these adventurers was Gaya's match. Although the

leader was much stronger than the men she just killed, compared
to her, he was still feeble as a baby.
When she killed these men, in the Nether Realm Michael received
the notifications and tried to contact her through the earpiece but
she put the earpiece in her space ring while she was cultivating
and didn't put it back on.
Among his party, three were instantly killed by Gaya, and one was
sent into the sky. They were hired to cause problems for Ghost
while he was away and hurt his girlfriend as well as a few of the
disciples in the process. But, right at this moment, he realized that
he stepped into the wrong place and met a devil in the form of this
girl.
"Sister Aelia rocks!"
"Hail Sister Aelia!"
Looking at the terrified faces of the remaining adventures, some of

the male disciples cheered after Jack.
"AH!"
The leader let out an angry roar, then he unleashed his full power
and slashed his mace at Gaya as she punched the mace covering
her fist with Arch Energy.
Bam...
The mace and the fist clashed with each other. The center of
collision exploded and surprisingly, there appeared cracks on the
mace. The leader was sent dozens of meters away from the
impact while coughing blood out from his mouth.
"Hmph! Can't even withstand a single fucking punch!"
She let out a cold snort, then she turned her attention at the
remaining adventurers before they could escape and dashed at
them with a wide evil grin on her face. The grin on her face not
only terrified the disciples but also sent a cold chill running the
adventurers' spines.
The adventurers intended to escape but before even they could

take a step, she appeared before them and started crazily
attacking them.
Bam bam bam...

With every strike, a loud explosion-like sound would follow. The
adventurers tried blocking the attacks with shields and their
hands, but, under Gaya's lightning-fast attacks, they could only
defend for a few seconds before she broke shields and bones.
She could have simply killed them one punch to each adventurer
but she beat them to induce the fear of god in the leader's heart
so he would break easily when she starts investigating him.
Besides, this was her first battle after a long time, therefore, she
didn't intend to end the fight so soon. If Michael was here, he
would be surprised at the way she moves and fights and think of
her because she fought like the female version of Bruce Lee and
Ip man mixed together.
With each one of her strikes, one adventurer would spit out a
mouthful of blood and drop to the ground losing their
consciousness in fear and pain.
"Damn it, who is this abnormal monster and why is she so

strong?"
The leader couldn't help but curse. Today, he had personally

decided to attack, and he had also brought many experienced
Body Strengthening stage warriors with him. In his mind, with this
strong force, he would be able to kill not only the Ghost but
everyone in this sect. Yet, he had never expected he would suffer
such great losses.
"Dead already, sigh.Weak as you would choose what quest?

Catch goblins?" Looking at the adventures on the ground laying in
their own pool of blood, she sighed and asked the dead ones with
a disappointed face.
Right at this moment, there was nothing but fear in the leader's
eyes. Deep down, he wanted to tear the old man who gave this
quest into pieces. At first, he took this quest to cause problems for
Ghost and his sect because it was great pay for an easy job such
as this. But now he wanted to go back in time if he could and
change his decision.
"Not good!"
Looking at the grin on her face, the leader's legs trembled in fear,
he could sense a great amount of danger from her right now. he
immediately conjured all the Arch Energy in his body and tried to
escape but Gaya was way too fast, it was so fast that the leader
couldn't escape at all. He could only move with instincts and raise
the mace to attack. Just like before, Gaya didn't use any fancy
spells but punched the mace with her raw strength.
Clang!
The mace in the leader's hand couldn't withstand such a heavy

blow, it was finally broken in half. After that, the leader let out a
horrifying cry and fainted on the spot.
"I'll deal with you later," She said looking at the unconscious
leader and turned her gaze towards Jack, "you little shit, strip all
the valuables from the bodies"? Jack couldn't help but be terrified
at Aelia after witnessing the massacre that happened in front of
him.
It took a few seconds for him to react to her order and he walked
towards the bodies as fast as he could to do as she said. The
other disciples and workers were shocked to see her order loot
the bodies but they were too afraid to open their mouth against
her.
Under? Gaya's cruel slaughter, except the leader, all the

adventures in his group lost their lives. The area of the student
quarters was filled with corpses and reeked fresh blood. After a
few minutes, one girl who knew that Gaya loved attention and
devotion from others started cheering from the crowd.
"Mighty Sister Aelia!"
"Mighty Sister Aelia!"
......
Soon, every single one of the disciples was cheering together.

Slowly the fear in their eyes faded away and glowed as they
stared at Gaya. Hearing the cheers, she stepped on the leader
and looked like a goddess of war who had just descended from
the skies in many disciples' eyes. Gaya's brutal approaches, her
imposing image, had all been deeply carved into the hearts of
every single disciples and workers who witnessed the scene.
Right now, her heroic image had become bigger and bigger in
their minds.
The battle tonight was an eye-opener for every disciple. All of

them had realized why Ghost is keeping her with him all the time.
A group of Body Strengthening adventurers were all killed in just a
few minutes by a Body Refining stage girl. Such an incredible
outcome wasn't possible even in the dreams of the people. Gaya
waved his hand, then the cheering immediately quieted down. All
of them looked at Gaya, awaiting her next command.
"This will be the outcome for those who dare to mess with us"
Chapter 118 - Locked With The
Devil
A few hours after the events of the Sunrise sect, nightfall

illuminated by the rise of stars so at Baron Totonk's manor in the
black. Frost grew over the windows even as the duvet kept the girl
in the room warm. The girl wore a silky nightgown and watched
the ice crystals grow for a while, allowing her brain to be empty.
The morning would bring the beauty of the ice for sure, that
crunch under the boot and the bold greeting cold air brings. Yet
between now and watching her breaths rise as new white-puffed
clouds, she knew that the night is going to be a cold one.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
While the girl was looking at the distant sky through the window,
someone knocked on the door softly.
"Come in"? the door opened with a low creaking voice and then
through the door came an old man who had his face covered with
a dark hood.
"Miss Totonk, it seems there was a small hindrance to our plan,"

the old man said as Jane turned her gaze away from the distant
sky to him.
"But Howard handled the situation and brought the girl here" the
seriousness and the anger within her eyes disappeared. Her
mouth curved upwards to reveal a small smile.
Jane was prepared to punish the old man if he failed his task. She
already had hatred towards Ghost simply because Celina hated
him and she would hate anyone that Celina hates. Her mother
passed away when she was just born and although Celina was
just her cousin, Celina raised her like a little sister and for Jane,
she was like a mother. Therefore when she heard Celina's
complaints about a guy who tried to perv on her at the waterfalls,
Celina wanted to tear the guy into pieces. Like pouring petrol into
the fire, her anger burned hotter after she heard what happened in
Heaven's gate competition. By stepping onto the 100th step and
standing beside Celina and Jack despite their strict order against
it, Ghost disrespected Celina.
That was why when she heard Ghost came to Bradford through
her spies, she immediately went to the Green Heaven and picked
a fight with him. She thought her bodyguards could kick the crap
out of him but instead, he almost killed her bodyguards.
What made her more furious was that when she told her father
and asked him to punish Ghost, he sided with Ghost saying that it
was her fault. Ever since she was born, he never raised his voice
at her but because of GHost, he chewed her out and made her cry
her eyes out. From that day, she was plotting her revenge on
Ghost and when she heard he's going into the Nether Realm, she
put her plans of messing with his plans in motion.
At first, she sent a couple of goons pretending to be customers to

the Majestic to destroy the reputation of his new business. Then,
she hired a group of bandits and ordered them to target Ghost's
customers. As her next plan, she asked the old man who is her
new bodyguard to hire a group of adventurers to harass the
disciples and stop their renovation. Of course, by harassing, she
meant breaking their bones just like Ghost did to her previous
bodyguards as well as kidnap his girlfriend. Jane was planning to
either sell her in the slave market or simply kill her and blame
Bradia's devil, Lucifer. Many of her father's men were put into the
night guard because of this Lucifer who's brutally killing the
criminals and crooks and leaving a horrific scene of crime behind.
Baron Totonk had already sent people to the Church of the two
asking the priests and the holy guards to come to Bredia. The
people were scared silly and Jane was prohibited to leave the
manor in the night. Baron Totonk tried to protect the little devil
from the real devil but he had no idea that she was trying to get
the attention of the devil all along.
"Hahahaha, good work old man, where is that bitch?" The old man
was really surprised by Jane. When he first met her, he thought
she's just a rich spoiled brat but after spending time with her, he
realized that there is something ugly and rotten beneath her
beautiful face.
As her bodyguard, the old man advised her to drop her revenge
against Ghost because her reasoning seemed silly. After all, he
didn't live this long by holding grudges and plotting revenge
against a mysterious prodigy like Ghost. The old man and her
father and Celina herself told her to drop the matter between her
and Ghost, but Jane was stubborn as a mule.
"I put her into one of the secret prisons and Howard is keeping an
eye on her"
"Howard is keeping an eye on that bitch? What happened to his

men?"
"About that..." Jane frowned looking at the old man dragging his
words out.
"What? You can explain it on the way" she quickly changed her
mind as she wanted to meet Ghost's girlfriend as soon as
possible. The old man nodded and followed her behind towards
the secret prisons which were built under the manor.
On their way to the secret prisons, the old man explained what
happened at the Sunrise sect and how Howard got captured by
the girl as well as how he escaped capturing the girl. Jane was
stunned by the old man's words and the curiosity of meeting the
girl rose to the peak in her mind.
Since it was nighttime and the way to the secret prison was
restricted to servants and many low-level guards, they met fewer
guards on their way.
The underground prison was small, Baron Totonk didn't like to

keep many prisons under here very much. Most criminals would
face trial after a few days and either be released or sentenced to
the main prison on the ground.
In addition to the old man, Jane's other guards who were also the
old man's team joined them and entered the prison. The prison
had a total of three levels and the walls were built out of hard
granite blocks. Although Jane was the daughter of the Baron, this
was her first time coming here and she noted the deeper she got,
the narrower the hallway became.
"Why is this place so wet and muddy?" Jane frowned and twitched
her nose as the ground was wet and the muddy sewage was
flowing down the stairs, down to the last floor.
Howard and the prisoner were at the bottom of the prison. Each
layer they went down, the stench in the air became thicker.
"Miss Totonk, please be careful dealing with that girl, we still don't
know the full extent of her abilities and strength"
It was a man following Jane who had spoken.
"You mean to say that the six of you, Core Formation level 4
warriors couldn't handle a Body Refining stage girl?" Jane
challenged.
"No, Miss Totonk, I mean …" the man stammered. After hearing
her reply, the old man turned his head and signaled everyone not
to speak a word as he knew she wouldn't listen to them.
This floor was many times smaller than the one above, with a total
of only three to four cells. The warden lit the torches on the walls
and as the darkness faded, Jane saw a girl sitting on a chair in the
middle of the room with Howard standing behind her. The girl had
her head covered with a black sack and Howard's light blue armor
almost turned red by his own blood.
The temperature in the dungeon was low enough to make people

see white fog when they breathe out. The old man's group circled
Jane while the old man himself stood by the girl on the chair's side
in case she tried anything that would harm Jane.
His first priority was protecting Jane and he wanted to do that to

the best of his ability. Yet because of Jane's stubbornness, his job
became more complicated and difficult.
"She did that to you? Hmph," Jane snickered looking at Howard.

In the light of the torches, she saw his legs trembling and couldn't
help but look down on him.
Howard on the other hand only just a few minutes ago realized
that he was hired by the Baron's daughter through the old man.
He wondered what Jane was planning to do with the girl.
"Yes'' Howard answered meekly and everyone except the old man
was stunned because he was a Body Straightening cultivator
while the girl was only at the Body Refining stage. Since they
were not there with Howard to see how she massacred his party,
they had a hard time believing him.
Of course, he would happily agree to kill this girl as she killed all of
his adventuring party and tortured him till he wet his pants but
although the girl was tied to the chair as well as iron shackles
were around her hands and legs, she wasn't a prisoner as they
were thinking.
"She's not our prisoner, we are hers," Howard thought to himself

while struggling to stop his body from shivering, not in cold but in
overwhelming fear. Looking at Jane and the guards behind her
who were staring at him cluelessly, Howard could only feel pity for
them.
At this moment, they did not know that they just brought the devil
into their household and served themselves on a silver platter.
Chapter 119 - End Of Jane
"Where is your Ghost now bitch!?"
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Jane asked angrily and started punching Gaya violently like a

crazy animal. Howard stepped back from Jane and Gaya thinking
what's going to happen to Jane.
"Miss..." While JAne was punching Gaya, the old man noticed the
girl on the chair isn't moving as she's supposed to. He frowned
and tried to stop Jane.
"What?" Jane turned her cold eyes at the old man and before the
old man could say anything, she looked at Howard," You! Remove
the sack, I want to see the look on her face while I break every
single bone in her body" Yet even after hearing Jane's order,
Howards stood still in the corner shivering to go towards Gaya.
"Didn't you hear what I said?!" Instead of walking forward towards

Gaya, Howard stepped back further into the dark corner of the
room.
Everyone including the old man was stunned to see Howard cover
in fear like this. The suspicion in the old man's heart got bigger as
he himself went to remove the sack from the girl's head.
Boom!
However, the moment he touched the sack covering her head, a

blast of force sent everyone in the room flying. One by one they
hit the wall and the force of their collision made the old room
tremble.
The force blast also put down all the torches except one which
didn't burn as bright as before but let out a small shimmer of light.
While they were struggling to stand up, Howard saw the chair with
the girl floating in mid-air.
"Oh my god…." like a scared little kid, Howard curled onto the
corner in fear.
"Hahahahaha" Suddenly a burst of evil laughter filled the room

and the very next moment, the small shimmer of light coming from
the torch disappeared making the room pitch black.
"What's happening?"
"Leave...leave me...alone..."
"Don't….kill...me"
"NOOOOOO!"
The old man himself began to feel afraid and heard some of his
colleagues scream. He was a devotee of the Peace God, he tried
to fight the fear with the mantra he learned from the temple.
Slowly while chanting the mantra in his heart, he looked through
the darkness to see a pair of red eyes staring at him.
"AHHHH!" right at that moment, he felt like his soul itself getting
pierced by those red eyes and screamed in terror. The old man
lost all his will to fight the fear and gave up to the fear, just like his
colleagues.
The very next moment, he noticed a puff of green glistening

smoke traveling towards him, and in that glistening, he saw a
figure standing in the darkness.
"Ghhhnnnsnn" Staring at the skinless face, he failed to respond to

the puff of green smoke and inhaled it.
Covering in the corner of the room, Howard heard a muffled
groaning. For the next couple of minutes, he could hear groans
like this and the sound of blood splattering.
He wanted to escape the darkroom but he couldn't even move an

inch as his legs refused to move in overwhelming fear.
Puff!
Suddenly something lit one of the torches.
"AHHHHHH!" He heard a scream of a girl yet the voice didn't

belong to the girl he brought but it was Jane's.
The golden-orange light radiating from the torch revealed the

blood-stained walls and pools of blood on the ground. Jane was
not a weak-hearted girl but the fear toxin she just inhaled made
her lose all her courage and strength. Coupled with the terrifying
figure standing in front of her and the dead bodies around her, she
screamed as loud as she could in fear.
She tried to take her gaze away from the figure staring at her and
saw the cold dead eyes of her bodyguards. Their eyes and
mouths were still open and one could see the fear in their eyes
they felt before leaving this world. They were butchered like cattle
even before they could defend themselves.
After collecting herbs from the sky garden, Michael enhanced the
effectiveness of the fear toxin by using some of those rare herbs.
Because of the linked space ring, Michael was able to give the
Fear toxin to Gaya.
Gaya never expected the fear toxin to be this effective as it scared

these Core Formation cultivators to the point where they just lost
their minds.
Except for the old man, none could fight the fear toxin and she
simply butchered them to end their misery.
She slowly walked towards Jane without uttering a word. Jane

was still screaming but she made sure that no matter how loud
she screams, no one would hear her cry.
When she tortured Howard by pulling a couple of his teeth out, he

confessed all about how he met the old man and what he was
hired to do.
It was Michael who told her to go meet the old man as a hostage.
Both Gaya and Michael had an idea that Jane might be behind the
recent quarrels and bandit problem near the Sunrise sect. They
also knew that if Jane was indeed behind this, she would make
sure that the Baron doesn't know about anything because he
strictly ordered her to stay out of Ghost's way.
Just like they planned, the old man used a secret tunnel to
transport Howard and Jane into the underground prisons without
alerting the Baron.
Instead of go looking for Jane, they made sure Jane herself came
to them.
For the outside world, Howard and his group were killed by Gaya
because they tried to extort more coins and harass the sect. No
one would know what was his real motive or who hired as the old
man did everything related to the Sunrise sect very discreetly
according to Jane's order.
Pulch!
Without even turning her back, Gaya kicked one of the swords on
the ground and sent it straight through Howard's head. After killing
Howard, she had erased all the evidence that could trace back to
her and Michael.
Now the only thing that remained her to do was kill Jane and end
this feud. But before killing Jane, she wanted Jane to be sane, or
at least less affected by the Fear Toxin. Therefore, she stopped
radiating the Fear toxin from her suit of armor.
"A stupid bitch like you shouldn't have tried to mess with us" The
voice modulator the system placed in her suit of armor
transformed her voice to sound freaky and inhuman.
Gaya grabbed Jane by her neck and lifted her up, "who...what..."
Jane tried to speak but Gaya tightened the grab around Jane's
throat.
"No, the time for you to speak is over. The moment you tried to
mess with my human, you sealed your fate"
Crack!
The very next moment, Gaya snapped Jane's hand into two like a
stick.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"Hahahaha"
Jane screamed in agony but Gaya laughed looking at her pain.

She knew that Jane would have done the same if she was weak
and helpless. Thinking about how she beat her violently just a few
moments ago, Gaya had no regret of torturing Jane.
"If you want to blame someone, blame the God who put the brain
in your ass and shit in your head"
"Ce...li...na" Despite the pain and fear, Jane let out the name of
her cousin,
"Don't worry, that bitch is on our list" there was a sudden terror
emerged in Jane's eyes which showed the love and bond between
her and Celina because even in a situation like this, Jane worried
and cared for Celina.
Deep down in her heart, she hoped that Celina would come out of
nowhere and save her from this girl. She wanted Celina to be her
white knight in armor but she did know that even if she appeared
at the prison magically, she couldn't save her from Gaya who was
a Core Formation level 8 warrior.
At this stage, even Michael would have a hard time defeating

Gaya without getting the help of the System. She was a true
genius who traveled many places and trained herself through
many life and death battles, not a prodigy who would only fight in
a tournament.
Crack!
She broke Jane's other arm as Jane started to lose her

consciousness due to the pain and the blood loss.
"Human?" suddenly Gaya heard Michael's voice in her ears and

nodded. She then took out the earpiece from her ear and placed it
near Jane's ear, "Playtime's over bitch!" the very next moment
after Jane heard these words, everything around her became
dark.
Gaya retrieved the dagger from Jane's head and threw her body
aside. With a wave of her hand, a bright beam of light appeared
out of her space ring and disappeared along with all the dead
bodies. Michael ordered her to place the bodies somewhere
public. He wanted the name 'Lucifer' to be something like
Voldermort, a name to be afraid of. People like Jane and
cultivators should shudder in fear at the mere mention of Lucifer.
First, he wanted to clean and get rid of all the righteous hypocrites
and criminals like rapists, mass innocent murders like the Blood
and bones sect from this world. How could he let scum like these
be in his world?
He was not planning to rule a world that is infested with criminals

and such. To do that, he had to spread fear and cleanse this
world, starting from Bredia.
By killing Jane and showing their bodies to the public, he had

taken a big step in the path of becoming the Dark Lord that the
Guardians are so afraid of.
Chapter 120 - The Renovation
The very next day Gaya killed Jane, she acted as nothing had
happened and resumed her normal schedule. Like first thing in the
morning, she filled her stomach with all the delicacies that
Raylene cooked for her. After Michael turned her into a 5-star
chef, Gaya made Raylene cook everything she likes and
devoured everything in a couple of minutes.
With her belly full, she would oversee the renovation of the sect.
She ordered to tier down the entire quarters of the Elders and
Claire and build it from the ground up. Previously the Elders
stayed in a single big mansion but now, she ordered the workers
to build each Elder a mansion in the country manor style.
At the moment, they had almost finished three houses and were
putting a foundation for the rest of them including Claire's. She
selected pure white paint for the walls and royal blue for the roofs.
There were also flower beds and lush green lawns in front of
these mansions in Gaya's mind but first, she wanted these
mansions to be built. Also unlike before, she planned to build a
separate building that would act as the main office.
Since the Sunrise sect didn't lack land, only the time and
resources like the workforce slowed her vision from becoming
reality. She sent Jack to hire more adventurers and people from
River town to solve the workforce issue.
For the student quarters, she ordered to tier down most of the
houses and build new ones. Previously, two disciples shared one
house that had two rooms and a small hall but now, each student
house would have two-story with two rooms on each floor. Her
plan was to make four students share one house to save space
because in the future when the Sunrise sect becomes the best,
they would have thousands of students and at that time, they
would run out of houses if they went with the old plan.
If an engineer from earth was here, he/she would recognize the

architecture for the student quarters as the Colonial architecture
style. Combined with Gaya's vision, each student house looked
majestic, and when they were built, it would stun everyone with its
beauty.
Other than Elder mansions and student quarters, she added new
buildings to the plan such as Library, combat range, state of the
art classrooms for practice alchemy, runes, and spells. Of course,
it required not only millions of gold coins but also skilled workers
to build many of the buildings in her mind. For now, she focused
on building Elder mansions and Student quarters.
To decorate the sect and ornate the sect, she wanted to hire the
elves from the elven nation rather than hiring humans because
elves specialized in ornamenting a place. For the state-of-the-art
buildings, she had dwarves in her mind because just like Elves
specialized in ornamenting, dwarves were specialists in building
and crafting.
However hiring these two was not a simple or cheap thing, it cost
her almost 400,000 gold coins to hire a 3-Star dwarven builder to
build their restaurant according to Michael's plan. She spent
another 300,000 gold coins to buy the required materials and
shipping costs. In simple words, she spent almost 1.2 million gold
coins on renovating the sect and building the restaurant.
Fortunately, Majestic was doing extremely well as their customer

base only grew bigger with each passing day. She was planning
to hire more assistants to help the business but she had no time
to conduct interviews.
"Good morning Sister Aelia"
"Good morning Sister Aelia!"
While she was taking a stroll around the student quarters, the
disciples immediately bowed and greeted her. Some had pure fear
in their eyes while others had a mix of fear and admiration. The
disciples didn't just stand there but helped the workers in any way
they could. Even the kids Michael rescued along with Cindy were
helping the workers by supplying water and cool beverages to
them.
After her morning stroll, she came to the makeshift stable where
she kept her new pegasus. Since the previous pegasus died at
the phoenix island, she had Daniel pay for the dead pegasus and
hired another one.
Before they opened the Majestic for business, she decided to

check the progress of the restaurant in River town. Plus, she
wanted to see how the people are reacting to Jane's demise.
"Let's go to River town, Peggy" she patted the new pegasus on

the head and mounted it to fly to River town leaving the
overseeing the renovation to Jack.
*******************************
"Miss Aelia" when she landed near the building site where a
bunch of people was working tirelessly, Daniel and Ricky came
running to greet Gaya.
"Where is that dwarf?" She saw no dwarf in the working site and
asked both of them. The dwarf completely tore down the entire
building unlike Michael and Gaya expected. Because of that, they
were building the restaurant from the ground up which led to more
working and resources.
"Where is Raylene?" before they could answer, Gaya asked them

noticing no Raylene around.
"Lord Gatmil and Lady Raylene went to Bradford, Miss Aelia"

Gaya noticed a glimmer of fear in Daniel's eyes while Ricky
spoke.
"Bradford? Why?"
"Miss Aelia, you knew Jane right?" Ricky asked curiously as Gaya
nodded,
"The devil of Bredia killed her and all of her bodyguards" unlike
Daniel, there was no fear in Ricky's eyes which surprised Gaya
because weak people like him would be terrified in a situation like
this.
"Jane is dead?! Are you serious?" She acted as she didn't know
anything about Jane. Ricky and Daniel nodded, "yes, Miss Aelia, I
just came from Bredia. The entire city is in panic and the Baron
sigh" Ricky sighed and felt pity for the Baron.
"The man is broken into pieces, I had never seen a man cry like
that"
"Oh? Who is this devil of Bredia?"
"Lucifer" the moment the name escaped Ricky's mouth, she

noticed some people stop working and praying, looking at the sky.
"Many people call him the devil of Bredia since he first appeared
in Bredia"
"Him?" she growled inside because it was her who pretended to

be the hostage, punching bag of Jane and finally killed them. Yet,
she was unable to take the credit, so she hid her emotions from
showing on the face.
"Why do you say it was Lucifer who killed them? The Baron has
many enemies"
"Sister Aelia, I saw the bodies, they were laid in a shape of L and
Jane" there was a small pause in Ricky's voice for a few seconds
before he continued, "she was hanged from the top of the manor,
Lucifer broke her two arms sigh...she suffered before dying"
Ricky obviously sympathized with Jane but Gaya who actually

killed her didn't feel a thing for Jane. Michael would have left her
alive if she hadn't held off a grudge against him. Before dying, she
sought revenge against him by messing with his business as well
as trying to kidnap Gaya.
Many including the old man and Celina advised her not to cross
paths with Ghost yet she did exactly the opposite and ended up
losing her life. Unfortunately, the old man and his team became
collateral damage.
"Miss Aelia, if you want anything from Bradford, you should get it
soon. The soldiers were talking about a lockdown"
"Entire garrison of Bradford is searching for Lucifer and I heard

the Church is also coming in case he really is the devil " Daniel
added. It was no surprise to Gaya that the Church is coming to
Bradford because when something evil appears, they would come
to cleanse the city with their holy guards.
Aside from the garrison and the Church, she also expected the
guardians to act as they would now suspect Lucifer to be the Dark
Lord. With their current power, she knew they can't face either of
those three. Fortunately for her, Michael could cultivate by killing
Netherels and the Orc was waiting in the Abyssal to summon
Netherels for Ghost to kill.
Michael and she were planning to stop terrorizing the kingdom for
a couple of weeks till the heat goes down. Besides, after Ghost
came out of Nether Realm, they would be busy managing their
businesses as well as getting rich.
Of course, they knew Celina would suspect him and come looking
for trouble but they had already devised a plan to deal with her.
However, the spell Gaya was using to mask her cultivation was a
Legendary spell that could only be dispelled by a half immortal.
Considering Ghost was in the Nether realm while Gaya killed
Jane, the garrison or the guardians wouldn't allocate too many
resources to investigate him.
"What do you think Daniel? Don't you believe in the devil?" asked
Gaya.
"Of course I do Miss Aelia but I just think this is a work of a human
"
"Don't be too sure old man, that was not a work of a human"
"Yeah no shit," Gaya thought inside as Ricky went on, "I saw
those eyes, it wouldn't be surprised if they were scared to death"
"If you don't finish your work here, I will gouge out your eyes"
Gaya kicked Ricky on the bottom and chased him away.
"I want this built before Ghost returns," Gaya ordered Daniel.
There were still three days until he returns and she wanted to
surprise him by giving him the new restaurant.
Chapter 121 - Last Ride I
After getting the baby dragon and the ring of fire spell from Maisy,
Michael spent the day roaming around the Nether realm to find
treasures. However, he had no luck finding another treasure like
the sky garden or the baby dragon. When the daylight
disappeared, he found another cave and decided to spend the
night inside.
"Huhuhuhu" the darkness of the cave freaked out the baby dragon
as it rubbed its head against Michael's chin while groaning.
"You shouldn't be afraid of darkness, baby dragon," he said after

gently massaging the baby dragon's head. He then bought a torch
and placed it inside the cave, not because of the baby dragon's
fear of darkness but he wanted to see the baby dragon with no
one interrupting.
He sat on the ground lifting up the dragon-like baby. Mud and

blood stains covered its body, preventing him from seeing the
baby dragon's color.
Staring at the wonderment in his eyes, the baby dragon tilted its
head.
Everything seemed like a dream to him, he never expected in a

million years that he would be transmigrated to another world and
presented with an opportunity to control the entire world such as
this one. Holding the baby dragon in his hands brought some
memories he was desperate to forget.
Yet, the prickly tongue of the baby dragon stopped his train of
thought.
"Let's clean you up," he opened the system to buy a small bathtub
so he could get rid of all the blood and mud stains from the baby
dragon. The baby dragon's eyes were filled with curiosity when he
placed the bathtub beside him. He then moved on to fill the tub
with scented water.
"huhu" surprisingly for Michael, the baby dragon shook its head
showing its reluctance to water. This act of the baby dragon
reminded him of the dogs back on earth who also hated taking a
bath. The scaly little bastard might be a noble dragon but acted
like a spoiled puppy.
"Nope, you're getting a bath" He flicked on its forehead ignoring

the protesting of the little dragon. The baby dragon was an
intelligent creature, it realized that its protests were going to be in
vain.
"HrrHuu.." He felt the baby dragon's body getting warm, the closer
he took the dragon to the tub, the warmer its body got.
"Ouff"? A sudden puff of flame came after he heard the dragon

cough. "whoa" although he was quick enough to save his hair
from getting burned, he was still surprised to see the baby dragon
breathe fire.
"Do that again!" he said gleefully rubbing the baby dragon's head.
"Hu...ouff" he heard the sound again yet unlike before, he didn't

see any stream of fire, not even a puff of smoke from the dragon's
mouth.
"ouff" the baby dragon coughed again and again and again trying
its best to breathe fire except it failed to accomplish this feat
again.
"It's okay, you're still too little to breathe fire" Seeing the baby
dragon struggling to breathe fire, he comforted the scaly creature
hiding his doubt and disappointment.
"Huuuuuu" while the dragon was distracted, he merged it in the

water. The baby dragon cried in shock and fluttered its scaly
wings trying to escape from the clutches of this cold water.
Michael had his hands full with the little dragon who now had
absolute hate for water for the next couple of minutes. He used
enough force to keep the dragon still while he rubbed the dirt and
blood stains off of its body. As the dirt washed up on the water, he
started to see the glimmering crimson scales, the pitch-black
claws, and the thin yet tough wings. On its head, he noticed
swellings, he may not be an expert on dragon anatomy but he
watched enough dragons in the movies to know that swellings
would soon become horns.
He lifted up the baby dragon from the bathtub only after he made
sure there wasn't a speck of single dirt on its body. The baby
dragon gnawing his hand as an act of revenge but those baby
teeth weren't strong enough to hurt Michael. He cuddled the
dragon giving a soft kiss on its scaly forehead. Soon, those
vertical slit pupils became round, at the same time, it puppy-eyed
him to make him chuckle. After playing with the dragon a little,
both of them watched the darkness outside in silence until the
baby dragon fell asleep curling itself on Michael's lap.
*****************************************
Right when the first light appeared, Michael left the cave
searching for treasures. The baby dragon stared at every single
thing like grass and tree in wonder sitting comfortably on his
shoulder. Michael was disappointed in the Nether realm because
people said although the place was filled with dangers, it also
filled with treasures but in his experience, the only treasure he
came across was the sky garden. Of course, he got the baby
dragon with the help of the system yet, it wasn't true for others.
He preferred getting out of this place if this situation continued

rather than wasting his time wandering around aimlessly. But
soon, the lady luck surprised him with the sight of a large crowd in
front of what seemed like an enormous cave. He walked
cautiously towards the crowd and stood behind a large tree to see
what's going on before acting.
"Well then everyone, there's not much time left. We should plan
accordingly now that we have six Rare Weapons here. We'll
definitely be able to destroy those magical beasts and reduce the
casualties to an absolute minimum." he heard a man's voice.
"No wonder they are called the rare weapons, their strength is far
too strong…"
"those big sects are rich as fuck"
"With a Rare weapon in their hands, each of them can battle a

Body Strengthening stage beast, with the right strategy, they could
even kill one"
Many of the men there began to chat among themselves in quiet

voices with a fear of speaking too loud.
"There are a total of four magical beasts, each one of them is

extremely dangerous and powerful. It requires two of us with a
Rare weapon in order to fight one of them to a standstill. I can
only guess that it would take three of us with a Rare Weapon to
kill one of the magical beasts. We have six Rare Weapon users,
meaning that we can kill two of them, the other two will have to be
dealt with by the others." Michael recognized this voice, it
belonged to Evan Clarke, one of the prodigies from the
MorningStar. The last time he met Evan was on the battlefield
fighting the Netherels in River Town.
"We have plenty of Level 10 Body Refining warriors, with the last
two magical beasts, they'll be able to deal with them. Although no
one else would have a Rare Weapon, the amount of them is
enough to handle the last two beasts" another feminine voice said.
"Victoria" he instantly recognized Victoria by her voice. Knowing

that these two were here, he realized that there must be
something valuable inside the cave and worth exploring, not to
mention he could harvest badass points by taking the spotlight
from these so-called prodigies.
"That's correct, If we all work together, then we will be able to

break past the defensive line of the magical beasts"
"I agree to this plan," Victoria said.
"I agree as well" Followed by Victoria's voice, he heard Hannah

Berry's voice.
"What is she doing here? flashing the Netherels to death" Michael
chuckled inside.
The crowd saw three of the five experts had all agreed while the
other two remained silent.
"Noah, Alicia if we may have your opinion." Evan looked at Alicia

and Noah and then the little girl beside them.
"I see no problems," Both Noah and Alicia nodded their head in
agreement with Evan's plan.
Seeing the strongest among them give their agreement, Evan had
a look of excitement on his face. Then, taking a glance at the
crowd, he spoke in a loud voice, "Everyone, now that the five
experts have all united to enter the immortal's cave, I hope that
everyone will stand with us. Our combined strength will be enough
to kill the magical beasts, and whoever enters the cave will be
able to take what they find!"
As soon as Evan finished his speech, everyone stood up at once

and began to cheer loudly. Each one of these men was at level 10
of the Body Refining stage and with their Rare weapons, they
were on par with Body Strengthening level 5 warriors.
"If you are not above at least level 7, then don't throw your life
away. We are only inviting those who at the peak level to fight with
us." Victoria yelled out loud, causing those who didn't meet the
criteria to be displeased. Victoria sounded arrogant as usual, the
way she spoke irked many people but they had to stay back
unless they wanted to end up as magical beast turds.
After this, those who weren't strong enough to face the magical
beasts could only retreat away from the cave grounds, leaving
behind around seventy men. Each of them was at or above the
level 7 Body Refining stage with a strong background and a
determined face.
"Good, then let's have everyone here so we can plan things out. I
propose that we split up into four groups, each one will deal with a
single magical beast, does anyone have any opinions?" Evan
spoke.
"This plan's fine, I agree."
"I agree as well."
....
Everyone began to ask their questions.
"shouldn't we wait for Ghost?" among the crowd, a person asked,

making Michael grin.
Chapter 122 - Last Ride II
After the man asked the question, among the crowd, there were a
few moments of silence. It was Victoria who broke this silence with
her words, "We are not waiting for anyone. The people here are
more than enough to slay those four beasts!" she left no place for
anyone to talk back. Ever since he humiliated her during Heaven's
gate competition by spartan kicking her off the stage, the seed of
hate towards Ghost had grown into a giant tree in her heart. Every
time she hears the name Ghost, a flash of anger would emerge
from her soul itself. Hearing the name she hates the most again,
deep down she hoped he had died somewhere in the Nether
realm.
"That bitch didn't change a bit," Michael said to the little dragon as
it tilted its head confused.
Evan smiled, "Ghost can join the fight when he comes here. For
now, the inner group here has enough people to split into two
groups. The rest of the men here should split into two groups as
well. Does anyone have any objections?"
The inner group Evan had mentioned were all standing right next
to him, all of them belonged to either one of the three sects or a
powerful faction like the Guardian guild. Behind the tree, Michael
was scanning the area to detect the so-called four magical beasts
they were meticulously planning to defeat.
His closed eyes opened abruptly when he detected the magical

beasts using his Environmental scanning.
"Four Core Formation Level 7" these beasts were not something
he could handle alone, maybe with Gaya, he could have defeated
one but even with her at his side, no way in hell he could have
killed more than two. Fortunately, these guys were preparing to
fight the beasts, leaving him to plot a plan of his own.
On the other side, Evan spoke to the others, "Four magical beasts
are guarding the immortal's cave. The names of each of these
strong magical beasts are the Winged Ash Snake, Golden
Lightning Lion, Bearded Earthworm, and the Ground Terror. After
examining them closely, we've already established that their
strength is the same as each other. The only difference is their
innate skills. The Winged Ash Snake is capable of flying and
spitting out an extremely potent acid, if it takes off into the air, then
it will be extremely hard to deal with. The Golden Lightning Lion
has an extremely high defense because of its golden scales. As
the name suggests, it can also spit out lightning as well as
discharge electricity from its body, it would be best for everyone to
stay away from it. The Bearded Earthworm is a special variation of
an earthworm. It has an equally strong defense to the Golden
Lightning Lion, but its only weakness is, it is slow. If anyone has
speed spells, the Bearded Earthworm will be your best target" few
of them who had speed-enhancing spells decided to take on the
Bearded Earthworm.
"The last one is the Ground Terror and our biggest headache. Its
attack strength isn't as strong as the other three, but the most
annoying trait about it is that it's fast, extremely fast. In a blinking
moment, it can drill deep into the earth to evade our attacks and
then strike out from underneath. It is completely silent when it's
underground and leaves behind no trace. It can attack from
underneath one's foot at any time, and while it is the weakest in
terms of attacks, its attacks are generally unblockable."
At the mention of the Ground Terror, Victoria's eyes narrowed

angrily; clearly, she had fought one before and ended up on the
losing side.
"Evan, which magical beast do you think we should take on?"

Noah asked from the side.
" We should target the Winged Ash Snake. We have three Rare
Weapons, and one of them is a longbow. If the Winged Ash Snake
were to take to the skies, then we could shoot it down. We also
have a whip that can tether and restrict the snake's mobility. At the
very least, we could prevent it from taking to the skies. These two
weapons are the bane of the Winged Ash Snake." Evan spoke
with no hesitation.
Noah thought for a moment before nodding his head in

agreement, "makes sense"
Since Abel went missing, Noah wasn't his usual self or he would
have taken the initiative to lead the group against these four
magical beasts. Alicia hoped they would find Abel soon, alive and
well.
After hearing Evan, Victoria spoke up, "The Bearded Earthworm

has extremely strong defenses and has a lot of strength as well.
The average Body Refining stage warrior wouldn't be able to do
any damage to it, and without a Rare Weapon, its defenses
cannot be pierced. I will lead a group to take this one, the others
can deal with Golden Lightning Lion and Ground Terror"
In a flash, the discussion was over. The most annoying magical

beast, the Ground Terror who had an unavoidable and
unblockable attack, and the strongest magical beast the Golden
Lightning Lion were given to the last two divisions, Hanah Berry
led one while a rogue cultivator led the other. Although the men in
those two divisions were displeased, they weren't able to say
anything. The Winged Ash Snake was capable of flight which
would render all those on the ground helpless. It would also be
able to strike at the men on the ground with its potent acid, so this
magical beast was best suited for the group with the longbow and
whip user.
"I should pick the weakest beast" he recalled what Evan said
about all the beasts, thinking which beast he should target.
Without another thought, he removed the Ground Terror from his
mind. That left him with three options, the Golden Lightning Lion,
the Bearded Earthworm, and the Winged Ash Snake except Noah
and his group picked the Winged Ash Snake. Considering he
couldn't use the long-ranged weapon as good as Gaya, he
decided to leave the Winged Ash Snake to his group. Finally, after
deep thinking, he chose the Bearded Earthworm as his target. He
had two reasons to choose the Earthworm, first, he could use its
slowness to his advantage, and second, he would be able to steal
the spotlight from Victoria as well as get more Badass points from
the system.
Although the Ground Terror and Golden Lightning Lion were both
hard to deal with, the remaining two divisions were strong in their
own right and had many people. With at least thirty Peak Body
Refining Stage warriors against a single magical beast, the
problem shouldn't be that big.
After walking towards the cave for a few minutes, everyone came
to a stop as they spotted the remains of a battleground. Some
were engulfed by greediness, they thought they could make their
way into the cave without alerting the four beats guarding the cave
entrance except they couldn't.
Suddenly, the thunderous roar of a magical beast could be heard

as it shook both the heavens and the earth with an ear-splitting
sound. Then, three enormous magical beasts came into view: one
massive python of large width with a head bigger than the height
of a fully matured man and black wings–this was the Winged Ash
Snake.
Right next to the Winged Ash Snake was a gigantic lion with a
ferocious look and body covered with golden scales. Occasionally,
a ripple of electricity would dance across its body– this was the
Golden Lightning Lion.
To the side of the Golden Lightning Lion was a lizard like magical
beast that was a meter tall and ten meters long. Four stumpy legs
held it up from the ground and its body was completely covered by
greyish scales. The most iconic feature of this magical beast was
the long beard hanging from its chin. Obviously, everyone
recognized this as the Bearded Earthworm.
As these three magical beasts appeared, everyone felt a sudden

surge of power in the air, pressing against their chest as if there
were a heavy stone there, making them difficult to move.
"Don't panic now, the Ground Terror might still be underground, so
be careful!" Victoria said as she held up her flaming sword and
charged toward the Bearded Earthworm. Following straight
behind, Noah, Evan, Alicia, and their group charged at their target.
Standing atop a tree branch, Michael watched the battle starting

between the magical beasts and the youngsters. On his shoulder,
the baby dragon craned its neck to see the battle, "huhuhu"
maybe he was wrong but the baby dragon sounded like its asking
why isn't he taking part in the battle.
"Let them fight and weaken the beasts, then I will take out the
weakest. Note this baby dragon, do not pick a fight that you
cannot win" the baby dragon moved its head up and down
acknowledging his advice. Michael had two plans, in plan A, he
would kill the beasts after they weakened the beasts using all their
spells and attacks. In plan B, he would simply dash into the cave
while the four beasts were occupied with the youngsters. Of
course, he could ask the system to get a perfect solution but he
decided to test himself to prove himself that he could survive
without the system's help because overly depending on the
system might become his weakness in the future. To take out
these beasts and overcome this situation, he would use his
current as well as the skill set he learned as an assassin.
At that moment, aside from the Ground Terror, the other three
magical beasts began to take action. He focused on the Bearded
Earthworm to study all of its movements and attacks.
This is going to be a battle where Michael had to depend on

himself completely rather than the System.
Chapter 123 - Last Ride III
"Whoosh!"
With a flash of golden light, the yellow-clothed girl in Noah's group

shot an arrow from her Solunar Bow aiming at the Winged Ash
Snake.
"Bang!" The arrow collided against the Winged Ash Snake

producing an explosive sound. The snake's entire body began to
spasm for a moment before settling once more. On its giant body,
a single bloody hole could be seen.
With an enormous hissing sound that stung the ears, the snake
focused on the girl. Those vertical slit pupils were locked onto the
girl, "Use the whip to bind its body!" Evan raised his spear, roaring
at the snake while keeping a safe distance from the snake.
Alicia dashed forward with a serious expression. In an instant, the

whip in her hands blurred as it flew toward the snake's body.
While in midair, the whip began to extend before becoming a
hundred-meter-long cord that wrapped around the two wings and
bound it shut, preventing the snake from flying.
"Forward!" Evan roared. With his Rare Weapon in the air, he and
three other men dashed at the Winged Ash Snake. At the same
time, Noah's body blurred away as aimed his Light Wind Sword to
attack.
"Bang!" An explosive sound and a billow of energy pulsed out like

an ocean of energy. The surrounding area quickly went to ruins as
the three other divisions began to fight as well.
"Ah~~"
As the battle continued for some time, a cry filled with pain could
be heard on the battlefield as a youngster was bitten from the
waist down by a creature whose head looked like a mouse,
dragging him down beneath the ground.
"Ground Terror!"
"The Ground Terror is here! Everyone, be careful of the ground!"
As soon as everyone heard the yell, they all stared intently at the
ground.
At that moment, right in front of the group, a large golden-colored

rat-like beast flew up from the ground with the upper half of a man
in its mouth.
"Be careful, the Ground Terror is here!"
"Hurry up and attack it, don't let it escape into the ground!"
As soon as the Ground Terror appeared, everyone began to shout

out loud as they charged at the Ground Terror.
The Ground Terror was extremely fast and immediately flew back
into the ground after swallowing the body in its mouth. Even when
Rare Weapons slashed at its body, only sparks could be seen.
The Ground Terror was a scaled magical beast with silvery scales
all over its body. Despite its defenses not being as strong as the
Bearded Earthworm, it was still stronger than what the average
Body Refining stage warrior could damage.
An incredibly sharp spike arose from the ground and instantly

speared through the hip of a man before he could even react.
"Ah!" The man cried out in a shrill voice before thrusting his fire
attribute Rare Weapon into the ground in hopes of exposing the
Ground Terror from its subterranean hiding spot. All that he hit
was earth as the Ground Terror had already moved on from one
area to another.
An intense purple light flashed as the entire world shook all of a
sudden. By the side, the Golden Lightning Lion shot out a blue
spear of lightning that arced toward the closest person, reducing
his body to nothing but ashes.
Several men immediately struck out at the lion with their Rare
Weapons, creating a clunking sound as they smashed against its
scales with some sparks and blood. Although the Golden
Lightning Lion's defenses weren't weak, it wasn't capable of
defending against a barrage of blows of a large group without
taking some damage.
An angry roar was emitted from the lion's mouth as it swiped its
sharp claws at the surrounding people attacking it. Another arc of
lightning was spat out from the lion's mouth, striking the closest
person without giving him a chance to dodge. In that instant, five
of the thirty warriors who attacked the Golden Lightning Lion had
been shocked by the lightning and fell to the floor with charcoal
black bodies.
The Winged Ash Snake wasn't much stronger than the Bearded
Earthworm, especially with its wings restricted by Alicia's whip.
She used her and her whip's full power to attack the snake.
Although the snake was a Core Formation level beast, it wasn't as
intelligent as those who were fighting it, therefore, with three Rare
weapons and good strategy, they were able to do some damage
to the snake.
In the end, the snake's strength while bound up was far less than
before, which impacted it majorly, so only around sixty percent of
its full power could be displayed.
The Winged Ash Snake continued to struggle fiercely against the

bindings but to no avail. The wounds on its body were growing
more and more severe and its temper even more violent.
Alicia's face grew serious as she bit her lower lip and
concentrated while sweat pooled over her forehead. At the
moment, she was completely focused on constraining the wings of
the Winged Ash Snake.
Suddenly, the Winged Ash Snake let out a loud hiss as a large
amount of corrosive acid shot from its mouth headed in every
direction, "Watch out!" Noah saw the Winged Ash Snake turning
its head at Alicia to fire a blob of corrosive acid which was
powerful enough to melt Alicia giving her a horrible death.
Noah knew he couldn't reach Alicia in time, the golden babaroo

could have helped her but it was with Maisy back at the cabin. He
felt helpless and threw his sword at the snake even though he
knew it couldn't hurt the snake.
Zzzzzzzhhhhhhh!
Zzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhh!
Alicia closed her eyes knowing it's too late to move but at that
exact time, she heard two crackling sounds.
"Hiiiiiiiiisssssssss!" she opened her eyes to see the snake shaking

its head violently. There were two large holes in its head, exactly
at the place where it had two eyes.
"Ghost!" Evan couldn't help but shout in relief when he saw

Michael before he transformed into a bolt of lightning. After
blinding the snake using his upgraded Ignitia, Michael didn't waste
any time lingering around. He dashed at the snake at full speed
getting closer to the snake in mere seconds.
Whoosh!
The Arch Energy as well as the speed gave him enough strength
to leap into the air. Evan's jaw slightly dropped when he saw
Ghost landing directly on the Winged Ash Snake's head,
"Keep it still!" Noah shouted at Alicia who used her full strength to
keep the snake from taking off with Ghost on its head. Michael's
training as an assassin came in handy to stay on its head without
falling down nonetheless he didn't plan to stay longer as he
crouched, placing his two hands right between those two bloody
eyes.
"IGNITIA!" Michael conjured all his Arch Energy. Thick cracks of
lightning danced emerged from his hand dancing around his
fingers.
ZZZZZZHHHHHHHHHHH!
Boom!
Everyone heard the loud crackling sound of electricity and the

very next moment, a loud boom sound reverberated the area.
Splashes of hot blood, organs, and dirt splattered across the area
surrounding the snake. The burning smell and iron filled the air yet
Evan or anyone who witnessed the Snake's head explode into a
blood-red mist didn't twitch their noses but stood still looking at
Michael comfortably landing on his feet bathed in the snake's
blood. His eyes contained a sense of accomplishment and pride
within while his lips curved upwards making him look like a blood
demon.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Formation

stage level 7 beast. The reward is 60000 Experience points and
1000 Badass points]






….
The moment the others noticed the headless snake lying on the
ground in its own pool of blood and Ghost in front of it, their faces
went still with shock and amazement. There were still cracks of
lightning dancing around and through the snake's body as well as
greyish smoke radiating from the part where the head was.
Even Noah was no different from the rest.
Just then, the Bearded Earthworm let out a terrible sound as well
before collapsing to the ground. Victoria was breathing heavily
while clutching her sword tightly. She had more than twenty men
before the fight but now, only ten or so people stood behind her,
terrified and ready to run for their life.
"Time to kill the worm," Michael thought to himself looking at the

Bearded Earthworm. Although he hated Victoria, looking at the
injuries and the large wounds on the Bearded Earthworm's body,
he felt grateful towards her because she just made his life better,
a lot better. Until a few minutes ago, his target was this Earthworm
but when he noticed the Snake struggling under the attack of
Noah and his group, he changed his target to the Snake.
However, it was not as simple as blinding its eyes and killing it like
he did. Before he actually fired bolts of lightning at the Snake, he
concocted a variant of the devil's breath and mixed the gas in the
air around the Snake using his Arch Energy.
The more everyone inhaled the air, without them knowing, they
would become weak, including the Snake. Coupled with his potion
and Alicia's hard work of keeping the snake still, he got the
chance to target its eyes, the weakest part in its body. His attack
caught the snake in surprise, leaving no time for it to defend or
dodge. Of course, he wanted to let the snake finish Alicia so he
would have one less enemy in the future but unfortunately, the
devil's breath could only weaken the snake for a few precious
seconds.
"Evan, give me your spear" Evan knew about his speed spell,
therefore, when he asked for the spear, Evan threw the Spear to
him because it would be more useful to Ghost than to him in this
situation.
The Earthworm had already suffered major wounds in the battle

with Victoria and her group. Since Earthworm was the weakest
and Victoria used all of her powerful spells and her Rare weapons
to fight it, the worm's strength was reduced to almost 60%. Taking
the spear, Michael didn't immediately activate the lightning dash
but stealthily moved towards the Earthworm while it was focusing
on Victoria. If the Earthworm could kill before he reaches his
desired position to attack the worm, so be it, no rush, this was his
thought. While he was snaking towards the Earthworm, he
signaled Noah and Evan to attack at the same time as he thought
hand signs.
Noah nodded, then Evan, and finally Alicia. The trio didn't take
anyone with them to ambush the Earthworm because a large
group could alert and take the worm's attention from Victoria.
Michael focused completely on the target before him, not at the
other two magical beasts ravaging the rest of the youngsters.
Inside Michael's long coat's pocket, the baby dragon attempted to
move trying to see what's going on outside except, Michael
tapped his chest making the dragon stop moving.
Now that he dealt with this minor trouble, he conjured the Alchemy
flames heating the tip of the spear. Evan saw his spear tip turning
from silvery white to bright orange.
When he was just twenty meters away from the Earthworm, he

stopped and showed three fingers indicating that he would attack
in the count of three.
Three fingers…
Two Fingers…
One finger…
"Lightning Dash" He activated the skill silently, then he dashed

forward aiming the heated spear at the big black dot in its head
which seemed to be the eyes.
"Godly Slash!"
"Death Frost!"
At the same time, both Noah and Alicia began their attack. A
crescent-shaped golden light soared through the air towards the
worm while a bone-chilling frost of ice instantly covered the
Earthworm.
"Normal spear stab" just like before Michael leaped into the air
muttering these three words under his breath with a small chuckle
in his mind.
Boom!
The golden light Noah sent was powerful enough to cut through
the worm's strong scales and the frost spell Alicia used
crystallized half of its body and the frost continued to crystallize
the rest of its body.
"It's mine!" Victoria screamed madly seeing they are going to

finish the job she started. She didn't want them to take the credit,
especially Ghost except, he already stabbed the spear through
the worm's eyes making the worm shudder violently. Michael
retrieved the spear to stab it again, again and again until it
stopped shuddering.

stage level 7 beast. The reward is 60000 Experience points and
1000 Badass points]
Just when he saw the notification did he stop stabbing the worm.
Both the Winged Ash Snake and the Bearded Earthworm were
dead now. Only two remained, one was the Golden Lightning Lion
which was prancing about. Despite the wounds on its body, they
were nowhere near killing the Lion.
The Ground Terror was the most healthy one. Scuttling about
underground, it would play hide and seek with those on top as if it
were a game rather than a battle. Appearing and disappearing
randomly before attacking people in a single instance, it left
behind no traces and only a major headache.
The groups who were fighting both the Golden Lightning Lion and
the Ground Terror had taken major casualties. At least a dozen
men died fighting the lion while many more had taken serious
damage. As for the Ground Terror, it had already swallowed seven
men while injuring a dozen others. The Ground Terror hadn't even
taken any damage yet.
"The Golden Lightning Lion is far too strong, come and help us
quickly, or we won't last much longer…."
"Help us deal with the Ground Terror…"
Seeing how the Winged Ash Snake and the Bearded Earthworm
were killed, the others cried out for assistance with glee.
Quickly steadying himself, Noah dashed to those in need of help.
"Follow me!"
Without looking at the Earthworm's corpse, Noah called out to the

rest of the men to follow him to battle the remaining beasts,
surprisingly, Evan, and Victoria followed Noah but not before Evan
took his spear from Michael.
"Are these idiots expecting me to join? No thanks"
In the heat of battle, they forgot why they came here but not
Michael. He had no intention to help those youngsters because
the remaining two magical beasts were not harmed, not at all.
Although with Noah, Evan, Victoria, and Alicia by his side, he
could kill one of them or even both, he didn't come here to kill
magical beasts but to take the treasures inside the cave. Just like
Michael, few of them had the same thought, they were looking for
the right time to dash into the cave following Michael.
Ignoring them, Michael dashed into a cave. This cave was

unnaturally deep and with every single interval, there was a single
night pearl emanating a white glow of light. The interior and cave
walls were glossy as well, meaning that someone had used an
incredible amount of strength to cut the walls evenly.
"Bang!" A loud sound could be heard up ahead as the entire

passageway began to tremble.
He began to hasten his pace even more before quickly arriving at

an area where a single stone door blocked his path.
Chapter 124 - Fusion Stage
Skeleton
Michael ran his fingers through the old sturdy wall blocking his
path. He looked around to find if there's a mechanism to open this
stone wall yet, he could find only dust and pebbles around.
"Okay, let's do this the hard way then"
He strode forward and immediately struck the door fiercely with

his fist.
With a muffled sound, the stone door continued to tower over

everyone else with only some dust being shaken down.
At this sight, everyone who followed him behind was astounded.

Even he had been stunned for a moment before muttering to
himself, "Is this really a stone door?" he knew clearly just how
much strength was put behind his fist. Even an iron door would
have a hole blasted through it, but this stone door wasn't even
scratched.
"Holy shit! is this really a stone door, it's unbelievably hard!"
"This stone door definitely isn't an ordinary one…"
Everyone began to chat among themselves.
[Need help?] he heard the familiar robotic yet slightly human voice
in his head.
"Nope, I'll need to see how far I can get without your help!"
Michael thought. He tightened his fist again to punch the stone
wall again. If there was a trace of Arch Energy around the door, he
would have looked for another way because it's near impossible to
break something enchanted using Arch energy but this door had
no Arch Energy, which means, with enough force, he could break
this door.
"Bang!"An ear-splitting sound could be heard as the entire cave

shook after he punched the door again. Everyone shook their
heads in pain as they steadied themselves.
After a while, the cave grew quiet once more. Everyone's eyes
remained wide open as they looked at the stone door in shock–it
continued to stand over them as if normal.
"Ju-just what was used to make this stone door, it's really hard!"
Michael was annoyed at these people behind him, they weren't
even helping and the only thing they were doing since they
followed him to the cave was staring at the stone wall.
"Third time's the charm"
Just as he was about to punch the door the third time, a large
animalistic reverberated the cave, causing everyone's face to lose
color.
"That's the Golden Lightning Lion and the sounds of footsteps,

goddammit, they brought it here! fuck!" one of them yelled.
"Fuck it" the pitch-black darkness of the cave and the fact these
idiots bringing the lion to him gave him an idea, an idea which
could work.
Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes, "Death Range" the moment,
he uttered these two words, the Arch Energy in his body rushed
into his veins, making every muscle in the body stronger. He could
feel his strength growing exponentially and since the cave was
already pitch black, none could notice the darkness of the Death
range.
Without any hesitation, he punched the stone wall, "Bang!" A loud

sound could be heard as a large shockwave of energy exploded
outward at an alarming speed. Washing over everyone while the
cave itself began to shake almost as if it was on the verge of
collapsing in on itself.
Upon looking at the stone door, there were several cracks, but it
was still not broken.
Everyone let out a shocked gasp, the stone door was far stronger
than anyone had imagined.? On the other side, he could rejoice
about the durability of the immortal's cave. Even after such a
heavy blow, it still had not collapsed.
"Break for me!" Michael gritted his teeth. Immediately, he punched

again and this time, his punch was stronger than the one before.
Another explosive sound could be heard as stone pieces could be

seen flying about and the cave echoed with the sound. After the
second strike, the unbelievably strong stone door had finally been
shattered but not completely. The hole that appeared at the wall
could only let one person at a time, even that person had to be
slim enough to slide through the crack. Fortunately, he wasn't a
bodybuilder or fatty.
"Let's go!"
"Move quick!"
"We can't fight that beast in here!"
Many shouted in terror while Michael was sliding through the

crack to reach the side. He desperately wanted to block this crack
leaving these lazy bastards to die but time was not in his favor.
After wiggling his body through the crack, he came to the other
side of the stone wall and reached the inner parts of the cave. The
cave was extremely large and spacious. Hanging right on the
ceiling of the cave was a single head-sized night pearl that
illuminated the entire cave with its shiny glow.
In front of him, there was a tall bookshelf, and on top of this

bookshelf, there were some neatly placed scrolls. All these scrolls
were covered in dust, they had clearly been here for a long period
of time. Right next to a tall bookshelf was another single
haphazardly made wooden bookshelf with several books on it.
He walked up to the top bookshelf and grabbed a book with a

sudden look of shock on his face. All of these books were Rare
spells. He was surprised by what he just found.
"Fiery Wrath, Creates a weapon of fiery energy. This is incredible,

I just picked one at random, and it was a Rare spell," Michael's
eyes were glistening in excitement
"So many scrolls! There are also books… this is a library!"
[No shit] the system sounded irritated but he ignored it, sending
everything he picked into his system storage before the system
asks rent for storage space.
"Energy Rage, Creates claws of electric energy, damn I hit the

jackpot!" Michael couldn't hold his excitement thinking how
powerful he would become after learning all these spells, he
would be untouchable and he saved thousands of Badass points.
[hehehe]
"Huh? System, did you just laugh?" the system went silent but he
could swear he heard the system chuckle.
"Clean first, think later" he had no time bitch with the system as
Noah and those idiots would come here soon, and then, he would
have to share this loot with them unless he wanted to make some
powerful enemies by fighting. That he did not want because the
spells are valuable but they are not worth it if he had to make
powerful enemies. Thinking about this, he fastened his pace of
storing the spells in his system storage while the people behind
him were reading the spell scrolls one by one to choose which
one they should get considering they had limited space in their
space ring.
"Baby Dragon, if we take everything here back to our sect, we will

become the fourth big sect!" Michael patted his chest. He could
sense the Baby Dragon had fallen asleep or it would have clawed
its way out of his coat to give him a dragon saliva bath.
"Need a diversion," he noticed one by one people were turning

their gazes at his bookshelf. Looking at this he decided to turn
their gaze towards somewhere else and to do that, what would be
better than a good old-fashioned flashbang. He knew one day this
would come in handy after using these to get rid of the bandits
during his first quest.
He crept into the corner of the shelf where he had the cover of
darkness and retrieved the flashbang, " fire in the hole bitches" he
snickered throwing the flashbang to the faraway corner of the
cave
"Bang!" The sudden flash and explosion sound shook the cave
making everyone jump back in shock and surprise. Just as the
flashbang exploded, he waved his hand and took all the scrolls
into his space ring before punching the bookshelf to make it fall to
the ground.
"What was that?!" Michael shouted like he had nothing to do with

the explosion, "move faster people, the place might come down
on our head!" Like a good human being, he advised the people as
everyone nodded.
Those who eyed the bookshelf could now only sigh because they
preferred to take what they could easily rather than lifting this shelf
up and then search for a spell.
As soon as he took all the spell scrolls, he laughed inside and

joined the others to look around the cave hoping to find even more
treasures.
Despite the expansive cave, the items within were relatively

scarce. Aside from the Rare spells, there was nothing else that
made him excited as before but that didn't mean he left those
common and uncommon spells untouched. He took many of those
scrolls without alerting the others as he didn't want them to
wonder where he got the space to store all the spells.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Suddenly, the silent atmosphere of the cave changed by the

thundering booming sounds which seemed to be coming from
breaking the stone wall.
Soon, Michael saw Noah and the group rushed into the cave
making him curse those useless magical beasts outside, "Core
Formation my ass, why couldn't they kill them all?"
In the next second, something strange happened as the stone

chess table slowly began to descend into the ground when an
idiot who just came here began to investigate the table.
Immediately jumping away from the table, Noah could only look
on in astonishment as the table descended deeper into the ground
before exclaiming, "Wh…what's happening? he couldn't have
activated some sort of mechanism has he?"
Even as Noah spoke, the group of men in the cave all grew
vigilant as they began to worry whether or not the mechanism that
was activated would kill them. Seeing the sudden change, Michael
was ready to use the teleportation scroll he got from the system to
escape the cave. He did want to see how far he could get without
the help of the system but he would rather live another day to test
himself than dying here.
As the table descended into the ground, it was almost as if there

was indeed a mechanism as Noah had said. The cave began to
shake as a muffled boom could be heard and a hidden stone door
slowly started to rise up from the ground.
"There must be a treasure inside, hurry up and enter before

anyone else can!"
"Hurry up and go in, there has to be some Legendary treasure

inside!"
The crowded cave of people quickly began to cry out loud as they
charged toward the area.
Michael didn't hesitate for even a moment. In an instant, they

quickly flew toward the stone door. In a blur of movements, he
activated the Lighting dash and disappeared into the hidden door.
The area past the hidden door was quite small, only a few men
could stand inside. There seemed to be a single person resting
inside and right above his head was a single fist-sized night pearl
that seemed to endlessly pour out a ray of light that would never
cease.
As soon as several men entered this small cave, they immediately

felt a tremendous amount of pressure coming at them from all
angles. It was enough for everyone to suddenly become serious
as their hearts could feel the shock; this cave was not a normal
one.
Right next to one of the walls was a single jade white bed. On the
white bed, a single white skeleton could be seen maintaining a
meditative position for an unknown amount of time. This entire
skeleton exuded a fluorescent light from itself as well. Although it
was only a skeleton, it was giving off an incredible amount of
pressure. Even the faint amount of power that could be felt in the
room was coming from this skeleton.
"This is the skeleton of a Fusion Stage cultivator!" Victoria shouted

out loud in shock at the skeleton. Noah, Evan, Michael all showed
similar signs of shock at this newfound discovery. As they
discovered the skeleton and felt excitement overtake them,
everyone soon quickly felt their blood begin to boil.
In a single flash of movement of Victoria that caused a squall of

wind to appear, she flew toward the skeleton. At the same time,
everyone including Michael charged toward it.
Everyone looked at the skeleton with their blood pounding in

veins, immediately using any speed-enhancing spell they had,
they tried to get closer to the skeleton before the others, except
Michael who stopped at some distance from the skeleton trusting
his instincts.
Chapter 125 - Light Vs
Darkness
With greediness overflowing out of her eyes, Victoria reached out

at the skeleton. The others were too late to react or stop Victoria,
they could only watch her from behind. However just as her hand
was a couple of inches away from the skeleton, an unearthly
humming came from the skeleton and the next moment, a sudden
force blasted Victoria back.
"One person, one bone" a loud yet calm voice echoed through the
cave. Many became flabbergasted, looking around the cave to
locate the voice but Michael could somehow sense the voice
belonged to the Fusion stage cultivator.
After flying or rather stumbling back a few meters, Victoria quickly

regained her composure but not before baring her teeth looking at
the skeleton. She obviously avoided making eye contact with
others, especially with Ghost who was ready to laugh at her
misfortune.
"I think the cultivator only wants us to take only one bone each,"
Evan said, taking everyone's focus from Victoria. Michael inwardly
rolled his eyes looking at the tension between Evan and Victoria.
It was not a tension of hostility but rather the tension of affection.
"No shit Sherlock" thought Michael. He was happy that he didn't

Lightning dash to the skeleton before anyone else or he would
have been thrown away instead of Victoria.
He leaned on the wall and willed to activate the Energy devourer

hoping to turn the pressure coming from the skeleton into
Experience points while these people could come to a decision.
Unlike everyone else in this world, he was unable to cultivate
through the usual means, he had to rely on the system to
cultivate, therefore, he did not have a choice other than using the
system to earn experience points which was the only way for him
to level up.
[System level is too low to break the barrier around the skeleton]
[Level 4 Energy devourer required to transform the Fusion stage

Arch Energy]
His vision was blocked by these two notifications. Now that his
plan to screw everyone before they dismantle the skeleton, he
had to wait to either fight over the skeleton or someone to come
up with a peaceful way to solve this problem. Although he was not
on earth, the anatomy of these cultivators was the same as the
earthlings, they had 206 bones in their bodies. Obviously, he knew
they wouldn't resolve this peacefully because if they agree to take
one bone as the skeleton said, people like Victoria would aim for
the biggest bones in the body such as the skull or femur.
Most of the cultivators in this world tend to be greedy and

vengeful, which led to unnecessary wars and fights. of course,
Michael was not the one to talk about either of those because he
stole all the scrolls on the top shelf just a moment ago without
leaving a single scroll to the others.
"I'll take the skull"
"Fuck you! I fought the Ground Terror, so I'll take the skull"
"I'll be the big man and take the spinal cord, you can have the
skull"
"Spinal Cord?! You dumb fucker, there are 42 individual bones in

the spinal cord"
"Stupid fuckers, where did you two learn anatomy? in the toilet?
It's not 42, it's 33"
"What did you call me?!"

…
As Michael expected, they began to bicker, ready to fight for a

bone. Each of them looked like a rottweiler in his eyes for a
moment before Noah opened his mouth, "Shut up!"
Since Noah was one of the strongest in the room, the crowd
quickly stopped bickering, "Alicia, how many of us are here?"
"Forty-three"
"We'll choose by chance" After he said, Alicia waved her hand as

a quill and a paper appeared in her hand.
"Is she writing the names of all the bones in the body?" still
leaning on the cave wall, he sighed. He wanted to get this over
with and get out of the cave before it could collapse on them.
After a few moments, with a flick of her wrist, she threw 206 small
paper rolls on the ground in front of the skeleton.
"Each roll has a bone name written on it, each takes one and lets
fate decide which bone one will get. Don't worry, we'll pick last"
Alicia said before someone questioned her and Noah.
"But-"
"You have a better plan?" Even after Alicia explained, somebody

raised a question but that somebody was instantly shut by Noah.
"Who would go first?" Evan asked as they all shared this same
question.
"I'll go first" they all heard the voice turning their heads to see
Michael finally decide to join them. He calmly walked towards the
paper rolls, most of them saw him killing two Core Formation
beasts had fear etched into their brain cells. Someone had to go
first and they did not protest him being that someone because
they admired him and most of all, they feared him.
"System, locate the femur"

[1000 badass points]
"Take it" he expected Victoria to be the bitch in the crowd but

surprisingly, she kept her mouth shut while he noticed a glimmer
around one particular paper roll.
He gently bent his back trying not to wake up the sleepy dragon in
his pocket. All the eyes in the cave were glued to Michael,
wondering whether he would be blasted away like Victoria while
many craned their necks to see which bone he would get.
Alicia's enchantment kicked in when he picked the paper roll and

projected the word 'Femur' in a large glistening word above him.
"Oh come on!"
"Lucky bastard"
"He got the baby dragon, now this, he's really lucky"
All of them bore a surprised look on their faces. Many couldn't

help but feel frustrations grow inside seeing he got the largest
bone. With a small smile on his face, he made his way towards
the skeleton, "I'm gonna take only one" said as he put his hand on
the skeleton's femur. Unlike before, there was no sudden blast of
force. The femur came to his hand after making a crackling sound,
his small smile grew into a medium grin sensing the pure Arch
Energy that was radiated by the femur in his hand. Although he
might not be able to use this femur to level up, his snake friend
certainly could.
With his plans to grow the power of his base of operations as well
as himself, he needed a loyal and powerful friend like Gaya. The
stronger she grew, the more protection and help he would get.
Now that he had gotten the femur, he swiftly stepped back from
the skeleton not trying anything funny. As far as he was
concerned, he earned not only enough Experience points to level
up to Body Strengthening level 5, he also got the baby dragon,
rare herbs, spell scrolls, contract of Aragoth, and the bone of a
Fusion stage cultivator while making fewer enemies.
The Nether realm had been kind to him until now unlike it was to
Noah, Maisy, or poor Abel. Most of them lost their friends, limbs,
and lives after entering the Nether realm except Michael.
"Thank you" Putting the femur in his storage ring, he gave a short
nod at the skeleton. He ignored every greedy pair of eyes on him
except one pair of eyes, Noah's. His calm radiant black eyes
stared at Michael with a ting of surprise hidden within.
Michael felt something he couldn't describe, it was a new feeling

that appeared and disappeared in a flash. His neck hair tingled
but he did not show his shock on his face as he walked away from
the skeleton as well as the crowd towards the exit.
Some rogue cultivators wanted to simply kill him and take the
femur from him without trying their luck but Michael's dealing with
Aragoth made them standstill, they were not dumb enough to
mess with an ally of Aragoth.
His relationship with Saide prevented Hannah Berry from giving

him a seductive smile while he was walking past her. Coupled with
Sadie, he now had two powerful allies, SilverMoon and Aragoth.
"I'll go next" Michael heard Evan's voice before he left through the
crack. He was absolutely positive that they will soon fight again
despite Noah's solution, at that time, he didn't want to be there.
After leaving the inner parts of the cave, he slowed down his pace
scanning for any signs of the two remaining magical beasts.
Luckily, his Environment scanning detected no threats in the
surrounding which made him immediately use the Lightning dash
to disappear before they came looking for trouble.
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Eventually, when he was searching for another cave or treasure,

he heard the howling sound of the wind on the horizon and looked
up to see a bright beam of light emerge from the ground.
"Portal" he recognized the energy signature, it was the same

energy signature as the portal everyone entered through into the
Nether Realm.
He felt relieved and excited to leave this place, he wanted to level

up, expand his herbal garden, and most of all, he wanted to show
the baby dragon to Gaya, just to see the look on her face.
"She's going to freak the hell out, hehe" he chuckled under his
breath. Despite being in the Guardian guild, Noah still made a lot
of enemies ever since he came to Nether Realm and lost a dear
friend but Michael, earned allies, a servant who could summon
Netherels at his will.
They both were two sides of the coin, they both walked entirely
different paths, one wanted to reach the top of the food chain to
save people while the other wanted to rule them.
The Nether Realm was the starting place of the war between light
and darkness. However, these two individuals were just two
pawns in the game of superior beings and Michael had just seen
the glimpse of them when he tried to recruit the Orc as his
subordinate.
***********
END OF NETHER REALM ARC...EXPECT A HUGE JUMP IN

MICHAEL'S POWER....
Chapter 126 - Dragon
Bloodlines
Seeing the gateway to getting out of this place excited Michael.

Compared to everyone else, he was the real winner of this event
despite the treasures disappearing after the sky garden. He was
told by Gaya that each day a treasured place would appear
except it didn't.
"Lightning Dash" placing his hand on his chest pocket, he

activated the speed spell turning his body into a golden bolt of
lightning. The people inside the cave were still unaware of this
gateway and still fighting over the skeleton.
"Hey snake, are you there?" Michael willed the earpiece to

connect to Gaya and asked.
"Wait a minute...move that aside you dumb bastard! You! What

the hell are you doing? Did I ask you to put that there?" she was
screaming inside his head making him almost switch off the
earpiece. He could tell the snake is bossing around everyone
which she loved to do.
"Hiya human" after a few moments, Michael heard her voice, this
time, there were no buzzing sounds of people working or Gaya
screaming at somebody.
"Hiya, Snake, you seem happy without me," He said 'Hiya'

chuckling,
"Of course I am and how are you still alive?" She teased him,
trying to hide the delight in her heart of hearing his voice after so
long.
"Don't get used to it, I'm coming home"

"Really?!" there was an elevation in her voice yet soon, she
pretended not to be happy of him returning and continued to tease
him, "oh, So soon? why don't you stay there a bit longer?"
"The portal has already opened, you ungrateful snake, I'm

currently heading out there to get the hell out of here,"
"Shit, hey!" she suddenly screamed again, " I'm gonna rip off your
hands and attach them to your butt!"
"You should go, I can't hear you scream in my ears no more"
"Yeah, you do that, I have to babysit these stupid bastards or they

might put the meat in the sewers" she cut off the line while he
continued to run towards the portal. He couldn't wait to see the
renovation works as well as his new restaurant that Gaya was
boasting about. If he wants to keep a healthy and respectable
relationship with Aragoth and major powers in the Elon Continent,
he had to keep his base of operations presentable to people. The
Sunrise sect he left was barely presentable as it could be looked
at as a ruin. With these renovations, he hoped to receive a good
amount of badass points every month as the system said.
For badass points, he got the Sunrise sect and the restaurant
could provide him with a steady flow of Gold Coins. No matter
which world he was in, the rich liked to spend their time and
money in a place suited to their taste and status. His two
henchmen Daniel and Ricky were currently handing out flyers and
hiring bards to promote the new restaurant, although he had only
one competition worth noticing, he didn't hold off his gold coins but
ordered Gaya to spend as much as she wants to promote their
restaurant.
Thinking about his new schedule, he took a deep breath. In the

daytime, he needed to be at the Majestic making pills and potions
for the Majestic, oversee the restaurant and play with the baby
dragon. In the nighttime, he had to terrorize the kingdom by killing
criminals and such to keep the legend of Lucifer spread across
the kingdom. However after he leaves this place, he should lay
low because killing Jane brought the frickin Church and attracted
the king's notice according to Gaya.
He was running towards the light beam on the horizon for hours
but it felt like he was running on a treadmill, not getting closer to
the light beam.
"Huhuhu" Meanwhile, the baby dragon woke and clawed his chest
to make him stop running.
The golden bolt of lightning slowly faded away revealing Michael.
"Huhuhuhu" it began to sower him with wet kisses, rubbing its little
head against his chin.
"Alright, we'll take a little break" Compared to everyone else in the

Body Refining stage, he had triple the amount of Arch Energy in
his body. Yet he was not an exception to getting tired of using all
the Arch Energy in his body for example using spells like Lightning
Dash.
In the daytime, powerful Netherels rarely made an appearance, at

least to his knowledge. During the night time, he did detect a
bunch of Core Formation and even a few Core Strengthening
Netherels in his Environmental scanning. Nonetheless, he knew
even with the masking effect and stealthy approach, it would be
impossible to hunt these powerful creatures.
Having a system doesn't mean he should get into fights half-

cocked.
"Are you hungry again?" Sitting under the shade of a huge tree,
he asked the baby dragon playfully.
"Huhu" those vertical slit pupils of the scaly creature instantly

transformed themselves to those of a puppy looking at the juicy
red slice of meat in Michael's hand.
"Here you go," he said after throwing the piece of meat a few
meters away from him. He didn't want to spoon-feed the baby
dragon spoiling the dragon.
"Hu" the baby dragon threw a little temper tantrum before hopping
towards the piece of meat.
"System, open the pet window again" he willed the system, soon,
the bluish interface filled his vision.
Pet Name : []
Race: Forrest Dragon
Trust: 94%
Power: Arch Sensing Stage 1
"I'll come up with a new name soon and system, is there a way to
change my dragon's race?" This question sounded so stupid in his
head, however, the system did boast that it could do anything
given enough Badass points.
So why the heck not?
[System level is too low to answer the host's question] he sighed

seeing the greyish notification box in front of him. According to
Abras's memories, this world seemed to have four dragon
bloodlines, Inferior Dragon, Forrest Dragon, Grim Dragon, and the
noblest of them all, Royal Dragon.
Rarity and Power increased respectively from Inferior Dragon to

Royal Dragon, the latter was rare to the point that only a handful
of people in this world had seen them with their own eyes. If this
was only Rarity and Power, Michael wouldn't have worried about
the race much but it was not. The Inferior Dragon could only reach
the Core Strengthening stage, not one stage above. Forrest
Dragon could reach one stage above them, the Soul Refining
stage except most of them would die of old age. Only the dragon
with either Royal or Grim bloodline had the chance to step into the
half immortal or to the stages above them.
According to Abras's memory, Grim Dragons were the cheeky,

pervy ones who loved to kidnap princes and princesses just for
fun.They also loved to horde anything that shines in the light and
to expand their treasure horde, they would usually terrorize a
settlement making them hand over the valuables to it. They were
practically the bandits of the dragons.
With no care of its bloodline, the baby dragon munched on the
meat while occasionally letting out small burps.
"I've been calling you Baby Dragon, what's your gender?" He

wondered trying to see if there's any genitalia in its body yet after
staring at the baby dragon for a couple of seconds, he sighed and
let go of this unfruitful search.
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Experience Points: 180000/200000 (1,110,000 Experience points

Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2

Status: Healthy

point(s))
The Abyssal
The number of Badass pints and Experience points immediately

brightened his face. He became one step closer to reach the top
of the food chain. The first thing he wanted to do after getting out
is upgrading the system to level 3 because it keeps telling him the
system level is too low to answer many of his questions.
Thirty thousand badass points seemed humongous when he

upgraded the system to level 2 but now, he could spend this
amount without batting an eye.
Michael was positive that Celina would come looking for him
doubting him for Jane's death. At that time, he wouldn't be the
same person she attacked at the waterfall, this time, he would
have the strength to return the favor in case she tries to attack
him.
"Come on baby dragon, let's go" he stood up looking at the light

beam again as the baby dragon came hopping to him. It then
clawed its way to Michael's shoulder. In his focus at the portal, he
failed to notice the greyish scale on the dragon's belly which was
crimson red before.
Eventually running for another two and half hours, finally, the light
beam seemed closer to him. On the distance around the light
beam, he could see a few camp tents and people who were
packing up their stuff to leave the Nether Realm.
************
Now that we have finished with the Nether Realm arc, we can
finally get into the interesting parts. How about an adventure?
Chapter 127 - Coming Out Of
The Nether Realm
The closer he got to the campsite, he finally understood where the

disciples of Aragoth went after he met them at the sky garden.
They were spending their time waiting for the portal to appear.
"Stay inside," he said calmly looking at the baby dragon. The baby
dragon let out a reluctant shrill before making its way into its dark
home, Michael's coat pocket.
Having a perfect way to keep the dragon safe didn't mean he

could be careless. Many prying eyes of those rogue cultivators
and of those who desire to have a dragon at their disposal might
try to get their hands on the baby dragon.
Obviously, he was not planning to keep the baby dragon hidden

forever, what's the point of having a dragon if he couldn't show off
to increase the badass points?
But for now, he decided to keep the baby dragon hidden. He was
positive that prominent figures he met before entering the Nether
realm would come again, those people were ruthless, dangerous,
and powerful enough to make him disappear overnight.
Despite the system's nagging to explore this world, adventure out

of Bredia, he was ignoring the system as his full focus was on
getting stronger, stronger to the point where he doesn't need to
worry about someone taking the things he loves and cherishes. At
the present moment, he might have seemed overpowered,
undefeatable even but he only fought with inexperienced snotty
kids like Maisy or Celina. The world was vast, there would be
people who are cunning, strong yet deceitful, these people would
overwhelm his advantage of having a system with their brain and
actions. He was indeed the number one hitman/assassin back on
earth but that certainly didn't mean he's the number one genius
evil mastermind.
To face people of that caliber, the only foolproof way he found is

becoming powerful enough to defeat their tricks with
overwhelming strength. This wasn't a novel he used to read, this
was his life, a life he planned to live like a god. Unlike those main
characters in the novels, he self-evaluated him to find his
weaknesses as well as his strengths, relying on luck or even on
the system would not be one of his weaknesses.
When he approached the campgrounds, he stopped using the

Lightning dash, by walking, he drew the attention of fewer eyes.
One by one, the youngsters dismantled their tents, some of them
were fancy, some of them were makeshift and the tent Michael
was walking towards was not the latter.
The flag with a large greatsword drawn on it waved in the wind

majestically. Outside of the tent, a reddish-haired youngster calmly
watched over his friends doing all the dirty work.
There was a hint of surprise in Nathen's eyes when he laid his

eyes on Ghost. Soon, he twitched his nose because Ghost didn't
exactly smell like jasmines, he reeked blood and dust.
"Ghost"
"Nathen"? Each gave a short nod, "it's fortunate I met you here,
when we go outside, come with me to get your coins," said
Nathen, making Michael grin in delight.
Renovating the sect, building the restaurant cost them more than
he expected. Even as he speaks, Gaya was taking money from
the Majestic and spending it on the construction works. After
Nathen settles his debt, he would be a 1.7million richer.
"I didn't see you after the sky garden, any luck finding treasures?"
he probed Nathen to see him shake his head, "Our sole purpose
to come here was getting rare herbs, fortunately, we got those on
the very first day. So we didn't roam around the place looking for
more treasures, besides, I heard there weren't any treasures after
the sky garden" those brown eyes of Nathen contained a hint of
suspicion within them. When he first met Ghost, he didn't reek
blood and now he is, which meant, he battled something and
chances were, he was trying to get a treasure.
"I was fortunate enough to come across few" Michael answered,

showing his lack of interest in discussing this further. Nathen was
nice enough not to ask further questions which Michael
appreciated very much.
"About that contract I promised, you have to come to Aragoth and

ask for me"
"Will do as soon as I break through to the Body Strengthening

stage" he intentionally let these words out to milk some badass
points through impressing these youngsters.
Just as he expected, he began to hear the ringing sounds of the

system notification in his mind. Nathan's mouth slightly opened in
sudden surprise, he was speechless. A few moments after, he
regained his previous composure, "very well then, meet me
whenever you can" he said with a short nod.
"Nathan, are you an Alchemist as well?" Michael asked the

question in his mind ever since he met Nathan.
Nathen seemed like he was expecting this question from him,

"Yes, I'm a level 2 Alchemist, what gave me away?" for the first
time, the serious expression on Nathen faded away, and instead,
a small chuckle occupied his face.
"You" Michael pointed at him, "you said your sole purpose of

coming to Nether Realm was to find rare herbs, who else would
do that except Alchemists?" Besides, Nathen didn't exactly radiate
a warrior vibe, in fact, he seemed like a person who grew up like a
greenhouse flower in Michael's eyes.
Boom!
As he finished speaking, a thunderous clap could be heard. They
looked at the light beam to see at the bottom, on the ground level,
a greyish hole big enough to let in a group of five appear.
"The portal has opened!"
"Finally!"
"Heck yeah!"
"I'm going to drink myself to death!"
the rather silent atmosphere, the appearance of this portal

instantly elevated the mood of these youngsters. They cheered,
clapped, and bounced in joy while a few who barely survived this
place sighed in relief.
"Shall we?" Michael gestured at Nathen to lead the way as he

followed them behind to the portal, controlling the excitement of
returning to his sect, his friend.
The groups with either one of the three big sects symbol on their
chest entered through the portal first while everyone made way for
them. Nathen and his group could have taken the first place but
Nathen just let them pass through for some reason.
"Finally" with one last look back at the Nether Realm, he stepped
into the darkness letting the portal surround him.
***********************
"Surprise sucker!" The very next moment Michael stepped out of

the portal, he felt a sharp pain in his hand, he turned around with
a wide grin to see Gaya was standing in front of him, showing her
white row of teeth.
"What are you doing here?" he didn't expect her to come over
here to welcome him personally. This gesture of her truly
surprised him,
"Making sure you reach our home safely" she defined the house
in the sect as 'our' with no hesitation.
"Yeah right," he rolled his eyes, turning his gaze at the crowd to
locate Nathen. As time passed, the ground became more and
more crowded,
"Come on, let's find those Aragoth people and get our money"
"Wait a minute" she pulled his sleeve, she then stared at him, from
his top to bottom frowning.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Another surprise hit
Michael's core. Apparently, she was great at reading faces, even
Michael's. The baby dragon might have sensed the change in the
surroundings and stopped moving, but she knew he was hiding
something just by looking at the slight upcurve on the corner of his
mouth.
"Nope, just keep your damn mouth shut and follow me"
Plop!
He playfully slapped the back of her neck, gesturing her to follow

him. She would have ripped the hands-off before even someone
tries to slap her but when it comes to him, she loved interactions
like this.
Wiggling through the crowd, he found the same flag as he did

before.
Nathen was surrounded by a bunch of youngsters of his age as

well as a couple of older guys who wore distinctive crimson-
colored clothes.
"House of Bradley" She immediately recognized those crimson-

robed people as the members of House Bradley.
Seeing him and Gaya approaching them, they whispered

something into Nathen's ear as he turned around, "Uncle, he is
the one I was talking about'' From the crowd, a study-looking man
stepped forward with two guards at each side. He was a level 10,
Core Formation stage warrior, Michael could sense he was just a
couple of months of cultivation from reaching the next stage.
"I heard you did good back there, young man" His hazel black
eyes scanned Michael from head to toe while letting out a burst of
wild laughter,
"It's an honor to meet you, Sir" Michael said in return grinning ear
to ear,
"Cut the Sir Crap, call me Lord Malan"
"As you wish, Lord Malan"
"Here you go" the very next moment, Malan threw him a space
ring with a horse etched onto it, this was the symbol of House
Bradley.
Michael did not even check inside the ring as he put the ring
inside his system storage. This was a gesture to show them that
he trusts them as well as to be in their good gracious. If he wanted
to survive in this world full of powerful men, he had to be under
the shade of powerful men like House Bradley, until he himself
reached the point of being the superpower.
"I heard you are also a 5-star Alchemist, how about visit us
sometime and let us pick your brain a little?"
"Of course, Lord Malan, as soon as I finish dealing with some

things back at my sect, I will come to visit you" Michael was not an
idiot not to notice the ulterior motive behind Malan's invitation.
Malan's voice betrayed him, showing Michael that this man needs
something from him.
"Wonderful and trust me, young man, it will be worth your time"
Chapter 128 - Omega Level
Warning
"Brother Ghost is back!!!!" the moment he landed on the outskirts

of the Sunrise sect, a group led by Jack let out a thunderous roar.
They bounced, cheered, and screamed his name making Michael
smile a bit. Among the crowd of disciples, he also noticed a group
of new faces who had musical instruments such as drums,
berimbau, atabaque drum, and pandeiro.
Previously when he first came to the sect, the outskirts were

occupied with overgrown shrubs, thorns and one could definitely
tell this place was not very much looked after. However, at the
present moment, nothing was overgrown, thorns had completely
disappeared from his sight, the shrubs were replaced with
seedlings of flower plants.
"Brother Ghost" Jack came running bearing a face full of

excitement and joy.
"Jack, you've leveled up" Jack moved on from Foundation stage

level 4 to level 8, Michael patted him on the back making Jack grin
even more.
"I gave that bastard enough pills to reach the Body Refining
stage!"
Plop!
As usual, Gaya slapped Jack as everyone began to laugh out

loud.
"What are you waiting for, beat it!" Jack ordered, looking at the
group with musical instruments.
Instantly the festive music reverberated the foothills of the sunrise
sect, showing every single living being of Michael's triumph return.
The beats, the dance, and the festive mood that could be seen on
everyone's face slightly reminded him of the carnival of Rio de
Janeiro back on earth. Unlike back on earth, he was not here to
assassinate someone but to enjoy his life. The male and female
disciples forgot about their gender and rocked their bodies,
swaying with the beats.
"You know about this?" while making his way to the top, he asked
Gaya
"Who do you think is paying for this?" she said waving her hands.
Inside his pocket, the beats awaken the baby dragon. It began to
scratch his chest asking him to let it out.
For the next few minutes, Michael kept patting his chest calming
the baby dragon. He did not want to reveal the existence of the
baby dragon just yet. Eventually, the sight of the newly renovated
buildings fell in his eyes. His brows arched in surprise, the
buildings were nowhere near finished but they were already
looking better, much better than the previous ruins.
"Now we are talking," he thought, feeling the excitement stirring

up in his heart.
"Thank you guys" Looking at the Elders and Claire waiting for him
in front of the teachers' quarters, Michael said to the musicians
with a short smile.
"Ghost, welcome back"
"Welcome back to the world of the living, young man" Claire

stepped forward, giving him a loving embrace, an embrace of a
big sister.
Even though his full focus was on getting stronger to rule this
world, people like Claire added flavors to his life. In his previous
life, he had no people to share his happiness or sadness, now
thanks to this mysterious system, he got a friend like Gaya, loving
people like Elders and Claire.
"You have something in your pocket?" Claire asked, feeling
something wiggling inside Michael's chest.
The very next moment, everyone's gaze landed on Michael's

chest. Indeed there was something wiggling, "I knew you were
hiding something!" she turned him to face her pulling his
shoulders, "take it out!"
"You asked for it" with a chuckle, Michael gently grabbed the baby
dragon and pulled it out. A moment of stillness occupied the
scene before Gaya jumped back letting out a squeal.
"HUHHUUU!" like it met a lifelong enemy, the baby dragon hissed

at Gaya.
The Dragons and the Nagas were two foes in nature's order. Like
a cat doesn't need a reason to hate a mouse, these two were just
like that, only in larger, bloodthirsty creatures.
"A dragon!"
"Holy fuck!"
"My god!"
None noticed the change in Gaya's face as all their eyes were
locked onto the baby dragon. The cute crimson-colored scaly
created had attracted all the eyes instantly from Michael himself.
"Can… I?" Claire's hands trembled approaching the baby dragon,

her voice stuttered.
"Huhuhu"
"It's okay" Michael reassured the baby dragon. For a few seconds,
the baby dragon hesitated, sniffing Claire's hands before finally
letting her take it into her arms.
"Brother Ghost, that's a...dragon" Jack stuttered while everyone

except him crowding around Claire to see the baby dragon.
"Where did you-" he couldn't even finish his question, shock
overwhelmed his ability to speak
"Where else? Nether Realm" Michael said, he then turned around

to see Gaya's face show a mix of anger and fear. He could tell she
was fracking out despite her power.
"I don't want that lizard here" she kicked the ground beneath her,
"Surprise Sucker!"
**************************
At the present moment, Michael was lying on the royal sofa. The
baby dragon and Gaya were having a staring contest in front of
him.
If he wanted to break through peacefully, he had to resolve this

petty hostility between her and this little dragon. In the future,
these two may have to fight beside each other, how could they do
that if they dont trust each other?
He must root out the hate for each other from their hearts before
the baby dragon grows up to be a big dragon. For Gaya, he
decided to give her some tough love to realize how stupid it is to
fight with this baby dragon.
"Gaya"
"What?" she asked without taking her eyes off the baby dragon.
"Doesn't this seem childish to you?" he stepped in, giving a quick

slap to both on the head.
"You" Michael aimed his eyes at Gaya, "you are grown ass girl,
yet, you are fighting with this baby dragon" she tried to open her
lips, only to get yelled at again, " I dont give a damn about what
the dragons did to Nagas or Nagas to dragons. I want you two to
trust each other, no food for you two until you find a way to get
along" a horrified expression could be seen on their faces, the
baby dragon let out a crying 'huhu'.
He was deadly serious about starving them, she could tell that
much. Now she had two choices, the first choice, trying to steal
food from the restaurant but she didn't believe she could achieve
that feat with him around, the second choice, find a way to get
along with the baby dragon as he said.
"Huhu"
"This is not my fault, you little asshole" she wanted to strangle the
baby dragon when she heard it blame her for his anger.
The baby dragon hissed ready to scratch her pretty face, it didn't
feel a bit afraid of his natural enemy, Naga. After Michael's
departure, they continued the staring contest, trying to figure out a
way to get along.
*************************
Since he had to break through to the Body Strengthening stage,

he ordered Gaya not to renovate the house when he was in the
Nether Realm. So this worn out home remained the same, he sat
on his bed, eyes closed
"System, let's begin"
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Experience Points: 180000/200000 (1,110,000 Experience points

Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2

Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2
Status: Healthy

point(s))
The Abyssal
He willed his status to come forward,staring at all the unconsumed

Experience points, he began the process of breaking through,
[Does the host wish to break through to the Body Strengthening

stage?]
"Yes"
[The system requires host three days to reach the next stage]
[Warning, the system will be offline for three days]
"Upgrade yourself to version 3 and then begin the breakthrough

process" Michael ordered the system telepathically, the next
moment, the interface in front of him faded away and darkness
surrounded his mind.
In the pitch-black darkness, Michael's consciousness brought him

the memories of earth. The way he grew up in an orphanage, an
orphanage that was a front to an arms and drugs dealing
operation. He was bullied and beaten by those things despite his
little age every day, as a little kid, he wanted to be a teacher.
Every time the thugs would ask the kids in the orphanage to
smuggle drugs, Michael resisted them, in return he would be
beaten to a pulp, beaten until his little heart finally gave up
resisting them.
He learned to adapt, learn, bend the situation to his favor. In this

life, the circumstances changed but odds against him remained
the same.
(After three days)
[Congratulations to the host for reaching the next stage, the Body
Strengthening stage!]
[Congratulations to the host for leveling up. The current level is

Body Strengthening stage Level 1!]



[The System has been successfully upgraded to version 3!]
[OMEGA LEVEL WARNING!]
[ACTIVATING COUNTERMEASURES!]
[SYSTEM SAFE MODE ACTIVATED!]

Chapter 129 - New Spell
"Huh?" the system's bluish interface flickered, soon, the bluish

color turned to something grey, dark.
"What the heck happened? An omega-level warning? What is

that?" Many questions riddled his mind,
[System level is too low to answer host's question]
"Why am I not surprised?" Michael sighed, little by little, he began

to realize something called Omega is messing with the system.
This system was not like a system in the novels he used to read
about, the badass system seemed to have a backstory of its own,
enemies of its own.
The system was an absolute peak existence in his mind but now,
it looked like there's something beyond that. He was nowhere
near facing threats on that scale, all he could do for now was
getting stronger.
He showed this omega threat to the corner of his mind and

focused on his stats,
System version 3.0 [Safe Mode]
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Strengthening stage, level 4
Skills & Spells:

Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2
Occupation:? ? Core Disciple of Sunrise Sect
Status: Healthy

point(s))
Wealth: 1,685,000 Gold
The Abyssal
"System, how much for upgrading the Banker function to level 3?"
A loading icon appeared in front of him, this was new yet he
decided not to ask because he knew it might be related to the
system running on Safe mode.
[20,000 badass points, the ration will be 1000 gold coins to 10

badass points]
With no hesitation, he willed the system to upgrade the function.

In a desperate situation, 100 badass points could save his life, so
keeping this function upgraded would let him get those life-saving
badass points.
Level: 1
Status: Declined
Legend: 30 / 1000 (Still a crappy old sect where a 5 Star

Alchemist resides)
Compared to before, there was no debt, and The Legend of the

sect increased by 10 points. He did not feel demotivated by the
measly 10 points increase, he knew the legend would grow after
putting his plan for the Broad River sect in motion. Besides, he still
didn't give all the spell scrolls he got from the cave, not to mention
the 80-100 herbs he plucked from the sky garden.
Furthermore, he was absolutely positive that getting the contract

of Aragoth would not only bring him millions of gold coins but also
elevate the sect's status.
"Time to learn a new spell" excitement overwhelmed his senses,

he opened the system storage, "Ring of Fire"
Spell name: Ring of Fire

Effect: Creates a shockwave of flames and a ring of fire around
the caster for a short amount of time.
Upgradable: Upgradable through Mentor Function
Current level: Rare
"System, I wish to learn this spell" In his arsenal, Ignitia acted as

both close combat and long-range combat spell. The sword
mastery enhanced his close combat skill even further, the only
thing he lacked was an area of effect(AoE) spell.
This Ring of Fire could be the fix to that problem.
[Activating Mentor Feature]
[Scanning the Ring of Fire spell...]
[System found improvements to the spell, does the host wish to

improve the spell?]
"Yes," he said without hiding the excitement in his heart,
[1000 badass points required to improve the spell]
"Oh, I thought you were going to do this for free" sarcasm

overflowed in his tone, "take it"
He experienced the familiar acute pain in his brain, when he

opened his eyes, his vision was blocked by a crimson red
warning,
[Maximum recommended spell number reached]
[The system advice host to stop learning any more spells before
reaching the next stage in cultivation]
[Exceeding the maximum spell number would result in nausea,

headache, muscle pain, memory loss, etc]
"Jeez, fuck, I was kinda hoping to learn all these Rare spells to
become super op!" The warning really frustrated him, he gritted
his teeth and swallowed the frustration. He could not fight the
system, the rational thing to do was upgrade the existing spells
before learning more despite his desire to learn new spells. The
Ring of Fire mastery was at the level of 50%, if he wanted to
reach 100%, he had to practice the spell and use this spell more
often.
"Alright, I can live with the spells I already have, hey" suddenly
Michael remembered something, "System, where are my rewards
for upgrading you?"
[...]
"Oh come on, why should I upgrade your ass if you won't give me
some sort of rewards?"
[...]
[Host will get rewards after the system terminates the Safe mode ]
"And when would that be?"
[...] The silence made I'm even more frustrated thinking about the
30,000 badass points he spent on upgrading this jerk of a system.
Finally, with a long sigh, he closed the system, letting his eyes
bathe in the daylight.
"Sister Aelia!"
"That damn lizard tore my clothes!"
"Huhuhu"
"I'm gonna tear you apart!"
"Sister Aelia, calm down, it's just a baby"
Outside of his room, he heard the yellings, "what now" he sighed

and made his way towards the door. He opened the door to see
the baby dragon in Cindy's hands while Gaya was waving a thin
needle-like stick at the baby dragon.
However, all of them paused seeing him walk out of his room.
"Brother Ghost!"
"HUHUHU!"
Cindy almost threw her hands up, dropping the baby dragon in her
hands when she saw him. The baby dragon wagged its tail like a
puppy, reached out its claws to shower him with kisses. He
crouched down to receive a soft tender kiss from Cindy on one
cheek and wet nibbling kisses on the other from the baby dragon.
"Body Strengthening stage level 4, why am I not surprised?" He

was just a Body Refining stage cultivator a few weeks ago, now
he turned himself into a Body Strengthening stage level 4 warrior.
His speed of cultivation was really monstrous, even she couldn't
be compared to his speed. Coupled with his war god body and the
orc who could summon Netherels, she knew he's going to get
even stronger. Although she had a bad feeling about this orc, they
had to work with the Orc to grow their strength. The church and
the guardians were still searching for Jane's killer, she knew that
Celina would soon come looking for Ghost in blind anger. To face
a threat like the Church or the guardians, they needed servants
like this orc.
"Cindy, when did you reach the Foundation stage?" Michael

pecked her on the cheek, ruffling her carefully combed hair.
"Sister Aelia is teaching me to cultivate"
"Really?" Actually, he was surprised to see the selfish snake care

about Cindy.
"Huhuhuh"
"I missed you too, baby dragon" the baby dragon was relentlessly
kissing all over his face, trying its absolute best to get his
attention.
"Cindy, where's your mother?" he carried the little girl in his hand
while the baby dragon sat on top of his shoulder. Seeing its
human has returned, the baby dragon felt safe, looking at Gaya, it
stuck its tongue out giving her a? 'yeah I did tear your clothes'
look.
"Don't be too cocky, lizard, I can still squeeze you to death" The
hostility he saw the first time in their eyes now became less, at
least they didn't kill each other, he thought.
"Mother and little brother is still at River Town"
"I will meet them there, and Aelia" she was lazily laying on the
sofa,
"What?" she asked, "I have a gift for you" her face slightly
brightened as she stood straight on the sofa. Michael retrieved the
femur he got from the skeleton, instantly making everyone in the
room feel the pressure.
"Whoa!" Gaya was overwhelmed by the Arch energy radiation

coming from the bone, she walked towards him with a slightly
opened mouth,
"This is..."
"Yes, a bone of a Fusion stage cultivator" she took the bone with
the utmost care from Michael's hand, the baby dragon stared at
the bone sensing the power while Cindy just scratched her little
head having no idea about the bone.
"You can absorb this energy to reach the next level"
She blankly nodded, still feeling overwhelmed by the energy.
"Do you have more?" he wanted to punch this greedy snake in the
face, many would kill to get their hands on a single bone yet, she
was asking for more with a serious face.
"Yeah, I have a whole skeleton under my bed" he answered

sarcastically, making her chuckle a bit.
"Where to?" She put the bone in her space ring and asked him on
his way to the outside, "to expand our herbal garden" he would
have given the herbs to Gaya three days ago but these herbs
were rare and required his attention while planting, therefore, he
kept the herbs until now,
"To the herbi garden!" Cindy shouted joyfully, pointing her finger
towards the herbal garden's direction.
"Yes, to the herbi garden"

Chapter 130 - Expanding The
Herbal Garden
Even from hundreds of meters away from the herbal garden, one
could smell the medicinal fragrance in the air. Lush green,
morning sky orange, rose pink and various colors of plants
welcomed Michael with a sway in the wind. The disciples were
watering the herbs regularly under the supervision of Elder Reiner
who now built a swing in the middle of the herbal garden to spend
his free time in this peaceful atmosphere.
At the present moment, the herbal garden was approximately 500

square feet in area. Quite a distance from the garden area, he
noticed a couple of workers digging through, "what are they doing"
he asked Gaya
"We'll build a dome covering the garden, a glass dome, it'll be

grand" her eyes sparkled with excitement talking about the dome
"Of course, we don't have enough coins to start the construction.

They are just digging the ground for the foundation" Michael
nodded. Expanding the herbal garden would definitely increase
the sect's legend as well as help him make varieties of potions
and pills. Since Gaya was a Core Formation warrior, he could start
expanding the garden with no fear of someone stealing his herbs.
He also planned to use the Aragoth as his protection charm.
"Elder Reiner" the look-alike of Gandalf was startled noticing

Michael's cultivation level, his jaws opened wide, "Young Man,
when did you reach the Body Strengthening stage and how did
you jump four levels?"
He came forward leaving the swing, "Nether Realm, Elder Reiner,

I was lucky to find a few rare herbs, do you want to see them?"
Elder Reiner's face brightened as he nodded vigorously like a little
child.
Michael flicked his wrist ordering the system to place all the herbs
in the storage in front of him. The very next moment, Ninety-eight
to be exact herbs appeared in a neat row, making Elder Reiner
almost faint on the spot because all of them were rare, extremely
rare.
He didn't open up the matter that he gave Legendary herbs like

Tiger Cress, Diamond Leaf, Oglio root, and Cavern Petal to
Aragoth in exchange for the alchemy supply contract.
"SO MANY…..HERBS!!!" Elder Reiner dropped to his knees,

smelling, feeling, touching the herbs one by one. Although he
didn't recognize many herbs in here, he could sense the powerful
medical Arch Energy radiating from within those herbs.
"You really had a great time there, didn't you?" Gaya knew about
his actions in the herbal garden, still, seeing these herbs with her
eyes slightly shocked her.
"Pretty!" Cindy's big eyes sparkled looking at the Ocean Jasmin,

which was a transparent ocean blue flower, the sweet fragrance
and the beauty of the five-petal flower overwhelmed Cindy,
"It's called Ocean Jasmin, am I right Ghost?" Suddenly he heard

the voice of Claire, turning around he saw Sect Leader Claire, as
beautiful as the Ocean Jasmin itself walking towards him with a
smile like a morning sunray.
Her golden blonde hair now became more golden and wavy,
dancing in on her shoulder, "You're right, Sect Leader Claire"
"You have grown stronger" Claire clutched his biceps playfully, not
as stunned as Elder Reiner. After hearing what Gaya did to those
adventurers and Michael's feat during the phoenix auction fair, she
herself had grown stronger, tougher. She wanted to be the leader
everyone follows to death, not a sissy.
What could make her afraid when she has Ghost behind her?
His reputation had even reached the Capital city, the king of
Bredia himself treated them with the utmost respect because of
Ghost. He was the Guardian for all of them.
Michael didn't fail to notice the confidence in her eyes, the woman
in front of him was not the meekly soft Claire he first met, this was
a new person. Not only her, everyone in the sect seemed to be a
new person, he affected the greater than he expected.
She gave a quick kiss to the baby dragon on his shoulder and
then she looked at the little Cindy. When Michael put the little girl
down, she immediately went straight to the OCean Jasmin,
burying her nose onto the petals. Just as she was about to pluck
the flower, Claire grabbed her little hands, " Cindy, If you love a
flower, don't pluck it. Because if you pluck it, it dies and it ceases
to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not
about possession. Love is about appreciation"
Michael didn't mind Cindy pluck the flower, of course, he would

have reminded her of the preciousness of the flower before giving
it to her because he would never spoil her, however, Claire's
words made more sense,
"Yes, Teacher Claire, I will not pluck any flowers I promise"
"Good" Claire ruffled her head giving her a warm kiss on the
forehead.
"Elder Reiner, shall we start planting them?"
***************************
For the next few hours, Elder Reiner, Michael, Jack, and many
male disciples got their hands dirty planting each herb in the
suitable place following Michael's instruction. Gaya, Claire, and
the girls made lemonade, keeping the workers energetic while the
baby dragon played fetch with Cindy. The scene resembled the
scenes of a happy feel-good movie.
Michael mixed the Netherel ash with the soil in the right ratio to
make the herbs grow faster and healthier. The previously 500
square feet garden now became almost triple the size as many of
the herbs Michael brought would take a lot of ground to grow.
After finishing planting them, he plucked enough leaves, roots,

flowers, and parts of the herbs to make new pills and potions.
"What are we gonna make?" Gaya came after they had done all
the dirty work, though she was with Claire who made lemonades
for them, the snake was only there to drink them, not to work, not
to help.
"Wisdom potion, Mind control pills, love potion, Elemental

resistance potion, Perception pills, Hallucination potion,
Camouflage potion, Enhanced Healing potion and the one we
talked about" the latter was the pill to counteract the lie-detecting
potion, there was a chance of Celina bring this potion to test him
to see if he had anything to do with Jane's death.
This recipe to neutralize the effects of the lie-detecting potion

could only be concocted by him because he bought the recipe
from the system. There were two ways to see somewhen whether
lying or not, that potion and the lie detector array. The latter was
better than the potion, it could even detect a half immortal's lies
but it had downsides, it cannot be transported, and extremely
expensive to create one in the first place. According to Gaya,
Nagaland has one and the Church in Kingdom Zainad.
Even an immortal couldn't relocate or transport the array, let alone

a puny Body Strengthening warrior like Celina.
"Sect Leader Claire, we need to discuss something, call all the

Elders'' He was calm, collected, and radiated confidence in his
eyes. Seeing his demeanor Claire didn't worry much but nodded.
"The matter about the Broad River sect, right?" Michael nodded at
Gaya. He wanted to take a bath before attending the meeting with
Claire and the Elders because he was reeking blood, sweat, and
Netherel. He then sent Cindy to help the Elders any way she can.
After the little girl's figure disappeared from their sight, Gaya
spoke,
"I asked around about the Broad River sect, they are relatively a
small sect that has a total of 152 disciples,10 teachers, four
elders, and one sect leader who is the strongest, Core Formation
level 5" Gaya served him with the information she collected about
the sect, "they mainly focus on Runes but those jokers only have
one 3-star Runemaster and a couple of 2-stars teaching runes"
"What about the sect's location?" asked Michael
"Near a Broad river in Sarton, hence their name. They don't have
huge lands such as us though"
"Hmm, they'll be our first branch" Michael and Gaya grinned

devilishly sharing the same thought.
"Also Gaya, I want you to teach cultivation to Cindy's friends, we

should nurture them from little to make them loyal to us, that way,
they'll make a great loyal army in the future" He turned into an
assassin because those drug dealers abused him and the kids in
the orphanage to smuggle drugs, it was the starting point of his
path to becoming an assassin. Although he would never abuse
those little kids, he did decide to use them, his path to rule this
world shadowed his moral codes. To become a ruler of this world,
he had to sacrifice a part of his soul, the seed of the dark lord
inside him had already started to sprout, more than he wanted to.
"I like the way you think, human" She returned a devilish grin of
her own.
At the present moment, he did not know what he was slowly

becoming. He was thinking that everything's under control, except
the universe, the higher power has a different plan.
However, does everything in this world is black and white?
What makes Michael the bad guy and what makes Noah the good
guy?
Is Michael really the bad guy for planning to use those innocent
kids?
"There's something you should know about the Broad River sect,
Human"
Chapter 131 - Not Everything
Should Be Resolved With
Violence
Mathias Mills was sitting in his carriage with his hand bracing his
head. A flash of anger could be seen on his tanned face, his sharp
gaze stared at the lines of the tree they were passing by. In front
of him, a middle-aged woman was pouring him tea. Despite the
black cloak covering her face, her movements weren't interrupted
by the cloak at all.
"Drink this tea, Sect Leader, it'll soothe your anger," the woman
said, if one was to look closely, they could see the burn mark
within those shadows of the cloak.
"Nothing can soothe my anger, Ella" Gritting his teeth, Mathias

answered.
"Well, something should, before we make it to the Sunrise sect,

Sect Leader" Without letting the tea go to waste, Ella took a sip
instead of giving him.
Mathias's gaze turned from the scenery outside to Ella, who was
now leisurely enjoying the tea, "I'm saying this for your own good,
Sect Leader, don't underestimate that Ghost. Nowadays these
young freaks disobey the laws of nature like eating breakfast"
"Meaning?" Mathias's tone was filled with rage, she knew he is

boiling in anger yet she continued with paying no mind to his
mood, "Meaning, you can't weigh him by just looking at his
cultivation level, I heard he killed a Body Strengthening stage
cultivator when he was at a Foundation stage. Funny thing is, he
was also a Sect Leader"
"Are you implying-"
"I'm implying nothing, I just want you to be calm when we talk to

him, don't be rash" Ella interrupted Mathias, advising him not to be
rash except she wanted him to be.
"If you don't mind Sect Leader, let me do the talking"
A flash of anger ran through his face, he reached out, then he

grabbed Ella by her neck as he said " I do mind because I'm the
Sect Leader, not you" he was squeezing the life out of Ella, she
was helpless. Only after a few moments of torturing her, he let go
of her neck,
"Don't think I dont know you eyeing the sect leader seat for
yourself but you can't be the face of the sect with a face like that"
A murderous glare could be seen in her eyes but the only thing
she could do is swallow her anger and wait for the right time to
strike him down.
"Just wait until I reach the Core Formation stage, I'll rip you to
pieces," thought Ella.
*****************************
The rest of the journey was filled with silence in the carriage until
they saw lines of carriages and crowds of people. Ella recognized
most of the carriages belonged to the noble houses of Sarton, her
disciples told her about the Majestic and its business yet seeing
with her own eyes surprised her nonetheless.
The crowd was queuing from the foothills to the Majestic which
was located atop the mountain in front of them. They had to reach
the mountaintop to reach their meeting spot, but their path was
blocked by these carriages and crowds.
"Stop!"
Just as they were about to stop behind the last carriage in the
queue to the top, they heard the voice of a teenager. Ella looked
outside through the window to see a blonde-haired youngster
waiting for them in front of the carriage.
"Sect Leader Mathias, Elder Ella, welcome to Sunrise sect. Follow

me, Sect leader Claire is waiting for you" seeing there's no way for
them to reach the top in the carriage, Ella and Mathias stepped
out of the carriage to follow this youngster.
"Why didnt Claire come to receive me?" the moment Mathias

stepped out, he scowled at the youngster while Ella just stood
back waiting for the events to unfold
"Sect Leader Claire" the young man emphasized the words 'Sect
Leader' and continued," is handling something very important, so
she sent me to personally receive you and lead you to her, if you
please, follow me"
The way the youngster answered, sparked the fuel of anger inside
Mathias. The youngster was just a Body Refining stage cultivator,
level 1 at that yet he showed no fear seeing a Core Formation
cultivator like Mathias.
"Lead the way kid" Ella was bouncing in joy, the more anger
Mathias gets, the better the chance for him to start a battle with
Ghost.
With a nod towards Ella, he turned around and walked towards

the top of the mountain. while they were following the young man,
Ella saw a group of girls in revealing dresses "SilverMoon girls"
Ella recognized
The young man immediately waved his hands at them, almost like
he was instructed to, "Hey, brother Ghost said he has new pills
and potions that would help your Senior sister Kaplan, remind her
to visit him"
"Will do Jack!" The girls gave a flying kiss to the young man,
making all the youngsters in the crowd look at him with envy.
"So Jack, are they friends, Ghost, and Sadie, the core disciple of
SilverMoon?" Ella pondered
"Of course, Elder Ella"? Jack was leading them through the long
route so they could notice the renovation sites. Although Mathias
paid little interest in the renovation works due to his anger, what
he saw was bewildered him.
This was not the desolate place he saw a couple of years ago,
everything now seemed improved. Those once cobwebbed worn-
out buildings were being built and renovated, workers were
reconstructing the old paths made of stones with marble tiles,
another group was trimming the overgrown shrubs and bushes
which previously made the area look untended.
Ella saw the Sunrise sect disciples before, at that time, they wore
the bright orange uniforms but now, including the youngster in
front of her, the disciples wore clothes that were either black or
closer to the color black.
"Oh, I almost forgot" Jack bit his tongue, taking out two pamphlets
with the Sunrise sect symbol drawn on them.
He then handed over the pamphlets to Mathias and Ella, without

even taking a single glance, Mathias crumbled his pamphlet and
threw it away. Ella on the other hand took a closer look, "I'd love to
take a tour around your sect Jack" Mathias threw a cold glance at
her as she shrugged,
"What? Since you don't want me do the talking, let me at least do

this" Mathias saw no trouble in letting her take a stroll around this
place, it was not like she could do anything by taking a tour.
"Wonderful, Elder Ella, we'll begin our tour after leaving Sect
Leader Mathias at Sect Leader Claire's residence" Jack clapped
his hands, almost sighing inside.
After taking another hundred or so steps through the construction

site, they reached lines of individual houses which looked
majestic, grand even. Each house was almost finished but even at
this stage, that triangle roof on the front, three long chimneys on
the top, that white and royal blue paint gave each house a
sumptuous characteristic.
This time, Mathias's eyes widened in surprise as he followed the
youngster to the house which was just a couple of weeks from
getting finished.
"Take a break, people '' Jack shouted at the people who were
placing windows, sandpapering the walls to start the painting
works as well as cultivating the ground in front of the house to
ornamenting the house with plans and such.
Jack's relationship with Gaya and Ghost gave him a certain pull
within the sect. He had become the go-to guy to contact Gaya or
Ghost, this increased his reputation among his fellow disciples,
especially among girls.
"Sect Leader Mathias, Sect Leader Claire is waiting for you inside"
*************************
"Is this where the famous Ghost of River town lives?" Ella asked
Jack looking at the one house which had no renovation going on.
Except for its worn outlook, she could see nobles and the rich
going inside using the side entrance and coming out with a wide
grin on their faces.
"We are waiting for the rest of the buildings to get renovated,
Elder Ella, after that, we'll turn this shabby old house into a
mansion worthy for our senior brother Ghost and senior sister
Aelia" Jack wouldn't let anyone look down on Ghost or Aelia.
"Go through the front entrance, Elder Ella, brother Ghost is waiting
for you" Ella wasn't surprised to hear Jack because, on the
pamphlet he gave her before, there were three golden words
flickered, 'Meet Me-Ghost'.Those words were enchanted to let
only the holder, Ella see the words, not Mathias.
She nodded before taking slow steps towards the door. Even with
a Body Strengthening level 9 cultivation, she couldn't help but feel
the seed of fear growing inside her regardless of Ghost's
cultivation level.
Creak!
With a long sigh of a mix of fear and excitement for this meeting,
she opened the door to be stunned by things in front of her. From
the outside, the house looked nothing but shabby, old and worn
out yet on the inside, there were fancy cushions, sofas, tables,
and many other things that could only be seen in a place like
King's palace.
"Welcome Elder Ella" her gaze moved from the fancy sofas to the
direction of the voice. She saw a youngster in a black long sleeve
tunic and trousers. His raven black hair danced around his broad
shoulder, a warm smile could be seen on his perfectly structured
face. Through the transparent black long sleeves he wore, she
could see the lines of the six-pack abs and big biceps.
Her eyes were momentarily glued to this handsome man she had
ever met,
"How long are you planning to stand there Elder Ella?"

Chapter 132 - A Week Of Time
Ella sat on the comfiest sofa she had ever rested her butt yet she
couldn't enjoy its comfort to the fullest under his gaze. Her
heartbeat slightly increased, not only because of the attraction
towards the opposite gender but also because of his cultivation
level, Body Strengthening stage, level 4.
Cultivation speed like this was monstrous, heaven-defying, and

godly.
Despite the large crowds outside, the room was silent. Soon after,
a woman in her early thirties came through the door behind him
carrying a tray with two cups on it.
The sweet fragrance coming from those cups made Ella's voice
salivate to the point that she wanted to jump and gulp whatever
inside the cups.
Ghost grabbed the cup with a smile and then, the woman placed
the tray before Ella, "Please take it, Elder Ella" Regardless of her
covered face, the woman gave her a wide grin, not a fake one but
a genuine grin. Ella was surprised by the hospitality, "Thank you"
She couldn't wait any longer, she brought the cup near to her nose
getting overwhelmed by the fragrance. Soon, she took a short sip,
just only to feel a burst of electricity run through her body. Her
black hood covered the sight of her eyes widened, this was
nothing like she had tasted before, like nothing. All of her taste
buds in the tongue felt alive, delighted, and overwhelmed.
"Delicious isn't it?" After Michael upgraded the system to version

3, he was able to quickly imbue the secret element into the
ingredients Raylene brought from Bredia. Although the system
said the secret element was pure Arch energy, he somewhat had
a hard time believing it. Anyhow, the system made changes to the
ingredients in the microparticle level, and coupled with Raylene's
5-star chef trait, anything made out of these ingredients became
extremely delicious.
"This is drugs, no it's better than drugs," Thought Ella, quickly

finishing the tea in no time.
"Yes, it is delicious" after a few moments, Ella asked,
"Well, Elder Ella, meet the only 5-star in the entire Kingdom of
Bredia" Ella's mouth opened further, staring at the woman
obediently standing behind Michael.
"Do you know what is the most powerful profession, Elder Ella?"
Michael asked after placing the cup on the table in front of him.
Ella blankly shook her head, she was still overwhelmed by the fact
the woman in front of her is a 5-star chef. She didn't doubt this fact
because no one else could have made a simple tea this delicious,
"Alchemy, there are potions and pills for nearly everything,

including for those burn wounds" Michael pointed at Ella's half-
burned face, her heart skipped a beat, mouth became dry as she
mumbled, "how-"
"Baby Dragon," Ella heard a squawking sound, her mind was

blank due to overwhelming surprises and shock she has been
receiving ever since she stepped into his home. Soon, Raylene
took the cups and left the room, leaving them to their meeting.
"Wow!" she jumped back on her couch, it was a little dragon, a

baby dragon. She had never seen a baby dragon before or a real
dragon for that matter but she had seen paintings of dragons and
the creature in front of her resemble the paintings. She felt the
noble aura the creature was radiating, each of its movements was
majestic, dignified.
It climbed on his shoulder with ease and dropped the thumb-sized

cup it was carrying in its mouth. Michale sent the thumb-sized
ceramic cup floating towards Ella, "Apply this cream on the wound
in your wrist" Michael had seen those wounds on her forearm
despite her full sleeves,
"This will go a lot smoother if you trust me, Elder Ella, besides you
have nothing to lose by applying that cream"
"HU!" the baby dragon knew he gave her an order and it kept
staring at her until she slowly took a small amount of this bluish
cream and applied it to her wound.
The cream touched her skin, her burned skin had long ago lost
the sense of touch. Even she wouldn't look at her face or her
naked body without feeling nauseated. Half of her body had ugly
burn wounds that made her cry her eyes out every single day.
Until thirteen years ago, she was a pretty girl, even though she
was not an angelic beauty who would instantly make men fall in
love with them, she had a few followers. She was the one who
was meant to be the next sect leader of the Broad River sect but
this fact changed when she met with an accident, an accident she
would never forget until she dies. That day, she was caught inside
a burning room, until to this day, she had no idea how the fire
started.
The fire engulfed her home and all of her servants, fortunately, her
parents weren't at home that cursed day. Because of her wounds,
the Elders and the sect leader chose the next in line as the new
sect leader, Mathias stating that with those wounds, she can't be
the one who leads the sect. They were right, those wounds
changed her, changed her from within, she was never the same
person after that night.
Men who courted her wouldn't even take a glance at her, those
who had no heart would make fun of her. Her friends left her
because they couldn't be seen with an ugly freak like her. Slowly
she started to wash away her feelings and griefs in booze, drugs,
and anything that could numb her brain.
This addiction of hers chased away her parents, leaving her

alone. Only after a few years, she slowly began to realize what
happened that night was not an accident but a planned event. The
booze numbed her brain and kept her from realizing this sooner.
When she started to investigate through any means necessary,
she had found that it was Mathias who planned this.
However, her realization came too late as he had already reached

the Core Formation while she was struggling at the Body Refining
stage. The vengeance made her quit drinking and focusing solely
on her cultivation. For the past ten years, she was controlling the
urge to kill him and waiting for the right moment to strike.
Mathias did not know her true intentions, as far as he was

concerned, she was plotting to steal the leader position from him.
"What-" She gasped the very next moment she applied the cream.
The wound on the place she put the cream vanished instantly, on
that place, new smooth skin began to appear.
She immediately pulled her sleeve up and then, she scooped the
cream, trying to apply the small amount of cream everywhere.
Although the cream was not enough for all the wounds on her
hand, everywhere the cream touched, the wounds got healed.
It was simply a miracle because she had hired numerous healers

and tried hundreds of alchemy products but not a single one of
them could heal her wounds because the fire that burned her skin
was not a normal fire but the holy fire.
"Your wounds will appear again after a few days but I can make
them disappear forever" there was a small pause in his voice
before continuing "only if you do my bidding," he said while gently
rubbing the baby dragon's chin, he looked calm and carless.
"Anything...anything" she saw those ugly wounds disappear, she

felt the cold breeze brushing through her smooth skin again. She
wanted this cream, she wanted it desperately.
"As we speak, Sect Leader Claire is making an offer, an offer to

merge your sect with mine under the leadership of Sect Leader
Claire. But you know the outcome of this right?" She nodded
knowing very well that Mathias won't even consider this, not even
in a million years.
"I can simply kill him and subdue your sect within a day but if I did
that, your people will sooner or later revolt, hinder the growth of
my sect" She knew he was right, Mathias may be an evil son of a
bitch to her but everyone in the sect would definitely leave or
revolt if Ghost forces them to join his sect.
"That's where you come in Elder Ella, I know you were the next in
line after your previous sect leader and I also know, Mathias is the
one who did this to you. I want you to convince your people to join
my sect, in return, since Sect Leader Claire can't be in two
locations at once, we'll leave the Broad River sect in your care.
Plus, I'll heal your wounds" This was a sweet deal, Ella would
have even poisoned the entire sect for that miraculous cream if he
had asked her to.
"I will do it,'' Ella said with a firm resolve in her voice, making him
grin wide.
Michael left all the planning and convincing stuff to Ella as she
knew the people of the Broad River sect better than him.
***********************
Eventually, after speaking for another couple of minutes, Ella left

his home leaving him with the baby dragon.
"What happened with Ella?" Gaya entered the room and plunged
herself into the sofa.
"Just as we planned, how's your end?"
"He wants you to come to his sect, apologize in front of everyone,

take a hundred whips from each person's family you've killed"
"How predictable" he sneered,
"He gave you a week of time, if you don't go there by the end of
this time, he said that he will come here personally to drag you
there"
"Then Ella has a week of time to convince them"

Chapter 133 - Celina Is Here
"Alright, I have one last thing to do before going to River town,"

said Michael thinking about the new spell in his arsenal, the Ring
of Fire spell.
"Ah the new spell, give it to me" since they shared almost
everything, she came to him asking for the new spell. She also
wanted to learn this new spell.
"Knock yourself out" This wasn't a spell he bought from the

system, therefore, he simply decided to share this spell with her,
only with her.
"Hmm, a Rare spell"
"Baby Dragon" while Gaya was running her eyes through the spell
scroll, he shouted for his pet. Up until now, he didn't come up with
a badass name suitable for this dragon, so he was calling the
baby dragon a baby dragon.
Of course, Gaya suggested the following names; Ugly lizard,

Dicky, Assoholan, Shit face, and many other weird foul names.
The baby dragon had taken note in its little heart, plotting its
revenge against her in the dark.
The one good thing that came up from their bickering was the
baby dragon's gender, the baby dragon was a boy which made
their rivalry even worse.
The one common thing they had was food, both of them shared
an enormous appetite. He even wondered how this baby dragon's
stomach held that much food.
"Huhuhu '' the baby dragon came hopping to him, then it clawed
its way to his shoulder not before sending a blob of saliva to the
spell scroll in her hands.
"Ewww, one day I'll make you eat a boatload of shit"
"Huhu" the baby dragon chuckled but his chuckled was stopped
when a tiny orb of fire hit his head.
"HUHUHUH!" he hissed looking at the orbs of fire dancing above

Gaya's fingers.
"Burn my hair, you can't even light a candle, a rare kind of dragon
you are, hehe" Unlike Michael, she perfectly understood the
meaning of the baby dragon's 'huhus'
"Stop it you two," Michael chuckled making his way to one of the
construction sites. Where Michael was going to is the construction
site of the office building Gaya was planning to build in the near
future.
The ground was barren, only a bunch of practice dummies could

be seen on the site. He asked Jack to place these dummies to
test the power of the new spell.
When he stepped outside, a gentle cold evening breeze brushed

past him refreshing him from top to bottom. For a few moments,
he stood still to feel the soothing breeze, becoming absorbed in
the music of crickets, letting the gentle energy of nature wash in.
He looked up at the sky to see countless stars glistening in the
sky.
"Do you need a moment?" Seeing him standing still, she asked,
almost chuckling.
"Huhuhuhu" the baby dragon watched the evening sky and then, it
said something brushing its scaly nose on Michael's chin,
"What's he saying?"
"That lizard is saying that looking at this sky makes him hungry"
"Huhu" the baby dragon nodded making puppy eyes,

"You just ate, no meat for your little scaly butt" Michael flicked the
baby dragon on its forehead making Gaya grin in joy.
"Huhu!" the baby dragon protested by headbutting him as he went

to the ground.
Considering the sun has long disappeared into the horizon, most
of the workers went to their tents while some went into the first to
hunt for fresh meat.
After reaching the construction site, Michael stood in the middle

staring at all the dummies around him. Gaya kept her distance to
protect her clothes from getting burned.
"Ring of Fire" he mumbled these words under his breath,

controlling the Arch Energy in his body. The next moment, a
golden circle with many inscriptions appeared in the form of a
holograph on the ground around Michael. Soon, the golden circle
disappeared as waves of blazing fire swept the 5m radius area.
Unlike the spells he bought from the system, he had a hard time
controlling the flame blazes' direction and power. Those blazes
didn't sweep across the area around him in a perfect circle but
swept across chaotically. While he was trying to exact control over
the blazes, from the ground appeared a circle of fire, turning
everything into ashes within the circle except him. The blazes had
already charcoaled the dummies but the circle of fire was hot, too
hot to the point that it turned even the mud and dirt into ash.
From afar, drops of sweat could be seen on Gaya's face. She felt
the temperature rise significantly, to the point she had to use Arch
Energy to protect her skin from getting burned. What stunned her
was she is a Core Formation warrior while the spell caster Michael
was just a Body Strengthening stage warrior, yet, the spell had
this effect on her.
Even a group of Body Strengthening stage warriors with no

defense shield around them wouldn't be able to withstand the heat
for more than a couple of seconds if he used all of his Arch
Energy.
At the moment, he was only using half of his energy to get the
hang of this spell.
"52% mastery" Michael willed the system to show mastery over

this spell. He still had a long way to go before reaching 100%.
The only way to reach 100% was to practice this spell every single
day and increase the Arch Energy he put into the spell little by
little.
"A bunch of Netherels would make a fine target for this spell,"
Michael thought. The mere thought of him killing hundreds of
Netherels to farm experience points gave him goosebumps. It was
the ultimate shortcut to reach the pinnacle.
"After this, you really should stop learning new spells" Gaya
warned him after the hot blazing fire around him faded away.
"I don't? know you know this or not, but learning too many spells
will cause your Arch Energy to become weak and damage your
brain"
"How many spells should one learn?" Michael asked,
"It depends on one's cultivation level and the power of the spell.
Typically, a Body Strengthening stage cultivator should learn only
four to five spells" he was an exception because of the system but
even he had to stop learning any more new spells before reaching
the next stage.
If not for this restriction, he would have learned all the spells he
got from the cave turning into an absolute monster.
"This is for the best, I should upgrade the already existing spells
before learning new spells, not that I need to learn new spells," he
thought inside, for the next few seconds, he focused on all his
spells before creasing his brows, " I need to figure out a way to
utilize the Wind Blast spell"
In his arsenal, Wind blast was the least used as well as least
powerful spell. The system rewarded him with this spell and
although he didn't use badass points on this spell, this still
occupied his arsenal of spells, preventing him from learning a new
spell.
"From tomorrow, you're gonna help me train my sword skills" As a

standalone spell, Wind Blast was a weak spell but he decided to
combine this spell with his sword skills. Using one hand to swing
the sword and the other to cast the wind blast might be the best
way to utilize the full potential of the spell. Killing the Netherels in
the Abyssal might also give him a new perspective about the Wind
Blast spell.
"Get ready to get your ass kicked, Ghost" when he uttered his
name, she grinned devilishly almost certain she was going to beat
the heck out of him tomorrow.
"Oh," Michael smiled inside and stepped closer to her,
"Wind Blast"
"Ah! The sudden blast of wind almost lifted her skirt up, she was
caught off guard.
"Lightning Dash"
"Stop you bastard!" she screamed, chasing him behind to make

him pay for what he just did.
****************************
The halo of the horizon arrived with golden grace. On the large
luxurious bed of Michael, he was sleeping with the baby dragon
curled up on his chest. Last night was a great exercise making
Gaya chase him around the sect, even without a spell-like
Lightning Dash, the snake was damn fast. After they got tired,
they laid on the green grassland staring at the night sky before
they came to their home searching for the comfort of the bed.
While he was rolling on his bed, he heard knocks on his door.

"Brother Ghost, Sister Aelia wake up!" Michael opened his eyes,
he knew it was Jack outside the door. His voice contained a hint of
panic,
"what awwww little shit" Gaya yawned slowly opening her eyes,
"Sister Aelia wake up! The Baron and his men are on their way
here!" Soon, the sleepiness in their eyes disappeared, instead, an
amused expression flashed across their faces.
"So they finally decided to show up huh?" Michael put on his black
transparent full sleeve shirt.
"Huuuuuu!" the baby dragon also yawned, blinking his eyes, he

woke up.
"Come on, baby dragon, we have a bitch to deal with" as these

words escaped his mouth, he flicked his wrist as two green pills
The two pills were the size of a baby's fist, they radiated a smell of
rusted iron. The baby dragon twitched its mouth when he took a
whiff. Michael tossed the pill into his mouth, swallowing the pill he
made his way to receive the baron and his men.
Chapter 134 - Truth Extractor
With the baby dragon on his shoulder and Gaya behind him, he
opened the door to see the panic-stricken Jack. A couple of drops
of sweat could be seen on his face, "what are you afraid of? It's
just Baron and his men" Michael said, stepping out of his home,
he looked at the rising sun on the horizon.
"Today sell the usual stuff, I'll make the new pills and potions later"
"But brother-"
"Don't worry about the Baron, I'll deal with them"
"Get the fuck out of here" Gaya's tone gave Jack no space to
continue, he could only run away from her before she the crap out
of him.
"Do you sense them?" His calm face turned cold after Jack left,
Gaya nodded, the baby dragon's round pupils became vertical
slits, sensing the powerful presence around them.
"Yes, we are surrounded but I don't know how many"
"Fifty-six powerful figures, might be more than that'' his

Environmental Scanning was just at level 2, therefore, it could
only sense a limited number of powerful hostiles around him. If
they were at the Core Formation stage, he would have detected
their cultivation level but he was unable to sense their cultivation
level which meant they were stronger than the Core Formation
stage.
Among the fifty-six he could sense, some of them were concealing

themselves and floating directly above them in the sky, some were
hiding in the ocean of trees around them.
"Humph, do they think it's easy to catch me?" Michael snickered
inside his mind.
"Can you sense their cultivation level?" Gaya asked, she didn't
show it on her face that they noticed the presence.
"All of them are above the Core Formation stage" He had already
paid the system to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on their
conversation in case these unknown figures were doing just that.
If they were eavesdropping, they would hear nothing but some
random conversation about life and the sect.
Michael walked to the side, to a place where the customers could

clearly see the events unfold so he could earn badass points
utilizing this situation.
Eventually, after waiting for the baron and his men, Michael saw a
large crowd of soldiers adorning full metal armor marching up the
steps, to meet him.
At the same time, he looked up to see an object soaring through

the sky.
"There she is," Michael snickered, recognizing the person atop the
flying sword, Celina.
The Baron and his men locked their eyes with him, they kept
marching towards him until Celina landed in front of them with a
loud thud. Even from a distance, he could see those bloodshot
eyes, veins protruding on her face. Her neatly combed hair was
disheveled. Behind Celina, an emaciated man walking with the
men, Michael almost failed to recognize this man, Baron Totonk.
He was walking like a zombie, there was no life in those swollen
eyes of his. His previously sturdy body now became the body of a
starved man.
Killing Jane really did a number on him, Michael thought. Waiting

for them, he stood there, his hair fluttering back in the wind,
accompanied by Gaya and the baby dragon on his shoulder.
The men halted their steps, keeping a ten-meter distance from
Michael and Gaya. There were a few gasps and murmurs when
they saw the majestic creature sitting on his shoulder. However,
Celina's eyes didn't look like anything or anyone but Ghost, she
locked her eyes with him, within those bloodshot eyes, a flash of
shock emerged and disappeared.
"Not impressed," Michael thought she would have reached at

least the Core Formation stage but seeing her Body
Strengthening stage level 9 cultivation level, he was disappointed.
"Young Miss, let me talk" a wrinkly old man with a slightly hunched
back pressed Celina's hand and said. The old man then turned his
gaze at Michael, "Young Master Ghost, I'm Baston, a servant of
the Baron, did-"
"I heard about what happened, Baston, it's terrible" Michael calmly
said. Looking at his nonchalant face, Celina shivered in rage.
However, her mind refused to attack him, just like she did when
dealing with those who had grudges with Jane. She attacked first
and asked questions later. The first time they met, he was just a
Foundation stage cultivator while she was a Body Strengthening
stage warrior, at that time, she could have easily killed him but
now, the tables have turned.
"Words cannot make any of you feel better, is there something I

can do to help you, Baston?" Since Baron Totonk seemed lifeless,
Michael decided to talk with this old man instead of the Baron
himself.
"Grandpa Baston, let me deal with this bas-"
"I assume you're not here to fight me, Celina" Michael interjected
before she could finish her sentence
"Young Miss, please" the old man quickly pressed Celeina's fist
tightly and gave Michael an apologetic look,
"Young Master we are here to" the old man's voice trailed away,
"You're here to interrogate me right?" Michael finished the old
man's thought. The old man sighed, slowly nodding,
"Young Master Ghost, I hope you understand the situation, we

only want to find the person responsible for" again, the old man
didn't finish his sentence looking at the Baron beside him. The
Baron had lost all of his energy and will to live after seeing his
beloved daughter hanging in front of his manor, brutally killed.
No matter how strong he was, at the end of the day, he was a

loving father. Jane's death broke him from within, the old man
knew the Baron had died that day and the man with them is just a
vessel.
"You're wasting your time Baston, you very well know that I was in
the Nether Realm at that time," said Michael.
"What's happening?"
"Why is the Baron here?"
"Whoa, what's up with the platoon of men?"
"Hey I think they are suspecting brother Ghost with the murder of
Jane"
"Bullshit, everyone knows it was the devil of Bredia, Lucifer who

killed her"
"Brother Ghost beat the shit out of her personal guards, so it's
natural for them to investigate him"
"Except Brother Ghost was in the Nether Realm when Lucifer

killed her unless Brother Ghost know a way to be in two different
realms at the same time"
Seeing the commotion, the disciples gathered around them. The

old man and the Baron's men heard the chattering and couldn't
help but agree with the disciples. The men knew Celina is wasting
time with Ghost when she could focus the investigation on
someone else.
Jane's two uncles and three brothers were unable to come to her
funeral as they were leading the army of Bredia against the war
with Kingdom Lavia. Even if they wanted to come, the King
wouldn't permit them unless they are fine with getting their heads
cut for abandoning their king during the war.
Only Celina and her family were there to console the Baron as
well as seek justice personally for Jane.
"You're a freak!" Celina lost her patience, she shouted in anger,

"you could have found a way to kill her!"
"This is not the time" Michael simply waved his hand, ignoring her.
"Since you're here even though you know I was in the Nether
Realm, I assume you have a reason to be here" Many men behind
Baron were surprised to see the way he was handling Celina and
the situation. He was not like the other prodigies or the genius
youths they had encountered before.
If someone else was in his shoes, they would have lost their calm
because it was obvious that he didn't kill her.
"Young Miss" the old man glared at Celina, this time there was
anger in his eyes. Celina swallowed her rage, giving the chance
for grandpa Baston to handle the situation.
The old man flicked his situation, taking out a greenish glistening
pill. As an Alchemist, he instantly recognized the pill and its purity
level, 85% pure pill which meant it was concocted by the Pill King
Gabriel himself.
"Truth exactor huh?" The Baron' men tensed when the old man
took out the pill. This pill was used only in situations such as
murder trials, judging treason cases. Except for those who were
charged with the above accusations, it's considered a privacy
invasion, which was a crime punishable by either death or
decades of imprisonment, if the Victim went to the king or to the
Guardians to complain.
The disciples stepped back a little fearing that Ghost would lose
his calm and start attacking the Baron's men. His expression
changed, a cold look submerged on his face before sighing,
"I understand, I was one of the people who had quarrels with
Jane. Besides, I understand the Baron's situation and respect him,
Baston, give me the pill" the old man was stunned by his words,
he really thought he would decline to take the pill. Even if he
refused to take the pill, they had no right to force him to, it was a
crime after all.
"Ghost, you don't have to do that!" Gaya pretended to be mad as

the baby dragon hissed at the old man.
"HU!"
"It's okay Aelia, the fewer the suspects, the closer they would get
to Lucifer. Everyone has to help however they can to stop an evil
like that" His image in everyone's hearts rose up, the Baron's men
began to respect and admire this youngster, despite his
ruthlessness, he wanted to be on the side of good.
[Really?] Even the system couldnt stay silent hearing him speak
like an innocent upright person.
Chapter 135 - My Own
Restaurant I





…..
He was surprised by numerous ding sounds in his mind. "Was that

badass?" he questioned himself.
Baston handed over the pill and a transparent stone to Michael

with a thankful smile on his face. This stone was connected to the
pill through Arch Energy, the one who took the pill had to keep the
stone in his/her hand. Each lie that comes out of their mouth
would make the stone glow red and greed for truth.
Typically the pill's effect would last for 5-10 minutes, considering
this was an 85% pure pill, the effect would at least last for 7
minutes.
While holding the stone, he felt a strange sensation in his brain

but soon, the sensation disappeared.
"Let's start with an obvious lie, shall we?" Michael smiled,
"I'm a five-legged scorpion with thousands of beauties in my

harem," some of the disciples and the soldiers chuckled. The
stone soon let out a bright red color indicates the obvious. For
everyone witnessing the scene, they thought that the pill was
working, but Michael was controlling the signals radiated from his
brain, hence controlling the outcome. The pill he took before he
met them gave him this ability.
When the red light dimmed, he said "now the truth, I'm a 5-star
Alchemist who won Heaven's gate competition" this time, the
stone glowed in green.
"Baston, Celina, the pill is working, now you can start asking the
questions related to Jane"
"Huhu" seeing the cam look on his face, the baby dragon's pupils
returned to their usual circular shape, Michael nudged the baby
dragon's chin, waiting for Baston to question him.
"Where were you for the last couple of weeks?" Instead of Baston,
the one who asked the question was Celina.
"In the Nether Realm" the stone shined in green, no one among
the disciples looked surprised because they knew he was there,
where else could he have gotten a baby dragon?
Celina frowned, "Did you wish to harm Jane in any way?" the old
man and the baron's men locked their eyes with the stone, waiting
for his answer.
"No I did not, after Baron came to me and apologized for her
actions, I dropped that matter" Again the stone shined in greed,
somewhat calming the volcano of anger inside Celina but not
completely.
"Did you-"
Soon, when the stone lost its color, she asked another question
but only to get interjected by Michael,
"Look, I didn't kill Jane and I don't know who did it, I had no
fucking idea that she's going to get killed. All of you are looking in
the wrong place, now I think this is enough proof for you" The
stone kept emitting green light, making everyone around him sigh
in relief. His face lost the smile, instead, a cold look could be seen
on his face.
"Thank you for your understanding, Young Master Ghost" Baston

bowed, giving an apologetic smile
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be" he threw the stone
towards Baston. Gaya also took the same pill as Michael to
neutralize the truth extractor in case Celina asked her to take the
pill, but she didn't even look at Gaya.
"Young Miss, let's go," Baston said. As they were turning back to
leave, Micahel sensed the powerful entities around him who
stayed hidden also disappearing from his Environmental scanning
one by one.
"The Holy Guard" Michael mumbled, he already knew the church

is investigating Jane's murder, hoping to find Lucifer. He had
heard about these holy guards from Gaya, even she knew so little
about them except the holy guards are the church's ultimate
weapon.
Apparently the church worships two gods, the Sun God and the
Water God.
He didn't care much about this religious institute until now as he

tried to avoid mingling himself in the petty religious conflicts until
he could get to a stage where they can't touch him.
But this had changed now, he decided to get more information

about this so-called Church as well as the Holy Guards. After all, it
was only a matter of time before Lucifer had to face this holy army.
"she should have asked me at least one question" she felt

offended not to be noticed by Celina.
"What are you all looking at?" she shouted at the customers who
were gawking at them instead of buying the pills and potions.
They immediately turned their gazes away from her, they all knew
her temperament and did not want to piss off this bad-mouthed
girl.
"We'll add new products tomorrow, so don't forget to bring your

pay cubes" instantly her words caused a commotion among the
nobles and the rich.
"Miss, what are the new pills and potions? " one of them from the
crowd shouted excitedly,
"There will be Wisdom potions, Mind control pills, Elemental

resistance potions, Perception pills, Hallucination potions,
Camouflage potions, Enhanced Healing potion, and the potion
you all younglings are desperately waiting for" she paused for a
moment, staring at those eyes filled with anticipation
"The love potions"
"YAY!"
"FINALLY!"
"Hooray!"
Half of the crowd immediately threw their hands up and cheered.

Most of them were single guys, obviously. However, Michal
noticed some old grandpas grinning devilishly which was creepy.
Michael and Gaya laughed inside seeing the expressions on their

faces. Most of them were thinking love potions would make their
crush love them. However, the love potions don't work like that,
the love potions would only work on someone if she/he already
has some feelings for the other. Using the love potions was fairly
simple, one has to put a single drop of their blood and make their
crush drink, after drinking, the love potion would intensify the
feelings for the other if one has any. For an instance, Celina had
no feelings whatsoever for Michael, so no matter how many love
potions he makes her drink, she wouldn't fall in love with Michael.
However, it was a different matter for Gaya. During the nights, she
would debate with herself to find whether she holds any feelings
for him or not. It had been almost half a year since she started to
be with him, he first rescued her from her fellow Nagas, helped
her stay hidden, fed her, and more than anything, by curing her
crippled cultivation, he saved her life.
She felt it's natural for her to develop feelings for him but still, she
wanted to make sure of it. Hence she secretly planned to use the
love potion on herself. Of course, she still has not completed her
plot as the potion required Ghost's blood, by asking him directly,
she might get into trouble.
"After going home, spread the word" Finally, Gaya shouted before
leaving for River town with Michael.
***************************
After the battle with the Netherels, the rumor had spread across
the River town that this town is protected by Ghost, hence many
people began to address Ghost as Ghost of River town.
Thanks to the rumors, more merchants and adventurers began to

stop by River town. Plus, the construction of the new fancy
building at the place where Lucky Cat tavern attracted travelers
and such.
For those native River town people, the building the dwarven
engineer was building for Ghost was nothing but a wonder in their
eyes. Even though the workers didn't finish the construction yet,
people could tell that it's a marvelous building that would raise the
River town's prestige by many folds.
Because of the frequent merchant, adventurers, and travelers

visit, the local business boomed. The River town people thanked
Ghost for their prosperity though he practically did nothing for
them, he killed those Netherels not from but for him.
"Hey, it's Young master Ghost!"
"Young master Ghost is back!"
"Good morning Young master"
"He's sooooooo handsome!"




….
People on the streets of River town quickly greeted him and Gaya
with a wide grin on their faces. Just by walking the streets, his
reputation earned him badass points. This was why the system
kept urging him to take risks, explore the world, and engage in
battles.
"If this small town could give me 5000 badass points just by
walking through the streets, how much would I earn in the big
cities?" Michael's eyes glistened in glee.
"Master Ghost, you're back" just when he was nearing the Lucky
Cat tavern, he heard a familiar voice and turned to see the
golden-haired girl walking towards him, carrying a bunch of iron
tools in her hands.
"How're you, Gloria?"
"Thanks to master Ghost, I have no worries. Good morning Miss

Aelia" She answered Michael with a bright smile and then, she
greeted Gaya with the same bright smile.
"What are these?" asked Gaya.
"These are tools of Lord Fovar, I just went to the smithy to get
them fixed" Michael recognized none of these weird tools, he had
never even seen them before. His curiosity peaked to see the 3-
star builder and the restaurant he was building for them.
Chapter 136 - My Own
Restaurant II
The air was filled with hammers hitting the stones and iron, upon
arriving at the construction site, Michael saw the bare bones of the
building. The wooden planks, iron beams, and half-built walls
which were glistening in the daylight radiated certain charm. The
building resembled a rectangular prism, on the long sides, there
were five arched windows, each window was approximately 3m
wide and 7m in height, on the front of the building, there was one
arched door between on arched windows on each side.
The building was lifted by a 3m foundation so one could enjoy the

view of the river clearly. On the far end of the building, Michael
noticed the vents, stoves, and ovens being built by another set of
workers. Michael walked up the few stairs to enter the building
when he saw a couple of carriages stopping in front of the
building. Both Gaya and Michael frowned at this sight, the
carriages had scratches, burn marks, and cuts all over them. It
was evident these carriages were attacked, soon, people slowly
came out of the carriages, wounded. This scene attracted the
people of River town, few of them stepped forward to support the
wounded soldiers,
Gaya's face instantly turned cold the moment she saw the people
taking out dead ones from the carriages. All the dead bodies had
deep cuts, burned marks, and severed limbs.
Following the dead bodies, a short sturdy man with a large beard
jumped out of the carriages, carrying a huge battle-ax. The short
man compensated for his lack of height with his muscles, the man
carried that huge ass battle-ax like it had no weight.
"Dwarf" Michael mumbled under his breath. This was the first time
he had seen a dwarf in real life. The dwarf was exactly like one of
the dwarves in the Lord of the Rings movies.
"Fovar, what happened?" Gaya asked as the dwarf put the battle-
ax on the ground producing a loud thud sound.
"Bandits happened, lass, ye told us there be nae bandits between

here an' Bradford"
"Bandits? Where?" After Jane sent bandits to harass their

customers, Gaya personally went to the forest surrounding the
Sunrise sect as well as the forests surrounding the River town to
kill every single bandit.
She was sure there are no bandits to harass them until now.
"Fucking bloody beastmen, ambushed us near tha moon goddess

temple, these puny humans stood nae chance against their gorilla
attack" cursed Fovar failing to notice Michael in the heat of the
moment.
"Beastmen wouldn't usually enter a human kingdom, Ghost we

have to investigate this' ' only when she mentioned the name
Ghost, the dwarf turned his gaze at Michael. For a second, Fovar
just stared at him to sense his cultivation level, soon, his eyes
slightly widened in surprise.
"So ye be that famous Ghost o' River town yeh, lad, you need to
do something about these bandits. They already destroyed most
o' tha materials I needed ta finish tha building"
"Destroyed the glasses?! I'm gonna rip them to pieces" veins

popped on Gaya's face. Considering this plan of Michael's
required more glasses, even than the stones, this shipment was
extremely important. These were not normal glasses, the dwarf
ordered them, glassmakers, to custom build the glasses which
cost them a huge chunk of gold coins.
"Go and check out the forests but I guess they are long gone by
now"
"I have to look," she said and rushed towards the place where
they left the pegasus.
"Master Ghost" soon after Gaya left, his two henchmen came
towards him. Both Daniel and Ricky suffered wounds, Daniel had
a deep cut running across his chest, his brown tunic was
drenched in blood while Ricky limped, holding the deep cut on his
thigh.
Michael quickly willed the system to give him the healing potion in
the storage, in a flash, two vials of healing potion appeared in his
hand.
"Here take this' ' both of them shuddered, the thought of a single
vial of healing potions cost 9000 gold coins prevented their hands
from reaching out to take the healing potions.
"Ma-"
"Drink it, it's an order" thinking about those bandits who almost
killed his two loyal men, Michael wanted to flay the bandits alive.
He could simply buy materials but loyal men like them were hard
to find.
Daniel opened up the vial, slowly pouring the potion into his
mouth. Their wounds closed up at a swift pace, the dwarf was
surprised he wasted two valuable potions on these two
commoners.
After their wounds healed up, Michael retrieved a couple of more

healing potions, "mix them in the water and distribute the water to
the wounded. For those who lost their lives" Daniel and Ricky saw
a large pouch of coins appear in his hand,
"Give their families 2000 gold coins" his words instantly caused
the people to go crazy, there were gasps and muttering among
the crowd. Even if they were alive, they wouldn't have earned
1000 gold coins in their lifetime by working on the construction
sites, not to mention 2000 gold coins. He just changed their lives,?
with this amount, their families could live their entire lives without
ever going to work.
As far as he was concerned, if he didn't compensate them with a
handsome amount, workers might avoid working for him in the
future as they might fear for their lives. But now, they would gladly
give their life thinking their families would get richer and live their
life with no worries.
Many wives would gladly take 2000 gold coins instead of their
drunk husbands, any time of the day.
After all, for Michael, even 20,000 gold coins weren't much
compared to his grand plans. He wanted the restaurant to be up
and running as soon as possible," as for those who survived, you
will receive 50 gold coins for the inconvenience" Those who
survived bowed and grinned in glee despite the excruciating pain.
Although it was nowhere near the amount 2000, at least they live
to enjoy the 50 gold coins.
"Lad, what aboot me? ye need ta compensate me too" asked

Fovar, smirking.
"I will compensate you handsomely when you lose a few limbs in
the next bandit attack"
*************************
"You were right, I didn't find anything except this" while he was
making new batches of pills and potions back at his home, Gaya
came rushing into his room.
Michael looked at the baby dragon as he hopped towards Gaya

and grabbed the medallion in her hand with his mouth. He then
hooped back at Michael.
The medallion was black, made of high-quality black iron, on its

surface, a wolf's head etched onto its surface.
"Those who attacked Fovar is not bandits, human, it's the Grim
Reapers"
Michael did not utter a word but waited for her to explain,
"When you need beasts, bandits and problems like that disappear,
you go to adventurer's guild, when you need a noble to disappear
or even a king disappear, you go to the Grim Reapers. If you have
enough gold coins, no matter what evil shit you want to do, they
will do it for you"
"Someone paid them to attack the shipment but who?" he

scratched the baby dragon's chin, thinking about who might have
done this deed.
The only enemy he had until now was Jane, obviously, she
couldn't have hired the Grim Reapers. He didn't think Celina
would have done this either,
"You said they do anything right?"
"For the right amount," She said.
"Fovar said the glassmakers may have extra supplies we need,

buy them and bring them to Fovar personally"
"What will you do?"
"For now, I will finish all these, and then, we'll go to Aragoth to
seal the deal," said Michael, showing no emotions on his face.
"So we'll do nothing about this?" she questioned him, only to see
him shake his head.
"Grim Reapers won't tell us who hired them in the first place,
right?" The Grim Reapers sounded just like the dark underworld
back on earth. Although he only killed a certain group of people,
there were assassins and fixers who would kill or do anything for
the right amount, but the dark underworld would not reveal
anything about who hired them to do the job, to anyone.
This secrecy what made the dark underworld extremely powerful

and if his instincts were correct, the Grim Reapers would follow
the same rules.
His assumption was proven right when she nodded,

"Nope, those bastards value client confidentiality more than
anything. If we went there asking for this information, they would
either try to kill us or ban us from using their services in the future"
"Then there's nothing we can do except trying to hire them to

protect our carriages,"
"This might work if this was a one time task but if someone hired
the to attack our carriages every time," her voice trailed off but the
killing intent in her eyes intensified,
"Then we'll simply hire the adventurers to do the job for now"
Gaya creased her brows," what do you mean for now?"
"Today they attacked my men, I won't simply forget it. One day, I'll
visit them, kill every single one of the reapers who did this, not as
Ghost but as Lucifer" Gaya grinned devilishly, thinking about the
day they'd seek revenge against the infamous Grim Reapers.
After Gaya left the room, he finished making pills and potions
enough to sustain the Majestic for a week. He stood up, the baby
dragon on his shoulder,
"Ruby Cuisine branch manager" Michael mumbled under his

breath, before dashing out of the room.
Chapter 137 - Doombringer I
Inside Michael's house, the trio was laying on the sofa, munching
on the egg rolls Raylene prepared for them as snacks. The baby
dragon was clutching onto its roll, fretting that Gaya would steal it
from him.
Both of them just came back home after getting their job done.
Fortunately, the glassmakers kept extra custom-made glasses to
sell on the sidelines, therefore, she was able to buy the glasses
from them and personally deliver them to Fovar, resuming the
construction work. Michael on the other hand, went to Bradford
searching for the branch manager of Ruby Cuisine, his one major
competitor. Considering the holy guards, members of the guardian
guild, and soldiers were swarming the city, the branch manager
came to oversee the business personally. This enabled Michael to
disguise himself as passing by and place a surveillance bug he
bought from the system on the branch manager. Now he had to
link the bug to the monitoring orb. They were already using the
monitoring orb to monitor the Orc in the Abyssal.
"Give me the orb I gave you" She was keeping the orb in the
linked space ring, she flicked her wrist as a white orb filled with
smoke appeared on the table before them. The baby dragon let
out a hissing sound in a momentary surprise before turning his
focus on the roll in his claws.
The next moment, Michael placed his hand on the orb, willing the
system to establish a connection between the monitoring orb and
the bug he placed.
[Connection successfully established!]
After he heard the system's now not so robotic voice, the white
smoke inside the orb slowly faded away to reveal a neatly
organized room.On the orb, Michael and Gaya saw a pair of
hands up close, writing reports under the candlelight. The pair of
hands belonged to the branch manager, thanks to the bug, they
would see anything he sees, listen to anything he listens.
For Michael, it reminded him of the first-person games he played

back on earth.
"You didn't place anything on me right?" Following the branch

manager, Michael willed the orb to show the Orc. Gaya placed a?
bug on the Orc exactly like the bug Michael placed on the branch
manager and also, with Michael's help, she drew symbols on the
walls around the Orc. These symbols were practically like the
CCTV cameras, they recorded the Orc's room, sending a live feed
to the monitoring orb.
At the moment, they could see the Orc scribbling and reading
parchments. Gaya bought him those parchments as he wanted
them to summon Netherels into this world.
"I still don't trust that Orc, human," said Gaya, creasing her brows.
"We don't need to trust him, we just need his ability to summon
Netherels"
After the system went haywire when he tried to recruit the Orc as
his subordinate, he ultimately decided not to try that again. That
didn't mean he had no ways to make sure the Orc stays in line. As
far as the Orc serves him loyally, Michael would give the Orc a
seat in the organization in the future, if he didn't, he would simply
kill the Orc and be done with him, after all, killing Netherels was
not only the way he could gain experience points.
"Alright, it's time I met the Orc again"
"Huhu" realizing they were preparing to go to a new place, the

baby dragon excitedly bounced up and down,
"Sorry baby dragon, I can't bring you with me yet, for now, stay
with Sect Leader Claire"
"Huuuuuu" the baby dragon protested but ultimately he nodded
like an obedient child.
"Good boy" Michael patted on his scaly head. He then took the
baby dragon with him to drop him off at Claire's home before
going to the dark forest.
*************************
"Lord Lucifer, Your Highness" Michael was sitting on his Abyssal

throne when Dular came to greet him, Gaya stood beside Michael
wearing the female version of Lucifer's suit of armor.
Seeing the two pairs of red eyes staring straight at him, Dular
couldn't help but shiver in fear. Dular sensed the overwhelming
power of a Core Formation level 8 warrior radiating from the
woman who called herself the 'Dark Queen', hence he addressed
her as 'Your Highness'
Michael kept gently tapping the dwarven skull attached to the

throne's handle, "Dular, how many Netherels are you able to
summon here?" Even without any fear toxin, the voice of Lucifer
sent a chill crawling through Dular's spine.
"Thi...thirty Netherels, Lord Lucifer" Dular sturred, afraid of

disappointing the devil in front of him. Unlike the Dark Queen
beside Lucifer, Dular was unable to sense Lucifer's cultivation
level, only a handful of experts were able to hide their cultivation
level completely, which meant Lucifer is one of those
powerhouses.
When Michael upgraded the system to version 2, the Masking

function's duration was 10minutes.In version 3, the system was
able to mask his cultivation for 20minutes with a cool-down period
of 30 minutes.
"Their level?"
"Body strengthening stage, I can summon level 7 Netherels"

"7000 for each Netherel, 210000" Just when he was grinning
behind the mask in glee, Dular opened his mouth to ruin the
moment,
"For once a month, Lord Lucifer"
"Incompetent!" The moment these words escaped Dular's mouth,

he was pulled by a force towards Dark Queen. She grabbed him
by the neck, lifting him in the sky,
"Your...Your Highness...anything...more-"
"Let him speak, Queen" Michael liked the name 'Dark Queen'.In
the future, when he starts his shadow organization, he would be
known as Dark Lord Lucifer while she would be known as 'Dark
Queen'
After Michael's order, Dular was thrown away by Gaya like a

pebble. Dular slowly picked himself up, cursing the woman in his
heart.
"State your reason, Dular," Michael asked without showing his

disappointment in his tone.
"Anything...Summoning more than thirty Netherels in a month

would alert the Guardians, Lord Lucifer. Somehow, they can
detect the trace of the summoning magic" Dular explained the
reason, it was a damn good reason. Though Michael was
disappointed at the fact he could only earn 210,000 Experience
points plus the experience points from absorbing the cores, he
decided not to take any chances in greed and get caught by the
Guardians. Besides, with this amount of Experience points, he
would be able to level up every one or two months.
[You're too greedy host]
"Shut up system" he scowled back at the system in his mind after

hearing its snarky comment.
"How long will it take to summon the Netherels?"

"The ritual will take thirty to forty minus, Lord Lucifer"
"Start the ritual in one of the halls here, go" he dismissed Dular
with a wave of his hands. After Dular disappeared from his sight,
he willed the system to turn off the masking function.
"Thirty Netherels, is this enough for you to get stronger? What if

we mess with his mind and exchange him for a huge ass pile of
gold?" She suggested licking her lips inside the mask.
"It's enough, Queen. That Orc is worth way more than any amount
of gold" she sighed and nodded. In her mind, he would be ever
wrong and even if he asked her to follow him into the deepest of
hell, she would follow him asking no question.
"When are you planning to give me one like that?" her eyes were
locked onto the black metal coils around his wrist. These coils
were not just coils but superconductors that had zero resistance to
electrical flow. By sending the electricity created by the spell
Ignitia through these superconducting coils and with the help of
the system, he was able to create a super magnet which was how
Michael pulled from the hands of Vandan's men.
"I need a new weapon System, I can't be seen using a sword" he

entered the system store to buy a weapon to use when he turns
into Lucifer.
[what kind of weapon are you looking for, host?]
"Not a sword but I should be able to utilize my sword mastery

when using this weapon" hearing Michael's preferences, the
system began its search. Soon, a glow appeared in front of
Michael's eyes as the glow slowly turned into a weapon, a
Warhammer.
The Warhammer in front of him was made of entirely black metal.

It possessed one blunt dented face with a sharp beak on the
opposite side of the blunt face. The Warhammer looked heavy
and the glowing inscriptions, runes, and symbols on its surface
gave a deadly look to the hammer.
Weapon Name: Doombringer (Heavey)
Class: Rare
Upgrade Requirements: 3-star Blacksmith, 3-star Runemaster,

Ostium ore, the blood of a forest dragon, Underworld Fire Core /
Ancient Ice Core
[Does the host wish to buy the Doombringer?]
[Host can trail use the weapon for ten minutes]
A golden notification box with blue letters appeared in front of him,

his eyes widened in surprise.
"System, make the Warhammer look old, ancient, and put it

somewhere in my room?"
[So Gaya won't suspect where the Doombringer comes from?]
"Yes"
[then it will be 14500 badass points] The system sounded

extremely excited for some reason.
"Do it" Michael long lost his drive to bitch with the system as he
calmly said.
After exiting the system, he looked up at Gaya, "Go and make

sure Dular isn't trying anything funny"
"What're you gonna do?"
"I'll be in my room, casting the masking spell on myself again"
"Don't take longer or I'll start killing them, hehe" she teased him
before leaving the throne hall to find Dular.
I hope you like Lucifer's new weapon but if you feel slightly
disappointed(i hope you're not) don't worry, check out the required
materials to upgrade the Warhammer…...
Chapter 138 - Doombringer II
"Look what I found in my room" Michael came to the northern hall

in the Abyssal to meet Dular and Gaya. In his hand, she saw a
heavy Warhammer. The Warhammer seemed ancient, old, and
powerful, it was adorned with silvery symbols and runes from the
head to tail.
"Where did you-" She asked only to get interjected by Michael.
"Behind one of the shelves, I think it was left behind by them," He

said.
Gaya understood that by them, he referred to the Order of Death.
"Dular, where are the Netherels?" The hall was spacious, just like
the hall where there was a small lake and waterfall, this hall was
also a pocket dimension, this much space couldnt be explained
otherwise.
In the center of the hall, a large 7m radius magic circle with runes
could be seen. The runes on the circle were glowing, producing a
mild humming sound.
"If you give the word, they will appear here, Lord Lucifer" Dular
bowed deeply, Michael clutched the new Warhammer tightly, then
he nodded, preparing to slaughter the Netherels, so he could
reach the next level.
Dular closed his eyes, muttered a few words, soon, the circle
started to glow brighter and brighter.
Boom!
The next moment, the golden circle hovered above the ground
before exploding into millions of tiny orbs of light. When the light
faded away, thirty Netherels with human traits stood at the place
where the circle was.
"Dular, order them to attack me. '' These Netherels wouldn't do

anything until Dular ordered them to do something. If Michael only
desired Experience points, he could have simply let Gaya kill the
Netherels, earning the Exp doing nothing. He didn't want to do
that, he wanted to increase his sword mastery as well as train his
body and mind in a real battle.
For an assassin like him, it was essential to train vigorously to

keep the skills sharp.
"Yes, Lord Lucifer" Dular bowed, "kill him" Gaya creased her
brows seeing the orc issuing order to kill him instead of just
attacking him. A sudden flash of murderous intent ran across
Dular's face, he quickly hid his intent but Gaya noticed it. Michael
noticed this but said nothing of it, for now, he didn't care about the
Orc's loyalty, after all, Dular had to escape the Dark forest before
even thinking to betray him except if he wasn't immune to the Fear
toxin, so escaping was not an option.
"Step aside" Michael's biceps flexed, stretching his black suit due
to the weight of the Warhammer. It was damn heavy and required
all of his strength to lift it from the ground, yet, he didn't use his
both arms because in the future he wanted to swing the
Warhammer in one hand and the Sword in the other or dual-wield
two Warhammers.
Gaya was ready to dash forward in case they overwhelmed him

with their numbers, after all, he was a Body Straightening level 4
warrior while each Netherel was at level 7.
Locking their target, all thirty Netherels rushed at him with no

strategy or plan hands reached out at him to tear him apart. The
putrid smell of all the Netherels filled the hall, making Gaya twitch
her nose.
"Death Range" The hall became darker around Michael, giving a

gloomy feeling to Dular. Instantly, Michael flexed biceps loosened
a bit as his body strength immediately doubled. When the
Netherels came closer, he swung the Warhammer at one
Netherel, the dented face contacted with the Netherel. The power
and force were so great as the Netherel's head exploded,
splashing black goo, grayish brain matter across.
"Wow," Even Michael was surprised at the raw power of this

Warhammer. He felt like breaking an eggshell as he swung the
Warhammer around him to send five Netheres flying. The bone-
crunching, blood-splattering sound was like music to his ears.
Badass points.]
Badass points.]


100 Badass points.]

200 Badass points.]
There was no slowing in his movements, he threw the

Warhammer at the remaining Netherels, his throw had enough
momentum and power to bash three Netherels back to back
before falling to the ground with a loud thud sound.
Dular expected without his hammer, he would be vulnerable, at

least a bit but the next moment Michael lost his Warhammer, he
grabbed the nearby Netherel and used the Netherel as a weapon.
He swung the Netherel, forcing the other Netherels to stubble
back before ripping the Netherel in his hand into two bloody
pieces. His raw strength stunned Dular as began to punch the
Netherels through their chest, grabbing the core in one hand and
ripping their heads off in the other.
It was a devilish display of brute strength and speed but behind

that brute force, Gaya could see the finesse. Each of his moves
was calculated, very well thought.
Soon, Michael punched his way through the Netherels to his

Warhammer. Instead of bending his back to pick up the
Warhammer, he stomped the ground as the force made the
Warhammer fly right into his hand.


With a twist, he turned the Warhammer to use the pointy head

instead of the dented face. Like splitting a wood log into two, he
brought down the Warhammer on one unfortunate Netherel
except the head did not explode like before but the head came
separately with the Warhammer.
Another swing sent the head directly toward another Netherel

before Michael leaping into the air. In the mid-air, Michael grabbed
the Warhammer using both of his hands, and then, he hit the
ground with all of his strength, it created a huge powerful
shockwave that sent all the surrounding Netherels flying into the
walls, the entire hall trembled like an earthquake.
Badass points.]
Badass points.]

100 Badass points.]
….
Continues notifications sounded in his mind, he saw the unmoving

bodies of Netherels lying on the ground in their own pool of black
goo. After the shock wave attack, there were only ten Netherels,
some of them had white bloody bones sticking out of their bodies.
"Let's finish this" Michael grabbed the handle tightly. He then

moved towards the only to spiral rapidly with the Warhammer
pointing at the Netherels. His body soon blurred, in Dular's eyes,
Lucifer seemed like have turned himself into a mini cyclone.
The mini cyclopes turned even darker, splattering black goo and
brain matter across when the mindless Netherels went straight
into the cyclops.
Badass points.]
Badass points.]


100 Badass points.]
….

After smashing all the Netherels, he lowered the Warhammer,
giving his hands the much-needed rest.
"Maybe another hundred of these can give me a challenge" Dular

shivered after witnessing the display of pure strength and brute
force. He was unable to pinpoint Lucifer's true strength, even after
this one side massacre. Lucifer killed those Netherels he
summoned with no hassle, there was not even a scratch on his
body. He used no powerful spells but the Warhammer and his own
strength.
Dular could tell that those words he just spoke were nothing but
true, he doubted even another hundred Nehterels could make him
drop a sweat let alone kill him.
"Take this as a reward for what you did" Michael flicked his wrist,
taking out a batch of Revitalizing pills and Arch Energy boosters.
The batch had 10 of each pill. Since anyone could buy pills from
the Majestic, he didn't fret about Dular connecting Lucifer with
Ghost.
"This will be enough for you to purify your body and help you
speed up your cultivation," Michael said, sending the pills floating
towards Dular.
Dular didn't dare to refuse this, he just bowed deeply and

accepted the pills.
"Burn those bodies" after giving one last order to Dular, he made
his way to his room with Gaya following him behind.
Chapter 139 - Arriving At
Aragoth
"Man, we need a butler to maintain this place asap" while walking

through the cobwebbed corridors of the Abyssal, Gaya said.
"Why don't you put up a sexy maid dress instead?" She froze
stunned, behind the mask, he chuckled seeing her reaction.
"Why don't you ask Sadie, your pervy fuck" Michael received a
punch on the shoulder for his suggestion from Gaya.
"You're still on that?"
"Of course I'm still on that, I won't let you sleep around with
bitches like her, don't forget" there was a hint of possessiveness in
her voice. In Michael's eyes, she was beyond beautiful, talented,
funny, moreover, she was very supportive of him. In simple terms,
she was a perfect wife material for him, therefore, if she made a
move on him, Michael would gladly accept her as his better half.
After all, he would choose her anytime over a cold bitch like Alicia
any time of the day.
"Yes ma'am" he giggled in return.
"Oh?" she was surprised to hear his answer, she thought he

would be a jerk and refuse. This gesture of him slightly made her
feel elated, thinking that he might have feelings for her.
"Good" she put her hand around his neck before giving him a mild
headbutt before they went to the teleporter to leave the Dark
Forest.
***********************
The next day, Michael left the Sunrise sect before the early light
putting on his Neo robes. They didn't use the flying swords but
mounted the pegasus to go to Aragoth. Of course, Gaya packed
her snacks which included, varieties of appetizers, desserts, main
courses, and beverages to drink.
Since this was the baby dragon's first long trip, he was beyond
excited, he showed his excitement by showering Michael with
kisses and bites.
Araogoth was located in Kingdom Dradel, Although Dradel was

the nearby kingdom of Bredia, it was still two weeks flying from
the Sunrise Sect. The travel was mostly uneventful unless one
counted the baby dragon throwing up occasionally because Gaya
did barrel rolls with the pegasus as well as the baby dragon biting
her ears as a payback.
Two weeks later, around noon, Michael, Baby Dragon, and Gaya
had finally arrived at the Aragoth. They landed at the foot of the
tallest mountain that resembled the shape of a sword pointing at
the sky itself.
The surrounding had splendid mountain ranges and tall mountain

peaks. The natural Arch energy was rich on top of the mountain.
The mountains were surrounded by light fog all year long. This
place truly gave off a divine and superior feeling.
This mountain range was called the Sword Mountains. Countless

mountain peaks spread across the top of the Sword Mountain.
Just like the founder of the Sunrise sect, it was said that the
founder of the Aragoth had also discovered an underground
energy vein here, therefore, he occupied this mountain range and
established the eternally prosperous Aragoth.
The energy vein, aside from it being able to provide the best
cultivation environment and gather natural energies, was also a
representation of fortune. Many powerful sects and families had
occupied land with energy veins, this was the reason why they
were eternally prosperous and had produced countless geniuses.
"Another stunning place!"
Michael and Baby dragon stared at the beautiful scenery filled

with light fog, he couldn't help but praise it.
"Huhu" Baby Dragon nodded basking in the beauty.
"Stop staring you two, this is nothing compared to the-"
"Nagaland, yeah I know, you've said this almost a hundred times

now"
Michael interjected, teasing her with a chuckle. She rolled her

eyes and
Descended to the ground.
"Go no further!"
Just when they had ascended half the mountain, they heard a
loud shout, and then three young men dressed in white clothes
with a symbol sword etched on their chests walked towards them
with arrogant expressions.
"Identify yourselves and state your reason to be here at Aragoth"
"Is that a Dragon?"
Michael's vision landed upon these three men, and he instantly

discovered that they were only Body Refining stage warriors. They
were probably amateurs as talented disciples of the outer circle
wouldn't be guarding the entrance here.
However, as the disciples of Aragoth, even just being a novice

disciple would be enough to make anyone proud of themselves.
There were talented people amongst the novice disciples, and
many of the current outer circle disciples and inner circle disciples
were actually novice disciples at one point.
"Hisss" the Baby Dragon hissed when he noticed the youngster

reaching out to touch him, the youngster quickly took his hand
back in sudden shock.
"It's okay Baby Dragon" Michael brushed the Baby dragon's chin
reassuring him before looking back at the three disciples.
"Name is Ghost and I'm here to meet your fellow disciples, Nathen
Bradley"
When hearing the names Ghost and Nathen, those who had an
arrogant look on their faces immediately had a change in
expression. Their faces turned grey, and they wished to slap
themselves a few times.
The young man in the center bowed his head, "Brother Ghost,
forgive us for not recognizing you, Senior Brother Nathen told that
you would come to meet him'' In this part of the land, Michael's
name was not as famous as Noah's because Noah traveled to
many places, killing people, making enemies left and right. In fact,
he was on the wanted list of Aragoth before he joined the
Guardians.
However, these three were able to recognize Michael as they had

close ties to the students of Alchemy. Although Michael was
unable to keep himself hidden from the world like back on earth
because of the system, he still liked to keep a low profile and
make as few enemies as possible, unlike Noah.
They followed the disciples through the paved roads into the inner
section of the sect. Soon, they walked under the arch of the gate
to discover wonderful and magnificent palaces.
"Cool" when he saw these parks, buildings, and rivers, he couldn't

help but be amazed. Everything was perfect, the architecture of
each building had its own magnificent style.
Right at this moment, two outer circle disciples walked up from

ahead. When they saw Michael, unlike these three, they
immediately recognized him and greeted him with eyes full of
admiration and awe.
"Heavens! He is Ghost, the Ghost of River town! He looks so

young, perhaps only 19-20 years old!"
"What is that on his shoulder?"
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god, it's… it's a dragon!"
"I heard he killed a Body Strengthening warrior while he was only

at the Foundation stage! This man looks so delicate and
handsome, it's hard to think that he is such a fierce man!"
"Oh my god, I want to hold that dragon in my hands!"
"Look at that chick beside him, she looks hot"
"I still can't believe he's a five freakin star Alchemist"
"Teacher Olivia won't shut up about him"
"That's it, I think she actually invited him here to give a special
lecture to Alchemy students!"
"Lower your voice idiot, do you know how many young masters
lost their lives coveting beauties like her?!"
"Wow! Ghost is so handsome, it would be nice if I could be his

girlfriend!"
"Shut up slut, I heard Sadie and he has a thing between them"
"Why is he here?"
.........
The surrounding disciples' discussions became heated. Although

people were communicating privately with quiet voices, he had
good hearing, so he heard every single word spoken. He couldn't
help but laugh and shake his head. Among all these
conversations, Gaya's ear twitched when she heard the two
disciples mention the name Olivia. Her female instincts kicked in,
thinking that Olivia might try to flirt with Ghost.
Obviously, his fame of being the 5-star Alchemist was spread

across the Alchemy circle of Aragoth.
"Alright, alright, carry on with your own matters. Brother Ghost has
gone through a long journey, I will need to bring him to Senior
Brother Nathen's residence. In the future, if you have any
questions regarding Alchemy, I'm sure Brother Ghost will show
you some guidance during his stay"
The leading disciple waved at the disciples, then he continued

leading him to the inner part.
Along the way, they met several disciples who had been admiring
him as a 5-star Alchemist. All of them happily greeted him and
were stunned looking at the Baby dragon. The disciples of the
Aragoth weren't idiots, pleasing him may not give them any
advantages, but it surely wouldn't bring them any disadvantages
either.
Eventually, they passed the area where all the living quarters of
students were located. Behind the living quarters, a very fine
courtyard was built. It was located at the top of the mountain,
isolated from the living quarters' area. Compared to the old
shaggy home of his in the Sunrise sect, the house in front of
looked like a palace, it was not suitable to call it a home but a
bungalow. It was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there
was even a waterfall nearby. The scene was very soothing, the
natural Arch energy was rich, and it was isolated from all the noise
coming from the living quarters' area. This was simply the best
place for cultivation, not that Michael needed a place like this to
cultivate.
"Wait here, Brother Ghost, I'll go inside and bring Senior Brother
Nathen"
"Cool," Michael stood there basking in the beauty while the trio of
disciples went towards Nathen's house to inform him.
"Nathen's not home, Ryker" Michael turned his gaze away from
the waterfall to see a couple of girls walking towards him, shouting
at the trio of disciples who were knocking on the door.
They failed to notice Michael on the sidelines, instead, they

shouted at the trio.
"Teacher Olivia is making every disciple take the potion exams,
thank the Sun God we were able to escape before she locks us in
the potion lab"
Chapter 140 - Michael Became
A Student
"Potion exams? Right now?" The trio of disciples stepped back

from Nathen's home. They walked towards the girls while Michael
silently watched this scene unfold, "Holy shit then we also have to
run away from Teacher Olivia, she forces every student to take
these bloody Alchemy exams, even those who don't take
Alchemy, bloody hell!" there was genuine fear in those disciples'
faces.
"Brother Gho-"
"It's okay, just point me in the direction of the potion lab" Michael
chuckled, asking the disciple to show him the way while they
escape this dreaded exam of Olivia.
"Ghost?!"
"Whoa!"
"How long were you?!"
The three girls were stunned to hear the voice from behind, they
turned back almost jumping back in shock,
"Hello" Michael gave a shot wave at the girls who were staring at
him and the dragon with open mouths. Instantly their faces turned
red as they started breathing heavily,
"What? You haven't seen a guy before?" Gaya got irritated looking
at these girls almost having an orgasm just by checking him out.
Her voice immediately brought back the girls from their trance,
cold sweats could be seen on their rosy cheeks, they stuttered,"
Oh, sorry Brother Ghost...can you give us an autograph?" one of
the girls reached her hand out while the other handed him over
the quill,
"Sure"
"Only on hands" Gaya saw one girl lowering her top to show off
her cleavage, she knew the girl was going to ask him to sign her
ample chest but Gaya's eyes made the girl correct her dress in an
instant.
"Lucky bastard," thought the three male disciples, sighing in envy

noticing the fire in the girls' eyes.
"Huhuhu" after the disciples showed him the direction to go to the

potion lab, they ran as fast as they could to escape the exams.
While he was on the way, the Baby Dragon nudged his ear,
making a weak groan,
"What's he saying?"
"He said that he wants to sleep" She didn't even turn to look at the
Baby Dragon on his shoulder, she just shrugged and said.
"Are you okay?" Michael creased his brows, asking the baby
dragon to see him nod his little head,
"Well you must have been tired" Michael gently grabbed the Baby
dragon, he then placed the baby dragon in his coat inner pocket,
the baby dragon's favorite cozy place to snuggle and sleep.
"Who is this Olivia?" Michael asked surprised, a few moments

ago, this place was buzzing with disciples and life but now, it
turned into a Ghost town, not a single disciple could be seen
roaming outside except for Gaya and him.
"Do you think she's beautiful?" he asked, teasing her for his
timepass.
"Why do you ask?" he could hear the gritting sound of her teeth,
she clenched her fist, ready to pounce him if he tried to bang
Olivia, just like he did with Sadie.
"What do you think?" he said,? slyly winking at Gaya to flame the

fans of her jealousy. Just like he planned, she gnashed her teeth,
"You lecherous fuck!" she couldn't control herself after seeing that
wry smile on his face, she put her head into his arms and started
to punch him on his gut, of course, she didn't use her full strength
but only enough to hurt him a little. Michael on the other hand
laughed and kept knocking her on the head,
"Ouch" squealed Gaya, continuing to rain punches on his gut.
"You two!" suddenly a shout came from their back while they were
playing. They immediately stopped what they were doing, they
turned back to see a green-haired woman with an almost perfect
hourglass figure walking towards them. Her shiny lush green hair
fluttered in the wind, the golden robes were contrasting to her hair,
she seemed to be in her early thirties or late twenties in Michael's
eyes. She was a tad bit shorter than both Michael and Gaya, plus,
she had hazel eyes behind those round glasses, sharp eyebrows.
She was beautiful, not on the same level with Gaya or Alicia or
even Claire but she was definitely prettier than Celina or Nyla.
Many loved green or pink-haired girls but he always held a
thought that these hair colors are just weird and spoil a girl's
beauty.
Michael looked closer, tracing the Arch Energy in her body to find
she was at Core Formation level 7, only a few months cultivation
away from reaching the next level.
"Where do you think you two are going?"
"Who-"
Gaya's question was interjected by the woman, "shut up, I don't

want to hear any excuses, you can't escape this exam" Michael
realized this woman is the famous Teacher Olivia who made the
disciples shudder in fear.
"But we are-"
Again, the woman stopped Gaya before she could finish her
sentence, she stared at Michael for a moment before speaking,
"You must be one of those disciples who think so highly of

themselves because of their talent for cultivation" He knew there's
no stopping this lady as she went on,
"You may know hundreds of powerful battle spells, but no spell

would close a wound in your body, if you don't have a basic
knowledge of Alchemy to find a herb with healing properties, you
sir will die unless of course, someone bails you. You rich kids
always need saving, no self-dependence at all" Gaya wanted to
slap Olivia to make her stop but Olvia's status as a teacher of
Aragoth saved her from getting smacked from Gaya.
"If you don't finish brewing a basic healing potion by the end of
this day, you won't have any resources for your cultivation for the
next two months, plus, detention"
"Lady"
"Ah" the moment Gaya opened her mouth to address her as

'Lady', Olivia grabbed the snake's ear, twisted it,
"The girls are worse than the boys, no respect for their teachers"
Michael wanted to save Gaya but his instincts told him to exploit
Olivia's misunderstandings to earn some sweet badass points.
"Shut up and come with me"
"Take your hands off me human! Ah ah ah"
"Human? What are you, Miss?" Olivia kept twisting her ears while
walking towards the potion lab.
"Calm down, Aelia" Michael controlled the urge to burst into

laughter seeing Gaya receiving a taste of her own medicine from
Olivia.
"You bastard, AHHh, lady you're... ahh"

"What a foul-mouthed girl, it seems I need to teach you some
discipline too" realizing that her human wouldn't save her and she
beat the heck out of this teacher because of her status, Gaya
gritted her mouth, no more curses came out of her mouth.
"I'm coming...let go" Eventually after walking for a few minutes,

Olivia let go of Gaya's ear after she asked her to. On their way to
the Potion lab, Olivia hunted down a few other disciples who were
unfortunate enough to get caught.
Olivia chewed them down, explaining why Alchemy is important

for all of them regardless of which specialization the disciples
preferred. Michael realized that she's trying to make Alchemy a
compulsory subject in Aragoth. Many displeased seemed to
disagree with Olvia's plan but Michael could only pity these
ignorant disciples. Before learning Alchemy through the system,
even he was ignorant of the power of Alchemy but soon, he was
proven wrong, very wrong. Alchemy was such an overpowered
skill to have, he knew potion or pills to overcome almost every
problematic situation.
If you want to temporarily increase the cultivation level? There

was a potion for that.
Are you born ugly? Don't worry, there's a pill to make a girl pretty
and a boy, handsome.
You want to fake death? There's a? pill for that too.
Michael thought.
If one was willing to make a necessary sacrifice, one could do

anything with Alchemy. Even though many would argue that
Runemastery was the most overpowered specialization, Michael
would argue otherwise because his most powerful weapon was
created through Alchemy, the Fear Toxin, not to mention he was
earning a shitload of gold coins because of his Alchemy skills.
Of course, he couldn't care less if they don't want to learn

Alchemy, after all, the fewer the alchemists in this world, the more
the demand for him.
Intentionally walked behind all the disciples so they wouldn't
recognize him too soon, spoiling the upcoming badass points fest.
Olivia had no idea that her idol, the man who she was trying to
meet in person ever since she heard about him, was just walking
behind her. If she had known it was him, she would have freaked
out.
Eventually, Michael reached a tall building with an attractive lawn

in front of it. The lawn itself showed the prestige of Aragoth as he
saw many expensive uncommon herbs planted as mere
decoration. They soon entered the building following Olivia, the air
inside was filled with a medicinal fragrance of herbs and Alchemy
ingredients, they walked into the open door to the wide hallway.
Upon the walls were the paintings of older men who Michael
guessed as some famous Alchemists. The floor was an old-
fashioned parquet with a blend of deep homely browns and the
walls were the greens of summer gardens meeting a bold white
baseboard.
Finally, after walking through the corridors, they came in front of a

classroom and saw the words 'Potion Classroom' written in
beautiful calligraphy on the wall above the large green door.
"Here we go" Michael was hit by massive nostalgic memories of

Harry Potter as he stepped into the potion classroom with a faint
smile on his face.
The classroom was large enough to allow at least fifty students to

work and its walls were lined with pickled creatures and weird-
looking herbs in glass jars. In one corner of the room stood a
basin into which bluish water poured from a gargoyle's mouth,
while in another was a line of six feet tall cupboards.
The students who were already inside the classroom were so

focused on the task on their hands as they even ignored looking
at the newcomers.
On the far end of the room, one of the busy students was Nathen.
Just like others, he failed to notice Michael among the crowd.
Closing the door, Olivia went straight to the long wooden table
under a giant statue of a tree, she then flicked her wrist as rows of
herbs and ingredients appeared on the table.
"Those who are my students, brew a disease cure potion while the
others brew a basic healing potion, you can refer to the books on
the cupboard over there," she said, pointing at the lines of
cupboards.
Chapter 141 - You Are Ghost?!
"Keep your eyes on the cauldron!" When a few disciples looked

up, taking their eyes away from their table, Olivia shouted at them,
making them quickly look down.
Michael's eyes were on Nathen but the young master of house

Bradley was busy trying to figure out the right Diddia leaves to
Iburry ration. For a 5-star Alchemist like Michael, the disease cure
potion was a child's play but Nathen and these disciples were not
5-star Alchemists.
"Go on, take your ingredients," Olivia said looking at her Alchemy
students while the others rushed towards the cupboards cursing
Olivia under their breaths.
The Alchemy students buried to the table to pick the freshest of

the herbs,
"I'm partnering with him," said Gaya stubbornly.
"Alright, since you two aren't Alchemy students, I'll let you partner
up but I want two healing potions," Olivia said, raising two fingers
in the air. He just nodded at Olivia, walking to the table, he saw
the leftover herbs.
"What are you doing? First, you need the basic book of Alchemy"
Olivia said while Michael was looking at the herbs and ingredients
before him on the table.
"I think I can brew a simple potion without a book, Teacher Olivia"
He was not trying to sound arrogant but in Olivia's eyes, his tone
and look seemed extremely arrogant.
"Oh, a simple potion huh? Let me see your Alchemy prowess" It

was evident she didn't like the way he talked, she made it obvious
by her sarcastic tone.
She wanted to teach this arrogant bastard a lesson after he failed

miserably.
However the next moment, he surprised her by picking up the

right herbs from the table.

"Hold this" Michael handed over the herbs to Gaya, he then rolled
up his sleeves before conjuring the green Alchemy flames
"Wait!" Olivia was stunned knowing that the green flames couldnt
be summoned by anyone except Alchemists. Olivia's shout broke
many disciples' concentration, they instantly looked up in the
direction of the commotion to see her staring at the green flames
hovering above a black-robed youth's hands in shock.
"Don't try this anywhere"? before Olivia could stop him, all the
ingredients flew straight into the green flames,
"Ghost" from the distant Nathen recognized him immediately,
"You need a cauldron!" Olivia shouted at him but she soon closed
her when a fist-sized ball of pure essence floated above the green
flames.




His lips curved upwards, he would never get tired of this sweet
notification sound, no matter how many times he hears it. One by
one, the essence shot above the green flame,
Olivia was speechless, she just stared at the pure essence above
the green flames. One could not extract the essence from the
herbs with this much purity unless he's a godly level genius.
Besides, he used the technique of extracting the essence using
no cauldron, she didn't know anyone who could do that except
one person, Ghost. But how could he be here? She thought.
In the next moment, all the eleven essences that were floating
above came closer to merge as one big ball of the essence.
Michael flicked his wrist, the green flames slowly faded away,
"Bring me five vials," She said to Gaya, making her lock eyes with
the girls staring at him from the front table.
She went straight to those disciples and took their vials, asking no
permission
"Give me those"? the girls were too focused on Michael to protect

their empty vials from Gaya.
Under the shocked gazes of Olvia as well as the disciples,

Michael moved his hand, splitting the one ball of essence into five
balls before sending them flying into the empty vials.
"How did he…?"
"Look at the purity!"
"Who is he?"
"So handsome, so talented"

"Ha, I never thought I would see a day teacher Olivia shut her
mouth"
"Teacher Olivia is 4-star Alchemist but I have never seen her brew
that potion this quickly"
"So you're saying..."
"I know him, he's Ghost, Ghost of River town"
"The 5-star Alchemist of Bredia?!"
"The second best Alchemist of Bredia"
Instantly the previous silent classroom filled with murmuring, few

who recognized Michael shouted in shock. Olivia leaned on the
table to prevent her body from falling down in overwhelming
shock.
"You asked me two potions, here's five" the five vials of glistening
healing potions flew right into her hands as she subconsciously
reached out to grab the potions.



….
The notification sounds went crazy in his head making him earn
almost 8000 badass points in a couple of seconds.
"You...you...are"
"Name is Ghost, Teacher Olivia, it's a pleasure to meet you," he

said with a warm smile on his face
"Well, not for me," Gaya said, rubbing her reddened ear. Olivia
showed an expression of embarrassment. The dispels witnessing
their teacher's face turning red didn't know whether to laugh or
not. The disciples closest to Olvia knew that ever since this Ghost
appeared out of nowhere and proved himself as a 5-star
Alchemist, Olivia was talking non-stop about him, the method he
was using to brew potions and concoct pills. She even paid a
merchant a whopping amount of 12,000 gold coins for his healing
potion, not because she has too many gold coins but because she
wanted to get her hands on the potions as soon as possible. The
only thing that stopped her from traveling to the Sunrise sect was
her busy schedule, since the Alchemy competition of Kingdom
Kethen was just around the corner, she had to prepare her
students for the competition.
She was studying the potion and few female disciples suspected
that she was studying the potion and him. Only because Nathen
was one of her closest and top disciples, he knew about her
interest in Ghost's Alchemy talents and promised him to get the
contract for supplying Alchemy products for the outer circle.
Michael had no idea that he has an admirer, a die-hard fan in

Aragoth.
"The pleasure is all...mine...Lord...Sir...Master" she stuttered

searching for the right word to address him by,
"Ghost would do just fine, Teacher Olivia" he chuckled when

calling her 'Teacher'.Although she was a 4-star Alchemist who is
just a one-star away from reaching 5-star, everyone knew the gap
between a 4-star and a 5-star is like heaven and hell. Only a few
4-star Alchemists reached the 5-star in their lifetime while others
just died as a 4-star in old age.
Reaching the next star level was damn hard regardless of their
talent. It required guidance, a humongous amount of resources,
and hard work. For Olvia, the latter two weren't a problem but the
first one, guidance. That was why she was hoping to meet Ghost,
she wanted to study Alchemy from him as his disciple. She was
willing to pay any price except her body of course.
"I can't" she shook her head,
"Ghost" While Olivia was struggling to find a way to ask him what
she wants, Nathen came to greet Michael and also break the
news to Michael,
"Nathen" Michael greeted him back with a smile, unlike the

previous events, Nathen too widely grinned at him in return.
"Do you know him?" Olivia asked surprised, Nathen nodded and
spoke,
"Teacher, Ghost, if you follow me"
"Lead the way" Before Olivia could ask further questions, Michael
gestured at him to lead the way while Olivia followed him behind
to her room which was located adjacent to the potion classroom.
Walking behind them, Gaya creased her brows, she could tell by
looking at Olivia's body language that she needed something from
him. As long as it was not a place at Michael's heart, she might
consider giving it to her, if she was willing to pay the right price.
Until she came to Aragoth, she only wanted to test herself

whether she has deep feelings for Michael using the love potion
but after seeing the way these girls look at him, she wanted to
check if he has any feelings for her before some girl steals him
from her. Having more than one wife was normal but Gaya didn't
want to share his soul mate with anyone else. She would rather
kill all her competitions than share him.
If he tried to find another love anywhere else after sealing the deal
with her, she would leave him after killing that girl. In simple
words, she hated harems.
After leaving Aragoth, she decided not to waste any more time.
The first thing she wanted to do after reaching Sunrise sect is to
find a way to make him drink the love potion.
Of course, Michael did not know what this snake was scheming
inside her head. He was too busy imagining the rain of gold coins
he would receive after signing the contract with Aragoth.
Chapter 142 - Each With Their
Own Plan
Olivia's room was a textbook definition of a girl's room,

alphabetically ordered book on the book rack, paintings of her role
models who were some old men adorned the pinkish walls while a
faint fragrant of forest roses permitted the air.
In the center of the room, a round sofa and a glass tea table could
be seen.
Obviously, the sofa was not as nearly fancy or luxurious as the

sofas in Michael's room, compared to those, what was in front of
them was mediocre, at best.
On the corner stood a tall table where Gaya saw lines of

expensive liquors.
She then changed her gaze towards the corner, gazing at the vials
of perfumes, she inhaled deeply only to be overwhelmed by the
fragrance those small vials were radiating.
"Expensive liquors, Unest brand perfumes, this bitch is rich!" The

latter changed Gaya's expression significantly because Unest was
a brand used by only the richest, such as the Royal family of a
powerhouse kingdom and powerful female cultivators. An ordinary
noble or even a queen of a small kingdom had no chance of
getting an Unest perfume. Gaya hated spending her own money
in extravagances like that, instead, she always used the money to
bribe ministers to extend her power in her father's regime or
bought cultivation resources. It was Xanali, her stepsister who
would spend a large number of gold coins in just perfume bottles
alone, because of that, Gaya knew about the cost of Unest
perfumes.
After spending the last six months with Gaya closely, Michael
learned to read even the smallest changes in her face, he could
tell by looking at her face that she's yelling 'Olivia seemed to be
crazy rich, human!'
"Please, make yourselves home" Olivia gestured at Michael to

take a seat as she went to the liquor stand to pour him a drink,
"Just hot water with a few drops of Angel lime for me and Aelia,"
said Michael after noticing a crown-shaped fruit in one of the herb
pots
"Oh?!" Olivia was surprised but quickly grabbed one of the fruit
and poured their drinks.
"What happened?" Nathen asked with a slightly amused smile on

his face.
Michael began to explain the events before the potion brewing

after Olivia gave him the drink with an embarrassed smile.
"Teacher, you should really stop making other disciples take

Alchemy tests," Nathen said, chuckling at his teacher's little
adventure with Ghost.
"All disciples should at least have basic knowledge in Alchemy,

Nathen. I keep telling this to the higher ups but they just don't
listen. In some situations, a simple potion or pill might save one's
life. Am I right?" she asked looking at Michael, her smile grew
bigger seeing him nod in approval
"Speaking of Alchemy, Nathen" his voice trailed off, knowing the

meaning of his words, Nathen turned his gaze towards Olivia
"Oh, the contract? Wait a sec"
"Teacher, tell me where it is, I'll go" she quickly waved at him
before he could stand up,
"It's okay, Teacher Harms has the contract, I'll get it" Nathen
nodded realizing she wants him to open the matter of tutoring her.
After Olivia left the room, Michael opened his mouth before
Nathen,
"She wants something, am I right?" Nathen was taken aback by

surprise but soon, he chuckled,
"That obvious huh?"
"Yep"
"Look Ghost, I don't like to beat around the bush, the contract is
yours, Teacher Olivia is the one who decides who gets the
contract and when I recommended you, she immediately signed
the contract, no questions asked. If you just want this one contract
for the outer circle, you can take this and go, no one will stop you
but"
"But what?" Gaya asked, not showing any expression of

annoyance on her face. Michael did not utter any word, he just
waited for Nathen to tell him what she wanted from him.
"She's hoping to become your disciple, Ghost"? Michael couldn't

help but be surprised by this sudden request while Gaya sighed in
relief. For a moment, she thought that Oliva would like to become
one of his wives.
"That's... unexpected" Michael rubbed his chin, weighing the pros

and cons of taking her in as his disciples
"Tell us about her more" Gaya took the initiative to ask Nathen,
Michael sensed the snake had hatched a plot to take advantage
of Olivia, this was why he loved to have her around.
"Well," Nathen started to tell them about Olivia, sighing in relief

that Ghost didn't refuse to tutor her right off the bat.
A few minutes after Nathen finished telling them about Olivia, both
Michael and Gaya had a wide grin on their faces. According to
Nathen, Olivia was the daughter of Reginald Palmer, the Vice
president of the Rainshade, one of the influential merchant guilds
in the entire Elon continent. This explained the expensive liquors
and bottles of Unest perfumes.
Taking in a Teacher of Aragoth already outweighed the cons but

her status as the daughter of Reginald Palmer sealed the deal for
Michael. Soon in the future, he would expand his Alchemy
business, at that time, instead of building an infrastructure of
large-scale business from the ground up, he could use the
Rainshade to grow his business. After all, supplying products to all
corners of the continent was not as simple as selling them in the
Majestic. What made him more excited thinking about the future
was Nathan's family, the house of Bradley. The house Bradley's
main source of income was providing security, they were basically
a private security firm of this world with many powerful individuals
among them. With House Bradley and Rainshade, he would be
able to get his business up and running, without worrying about
security or nooks and crannies of business.
Besides, by taking Olivia as his disciples, the Sunrise sect would

automatically become a place under Aragoth's protection. He
needed some kind of protection if he wanted to keep his herbal
garden from getting robbed by some powerful rogue cultivators.
Moreover, Olivia was at Core Formation level 7 who would
definitely have some devastating spells to destroy his enemies, if
he needed her to.
If everything goes according to his plans, in the future, he would

make Olivia his subordinate and appoint her as the Head of the
Alchemy chains in his business empire.
Both Michael and Gaya looked at each other, a wolf-like smile

flashed across their faces.
"I'm back" Just in time, Olivia entered the room, her smile froze on
her face after she noticed everyone's eyes on her. She assumed
that Nathen had asked Ghost about tutoring her while she was
away,
"What's it gonna be, Ghost?" Olivia's heart began to punch

against her chest, she shivered, looking at Michael. She very well
knew that this could be a life-changing moment for her
"Why don't you step forward and ask me yourself?" When he first
met her, she was like a fierce lioness, scaring all the disciples but
now, she turned into a meek cat.
She slowly stepped forward, praying to her Sun God that he would
accept her as his disciple. For her, his age or where did he learn
what he does didn't matter, all she wanted was to learn what he
knows, at least a drop of his ocean of knowledge.
Nathen almost jumped back when Olivia dropped to her knees,
"Will you please accept me as your disciple and impart your

knowledge in Alchemy to me?" she bowed her head, directly
coming to the point without beating around the bush.
Michael looked at Gaya to see her nod and then, he spoke in a

clear voice,
"If I accept you as my disciples, will you obey me and my friend

here?" Nathen slightly frowned when he saw him asking Olivia, a
Core Formation cultivator to obey a mere Body Refining stage
cultivator but he remained silent.
"Yes" however, Olivia said, taking not even a second to think.
"Will you remain loyal to your teacher?" her heartbeat increased

every passing second
"I will forever be loyal to my teacher"
"Will you disclose the knowledge you get from me without my

permission?"
Again she took no time before answering him,
"I will not" Michael raised her chin to see the honesty in her eyes,
in those hazel eyes, he saw nothing but a thirst for knowledge.
"Then I will accept you as my first student, Olivia Palmer" the very
next second, her eyes welled up, body trembled, she was
overwhelmed by joy.
Soon, tears rolled down on her rosy cheeks,
"Thank..thank you...Teacher..." despite his age or cultivation level,

she uttered the word teacher with utmost respect and admiration,
"My fee is, in the future when I need, promise me that you'll do
your best to assist us" Of course, Michael was not doing this out
of the goodness in his heart but he was planning to catch the big
fish with the small fish, in this case, the big fish was her father's
favor while the small fish was his fee of teaching her.
"I promise you, Teacher, you can count on me" his image in her
heart grew taller after hearing that he will not be greedy and sell
the knowledge for gold coins. However, Nathen somewhat refused
to believe Ghost completely because he did not seem like the
man who would do charities, yet Nathen said nothing. As far as he
was concerned, everyone got what they wanted, Olivia became
Ghost's student, he kept his word by getting Ghost the contract he
promised, this was a win-win situation for everyone.
"Nathen, give this to the Sect Leader" After wiping off the tears on
her face, Olivia retrieved a letter from her space ring,
"What is that?" Michael asked before she could hand the letter
over to Nathen,
"My resignation letter Teacher, I can't teach while studying under

you"
"No, you can't resign" Michael almost blurted out blood after
hearing her, she almost poured mud on his perfect plan,
Chapter 143 - The Baby
Dragon Is Dying
"People learn the most when teaching others" Michael quickly

said calmly despite the shock he just got from Olivia.
"Until I say so, continue to teach, I'm very sure the Sect Leader
won't like losing a teacher like you"
"How hard would it be to build a one-man portal connecting

Aragoth and the Sunrise sect?" Gaya asked a rhetorical question
as Nathen threw an 'it's doable' look. In this world, a portal was
used to travel from one place to another in an instant by
temporarily creating a gateway between two places. This method
of traveling was not without its downfalls, one of those downfalls
was, the longer the distance and the bigger the portal, the more
unstable the gateway. Also, building a portal between two places
required an immense amount of rare resources and at least a 3-
star Alchemist, depending on the portal's distance and size.
As the name suggests, the mini-portal could only let one person
travel through one or two times a day. These were the reasons
why Michael didn't bother to build a portal between the Sunrise
sect and the Dark forest. Moreover, there was already a
teleportation array in the Abyssal, only if he could repair the array,
he would be able to travel to any corner of the world in an instant
as the array in Abyssal was a powerful intricate array. According
to the system, he needed either a 5-star runemaster or system-
level 5.0 to completely repair the array. For now, Michael had no
urgent need for this teleportation array or a portal, instead, he
wanted to buy a teleportation skill and upgrade it to the level
where he could travel anywhere before one could snap. Although
Lightning Dash was fast, teleporting was faster and more badass.
"They are right, Teacher, Sect Master would definitely build a mini-
portal for you to travel between. Besides, who would teach and
prepare us for the Kethen competition if you resigned" Nathen did
not even need to ask whether Ghost would teach them or not as
he already knew the answer, 'No he won't'.
Nathen was right because Michael would rather eat, sleep and
train rather than prepare a bunch of youngsters for a competition.
"How much time do you spend here teaching?" Michael asked,
"Three hours a day, I'll spend the rest of my day cultivating and
studying," Olivia said with a faint smile on her face. Just by looking
at her face, Michael could tell that the higher-ups would definitely
build her a portal, after all, resources and gold coins were not
something Aragoth lacked.
"Alright, take a few days to settle everything here, I'll come pick
you after I visited Nathen's home" Nathen didn't forget that his
uncle asked Ghost to visit him as soon as he finishes cultivating.
However, Nathen creased his brows after he heard him,
"Didn't you say you were going to break through?"
"I did" the very next moment, Nathen looked closer at the flow of
Ghost's Arch Energy.
"Whoa" Nathen's eyes widened, looking at Nathen, Olivia looked

closer at Ghost to be startled by his cultivation level.
"Teacher I thought you were...teacher you...how" Olivia was

speechless, she heard from NAthen that Ghost was at level 10
Body refining stage while they were in Nether Realm, it was only a
few days after they came out yet, he jumped from Body Refining
stage level 10 to Body Strengthening stage level 5.
This was too much!
This was a heaven-defying cultivation speed!


Nathen's world was spinning around him, making him hard to

stand still. Olivia on the other hand was overwhelmed by shock
and joy because she could not only learn Alchemy but also
cultivation tricks from him.
"I hit a jackpot, I'm really lucky," Olivia said to herself. She was not
the only one who felt lucky, Nathen's inner voice reminded him
about the competition for the next head of House Bradley. If he
could utilize Ghost's friendship correctly, he might get an edge
over all his rivals for the head seat. He began to plot his own
plans keeping Ghost in his mind while Michael plotted to use both
Olivia and Nathen to expand his influence.
Everyone in the room had their own plans, using each other, they
wanted to move forward in their life. Michael would have definitely
supported in any way he can to make Nathen the next head of
Bradley because he would rather deal with the devil he knows
than an unknown devil.
"When can we leave, Nathen?" Michael asked, bringing Nathen

back from his trance.
"Tomorrow morning-"
"Huuuu" Nathen was intercepted by a sudden cry that came from

Michael's chest.
"Teacher!" Olivia jumped back when she saw something inside

Michael's chest trembling violently.
Michael's face turned dark, feeling the baby dragon in his pocket
twitching frantically. When he put his hand inside to take out the
baby dragon, a warm yet cold liquid touched his skin. He gently
took out the Baby Dragon to see it was bleeding, the baby
dragon's scales had become grey and he was bleeding through all
of his pores on the body.
"Teacher is that...a dragon?"
"Holy shit it is," Nathen exclaimed.
"Baby Dragon, what's happening to him?" Michael's felt dread in

his core staring at the baby dragon who laid on his hand eyes
closed, body twitching.
In a couple of seconds, the remaining crimson scales also turned

grey,
"System!" Michael screamed in his head calling the system for

help.
[The system is in safe mode!]
[Unable to answer Host's question while in safe mode!]
Michael felt his training to keep himself calm despite the situation
being tested by the system at this exact moment. He took a few
deep breaths after exiting the system.
"Let me see" Gaya creased her brows reaching out to feel the
baby dragon's body.
Olivia and Nathen stood there speaking no words because they

knew something bad happening to the baby dragon. Since they
did not know a way to help, they kept their mouth shut.
"I'll give him a healing potion," Michael said, readying himself to

use the healing potion on the baby dragon, "no, stop it" Gaya
stopped him and continued to run her fingers through the blood-
covered body of the baby dragon.
After a few minutes under the gazes of the three, Gaya sighed,
"Ghost, he's a death kissed Dragon"
"What do you mean?"

"He's dying" Michael's heart jumped a beat hearing her. Although
he only spent a short amount of time with the baby dragon, he felt
deeply connected to the dragon. He could not simply forget the
dragon's face or the times he played with him. The baby dragon
made him happy, light-hearted, Michael knew the Dragon loved
him more than he loved himself. Maybe it was because both of
them were abandoned as a child, never knowing their parents
made their bonds stronger.
"Tell me there's a way to cure him"
"There's no cure for Death kiss, Ghost. I thought it was weird that
he could not fly or absorb Arch Energy like us " Gaya said, ever
since she met this baby dragon, he couldn't fly like any baby
dragons of his age, he would always hop like a bunny to move
around. She also noticed that the baby dragon would often fall
asleep, spending most of the day sleeping.
However she never thought he was death kissed, it made sense

why Ghost never met the mother dragon near the baby dragon,
the reason for that was the mother dragon sensed the death kiss
on him and threw him away. It was really unfortunate as only one
dragon in a million would get death kissed.
"Teacher" Olivia called, her tone was suppressed, fearing any

wrong word would make him mad.
Michael turned his gaze away from the baby dragon to Olivia
while still cradling the unconscious baby dragon in his hand,
"There might be someone who could help him"
"Who?" Michael asked, finally a glimmer of hope appeared in his

eyes
"In Royal land, there's someone called the Doctor, I heard he

could perform miracles, cure many incurable diseases yet many
would say he's a myth but if he's not, maybe he could cure him"
"I heard about him," Nathen nodded after he heard Olivia.

"I heard about him too but even if he could cure him, how do we
find the Doctor? As you just said, he might be a myth"
"I have to look for him, I will look for him and if he exists, I will find
him" Michael wasn't in the mood for second-guessing, he wanted
to save the baby dragon, any means necessary.
But until he could find a way to save the baby dragon

permanently, he needed to keep him alive.
"How much time does he have?" Michael asked looking at Gaya

who clearly knew more about dragons than the three of them
combined,
"In his condition, we can keep him barely alive for another three
weeks tops," Gaya said as she took out a healing potion from her
space ring and poured it over the baby dragon. The greyish scales
barely showed a glimpse of the crimson red underneath
"We need to do this at least ten times a day" Nathen raised his
brows slightly, a single healing potion cost 9000 gold coins, this
meant Ghost would spend 90,000 gold coins on the baby dragon
to keep him alive. This amount was for a single day, if Ghost did
this for three weeks, he would spend almost 2million, just to keep
the baby dragon alive until he could find the Doctor if he exists
that is.
Chapter 144 - In Search For
The Doctor
Making the Royal land his next destination, Michael left Aragoth
before asking Olivia to send a message to the Sunrise sect about
his sudden departure. This time Michael didn't mount the pegasus
but used his flying sword to soar through the skies with Gaya.
Each and every second mattered to Michael, while on his way to
the Royal land, he tried to probe the system about a cure for the
Baby dragon but the heartless system remained silent, no matter
how desperate he was to save his baby dragon.
Although the system bailed on him when he needed it the most,

he somewhat felt the system had no choice but to ignore him. He
missed the snarky comments, the little interactions with this
greedy system, he hoped the badass system would return to its
normal state soon.
Good thing he met Oliva at the time when the baby dragon fell ill
or he would have been clueless about how to save the scaly
bastard. Surprisingly, Gaya took turns in cradling and caring for
her frenemy. He could tell that she's missing the baby dragon
despite the pointless enmity between them. Her motherly instincts
kicked in, making her worry about the baby dragon. Even after
houses of non stop flying, she only spoke a couple of times with
him, the rest of the time, she cleaned the blood off the dragon and
gently poured healing potion into its mouth as well as applied the
potion on its greyish scale.
"We'll save you dicky, I promise" when Michael was looking at the
distant sky, she whispered in the dragon's ear, she then gently
kissed him on the head.
"Hu" the baby dragon startled her by letting out a weak 'hu',
"Human look!" he stopped flying after the sudden shout came
from behind, he turned back to see the baby dragon lying in her
hands with slightly opened eyes. Michael came to the baby
dragon with a loving smile on his face, "keep fighting champ, we'll
cure you" he too put a gentle kiss on the dragon's head
The three of them hovered in the sky like a family, she cradled the
dragon-like he was her baby while Michael was the big daddy of
this small family. He wanted to cherish this relationship with her
and the baby dragon.No matter how strong he became, these two
would always be his family, if anyone tries to even harm a single
hair on their body, he would massacre their entire bloodline.
The fire of healing the baby dragon burned brighter and hotter
within their hearts as they resumed flying towards the Royal land
where the Emperor resides.
Both of them continued to fly stopping only to replenish the Arch

Energy in their body, even Michel wasn't an exception to this.
During these small breaks, she did not eat anything, not even a
biscuit, this showed how serious she was.
At least something good came out of all this, Michael thought

looking at her cradling the baby dragon. After all, there was no
real reason for them to fight in the first place, he was a baby while
she was a fully grown adult, they didn't have to carry the torch of
enmity between the two races.
The baby dragon was acting on his instincts, Gaya on the other
hand just hated Dragon for no good reason but he could tell that
she's changing, at least she would no longer want him dead.
Eventually, after traveling for five continuous days, they saw the
outskirts of a buzzing city surrounded by gigantic walls. Outside
the walls, lush green fields, wheat fields that looked like golden
blankets, crisscrossing rivers, and small yet charming houses
filled the land. What made the kingdom look extremely vibrant and
majestic was the ocean behind it, the rising sun painted the blue
ocean and the walls with its golden rays, making the city within the
walls look like a city made of gold.
However Michael was not in the mood to bask in the beauty, he
wanted to get into the city and began searching for this so-called
Doctor.
"Flying is prohibited in this kingdom, we have to walk" Time was in

the essence but they had no choice, they descended to land on a
stone-paved road. Lines of fancy carriages with various flags on
top of them, groups of people, and merchant carriages moved
towards the gigantic main gate made of silvery metal. The two of
them barely attracted any attention as many cultivators like them
descended when they reached the outskirts to comply with the no-
flying rule.
Michael hated to wait in the line behind all these carriages yet he
could not do anything. He might be a mighty existence in the River
town but here, he was like a small fish, he realized this factor after
noticing numerous Core Formation cultivators going in and
coming out of the city.
While moving at a snail's pace, Michael noticed shrieks and cries

coming from the merchant carriage in front of him. He looked
through the door crack to see green humanoid creatures and
vaguely saw a few human faces.
"Slave Traders" Looking at the curiosity on his face, Gaya

whispered.
"And those are goblins, nasty creatures" She growled. Since he

could do nothing but wait patiently, he decided to ponder more
about these Slave traders. If he created a list of disgusting things
that needed to be gotten rid of, slave traders would definitely hit
the top.
"Tell me about these slave traders, can we buy elves?"
"Where did you get that idea?" his question made her raise brows,
"No, you can't, enslaving another race is forbidden by the church

and the Guardians" Michael was confused, if enslaving was
forbidden what the heck is happening in front of him,
"Those are crooks and outlaws, human. Those goblins were
probably banished from their tribe for their crimes while those
humans may be rapists, murders, or both. When they commit a
crime punishable by death, some kings would give them two
choices, death or enslavement. Many would choose the first but
some prefer to live as a slave than die as a free soul, and you, do
you have an elf fetish?" she pinched him hard on the shoulder, it
was not a question but rather a warning.
"Nope" He shook his head,
"So does this rule apply to every kingdom in this continent?"

Michael asked while running the spot she mercilessly pinched
him,
"Pretty much yes, in some kingdoms in Ozer Continent? however

give slaves the option to become a gladiator in arenas for the
pleasure of nobles"
"Gladiators?" How could Michael not know who gladiators are?

The mere mention of the word Gladiators brought back the sweet
memories of many tv shows and movies he watched, each and
every gladiator was a badass.
"Of course, not anyone can become a gladiator, a rich noble

should first decide to buy the slaves and train them in their own
school of gladiators. Survive long enough in the arena, a gladiator
could get the glory, gold, and even freedom but I never heard of a
gladiator who survived the arena to earn freedom from their
masters"
At this moment, Michael wanted to go to one of the kingdoms that

have arenas and gladiators, if he could buy a small army of
Gladiators somehow, he would become unstoppable in the future.
The Dark Lord could definitely use the Gladiators to his
advantage.
"State your purpose of visiting the Royal land" Eventually Michael

was a couple of carriages behind to enter the city within the walls.
"I'm a humble merchant sir guard and I'm here to deliver the
goods ordered by his royal highness, the secon-"
"Go" the head guard immediately let in the slave trader in front of
Michael.
The guard did not ask any further questions as he opened the
gates while Michael stepped forward to meet the guard,
"State your purpose of visiting the Royal Guard," The head guard
who clad in full iron plane armor asked Michael.
"This is our vacation period-"
"Fifty gold" Gaya was interjected by the guard. She didn't seem
upset though because she knew the guards had no time to listen
to all their stories.
Nodding her head, she quickly placed a pouch of coins in the

guard's hand. Just by weighing the pouch in his hand, the guard
guessed the amount inside. The guard behind the head guard
gestured at them to enter through the small door beside the main
gate, they were just too lazy and sluggish to welcome these
travelers with any pleasantries.
The inner city of Royal Land was built along the banks of a mighty
river and was truly an architectural metropolis. The skyline was
littered with impressive towers and majestic buildings made of
marble as well as stones that shone in the daylight and more
seemed to be on their way. Its charm was matched by the
backdrop of pristine skies which have helped shape the city into
what it is today.
The city itself looked simply gorgeous. Many houses had

pinewood rooftops, oak wood walls, and luscious gardens.
The streets were paved with stones and filled with a buzzing
crowd. Since Michael had no idea of where to find the Doctor, he
decided to find the place that's filled with rumors and actionable
intel, an Inn.
Chapter 145 - One Step Closer
To Finding The Doctor
Placing the unconscious baby dragon inside his coat pocket,

Michael walked along the bustling streets while looking for a
tavern. Various shops including smithies, bakeries, bookshops
and other miscellaneous stores were opening their doors to start
the business, if this was any other day, he would have entered
one or two stores to check what they were selling but today, his
sole focus was to gather any information he could about the
Doctor and save the baby dragon.
"Look, over there" while he was navigating through the labyrinth of

streets, Gaya pointed at a name board that had the name 'Old
Ship tavern' written on it.
From the outside, the tavern looked cheerful, clean, and modest.
Small stones and intricate stone carvings made up most of the
building's outer structure.
It was near impossible to see through the stained glass windows,

but the entertainment from within can be felt outside.
As they entered the tavern through the heavily used, metal door,
they were welcomed by excitement and clapping hands.
The bartender was a red-haired middle-aged woman who was

clearly buried in orders but still managed to welcome them with a
wave.
It was as enchanting inside as it was on the outside. Squared,

stone beams supported the upper floor and the large candles
attached to them. The walls were littered with so many different
memorabilia.
The tavern itself was packed. Travelers like them seemed to be
the primary clientele here, which was often a good sign. Several
long tables were occupied by what must be separate groups who
have bonded over great food and conversation. The other, smaller
tables were also occupied by people who were probably starting
to reach the point of having drunk too much, though nobody
seemed to mind. Even most of the stools at the bar were
occupied, though none of them looked to be minding more
company.
The air inside the tavern was filled with freshly baked bread,
boots, and ale. On the other side of the large tables, people,
mostly drunks, were dancing and singing along with the band of
bards.? Michael and Gaya managed to find stools before the
bartender.
"What can I get you two?" the bartender woman finished serving
the others and came to Michael,
"Information" Michael slid a gold coin toward the woman, he did

not waste any time exchanging pleasantries given the dire
situation.
"And water with lime, if you have any '' Gaya ordered, since
Michael didn't drink any liquors, she also stopped drinking them,
and instead, she got used to just hot water with lime, just like him.
Putting the gold coin into her pouch hanging on her hip, she
grinned brightly,
"What do you want to know, young master?" She changed the

way she addressed him because of the gold coin, obviously, a
commoner or a typical adventurer wouldn't just give a gold coin
just like that.
"Tell me everything you know about the Doctor"
"Another one" the man behind Michael snickered, taking a long

sip from his mug.
"Ignore that one young master" the bartender glared at the man,
wordlessly telling him to mind his own business.
"Well young master, no one know much about the Doctor but I'll
tell you what I heard about the doctor, it might be just a hogwash
or god's honest words" Even if they were just hogwash, Michael
had no choice but to listen to them.
*******************************
At the moment, Michael and Gaya were waiting in a dark alley

between two large buildings. Back at the inn, the bartender told
them everything she knew and heard about the Doctor, most of
what she told them seemed outright exaggeration or simply lies
spewed by some drunkards because who would believe an angel
with pure white wings came from the sky and healed a drunk in
the alleyway. In one story the bartender told them, the Doctor
brought a dead man back from death, although Michael was
desperate, even he couldn't believe that one could bring the dead
back to life unless that person has a system that's fully upgraded,
which was impossible.
However, the conversation with the bartender was not all waste as
Michael got the names of everyone who's claiming that they were
healed by the Doctor. For another extra five gold coins, the
bartender gave the names and where to find most of them.
Creak!
While they were waiting in the dark alley, a back door of the
building left to Michael opened vaguely revealing a figure of an old
man. Gaya stepped towards the old man with no expression on
her face, despite the darkness in the alleyway and the old man's
age, he grinned instantly looking at the young girl walking towards
him.
"Are you lost, little girl?"
Boom!
In a flash, Gaya's hand grabbed the old man by his neck,
slamming the old man against the wall,
"Answer my questions or" she placed a dagger on the old man's

wrinkly throat,
"Any...any..thing" the old man got his hangover cure just like that,
"What do you know about the Doctor?" asked Gaya. The old man
shuddered to look at the vertical slit pupils which resembled the
eyes of a venomous snake glowing in the dark.
"Where and when did you meet him?" Michael asked the old man
with a soothing voice to calm the old man down a bit.
"Near...near the orphanage...I saw...i...saw someone...healing...an

orphan..." In the story the bartender told them, it was this old man
who got healed by the Doctor, not an orphan.
"Tell me what he looked like?" Gaya still had her dagger touching
the old man's throat while asking,
"I didn't...see...his face..." She instantly saw the old man

withholding something by sensing the slight change in his voice.
She had dealt with politicians and powerful cultivators ever since
she was born, so she could find out when a commoner like the old
man was lying to her face.
"You don't want to hold back anything, trust me," she said, this
time her voice was colder,
"I...heard...music...music..."
"What kind of music?" asked Gaya, "like...like...deeeeengggg"

Michael didn't know whether to laugh or slap this old man for his
music knowledge.
"Knock him out and threw him the dumpster"
"Wh-"
Chadak!
The old man's world completely became dark before he could
even raise a finger. Just as he told her, she knocked the old man
and threw him into the nearby dumpster.
"Next one" after many days, only now his lips slightly curved
upwards because finally, he might have gotten an actual lead to
finding the Doctor.
"I heard a sound"
"Music heavenly music"
"Soul soothing tune"
"I've never heard of something more beautiful"
After the old man, both of them continued to interrogate the

people who claimed to have been healed by the Doctor. They
used violence for some and gold coins for some but the end result
was the same, everyone had heard some kind of music coming
from the Doctor.
Afterward, Michael brought all of them to a place where the nobles

of the Royal land gather to listen to music. It cost him 2000 gold
coins just to enter and stay for an hour. The garden he was
walking through was filled with colorful flowers, exquisite
fountains, delicately crafted benches for the nobles to sit, and the
beautiful status of various musical instruments such as violin,
zither, veena, etc.
The deeper he walked into the garden, the louder the music
became. Michael could understand why the nobles spent so many
coins here as even he felt refreshed by hearing the soul-soothing
music in the air.
But he was here neither to enjoy the scenery nor listen to this
soul-soothing music, he was here to find out what kind of music
these people behind him heard. By identifying the musical
instrument the Doctor used, he would be one step closer to finding
him, of course, there was a possibility that the Doctor didn't use
any kind of musical instruments and they all just heard some kind
of magical vibrations but Michael wanted to stay positive, for the
sake of his baby dragon.
Just as he was crossing by a statue of the musical instrument

veena, the sweet melody of a veena being played could be heard
in a nearby pavilion. Almost as if the music had an enchanting
ability, the moment anyone heard this melody would feel as if their
heartstrings were resonating along with the veena.
"That's it"
"It's the same"
Few of the people behind Michael, including the old man who got
knocked off by Gaya shouted, some seemed relieved as they
could finally be free from these two youngsters.
The moment Michael and Gaya heard the sound of the veena and
the people behind them, they stopped walking and turned to look
toward the source. They could only see a woman wearing a red
colored glistening robe with her back facing them in the pavilion.
Her jade white fingers could be seen dancing along the strings of
the veena as the sweet melodies rang throughout the area. Few
nobles sat on the bench near her, eyes closed, submerged in the
ocean of music.
Walking toward the pavilion, Michael quickly approached the back

of the red-robed woman. Her black hair hung behind her
shoulders down to her back. A white veil covered her face so that
he couldn't see her appearance.
The part of the girl's face that could be seen could only be
described as a stunning beauty.
In a flash, she finished playing the ballad and turned to look at

him. "Does my lord enjoy the sound of the veena as well?" The
girl spoke with a sweet gentle voice, almost too gentle as if one
wasn't strong enough, then they would be enchanted after hearing
her voice.
With a light smile, he replied, "The second sister's ability with the
veena is quite amazing. Although I would love to sit and listen to
you playing, I have a life to save, so can you please answer my
question?"
The girl first seemed puzzled by Michael's words but soon, she
smiled sweetly, speaking with a gentle voice, "I thank the Lord for
his praise and please, ask away, anything to save a life"
He continued to smile at her, then pointing his fingers at the

people behind him, he asked while carefully noticing her facial
expressions, "Miss, have you met any of them before? They say
they heard a piece of music that soothed their soul and
surprisingly, healed their wounds" the girl looked all of them who
were in ragged clothes one more time before shaking her head,
"No lord, I have never met them but what they told you is true, a
piece of music that can heal, only one who achieved the realm of
perfection in veena could do that" As far as Michael and Gaya
could tell, the girl was not lying. The girl continued,
"I am quite fond of the four arts and studied them studiously when
I was young, but I am still far from the realm of perfection, while
the sounds of my veena are quite soothing, it was mostly because
of the veena itself." The girl's delicate finger stroked a string on
the veena as she muttered, "Although this veena is a copy of the
Angel's Veena, it uses a variety of rare parts, including the? Soul
Energy of the one who wields the Angel's Veena, Lailah Alden. If
one could have done what you said, it would be her but I doubt
she left the rainbow islands and came here to heal them" her last
words contained a hint of scowl as she had already whiffed a
smell of ale coming from some of them in the group. She put it
mildly to sound respectful but she seriously doubted that? Lailah
Alden, the wielder of Angel's Veena gave the blessing of hearing
the sound of Angel's Veena to these drunkards who weren't even
worthy of breathing the same air as Lailah Alden does.
"Angel's Veena? Lailah Alden?" Michael asked with confusion

while Gaya seemed like she knew the person the girl was talking
about
Chapter 146 - Lucifer In Royal
Land?
"If I want to meet this Lailah Alden, where do I go, Miss?" the girl
shook her head, "No one can meet Lady Alden whenever they
wish, Lord, even the Emperor himself yearning to get that
heavenly blessing"
"We'll see about that '' Gaya didn't like all these exaggerations
about Lailah, for Gaya, this Lailah woman was just another
overrated cultivator in the Elon Continent.
"Thank you for everything, Miss," Michael said, nodding before

leaving the garden with Gaya. They chased away the group of
people as Michael so no use in keeping them around.
"We are going to Rainbow islands," She was determined to save

the baby dragon, nothing would stop them from doing so.
"Where is it?"
"In the Endless ocean, we have to find a portal, although it won't

let us travel into the Rainbow islands domain, we can reach the
border. Flying would take at least four weeks, we don't have that
time" She explained, recalling everything she knew about Royal
land to find a portal.
"THE DEVIL HAS STRUCK AGAIN!"
Just as they were in deep thinking, their train of thoughts was

stopped by a panicked voice. They turned their head towards the
voice's direction to see a young man who looked pale screaming
as loud as he could,
"RUNAWAY, THE DEVIL HAS STRUCK AGAIN!" The young man

kept screaming while the people who were strolling on the streets
quickly covered in fear.
"HIDE, HIDE INSIDE YOUR HOMES, LUCIFER HAS STRUCK

AGAIN!"
Michael's body went rigid after hearing the young man screaming
the name 'Lucifer'. Both of them creased their brows, looking at
each other confused,
"What's going on here?" Michael asked as he walked in the

direction of the young man, the previously crowded alleyway now
became grim. When he was just about to grab the young man and
question, he saw a group of soldiers rushing towards something.
Michael and Gaya ignored the screaming young man and followed
the soldiers to get some answers. Getting out of the alleyway, they
stepped into the main street which was paved with greyish stones,
while many people ran in the opposite direction of the soldiers,
Michael followed the soldiers behind with a few other daredevils.
The more they followed the soldiers, the more chaos and soldiers
they witnessed in the streets of Royal land. Soon, they reached
the town's square, in the middle of the square, a group of soldiers
clad in full iron plate armor formed a line preventing the citizens
from seeing the horror behind them.
The smell of fresh blood permeated the square, through the gaps
in the crowd before him, he noticed the fountain in the square was
painted splashes of red.
"What's happening?" Michael asked an old woman in front of him

to know more about what's going on here,
"It's the devil young man, it has killed yet again" the old woman
was too focused on craning her neck to see through the crowd as
she didn't even look at Michael while speaking
"Yet again?"
"Yeah, this is the devil's fourth victim. I don't know who the
troubled soul he took this time" the old woman held onto the
pendant on her chest, he knew she's praying to the Sun God.
"Look above, the Holy Guards are here" Hearing the sudden rise
in the commission, Michael looked at the sky above the town
square to see a group of six figures descended. All of them were
covered in pure white shining armor with golden edges, each of
them had a different weapon such as sword, spear, bow, staff, and
even a huge battle-ax. Their armors had a symbol of the Sun
painted on their chest plate indicating their branch in the Church.
However it wasn't their shiny armor or flashy weapons that made

Michael arch his brows, it was their cultivation level. The leading
figure who had a sword on the side was a Core Strengthening
level 1 warrior, the rest of them were level 10 Core Formation
warriors. This group alone showed Michael the power of the
Church.
"Get them all out of here" a female voice came from the Core
Strengthening warrior. The guards immediately tensed up,
pushing the crowd further and further away from the crime scene.
"You can't hide the truth from us forever!"
"We need to know what's going on"
"Are our children safe?"
"When are you going to catch that bastard?"
"Who is the victim?"
"We demand answers!"
The people weren't a pushover, they resisted the soldiers,

shouting at the Holy Guards and the soldiers. The crowd became
restless, while they were protesting and trying to turn this into a
riot, Michael glared at Gaya, wordlessly telling her to come with
him.
"Someone is copycatting us" when they put enough distance from

the Holy guards, Gaya said before forming an invisible barrier
around them to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on them.
"I expected this but not this soon, not here" Michael's voice was
calm yet deep down, his voice had a hint of murderous intent to it.
"You need to stay here and clean up this mess before that copycat
ruins our plans"
"What?!" she growled, showing her disagreement, she wanted to

save the baby dragon more than anything. Although at first, she
hated the baby dragon, when she thought about everything, she
realized that the baby dragon was like a family to Ghost, which
made the Baby dragon a family to her. After reaching immortality,
she would have to spend eternity with Ghost and the baby dragon,
when the whole world turns against them, they have to have each
other's back. Compared to that, the hostility between the Nagas
and Dragons seemed so puny and negligible to her.
Besides deep down, she knew the Baby dragon would do the
same to her if she was in his state.
"Remember Gaya, I didn't create Lucifer to only spread fear, I

created him to be the devil who punishes evil. Only then people
would believe that anyone Lucifer kills is an evil person. If we let
this copycat run around killing innocents, it would ruin our entire
plan" Michael knew she wanted to be there when he cures the
baby dragon, he too wanted to have her beside him but this
copycat changed everything.
She clenched her fist, "fuck it, I'll stay here" She could understand
that what Michael had said was true and she knew that he needs
her here.
"Besides, you're a lot stronger than me now. In case there's a fight

with the Holy guards, you would be able to at the very least
escape"
"Yes"
"System, can you at least give me a teleportation scroll that would

get me to Rainbow islands or closer to them?"
[...]
[...]
He had no reply from the system, he was just about to close the
interface when he heard the familiar voice again,
[4000 badass points]
"Take it" he could swear that he sensed the excitement in the

system's voice which went back to the old robotic voice before he
upgraded it to level 3.
For now, he knew he won't get any answers from the system, so
he just retrieved the teleportation scroll he just bought from the
system.
"We need to find a portal," Gaya said when he exited the system.
"No need" Since Michael couldn't reveal the fact that he just
bought the scroll from the system, he pretended to draw symbols
on the scroll. With the help of the system, the ordinary-looking
scroll in his hand slowly began to glow? as he was drawing
symbols on them
"Creating a teleportation scroll, I can't create them often as it

would take a toll on my mental health but I had to use this skill this
time" she would have stopped him if she had a better way but time
was on the essence and this seemed to be the only way to save
the traveling time.
Keeping the scroll in his hand, Michael moved further into the dark
alley,
"Happy hunting," He said before tearing the scroll. A golden light
instantly wrapped around his body,
"If you can't save Dicky, don't come back," she said, looking at the
faint smile on his face before the golden light disappeared from
her sight along with him.
"Return to me safely human, I have a confession to make" as she

said, she retrieved the love potions she took from the batch he
brewed. She looked at the two potions one last time before
crushing them to oblivion.
During their trip to Royal land, she felt her feelings for him had
indeed grown stronger. Initially, she wanted to test herself using
the love potion but now, she decided to confess to him because
she couldn't imagine a life with someone else.
Gaya was positive that he feels the same way about her, only, he
didn't seem to make the first move, so she took the matter into her
own hands.
The moment he comes back, she would drag him somewhere

alone and confess her feelings.
"For now, I need to find that copycatting fuck and flay him alive"
she put her hood on before leaving the dark alley with a resolute
to kill the fake Lucifer.
Chapter 147 - Rainbow Island
In the sky above the Endless oceans, a human-sized golden orb

appeared, it hovered in the sky for a few seconds before
exploding into millions of tiny light particles revealing a youngster
in full black armor, Ghost. He stared around locking his eyes with
an island in the distance. Other than the tiny island on the horizon,
one could see nothing but an endless ocean, hence the name
Endless Ocean.
"Lightning Dash"
He utilized the spell to traverse the sky over the oceans. He had
already become a bolt of lightning, soaring across the sky.
"Don't worry baby dragon, I'll save you" As he flew, he murmured,

patting his chest where the baby dragon was resting.
Michael traveled over the Endless Ocean for another couple of

hours before finally reaching the island. The tall mountain peak
which seemed like touching the sky itself stood majestically, the
island was surrounded by wildlife and numerous waterfalls. What
was unique about this island was its color. When looked at from
the sky, one could see all the seven colors in the rainbow on the
island. This was the first time he saw bright blue trees.
Also, the island was very large, almost half the size of the
Kingdom Bredia. However, there were not many people who lived
on it, only a measly few hundred thousand people, and. A large
portion of it was undeveloped wilderness. A huge, hundred-meter
tall stone tablet was inserted into the ground at the harbor, and on
it were two large, finely engraved words: Rainbow Island.
Michael descended into a dense forest on the island before

walking towards the small port town not too far away. It was the
only town on the island, and the entire population of the island
lived there.
"I never thought there would be a population living here," Michael

thought. From what he heard from Gaya, most of the powerful
cultivators liked to live in secluded islands before leaving to the
Cold Mountains where they would cultivate until either reaching
the higher stages of cultivation or simply die of old age.
At this very moment, the sound of horses galloping could be heard

vaguely in the distance. Numerous men on extremely simple
horses slowly galloped over. They wore simple clothes, dust and
splashes of sand could be seen on their clothes. They all had a
smile on their faces, a smile that would only come when they
achieve peace with themselves.
"Kimu, this time, we must stay in the sea for at least a month. This
time I want to double our usual catch" The beefy, middle-aged
man riding at the front laughed aloud.
"Damn right bro. Last time we came back from the sea too soon. If
I could only catch a rare fish, I'll increase the size of my family,
you know what I mean hehe" A young man in his late twenties
grinned devilishly from beside the middle-aged man. His face
shone bright thinking about a good no, a great time with his wife.
The men spoke as they rode their horses before quickly coming
across Michael. His strange armor immediately drew the attention
of the men, each observing the black-robed youngster in wonder.
The group of people stopped ten meters before him. The leader,
the beefy middle-aged man spoke to him, "Oi '' Michael slowed his
pace when he heard the horse galloping to get the directions to
Lailah's residence as there was no big mansion in his eyesight
while he was on the air.
"You aren't a rainbow islander, are you? Where did you come
from?"
Michael glanced over the men. Other than the leading middle-
aged man, who was at the Body Refining stage level 8, the others
were only at level 5 or level 4.
Michael waved with a smile on his face, "You are correct, brother.
I'm not from Rainbow island, I came to the island from a small
kingdom in Elon continent"
The man did not notice that Michael studied them to see their
cultivation level. He said boldly, "Elon Continent huh? You're a
long way from home, oh where are my manners, name is Keenan
but you can call me whatever you want. If I remember correctly,
the last time an outsider came to our island seemed to be twelve
years ago. How do you want us to call you, is outside okay with
you? Kenna asked laughing,
"I am Jake, I came to this island looking for Miss Lailah Alden." He
said politely. He did not look down on these people because of
their cultivation level, who knows what their relationship with the
Doctor?
"Lady, Lady Alden '' the man quickly corrected Michael with a
smile and Michael could see their admiration and devotion these
men have towards this Lailah Alden. If he tried to disrespect Laila,
he was sure that these men would fight for her honor with their
pikes and fishnets.
Jake, you must have won some kind of competition and earned
the chance to see Lady Alden" Keenan completely misunderstood
the situation but from his words, Michael realized that
competitions are going on with the price of meeting this Lailah
Alden, his curiosity about this woman piqued.
As Keena spoke, he pointed at the tall mountain in the distance,

"Do you see that huge mountain? That's the holy grounds of the
island, called Angel peak. That's where the Lady Alden and her
disciples live"
Michael looked towards the mountain and then gave a salute with
two fingers, "Thank you brother for your help. I must see Lady
Alden as soon as possible, so forgive me for bidding farewell"
With that, Michael lightning dashed towards the mountain before
Keenan could say a word.
Very soon, he arrived at the mountain peak. He did not hide his
presence so he wouldn't look like an intruder trying to sneak into
their home besides Michael could already sense two powerful
presence coming at him.
"State your name and your purpose of being here at our Angel
peak" A gentle, pleasant voice originated from the sky above the
mountain. With two flashes of white light, two young, violet-
dressed women appeared, both carrying veenas.
The two females only seemed to be twenty years old. Their

appearances were fair and alluring, rare beauties in the world.
They were pretty enough to rival Claire, Celina, Peyton, and so
on. After spending more than half a year in this world, he adjusted
his mind to meet angelic beauties, so their beauty didn't surprise
him much.
However, what surprised him was that the two girls before him
carried a celestial aura, like fairies. They clearly had something
that those beauties he met previously never had, even Gaya
"Level 10 Core Strengthening stage"
The two girls before him were actually powerful level 10 Core
Strengthening stage warriors. He quickly hid his shock, then he
spoke calmly
"I am called Ghost," Michael's instincts told him to go with the

name Ghost instead of the name he gave to Keenan. Something
about these girls made him believe that they could sense a lie.
"I need Lady Alden's help to save- "
"The mistress of the island is currently in seclusion. She cannot

help you now. Please come back another day." Although the
woman sounded soft and respectful, Michael could sense a
contempt in her voice, deep within.
Michael did not show any of his inner emotions on his face, after
all, it was him who needed Lailah's help, not the other way
around. After a slight hesitation, he asked, "Then when will Lady
Alden come out of seclusion?"
"That's up to the mistress to decide. It may be a few days, a few

months, a few years, or even a few decades." The woman
continued testing Michael's patience. If he was stronger than
them, he would have wiped that smug off her pretty face with a
single slap but for now, he could only suppress his irritation.
"Argh!"
Suddenly, a howl filled with utmost pain reverberated from a cave

on the mountain peak. With it followed various rumbles as
countless rocks were sent flying from the cave. At the same time,
the invisible Arch Energy in the surroundings slowly gathered
towards the hole, while an extremely profound presence
descended from the void. Michael felt an immense pressure
building up around him, making him almost kneel to the ground, it
was like an invisible mountain was dropped on him. Even though
he had never witnessed a sight like this before, he learned about
this happening, thanks to Abras's memories.
"Someone is breaking through to the Soul Refining stage!" A sliver

of shock had appeared in his eyes.
Unexpectedly, the expressions of the two women changed. They

immediately cried out, "Oh gods, he's woken again. Quickly, use
the sound of the veena to suppress his awakenings and put him to
sleep again. We can't let him refine his soul, it'd be the end of him"
The two women no longer paid any attention to Michael. They

directly sat down in the air and placed the veena they carried on
their laps. Then they quickly but dexterously strum the veena's
strings, creating a faint, divine melody. The pressure around
Michael slowly decreased as he exhaled deeply. The melodious
sound coming from the veenas echoed through the air, covering
the entire Angel peak mountain. It seemed to hum with space,
causing slight distortions in the surrounding space. Everything
around them, the trees, the wildlife, even the small particles of
mud seemed to be affected by this enchanting sound.
He couldn't help but feel relaxed, refreshed as he had just come

out of a world-class massage.
"Who are these people?"

Chapter 148 - Michael And The
Two Women Vs Celestial
Energy
"What a powerful music!" He was secretly surprised. This music,

played by the two women, was not even targeted at him yet he
could feel the overwhelming radiation of power in the air around
him. If it was targeted at him with the purpose of hurting him, he
would have literally blown away from the mountain, he was sure of
it.
"Junior Sister, make him fall asleep with the Mayan sleeping tune.
I'll try to keep his soul from getting refined," one of them said
grimly. Although she seemed to be a powerful cultivator, it was
extremely difficult to prevent someone's soul from getting refined
and reaching the Soul Refining stage.
"Yes, Senior. I'll come help you as soon as I put him to sleep" The
other woman spoke sternly before abruptly changing the way she
played the veena. The music produced became much softer, and
it contained a soul-soothing charm. The melodious tune could
pierce through all barriers to affect the spirits of people, causing
them to feel relaxed and sleepy.
The other woman's music also changed. Her tender fingers had
already turned into blurs as they danced about on top of the
veena strings, causing a lethal melody to fill all the surroundings.
It caused the air around them to surge like a storm where the
surroundings reacted to it.
Under the effect of this lethal melody, all the particles in the world
and Arch Energy around the island were affected. All kinds of
energy gathered from every direction under the melody's control
before merging up to form a great, tightly-knit but invisible net,
layering together to seal up the entire mountain and, as a result,
obstruct the Arch Energy to be used in soul refining.
In addition, silvery notes shot out from the veena one by one.
They quickly flew towards the Arch Energy with a destructive aura
radiating in an attempt to interfere with the Arch Energy. Michael
had long sensed that the Arch Energy they were blocking was
extremely powerful, it was far superior to the Arch Energy he had
seen and used. This superior Arch Energy was called Celestial
Energy, anyone above the Core Strengthening stage could use a
small portion of Celestial energy in the world. The higher they
climb up the cultivation stages after the Soul Refining stage, the
more one could utilize the Celestial energy in the world to cast a
spell or increase their strength.
The Celestial Energy slowly descended from the sky with an

intense aura. As the destructive notes clashed with the Celestial
Energy, it would ripple slightly, but it did not disperse and soon
collided with the huge net. The net could only slow down its
descent, but it could not stop it.
The Celestial Energy slowly sank into the net, descending towards
the cave.
The woman who blocked the Celestial Energy looked grimmer

than before. The melody played by her abruptly changed, and the
destructive feeling suddenly disappeared, replaced by a muffled
tune.
This time the woman played the strings of her veena at a much
slower speed, but with every string she struck, a muffled sound
would reverberate in the sky. It contained great power as if it was
capable of directly crushing the hearts of people. The
surroundings were also greatly affected, and the entire region of
space distorted greatly. As for where the Celestial Energy
descended, space was directly annihilated, creating a black hole
with a diameter of five meters in an attempt to engulf the Celestial
energy.
"Holy Shit" Michael felt a cold chill crawling through his spine
when he saw the black hole in the sky swallowing the Arch Energy
in the surroundings.
He did not dare to break the two girls' concentration by opening

his mouth, he just held onto a mountain wall, trying not to fly into
the black hole.
The Celestial Energy descended from the sky after passing

through the various obstructions; even though there was the huge
invisible net created by these two girls, it continued forwards with
an extremely steady pace. No matter what stood in its path,
nothing could stop Celestial Energy from advancing. It directly
ignored the black hole formed from the destroyed space and
passed through it, continuing onwards.
"The Celestial Energy this time is much more powerful than last
time. Junior, quickly make him fall back asleep, I can't keep this
much longer." The woman responsible for blocking the Celestial
energy's descent seemed desperate and, shortly afterward, the
melodies rang out hurriedly once again. The visible waves of
sound shot out with great lethality, flying towards the Celestial
Energy.
But even with all of this, it was unable to stop the descent of the
Celestial Energy. Currently, the Celestial Energy that slowly
descended from the sky was less than a thousand meters from
Angel peak Mountain.
"Argh!" A shrill cry filled with utmost pain rang out. Shortly
afterward, the cave in the distance rumbled loudly a few times,
causing the entire mountain to shake slightly.
"Gods! his mind and soul are resisting the tunes. I'm failing to
make him fall asleep" The other woman's expression changed
greatly, shouting at her junior.
Hearing that, the face of the woman who was responsible for
obstructing the Celestial Energy darkened, drops of cold sweat
could be seen on her pretty face. After a few moments of silence,
she spoke out, "There's not much time left. If he doesn't fall
asleep, he'll die for sure when the Celestial Energy reaches his
soul. Use the soul-controlling melody!"
With that, the woman turned around to Michael. She requested,

"Ghost, please help us fight the Celestial Energy from
descending"
"Just what's happening?" Michael asked bewildered. How could

he, a mere Body Strengthening cultivator fight the Celestain
Energy? At least if he had the system online, he would have felt
somewhat confident in fighting the Celestial Energy but the
system wasn't online, hence he was reluctant.
"There's no time to explain it right now. We just can't let the

Celestial Energy descend on him, or he'll die " The woman replied
with a rushed, deep voice, while she continued playing the veena.
Visible powerful sound waves shot towards the Celestial Energy,
slowing its descent.
After a slight deliberation, Michael did not choose to stay idle, not
because of the goodness of his heart but to help himself by
helping these girls. If he refused to help them, they would
definitely chase him away, no questions about that. He simply
couldn't leave the mountain without meeting Lailah who was the
only hope he had to save the baby dragon.
"What can I do?" He asked, preparing to help these girls.
"Attack the Celestial Energy!" Just like any other energy in this
world, Celestial Energy had no physical manifestation. He could
only sense the high concentration of the Energy above him,
clashing with the barrier created by the girls.
Michael cracked his neck before stepping on his flying sword to

fight the Celestial Energy. He did not however use the lightning
dash to fly towards it headstrong in case the Celestial Energy was
too intense for him to even get close.
[Energy Devourer activating….]
[System is in Safe Mode...]

[Energy Devouring failed...]
"Damn it!" His face was lit by the first notification but soon, the
light was put down by later notifications. He let out his frustrations
by punching the center point of the Celestial energy concentration.
Except when his fist collided with the Celestial Energy, it actually
just passed through. Unlike the normal Arch Energy, the Celestial
Energy was not tangible as his punch did not affect it at all.
The light in Michael's eyes flickered. With a thought, he conjured

the Arch energy in his body to surround the space before him,
freezing the particles in the air in an attempt to slow down the
Celestial Energy's descending.
However, what surprised Michael was that Celestial Energy

completely ignored the frozen space. It moved about freely, just as
before, and slowly descended.
"Fuck it! Wind blast" since he found no way of stopping the

Celestial Energy, he frantically shot out blasts of wind at the
energy.
Surprisingly, the wind blast proved more useful than his punches
or freezing the air around him. Each blast distributed the trajectory
of the Celestial Energy, slightly, very slightly slowing the energy.


Michael quickly turned his gaze at the two women to see a slight
shock in their eyes, it was hardly worth mentioning but it was
there, a mix of shock and surprise. The 5000 badass points
motivated him to fire numerous wind blasts at the Celestial energy
without worrying about the Arch Energy limit in his body. He
always knew the wind blast can't be a useless spell and now he
was proven right.
However, this did not last for very long. Although Michael's wind
blasts proved to be useful against the Celestial Energy, it was not
near powerful enough to compete with the Celestial Energy, and
since Michael was only a Body Strengthening cultivator and the
spell was at level 2, the Celestial Energy continued to descend,
pushing Michael further and further down.
Watching as the Celestial Energy grew closer and closer to the

cave, Michael also became uneasy. He was currently pondering
over whether he should keep fighting a battle that he cannot win.
Just as he was thinking, an elegant but powerful veena melody

slowly appeared in the sky. It seemed to be divine, and with its
appearance the entire space became blurry. Clear ripples had
appeared.
At this moment, the entire region of space seemed to become a

huge veena, while the ripples of space that constantly appeared
were the strumming of strings. As the strings formed from the
space were constantly hit, bending the laws of this world and
causing the space around Angel peak Mountain to become its
own world, a different domain.
And in this domain, the descending Celestial Energy was

forcefully halted, as if they were locked up mid-air by mysterious
energy and unable to move at all.
When the two women heard the veena, they immediately rejoiced,
they heaved a sigh of relief as their faces brightened. They both
stopped playing and called out, "Mistress, you've finally come out
of seclusion!"
"Argh!" A shrill cry rang out from the cave again. It was filled with
pain as if it was enduring unbearable torture.
"And you're still not sleeping!"
A gentle voice originated from the space, and it seemed to be

filled with an utmost charm. With just a single sentence, it seemed
to be able to make everything in the world fall asleep. With that,
the cries from the cave finally stopped, and shortly afterward there
was the sound of something heavy falling onto the ground,
followed by nothing but silence.
The words did not only affect the person gone mad in the cave.
Even Michael was greatly affected, he immediately felt refreshed
and calmed. His eyelids felt heavy, and they became drowsy.
However, he returned to his senses very quickly. The charm of the

sound could no longer be described as terrifying. If he was in a
battle and they suddenly became distracted, as a world's best
assassin, he knew a second of distraction would cost his life.
"This is terrifying" Michael mumbled, he couldn't help but feel a

small sprout of fear growing inside him.
Chapter 149 - Eight Great
Clans And The Ghost Of The
Past
The almost-divine veena music continued to linger in the air. The

music was gentle. It seemed like the music was using a special
method to control the world itself, forcefully manipulating the
space.
Michael looked upwards at the blue sky, eyes filled with a mix of
shock and surprise. As a cultivator, he could feel the changes in
the world around him. The laws of the world were changed by the
sound of a veena. Considering Abras did not live long enough to
learn about the laws of the world and cultivators who could
manipulate them, Michael had little to no knowledge about the
world's laws. He could only sense the changes but couldn't
understand them completely.
The mysterious person who played the veena already had a

terrifying level of understanding for the veena as well as the laws
of the world.
The descending Celestial energy was forcefully trapped by the

music. They paused for a while before slowly rising up the sky,
being forcefully sent out of the region. Eventually disappearing
from the Angel peak mountain.
In the blink of an eye, the Celestial Energy that two Core

Strengthening level 10 cultivators struggled to deal with, were
nullified by a mysterious, hidden person in a couple of seconds.
Soon, a dark blue-robed woman walked over slowly and gently

from the distance. She was tall and her raven black, glossy hair
fluttered in the wind. Her face was obscured by a dark yet slightly
transparent veil, revealing her clear eyes. Her eyes were bright
and as pretty as lotus petals. Her lean slender fingers caressed
the veena strings. She had the perfect hourglass structure that
many women could only dream of, gracefully she descended from
the sky like an angel.
She was clearly vastly different from ordinary girls. Although her
appearance was hidden, it was not difficult to imagine how
beautiful she was. In Michael's heart, Gaya was the prettiest girl
he has ever met but this woman dethroned even her, she was that
beautiful.
He could not help but take a step backward. This was not only
because the woman's strength was terrifying, but also the skill she
used to defeat the Celestial Energy itself. She used the veena to
control everything in the surroundings and injure enemies. Her
ability with the veena had already reached a shockingly scary
level.
"I greet mistress!" The two women courteously greeted the blue-
dressed lady with their veenas in their arms. Not only was she the
mistress of Angel peak mountain Island, but she was also the
master of the two of them.
His eyes narrowed abruptly, and he called out huskily, "Wielder of

Angel's veena, Lady Lailah Alden'' Michael slightly bowed to show
his respect, he didn't dare to show any discourtesy as the woman
was the strongest person he met ever since he came to this world,
a freakin Fusion stage cultivator. The power she radiated was so
great that he was only able to sense her stage, not the level.
Lailah Alden stood in the air with her veena while a colorful light
flickered in her captivating eyes. She shifted her gaze slightly and
looked towards Michael in the distance. Instantly, a sliver of
surprise flashed across her calm eyes, "Hmm...a 5-star Alchemist,
I don't think we've met before" She said softly before silently
mumbling under her breath "it can't be a coincidence"
Lailah Alden's voice was extremely gentle, like the most pleasant
tune in the world, yet also carried a bewitching charm. She was
able to affect the moods of people from just her voice.
Michael's mood was also wavered slightly by Lailah Alden's

bewitching voice and what. However, with his willpower, he tried to
avoid being bewitched using all of his willpower. He did not think
she intended to bewitch him but the power gap between the two of
them was so great that Michael felt like this.
"How did she find out?" Michael's heart skipped a beat when she
identified his specialization of Alchemy with a single glance.
"I'm called Ghost, Lady Alden, and I never got the honor of
meeting you before" He had never been so respectful and
courteous towards anyone until now, after all, he stood top of the
world of assassins back on earth. After coming to this world, with
the system's help, he climbed the ladder fastly as he never
needed to be afraid of anyone. Even when he faced Julius of
Phoenix island, he did not feel a sliver of fear because he had the
system and the teleportation scroll with him to escape but now, he
had neither. Therefore, he decided to be rather respectful towards
this Lady Alden just like everyone else than getting kicked off the
island or worse, killed by her.
Lailah Alden stared at Michael unblinkingly with her pretty eyes for
a while, before speaking gently, "if I'm right, you're a disciple of a
sect called Sunrise"
"You are right, Lady Alden, I'm indeed a core disciple of the
Sunrise sect" Again Michael was surprised at the fact she actually
knew about a declined sect in a backwater kingdom. How did she
know? The question poked Michael's mind.
Lailah Alden gave a short nod before turning her gaze towards her
students., "Johana, Nerita, go have a look at his situation."
"Yes, mistress!" The two women replied courteously before flying

towards the cave together and disappearing into it.
Michael's eyes followed the two disciples as they moved, watching

them disappear into the dark cave in the distance. He could not
help but become curious, so he asked, "Lady Alden, just who is
the person living in that cave? What just happened?"
Lailah Alden gazed towards the cave in the distance, and only
after a few long moments, she started speaking slowly, "He was
cursed by one of the eight Great Clans. An extremely powerful
and complicated curse was placed in his soul, sealing his talent
and preventing him from reaching the Soul Refining stage. If the
Celestain energy reaches his body, it would activate the curse in
his mind, turning it into a battlefield. The curse would use the
Celestial energy and wipe out his soul from existence forever, not
even a 6-star Healer can revive him after that"
"Eight Great Clans?" Michael repeated softly, his voice filled with a
sliver of confusion.
Looking at the bewildered expression on his face, she spoke

gently, "Given the current situation, you should know about this.
The Eight Great Clans are the most powerful organizations on the
four continents. Most of them have existed for an extremely long
time, having already existed even before the Guardian Guild had
appeared in ancient times. Of the eight clans, other than the
Guardian Guild, humans have two more. Among the five, elves,
dwarves, beastmen have one great clan each while the seal folks
have two"
Michael was stunned, he tried to look not too shocked. Until now,
he thought defeating the Guardians guild would make his path to
become this world's ruler easier but now, he realized that
controlling the world will be harder than he imagined. Since he
never left the Elon continent and Gaya had little knowledge about
the other continents, it was natural for him to be clueless about
the other Great Clans in this world.
Lailah Alden continued, " if it was any other elves, lifting the curse
would have been easier but the one who put the curse on him was
an elven great mage of the Elven Great Clan, the ArchAngels. You
may have heard of this poor soul from your Elders or your Sect
Leader"
"huh?" As soon as he heard that, Michael was surprised. His
expression changed several times before asking out, "Lady Alden,
who is this person?"
"His name is Christopher Merigold, your sect leader's grandfather.

It seems the gods have sent you to help me save him" Lailah
Alden replied softly.
He was completely stunned after hearing her words. "Wasn't

Claire's grandfather supposed to be dead?" Michael asked
himself. Claire herself told him her grandfather died during one of
his adventures and it was her father who went missing which led
to the downfall of the Sunrise sect. He always wondered how one
man's disappearance could affect an entire sect, leading to such a
poor state but now, everything slowly started to make sense, if
someone from a Great Clan like Guardian Guild put a complicated
curse on Claire's grandfather, it would make sense for the great
mage to hold a grudge and destroy everything the man built.
"Christopher Merigold? How can I help him? What is she talking

about?"
Her lips slightly curved upwards, revealing an alluring smile
"You came here looking for me to save that death-kissed dragon,

right? She pointed at her fingers and the very next moment, he felt
something pulling out the baby dragon from him. The baby dragon
hovered in the air without moving, his crimson red scale had
completely turned grey except for a few scales thanks to the
healing potions.
"Follow me" Lailah Alden spoke softly, carrying a bewitching

charm with her words. She then started to slowly descend and fly
towards the cave before disappearing into the cave. Michael did
not hesitate at all as he entered the cave in a flash.
The cave was filled with fist-sized luminous pearls which gave off
a soft light, illuminating the entire cave. When Michael had
traveled a hundred meters in, the space before him suddenly
opened. He had arrived at a huge cavern of several dozen meters
in radius. Currently, the walls were covered with cracks while
some loose pebbles lay scattered across a floor covered with
ditches. It was a mess.
In the center of the cavern stood Johana and Nerita. Meanwhile, a

disheveled, tattered-clothed, beggar-like old man slept soundly
before them. His body was emancipated due to lack of
replenishment to his body and soul and on the ragged robes he
wore, Michael saw the familiar symbol, a rising sun, it was without
a doubt the crest of the Sunrise sect.
Michael looked at Lailah to see her examining the baby dragon.
"Go on, talk to him" Her voice was extremely plain, without the
slightest emotion. Initially, he wanted to save only the baby dragon
but now, he wanted to save this old man. It was not because he
loved to see the old man reunite with his granddaughter but if he
could save the old man, he would have a powerful Soul Refining
stage cultivator protecting his base of operations, plus, by lifting
the curse and reuniting the family would make the old man loyal to
him, this would make recruiting this old man as his subordinate
easier in the future.
With these thoughts in his mind, Michael gently walked over and
stared fixedly at the old man on the ground. The old man's face
was ancient and haggard. He was currently sleeping peacefully.
"Johana, Nerita, play the song of fairies melody."
"Yes, mistress!" The two women did not hesitate to crossed-air

and place the veena on their lap. As their fingers moved slightly, a
wonderful veena sound was immediately generated.
It was gentle, filled with serenity. It seemed to be able to comfort

the emotions of a person, to allow that person to calm down.
When the music reached Michael's ears, his slightly excited and
frantic feelings also disappeared very quickly, making his mind
calm.
Lailah Alden touched a string of her veena with an elegant finger.
With a slight trembling, a note appeared that immediately began
to slowly wake the sleeping old man.
Chapter 150 - A Way To Save
Them Both
The sleeping old man slowly opened his eyes while a sliver of
haggardness and great exhaustion appeared on his face. As he
woke up, his mind jerked. He could not help but trigger the
descent of the Celestial Energy to become a Soul Refining stage
cultivator, but the descent was immediately suppressed by the soft
sounds of a veena.
"I thank the island mistress for saving my life. This old man is
unable to repay the mistress's aid" The old man looked towards
Lailah Alden dully. His voice was extremely weak as Michael could
barely hear the words coming out of the old man's mouth. In his
exhaustion and pain, he even failed to notice the baby dragon in
Laila's hands.
"No problem. I'm helping you because I feel nothing but pity for
you" Lailah Alden spoke indifferently before turning to Michael,
"Make the best use of the time you have to ask what you need to
ask. This melody will only temporarily suppress him, but it can't
last very long."
The soft sound of the melody was heard by Michael and made
him feel extremely calm. He hesitated slightly before pulling out a
pendant made of orange stone from his space ring and showed it
to the old man,
"Do you recognize this?"
When the old man saw the pendant in Michael's hand, his
expression changed greatly. He called out, "This... this is...this is...
no- how could... this be?"
Michael became slightly excited, but his excitement was
suppressed by the veena music. He stared fixedly at the old man
before speaking "Perhaps you recognize this jade pendant?"
Michael took out another pendant, unlike the previous pendant,
the pendant he just took out had a glowing to it.
He received this pendent from Claire after he became the Core

disciple of the sect. There were various different types of
pendants, and all the people, from disciples to the teachers,
Elders, and guards, had one. Michael's pendant was the pendant
given to a Core Disciple.
The old man carried a mixed expression as a sliver of nostalgia

appeared in his eyes. He recognized the origins of the pendant
with a single glance, especially the morning sun's orange and the
aged cracks on the pendant. He would never forget it, as it was
created by no one but himself, decades ago.
"Where..where...did..you get this..pendant?" The old man asked.

His expression was extremely complicated, a mess of emotions
emerged in his eyes.
Right now, Michael had essentially confirmed his suspicions, he

knew this man was Claire's grandfather, the previous leader of the
Sunrise sect. "It was sect leader Claire who gave it to me"
A gleam of light immediately flashed across the old man's eyes.

He took a closer look at Michael before saying, "Are you a disciple
of the Sunrise sect of Bredia?" The old man's voice trembled
gently and carried a little excitement. Currently, even the song of
fairies melody could no longer suppress his emotions.
"Yes, I'm the Core disciple of the sect" Michael also became
excited.
"System, can you be able to lift the curse after you come out of
the safe mode?"
[yes]
Hearing the system's answer, Michael's excitement skyrocketed
despite the fact that he still didn't cure the baby dragon.
The old man accepted the jade pendant from Michael's hand to
examine it closely. He murmured to himself, "Claire, my little
bear!" The old man displayed emotions of reminiscence, and two
trails of murky tears slowly flowed down his face.
"Sect Leader Christopher," Michael said respectfully.
"Sect Leader Christopher!" The old man murmured before smiling

at himself, "it's been countless years since someone addressed
me like that" the old man weakly smiled, behind his smile, Michael
saw an immense pain.
Great shock appeared in both Johana and Nerita's eyes as they

witnessed this, both still playing the veena. The young man who
appeared out of nowhere was actually a disciple of the old man's
sect. The sudden change of events greatly stunned the two of
them.
Christopher wiped off the ears with great difficulty, "How...how is

Claire? Just how is the sect after so much time?" Christopher
asked.
"Sect leader Claire is doing just fine but I can tell you that she's
missing you every single day and don't worry about the sect,
everything's perfectly fine" Michael lied because he did not want
to reveal the sorry state of the sect and depress the old man even
further.
"That little girl has become a sect leader" Christopher revealed a

smile of relief on his sallow face. He continued, "So many years
have passed, is Elder Sandra still alive?"
"You have nothing to worry about, Sect Leader, everyone is just

fine," Michael reassured the old man again, he wouldn't forgive
himself if he let the old man die of a heart attack before he could
recruit Christopher as his subordinate.
"Youngman, I don't think I would last long enough to see my little
girl" Christopher scurried the ground beside him to fish out a jade
box,
"Please, give this to her, she deserves this"
Michael did not accept the jade box but asked him in concern,
"Sect Leader, what happened to you? How did you get cursed by
an Elven great mage?"
Michael seemed to touch on the source of Christopher's pain. It

caused his eyes to become dull, while deep sorrow appeared on
his face. Only after a while did he begin speaking, "if I don't tell
you now, Claire may not know what happened to her family
forever" Christopher let out a long sigh. The color of reminiscence
appeared in his eyes as he murmured,
"Claire is not a pure-blooded human, she was born to my son and

an elven general, Elasha of the house Elacan" the old man's
words shook Michael's heart, he never thought Claire was a half-
elf.
"Marrying a human was a forbidden act in elven lands but

because the love they had for each other made Elasha elope with
my son," Christopher said with an immense regret behind his
voice.
"I helped them settle in Bredia, we were a happy family, young

man" tears rolled out of the old man's eyes, his mouth curved
upwards thinking about the happiest memories.
"The day Claire born was the happiest days of our life, we had
everything until" the old man paused, a glimmer of anger rose
within his eyes,
"Until the Elven mage found us during one of our family outings.
Elasha fought with the mage, giving us the time to escape but the
elven mage was too powerful, he captured her and cursed me and
my son before teleporting to the elven lands. Claire was too little
at that time to remember what happened to her mother. For
Claire, her mother passed away. My son and I tried our best to
fight the curse and rescue Elasha but my son died fighting the
curse, it should have been me" Michael could see the pain and
anger in the old man's eyes, even he himself felt a sliver of anger
at those elves. They could have simply banished Elasha, letting
her live her own life but instead of doing that, they destroyed a
happy little family.
"I never thought your family and the elves have a history, what
they did to all of you is horrible," Michael said, feeling sorry for
them. Then he turned his gaze towards Lailah,
"Lady Alden, you said I may be able to help him, tell me what do I
need to save them both" Only now the old man looked closer at
Lailah to see the greyish baby dragon, his eyes instantly widened
in shock
Standing to one side, she watched the scene with no emotions on

her face. After a slight pause, she said, "Yes, I know a way to help
him and heal this dragon but it will not be an easy thing, in fact,
there's a strong possibility that you will die if you chose to help
them"
When Michael and Christopher heard what she had said, both of
their eyes glowed immediately while the light of hope began to
shine in their hearts. Michael asked hurriedly,
"Lady Alden, if there's something I can do to help them both, I will

do it in a heartbeat" He did not back off from saving the baby
dragon just because of her words, this was the time for him to
take a risk. If anything goes wrong, he could always buy a
teleportation scroll and escape, he was grateful to the system for
at least letting him buy a teleportation scroll regardless of its
current state.
[The system urges the host to take this risk] just as he was
thinking about the risk, he heard the system's voice in his head, it
almost sounded like a plea. He frowned but since he already
decided to take this risk, he did not ask any question to the
system.
Lailah said slowly, "There is something called Demon Dragon
heart in The Treacherous Ocean. It's condensed soul energy left
behind by an ancient demon dragon. Although it won't break the
seal, if you can find the heart, you can temporarily suppress the
curse in his soul and cure the death kiss. He can then live at least
for another two hundred or three hundred years of his life without
suffering"
"Treacherous ocean huh," He said with a deep voice. Shortly

afterward, the light in his eyes glowed bright and brighter. For
Michael two hundred years were more than enough to lift this
curse because he did not plan to let the system continue being on
the safe mode. If he could bring the system back online and get
the price of lifting the curse, he would eventually earn enough
points to save the old man.
Chapter 151 - The Powerful
Seafolks
"No, the Treacherous ocean is the second most dangerous place

on the Elon Continent, after the Demons Grave. Even if Soul
Refiner enters it, they might not be able to return. And something
as great as the heart would only grow in the depths of the
Treacherous ocean. The dangers in the depths are several times
deadlier than those on the outskirts. Youngman, you must not go
to the Treacherous ocean. I can't let you sacrifice your life to save
this old bag," Christopher said sternly. He was a disciple of one of
the great clans, he read plenty of books about the dangers of the
world, including the Treacherous ocean. As a result, he knew
about the Treacherous ocean extremely well.
"Sect Leader, I'm not doing this solely for you, I'm doing this for
the both of you. Just like how much you love your granddaughter,
I love that little dragon. If this demon Dragon heart could save
him, I will get it. With the heart, I can not only save him but also
suppress your curse. You can't just give up and die Sect Leader,
your granddaughter deserves better, she needs you" Michael
spoke resolutely. He needed to go to the Treacherous ocean, no
matter how great the dangers were to save the baby dragon. He
did not fear it at all, as he had a gut feeling that this trip may bring
the system back online.
"Christopher, your disciple fought the Celestial energy without

getting himself blown to death. Although it is rather dangerous to
him, I think he can take care of himself if he's careful." Lailah 's
nature-like voice appeared from one side.
"What? You survived fighting the Celestain energy descent?"

Christopher immediately became stunned. He stared blankly at
Michael while great billows blew in his heart. For Michael, he did
not realize how great a feat that he survived fighting the Celestial
Energy descend. If he had known before that he could have
exploded into a bloody mist, he wouldn't have chosen to even get
near the Celestial Energy. It was the reason the two students of
Laila were stunned to see him disrupt the Celestial Energy while
being a mere Body Strengthening cultivator.
"I could have died? Those bitches" having heard the way Lialha
talked about him surviving the Celestial Energy, he realized that it
was a miracle he survived. He cursed at the two women who
pushed him into the fight knowing that he could die made him
want to kick the crap out of them. What if I died? The mere
question put a few cold sweats on his back
Michael showed those grave thoughts behind his head, nodding

slightly, "Sect? Leader, you should believe that I have the strength
now. I'll definitely find this Demon Dragon heart in the
Treacherous ocean and save you both"
He reassuringly patted the old man's hand before leaving the

cave. Raising his head, he looked at the cloudless blue sky before
sighing deeply, He slowly suppressed his jumpy emotions. Today's
encounters were like a dream to him; he had never thought that
he would find the supposed to be the dead grandfather of Claire
on the Rainbow islands where he came looking for the so-called
Doctor who then turned out to be Lailah Alden.
"Copycat, eight great clans, Celestial Energy...damn this day has

been a ride" He exhaled deeply.
"Well, why am I still thinking that this Lailah is hiding something?"

He rubbed his chin when he heard Lailah's voice from behind.
"You need to think this through. What you seek can only be found
in the depths of the Treacherous ocean. Do you really plan on
going?" Lailah 's voice appeared from behind. He turned back to
see her gracefully walking towards him carrying the baby dragon
in her hand.
There seemed to be ripples in her eyes. They were alluring as if

they could suck in the souls of people, which stunned Michael.
However, with Michael's willpower, he did not lose composure,
"Please inform me of the whereabouts, Lady Alden."
Lailah stared fixedly into Michael's eyes. Michael did not show any
signs of retreat and stared back at her. He remained calm
throughout.
This lasted for a while before Lailah finally nodded, "The

Treacherous ocean is known for its illusions. Various apparitions
will appear, and the deeper you go, the stronger the illusions
become. If you even slightly lose focus, you will become lost
within. Your willpower should be enough to barely handle ordinary
illusions.? Without this death-kissed dragon, you asked me the
same question,? I would have just given you a map and sent you
on your way but this is a blessing in disguise"
"I knew she's up to something" deep within those serene eyes,

Michael noticed a hidden intention thanks to his ability to read
people.
"You can't notice this but this dragon radiates both the aura of the
living and the dead because its soul is half a step into the realm of
the dead. Using this dragon's aura, one can avoid being detected
by most of the apparitions in the Treacherous ocean. Since this
decreases the danger of traveling into the ocean by several folds
and the Demon Dragon's heart is also extremely useful to me, I'll
come with you" she said while caressing the baby dragon's
greyish scale, he was still lying dormant in her hands.
"Aren't I a lucky bastard?" Hearing her words, Michael was

pleasantly surprised and his confidence in this trip into the
Treacherous ocean increased greatly. Although he still didn't know
the full extent of her power, she was able to change the laws of
the world as well as disperse the Celestial energy through her
veena melody, which was shocking enough.
Soon after Lailah discussed something with her students, Michael

and Lailah headed for the Treacherous ocean together, leaving
behind Johana and Nerita to guard the island.
The sky was fine and cloudless, it fused with the northern seas far
away, as if it was a beautiful piece of art. With a slight wave of her
hands, she covered both of them with Celestial Energy to soar
through the sky. Michael's body jerked before they already
became faint blurs, shooting across the sky silently as there was
not even a whistling of the wind.
"Lady Alden, if you don't mind me asking, can you tell more about
the Sea folk?" As they flew, Michael asked, looking towards
Lailah. At first, he wanted to ask why was she healing a few
people of Royal Land under the name of 'The Doctor' but weirdly,
she did not ask him how did he find her identity, therefore, Michael
did not choose to question her intentions in case she had her own
selfish reasons that she did not want him to know.
Considering even his encyclopedia of this world, Gaya, had little

to no knowledge about the so-called Sea Folk, he decided to get
some info on them from Lailah.
A sliver of shock flashed across Lailah 's eyes. She turned and
glanced at Michael, asking, "why do you want to learn about the
Sea Folk?"
Michael hesitated slightly before saying, "To be honest, as a guy

who loves to travel around the world, I want to know more about
the places and races I have little knowledge of. People in Bredia
don't have much knowledge about the Sea Folk race, Lady Alden"
She stared at him for a moment, she could tell he was genuinely
interested in knowing more about the Sea Folk and since they
have a long way to go, she didn't mind telling what she knew
about the Sea Folk to pass the time.
"Their existence is similar to magical beasts. They also cultivate

by absorbing the Arch energy and can take human forms and
speak human language. They don't possess intelligence any
weaker than humans, either. The Sea Folk race inhabits the very
bottom of the sea and takes up a rather large region of the
oceans, while the entire region is encased by an extremely
powerful barrier. This barrier was created personally by the Water
God during primordial times, and even Fusion stage cultivators
like me can't break the barrier. Not only does it separate the
seawater, it holds it back at a range of several thousand meters.
At the same time, it protects the Sea Folk from invasions of
another species" She paused for a moment and went on,
"To the Sea Folk, this barrier acts as if it doesn't exist. Although it's
unbreakable to most of the people on land, it will let anyone under
the Core Strengthening stage enter the sea domain"
"Anyone under Core Strengthening stage...hmm" he took a note in

his mind as she continued,
"I've visited the Sea Folk twice before. Although I don't know the
situation there very well, I have some rough, general knowledge
like they not only hate humans, but they also disapprove of them
very much. If human experts want to survive there, they must be
extremely cautious. Once they offend a member of the sea folk
race, they will receive the hatred and pursuit of various other Sea
Folks until they die or escape from the sea domain which is very
unlikely once the sea folks put a target on them"
Michael pondered in silence for a while before continuing his

questions, "Lady Alden, just how powerful is the Sea Folk?
Compared to the humans in the Elon Continent, are they stronger
or weaker?"
"The Sea Folk is very powerful," Lailah said sternly. "In the ancient
times, all the races except the Sea Folks waged war with each
other for resources, lands, and whatnot. All sides suffered great
losses, and several half immortals fell, ending their legacies.
Since the Sea Folk never took part in these ancient wars, their
strengths and legacies were preserved perfectly. Although there
aren't as many Half Immortals across the entire Sea Folk as the
ancient times, it's still not something the Elon Continent or the
beings living on the land can match. It's just that the Sea Folk
evolved from marine organisms, so they're only made to inhabit
the sea. In the sea, it's much easier for them to achieve greater
results in cultivation. But once they leave the sea, cultivation
becomes severalfold more difficult. They have always stayed in
the sea and have basically never come to the land. This is
because the sea is their holy land."
Chapter 152 - Origin Of Diddle
Diddle
"The SeaFolk race is split into mainly three factions, the Water
God Hall, the Sea Serpent Hall, and the Arctic Hall. These three
halls combined to make one of the two Great Clan of SeaFolks.
According to what I've learned many years ago, the Water God
Hall is the most powerful among the three and has an elder that
has already reached the half Immortal stage. The other two halls
each have one or two Fusion stage warriors as well. This was
many years ago, who knows how many Fusion stage and Half
Immortals or even Immortals they have among them" for the first
time, he heard a sliver of awe in her voice.
"One-half immortal and two Fusion stage warriors, wow" Michael

was also astonished by listening to Lailah. As she said, this was
years ago, he could only imagine how powerful they are now. He
did not think any one of the races living on the land was weak but
because the SeaFolk never took part in any wars, he knew their
strength is far superior to the land crawlers.
If he could, he wanted to visit the SeaFolks soon. He had gained a

rather rough understanding of the SeaFolks from Lailah. After
getting some ideas about the SeaFolks, he continued to ask
Lailah about the other races along the way, slowly expanding his
knowledge about this world.
The ocean they were flying above was enormous, several times
larger than the Elon Continent. Even though The Treacherous
Ocean was very close to Rainbow Island, it took the two of them a
full day and night of flying at such a speed before finally arriving.
The Treacherous Ocean was a region of sea shrouded in a dark

mist and stormy clouds. The sound of thunderclaps reverberated
the entire sea while violet streaks of lightning kept lighting the
gloomy clouds.
The Ocean itself seemed endless. Currently, Michael and Lailah

hovered in the sky a couple of kilometers away, staring at the mist
cautiously.
Lailah knew that Michael's understanding of The Treacherous

Ocean was limited, so she explained, "The real dangers of the
treacherous ocean lies in an island within the thick mist. We need
to pass through the mist to reach there. You must never
underestimate this mist. It's extremely powerful and strange, as
soon as you enter it, all your sensory abilities will be suppressed,
and your vision will also be greatly affected"
Michael nodded, immediately becoming vigilant. The Treacherous

Ocean was a dangerous zone, second only to the Demons Grave.
He could already see his Environmental scanning is being
disrupted by some kind of interference.
"System, can you upgrade the Environmental Scanning?"
[Unable to upgrade spells...]
[The System is in safe mode!]
Michael kinda expected this but it did not hurt to try. Since he got
no help from the system, he had to rely solely on himself, on his
skills as a hitman/assassin.
"Let's go in. Follow me closely and don't stray away from me. You
might see some illusions in the mist, but you need to remember
that all of them are just illusions" Lailah spoke with a soft voice,
before handing over the baby dragon back to him. She then
placed Angel's Veena into her left hand and gently played her
other hand onto the strings.
Seeing how cautious Lailah was, Michael raised his own vigilance
by taking out a few shiny bright orange pills and eating them like
candy. The pills he just took were the Perception pills, he
concocted these pills as the new badge using a few herbs he
brought from the Sky garden.
The Perception pills had the ability to increase the consumer's

sensors and perception by approximately four times and because
his Environmental scanning is being disrupted by the Treacherous
ocean, these pills helped him stay keen about the surroundings.
Although the pills were not as great as the Environmental
scanning, taking the pills was better than nothing. It only took a
couple of seconds before he felt his senses getting heightened.
He turned to see even the smallest details of Lailah's robes like

those few dust particles on the robes, the teeny tiny birthmark on
her slender neck that he didn't notice before.
"Lady Alden, you want some?" He quickly stopped checking her

out and asked her.
"No, thanks" she gently shook her head. He shrugged, putting the
baby dragon into his pocket, and moved closer to Lailah before
they slowly flew towards the fog together.
As soon as he entered the fog, Michael felt like he had stepped

into another world. It was misty white all over, even with his
heightened vision, he could only see five meters ahead.
"Even with your dragon's aura around us, we'll encounter some
attacks in this mist. Be careful." Lailah 's voice appeared on one
side. Michael unsheathed his sword as he did not underestimate
this place, not even for a bit.
The two of them advanced carefully. They did not travel very fast,
while the light in their eyes flickered, carefully observing the
surroundings.
At that very moment, a white light suddenly appeared, shooting

like a lightning bolt towards Lailah.
"Be careful!" Michael cried out, directly slashing his sword at the
light.
"Ding!" However, Lailah 's reaction speed was faster than
Michael's. The finger she had placed on the veena strings plucked
gently, and a note rang out. It turned into a sound wave, colliding
with the white light before Michael's sword could cut it.
The ball of white light turned into a pile of dust and fell from the
sky without any sound.
Michael stared blankly at the pile of dust, "What is that?" just a

moment ago he did not manage to see what the ball of white light
was.
"Those are mutated fish that inhabit the nearby water. Its speed is
especially quick, and this fish has already reached the strength of
level 5 Body Refining beast" Lailah spoke indifferently. She clearly
had an extremely great understanding of the place.
Hearing this, Michael was secretly shocked. People like Victoria

were boasting about their cultivation speed when they were at the
Level 5 Body Refining stage but here, even a mere fish was at
that exact level. A cultivator could manage to easily kill the fish
just how Lailah did but Michael knew if those fishes came to
attack with hundreds of its friends, they would be in deep trouble.
Coupled with the limited vision thanks to the mist, even a Core
Formation warrior could be killed if hundreds of these fishes
attacked together.
The two of them continued their way in the mist. After the attack
from the weird fish earlier, he became even more watchful of his
surroundings. The last time he checked, the Responsive shield
was still working, therefore, he did not need to worry about the
attacks of anything under Body Strengthening stage level 6.
However, he could tell that he's going to meet stronger foes
further down in the road.
As they advanced deeper and deeper, the weird mist also became
thicker and thicker. Michael's heightened range of vision had
already shrunken to two meters, crossing the two meters, he
could see nothing but the misty-white screen. For others, looking
through the eyes was the only way to see but for Michael, he
trained to perceive the surroundings using all of his senses. He
listened and smelled on top of looking to be aware of the mist.
Even though Lailah's figure started to become blurrier, he followed
her behind smelling the alluring fragrance coming from her.
"Lady Alden, just how big is this area? How much further until we
leave this damn region?"
"We need to travel roughly a hundred kilometers more to get out

of this mist. With our current speed, it should take five or six
hours, if we are lucky" Lailah spoke calmly while her bewitching
eyes flickered, vigilantly observing the surroundings.
At that very moment, another few streaks of white light shot from
the surroundings with lightning speed just like before, except, this
time Michael had sensed them thanks to his enhanced hearing.
He swiftly slashed at the two streaks of white light without moving
his body too much. There was no fancy move, just a? plain simple
slash but it was lethal enough to take two lives.

level 8 mutated beast. The reward is 6000 Experience points and
200 Badass points]

level 8 mutated beast. The reward is 6000 Experience points and
200 Badass points]
Soon, the two white streaks of light turned into dust, falling near
his feet.
Just as he lifted his sword to kill the rest of them, a clear note
suddenly rang out. It turned into a visible sound wave that
expanded into the surroundings. As the streaks of light came into
contact with the sound wave they immediately turned into a pile of
dust, ripped apart by the veena note.
Michael narrowed his eyes slightly in a way it could not be

detected. His recognition for the woman's strength increased by a
level; she could display such strength with just a casual note.
Even if these fishes were at the Core Formation stage, he could
tell that they would not be able to withstand the power of her
notes.
Continuing onwards, Michael and Lailah both suffered constant

attacks from the mutated fish. With each wave of the attack, the
number of fishes that attacked them increased significantly.
Fortunately for Michael, they didn't get attacked by fishes stronger
than a Body Strengthening stage 5. He slashed and diced them
effortlessly, this put a small smile on his face as he acquired quite
a lot of experience points killing these fishes. He would have killed
more if Lailah didn't massacre the majority of the fishes of each
wave with a single note from her veena.
The two of them flew steadily through the fog for seven
continuous hours before passing through the region of fog and
reaching the outskirts of The Treacherous Ocean.
The deeper they went, the thicker the mist became. After over
eight kilometers, the mist had become so thick that he could
barely see anything. Only the faint fragrance at Michael's nose
signified her existence. This made Michael rely on his nose to
detect where she is, using the fragrance from her body.
Suddenly, Michael felt the mist before him surge violently. Shortly
afterward, a blurry figure suddenly appeared, before quickly
becoming clearly visible. It was a man in his late sixties, he wore a
black suit and black trousers, in one hand, he held a bloody knife
while in the other, he held a silencer attached Beretta 92. Michael
stared blankly at the old man who is smiling wickedly at him. His
emotions were overwhelmed by disbelief. Along with disbelief, in
Michael's eyes, a cocktail of anger, fear, and respect could be
seen.
"Diddle...Diddle...Diddle...we...are...so little" The old man slowly

uttered these words, stirring the buried emotions deep within his
heart.
"Spectre!" Michael unconsciously called out. His voice was filled

with rage, and even his eyes became rather bloodshot.
Chapter 153 - Origin Of Ghost
Michael's heart began to tremble violently, and he tightly clenched

his hands. He knew that it was an illusion from the mist, so he was
unable to do anything about it. All he could do was remain clear-
headed and not fall into it.
At that very exact moment, Michael's body jerked violently. To his

side, he suddenly saw a redhead girl who seemed to be in her late
twenties walking out of the mist to stand next to the old man. Just
like the old man, she too wore a black suit and trousers with a
black-tie but her white shirt was drenched in blood.
"You...you killed me!" Suddenly, the girl, with her bloody face, saw
Michael and cried out. Her voice was extremely miserable, it
contained a mix of anger as well as sadness. Soon after the girl,
more and more black-suited people drenched in blood appeared
out of the mist. All of their bodies were littered with bullet holes.
Michael's body began to tremble violently while a monstrous killing

intent had already appeared in his heart. Just when he was
staring at the twenty people he knew extremely well, more figures
walked out of the mist, and this time, they weren't grown men in
black suits but gentle-looking women and little children. The
commonality between the latter and the black-suited people was
they all had bloody wounds.
"This is all an illusion. Spectre is dead, all of his students are

dead, I killed them" Michael constantly mumbled to himself,
forcing himself to calm down. Although he knew this was all just
an illusion, what was happening was actually Michael's greatest
anguish.
"Aren't you gonna save me, Michael?" the girl called out for help
once again. Her despaired voice was heard by Michael, slowly
piercing Michael's heart.
"Argh!" A miserable cry came from the other side, he turned to

see one of the gentle-looking women was shot in the chest by one
of the black-suited people.
The woman collapsed in a pool of blood. Her clothes were dyed

red by the blood, and even the ground had become red. The
children were screaming in horror but it just put a wicked grin on
the black suit man's face as he slowly made his way towards the
children like a tiger hunting a group of helpless rabbits.
"Michael...Michael... save- save- save them…" the woman who

got shot by the man looked towards Michael lifelessly, and spoke
weakly. The light in her eyes was quickly disappearing, soon
becoming dull. In the end, she laid on the ground, unmoving.
Michael's heart trembled greatly, while overwhelming anger and

sadness clenched his heart. Two streaks of sorrowful tears flowed
from his eyes without any control. Although he trained himself to
overcome the emotions, he failed to keep himself calm seeing the
sight in front of him. It was an unimaginable mental blow to
Michael to see the orphanage he grew up getting slaughtered by
the black suit man. After he cleansed the arms dealing operations
that put him in the path of becoming a hitman, he killed every
single person who had a link to the criminal organization that ran
the orphanage. It was his training. After cleansing the orphanage,
he really thought the orphans there could have a better life than
him, yet, it was the same man who trained him who ordered the
massacre of his orphanage.
Knowing that he was the reason for their deaths was Michael's
greatest grief and regret. The illusion conjured by the mist had
already deeply affected Michael.
"I asked you to kill one kid, only one, Ghost. If you hadn't refused,
they would have been alive right now, well except for that one kid"
Spectre, the old man said, playing with his pistol. The sight of his
smiling broke the barrier that suppressing Michael's anger.
"Argh!" Michael roared powerfully at the sky. The sound was
earth-shaking, resounding in the entire region. With the roar, an
immense murderous aura, along with extremely dense killing
intent, began to radiate from his body, The Arch energy in his
body poured steadily into the sword, causing it to glow brightly
with its dark light. Afterward, Michael swung it towards the old
man who was smiling at him.
Thrum!
Suddenly, a loud and clear veena sound, like a huge bell,

appeared. A powerful sound wave with visible ripples collided with
the sword in his hand, and the powerful strike directly forced the
sword to bounce backward.
Not only did the bell-like sound block Michael's attack, but the
remaining sound waves also entered Michael's mind. It collided
with his spirit like a boulder, causing Michael to feel like his head
was exploding. He could not help but cry out painfully.
"Just mere, inferior illusions got you good. This is only the very
outskirts of the Treacherous Ocean; there are more powerful
illusions further on in. I really wonder how you're going to handle
those." Lailah's cold voice suddenly appeared in Michael's mind.
Michael immediately snapped back to reality. A moment ago,

when he had swung his sword at the enemies that killed his
orphanage, he actually swung the sword at Lailah, not at the old
man.
"The illusions here really are powerful," Michael mumbled gently.

His emotions, affected by the illusions before, slowly began to
calm down.
"The illusion wasn't strong, your mental state is too weak. The
illusion sucked you in so easily. It originates from your heart and
mind, if your heart and mind are flawless and free from worries,
how would a mere illusion affect you? This illusion can be
considered as the weakest type, there'll be more powerful ones
once you enter The Treacherous Ocean." Lailah spoke coldly.
"Looks like I'm overestimating you. Perhaps coming to The
Treacherous Ocean with you was the wrong decision." she didn't
change her cold tone at all.
Her words really bothered him but he agreed with her. Although
he trained himself to suppress his emotions, he did not achieve
perfection as Spectre.
He couldn't be even compared with Lailah in mental power, after

all, he was still too young. Even with his two lifetimes combined,
he was less than sixty years old. Meanwhile, people like Lailah
were people who had lived for centuries with enough descendants
to form a large house. Michael may overcome them in terms of
talent because of the system, but he was nowhere close in terms
of life experience.
The illusion was able to mess him up too much because of the
bond he had with the orphanage and the people who lived there.
Michael treated them with too much importance, practically
viewing them as more important than his own life at one point in
his life. He had clearly known that the images in the mist before
were illusions, yet he still could not help but fall for them; Michael
still was unable to endure the things happening despite knowing it
was all fake. That day, he lost everyone who knew the real him,
after that day, he became Ghost. The reason he chants 'Diddle
diddle' before killing was to remind himself not to become like the
man who trained him, Spectre. Never take a life without a reason
and conscience, this was Michael's code.
People like Lailah on the other hand would not fall for illusions
such as this as easily as Michael. They had lived for centuries, or
even millennia, and had plenty of descendants. They probably
have witnessed some of them dying of old age themselves. As a
result, they would no longer treat the bond of the family as
important and would be able to resist the illusions easily.
Illusions originated from the mind and heart. If there were

concerns or obsessions, the mist would create illusions
accordingly, displaying your weakest point right before you.
Illusions did not test a person's strength, but a person's heart and
mind. He may have seemed like an invulnerable perfect person,
but he was just a human being with his own flaws and
imperfections at the end of the day.
Michael's mind became much more resolute after experiencing

what had happened before. He stared into the mist before him.
The mist continued to surge, tossing about and changing around
as if there was something ready to come out. However, Michael's
state of mind immediately became like still water, free of any
ripples. He did not think about anything, nor did he guess about
anything, the silhouettes of the people instantly vanished from his
sight except the old man's figure, he was following Michael.
Michael ignored the old man, continuing to follow Lailah. After

over two hours of slow-flying, he and Lailah finally passed through
the region of fog. The misty-white blanket had finally disappeared
from before them, replaced by deep blue seawater.
"Haaaaa," Michael breathed out loudly. He felt much more relaxed

after passing through the mist. He looked around but only saw
that the surroundings and sky were all a surface of white. They
were enveloped by a layer of dense, yet odd, mist as if it formed
the edges of a separate world. The only thing still lingered around
from the mist was Spectre but Michael knew the old man was in
his head, not in front of him, so he ignored Spectre.
Below him was deep blue seawater. The water was smooth, like a
mirror, and without any ripples, stagnant. It was extremely
strange. In the center of all that was a huge island. It had an
extremely large surface area and did not seem like it could be
called an island, but rather a small continent. The island was
mountainous, littered with trees, and was entirely blanketed by a
thin layer of fog. It was hazy, adding on a layer of mysteriousness.
Michael stared cautiously at the huge island before him and

asked, "Is this the Treacherous Ocean?"
Lailah looked towards the island before her. She was rather stern,
and she said, "Correct, this is The Treacherous Ocean, as well as
the holy land of the former Dragon clan, Dragon Island. Many
millennials ago, there were not Eight but Nine Great Clans, the
strongest of them all was the Dragon Clan.
But something happened to them and changed the once Great

Dragon Clan to the current Treacherous Ocean"
"What happened to all those dragons?" Michael asked in doubt.
Lailah shook her head gently, "I do not know much about what
happened in that age either. The very limited information on this
matter all originate from rumors or those ancient records in the
kingdom of Nagas. However, not a lot is recorded regarding what
happened to the Dragons who lived in that age or to the Dragon
Island"
Chapter 154 - Lailah Vs Rock
Golem
"Alright, let's stop guessing about this, there's no point. We're

currently on the outskirts of The Treacherous Ocean. Remember,
the fog was not the real danger, the real dangers are on this
island. When we enter the island, we have to be extra careful. The
Demon Dragon's heart should be in the very center of the island."
Michael and Lailah both flew towards the island, landing on it soon
after.
"In ancient times, the Dragon clan filled this with formations.
These formations automatically absorb the Arch Energy and even
Celestial Energy to replenish themselves. Although it's been
countless centuries since they were first laid down, a few that
were set by remarkable experts still remain. They may not be as
powerful as before, but we still need to be on guard." Lailah
explained to Michael in detail about some areas that he needed to
be aware of on the Island.
Michael observed the island as he listened to Lailah talk. They

had already passed through the region of mist, fortunately, his
sight was no longer obstructed and much clearer now.
The two of them slowly walked forwards, both were extremely

careful as they traveled.
At this very moment, the ground suddenly began to violently

shake. Four rock walls rose from the ground, forming a room and
trapping the two of them inside. The rock walls radiated with a
faint, golden luster while extremely powerful and pure energy
vaguely being radiated from the rock walls.
Soon afterward, stone spears coated in golden light began to
arise from the walls. With whistling sounds, they shot towards the
entrapped Michael and Lailah at lightning speed.
Dense clusters of spears shot from all directions, locking the two
of them out of any paths for escape. There was only the misty-
white sky left for them to flee. Michael prepared himself to take off
to the sky when he was stopped by Lailah.
"Remember, you must never fly above ten meters in the sky. The
dangers in the sky are several times greater than on the ground."
Lailah's cold voice sounded in Michael's ears as she faced the
spears calmly and unperturbed. Shortly afterward, she gently
struck a string with her finger, the next moment, a veena note
reverberated in the area. It spread out in all directions as a visible
wave of sound.
The sound wave contained an unbelievable power. Wherever it

passed by, the rock spears disintegrated, turning into a pile of dust
in the air.
The visible sound wave cut through the surroundings like a hot
knife through butter before colliding forcefully with the rock walls
that trapped them in. With a rumble, the walls trembled violently
before crumbling to the ground.
The confining rock walls could only be used against anyone under
the Core Formation stage, it was nothing to a Fusion Stage
cultivator-like Lailah. However, it would be almost guaranteed
death if? Michael alone had been trapped by it.
Breaking out of the rock walls, Michael and Lailah continued on

their way, walking directly towards the general region of the island.
In the following part of the journey, they both experienced

constant attacks from various traps. However, these attacks were
not prepared for a Fusion stage cultivator, because of that, they
were unable to pose much of a threat to Lailah. The journey was
frightening, but not very dangerous.
Roar!
Suddenly, a loud beast roared in the distance. The ground began
to shake gently as a humanoid giant of over fifteen meters in
height ran towards them from afar at an exceptional speed,
constantly roaring along the way.
"A Rock Golem" Lailah calmly muttered. The Rock Golem ahead
radiated an aura of a level 4 Core Formation warrior.
Soon, her finger moved gently on the veena string, and a sound
wave immediately shot out towards the incoming war beast in the
shape of a sharp arrow.
Cruk!
The arrow formed from sound pierced through Rock Golem's

chest. Rock Golem's overwhelmingly powerful defense was akin
to soft butter before it, and the arrow punched a head-sized hole
with no difficulty. Yet, no blood flowed out.
The Rock Golem seemed to feel no pain, continuing onwards

towards the two of them with great steps as it roared mindlessly
along the way.
Lailah remained the same as before. Her white, elegant hands

constantly danced around on the strings of her veena, producing
beautiful sounds by playing it. With each note, a powerful sound
wave shot out with lightning speed and struck Rock Golem's body.
The Rock Golem did not dodge at all and continued in its charge
towards the two of them in a straight line. Meanwhile, its huge,
fifteen-meter-tall body was now riddled with holes while its head
was already smashed to smithereens.
But even with all that, even with its head missing, the Rock Golem
did not die. It did not even slow down, much less show pain. It
continued charging at the two of them without any pauses.
Witnessing something so huge and dangerous as the Golem, he

felt grateful towards Lailah because he knew he had a very slim
chance to defeat the Golem.
"Well well well, the number one hitman of the world is hiding
behind a woman, I thought I taught you better" the old man
laughed at Michael but he ignored the old man's ridicule.
Gentle veena sounds, concealing killing intent within, constantly

rang out. Lailah's gaze remained calm throughout. Her right hand
danced about on the veena strings, sending out waves of powerful
sound at the huge Rock Golem.
Rock Golem's injuries became even worse after receiving such

dense attacks. Its two limbs were quickly severed, while a large
portion of its chest shattered. It had shrunk to one hundred and
ten meters in height from the original fifteen.
Any other magical beasts or living beings would have passed

away long ago if they were in such a state. It was guaranteed
death. However, the Rock Golem behaved as if it was completely
uninjured; its remaining half of the abdomen and its huge, thick
legs continuing to run with huge steps. Each and every step
caused the ground to tremble constantly.
Rock Golem was soon less than a kilometer away from the duo.
Looking at Rock Golem, he prepared himself for a serious battle.

Tiny cracks of golden lightning had started to dance around his
fingertips.
At that very moment, consecutive closely-packed and frantic

veena notes rang out. Lailah's right hand had slid across the
veena, playing three of the seven strings together. Immediately, a
series of densely packed sound waves radiated outwards, filling
up space before them with visible ripples. The ripples joined
together like a spider web, before quickly shooting towards the
Rock Golem like a fishnet.
The fishnet of sound passed through Rock Golem's body without

any obstructions and disappeared into the distance. Soon, the
huge Rock Golem collapsed loudly. Its entire body had become
cubes of rock that fell to the ground, carved into countless pieces
by the net of sound waves.
Michael stared at the countless pieces of the Rock Golem
curiously. After this battle, he couldn't help but wonder how
powerful a Fusion stage Rock would be.
"Lady Alden, is every Golem this powerful?" Michael asked Lailah.

His heart was filled with curiosity and awe.
After a short moment of silence, Lailah replied, "No, the reason for
its strength was the Treacherous Ocean itself, this place mutates
everything. The beasts here have no soul, they can't feel any pain
and they are practically an indestructible army"
"Indestructible army huh" Michael mumbled softly, imagining an

army of these Golems and beasts under his command.
"The Rock Golem in front of you cannot be killed, no matter what

you do. Even if you obliterate its body, it'll recover in no time,"
Lailah continued.
The countless pieces of stones on the ground began to move

about in one place as soon as she finished speaking as if it was
providing evidence for her statement. It condensed into the fifteen
meters tall Rock Golem once again after just a short while. Its
body was completely unharmed, and even its head had recovered
to how it was before without the slightest sign of injury.
Michael's pupils narrowed to the size of a needle, and he

immediately gasped coldly. He exclaimed in wonder, " My
horizons really have been broadened today" Michael turned to
Lailah and asked, "Lady Alden, so how would one kill this Rock
Golem?"
"Although the Golem consumes a great amount of energy every

time it reconstructs its body, its strength will decrease slightly. So,
there's only one way to handle it, kill the Golem until it's used up
so much energy that it can't rebuild its body," Lailah said.
"We can always run away," She said but he felt like she was
testing his knowledge
"Lady Alden, I think If we do that, it'd just keep following us. Also, I
don't think we can move around carelessly in this place. Once we
let it follow us, the commotion might draw the attention of even
more mutated Beasts"
"Good" she nodded as he gave an answer she wanted. After

putting some distance between them and the recovering Rock
Golem, Lailah started to attack the Golem again and this time,
Michael joined the fight by sending bolts of lightning at the Golem.
Under their teamwork, the Rock Golem did not last very long at all
before being obliterated once again.
However, its body quickly began to rebuild once again. It gave out
an earth-trembling roar and attacked them mindlessly. For Lailah,
Golem's moves were slow but it was an entirely different matter
for Michael who was just a Body Strengthening stage cultivator.
However, the perception pills and his natural instincts came to the
play as he continued to evade Golem's punches until it was
obliterated completely.
The Rock Golem was destroyed into countless pieces of stones

by Michael and Lailah time after time. Its strength decreased
greatly every time it rebuilt its body. After killing it a dozen or so
times, the Rock Golem was finally unable to restore its body due
to the overconsumption of energy. Its diced body parts lay
scattered on the ground. Since Lailah was the one who dealt the
final blow every time, he did not get any badass points or
experience points at all but he valued his life more than the
badass points or experience points.
Lailah walked over leisurely from afar with her veena in her arms.
She did not even look at the Rock Golem, " Let's go. The
commotion from before was too loud. Other Magical Beasts are
probably going to rush over here very soon"
"Look at you, running away like a chicken" The old man's figure
appeared again behind him and snickered before they left the
area.
Chapter 155 - First Killing
Formation
Michael glanced deeply at the countless pieces of stones of the

Golem. He did not say anything and silently followed Lailah away.
Just as the two of them traveled several kilometers, they

immediately felt several powerful presences appear behind them.
They were all from magical beasts and Golems that had reached
the Core Strengthening stage. Not too long afterward, another
dozen or so weaker presences appeared from behind, all of which
were at the Core Formation stage.
Michael looked back. Through the thin mist, he could see several
human figures and silhouettes of huge magical beasts currently
pacing mindlessly around the Golem. Michael understood that
they were the same as the Golem: bions that were made an
unknown number of years ago by the Dragon Clan. They had
neither intelligence nor souls and moved about according to their
instincts.
"Come closer and keep the death-kissed dragon's aura around us

and don't make any signs to alert them. We may not fear them,
but getting tangled with them will be problematic." Lailah
whispered to him.
"Lady Alden, I can vaguely see humanoid creatures back there,

what are those?"
"They are those who ventured into the Treacherous ocean and
died many millennia ago. Just like everything else here, they too
have no soul and feel no pain"
"Just how many of those things are there?" Michael asked another
question. His face didn't have the usual cool smile as he seemed
very serious. All these beings in The Treacherous Ocean
possessed indestructible bodies. They felt no pain and had no
fear. If the two of them were surrounded by these mutated beasts,
it would be extremely troublesome or even life-threatening.
"The Treacherous Ocean has already existed for countless years.

During that period of time, plenty of human experts and intelligent
beasts have ventured into it. Some of these have fallen in search
of or battling over treasure, while others have died simply because
of The Treacherous Ocean. Over the years, the experts that have
died in The Treacherous Ocean have already accumulated a
terrifying number. Every person that dies here will become like
them, immortal and unaging. As a result, the number of powerful
beings in The Treacherous Ocean will only increase, and never
decrease. Today, probably even powerful organizations like the
Nine Great Clans have no idea about exactly how many Fusion
stages or even half immortals there are in The Treacherous
Ocean. The only reason we were able to make it this far is
because of the aura of the death-kissed dragon. If we weren't
surrounded by this aura, our presence would have alerted even
more powerful mutated beings or the formations set by the
Dragon Clan"
Michael felt even more heavy-hearted. No wonder Christopher

became so afraid when he heard the mention of the Treacherous
Ocean. While following Lailah, he couldn't help but wonder that if
the second dangerous place was like this, how terrifying the
Demon Grave would be, which is said to be the most dangerous
place in this world. Even a Fusion stage cultivator survived here
this long only because of the Death kissed dragon's aura.
Otherwise, they could easily face life-threatening dangers with just
a lapse in concentration.
"Whoa!" Michael's body jerked.
Suddenly, the scene before them changed greatly. The original

island disappeared instantly, replaced by an endless desert. A
flaming-red sun hung in the sky, scorching the ground with
terrifying heat, raising the temperature of the entire region to a
terrifyingly high temperature.
" We've fallen into a formation" Lailah furrowed her eyebrows and
spoke with a deep voice.
Michael immediately unsheathed his sword and looked around for

any activity vigilantly. He also ate some perception pills again,
preparing for another battle. He had witnessed the horrors of The
Treacherous Ocean so he did not dare to be careless at all.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble violently. The ground

where Michael and Lailah stood slowly began to sink into the
ground and, at the same time, their feet were trapped by the
moving sand, constantly sucking and dragging both of them
underground.
"Fly!" Lailah spoke coldly. With a flick of a finger, a sound wave

immediately collided with the ground, turning the sand trapping
their legs into dust. She immediately began to float.
Michael did not hesitate either. He stepped onto the flying sword
and put Arch energy into the sword. The devastating force of the
Arch energy turned the sand into dust, propelling him out of the
ground.
The sand below the two of them constantly sank down, forming a
huge black hole. A putrid smell wafted from it. Just a breath of it
was suffocating.
Soon afterward, the entire desert began to tremble violently before

forming a weird but huge, almost two hundred-meter-long
monster. The horrid gaping cavern below the two of them was the
enormous mouth of the beast.
The monster seemed like a lizard that had been magnified

countless times. It had light brown skin with countless cracks,
radiating scorching hot. Its entire body seemed to have formed
from sand.
"This is a region created from the fusion of a killing formation and
an illusionary formation," Lailah mumbled softly. She could tell that
it was all an illusion with a single glance.
"The formation here was cast down by experts of the Dragon clan.
It's extremely well-hidden, so it can catch people completely off-
guard. We need to be careful in the future. It's fortunate that the
formation just then was not as powerful as before, or it wouldn't
have been that easy to break free from it." Lailah said indifferently.
Michael nodded sternly. His fear for the formations was even
greater than Lailah's. The illusions of Spectre were still following
him and affecting his focus as the old man was so life-like. He did
not fall prey to another illusion.
Several powerful presences quickly flew over from the distance at

that moment, attracted here by the commotion, hurrying over from
all directions.
Michael and Lailah immediately flew away from the monster. The
living corpses all behaved instinctively; they were unable to
perceive things visually, unable to see anything. They completely
relied on sensing foreign presences and activity to search for
living organisms, thanks to the Death kissed aura, they were
unable to pinpoint Michael and Lailah's location.
Michael and Lailah traveled far from where they were before.
Living corpses that hurried over in the meantime, from
everywhere. They all stopped where the two of them were before
lifelessly. They paced about mindlessly, without dispersing for a
very long time.
The two of them advanced carefully, where Lailah discovered

traces of many formations and a few living corpses, both human
and magical beast. They kept a wide distance from them, so the
journey was frightening, but there weren't any battles.
The two of them flew with their guards up, occasionally stopping
to look around. They had only traversed a couple of hundreds of
kilometers in over half a day, yet they still remained in the outskirts
of The Treacherous Ocean. They had not even reached the
general region of the island.
The sky, concealed by a thick layer of fog, darkened slowly, the

darkness of night filled up The Treacherous Ocean slowly. As
expected, both of them were unable to see in the darkness of The
Treacherous Ocean, which caused the range of their vision to
shrink constantly.
Lailah traveled with her veena in her hands. She looked at the
darkening sky, and her bewitching eyes became rather stern. She
said, "It's darkening. It's not suitable for us to travel at night. We
need to find a stop to rest for the night and continue tomorrow."
"Fine with me, Lady Alden," Michael replied calmly.
Eventually, Michael and Lailah spent over an hour finding a cave

that was spacious enough. The cave curved about inside and was
about a hundred meters long, so they did not fear that they would
be seen inside.
At the end of the cave, Lailah produced a fist-sized luminous pearl

from her Space Ring and lodged it into the roof of the cave. It
shone with a gentle light, illuminating the darkness. In The
Treacherous Ocean, the living corpses were extremely sensitive
to any ripples of energy ripples as well as objects that never
usually appeared in The Treacherous Ocean. This was why they
could not light a fire. The heat and smoke would travel outside
and draw in the living corpses or the Golems or any other weird
beings in the area. The only way for light was through the
luminous pearl.
Lailah sat down and slowly closed her eyes after lodging the pearl
in place. She paid no attention to Michael while he ignored the old
man sitting beside him and applied the Healing potion on the baby
dragon's greyish scales.
He then found a clean part of the ground and sat down with his
legs stretched out. He glanced to his side, glancing at Lailah who
always kept her face concealed.
"You are not the Ghost I know, kid, you have become weaker"
"Get out of my head"
Michael closed his eyes for a moment, calming himself down.

Looking away from Spectre, he cast away the distracting thoughts
in his mind and began to look into his situation.
He first opened up the system's interface to see it's still in safe

mode. His remaining sword was almost on the verge of breaking
because of the fight he had with the fishes and the Golem on their
way. The sword's condition was not his worry as he knew a sword
alone won't make much difference in front of these living corpses
and Golems. He needed to depend on the baby dragon's death-
kissed aura and Lailah to survive this place.
"You forgot the first lesson I taught you kid, never depend on
someone else other than yourself. What are you doing?"
"The rules have changed, Oldman, this is not the earth," he said,
gritting his teeth.
"People like us can't depend on others, kid"
"As I said before, this is not earth. If I wanted to rule this world, I
have to depend on others"
"Hahahahah" the old man burst into laughter, although Michael

could understand all of this was happening inside his mind, it felt
so real.
"That's the most childish thing I heard in my entire life, kid. Do you
really believe you can rule this world? People like us don't get a
happy ending, there will be always someone on the good side to
put us down, it's only a matter of time before someone put an end
to you kid"
"I know it's not you talking but my own subconscious mind"
Michael gave a short slap to the back of his head and ignored the
old man.
"I need some fresh air" he then stood up to take a walk.
Chapter 156 - Overpowered
Michael I
"What are you trying to do?"
Just as he stood up, a chime-like voice appeared from behind

him. Michael abruptly looked backward as he heard it. Lailah had
already opened her eyes. Her limpid eyes seemed to contain
ripples like autumn water, staring at Michael with a bewitching
charm.
Michael remained calm, staring back at Lailah, "I'm going for a

walk"
Lailah slowly closed her eyes and said gently, "Remember where
you are right now. You can't make trouble, not only will you lose
your life but also lose the baby dragon, our best chance to survive
this place"
"Lady Alden, don't worry. I'm not going to mess around with my
life." Michael laughed gently, before concealing his presence. He
walked outside silently.
It was already pitch-black outside the cave. The sky was dark,
devoid of any stars. Michael's vision was affected by the darkness
in The Treacherous Ocean as well; it was not as bad as the fog
where his hand would leave his range of vision if extended,
though it was still limited to only several hundred meters because
of the perception pills he took.
Deathly silence lingered in the surroundings, with no sound at all.

It was as if only Lailah and he were in the entirety of The
Treacherous Ocean without any other traces of life.
Michael calmly stood at the cave's mouth, staring at the place. He
did not make any sound at all.? Suddenly, Michael's ears twitched
slightly. Soon after, a gleam of light immediately flickered in his
dull eyes. He suddenly raised his head and stared fixedly into the
distance, becoming grim in a flash.
A while later, several dark figures slowly emerged in Michael's

vision range. They traveled on the ground, walking slowly in
Michael's direction, their movements were stiff like robots. Drops
of sweat began to drip down from his head staring at the figures,
they were all at Core Strengthening stage and he could even
sense some Soul Refining humanoid figures among the dark
figures.
Michael's Clam expression was replaced by a stern look. Locking

his gaze with the dark figures, he slowly backed away without
making a sound.
"shit, they found us" Michael was shocked, he had no time to

wonder how as he rushed to the end of the cave. He needed to
tell Lailah about this.
Perhaps she had sensed Michael's hurried steps, Lailah had

already opened her eyes when she arrived at the end of the cave.
Even in a situation like this, she maintained her graceful
composure.
"Lady Alden, there's a group of Core Strengthening and a few

Soul Refining mutated creatures heading towards the cave,"
Michael said silently.
Hearing that, Lailah's expression changed abruptly. She stood up

suddenly, eyebrows furrowed and expression grim.
She could handle a few fallen Core Strengthening mutated

beings, but she seriously doubted that she could fight a group of
Core Strengthening beings and a few Soul Refining beasts at the
same time. The battle would alert even more mutated beings,
furthermore, it was night right now. Visibility in The Treacherous
Ocean was too limited, while the dangers were unknown. It was
even more dangerous than fleeing in the daytime.
"Just how far are they from the cave?" Lailah asked, her tone was
stern.
"Around four hundred meters," Michael replied. Neither of them

dared to speak aloud.
"This cave must have been where they once stayed. Quickly, we
need to leave here immediately." Lailah showed no hesitation,
running towards the outside with the veena in her arms while
Michael followed closely behind her.
Both Michael and Lailah knew the outcome extremely well if they
met these mutated beings. Even with the baby dragon's aura, the
mutated beings still would be able to sense them if they became
too close.
The two of them hurried out of the cave. They moved completely
silently, without making any sound at all. Both of their faces turned
pale when they arrived at the entrance of the cave. There were
seven human mutated beings, and they had already arrived within
fifty meters of the cave entrance. They were all expressionless,
with lifeless eyes and stiff movements like robots. Furthermore,
they were all at the Core Strengthening stage.
When Michael and Lailah arrived at the entrance of the cave, he

scanned the area and then heaved a small sigh of relief because
the Soul Refining stage mutated beings were far away from the
Core Strengthening stage group, which gave Michael an idea.
Powerful auras immediately began to radiate from the mutated
beings' bodies as surging energy trembled in their bodies. The
region turned into a storm of energy instantly.
"Fuck it, I have to use that" he was saving that item for a dire
situation and this was such a situation. He quickly promoted the
system to show his storage. Inside the dark bluish system
storage, a vial radiating golden rays of light appeared in front of
his eyes. It was the healing potion he got by opening his first gift
box after coming to this world. (Refer to Chapter 3 if you have no
idea what I'm talking about)
He received two healing potions and because he had no other
way, he used one to save Raylene and her baby. The one in front
of him was the last healing potion that could make him immune to
any attacks for two full minutes. He knew two whole minutes of
immunity is a super op thing and now is the time to use the potion.
"Lady Alden, do you have a sword or anything like that to fight

these things?" To get the most out of the healing potion's effects,
he needed a good sword or a weapon to kill these mutated
beings. The sword on his back was in no condition for another life
or death battle.
"Why? You are not strong enough to fight them"
"Trust me, Lady Alden, I have a way" seeing no other way and the
confidence in his eyes, she flicked her wrist as a bunch of swords
and spears appeared on the ground before Michael. All of the
weapons that just appeared were either Epic or Rare, he did not
have time to study them to pick the best. He just picked two
swords with brown hilts and silvery blades, of course, they were
Epic weapons.
She creased her brows, having no idea of what's he planning,
"Lady Alden, use your strongest attacks on the mutated beings im

targeting and try to keep the others from me. Don't come closer to
them, use the distance to your advantage, and after exactly two
minutes, we make a break for it, hopefully before any Soul
Refiners appear"
"That's my boy," the old man beside Michael clapped. Lailah on

the other hand furrowed her brows, "You're going to fight them
head-on? You have no chance of winning"
Roar!
All the mutated beings produced monster-like roars at the same

time. They no longer remained like before with the roar, becoming
much more nimble. With a few blurs, the seven Core
Strengthening warriors charged at Michael and Lailah.
"I got this" just after these three words escaped his mouth, Lailah
saw him take out a golden color elixir and finish it in one gulp.
"Our time starts now" in a blink of an eye, Michael turned himself

into a bolt of lightning and dashed forward, targeting one of the
muted beings.
The Arch energy in Michael's body flowed steadily into the two
swords in his hands. He used the Lightning dash, arriving before
one of the Core Strengthening stage warriors instantly in the form
of a blur. He stabbed the sword that radiated with the energy of
destruction into the corpse's chest with lightning speed.
The living corpse did not show any intentions of dodging as it

faced Michael's attack. It paid no attention to Michael's sword,
directly throwing a punch at him. His mastery over swords and
nimble body let him easily dodge the attack.
Cruk!
One of the swords passed through the person's chest without any
obstructions, reappearing on the other side. Again, there was no
blood or even any signs of pain on the person's face. Meanwhile,
his fist continued towards Michael with great strength.
Michael used the lightning dash, dodging the punch in a blink of

an eye. He quickly evaded to the side, slashing the person using
both of his swords, they directly chopped away half of the mutated
person's chest, leaving only half of his body connecting the upper
torso and lower half. He did not stop from cleaving its body into
two halves but continued to slice and dice the body.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Core Strengthening stage

level 7 Mutated being. The reward is 90,000 experience points]
"Wind blast" ignoring the notification, he raised his hand, shooting

a wave of forceful wind from his palm to send the diced body parts
flying in all directions.
At this very moment, another two Core Strengthening stage

warriors attacked Michael at the same time from the side. Their
attacks were extremely simple, bluntly hurling their fists without
any fancy tricks.
Ding!
Suddenly two visible notes of music pushed the mutated beings

away from Michael and disoriented them and the music was
powerful enough to rip off the mutated beings' hands-off, allowing
Michael to slice and dice them before wind blasting them to far
away.


The falling of the three mutated beings did not stop the rest of
them from attacking Michael. They all targeted mainly Lailah
because she was the strongest and wasn't covered by the death-
kissed dragon's aura. However, this didn't stop them from
throwing a few killing blows at Michael.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Lailah saw he was punched in the face and the chest by two
mutated beings but before she could actually react, he swung his
whole body and slashed the two of them like their punches did not
hurt him at all. She was stunned by the sight because a normal
Body Strengthening stage cultivator could t have survived those
punches, she was sure of it.

The two swords swept through the air as a black streak of light
with a destructive aura, severing their heads. He had directly
bisected two mutated beings.
As expected, even with severed heads, they quickly approached
Michael, directly kicking at him.
Ding!
Ding!
At the same time, two more musical notes cut their bodies further
before Michael sliced them up again.



Michael II
Michael remained expressionless regardless of reaching the next

level. Lailah's musical notes again crushed the mutated being
closer to Michael but still, it couldn't stop it from punching him in
the chest. Just like before, the punch did not affect him at all.
Michael felt like he was being hit by a huge hammer yet thanks to
the healing potion, he experienced no pain. Swiftly, his right hand
moved, slashing the mutated being who just punched him
countless times at devastating speed. The densely-packed blurs
seemed to form a closely-knit net, enveloping the mutated being's
body parts layer after layer.
Michael exhibited the full power of his sword mastery. In that very
moment, he had thrust his sword out over a hundred times with
unbelievable speed. Right now, the closely-knit net seemed to
become like a meat grinder, directly shredding the mutated being
into countless pieces of dried flesh.
Although the mutated beings were Core Strengthening stage

warriors, they
couldn't fight with their best because of the teamwork between

Michael and Lailah. Besides, they had no weapon and were
unable to use the Arch Energy, since these mutated beings had
no functioning brain, they did not even have the most basic
awareness for dodging or resisting. All they knew was to attack
outsiders with their fists, to slaughter the outsiders. In a nutshell,
these were all like Netherels.
As a result, the strength of the mutated beings was far from the
time they were alive, therefore he was able to slice and dice them
like veggies without much trouble.

Finishing off the mutated being, Michael immediately used the

Lightning dash, disappearing instantly.
Just when Michael disappeared, two fists brutally spaced into the
empty space he was before. The power created a sonic boom.
Plop!
Suddenly, a visible note clashed with the mutated being behind

Michael, easily severing the limbs. Again, Michael sliced the body
before wind blasting the pieces far away, so the pieces won't
reform quickly in front of him. Unexpectedly, more mutated beats
appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them. Michael already felt
the effects of the healing potion fading away little by little.

On the other side, while Michael was fighting the remaining

mutated beings, Lailah fought the four newly arrived human Core
Strengthening stage mutated beings. She carried her veena in her
left hand while her left hand constantly danced about on top of it.
Sound waves collided with the four Core Strengthening stage
warriors one after another. Every sound wave would create a
great hole as they hit them and the knockback was so powerful
that the four struggled to advance forwards.
Although Lailah took a different path of cultivation, her strength

clearly was much greater than anyone in the same stage as her.
The special soundwave attacks carried a great strength, able to
stop the advance of four Core Strengthening stage mutated
beings without much difficulty at all. It was even enough to make
the four of them retreat, unable to approach Lailah no matter
what.
Lailah played five of the seven strings with a rhythm. Each
soundwave shot out from Angel's Veena as her fingers moved,
and whenever a soundwave would collide with one of the four
core Strengthening stage beings, it would leave behind some
energy of the veena in the air. Slowly, the residue energy
accumulated and became denser and denser, and when it
reached a certain level, Lailah also stopped playing. She looked
towards Michael and called out, "Retreat quickly!"
Hearing it, Michael did not hesitate at all. He immediately finished

off his last mutated being before turning into a chain of blurry
figures and retreating to Lailah 's side.
Lailah 's finger slowly fell on the sixth string, which caused it to
fluctuate gently.
The sixth veena string produced a clear sound. It began to

tremble heavily, and shortly afterward, the veena energy that had
accumulated in the air suddenly became extremely violent. With a
boom, the veena energy immediately exploded, where the violent
ripples directly ripped the seven Saint Ruler mutated beings to
shreds.
Roar! Roar! Roar…
The commotion of battle here had alerted the experts far away.
Immediately, dozens of beast-like roars resounded from far away
in all directions. The roars flooded the sky, essentially resounding
throughout the entire Treacherous Ocean in the pitch-black sky.
Immediately, a dozen or so presences radiated over from different
directions, and even further away, an even more powerful
presence faintly appeared, including Soul Refining stage mutated
beings.
"Leave here quickly," Lailah said hoarsely. She could already feel
the appearance of a terrifying presence, something that would
even be able to cause her fear. It was a Fusion stage living
corpse.
Michael also looked grim. Although his Environmental scanning

was suppressed in The Treacherous Ocean, he was still able to
clearly feel the presence of more and more terrifying mutated
beasts. He had also discovered that at least several dozen Core
Strengthening and Soul Refining stage warriors were currently
flanking them from all directions. Once they were trapped, the
outcome would be virtually disastrous. It could even attract even
more experts.
Michael and Lailah fled at top speed, fleeing into the distance as
fast as they could. However, before they could get any further, the
seven Core Strengthening stage warriors ripped into smithereens
by the soundwaves had reformed. He was damn stunned to see
the seven of them again, not because he expected them to stay
dead but according to his calculations, they shouldn't be here this
soon as he blasted the pieces away in all directions and it should
have taken some time to reform and reach the battle sight.
They all roared at the two of them, who had yet to flee far.
A sliver of cold light flashed across Lailah 's eyes. She

immediately placed the Angel's Veena before her, beginning to
play it.
However, with a flash from beside her, Michael had already

charged at the seven Core Strengthening stage warriors using the
Lightning Dash as he carried the two swords. He called out, "40
seconds" he counted the remaining time before shouting at Lailah
"Let's go!"
Lailah looked around the surroundings. She could feel that the
experts rushing over from all directions were getting closer and
closer. She said with a deep voice, "It's extremely difficult for both
of us to throw them off in an extremely short amount of time with
our strength. Once the mutated beings arrive and surround us"
Michael slashed his swords a dozen times instantly, dicing one of

the Core Strengthening stage warriors with a mere face-off. He
cried out, "we don't have time for this. I know you can also sense
the terrifying presence approaching us, let's go, we are running
out of time!"
His voice was heard by Lailah clearly. For a moment, Lailah 's
gaze became complicated. She stood there in hesitation and did
not leave immediately. Although she had reached the Fusion
stage at a young age, he could tell she had not much battle
experience as she lacked the quick responses of Michael.
[The system urges the host to buy a special teleportation scroll for
10,000 badass points!]
"Do it!" He screamed in his mind and then he heard the system
again,
[Only the host is allowed to teleport using the scroll] for a second,
the system sounded like it was screaming with regret and anger.
"Fuck!" he cursed inside, turning his gaze at Laila before another

mutated being could come closer,
"I'll hold them off, you get out of here!" he came in front of her
shielding her from the mutated beings' attacks while she was
standing there, slightly traumatized.
"I can take these attacks for another 30 seconds, I'll keep them
busy while you fly away from here"
She had never thought that in the dog-eat-dog world where it was
filled with malevolent people, there would actually be someone so
stupid that they would take an almost fatal risk to block several
dozens of powerful entities, just to earn some precious time for a
stranger that they had only met several days ago to escape.
In a situation where death was virtually guaranteed, even brothers

related by blood could betray each other, let alone a stranger.
However, she had no idea that she's totally wrong, he was not
being a white knight in shining armor but he didn't want her to
think that he abandoned her, after all, he still needs her help to get
what he wants. Besides, he couldn't let her see him use a
teleportation scroll as she mentioned to him that no scrolls would
work here, and if she sees him using one, it would definitely lead
to some unpleasant questions.
On the other hand, Michael's actions immediately caused a great
change to Lailah 's gaze towards him. She stood there as the light
flickered through her eyes uneasily. She did not know whether she
should abandon Michael to flee for herself or to stay behind and
fight with him. Although she had little chance of getting the Demon
Dragon's heart at the center of the island without the death-kissed
dragon of his, she could still survive on the outskirts before
leaving the island.
Currently, the great presences from all directions were getting

closer and closer. Seeing how Lailah still did not leave, Michael
could not help but become mad. He called out, "What're you
staying here for!?"
"What will you do? You won't survive"
"I have no time to explain, leave!"
Lailah looked at Michael who was currently battling the several

Core Strengthening stage mutated beings while counting the
seconds in his mind. In the end, she gritted her teeth and made
her decision, turning around and leaving. She disappeared into
the darkness in the blink of an eye.
Even though her abilities with the veena were extraordinary, she
lacked the battle experience and the heart of steel like Michael.
Once she was surrounded, she knew that it would be much more
dangerous for her than Michael who certainly had a way to deal
with them and escape.
Chapter 158 - Untapped
Treasure Trove
After Lailah departed, Michael slowly backed off from the mutated
beings to use the teleportation scroll. Meanwhile, the presence
from the surroundings was currently approaching where he was.
Michael kept the mutated beings around him busy all by himself.
He constantly dealt terrifying sword wounds to them, but these
injuries did not affect them at all.
They battled for just a few seconds, and five of the seven mutated
beings were already diced up by Michael. However, their bodies
rebuilt themselves immediately,? they were completely
indestructible.
"Time to escape kid" the old man's voice sounded from behind.
"System, use the scroll now!" The very next moment he shouted,
a golden light instantly covered Michael before a mutated being
threw a punch aiming at his chest. He immediately moved his
body to save the baby dragon from getting punched to death and
took the punch directly on his left chest.
Currently, the violet-dressed Lailah stood several kilometers away,

staring in Michael's direction showing mixed expressions on her
face. She could clearly hear the noise of intense battle, which then
gradually faded away.
"I hope you come back alive" Lailah murmured gently. Afterward,
she went off quickly into the distance with her veena, slowly
disappearing into the darkness.
**************************
Somewhere far away in the Treacherous ocean, a golden spacial
hole in the mid-air appeared. In a flash, the golden hole
disappeared but one could see a black figure screaming and
falling from the sky.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuck"
Thud!
The black figure hit the ground producing a loud thud noise.
the black figure was no one but Michael who's right hand now
looked weird and bones sticking out because of the fall.
Michael spurted out blood, his chest was aching like he was being
hammered alive. He was experiencing excruciating pain in his
abdomen and chest and he could tell, he had broken a couple of
ribs.
Gritting his teeth in pain, he willed the system to give the healing
potions he brewed from the system storage. The healing potion
appeared on the ground as he slowly reached out his left hand to
pick it up, fighting the pain inside of him. The fall broke his arm,
but the punch he received from the mutated being just before
activating the teleportation scroll messed up his inside. Luckily,
there was only a milliseconds difference between the punch and
the end of the golden healing potion's effects.
Cough!
Cough!
He coughed out a mouthful of blood again while checking to see

the baby dragon's condition. His last-second dodge thankfully
saved the baby dragon, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"You better come back to life stronger" he nudged the sleeping

dragon with his bloodied fingers. Shockingly, the corners of the
baby dragon slightly, very very slightly like it could still understand
what he was saying.
This little act of the baby dragon put a smile on his face and
momentarily gave him the strength to overcome his pain to
swallow the healing potion.
Crack!
"AH!"
The very next moment he gulped the healing potion, he cracked

his right arm to set the bones in the correct position so the healing
potion would heal his wounds much more quickly and efficiently.
After getting fully healed, he did not go anywhere, sitting back

down on the ground and slowly closed his eyes. He waited silently
for dawn, as he always remained vigilant of any activity in the
surroundings.
Originally, he wanted to return and rendezvous with Lailah. But

traveling in the night in The Treacherous Ocean truly was a bad
idea, and Lailah probably had probably left the region before long
ago. It would be extremely difficult to search for her with a limited
range of only a few hundred meters.
'System, show my stats' ' he ordered the system in his mind as the
familiar stat window appeared in front of him.
System version 3.0 [Safe Mode]
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Strengthening stage, level 7
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2

Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2
Status: Recovering
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 3 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 10

badass point(s))
The Abyssal
"At this rate, I will be a Core Formation warrior in no time, this is

exciting," Michael thought.
"I hope you come out of the safe mode system," Michael said,
staring at the greyish interface.
[...]
[The System can vaguely feel a sliver of extremely potent energy]
After a pause, he heard the system's voice in his mind. He sensed

a sliver of excitement in the system's voice.
"What are you talking about? what energy?"
[the system level is]
"Too low to answer the host's question, figured" Michael finished

the system's sentence, rolling his eyes.
[The System urge the host to be extremely careful here]
"What happened to adventure out, exploring the dangers?"
[...]
The system did not utter a word after his question. To be honest,
he missed having these little conversations with the system, he
expected the system to be more human-like after upgrading but
contrary to his expectations, the system entered into a safe mode,
returning to its previous robotic nature.
Suddenly, Michael's expression changed. He quickly exited the

system, narrowing his eyes at distance. Caution flickered in his
eyes "I can't stay here for long, damn it, is this just a coincidence
or they are somehow finding me?"
Several powerful presences appeared faraway, quickly

approaching the area.
Pushing away all his questions to the back of his mind, he

carefully placed the baby dragon into his pockets before
disappearing into the dark night in the blink of an eye.
Not long afterward, numerous Core Strengthening and Soul

Refining mutated beings flew over from a distance. They all
stopped where Michael was, mindlessly strolling around, and did
not disperse even after a very long time.
Michael's figure appeared silently several hundred meters away.
He stared closely at the mutated beings and thought, "Lailah said
the baby dragon's aura will prevent the powerful mutated beings
from detecting us but why do I still get the feeling that someone's
watching me?"
"Trust your instincts kid" the old man appeared beside him but
Michael ignored the old man's comments and disappeared into
the dark night once again with a slight movement, silently moving
off into the distance.
Visibility quickly recovered as the darkness of The Treacherous

Ocean receded in the morning of the next day. Slowly, the island
became fully visible once again.
Michael slowly opened his eyes in his seated position on a flat

meadow in The Treacherous Ocean. He had spent the latter half
of the night there and the long-awaited dawn had finally come. His
vision was extremely clear again without the concealment of the
night. He could clearly see several kilometers away in the open
area. He did not stay here much longer, following the signs of
battle from the night before to continue on his way towards the
depths of The Treacherous Ocean. He hoped he could find Lailah
who he had been separated from. Only by traveling together he
could survive this place and get what he wants.
He hurried on his way, but his vigilance did not decrease by the
slightest. He would look around for any signs or hidden traps from
time to time.
Along the way, he found many mutated beings wandering around

mindlessly. They were all either Core Formation or Core
Strengthening stage beings, but with no exception, Michael
avoided all of them from afar, without even coming within a
thousand-meter radius. After last night's events, he seriously
doubted that the death-kissed aura could completely make him
invisible to all these mutated beings.
A couple of hours later, he arrived at a mountain range. The forest

on and around the mountain was slightly misty, covering a large
portion of it. He paid attention to his surroundings as he walked,
arriving at the location where he had been separated from Lailah
very soon. Afterward, he continued inwards.
An hour later, he was amidst the mountain range. This was the
general region of The Treacherous Ocean, sandwiched between
the outskirts and the center. Only by passing through here could
he directly arrive at the depths.
He took each step with the utmost caution, expecting a surprise

attack, "I wonder what else I would find in the depths of this
place?"
Suddenly, Michael paused, his eyes were locked with the boulder
that was as tall as a man not too far away. On the boulder grew a
plant half a meter long and from the stalk, there were two leaves
and a blue flower. His neck hair stood straight up when he laid his
eyes on the plant.
"That's a Blue Camellia, an extremely rare herb!" Michael

immediately exclaimed after seeing the flower. He was overjoyed
as hurried up to the plant to carefully examine it.
"This Blue Camelia seems to have grown for tens of thousands of

years here. I knew there must be quite a few rare resources here,
this place is fricking dangerous but it's also an untapped treasure
trove" murmured Michael. Afterward, he gently uprooted the plant
from the ground. Amateurs would have only picked the flower but
he was not an amateur, he planned to grow the herb in his herbal
garden. Others must wait thousands of years to get the absolute
best of the herb as the medicinal qualities of the herb increased
with maturity but he had the system, it could definitely make the
herb become mature without having to wait thousands of years.
Chapter 159 - Breaking
Formations
Michael lifted the herb gently, "I need to save Christopher and
make him reach the Soul Refining stage no matter what" he then
stored the herb in his system storage so its medicinal effects
would not dissipate.
Michael could not help but smile when he gathered another

precious herb to plant in his herbal garden. The Blue Camellia
flower was extremely rare as well as hard to grow in ordinary
locations, if it wasn't for the system, he wouldn't have uprooted the
plant as he wouldn't be able to grow it somewhere else.
"This is not the place nor the time to go on a treasure hunt kid"
Spectre's voice appeared again as he turned to see the old man
still following him.
"The mist must have some chemicals that induce hallucinations,

just like the Fear Toxin. That was definitely not just an illusion" he
said to himself looking at Spectre, his mentor. He was doing his
best to ignore the old man but it was damn hard to neglect a
lifelike person who follows him everywhere.
"Since I'm here, I might as well make the most of it" Besides
following the trail of Lailah, he decided to occasionally deviate
from his path to find more rare herbs.
Michael no longer paid any more attention to Spectre. He just

used the Lightning Dash, turning into a bolt of lightning to move in
the direction of Lailah's trail.
The scenery around him suddenly began to change greatly just

after traveling a few kilometers. The world suddenly darkened. He
discovered that he had strangely arrived at a vast starry sky.
Countless stars filled every inch of the space, so densely packed
that it was innumerable.
He had no sense for direction at all in the vast starry sky. It was
the same everywhere, without any differences. Michael
discovered that he was completely and utterly lost when he had
arrived here, actually unable to tell which direction was north or
south, east or west. He could not even tell which way was up or
down, left or right.
"Oh come on, another freaking illusionary formation" Michael

murmured with a soft voice as he became stern. He knew that the
formation this time was much more powerful and profound. It had
already conjured a starry sky as soon as it appeared. Other
ordinary formations could not be compared to this.
"This'll be troublesome. I'm completely disoriented, so I probably

can't walk out of it. Just how am I supposed to break out of this
illusion? It must have been cast down by a great person from the
ancient Dragon clan looking at the handiwork. I might not be able
to break the formation using raw strength but if I could only find its
source" Michael mumbled. The memories of Abras came to help,
apparently, Abras had learned about Formations in the sanctuary
from the Elders. Cultivators who were on or above the Soul
Refining stage could use the Celestial Energy to break most of the
formations, it was the simplest and fail-proof method. Considering
Michael didn't have Celestial Energy in his body, he had to look for
a source which is powering the formation. Finding the source
would be pretty hard and nearly impossible for others but him, it
was relatively simple thanks to the perception pills.
Inside the illusionary formation, he was surrounded by countless

stars as he felt like he was floating in the middle of the freaking
Milkyway.
"Alright, where are you hiding?" He looked around the stars after
eating perception pills like tic tacs. Since he maintained a healthy
diet, exercise, and his cultivation were regulated through the
system, he did not have to worry about polluting his body by
taking too many pills, it was one of the perks of having a system.
After taking the perception pills, the milky way surrounding him
became more lucid as he could see each star clearer. All the stars
around him were flickering twice in a regular interval. Each star
radiated a unique color, none looked similar to another one.
Staring at thousands, even millions of stars, his head ached as he
rubbed his temples. Eventually, after a few hours of studying the
patterns of the flickering stars, he found a star in the distance that
flickered a millisecond faster than the others, this difference would
have been impossible to find out if it wasn't for the perception pills.
Locking his gaze at the star, he felt a sense of accomplishment.
"There you are" he unsheathed his sword and threw the sword
aiming right at the star. The sword soared through the starry sky,
soon piercing the star while producing a faint humming sound.
After the sword pierced the start, he only felt the wild whistling of
the wind, and soon afterward, his vision suddenly brightened. He
had already left the illusion of the starry sky, returning to The
Treacherous Ocean once again. Around him stood the familiar
mountains and hills.
"Heck yeah!" He couldn't help but shout with a sense of pride after
breaking the formation without depending on Lailah. However, he
did not dare to linger any longer.
"Lightning Dash '' he activated the spell, turning himself into a bolt
of lightning before advancing through the depths of the mountain
at an extremely great speed. Soon enough, he stopped before a
small, three-meter-tall tree. The tree was neither too wide nor too
thin, it was a healthy tree with dense leaves and thick branches,
and through the dense thicket were a few, fist-sized red fruits,
slightly obscured by the leaves. They were like apples but their
red skin glowed.
"Silk apples' ' His eyes sparkled in excitement. Among all the
potions and pills he knew, 90% of them tasted horrible, including
the perception pills he just took. When he was eating them, he felt
like he was chewing a rubbery egg. Although silk apples didn't
have medicinal qualities like Blue Camelia, it was one of the very
few fruits that could change a pill's or a potion's fragrance and
taste as well as enhance the pill's effects to a certain level. An
Alchemist would pay a small fortune to get their hands on silk
apples because these fruits were extremely scarce in Elon or any
other continents.
Michael climbed slowly making his way up to the tree to pick the
fruits. One by one, he picked all the fruits, and because the
system storage would keep herbs as well as fruits like this fresh
without letting the medicinal qualities dissipate, Michael cleaned
the entire tree with no concerns.
A smile appeared on Michael's face as he looked at the twenty

glowing apples in the system storage. He could feel the
extraordinarily great alchemical effects of the fruits. They were at
least a thousand years old, or even several thousand years old.
"These fruits should be able to enhance the effects of my products

by quite a lot," Michael mumbled to himself, before taking one fruit
for storage and exiting the system.
Crack!
"This is good '' he couldn't help but praise the fruit when he took a
bite. The silk apple was soft yet crunchy and juicy. The sweetness
made his taste buds in the tongue dance in joy. While savoring the
apple, he resumed his journey following the trail left behind Lailah
and he did not forget to check his surroundings for more rare fruits
or herbs.
On his way following the trails, he avoided many mutated beings

with the help of the baby dragon's aura. Due to Michael's utmost
calmness and cautiousness, Spectre's figure flickered constantly.
He felt the effects of the mist fading away from his body. After a
long time, he experienced calmness and breathed a sigh of relief.
However, this feeling did not last long because suddenly, many
mutated beings at various stages detected Michael somehow.
They produced angered roars as they began chasing him.
"Oh come on!" Michael's mood became gloomy. He quickly

unsheathed the two swords from the dual sheaths attached to his
back.
Several wild beast-like roars immediately arose in response as
soon as they saw a group of mutated beings following Michael's
presence. Several dozen powerful presences appeared
immediately, quickly approaching the area.
The roars from the surroundings grew closer and closer. Michael
could already see the figures of a dozen or so mutated beings,
currently him.
He immediately filled every corner of his body with Arch Energy,

making preparations for the strategic retreat aka running away.
The surroundings around Michael suddenly changed greatly. The

lush mountains and forest disappeared and so did the figures of
the mutated beings. He had arrived at a blood-red world, where
an edgeless sea of blood laid beneath their feet. It constantly
bubbled like boiling water, but there was no heat at all.
"Fuck, it's another formation" Michael cursed realizing that he had

fallen into another formation.
The sea of blood below began to surge suddenly, like a roaring

wave. A big cluster of blood rose from it, slowly forming a huge
dragon head.
Roar!
The dragon head, completely made from blood, roared at the sky.
Powerful sound waves rocked through the entire world of blood
and shortly afterward, the head rose from the blood towards the
sky, revealing a hundred-meter long crimson scaled dragon. He
felt like he was in the hobbit movie, only this time, it was terrifying.
Although this dragon resembled Smaug, the dragon in the hobbit
movie, this dragon was at least a five-times bigger, meaner, and
frightening.
A few figures flickered in the surroundings at the same time. The

mutated beings who were pursuing Michael had also entered the
formation. They directly charged for Michael, paying no heed to
the blood dragon.
Chapter 160 - The Gorilla King
Edros
Roar!
The hundred-meter-long blood dragon produced a roar that shook

the sea of blood. Opening its mouth, it breathed scorching hot fire,
surging directly for the corpses.
The blood dragon did not seem to exist to the mutated beings, all
they had in their sight was Michael, nothing else. They did not
avoid the dragon's breath at all, they just wanted to rip? Michael
apart.
The enormous dragon breath directly engulfed over ten of them.

However this was not just an illusionary formation, as Lailah said
before, this was made of two formations, killing and illusionary
formation.
Therefore the fire ate away a large portion of the mutated beings'
bodies as Michael watched on in shock. As expected, their
indestructible bodies came into play soon afterward, they returned
to how they were before, continuing their charge at Michael.
He immediately activated the Lightning dash and ran over the sea
of blood, getting far away from the mutated beings. The blood
dragon seemed to have felt seriously challenged after seeing how
its dragon breath did absolutely nothing to the mutated beings. It
roared angrily and swung its front claws at the mutated beings.
The blood dragon was extremely powerful as it was radiating an

aura of a level 10 Soul Refining stage beast. Before the dragon's
claws, the Core Strengthening and Core Formation mutated
beings were like soft butter as they were ripped in half by the
dragon.
The blood dragon did not stop with just that. It suddenly turned its
great head towards Michael, raising its claw once again and
swinging it as a blood-red blur at him.
Sensing the danger, his neck hair suddenly stood up. He

immediately leaped into the air using all of his strength, which led
to the claw sweeping through thin air.
Just as he was in mid-air, another ten or so mutated beings

appeared within the sea of blood. Their arrival immediately drew
the blood dragon's attention. Its claws swept out once again
towards the mutated beings, roaring in fury.
"Shit shit shit!" he was jumping around, barely escaping both the
dragon and the mutated beings. The only thing that helped him
was the vast number of mutated beings that kept the blood dragon
from targeting him.
He was running out of perception pills but he was not in the state
to worry about that. Swallowing a couple of pills again, he focused
on finding the formation's source while evading the attacks.
"Ah!" Although he used the Lightning dash and was very agile, the
mutated beings were still able to land some attacks.
"System, keep the healing potions coming AH!" he was gulping

the healing potion and saving it in his mouth. Every time he
sensed that he can't evade, he would immediately swallow the
healing potion in his mouth so it would keep him from being
severely wounded yet, his skin has slightly turned pale due to the
blood loss.
At the moment, there were numerous bloody wounds in his body

and the black neo suit was in a? very sorry state. He was soaked
in blood and there was not a single place in his body that
remained untouched by his blood.
What restricted his movements more was the baby dragon in his
pocket. He did not only have to evade the attacks but he also had
to keep the baby dragon in his pocket safe, this whole trip would
be pointless if he let the baby dragon get killed now.
"Finally!" After almost an hour of surviving the formation, he

eventually found the formation's source. The source of the
formation was hidden extremely well and he doubted that he could
have found it without the perception pills, the source of the
formation was nothing but one of the mutated beings that
pretended to be trapped inside the formation.
The moment Michael sent a bolt of lightning through its head, the
sea of blood, as well as the blood dragon, disappeared. The next
moment he appeared among the mountains once again.
"Give me a break!" he desperately wanted to lay on the ground,

healing the wounds but beast-like roars constantly resounded in
the surroundings. Several dozen mutated beings had already
appeared, all charging towards him.
A powerful presence that completely exceeded that of Soul

Refining mutated beings far away at this moment. It shot towards
them several times faster than the mutated beings
Michael immediately became stern. He wiped off the blood from

his face, "fuck, that's the presence of a Fusion stage" Michael's
face paled slightly.
This was not the end. Up ahead appeared another abnormally

powerful presence. It was actually another Fusion stage being.
"Two Fusion stage!" Michael exclaimed. His face had become

completely drained of blood. He could barely survive a Soul
refining stage mutated being if he was at his absolute best, in front
of not one but two Fusion stage mutated beings, he did not even
think he could last a few seconds. At this moment, he wanted the
system to come out of the safe mode like never before. However
he did not roll down and die, he retrieved two healing potions and
gulped them in one go before activating the lightning dash using
all of his remaining Arch Energy.
Roar!
He quickly shot through the mountains and forests. Behind him,

the two Fusion stage mutated beings remained close, pursuing
them and unwilling to let them escape. They all flew just below the
ten-meter threshold. He thanked himself for upgrading the
Lightning Dash to level 2, if it wasn't for this spell, the Fusion
stage mutated beings would have caught him a long time ago.
Suddenly, the nearby space suddenly began to twist when the two
Fusion stage beings were only a thousand meters from him, the
scenery before him changed in the blink of an eye.
He was now standing in a bleak wasteland, completely barren of

any greenery. It stretched as far as the eye could see.
A towering battle intent suddenly appeared far away, so powerful

that it was far beyond Michael's reckoning. It was filled with a
condescending aura as if nothing in the world seemed significant
to it, where he was the overlord of the world.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, booms began to resound from afar. The land trembled

rhythmically. Michael paled as he heard the sounds; every boom
coincided with his heartbeat. It seemed mysteriously connected,
causing his heart to ache painfully every time it sounded out, like
someone grinding their foot on his heart. He felt like his heart was
about to explode.
"Argg"
Michael clenched his chest in some pain. He had already become

pale-white, while his forehead was already wet with a layer of
sweat droplets. He was astounded, " what is this formation?! It's
so terrifying. Just the sounds from it are enough to suck away my
strength"
An ape-like figure clad in golden armor slowly appeared in the

distance near the horizon. He walked over slowly, step by step,
causing the ground to shake violently every time his foot fell. It
seemed to be like stepping on Michael's heart as well, causing his
pain to become more intense.
The figure seemed to advance slowly, but the few steps he took
covered great distances, appearing several hundred meters from
Michael.
The figure resembled king kong to Michael and even from a

distance, Michael could see the pair of eyes burning with surgeon
battle intent. He was extremely burly, almost ten or twelve meters
in height, wide and stocky.
Michael became even paler after seeing the figure. For the first
time ever, he had lost all courage for battle in front of the giant.
The ape's battle intent and his aura had collapsed Michael's
psychological line of defense.
Deep down in his heart, Michael was terrified.
[Warning!]
[Unknown Energy...]
[The system urges the host to leave immediately!]
His vision was suddenly filled with red warning boxes and he
heard the system's screams in his mind.
"Who's this person? Why can't I sense his cultivation?" Michael's

emotions tossed and turned.
Another two figures appeared in the bleak wasteland at this

moment. The Fusion stage mutated beings had also entered the
formation in pursuit of Michael. They charged towards him as
soon as they appeared. He immediately activated the lightning
dash, running away from the two Fusion stage mutated beings.
At the same time, the man moved. He slowly raised his fist, and a
heavy voice boomed in the surroundings, "Death to those who
dare to intrude the land of Edros!" the ape screamed, beating its
chest violently, and then, it
punched the air with devastating battle intent. The entire region
began to appear so weak, so fragile before the man's fist at the
same moment, time seemed to completely stop. Only the ape's
large fist moved.
In this instance, the two Fusion Stage muted beings as well as

Michael all felt that they had lost control of their bodies. They
could only watch on blankly as the ape's fist grew bigger and
bigger into a gigantic ethereal fist.
Swish!
Just as the ethereal fist was approaching them, a flash of blue

appeared inside Michael's head, revealing the formation's source.
[Quick!]
The system's voice was panic-stricken, he did not waste the

precious seconds as he sent a bolt of lightning using the last of his
Arch Energy towards the source which was a boulder nearby.
The scenery changed the moment the lightning bolt destroyed the
boulder. Michael finally regained control of his body after he left
the formation space. His forehead was littered with droplets of
sweat, while his heart tossed and turned. He was extremely
perturbed.
"What the fuck just happened? Edros...I know this name" The
heavy voice boomed through Michael's head again and again. His
entire body began to tremble slightly.
He searched through Abras's memories and revealed everything

he knew about Edros, the King of the Beastmen race.
The beastmen race's King, Edros, was an existence that

surpassed Immortals. He was a god-like figure revered by all the
beast-men as well as magical beasts.
Michael immediately turned around to look back. All he saw was

the two Fusion Stage mutated beings standing blankly several
hundred meters away. A few moments after, a loud boom sound
could be heard as they turned into dust and disintegrated. They
showed no signs of reforming even after a lengthy time.
A big droplet of dark crimson blood floated nearby that glowed

brightly, several meters above the ground.
Chapter 161 - The Dragon War
"That must be that ape's blood but how did it come here?" A
question appeared in Michael's mind as he stared at the crimson
droplet of blood. He could not help but recall everything Abras
studied about Edros and Edros's time.
In ancient times, the Beastmen Races and the Dragons went to

war with one another. At that time, Edros, who was the Beastmen
race's king and their strongest, slaughtered many dragons.
However, in the middle of the war, Edros disappeared without a
trace. Edros's disappearance changed the tide of the war
completely and the beastmen suffered a huge loss at the hands of
the dragons. Eventually, the other races, mainly Nagas, organized
peace talks between the two races because the war affected all
the other races in the world. Since both races suffered a huge
loss, they had no way but to end the war. Following Edros's
disappearance, the Dragon clan in the Dragon island also
mysteriously disappeared from the face of the planet. Soon, the
dragons slowly lessened in numbers, some died of old age while
some just vanished without a trace.
Michael was positive that Edros's disappearance has something

to do with what happened to the Dragon clan and this drop of
blood belonged to? Edros. However, he was unsure if Edros, the
greatest king of the beastmen, had left this drop of blood here
willingly.
"How did the dragons turn that ape's blood into this killing
formation? Just a droplet of blood is already so powerful. It can
easily kill off two Fusion stage mutated beings. No wonder
slaughtered countless dragons" Michael thought as he stared at
the golden blood that was growing further and further away.
Suddenly, Michael seemed to think of something. His eyes
narrowed abruptly and staring fixedly at the blood,
"This ape... The golden babaroo of Noah. Is that monkey

somehow related to Edros?" Michael's heart began to beat
heavily. A terrifying notion appeared in his mind as he stared
deeply at the crimson blood that gradually disappeared into the
distance. He exclaimed, "I have to return here when I'm strong
enough" If that golden babaroo of Noah was Edros's descended,
he did not doubt that the monkey will be his foe in the future.
After seeing the giant ape, his fire of saving the baby dragon
burned brightly in his heart. With the system's help, he would turn
the baby dragon into the biggest baddest dragon this world has
ever seen.
******************************
After leaving the killing formation and the place where he saw
Edros, he found a small cave to rest and heal his wounds. Luckily,
he never tripped any formations on his way to the cave. He did
find several mutated beings but he was able to avoid them. Inside
the cave, he was laying on the ground half-naked, his robes torn
to pieces, leaving him with only one set of clothes, the casual
robes of King T'challa. After cleaning his body using Arch energy,
he put on the robes.
Creach!
Michael tore his black coat to get a long strip and then, he tied the
baby dragon onto his chest using the cloth. Suddenly his eyes
narrowed, sensing the space several kilometers away being
distorted.
"It must be Lailah. She's fallen into a formation," Michael

murmured because the space being distorted was a sign of an
activated formation.
Just as he was about to take a step forward, a familiar figure

appeared before him, Spectre.
"Where are you going kid? Don't risk your life trying to save a
woman you barely know, it's not your style "
"Shut up" Michael understood what the old man was trying to
imply. He tried to ignore the old man as he began to walk outside
of the cave
"Just let the woman, it's easy for you isn't it? After all, you killed
the only woman you loved" his steps were halted by the old man's
words. Flames of fury and sadness emerged in Michael's eyes as
he clenched his fists.
"Don't!" his body was slightly shivering in anger, images of a girl in

her bathrobes on a bed flashed across his mind. The girl's white
bathrobes and the bed underneath her were turned red by her
own blood, there were two bullet holes on her chest and one bullet
hole right between her eyes.
He looked down to see a gun flicker in his hand, it was Michael

who shot the girl.
"You killed your brothers, sisters, and the girl you loved because
of a bunch of orphans" Spectre's voice fanned the flames burning
in his heart, making him lose his calm.
"They were not my brothers and sisters and she...she knew what
was going to happen" he stuttered in anger, "if it wasn't for her
distracting me, I would have saved the orphanage, all those kids,
and all those people. Go away!"
He shouted, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. He did not

want to get distracted by Spectre as any distractions inside the
formation would lead to nothing but death.
"Lightning Dash" soon after he reached the cave's mouth, he

activated the lightning dash, turning himself into a bolt of lightning.
He then moved in the direction of the distorted space.
Eventually, after running for a few minutes, an indistinct violet

figure attracted Michael's attention in the blurry distorted space.
Just as he guessed, it was Lailah who was stuck in a formation in
the distance.
Without any hesitation, he charged at the formation looking at the

several Soul Refining mutated beings who were heading towards
Lailah.
After a couple of minutes, his surroundings turned grey and hazy

in a blink of an eye indicating that he had entered the formation.
Lailah levitated one meter in the air with her legs crossed, while
the unadorned Angel's veena laid on her hands. Ten elegant white
fingers formed blurry afterimages, quickly playing the first six
strings of the veena. She produced notes after notes hurriedly,
while the seventh veena string would also be struck from time to
time. It would result in violent rumbles in the surroundings.
Lailah became extremely grim and her forehead was already

covered in a layer of sweat. She had continued into the depths
after she had been separated from Michael the night before. She
had accidentally fallen into a powerful formation, one of the
powerful formations of the Dragon clan. It has been well-known
since ancient times. It was the absolute killing formation, the wrath
of hundred dragons.
It was said that in ancient times, several half immortals of the

Beastmen race died to this exact formation, achieving wide
renown. It was known as one of the deadliest formations in the
world.
Deafening dragon roars constantly boomed through the illusionary

hazy space. The entire space was filled with huge dragons as
they all used their dragon breaths, swung their claws, used
various secret techniques, or just charged directly at the center.
There sat Lailah in the air. She used her veena to block the
attacks from all directions strenuously. Countless soundwaves
shot from the veena, surging in all directions.
She had learned about formations including the wrath of hundred

dragons in the Royal Library of Ozer. As a result, Lailah
understood this formation very well.
The wrath of hundred dragons, was just as the name suggested
was a lethal formation formed from a total of hundred dragons.
The formation had seven forms, in the first form, all hundred
dragons were as powerful as Body Strengthening beasts. In the
second form, their strength would increase to the Core Formation
stage
With the third form, the hundred dragons would reach the Core
Strengthening stage Beasts. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
forms would respectively make the hundred dragons reach the
Soul Refining, Fusion Stage, half immortal, and immortal stage.
"I hope this formation is not a complete one" Lailah prayed in her
heart. She was still able to forcefully break through the third form if
she burned her vitality greatly but once it reached the fourth form,
it would be certain death for her.
She had already been trapped in the formation for several hours.
In this time, she broke through the first and second forms of the
formation by herself. She currently faced the third form.
Roar!
Suddenly, all the hundred dragons in the formation roared at the

sky together and then, streams of scorching hot fire shot out of
their mouths. Soft whisperings drowned the space and vast
energy radiated from the dragons, filling the entire region.
"They've started to use the dragon's breath!" Lailah murmured.

Her face was pale and seemed extremely grim. The dragon's fire
could melt the strongest metals in the world, even a Core
Strengthening stage dragon's fire was powerful enough to burn
any Soul Refining stage cultivator to ashes. Hundreds of these
Core Strengthening stage dragons could certainly kill not one but
several Fusion stage warriors like her if they used the dragon's
breath.
Lailah gritted her teeth and a sliver of determination appeared in

her eyes. A slender finger gently touched the seventh and the final
string. Her finger was cut as soon as she came into contact with it.
Dark red blood immediately began to flow, before being absorbed
by the string.
The seventh string became completely red after absorbing her

blood. It radiated an extremely mysterious aura that seemed to
contain the Celestial Energy. At the same time, a gentle, graceful
veena note seemed to hum softly from beyond the sky, echoing
through the entire formation space.
Lailah paled from the loss of blood through her finger. This blood
was not ordinary blood but it was lifeblood. Unlike the normal
blood flowing in a cultivator's body, the lifeblood can't be
reproduced quickly through any means including high purity
healing potions. Once a cultivator used his or her lifeblood, they
could only regain the lifeblood by consuming certain rare herbs.
Currently, Lailah used her lifeblood as a price to use an ability

completely beyond her strength.
Roar!
A hundred dragons produced an earth-shaking roar. It was filled

with the endless might of dragons and seemed to be able to
shatter the void. It created countless sound waves, layering upon
one another in the formation space as it quickly radiated towards
Lailah with an aura of absolute destruction. Lailah gently struck
the seventh string at the same time.
Ding!
The sound produced by the veena echoed through the mountains

and forests. It was only a musical note, yet it contained great
power. A powerful sound wave that was visible with the naked eye
began to expand in all directions at an unbelievable speed.
The sound completely suppressed the roar of the dragons.

Wherever it passed through, space would ripple, blazing through
anything that blocked its way. It surged towards hundred dragons
like a hot knife through butter, gently colliding with them.
Soon after, all the dragons in the formation disintegrated. The third
form had been broken.
Lailah had played the seventh string at the cost of her vitality. All
hundred dragons fell to a single wave of sound.
The seventh string trembled violently. She had already become

pale as a white paper as all blood drained from her face. Her eyes
also dulled for a while, revealing the weakness she struggled to
conceal.
Roar!
Suddenly, another dragon's roar rose up. Soon afterward, vast

presences appeared in the formation space. The hundred dragons
had reformed their bodies and they each radiated with an aura
countless times more powerful than before.
Despair immediately appeared in Lailah's eyes when she saw this.

She said with endless bitterness, "The fourth form. It's the fourth
form. Looks like I'm fated to die here today"
Breaking through the third form of the formation was already her
absolute limit. She possessed no more strength for any resistance
against the fourth form that could simply kill a lone Fusion stage
warrior like her.
Chapter 162 - Getting Closer
To The Demon Dragon’s Heart
I
The formation had completed its fourth form. All hundred dragons
revived, they were now Soul Refining stage beasts. Each dragon
was over seventy meters long and radiated an aura of pure
destruction.
Everything looked extremely realistic even though it was all just

created from a formation. The vast aura from the hundred dragons
pressed against Lailah to the point where she even struggled to
breathe as if she was dying from asphyxiation.
Another dragon's roar resounded as several dozen dragons

charged at Lailah. Their auras were like a huge mountain, brutally
pressing against Lailah's soft body.
Lailah was pale, she had already given up resisting. When she
broke through the third form of the formation, she had already lost
a great amount of lifeblood. She was so weak that she would not
even have the power to face the third form again right now, much
less the fourth.
Several dozen huge Soul Refining dragons aggressively charged

at Lailah, wanting to break her into pieces. The distance between
them was decreasing rapidly.
Lailah slowly closed her eyes, falling to the ground while slowly
losing her consciousness. Her heart was filled with an
unwillingness to give in, but she had no power to resist the fourth
form.
Just when she was about to accept her fate, a golden bolt of
lightning flashed in the hazy space when the dragons were a
hundred meters away from her.
Michael directly charged into the formation's space, with one goal
in his mind, save Lailah. As soon as he entered, the scene before
him changed drastically, he saw the might of the killing formation
clearly. He appeared right beside Lailah, so everything he saw
was exactly what Lailah was experiencing. A few dragons had
already flown over, swinging their huge dragon claws filled with a
force capable of shattering the void at him. The claws were
already less than ten meters from their heads.
Time was of the essence, if he wanted to save her and escape

this formation, he had to find the formation's source. He did not
have the time to say anything as he lifted her from the ground.
"Lightning Dash"
All of his hair suddenly stood up like he was zapped. He sensed

the great danger rapidly drawing closer and closer with each
passing second. While carrying her in his arms, he activated the
Lightning Dash before swallowing the remaining perception pills
he had. When Lailah was surrounded by the death-kissed aura,
the hundred dragons in the formation lost their target as they
suddenly looked confused.
A small sigh of relief escaped his mouth when he saw the

confused look on the gigantic creatures. However, he did not
waste any seconds as he paid closer attention to every nook and
cranny in the formation to find the source. After losing their initial
target, the hundred dragons turned their attention towards the
mindless mutated beings who had rushed into the formation.
While the mutated beings were being disintegrated by the
dragon's breaths, Michael was searching for the source.
"There it is" Lady luck was with him this time as he found out the
source sooner than he expected. The source was a small stone
that was laying on the ground in plain sight. Thanks to his
heightened senses due to the perception pills, he identified the
stone as the source before sending a bolt of lightning at the stone.
The moment the bolt of lightning hit the stone, the scenery around
him changed in a blink of an eye, and without him knowing, he
was teleported away from where he was.
Realizing he escaped the formation and somewhat understood

that he was teleported, he sucked in a deep breath, slowly
calming himself. Just as he sucked in that breath, he smelt a
vague fragrance. His attention, which had been focused on the
experience in the formation from before, was directed toward
Lailah.
Currently, Lailah had collapsed on Michael's body powerlessly.

Her slightly warm body pressed closely to Michael's toned chest,
her face pale and her eyes dull. She was extremely weak.
Breaking the third form of the formation before had cost her
dearly, to the point where she did not even have the power to
move. The Angel's veena that she always carried had
disappeared too, returning inside her body.
Feeling Lailah's soft body and the fragrance, his heartbeat

increased a little which was not surprising because any man
would tremble or at least slightly if they saw a gorgeous woman
like Lailah. She had always been a dignified, saintly, and divine
woman to Michael. Never had he thought that they would be so
physically close.
However, he was not one of those guys who would drool and turn
into an absolute beta in front of beauty like her. After all, only
because he was an alpha male, he got the badass system.
"Lady Alden, are you awake?" He gently placed Lailah's back

against a huge tree after he looked around to see if any mutated
beings were approaching them.
Lailah slowly opened her eyes to see Michael staring at her. A red
flush immediately appeared on her concealed face when she
realized that he carried her in his arms here. However, she
recovered very quickly, "you're alive" Lailah's voice carried a sliver
of surprise but it was extremely indifferent.
He lightly chuckled, "Sorry to disappoint you, Lady Alden" for a
second, he saw her smile before she put an indifferent expression
on her face.
"How did you escape the formation back there?" She asked, a
sliver of shock was hidden within her eyes.
"It was because of this baby dragon's aura, Lady Alden" Michael
gently tapped the baby dragon on his chest.
"Surprisingly those dragons in the formation couldn't sense you

after I picked you up. After that, I just kept running before
something teleported us here " he did not reveal the fact that he
could find a formation's power source because he wasn't sure
whether it's an ancient secret part or not. He believed it's safe not
to say anything until he himself confirms this with Gaya, his most
trusted advisor.
"You must have triggered something," Lailah said after staring at

him doubtfully for a few seconds. She couldn't find any
explanations for how he escaped as she thought that he was just
lucky.
A beast-like roar suddenly appeared from the distance as Lailah

wanted to continue her questions. Her eyes narrowed abruptly
when heard the roars.
Her face became grim once again. She said softly, "I've already
used a large portion of my lifeblood battling those dragons. I can't
fight another battle until I regain at least some of my lost energy
and lifeblood"
"It's okay Lady Alden, can you at least move?"
As he expected, he slowly shook her head, trying not to look

embarrassed.
"So Lady Alden..." he didn't finish the sentence but she knew what
he was implying and even though she understood that she had to
be carried, she couldn't help but hesitate.
The roars in the distance became louder and louder,
"Lady Alden, we cannot waste any more time, please let me" his
smile disappeared from his face as a stern occupied his face.he
then directly lifted her up before she could even nod because this
was not the time for her to play shy princess.
Her body slightly trembled in his arms while a tint of redness

appeared on her rosy cheeks. He did not notice the changes on
her face, he was busy running away from the mutated beings
while hoping not to trigger any more formations.
Along the way, Lailah witnessed the terrifying power of the

movement spell he's using. It really surprised her and made her
wonder if this is an Epic or Legendary spell. Even with his Body
Strengthening stage cultivation, the spell exhibited a shocking
level of potential.
After he began to lose sight of the mutated beings that were

following them, he stopped occasionally to collect as many
precious herbs as he could.
It must be mentioned that there really were many rare resources

in The Treacherous Ocean. Herbs with a maturity of Thousand
years were basically everywhere.
Only after running for several hours did he stop. Lailah essentially
spent the entire time meditating in his arms, eyes closed to regain
some of her energy. She was the person most at leisure.
At dusk, Michael found another cave to settle down in.? The pitch-
black cave only had a single luminous pearl as a light source. The
weakened Lailah sat in a slightly dark corner, still recovering
silently with her eyes closed.
"Take these Lady Alden, although it won't help you regain your
lifeblood, it will heal your body" Lailah heard a warm voice.
Michael squatted beside her with a few healing potions in his
hand. She could not help but think of the scene where he carried
her as they fled from the mutated beings earlier in the day right
now.
Lailah slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the healing potions
in Michael's hand calmly and gently shook her head. "I'm not
injured. I've just expended too much of my lifeblood. I need rare
herbs to recover"
"The fuck?" Her words stunned him, he collected all those herbs
to expand his herbal garden as well as use them to make potions
and pills for him, Gaya, and the baby dragon. He was also
planning to auction some of those herbs to make a shitload of
gold coins. After seeing her current condition, he sighed and took
out? three thousand years old blood leaf from his Space Ring
without showing the reluctance on his face.
He then passed them to Lailah, "I don't know if this is enough. If

it's not enough, I still have a few more" he said but hoped it would
be enough for her to recover her strength. To cure the baby
dragon and successfully get the Demon dragon's heart, he
needed her more than she needed him. He was willing to lose a
few herbs to save his baby dragon.
A sliver of surprise flashed across her face. She looked at Michael

with mixed emotions, before extending her soft hand to receive
the blood leaves.
"Thank you."
Michael did not choose to advance into the depths of The

Treacherous Ocean the next day as Lailah was still recovering.
Instead, he carved out a new cave as a temporary dwelling and
stayed there, waiting for Lailah to regain at least some of her
strength back.
The wait lasted for two days. During that time, Lailah recovered
some of her lifeblood and Celestial Energy with the help of the
three blood leaves. Unlike her, he recovered all of his Arch
energy, returning to his peak strength. Afterward, she left the cave
with Michael.
Outside the cave, he retrieved his flying sword and tossed it into
the air before turning to look at the veiled Lailah, "Lady Alden, we
should travel together so you can save your strength, we still don't
know what danger lies ahead of us"
She looked at him for a few moments, thinking about this but after
a while of deliberation, she accepted his suggestion. She stepped
on the floating flying sword without uttering a single word and
maintained a certain distance from Michael.
Chapter 163 - Getting Closer
To The Demon Dragon’s Heart
II
After they departed from the cave, they were traveling towards the
island's center where the Demon Dragon's Heart was lying
dormant. The depths of The Treacherous Ocean had almost
become a paradise for powerful mutated beings, they could be
seen wandering in the mountain ranges everywhere like they were
taking leisure strolls. The center of the island was covered with
thick smoke, giving the area a gloomy ambiance.
In the center of the island, a human-sized orb was radiating bright

beams of light, resplendent and dazzling. Countless powerful
mutated beings were wandering around the orb. The orb had a
ruby red surface as from within, one could see a bright red light
flickering in a rhythm. Veins and roots ran chaotically on and
around the orb lessening the warm light radiated by the orb.
This was the Demon Dragon's heart, the item Michael and Lailah
were searching for. Suddenly, the orb shuddered from within,
glowing brighter and brighter.
Roar!
At this moment, no matter if it were the powerful mutated beings

closer to the orb or those roaming on the outskirts of the island,
they all roared loudly. Several tens of thousands, or even
hundreds of thousands of mutated beings roared together, this
commotion could literally be described as earth-shaking, causing
mountain ranges to fall and the void to collapse purely from the
sound.
The roars from several tens of thousands of powerful mutated
beings were filled with absolute hatred for some unknown reason.
The Treacherous Ocean's appearance was finally changed at this

very moment after countless years. The entire island shook
violently, the ground jolting and opening up chasms thousands of
meters deep. Many of the surrounding mountains directly
exploded as they could not withstand the roars of over ten
thousand powerful mutated beings. The mountains and forests
turned into a mess. Following closely, the powerful mutated beings
still roaming outside roared angrily, flying toward the orb as fast as
their limbs allowed them to.
While the mutated beings were chaotically running around, two

figures were slowly walking through the mist towards the glowing
orb.
"There it is" It was Lailah who said this, pointing her fingers at the
glowing orb a couple of meters before them. Michael closely
followed Lailah while cautiously looking at all the wandering
mutated beings in the area. His heart was pounding against his
chest in fear because all of the mutated beings were at least at
the Soul Refining stage and he could even see a few level 10
Fusion stage mutated beings guarding the orb. He had no more
saliva to swallow as his mouth became dry, any single of the
mutated being could end their life right now if they detected their
presence. After recalling the events that happened in the
Treacherous ocean, he identified only when he was alone that the
mutated beings were able to detect him but when he's with Lailah,
the death-kissed aura proved to be effective.
The two of them took each step with utmost cautiousness,

avoiding the gazes of the mutated beings. Currently, thousands of
powerful mutated beings roared at the sky above them.
Step by step, they got closer to the orb. Michael felt the warm
energy coming from the orb and soon, he could hear a faint heart
beating sound.
"Place the dragon on the heart" she whispered to him. He

grabbed the baby dragon tied to his chest as gently and silently as
he could before placing the baby dragon on the orb.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!
The moment the baby dragon's body touched the orb, it began to
tremble violently producing an unearthly humming sound. His
heart skipped a beat fearing the commotion would draw the
attention of these wandering mutated beings. Just as he was
about to reach for the swords, Lailah grabbed his hands, shaking
her head.
"What now?" he whispered but instead of answering him back,

she just gently tapped his shoulder, wordlessly telling him to wait.
Calming himself down, he just stared at the baby dragon who was
lying on the orb absorbing the heat coming from it.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Suddenly, the orb began to crack producing crackling noises. The

veins and roots on the orb's surface retracted themselves while
the cracks got wider and wider. He started to sweat under his
robes fearing that they were going to notice them but fortunately,
the mutated beings were oblivious to what's happening.
"Look" Lailah tapped at his shoulder to turn his gaze away from
the mutated beings to the baby dragon. His eyes immediately
widened in shock and surprise as the baby dragon's greyish
scales began to revert back to their original shiny crimson red
scales at a visible speed.
Just as they were witnessing the changes in the baby dragon, the
orb suddenly exploded yet surprisingly, the explosion did not
produce any sounds but a bright light of flash that momentarily
made them blind.
When the bright light disappeared, they saw the baby dragon
floating in the air a couple of meters above their heads carrying
two small orbs of violet fire in its claws.
Locking her eyes with the two orbs of violet fire, Lailah raised her
hand at the baby dragon as he slowly flew towards her.
"Is he?"
"Yes, he's cured," Lailah said indifferently without taking her eyes
off the violet fire orbs.
A relieved smile appeared on his face. He did not care for the two
violet fire orbs as much as he cared for the baby dragon. After
everything that he went through, he expected something dramatic
to happen before curing the baby dragon but contrary to his
expectation, the baby dragon got cured by the Demon Dragon's
heart in a couple of minutes.
He was cradling the baby dragon as if he was his baby and beside
him, Lailah immediately put the two fire orbs in her space ring.
"So those two balls of fire" his voice trailed away,
"Demon Dragon's heart," She said, sighing in relief. Although this

trip was extremely dangerous and she nearly lost her life, in the
end, it was all worth it because she got not one but two Demon
Dragon hearts.
To suppress Christopher's curse, she only needed the energy of

half the demon dragon heart, the remaining energy would be
enough for her to break through from level 4 to level 6 of the
Fusion stage.
Michael noticed the changes in her facial expression and he knew

it was because of the two orbs of fires she put in her space ring. If
he had the power, he would have at least taken one of them but
for now, if she decided not to share them with him, he could do
nothing.
For now, he wanted her to suppress the cure so he would get a
Soul Refining stage cultivator to protect his base of operations
and the herbal garden.
The lesson of no freebies in the world suited not only the earth but
also here and in fact, it suited more for this world than earth as
every cultivator he met in this world has their own schemes and
they would rarely lift a finger unless they have something to gain.
The Demon Dragon hearts was her payment for leading him here
though she would have died if it wasn't for him. However, he too
couldn't have survived alone without her help so he was okay with
her taking the Demon Dragon hearts.
"Let's leave this place"? He did not need any push as he couldn't
wait to leave this forsaken place, at least for now. When he was
about to turn back to go in the direction where they came, Lailah
shook her head.
"There should be an ancient teleportation array set by the Dragon

clan if we go in that direction," she pointed at the direction further
into the island and noticing the worried look on his face, she
reassured," Don't worry, I can sense the array's faint energy.
Besides, in this direction, there will be no more formations from
here on"
The part where she said no more formation instantly made him
agree to her plan because he hated formation and ran out of
perception pills.
"Come," she said before taking out one of the Demon Dragon
hearts from her space ring so the mutated beings won't attack
them. The Demon Dragon heart substituted the death-kissed
aura, only it was better and effective.
Having come this far, he had completed what he needed to do in

The Treacherous Ocean. No matter if it was the extremely
valuable herbs or curing the baby dragon or reaching the higher
levels in cultivation, he had gained more than he initially expected.
The herbs, in particular, the dozens of herbs all approached
thousands of years in maturity and combined with the fact that
they were almost unobtainable anywhere else, it made them even
more valuable. Each herb he picked was like a priceless treasure
on the continent.
Soon afterward, he followed Lailah behind towards the

teleportation array carrying the baby dragon in his arms. When he
first met the baby dragon, it was barely radiating an aura of a level
1 Arch sensing stage but now, his energy was slowly and steadily
climbing high as he already reached level 8 of the Arch Sensing
stage. Michael realized that it was the illness that was stopping
the baby dragon from reaching a higher stage and by inspecting
the baby dragon's body, he noticed the changes in his wings. His
weak and frail wings had now become strong and firm. He could
tell that soon after he woke up, he could fly like an actual dragon
and also Michael expected him to breathe fire.
Imagining the things he expected the baby dragon to do, he

walked behind Lailah further into the dragon island.
Chapter 164 - One Step Closer
To Upgrading The
Doombringer
Through the gloomy mist and forest filled with gigantic ominous
black trees, Michael followed her towards the teleportation array
that was supposed to teleport them back to somewhere in the
Ozer Continent.
The baby dragon was still asleep in Michael's arms having no

ideas of the dangers around him. They both uttered no words as
although they had the Demon Dragon heart's aura around them,
they took no chance by chit-chatting. Therefore the journey was
pretty gloomy and silent.
Eventually, after walking for several hours, they walked out of the
forest in the middle region of the Treacherous Ocean. After
walking out of the forest, they were welcomed by a narrow path
between two gigantic mountains.
After pondering slightly, she said, "If I recall correctly, this path
between the Ostium mountains will lead us to the Twilight ground,
and from there we can go to the teleportation array.? Remember
it's extremely dangerous inside it. Many Soul Refining and even
Fusion Stage mutated beings will be there"
"Ostium mountains?" he was slightly surprised to hear the name

because Ostium ore was one of the requirements to upgrade the
Dommbringer to level 2.
"Lady Lailah, is it possible for me to collect some Ostium ore

here?"
After pondering slightly, she said, "Ostium ore should only exist in
the Twilight ground, you can't mine these mountains, are you
looking to forge a weapon?"
Michael nodded seeing her correctly guess his intention of

seeking the Ostium ore. Since she didn't look too surprised he
realized using Ostium to forge a weapon was not a rare thing in
this world and it did make sense as it was required to upgrade the
Doombringer to only level 2.
"Where is this Twilight ground?" he asked.
"The Twilight ground is not in the depths of the island but under an
extremely hidden cliff in the middle region. It tunnels straight into
the ground and is extremely deep,"
After wiggling through the narrow cliff for another hour, they finally
found the entrance of the pit under a cliff according to the
geography described by Lailah.
The entrance to the pit was a huge hole a hundred meters wide.
The hole directly sunk into the earth and was pitch-black. When
the duo stood at the edge of the unfathomably deep pit, they could
sense a ghastly, bone-chilling wind from it.
He stood at the edge, staring into the darkness with curiosity and
cautiousness. His eyebrows were furrowed and his calm
expression instantly became rather stern. " When we go down, we
should be cautious. I'll help you gather some ore but remember,
you can't take too much of it as it might draw some unwanted
attraction towards us"
"Understood, Lady Lailah,"
"Good, let's go down," she said confidently, before leaping down

first. Following her, he jumped into the pitch-black hole, quickly
descending into the darkness.
The Twilight ground was completely enshrouded in darkness,

nothing could be seen.? After falling for several hundred
kilometers, some light gradually appeared beneath their feet. The
light expanded in size as he quickly descended before it finally
enveloped Michael. His vision was no longer pitch-black but filled
with colorful light. It was extremely pretty as the light would
glimmer from time to time. The glimmers of light were dense and
they twinkled like the stars in the sky. The sight stunned Michael,
he felt like he was swimming in outer space as he stared at the
starry sky around him.
The two of them continued their descent down the pit at great
speeds. They had no idea just how deep it was. They had fallen
for at least a thousand kilometers, yet they had still not hit the
bottom. Along the way, the two of them had also seen many
mutated beings falling into the hole deeper and deeper but they
did not detect the two of them.
With their constant descent, Michael slowly sensed that the hole
seemed to be permeated with an odd energy. The temperature
here would constantly change, sometimes bone-chillingly cold and
other times scorching hot. It was as if they constantly traveled
between two regions of opposite climates.
"What is this place?" He couldn't help but wonder after witnessing

everything in this place.
"This hole doesn't seem to be naturally formed. Did this hole

appear after the island changed? Also, this hole plunges in a
straight path from the surface right into the earth. It's as if a
massive object fell from the sky and carved this out."
"It's my thought too. This tunnel is just too straight. There are no
bends at all, and images of the starry sky actually appear here. If
you connect these facts, it's as if something from outer space had
really collided with the island before creating such a deep crater."
Lailah broke her silence and agreed with him. She too had a hint
of curiosity in her eyes.
They continued their way down. Eventually, after falling for several
hours, they finally hit solid ground. They had arrived at the bottom
of the hole.
The pit still permeated with colorful nebulae. Starlight glimmered
faintly as if they were each star that floated in space. They were
innumerable, filling up the entire place.
Michael glanced around and discovered that the bottom was

extremely large. It stretched as far as the eye could see and he
could feel that the weird energy was even thicker here. The
surrounding temperature constantly alternated between a frigid
coldness and a scorching heat.
"Just what is this weird energy? Is this Celestial energy? Nah, this
is something else" he mumbled to himself as he stared at the
surroundings. Even his inherited memories of Abras contained no
information on the weird energy here.
At this very moment, a strand of scorching energy fused with a

strand of the frigid energy mid-air.
Michael and Lailah immediately focused on it with their senses.

They discovered that the energy created when the extremely hot
and extremely cold energies fused was indeed extremely similar
to the energy radiated by the formations and the mutated beings.
"There must be some connection between this hole and what

happened to the Dragon clan? just how many mysteries this world
holds?"
He asked himself before beginning to search the surroundings.

After he traveled a hundred meters, some dust that glimmered
slightly on the ground caught his attention.
Squatting down he gently grabbed a handful of the glimmering

chunks of stone and closely examined it? "Don't collect that.
Collect the ores that are floating in the air." Suddenly, he heard
Lailah's voice coming from behind.
. He glanced at the pebbles of Ostium in his hand and then looked

toward the glimmering ores that floated in mid-air like stars.
Although the glimmering ores of Ostium in the air were much
smaller than the ores on the ground, they glowed brighter than
those on the ground.
" Those Ostium ores floating in the sky are purer than the ores on
the ground." She said and then she moved away from him to
quench her curiosity about this place.
Glancing at the ores in his hand, he hesitated slightly. He did not

throw them away but instead, he put them into his system storage.
Then, he began to collect the Ostium ores floating in the sky.
As the ores in the air were extremely well-dispersed, his speed of

collecting them was not great and their small size did not help
him.
A while after he was collecting the ores, Lailah's voice came from
the distance
"come over here"
Michael immediately stopped his collection, walking in Lailah's

direction to see why she called him in the middle of his treasure
hunt.
When he got there, he saw Lailah standing in front of a human

corpse. They did not know how long it had been dead for but its
appearance had not changed at all.
Lailah was examining the corpse curiously while he sensed the

weird energy in the surroundings constantly entering the corpse
and slowly fusing into its bones. This weird energy just happened
to be produced when the extremely hot and extremely cold
energies fused.
" Looking at it, he's already been dead for thousands of years but
there's no sign of decomposition at all," she said with a deep
voice.
Michael too stared at the corpse with interest. "Lady Alden, I can
feel that there are some changes currently occurring in its body. I
think this weird energy is mutating the body"
At this very moment, the corpse on the ground snapped open its
eyes without any prior signs. Its eyes were dull without any signs
of life. It immediately produced a great roar, echoing through the
entire pit. Afterward, it slowly stood up from the ground and turned
its head like it was scanning its surroundings. His hands were
already reaching for the swords but Lailah shook her head,
wordlessly telling him not to do anything.
"Let's back away" She whispered to him, slowly backing away

from the mutated being while the mutated being started to wander
around the place mindlessly.
Although she had fulfilled what she needed in coming here, she
had no intention of leaving immediately unlike she pretended. She
ventured onward in the Twilight ground with Michael as she was
extremely curious about the transformation of the island that
occurred all those years ago. Of course, she had no idea of telling
him everything, especially the fact that she was leading him a long
way instead of a short way to the teleportation array.
The area of the Twilight ground was unknown to Michael,

therefore, he could only trust that she knew the path and follow
her behind. They traveled for a dozen or so kilometers in one
direction but still had not reached the end. As they traveled,
figures of the mutated beings gradually appeared in their sights.
Since she said not to collect too much Ostium ores, he sighed
helplessly and kept walking past all the ores floating in the sky.
However, after walking behind her for several hours, he creased
his brows
"We've actually come back to where we were before"

Chapter 165 - The System
Back Online I
Considering Michael searched the place for Ostium ores before

starting to collect the ores floating in the air, he was familiar with
the layout and he instantly realized that they came back where
they were before.
"Lady Alden, we were here before," he said and by the look on her
face, he could tell she also noticed this phenomenon.
"This is the Mystic Disorientating Formation! How...how is this

possible? Why would it appear here!?" she mumbled under her
breath unconsciously and because of the perception pills, he
heard her.
"Lady Alden, are you familiar with this formation?"His tone of

voice contained a tint of doubt.
"Yes, I learned about this" she regained her usual calm

composure hiding confusion in her eyes.
"Where-"
"Just follow my steps" She waved her hands, stopping Michael

from asking any questions about the formation. He began to doubt
that Lailah's intention of coming here is more than to obtain the
Demon Dragon hearts.
He hesitated for a while before he followed her behind. He

decided to trust Lailah this once to see if she had a method to
break through the formation or not.
"Pay attention to my footsteps. You must not take a step wrong. If

you do, you won't be able to break out." She warned him again.
She then began to step back and forth like she was slow dancing.
There were thirty-eight steps required in total to walk out from the
formation. When she took the ninth step, the surroundings
immediately began to change. She discovered that she had
actually arrived in a vast starry sky.
Afterward, Michael appeared behind her. When he realized he's

now in a vast starry sky, they all stared blankly. They were
extremely shocked. Unlike before, at this moment, he could see
outer space as his vision was filled with nebulas, milky ways,
bright stars, and even colorful lush planets.
"Whoa! Is everything before me an illusion or have I really come to

outer space?" he said in shock. He could not tell whether what he
saw right now was real or fake.
Michael observed the surroundings, frowning his eyebrows. A

couple of seconds after he was staring at the scene speechlessly,
Lailah began to explain? "It's not an illusion, It's real. We've really
come to outer space. Whoever cast the formation must have had
some terrifying level of understanding about formations. The steps
we're taking right now to walk out of the formation just happens to
match the bridge that leads to the other side. Every step matches
perfectly with an extremely crucial point of the bridge. Stepping
wrongly would be like stepping off the bridge and falling into the
water"
"What would happen if we took the wrong step?" Although what

she said was like a fictitious story to him, he believed it firmly
because he was not the one to doubt, after all, he has a system
with him. Who would believe that?
She shrugged, "I don't know. This formation connects worlds and
is extremely profound. Everything before us is real. We've
followed the bridge and arrived in outer space and only by
following it we can reach the very end successfully. If we take a
step wrong during this time, perhaps we will return to The
treacherous ocean, or maybe we will be thrown into the vast outer
space or simply die a horrible death"
Hearing her words, he became rather stern. As the system went
safe mode, he treated everything with utmost vigilance.
"Who would have cast this formation? They actually extended it

into outer space bridging outer space and the world.
Unbelievable" he sighed in amazement, his inner voice filled with
sincere respect and admiration.
"Let's go," she said solemnly, continuing on her way with mystical
steps.
He quickly shoved all of his curiosity and questions to the back of

his mind, carefully following her steps in the empty space. With
every step they took, the surrounding starry space would undergo
some minute changes, as if they had crossed several hundred
miles with just a couple of steps.
When the two of them took the thirteenth step, the scene before
them suddenly changed. The starry space around them
disappeared and they had arrived at a circular tunnel ten meters
in diameter. It was chaotic around the tunnel, one could see
nothing but darkness and hear an unearthly humming.
"This is the spatial tunnel," She said with a deep voice.
"What's a spatial tunnel?" Michael asked subconsciously out of

curiosity, holding the baby dragon tightly. This was the first time he
had ever heard of something called a 'spatial tunnel'.
"I don't know either." She shook her head quickly. He knew she
was lying but he also knew she wouldn't reveal anything even if he
asked her. However, he couldn't help but wonder where she got all
this information about formations and everything related to The
Treacherous ocean.
They traveled through the tunnel step by step. When they reached
the thirtieth step, the tunnel suddenly began to tremble violently.
Soon afterward, a powerful storm of energy suddenly appeared
far away and quickly rushed toward the group.
Lailah's expression changed abruptly as she cried out, " Spatial
storm! We need to get out of here as soon as possible before the
storm gets worse" With that, her footsteps suddenly sped up,
quickly advancing forwards.
The spatial storm rushed toward them from behind, quickly

surging at the two of them. It forced them to advance as fast as
they could. Right now,
He was completely focused on her steps and copying her steps to

perfection. As the last step fell, Michael's vision suddenly opened
up. The spatial tunnel and the spatial storm that surged behind
him all disappeared as if he had arrived in a different world. It was
extremely peaceful in the surroundings, without any dangers.
However, he had no time to observe this foreign world. He

hurriedly turned around to look back and only saw a ripple in
space. Lailah appeared before Michael, slightly panic-stricken.
Her forehead was wet with sweat, clearly due to being overly
anxious.
When she saw that she had finally left the damned spatial tunnel,
Lailah immediately relaxed slightly. She roughly scanned the
surroundings, before turning around and looking backward to see
if there were any mutated beings nearby.
Lailah sat silently nearby with her veena in her hands but she was
stern. In this foreign world, there was an unknown number of
dangers. After being exhausted mentally, she needed to rest a bit
before continuing their journey towards the teleportation array.
Even up to this point, Michael had no idea that she took the long
path filled with unknown dangers and mystery rather than taking
the safe and shorter path to the teleportation array.
Having no ideas of her deception, he looked around and realized

that he was currently in an endless wasteland. It was desolate,
without any grass or signs of life. There was no sun or stars in the
sky, it was a hazy-grey and did not even have clouds.
After a while, he turned his gaze to Lailah who just stood up,
ready to leave
"Where to next?"
After some silence in thought, she replied, "there should be a path

leading to the teleportation array a couple of miles away from
here, I can sense it, let's go" She said but she herself wasn't
completely sure about what lies next. However, since that person
who cast the formation put so much effort into constructing a
spatial tunnel that crosses through the stars on the dragon's island
leading up to here, she believed that there's some secret hidden
here and she wanted to see what it is.
Michael hesitated slightly because even though they didn't meet

any mutated beings on their way here, this place and everything
gave him a bad feeling. For now, the only thing he could do was
follow Lailah, in hopes that she knew the way of getting out of
here.
At this very moment, an ancient, desolate presence appeared in

the far-off distance. It was vast and boundless, quickly expanding
into the distance with a soul-shaking might.
Feeling the presence, the expressions of the two changed greatly.

Before the presence, they felt like even an ant was more
significant than them. The pair could not even think of resisting
before the presence.
Shortly afterward, two colors, red and blue, appeared beyond the
horizon. They plunged into the sky like two pillars, radiating with
an ancient and desolate presence.
Both of them unconsciously looked at the two pillars of light.

Afterward, their minds rumbled. Currently, they simultaneously
envisioned a foreign scene. They witnessed the chaos before
everything, as well as the birth of stars, milky ways, and even the
universes.
"Wake up!"
At this very moment, a powerful shout of the system reverberated

through Michael's head. It woke him up and the previous scene of
chaos completely disappeared. He returned to reality and he was
not the only one who awakened. Even Lailah beside him returned
to her senses from the powerful shout of the system.
"System what the hell was that? What did I just see?? Did I just
witness the scene where this world was created?" Michael's mind
was filled with questions, his hands were shaking uncontrollably.
the scene with the primordial chaos constantly flashed through his
head, he had never felt this terrified in his entire life. The scene of
the world creation and the presence of the two lights shook his
core, making his mind go blank and weak.
[The system level is too low to answer the host's question and the
stuff on that level is not something you should know or the system
can explain right now. What you just witnessed is not the creation
of this world but everything. With your power level, knowing more
about this will only lead you to certain death] the system said
seriously, and just before he could curse the system for not telling
him anything, its voice sounded again in his mind
[However]? the system's serious tone took a one-eighty turn as it

sounded like it was cooking up some plan.
Lailah on the other hand did not pay any attention to Michael. She
just kept looking at the two pillars of light that surged toward the
sky in the distance. Her expressions were mixed, grim while also
pleasantly surprised.
"What are you doing?" he saw her taking out Angel's veena from
her space ring.
"I'm going to harness some energy from the pillars," she said
before dashing towards the light pillars in the distance giving him
no time to stop her.
"What!? " Michael was astounded. Although the system did not
clearly explain the origins or anything about the two energy pillars,
he got a sense that they were not something he or Lailah should
meddle with without proper knowledge.
[Stop her!]? he heard the system scream in rage, the sound of the
system almost made him feel like his head was about to explode.
[Bitch Bitch Bitch!] Having heard of the system scream and curse
like never before, he rushed behind Lailah to stop her from doing
something incredibly stupid, not because he wanted to save her
but he didn't want her to do something that could jeopardize his
and the baby dragon's life.
Chapter 166 - The System
Back Online II
As soon as Michael approached the two light pillars, he felt

intense cold energy and scorching hot energy at the same time.
His body suddenly jolted and his steps came to a screeching halt.
His face immediately became bright red while a terrifying heat
began to radiate from his body.
He could only feel that scorching energy had entered his body,
like a red-hot branding iron. It radiated with a terrifying heat that
was destroying his body. Meanwhile, Lailah's expression also
changed abruptly. She immediately became sheet-white. An
extremely cold aura began to radiate from her and there were
vague signs of the ground freezing. She had also encountered a
situation like Michael, though the energy within her was frigid
rather than scorching. Wherever the energy passed by, that part
of her body became crystallized.
[with her level of strength, she shouldn't have even got closer to
the First Energies yet she tried to harness both the yin and yang
energy from them]
As much as he loved to converse with the system, it was not the

time as he struggled to keep the scorching hot energy from his
body burning him from within.
[Now the yin and yang from the First energies looking for a
suitable vessel and your bodies cannot handle them right now.
The system can use the First Energies to come out of the safe
mode but the host must transfer the excess yang energy that just
entered your body to Lailah]
"How?!"
The Yang energy from the First Energies radiated a terrifying heat
in his body. He knew his body would not be able to withstand it for
too long, his organs felt like they were on fire, producing waves of
violent pain.
Outside Michael's body, red ripples of air that were vaguely visible
spread out. It was the heat from his body and it caused the
surrounding temperature to skyrocket.
"Are you still fucking sleeping?" even after everything he had gone
through, the baby dragon was sleeping in his arms snoring. He
wanted to punch the baby dragon's little face after hearing him
snore.
Beside him, Lailah sat on the ground with her eyes closed. Signs
of agonizing pain could be seen on her face. She radiated with an
extremely frigid coldness that formed a thick layer of ice in a meter
radius around her and occasionally he could feel an intense hot
wave surging from her body.
Michael and Lailah were each absorbing the Yang and the Yin
energies from the First energies. The characteristics of the two
energies were polar opposites, contrasting sharply with one
another.
[There are two methods to transfer the Yin and Yang energies
between your bodies]
"Just spit it out, I can't resist much longer!" Michael said hurriedly.
In his body, the Yang energy was like a burning flame that slowly
inched its way toward his mind while the Ying energy within his
body slowly began to crystalize his skin.
[Bang her!]
He almost stumbled down when he heard the system shout 'bang

her' in his mind and for a second, he thought he misheard the
system.
"Are you kidding me?!"

[Having sex with her is the quickest way to neutralize the energies
in your body and help the system come out of the safe mode.
Don't be such a wuss, just go and bang her host!]
"You said two methods, what's... the second method?" Gritting his
teeth, he tried to resist the energies from killing him, and in this
struggling moment, he failed to notice the Yang energy which is
positive and flaming energy slowly being absorbed by the baby
dragon.
[Although the second method is difficult, it's the safest method to

neutralize the energy without the host has to have sex with the
woman, well kinda]
"What do..you mean...kinda?"
[This method is like having sex but without physical contact, the
previous owner of this body has learned about this method of
neutralizing the Ying and Yang energy] the system brought the
memories hidden deep within his kind to make him remember
because he was unable to recall them due to the excruciating pain
he's in.
"Spirit walking" he mumbled the name of this method but his face
became even grimmer because this method was considered
taboo, an act that was hated by all the cultivators. It was just like
the system said, sex without physical contact, some cultivators
thought that this method would pollute their souls.
However, Michael would rather choose the safest method than the
quickest one. Besides, he considered having sex without the
consent of the other one rape and he would never stoop that low,
no matter what.
Suddenly, the muscles on Michael's face began to spasm. His

face was full of pain. The Yang energy in his body was currently
burning away at his vitality and flesh. It was as if scorching flames
currently flowed at his chest, drawing closer and closer to his
head. Meanwhile, Michael's entire body had become like a red-hot
branding iron, now bright red.
"Argh!" A howl resounded from the side. It was filled with pain.
Lailah radiated a? surging coldness, the Yin energy from the First
energies had already turned half of her body into an ice sculpture.
"Why is this happening? Am I going to die here today?" her face

was filled with confusion and regret. She had never thought
harnessing this unknown energy she learned from her mentor
would prove to be this deadly.
Placing the baby dragon on the ground, he slowly walked towards

Lailah.
"This is all because of your foolishness but I do have a method to

neutralize the energies, the spirit walking"
The moment he heard the two words 'Spirit Walking', she became
torn between rage and shame. She glared viciously at him, if
looks could kill him, he would have shred into pieces by now.
"What! How- how... How dare you! I'd rather die than... than-"
When she reached this point, her expression changed once again.
She produced a moan filled with pain. The situation inside her
body was worsening, she had already arrived at death's door. All
signs of life were frozen within her as the Yin energy had
expanded toward her head. Even her soul would be frozen and
after that, the Yang energy would burn her soul.
"Shut up! I'm not... going to die with you"
He became redder and redder, it was not only because of the

Yang energy inside his body but also anger towards her. The Yang
energy was roasting his body like a stove from within. If he did not
have the system and the baby dragon unknowing for him
absorbing the energy, this strand of Yang energy from the First
energies would have dissolved his body already.
His gaze gradually became determined. Gritting his teeth, he

directly lunged toward her and placed his head on her frozen
forehead to start the Spirit Walking.
Lailah immediately snapped open her eyes. Her alluring phoenix
eyes lost the calmness from before and were now filled with panic.
She tried as hard as she could to raise her arms that were frozen
to the point of absolute numbness in an attempt to push him away
but she just could not do so with the current condition of her body.
"What- what- what are you doing!? You bastard! Go away…" her
voice was filled with panic. She was a strong woman who
protected the purity of both her body and her soul. Even if she
died, she did not want to be sullied by others.
"It was all your fault, who said you to harness that fucking weird
energy in the first place," he yelled at her before his
consciousness slowly began to fade away.
"You- you bastard… go… go away." She wanted to push him

away from her but she was incapable of that.
He tightly grabbed her shoulders to stop her from resisting. The

coldness radiating from her just happened to be the counter for
the Yang energy.
When he chanted the ancient words to start the spirit walking with
her, the extreme coldness and heat from their bodies came
together, there were vague signs of neutralization. It weakened
the rigidness and scorching heat from both of them a little.
Lailah deeply frozen body also showed signs of melting. Not long
afterward, all the ice on her body melted and she was returning to
her previous state.
[The system is creating the omega level protection...]
[2% completed]
[3% completed]
Although the notifications in his mind were a piece of great news

to him,he couldn't celebrate as the danger of the Yang and? Yin
energies remained.
"Argh! What are you doing!? You bastard, let me go…" she cried
out as she struggled violently. She began to resist with all she
had, sensing her spirit being intruded on by his. At this very
moment, the energies within them had already reached their
necks. Michael did not act like Lailah, for him, spirit walking was
not equal to having sex. He couldnt care less of the purity of her
soul, at least with his method, he was not raping her physically,
that was all that mattered to him.
Ignoring Lailah's violent struggles, he immediately focused harder

to keep the connection between their souls. Gradually, the
scorching hot Yang energy from his body burned their clothes,
revealing Michael's toned and Lailah's silky soft milky body under
her dress.
"You bastard! Release me! If you do it, I will never forgive you! Let
me go immediately…" She screamed, resisting the connection
between them desperately. If it was under normal situations, the
connection wouldn't have been established successfully but
because she tried to harness both the Yang and the Ying energy,
the ancient spell worked without a hitch. Besides, she had no
strength left in her body to fend him off.
[38% completed]
[The host is doing a great job. The Yin and Yang energies from
the First energies are extremely pure, so once you balance them
out and absorb them, not only will it bring great benefits by
increasing your strength, your body and soul will also adapt to the
energy. If you ever encounter any Yin or Yang energy in the
future, your bodies will have the power to resist them completely]
"There aren't any side effects right?" he asked the system in his
mind but the answer he received almost broke the connection
between him and Lailah
[Kinda]
Chapter 167 - Reaching The
Core Formation Stage
"What the fuck do mean kinda?"
[When you have physical sex, your seed will sprout as a new life
inside your female counterpart]
"Yeah, it's called a baby," said Michael. He wondered whether the

system was trying to annoy him intentionally or not.
[Just like the physical sex, there might be a teeny tiny chance for
a spirit child to appear inside her after the Spirit walking]
"Spirit child, what the heck is that?" he asked, still maintaining the
connection between him and Lailah.
[To put it simply, it's a baby without a physical body but the system
can make sure the spirit child inherit nothing from the host such as
talents and characteristics]
"Do it" he said without even the slightest hesitation. He did not
have any idea of having a kid until he reached his goal of
controlling the world, besides, he was not in love with Lailah and
would certainly not have a kid with her, a spirit baby or a real
baby.
"And can't you stop a spirit child from forming?"
[There's only a little chance for a spirit child to appear through

spirit walking. At the moment, the system cannot stop the spirit
child from forming but can leave a mark in her body that would
prevent the spirit child from inheriting anything from the host]
"Whatever," he said before concentrating on keeping the
connection between him and Lailah and neutralizing the energies.
Little by little, he began to lose consciousness.
[58% completed]
An unearthly humming sound emerged in the desolate wasteland,

making the dead world slightly livelier. The sound continued for an
hour, before slowly quieting down. Afterward, there were no more
sounds. The wasteland recovered its deathly silence.
At the moment,
Michael and Lailah lay on the wasteland naked. They both had
their eyes closed, currently unconscious. No one knew whether
they had fallen asleep or fallen unconscious. A miniature version
of the red and blue energy on the horizon appeared above their
bodies before gradually fading away from the sight.
Lailah's veil was already removed, revealing her appearance. She

was extremely beautiful, to the point where it could no longer be
described as alluring or kingdom-toppling.
On Michael's back, many scratches crisscrossed. They did not

break through his skin but there were clearly visible marks.
The two of them lay on the cold ground just like this. Whether they
were in deep sleep or unconscious, they did not wake up even
after a long time.
[98% completed]
[Initializing the termination process of safe mode...]
[Absorbing the First energies...]
[Forming a shield preventing the Omegas from detecting the

Creator Energy]
[Shield successfully formed]
[The host has received a Legendary gift box]

[Found excess amount of Yang energy in the host's body]
[Activating Energy Devourver]


Michael was completely unconscious and oblivious of what's

happening to him. The Energy devourer kept converting the weak
excess Yang Energy remained in his body to Experience points
and because the First Energy was extremely powerful compared
to the Arch Energy, the conversion directly made him
breakthrough a couple of levels at once. On the other hand, Lailah
could only reach the next sub-level as her body couldn't use the
excess Yang energy in her body as the system did.

From afar, the two pillars of red and blue light remained, stretching
into the sky. They gave off slivers of Yin and Yang energy that
slowly fused into the two. However, the energy was no longer able
to cause any harm to the unconscious duo and as soon as the
energy entered their bodies, it would be balanced out, turning into
gentle energy before being absorbed by them. A portion fused
with their bodies, while the remaining part merged with their
heads. It caused some slight changes to their souls, strengthening
them at the same time. However, most of the energy went straight
into Michael's body because the system sucked in as much
energy as possible to enhance its protection against the Omegas.
At this very moment, the two pillars of light in the distance slowly
disappeared. With their disappearance, the First Energy in the
surroundings vanished instantly but the energy devourer still kept
converting the excess energy in his body making him near the
Core Formation stage.
[Congratulations to the host for reaching the next stage, the Core
Formation stage!]

Core Formation stage Level 1!]
After he reached the Core Formation stage, the thin layer of light
around his body slowly vanished, stopping his cultivation spree.
"Wake up, sleepyhead!"
"Wakey wakey wakey!"
Soon after Michael's consciousness began to return, he heard a

child's voice and felt his face becoming wetter and wetter. The
Spirit walking put a major strain on his soul and body, therefore,
he couldn't open his eyes or move his body quickly.
"Wake up, it's been two days, I'm hungry!"? Michael heard the
child's voice again, it was definitely a boy's voice but he could
hear a tint of roughness in the childish voice he's been hearing.
"Give me meat! Or I'll start eating you" as soon as the child's voice
disappeared, he felt a slight pain of something trying to take a bite
out of his cheek.
The sharp pain made him move his hands to his face while slowly
opening his eyes. As soon as his vision became clearer, he was
welcomed by a pleasant surprise, the baby dragon.
"You're awake, you're awake, you're awake!" the baby dragon's

crimson scales glistened brighter than before. He looked a little
grown-up, like a two months old puppy. Just like a puppy who met
his owner after a few days, the baby dragon bounced up and
down wiggling his long tail.
"You can talk," Michael sighed before smiling at the baby dragon.
He then grabbed the bouncing baby dragon, hugging the baby
dragon and placing a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"Ah…"
Hugging the baby dragon, he subconsciously wriggled slightly but

when he moved, a numbing moan was heard by Michael. The
voice carried some pain, Michael's slight wriggling had finally
woken up Lailah.
Her eyes struggled to adjust to the light after being unconscious

for a long time. After the blurriness faded away, she saw the
naked Michael and the baby dragon licking his face.
Shortly afterward, all the images from a few days ago flashed
through her head like a film. Lailah's expression immediately
became torn between rage and shame.
At this moment, she pushed Michael away using all of her

physical strength which was higher than Michael's due to her
Fusion stage cultivation stage. She then immediately climbed up.
When she saw that she was completely naked under the sky,
without anything covering her body and the feeling of her soul had
been tainted by him, tears immediately began to well up in her
beautiful eyes.
"That human is mad, what did you do?" The baby dragon stopped
showering Michael's face with kisses and climbed onto his
shoulder.
Forcefully resisting her anger, Lailah pulled out a new violet dress
from her Space Ring and quickly draped it over herself. She
stared viciously at him and the baby dragon with flames of rage,
while more and more tears welled up. Her eyes were filled with
misery. Sensing the hostility towards them in her eyes, the baby
dragon hissed at her, ready to attack her any second.
"Wow, I've reached the Core Formation stage?" Just like the baby
dragon, he too prepared himself not to fight her but to run as fast
as he could from her because he knew she was overwhelmed by
rage and she would not listen to any reason.
"System"
[Don't worry host, the system has left a mark in her soul while you
were Spirit walking. She cannot hurt you and here's a gift for you
helping the system come out of the safe mode] the system voice
now sounded more humane, the voice sounded like a man and a
woman at the same time. However, the return of the system put a
wide grin on Michael's face. The very next moment, a black outfit
began to cover his body from toe to chest. If he saw himself in a
mirror he would instantly recognize this iconic outfit once worn by
the one and only character Blade, the part vampire, part human.
Nonetheless, the outfit was not exactly the same as in the movies,
the system had made some changes such as adding shiny metal
chest plates, silver embodiment on the edges, and a few other
noticeable changes so he wouldn't stand out too much in the
crowd.
Despite the indescribable beauty standing in front of him, he was

too focused on himself.
"It's so good to be back together," Michael said under his breath,

cracking his neck and knuckles.
Looking at the grin on his face, she became furious and roared at
him "You bastard, you beast, taking advantage of people. You
actually used such a despicable method to take sully my soul. I
will never forgive you. After I kill you and that dragon, I'll kill
myself." Lailah was a woman who seemed gentle on the outside
but she was actually tough on the inside. She seemed to be a
rather gentle and quiet person but her personality was extremely
staunch. She was unable to endure being defiled like this.
Chapter 168 - Legendary Gift
Box
The Angel's Veena appeared in her hands. She placed it mid-air

and quickly began to play it with both hands. Every time she
struck a note gently, it would shoot out a powerful sound wave at
Michael.
"How dare you?!" the baby dragon bared his teeth seeing her
attack them. His dragon instincts kicked in as his belly began to
glow brighter and brighter. Michael felt his shoulder getting
warmer where the baby dragon is standing, he quickly realized the
baby dragon is going to use the dragon's breath, even with the
baby dragon's breath, he knew he couldn't hurt Lailah because of
the cultivation gap between them. The baby dragon was just at
the level 10 Formation stage while Lailah just reached level 6 of
the Fusion stage after consuming the Yin energy from the First
energies.
"System, the mark you left on her, will it protect the baby dragon?"
[It won't but the baby dragon has also absorbed the Yang energy
from the First energies. As a result, a few changes occurred to his
body. Now, if the baby dragon and she fought, it would be
equivalent to Yang energy encountering the Yin energy. It would
be nullified instantly, prevent the two of them from harming each
other]
"As I said before, It is so awesome to be back in the game again"

he was relieved to hear the answer, plus, he now really began to
appreciate the system more. The last few days had been an eye-
opener for him, at first, he depended on the system too much, and
then, he began to ignore the system as he didn't want to depend
on the system too much. However now, the Treacherous ocean
made him realize one ultimate truth, he was put on this world with
the system for a reason. In his mind the reason was to control this
world, to be able to do that, unlike back on earth, he must learn to
depend on not only himself but also on the system. He decided to
balance between depending on the system too much and ignoring
the system, he had to find a middle ground.
"Stand down baby dragon, she cannot hurt us"
"Really?" The baby dragon immediately cooled down, trusting

Michael's words without a doubt. Michael then playfully rubbed the
baby dragon's chin before starting to slowly walk towards Lailah,
this was his time to be the badass.
Calm down woman, would you have rather preferred me to have

sex with you than using the Spirit walking?" Michael asked,
slightly moving his body to evade her attacks.
Lailah's eyes had returned to the coldness from before and she
quickly played the veena with her two hands. Each note produced
was filled with killing intent, shooting toward Michael. The sound
waves grew denser and denser, blotting out the surroundings.
Gradually, it formed a cage that locked down Michael and cut off
any route of escape.
There was nothing but a calm yet arrogant smile on his face. As
the system said, the sound waves strangely transformed into
energy when they collided with Michael, they just brushed past
him, it could only make his hair and the long coat flutter back.
The light in his eyes flickered a few more times. He grinned

looking at her fruitless attacks, letting the dense sound waves in
the surroundings strike his body as he walked towards her.

The sound waves struck Michael like moths flying to a flame.

However, with no exceptions whatsoever, the sound waves were
unable to harm him.
"That tickles," Michael giggled playfully, driving her crazy. The
baby dragon also let out an arrogant smile and stood on his
shoulder, chest puffed out, head straight like he was a king
standing in front of his subjects.
"How is this possible!" Seeing that her attacks were unable to

harm Michael, she also revealed a shocked expression.
Afterward, the melody she played changed and she cried out,
"Smiting angel, come forth!"
The Smiting angel was one of the relatively more powerful

melodies that Lailah knew. It used the veena to confuse people,
causing their souls to vanish and disperse into the surroundings
unknowingly. It was a terrifying melody that killed without any
signs and it was impossible to guard against.
The gentle veena notes resounded through the surroundings. It

seemed to be filled with a certain charm, calming down everything
in the world at that very moment. Even the gentle breeze in the
area stopped.
Michael stood thirty meters away, quietly listening to the melody.

He could naturally feel that the veena notes concealed a killing
intent but when he heard it, he did not feel anything. It was as if
they could not affect him at all and posed no harm.
"That tickles me too, hehehehe" the baby dragon laughed out

loudly to make her even more furious, the baby dragon enjoyed
making her mad. Michael too noticed the sadistic side of this baby
dragon and realized that Gaya must be the reason as she is just
like that.
Very soon, the melody progressed to its halfway point. Seeing

how the baby dragon was laughing at her, Lailah became shocked
and her face became filled with disbelief.
The melody stopped. Lailah stopped playing the veena, staring

blankly at Michael. She struggled to accept this.
"No… no… no… this...this is impossible. How? Why is my veena

unable to affect you?" Lailah became rather despaired. Not only
did Michael soil her purity, but he was also now immune to her
veena. This prevented her from ever taking revenge. She could
not accept this.
Lailah did not believe it. She began playing again but no matter
what she tried, it was unable to harm Michael and the baby
dragon at all. They really did seem to be completely immune to
her veena.
"Impossible, why-why can't my veena hurt you?" Lailah shook her

head. More and more tears welled up in her eyes, before finally
rolling down her beautiful face as two streaks of crystal-like tears.
She was in misery.
"It was all your fault Lailah, who told you to harness the energy
you have an idea about? You paid the price for what you did, it's
simple as that '' He wasn't going to console her or anything and if
he could, he would have killed her for trying to kill him. Since that
was not the case, he gave her the piece of his mind. She was
shivering in anger and feeling helpless, she wanted to rip them to
pieces yet she couldn't even barely hurt them. Her face started to
become redder and redder as tears of fury and misery flowed out
of her bloodshot eyes.
What happened between him and Lailah was definitely not an

accident. As he said, it was her own fault for attracting both Yang
and Ying from the First energies instead of only Yin energy. Even
if she just tried to harness the Ying, she would have ended up
dying because her body and soul were not at the level to handle
the First energies. The system would have used a special method
to harness the energies to come out of the safe mode while
strengthening Michael, it was her who acted rashly and put his life
in jeopardy. At that time, he had no choice. He needed to survive.
Even if he could travel back in time, he would have still done the
same thing. Besides, most guys would have chosen to have sex
with her using her moment of vulnerability but he did not, as far as
he was concerned, he did no wrong except being a gentleman to
her.
"You...you bastard...how could you...use Spirit walking-"

"So what would you have wanted me to do? have sex with you?
Would you have acted differently if I did that?" he continued to fire
question after question at her, as an answer, she got nothing. She
just stood there with no words to speak
"I did what I had to survive, be grateful that I didn't take your
virginity"
"This..this..is worse" she replied, gritting her teeth.
"For me, it's not and as I said before, this is all your fault. So quit
whining and get over it!" Looking at her standing there without an
answer, he sighed and willed the system to open the interface. He
knew that Lailah needed to calm down right now, so he did not
disturb her. Considering he too cannot hurt her even if he wanted
to at the moment, he could only let matters take their course and
develop as they would.
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Core Formation stage, level 1
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2

Death Range - LVL 2
Status: Healthy

badass point(s))
The Abyssal
Quieting down, Michael immediately checked the conditions of his

own body. A wide grin was put on his face when he looked at his
stats. Although the trip to the treacherous ocean was extremely
dangerous, he had gained a lot. He couldn't wait to see the
reaction on the faces of the so-called superstars of the youngest
generation such as Victoria and Evan. This was the reason the
system always urged him to explore the world, go out adventuring
and basically piss off powerful people so he could get stronger as
fast as possible. If he had to blame someone for his slow pace
cultivation, it should be him as he was the one playing it safe.
However, playing it safe ends now because he decided to go on
an adventure with Gaya after getting out of this place.
With the increase in his cultivation level, all of his spells received a
power boost although it was not as much as upgrading the spells
to the next level.
After closing the stat window, he noticed the small golden box on
the corner of his sight bouncing up and down. His face
immediately brightened when he saw the box,
"A Legendary gift box, damn this day gets keep better and better"
[Does the host wish to open the Gift box?]
"Heck yeah!"
Chapter 169 - The Inventor
Trait
The golden box grew bigger and bigger before exploding into
golden bits of light revealing a silver card.
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the unique trait

'Inventor']
As soon as finished reading the system notification, he felt the

familiar sharp pain in his mind. In a blink of an eye, the pain
disappeared leaving new knowledge in his brain.
[Congratulations to the host for becoming the Level 1 Inventor.

The host can now use the materials found in this world to build
basic tools]
Michael closed his eyes for a second, studying the new

knowledge. He was able to tell that he could now build tools such
as batteries, torches, and compasses using the materials found in
this world. Although these tools seemed almost useless to him, he
did not underestimate the trait.
"System show me how many levels this trait has and what do I get
in each level?"
[The Inventor trait has 6-star levels]
[Star 1 - The host will be able to build basic tools and day to day
items]
[Star 2 - The host will be able to build basic gadgets such as

night-vision goggles, lasers, etc]
[Star 3 - The host will be able to build complex gadgets such as
eavesdropping bugs, micro cameras, and trackers, etc]
[Star 4 - The host will be able to build new and antique firearms
such as crossbows, mini crossbows, limited shots revolver,
cannons, etc]
[Star 5 - The host will be able to build various types of new

gadgets and weapons]
[The host is required to either have a 5-star blacksmith or become

a 5-star blacksmith to unlock the Star-6 Inventor Trait ]
His eyes sparkled looking at this overpowered trait. He couldn't

even imagine how powerful he would become after reaching the
5-sta Inventor level. Whoever had a special trait in this world
would be more likely to become successful and powerful than
those who don't have a trait.
For instance, the 5-star Alchemy had already made him super op
and saved his life a couple of times yet Alchemy was not a unique
trait but the Inventor trait was.
His smile grew wider in excitement, "System, quick, tell me the

cost for upgrading the trait"
[Star 2 requires 10,000 badass points ]
"Do it" Although 10k points was a huge amount, he did not care
about the points as he realized the potential of this trait. After he
ordered the system, his 48,000 badass points were reduced to
38,000. The very next moment, he experienced a tingling
sensation in his brain before the notification box appeared in front
of him.

basic gadgets]
"How much for the next level?" He asked quickly. He knew he

probably doesn't have enough badass points to reach the 5-star
level but he wanted to upgrade as much as possible with the
current amount of points.
[20,000 badass points]
"You know what to do" The points decreased to 18,000 while the
tingling sensation appeared again and this time, it was slightly
more painful than before.

complex gadgets]
Michael closed his eyes again and felt like he could build
numerous complex gadgets using the materials found in this
world, he had already started to plan a few modifications and new
gadgets to his Lucifer armor.
Now that he could build gadgets such as eavesdropping bugs and

micro cameras, he did not need to buy them from the system.
"System, how much for the next upgrade?"
"Damn, I have a lot of work to do" saving his remaining points for
an emergency, he closed the system before taking out a slice of
meat he bought for the baby dragon from his storage.
At the moment, the baby dragon was standing on his shoulder,

staring at everything around him curiously and whenever his gaze
fell on Lailah, puffs of smoke would come out of his nostrils.
"Do you want this?" Michael showed the juicy red meat to the
baby dragon.
"Yummy!" seeing his favorite food, the baby dragon's eyes

sparkled as he lunged at the meat.
"Slow down" he was too late as the baby dragon had already
finished half of the slice in one single bite.
While the baby dragon was munching on the meat, he turned his
gaze towards Lailah, "How long do you plan to be like this? After
balancing the Yin and Yang and absorbing the energies, we both
should have reaped great benefits. See it for yourself"
Currently, Lailah had already begun to calm down gradually.

Hearing what Michael had said, her expression remained the
same. She closed her eyes skeptically, silently sensing any
changes in her body.
A second later, Lailah's eyes abruptly snapped open. They were

filled with an unconcealable shock but very soon, it turned into
pain. She gently bit her bottom lip and she seemed down.
Her strength had indeed increased, just as he had said. However,

compared to the price she had paid, she would have rather not
gained this increase.
"I would have rather died than increasing my cultivation level like
that" she didn't hide the misery and anger inside her heart as she
yelled at him.
Her answer however annoyed Michael.
"Then kill yourself, no one is stopping you"
"Yeah go and die, puny human!' the baby dragon raised his claws
and said disdainfully. It was obvious that the baby dragon did not
like Lailah and would kill her if he could.
The way the both of them acted fanned the flames of her anger
yet she knew she is unable to harm them at all. However,
although her heart was burning in anger at him, her mind told her
that he used the Spirit walking only because he had no choice and
avoided taking advantage of the situation to sully her body which
many young men like him would have done in a heartbeat.
Michael did not give a shit about her feelings, he did what he had
to survive. If it wasn't for the fact she knew the way to the
teleportation array and save Christopher, he would have already
left her.
Seeing that she did not overreact like before, he calmly said, "
Let's see if we can find the teleportation array"
Lailah sat dejectedly on the ground as if she could not hear

Michael at all. She gave no reaction. He then slowly took a couple
of steps towards her
"The longer we stay here, the longer that old man would suffer"
As he said that, Michael paid no more attention to her, turning

around and walking off into the distance with the baby dragon.
Lailah slowly raised her head. She stared at his back which
constantly grew smaller with mixed emotions. Gently biting her lip,
she hesitated slightly before she slowly followed Michael in the
end.
The two of them maintained a distance of thirty meters between

them as they traveled and they eventually arrived at a deep canal
of unknown meters. This was where the two huge pillars of light
were three days ago.
Standing at the canal of the canal, he did not hurry down. He

focused his eyes on the very center of it. He could vaguely feel
some extremely obscure ripples of energy and the ripples were so
powerful that it even made him shocked.
[The system can sense the energy signature of the teleportation

array] he sighed in relief seeing that he's on the correct path.
"What's down there? I can vaguely sense powerful energy coming

from this hole" the baby dragon craned his neck to look into the
hole before speaking.
Lailah also walked up from behind. Despite the wound in her

heart, she had already calmed down and her face was once again
hidden by a veil. She stood three meters away from him at the
edge of the canal. At the same time, she looked down into the
very depths with her eyes that were still filled with misery. She
could obviously feel the extremely obscure but powerful ripples of
energy too.
After hearing the system and the baby dragon, he looked at the
dark hole vigilantly. He then willed the Arch energy to fill every
corner of his body, strengthening his body to the limit.
He no longer paid any attention to Lilah and her tantrum. Without

even turning back to look at her, he directly leaped into the hole.
While falling down, he retrieved the flying sword and hopped on it
in the mid-air.
Lailah followed closely after he leaped down. She tailed Michael,

slowly gliding down toward the bottom too.? The two of them
arrived at the bottom very quickly. The bottom was flat and had a
diameter of a hundred meters. Two balls of powerful light floated
quietly at the center. The balls were two meters off the ground.
One ball seemed to have been made of water which radiated a
bright blue color while the other seemed to have been made of
fire, radiating fiery red color.
[The First Energy stone] the system exclaimed as he was staring

at the two balls of energy with interest for a while before he slowly
walked over. The baby dragon and Lailah also looked at the
energy balls, observing them curiously.? After he sensed a slight
surprise in the system's voice, he wondered whether he could use
the balls of energy to further advance in the cultivation.
However, as soon as he reached thirty meters from the energy

balls, a white figure appeared silently to block Michael's path
before the baby dragon and Lailah fell unconsciously on the
ground.
Chapter 170 - The Supreme
Guardian Meets The Dark Lord
The sudden white figure frightened Michael greatly. His instincts

kicked in as he immediately activated the Lightning Dash to
retreat before grabbing the unconscious baby dragon from the
ground. After retreating several meters away from the figure, he
stared vigilantly at the figure that had just appeared.
Only now did Michael see the figure's appearance clearly. He was
a middle-aged man who seemed to be in his late or mid-forties but
the man's calm face still contained the residual handsomeness of
his youth. He did not seem like the average man, his distant eyes
were filled with calmness as if he had no worries. The man
radiated a noble holy aura that would make a commoner kneel
down to worship him as a God. However, his body seemed rather
ethereal. He did not seem to be corporeal.
With the appearance of the man, an indescribable pressure

immediately began to permeate the surroundings. At this very
moment, the entire world seemed to freeze, even time stopped.
He was familiar with this feeling, it was just as whenever he
entered the system.
[Warning!]
[The host is under a telepathic attack!]
[Immediate firewall against telepathic attacks recommended!]
[Does the host wish to upgrade the firewall to level 2? The

upgrade will cost the host 8,000 badass points]
"Do it" He was experiencing a mind-exploding headache as

someone was hitting him in the head with a hammer. The pain
gradually lessened after he ordered the system to upgrade the
firewalls that he previously used against the SilverMoon girls'
telepathic attract to level 2. He then sent a jolt of lightning through
the baby dragon's body to wake him up.
"And system scan the place for the teleportation array and notify
me when you're ready to teleport me away"
"Grrr! What just happened? Whoa, what's that?" the baby dragon
hissed angrily before being shocked by the ethereal figure floating
in front of them.
Lailah was lying on the ground without moving. Just the pressure
from the man was enough to make her lose consciousness.
Half Immortal!
This thought occurred to both Michael and the baby dragon. The
man floated three meters in the air. He stared fixedly at him and
the baby dragon, while a sliver of shock appeared in his eyes, and
soon, the surprise turned into a fit of anger.
"Dark Lord" Michael's face immediately became grim hearing the

man identify him as Dark Lord somehow. However, Michael did
not plan to bluff his way out because he had already sensed this
man knew exactly who he was.
Knowing that there's no point in acting innocent, Michael willed the

system to equip Lucifer's suit of armor because if this old man was
looking for the Dark Lord, he should meet the Dark Lord.
This time the ethereal figure stared at him speechlessly in a

sudden shock and it was not only him but the baby dragon also
looked startled to see Michael in this form.
"Who am I talking to?" he asked the man while slowly walking

towards him.
"The man who hunted down your followers and killed them like
they were a bunch of wild dogs even before you appeared in this
world. The Fifth Supreme Guardian, Andreas McLeod"
Andreas McLeod was the Supreme Guardian of the Guardian
Guild. When the Elon continent was controlled by the order of
death in ancient times, it was him who emerged at the most
crucial moment after all the powerful and influential organizations
at that time were controlled by them. He single-handedly killed
many powerful members of the order and led a group of Elder
Guardians to eradicate the order by himself, preventing the order
from reaching out to the rest of the world. This was the reason
why the continent had its current peace because the order of
death was an evil organization that did countless evil deeds
across the continent.
A sliver of surprise flashed across Michael's eyes,
"And the man who tried to kill me ever since I stepped into The
Treacherous Ocean and failed" he sneered without even a hint of
fear in his heart. Although the ethereal form in front of him was
half immortal, Michael believed that he couldn't harm him because
if he could, he would have done it by now.
The pressure around Michael increased significantly but the newly

upgraded firewall kept the pressure from reaching both Michael
and his pet.
But quickly the pressure disappeared from the place as an

arrogant smile appeared on Andreas's face.
"Leave this world while you still can Dark Lord"
"You have some nerve, you're nothing but a sliver of left behind
soul" the baby dragon spoke in Michael's stead. The man turned
his gaze towards the baby dragon,
"So it's true, Edros's descendent has a Forest dragon as his foe"
he then turned his gaze back at Michael
"Thousands of years ago, the guardians eradicated the world of

your followers, Dark Lord, they will do it again and this time, they
will end the darkness once and for all. The world is and will be
better without you"
"Hahahaha" Michael burst into evil laughter after hearing the man.
The man seemed to have really believed the fact that the world is
in better shape now.
"Do you really think the world is better now? How long have you
been stuck here?" Michael questioned the man and continued,
"And don't even start me on the Guardians, they are now just a
bunch of corrupt politicians. This world is not better, this world is
sick, and I'm here to cure it and if your guardians stood in my way,
I will tear them apart" The baby dragon felt the cold murderous
aura he's radiating while speaking and realized he was not kidding
around.
"Humph, don't act like you care, all you want is to control and rule
this world, strip away everyone free will, make the people in this
world your slaves"
"I don't know anything about stripping away free will or making
people my slaves but controlling and ruling the world is just what
I'm going to do. The guardians can try to stop me" the man just
stared at him in silence for a few seconds before replying with a
calm smile,
"Don't be too arrogant Dark Lord, the guardians may have turned
into what you claim but there will be guardians who would gladly
give their life fighting you and my successor is already growing
stronger each passing day"
Michael took a note in his mind about the next Supreme Guardian,
if he could find that one, he would kill him or her and eliminate a
huge threat but he already knew it won't be that simple.
"And don't even think about killing my successor, I made sure he

stays safe from you" Like Andreas read his mind, he spoke with
utmost confidence.
"You already marked his death the moment you put him against
me. If he ever tries to stop me from achieving my goals, he will die
and I don't make threats, I make promises"
"He will have an army in his command, an army that will hunt you
down and kill you. Keeping my successor safe was not the only
thing I did, Dark Lord, if you ever try to build the order of death
again, the guardians will find you. So you're just a one-man
against an army"
"He is not alone," the baby dragon said roaring at Andreas,
"See, I've already begun to build an army to fight against the

Guardians"
"Guardians are not the only ones you should be worried about
Dark Lord. Each and every champion of the Great clans will unite
to fight against you, Edros's descendent, and my successor is just
one of the" Under the black mask, Michael frowned slightly. He
knew he would be eventually fighting against the guardians but
after seeing the confidence in Andreas's eyes, he was sure that
each great clan has its own version of supreme guardians and
would fight him in the future.
However, instead of worrying, he began to feel the excitement

rising in his heart because they don't have what he has, the
badass system.
"You just made my life a little easier by telling me all these pieces
of information. Before coming here, Guardians was my only target
but now, I will start breaking down all the Great clans one brick at
a time using any means necessary, after all, I'm the Dark fucking
Lord"
The tension between them arose as they both stared at them

without uttering a word. Soon afterward, Michael's gaze fell on the
two energy balls behind the ethereal figure of Andreas. Looking at
his gaze landing the two energy balls, Andreas waved his hand as
the two energy balls came floating towards him
"Let me guess, you are keeping this for your successor"
"I can see the energy trace in this place and around the two weird
energy balls" the baby dragon spoke looking around the place.
"The teleportation array is here and these balls of energy are
connected to the array" Michael was surprised to hear the baby
dragon speak like this. He had no idea that the baby dragon could
really see the world in a different perspective as well as the
energy traces better than any other race. The dragons were the
masters of energy tracking and manipulation.
"You didn't show yourself to give me tips and tricks did you? if I'm
right, the moment I activate the teleportation array, the two energy
balls would be teleported to your successor"
"And my successor and his woman will absorb the energy to

become stronger. This Godly energy will make them invincible"
Andreas said arrogantly. He knew the Dark Lord can't touch the
Godly energy as he made sure of that thousands of years ago.
"System, can I absorb the energy?"
[The system's current level is too low to absorb the First Energy]
Hearing the system, he was slightly disappointed, it would have

been a great bitch slap to Andreas if he could absorb the energy
in front of him.
[However, the system can severe the connection between the

teleportation array and the two energy balls for 3000 badass
points]
"If I leave them here, anything can happen. System can you
destroy them? if I can't have them then no one should"
[Yes, the system can destroy the balls of energy for 5000 badass
points]
Chapter 171 - End Of The
Treacherous Ocean Arc
The moment he heard the system, an evil grin appeared behind

his black mask. Standing from the opposite side, Andreas saw a
dark and extremely powerful energy gathering around the Dark
Lord's both hands. He creased his brows seeing the dark energy
as the Dark Lord spoke,
"You said that you killed my followers like a bunch of wild dogs
and the guardians will do the same to me. But you forgot one
important thing Andreas" Michael slowly stepped forwards
towards the balls of energy hovering in the sky beside Andreas,
the closer he got the energy balls, the denser the dark mist
around his hands became.
"When you play with the devil, you'll end up in hell" after these
words escaped his mouth, he reached out to grab the floating
balls of energy.
"You-" Andreas's eyes widened as much as they could, staring at

the Dark Lord grabbing the balls of energy. The two balls
struggled, vibrating violently under his grasp but the dark mist
quickly surrounded them. As the dark mist surrounded the two
energy balls, they started to struggle less and less before finally
completely vanishing off into the dark mist.
"How...how is...it can't..be" Andreas stuttered, he never thought

the Godly energies he spent half of his life searching could be
destroyed by the Dark Lord in a couple of seconds. Just as the
order of death, the guardians also had an oracle who warned
them about the Dark Lord but nobody took the badass system into
the equation.
Soon after Michael destroyed the two energy balls, the ethereal
form of Andreas began to flicker,
"This sliver of soul is dissipating," the baby dragon said, coming

out of his shock of seeing Michael destroy the two energy balls.
Andreas could only stare at the Dark Lord and pray that his
successor could defeat the Dark Lord who seems more powerful
than he had imagined. At this moment, he really doubted whether
what he left behind was enough to help his successor beat the
Dark Lord or not. After what he had just seen, he realized that it
was definitely not enough and hoped the Gods would help his
successor on his path to defeat the darkness.
"Thank you for everything you said old man, it was really helpful"
Michael waved his hands snickering before the ethereal form of
Andreas disappeared from his sight completely.
On the ground, Lailah's body slightly moved as she slowly opened

her eyes, regaining consciousness. He quickly unequipped
Lucifer's armor and equipped the armor he was wearing before.
"Down" he whispered to the dragon, falling on the ground to

pretend he too was unconscious. The baby dragon did not ask
any questions as he followed Michael's lead.
"What...just...happened?" Lailah opened her eyes to see Ghost

and the baby dragon slowly waking up.
"I don't... know," Michael said, gently lifting the baby dragon from
the ground. Both of them struggled to stand on their feet, Laila
was really struggling while Michael and the baby dragon just
pretended to be.
He let out a sigh of relief thinking about finally leaving his place
looking toward Lailah. "Lailah, we should leave"
Lailah glanced at Michael. She forcefully restrained her voice and

did not say anything. Turning around, she silently walked to the
place where the two balls of energy were before.
Standing there, she closed her eyes, chanting a few words under
her breath to activate the teleportation array. Soon after she
started to murmur, the ground beneath them lightened up
revealing blue complicated engraving.
Walking to the center of the glowing formation, Michael looked

back at the fog-covered island. He knew that from now onward, he
had to work harder than ever before to achieve his goals. The
short conversation he had with Andreas really opened his eyes
and gave him a new perspective. Everything he said was deeply
engraved into his brain, especially what he said about Edros's
descendent. Even though he had the badass system, he did not
underestimate the foes he would be facing in the future. To fight
them, he planned to recruit people with high potential to build an
army that would fight for him. He saw what a drop of Edros's blood
could do and if the descendant has half of his ancestor's power,
he knew he must increase the baby dragon's power as soon as
possible.
Roar!
Perhaps the disappearance of the two energy balls had alarmed

the mutated beings roaming around the treacherous ocean as
powerful roars immediately echoed. Large numbers of mutated
beings all charged at the two from the surroundings.
Both of their expressions changed. Although their strength had

increased substantially, they could not fight hundreds of unkillable
mutated beings. Moreover, there were quite a few Fusion stage
mutated beings among the corpses, if they were surrounded, they
would not be facing a hard battle but die in a couple of seconds.
"Let's leave here quickly!" Michael called out to Lailah, urging her
to activate the teleportation array without lingering any longer in
this god-forsaken place.
Lailah did not hesitate either, she immediately drew a few symbols
in the air.
The very next moment, the engraving on the ground glowed

brighter and brighter while the ground began to tremble. In a blink
of an eye, a beam of light appeared where they were standing a
second before and disappeared along with them.
********************************
At that moment, in the sky far away from the Rainbow island, a
white light appeared in the empty space without any forewarning.
As it disappeared, it revealed the figures of Michael and Lailah.
The two of them finally returned to the world of living from the
Treacherous ocean.
As soon as they emerged from the light, Lailah immediately

became a blur that flew off into the distance with unbelievable
speed. She disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving Michael
behind, who was still floating in the sky on the flying sword with
the baby dragon.
Looking at the direction in which she disappeared off, Michael

remained indifferent. He knew that what happened back in the
treacherous ocean had affected Lailah greatly but he did not give
a shit about her little feelings.
"Lightning Dash" he just activated the lightning dash, turning

himself into a bolt of lightning before flying towards Angel's peak
where he met with Christopher. After a few hours of flying, he saw
two figures flying to him from a distance. They were the two
disciples of Lailah, Johan, and Nerita.
"Ghost, you've finally returned. Three weeks have passed since

your departure with the island mistress. We were worried about
her" Johana said from afar. Her voice was clear and pleasant just
like a lark's.
"And you cured your pet dragon, wonderful" another pleasant

voice followed Johana as nerita appeared behind Johana.
"Pet?! Grrr'' the baby dragon growled after hearing Nerita call him
a 'pet dragon'.Although the baby dragon never spent any time with
his mother or his siblings, he did inherit all the qualities of the
proud dragon race. Calling him a pet was an insult to him yet he
was not stupid to show his annoyance in front of two powerful
cultivators who could crush him to death in a blink of an eye.
"What happened back there? Why did the island mistress look
different? as if she is a completely different person?" Nerita asked.
Her face was filled with worry and concern.
"Hehehe" the baby dragon chuckled devilishly standing on his

shoulder.
"How come?" Michael asked curiously.
"As soon as the mistress returned, she gave us the Demon

Dragon's hearts and entered the back mountain to go into
seclusion. She paid no attention to us no matter how many times
we tried to talk to her. All these years I studied under her, I have
never seen her like this, what happened to her?"
Johana's face was filled with the feeling of being wronged. When
she reached the end of her words, she immediately became stern
and her gaze toward Michael had even become filled with some
threat.
Michael chuckled. "From this trip, your teacher has gained a lot.
Since she reached level 5 of the Fusion stage, she must have
wanted to consolidate her cultivation, I think that's why she went
straight into seclusion. You shouldn't worry about her and disturb
her"
"Is that so? Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Master's is getting

stronger and stronger. At this rate, she would become the
youngest half immortal this word has ever seen"
The two of them immediately became excited with what Michael

had said.
"Did she tell how to suppress the curse before she went into
seclusion?" Michael asked Johana and Nerita before they could
ask more about what happened back there.
"We knew the method, we just needed a powerful energy source
to suppress the curse and since we have the Demon Dragon's
heart, we can finally help that pitiful person to reach the Soul
refining Stage
"As long as he breaks through successfully, the pain he suffers

will be greatly reduced and if the gods desire, he can find a way to
permanently lift the curse," Johana said.
"Yeah. Because of that curse in his soul from all those years ago,
he has been suffering greatly. We did not have the heart to watch
on. At least now we can free him from that torture. Alright, let's not
talk anymore" Nerita seemed genuinely happy as her smile was
rather sincere.
Even though Johana and Nerita were Soul Strengthening stage

warriors who were just a couple of years of cultivation away from
reaching the Soul refining stage, they had always lived on the
harmonious Rainbow Islands. Very rarely did they ever leave the
island, which allowed a sliver of good and kindness to remain in
their hearts. They had not been corrupted by the disputes and
deceptions present everywhere in the outside world. This was not
to say they were a hundred percent pure-hearted kind people but
they were just less scheming horrible people, unlike the cultivators
Michael had met.
With Johana and Nerita accompanying him, they arrived at

Christopher's cave. They found him sleeping on a stone bed with
a disheveled appearance.
Chapter 172 - The Cult Of
Lucifer
Just like before, the old man was sleeping on a stone and even
though he was sleeping, his body twitched as if he was having a
nightmare or he was still suffering the effect of the curse. The two
girls stared at him pitifully, seeing his twitching body.
"In order to decrease his pain, we used the fairy melody to make
him sleep" She then turned to Johana. "Johana, let's wake him
up"
"Yes," Johana immediately sat down with her legs crossed. She
gently caressed the strings of her veena with her elegant hands,
producing a piece of gentle soul-soothing music from the veena.
Nerita's fingers also touched the strings of her veena, using a

unique method to wake Christopher from his slumber. Hearing the
melody, even Michael felt his exhausted body feel slightly
refreshed while the baby dragon seemed unaffected by the
melody at all.
"Who is he?" the baby dragon whispered into Michael's ear.
"Sect Leader Claire's grandfather"
"Whoa, isn't he supposed to be dead?" the baby dragon asked

curiously. Claire's life was not a secret to the baby dragon who
spent enough time with Claire as he would often leave the baby
dragon in her care and she loved to take care of the baby dragon.
Although at that time the baby dragon couldn't converse in the
human tongue, he understood the language perfectly. Only the
baby dragon knew that Claire loved to talk about her feelings and
everything she went through with him rather than actual human
beings. She was a girl who preferred to keep the sadness in her
heart and share the joy with the others, it was the overwhelming
sadness buried in her heart about her family that made her pour
everything out to the non talkative baby dragon when she was
alone with him. To be honest, the baby dragon sympathized with
Claire because he too had no blood relative family.
While he was sick, he heard how he was thrown out from the nest
by his own mother due to his illness from Gaya. He could still
vividly remember how he was chased through the forest by a
group of humans who looked at him like a prized possession
because of his race and the moment he met the human who
looked at him differently than the others. When the baby dragon
met Ghost, the baby dragon saw no ill intention in his eyes as he
only saw joy and love. The baby dragon sensed no bad vibrations
from him, he may be little but he knew it was this human who fed
him and kept him safe when even his own mother rejected him.
The gratefulness and the devotion he has for the human had no
bounds. Though he hated to admit it, he knew he loved the Naga
and these two were like his family, despite their differences.
Thinking about everything this human went through to save him,
the baby dragon hugged his neck as tight as he could and began
to shower him with wet kisses.
Michael was surprised to see the baby dragon starting to lick him
suddenly.
"What happened to you?" he chuckled, asking the baby dragon in

low voice.
"Nothing," the baby dragon said while licking his side of the face.
As the baby dragon was licking Michael's face without stopping,

Christopher slowly sat up from the stone bed. He said with a
croaky voice, "Sigh, how long have I slept this time?"
"Here, give this to him" Nerita flicked her wrist, retrieving the small
orb of fire that's burning with dark purple flames. Michael gently
grabbed the purple fire and surprisingly, the fire wasn't even warm
but he could feel the pulsing energy within the fire. He then
walked to the old man carrying the Demon Dragon heart in his
hand.
"Sect Leader, just like I told you, I got the Demon Dragon heart.
We can now suppress the curse and help you breakthrough to the
Soul Refining Stage" Christopher saw the purple orb of fire in his
hand and the little majestic dragon sitting on his shoulder. His old
eyes darted between the fire orb and the little dragon. He wasn't
sure what's the most shocking thing, the Demon Dragon heart or
the baby dragon on his student's shoulder.
Soon afterward, he fixed his gaze on the fire orb and felt a surging
excitement in his heart, extending his trembling hand to accept the
Demon Dragon heart. He mumbled frantically, "Demon Dragon
heart, Demon Dragon heart! This really is Demon Dragon heart!
The curse in my soul can finally be suppressed! I finally have the
chance of becoming a Soul Refiner. I can soon see my
granddaughter!"
Christopher carefully cupped the Demon Dragon heart in his

hand. With the glistening of tears in his eyes, "Youngman, I never
thought you'd actually succeed in obtaining the Demon Dragon
heart from the Treacherous ocean. It must have been a very
dangerous journey and you have a noble dragon"
"Noble Dragon, I like this old human" the baby dragon mumbled
under his breath as Michael just smiled, "Sect Leader, I will tell
you everything that happened there on our way to the sect. For
now, let's focus on suppressing your curse and reach the Soul
Refining stage. We will then find a way to permanently lift the
curse in the future"
"Ghost, you cannot stay here when we suppress the curse, wait
outside the cave," Johana said after taking out a few items such
as metal plates, parchments, and a few books.
"Yes," Michael nodded at Johana and stood up to leave the cave,
"I'll be waiting for your return Sect Leader"? He then walked out of
the cave leaving Johana and Nerita to do whatever they would do
to suppress the curse.
Outside the cave, Michael sat on a large rock while the baby
dragon flapped his wings and flew around him. Michael observed
the movements within the cave excitedly. He couldn't wait to bring
a Soul Refining stage cultivator to his sect which would instantly
protect the sect from rogues, thieves, and small sects that would
have been a challenge to his sect before. Furthermore, he would
not need to buy something from the system to protect his herbal
garden.
Coupled with the Broad River sect takeover, he was positive that
the base of operation legend would increase which could provide
him with surprising benefits.
These matters aside, when he thought about the snake girl who
would be waiting for him, he couldn't help but smile looking at the
horizon.
************************************
((While Michael was in the Treacherous Ocean))
The forest was humble, gloomy, and prospering. Its canopy was
ruled by birch, ash, and linden, who provided just enough
openings for the moonlight to pass down for a mosaic of shrubs to
rule the sloping and slanting ground below. Coiling vines
suspended from the occasional tree, and a range of flowers,
which were seen occasionally, added some color to the otherwise
jade scenery. A disharmony of animal sounds, which were caused
by rummaging critters, echoed in the air and formed a chaotic
orchestra with the occasional roar of a large animal trying to scare
away predators. Hidden among the sea of trees, there was a
campsite with several large huts and in the middle of the huts
stood a cabin.
At the moment inside the cabin, the light coming from the torches
reflected on two figures. They were hanging from the ceiling and
tied with iron chains.
Slowly, the cabin door creaked open to reveal a sturdy man with
two bodyguards who stood seven feet in height, they were neither
too thin nor too muscular but had a lean body. The most iconic
feature of these bodyguards was their faces, they resembled the
wolf and one did not need a special glass to identify them as the
beastmen.
"Release me! Do you know who I am?" the one who was hanging
from the ceiling ruffled the chains and shouted at the man
standing between the two beastmen.
"Of course I know who you are, Mister Gerty, the infamous cousin
of Minister Bobby Gerty"? the man walked out of the shade cast
by the two beastmen and showed his face in the torchlight. The
man wore a hat with colorful feathers on it and wore an eye patch
covering his right eye. From above his left eye to his chin, a long
deep scar could be seen.
He slowly walked towards the man and ran his fingers through the
man's face and then he moved to the figure hanging next to him,
"Get your filthy hands off of her!" the man rattled his chains,
violently shaking his body
"You have a beautiful wife, Mister Gerty, too bad she's a first-class
bitch and a devil reincarnate." The lack of light in the room
prevented anyone from completely seeing her face but the dim
light cast on her face did make the two wolves-faced beastmen
lick their lips.
"I heard she loves to set commoners on fire, did she recently burn
a family of commoners alive because they came to work five
minutes late?"
He said before brushing his hand on her face and the cloth
wrapped around her mouth.
"Don't! don't you dare touch her!" Mister Gerty shouted as his wife
let out a muffled groan.
"Release us! I'll… I'll pay you...I have gold...thousands of gold"

Mister Gerty began to shiver in fear, he thought they would
immediately release them after he told them who he is but seeing
they did not give a shit about his identity, he tried to get out of
captivity by paying them.
"Oh we don't need gold Mister Gerty, we are in for this for the
greater good and for our god..." there was a moment of silence
after he finished his sentence. He then slowly unsheathed the
short dagger hanging from his waist,
"Lucifer"
Chapter 173 - Operation New
Dawn
The man with the hat was standing in front of Mister Gerty and his
wife but this time, they did not even move an inch. Inside the
cabin, only a sound of water drops hitting the puddle of water
could be heard except it was not water and water puddle but the
blood of Mister Gerty and his wife. On the corner of the room, two
severed heads were still rolling and Mister Gerty's head still had
its eyes opened, overwhelmed with shock and fear.
"Captain Quinn" the cabin door creaked open to reveal another

wolf-headed man but he was not as tall or dangerous-looking as
the two-body guards behind the man who just killed Mister Gerty
and his wife.
"What is it?" Quinn still had a calm smile on his face regardless of
the fact he just beheaded a rich couple of the Royal Land. One
could see no fear in Quinn's eyes but rather he seemed excited to
kill these nobles.
"Captain of the reconnaissance team has returned and he's

waiting for you in your hut," the wolf-headed guard said, lowering
his head as a sign of respect and fear towards Quinn.
"Then let's not keep him waiting" Quinn sheathed his dagger,
taking a few steps toward the door.
"Leave the bodies in the usual place," Quinn said to the newly
arrived wolf-headed guard before leaving the cabin.
*********************************
((Just before the events of Mister Gerty and his wife's killings))
Somewhere else in the Elon continent, a majestic manor made of
grey stones stood between rocky mountains and a sea of trees.
There were no movements or living beings around the manor, one
would expect workers to work around and in the manor but there
was no one except a few figures descending from the sky into the
manor through the open roof.
After a while these figures entered the manor, they walked into a
spacious hall where a large round table was located. Six fancy
chairs made of fine wood and soft cushion situated around the
table at an equal distance from each other.
Soon, one by one four of the figures who just entered the room sat
on the chairs. Just after all the four figures took their seats, two
more figures entered the hall.
"Senior Guardian Peyton"
"Senior Guardian Xanali"
The four of them immediately recognized the two girls entering the
room. When they were about to stand up to show their respects,
Peyton just waved her hands wordlessly telling them not to bother.
"Each one of you is here because you were cherry-picked by me

and my junior sister Xanali to be a part of an important mission.
This mission will be the first step of something greater" While
Peyton was talking, Xanali flicked her wrist as a whiteboard with
numerous portraits of people appeared beside Peyton.
"Now before we go over to this' ' Peyton pointed her finger at the
whiteboard and continued "let's be clear of something, this
mission is totally off the grid, only me, my junior sister, and the
guardian captain Gerard know of this mission we are about to
start. However, if any of you decides to open your mouths about
what you're going to hear in this room, you'll be treated as a traitor
of the Guardians and you and anyone you are close to will be
either killed or exiled from Elon continent. If you want to leave, this
is your chance" Peyton glanced over to the four humans sitting
around the table, three of them were male, and the last was a
female. They all wore identical white cloaks to cover their faces as
they were instructed by Peyton.
Peyton nodded as she was expecting that they won't leave the
hall. She then turned her gaze towards the whiteboard and
snapped her fingers as the whiteboard became brighter revealing
all the portraits of the people and a portrait with a big question
mark drawn on it.
"People, welcome to operation New Dawn" on the whiteboard, the

portraits became clearer and if Michael was here he would have
definitely recognized three of the portraits among them as three of
the portraits had the faces of Gaya, her real face, Victor who is a
rogue cultivator and himself.
"New Dawn is a mission to take care of the potential threats to the

Guardians even before they could become a potential threat.
Currently, there are seventeen threats on the boards, each of you
will take four. As the first step of your mission, you will keep your
targets under your surveillance twenty-four seven, you will get the
spells, runes, and everything you need to accomplish this task"
"If your targets didn't do anything suspicious or commit a crime, let

them be and continue the surveillance. But if they did something,
anything like breaking a law set by the king of the place they were
at or fraternize with people marked as criminals by the guardians
or even kill a bunch of useless commoners, you have the
permission to make them disappear, forever" a slight murderous
aura emerged in her beautiful eyes.
"With the exception of one" Xanali spoke in a gentle manner,

pointing her finger at Gaya's portrait.
"Her name is Gaya, the most wanted criminal of Nagaland. She

had killed two hundred and sixty prisoners, bribed king's men,
attempted to murder her own family, and committed many other
sins over these past years. She was crippled by the authorities of
Nagaland but unfortunately, she has escaped Nagaland and is
now considered to be the most wanted criminal. Although she is
crippled, she's extremely resourceful and dangerous, she is my
target but if any of you see her or hear something about her, you
need to contact me ASAP, her file will be given to you after this
meeting"
After Gaya, Peyton described every individual on their list

including Victor, and finally came to the portrait of Ghost, she
wrote the name 'Ghost' in elegant handwriting.
"Ghost? The 5-star Alchemist?" the white-cloaked girl asked

Peyton and after her question, the remaining three could quickly
recognize him as they too heard about him but this was the first
time they were seeing his face, at least a drawing of his face.
"Senior Guardian, pardon my ignorance but why is he here? he's

just a Body Strengthening cultivator in a declined sect" following
the girl, another white-cloaked figure raised a question.
"Yes, he's just at the Body Strengthening stage but you should
know, he was at the Body refining stage a month before" the girl
and the man who asked the questions stared at Ghost's portrait
with their mouths slightly opened. Until now they only thought of
him as a 5-star Alchemist and did not know about his heaven-
defying cultivation speed. Now they realized why he is on the
potential threat list because they knew if he continued to grow
stronger at his rate, he would be half immortal or even immortal in
a couple of decades.
At that time, it would be near impossible to neutralize him unless

the guardians use the power of the entire guild.
"Whoever gets him as the target must treat this very seriously. He
is extremely resourceful, cold, cunning, and dangerous. Among all
of them, he's the second most mysterious, we basically knew
nothing about him except his name. By rejecting our offer of
joining the Guardian guild, he already showed us that he did not
like to play by the rules and people like him who don't like to play
by our rules, must be neutralized" Xanali said with a hint of killing
intent in her voice
"Then why don't we just kill him?" the girl in white cloak asked
Peyton and Xanali.
"We can but we need a reason to kill him, that's why we are here.
Although we have permission from the Guardian captain to
neutralize any potential threats, we cannot go killing people
without a valid reason. Besides, we are dealing with a person who
we know nothing about, don't mess with a mysterious person until
you gather all the crucial information about them. This is what the
operation New Dawn all about, stalk and neutralize"
The white-cloaked girl licked her lips looking at Ghost's picture,

she wanted him to be her target. It was not only the girl but the
remaining three also looked excited. Peyton and Xanali looked at
their excited expressions, feeling proud of their decision to choose
these four over numerous candidates.
These four were the most power-hungry goal-focused with an

unquenchable thirst to prove themselves. Furthermore, these four
proved themselves that they will get the results no matter what
and they would go to any lengths to finish their missions. These
were the qualities Peyton and Xanali wanted from their underlings
in this operation. Just as Peyton said before, this operation was
off the grid and that meant, the higher echelon of the guild won't
support or provide any kind of assistance for them and also,
Peyton and her whole group will be punished for conducting this
unsanctioned operation. The operation New Dawn was Peyton's
idea, it was meant to be a feather in her cap that would catapult
her career and status within the guild if it proved to be successful.
"What about that one, Senior Guardian Peyton?" they all asked,
pointing at the big question mark on the whiteboard as Peyton and
Xanali's face turned serious.
"The seventeenth target is the most dangerous and mysterious

one among them all" Peyton turned back to the whiteboard and
slowly wrote a name under the question mark.
"Lucifer"
Chapter 174 - Gladiators
A few hours after they started the meeting, Peyton and Xanali
sent the four of them on their way, giving them four files that
contained the information of each of their targets.
Standing in front of the whiteboard, Xanali stared at her big step

sister's portrait, her eyes contained a tinge of hatred but also a
slight sorrow.
"Xanali, don't you have somewhere else to be right now?" Peyton

noticed her junior staring at her sister's portrait and asked. She
knew the history between Xanali and Gaya, so she could
understand Xanali's feelings. Peyton also knew that although
Xanali hated her stepsister for everything Gaya did, she still had a
soft spot for her in her heart, after all, she was her sister.
"Yes, I have to go pick up the bodies in the usual place" Xanali

retraced her gaze away from Gaya and looked at Peyton.
"Make sure no one follows you, especially the holy guards. We

need to cleanse the kingdoms using Lucifer's name but we need
to do that without leaving any trace that could lead back to
Guardians" said Peyton.
"Senior, do you really think the real Lucifer will take the bait and
try to send a message by killing a noble himself?"
"Im positive, people like him have an ego. If his sole purpose was
to kill evil as he claims, he wouldn't have presented his victims in
a gruesome manner. He wants the people to see his handiwork
and since we are hijacking his thunder, he would definitely come
out of his hiding and when he does, it either us or the holy guards
who would put an end to him" Peyton looked so confident as
Xanali really believed that her prediction about Lucifer would be
true. However, Xanali still had some lingering doubts and
hesitation about Peyton's plan of killing the nobles and using them
as the bait to catch Lucifer while getting rid of nobles who had
prior criminal records.
Just by staring at Xanali's eyes, Peyton could tell she's still not a
hundred percent onboard on her plans.
"Sometimes, even the good guys gotta do bad things to make the
bad guys pay, do you understand me Xanali?"
"I do senior, it's just that I quite don't like that human Quinn"
Peyton chuckled, patting her junior on the back
"You don't have to like the tool to get the job done. After we get
what we want, we'll just get rid of him too, after all, he's one of the
wanted criminals of Royal land" Peyton's beautiful smiling face
quickly turned cold and murderous. Seeing her transformation
even Xanali felt freaked out.
"Senior, I still think that we should have brought Noah and Alicia
into this operation"
Peyton just waved her hands showing her disagreement,
"No, Noah is not the material to work outside the moral codes. He
would ask too many questions, we needed people who would do
what we say without asking a question, Noah and Alicia are not
those people.
Besides, you'll be emotionally compromised if I bring Noah to New

Dawn '' The sudden statement startled Xanali before a slight
shade of redness emerged on her face. Peyton chuckled again,
"You like him, don't you?"
"Senior!" Xanali stomped the ground, her face completely turned

red.
"What? Do what you want but just don't act too quickly, your
people still have resentment towards humans" Xanali nodded after
hearing Peyton. The Nagas had resentment towards almost all the
races because they thought they were better than everyone else.
After the disappearance of the Dragon Clan along with thousands
of dragons, the Nagas' power increased significantly and under
Gaya's mother's rule, Nagaland entered into a golden age where
they dominated all the races and reigned supremacy.
Unfortunately, the Nagas' supremacy started to decline after

Gaya's father took the throne and married Xanali's mother. Xanali
always believed that Gaya's mother's way of doing this was wrong
and lawless but here she's doing exactly what she initially hated
Gaya for.
************************************
((Three years before Michael's arrival to this world))
Under the scorching hot sun and above the burning hot sand, a
large group of warriors wearing only a simple leather cloth to
cover their genitals. Some of the warriors had toned bodies with
cut muscles while the others looked like professional bodybuilders
with their beasty muscles.
Other than the similarity of no fat in their bodies, they all had cuts
and bruises over their bodies, which they viewed as their prized
possessions.
Among these warriors, two men stood out with their golden hair
and handsome faces and once could not tell them apart because
of their identical faces.
"Titus, Optimus!'' The twins dropped their short swords to the

ground and walked out from the other warriors when they heard
their Doctorus who trained them to be the best gladiators in the
entire Miral Kingdom.
The man who called them, Doctorus was a tall black man with no
hair on his head, he had a lean body and a whip was hanging
from his waist.
"Dominus is calling for you" Titus and Optimus's faces brightened

immediately. They were Gladiators of the Ludus Gallio for five
years and their time has finally come to be the freemen. They did
not become Gladiators by choice but when General Quintus of
Miral Kingdom invaded their homeland Wesite, they were
captured along with hundreds of citizens and soldiers of Wesite.
Titus and Optimus were one of the soldiers who got captured by
General Quintus and sold as slaves in the slave market of Miral.
Because they were soldiers and good at close combat, a
nobleman called Gallio Tuccius Cethegus bought the two of them
and put them into the training to be the warriors who fight to the
death for the entertainment of southerners, The Gladiators.
Usually, a gladiator had no chance to become a freeman until he

drew his last breath but fortunately, Gallio offered all the gladiators
in his Ludus the chance to become a freeman. All they needed is
to win a certain amount of battles in the arena and they would be
freed from slavery afterward. Gallio set the number of battles to
fifty and the twins had won 49 battles.
After getting their freedom back, the twins planned to go to Mairid,

the nearby kingdom of Miral, and search for their sister. When
they were losing the war to General Quintus, the twins sent their
sister to Mairid so she could escape slavery. It had been two years
since they saw their only family, Arria. It was the thought of
reuniting with their sister that kept them fighting for two years.
Now they had one more battle before they could finally on their
way to search for their sister.
"One more win twins," Doctorus said with a thick accent as a

small proud smile appeared on the black man's face. He was
teaching the gladiators of Ludus Gallio for twenty-five years and
these twins were the best he had ever trained. He felt proud and
truly happy for them, he saw Ludus Gallio has been offering the
same offer to all the gladiators in his Ludus but no one has come
closer to 50 victories, not even close. The twins were the first to
come this closer and he was confident they would win the next
battle. Even Doctorus could only win 27 battles before he lost to a
gladiator from another Ludus. In the battle between gladiators at
the arena, a gladiator could either die or surrender which is
considered being a shame and would result in back to slavery,
therefore, a gladiator would rather choose death over slavery.
Doctorus did not surrender but had a dagger sent through his
chest by his opponent and deemed dead, however, he survived
miraculously. Ever since that battle, Doctorus never stepped onto
the arena but thrown himself into the role of Doctorus. Since he
had no family or desire to be a freeman, he was happy being a
teacher to the gladiators.
The southern continent was also known as the Awor continent

and this continent resembled the ancient Rome of earth.
Everything the Romans did in Rome, the southerners were doing
the exact same things and more on Awor. However, although this
world had energies like Arch and Celestial that enabled the people
to cultivate, the southerners were unable to cultivate. Anyone who
stepped into the Awor continent would immediately lose their
ability to use Arch or Celestial energy no matter their cultivation
level, even an immortal would turn into a mortal in Awor.
This was the reason that anyone who was born in Awor seldom
travels to the other continents or vice versa. Only a few merchants
used to travel to Awor from the other continents. Since the
cultivators couldn't use energy in Awor, they avoided Awor at all
costs because no matter how powerful they were outside, they
would become completely powerless in Awor.
Even though the southerners could not use energy, they were not
powerless as one would expect, on contrary, the southerners had
the technology, education, and wealth to match up the lack of
energy use. Besides, just like back in ancient Rome, they had
spartans, gladiators, and a few other super soldier units to fight
any enemy.
This strange phenomenon of Awor protected the southerners from

the attacks of cultivators and the remaining continents from being
attacked by the southerners. The southerners thought of this as a
blessing and their gods' will. The void of energy in Awor made
even the senators and great generals not form a countermeasure
to deal with the cultivators. And they had no idea that this lack of
planning was going to change their world forever.
Chapter 175 - The Butterfly
Effect
((Two Years before Michael's appearance and one year after Titus
and Optimus's 49th battle))
The news of someone poisoned the two elders of House Armfield

and House Randal spread through the entire Kingdom of Dradel
like a wildfire.
News of the two elders' death quickly made its way to the head of
the house, Nickmon. When he heard this news, he was stunned.
"But how? How is this possible? The two elders were Core
Formation warriors, how did they get killed?" The head of the
Nickmon Family muttered in dismay. It was very hard for him to
believe this recent bit of information, and his heart was still finding
it very shocking even now.
Just as he was in deep thoughts, a young girl wearing grey

servant clothes walked into the room with a look of discomfort on
her face. The girl was young and looked to be fifteen or sixteen
years old. She had shoulder-length hair as well as tanned skin.
Slowly making her way into the room, she placed the teapot on
the table before the man.
"Master, I've just heard that the elders of Armfield and Randal
were killed, is that true?" after a few moments of staring at the
man meekly, the girl asked.
"I'm not sure, they were all Core Formation warriors. Men! Go out
and investigate the truth behind this matter and report back to
me." The head of the Nickmon Family shouted the order.
"Yes, my lord. We will go make the inquiries straight away." The
guard stationed in the room immediately ran off to verify the
reports.
It did not take long for the man to come back to give his report.
With a frightened face, he said, " My lord, the news is true. The
elder of House Armfield and the elder of House Randal have been
poisoned. Their personal guards were too poisoned. Currently,
House Armfield and House Randal is investigating the killings"
Thunderstruck by this disastrous turn of events, the head of the

Nickmon Family had originally taken the news to be a rumor and
didn't believe it. Now hearing the news from the mouth of his
subordinate left him with no other choice but to believe it. Despite
it being hard to stomach, he simply couldn't deny it any longer.
" Did you personally see the corpses of the two elders?" Lord
Nickmon's hands clasped tightly onto the soldier's shoulders as if
trying to choke out the truth.
"Y-yes my lord. It is absolutely true. We saw the bodies with our

own eyes. They were green and dead" The soldier spoke in alarm.
Now that two influential people of East Dradel were poisoned by
someone, the soldier didn't know what to think. They knew how
hard it is to even get near the house compound let alone kill the
elders in their own rooms.
The Nickmon family head then waved his hand at the two guards,
wordlessly telling them to leave the room.
Dazed, the lord broke away from the soldier with an absent-
minded look. His Nickmon Family was indeed a power within the
East Dradel, but there were still plenty of other parties and
mercenary groups that were stronger than him. Usually, if elders
of rival families get themselves killed, he would laugh in pleasure
but now he couldn't because, before their deaths, he was working
with them secretly to bring an ancient artifact that could make the
Nickmon family's power skyrocket.
Now that the elders were killed, finding the artifact had become
harder than ever before. His dreams of rising exponentially in
power and status had been dashed, turning into nothing in a
single stroke. In other words, the fall of the two elders n had
meant the chance of the Nickmon Family becoming the most
powerful significantly fell.
When the girl heard the guards, a cold smile appeared on her
face. She hated the nobles as much as she hated General
Quintus for invading their homeland. As far as she was
concerned, the world is better off without these nobles on it. At
first, she thought the nobles of outside continents would be
different from the southerners but after being brought to Elon
continent by a slave merchant, she realized these cultivating
nobles were just as bad as the southern nobles or even worse.
Her childhood friend was killed with a single spell for just bumping
into a noble two years ago, she could still hear her friend scream
in agony before turning into nothing but ashes. That noble was
none other than the man sitting in front of her.
She wanted to burn him, just like he did to her friend. And after
killing him, she hoped to grow stronger and save her brothers. If it
was two years ago, she wouldn't even have thought of saving her
brothers as she was just a helpless girl then but now, she was
learning under a Grim Reaper captain.
The drastic turn of events had been a huge blow to the

development of the Nickmon Family, giving the man a tremendous
headache. Letting out a heavy sigh, the man walked to his desk,
"Girl, fetch me a cup of tea!"
"Yes, master!" The young girl replied before moving to prepare a

cup of tea for her master. Then standing behind him, she began to
dutifully give him a massage as the man expected from a slave
like her.
Bringing the cup up to his lips, the lord of the Nickmon Family had
only just taken a sip from his cup of tea when the young girl began
to suddenly radiate murderous intent. A delicate-looking dagger
slid into her hand before she ruthlessly stabbed it into the back of
him.
"Tsk!" Under the unflinching hand of the girl, the dagger buried
itself so deeply within the man that not even the blade could be
seen.
The man let out a pained cry as the cup of tea in his hand fell to
the table.
He was a man at the Core Strengthening stage 3 and possessed

a quick reflection but the girl's sudden attempt to take his life
caught him off guard.
He immediately rose from his chair and backhanded the girl away.
She flew across the room before slamming into the wall on the
opposite side, but the damage had been done. With a mouthful of
blood, the man knew that he had been seriously injured.
Pulling out the glowing dagger that had been embedded in his
back, the man looked at his slave in disbelief, "Bloody bitch! How
dare you try to kill your master?"
Staggering back up, the girl's eyes were flowing with tears as she
stared hatefully at the head of the Nickmon Family. Clenching her
teeth, she angrily replied, "You! You burned my friend alive. I will
take revenge for her!"
Startled, the man threw down the dagger in his hand in outrage,
"Fucking bitch! Have you gone mad? What in the world are you
talking about?"
By now, the girl had lost all pretense of being the obedient slave
she had been pretending to be. Letting out an angry shout, she
said, "Two years ago, at the Weleg market, you burned a young
girl like me alive because she bumped onto you. Ever since that
day, I wanted to kill you, burn you alive!"
A drastic change had overcome the man's face now as he stared

gravely at his slave. Soon, his serious expression turned
somewhat calm, a cold smile appeared on his face.
"I didn't think killing a lowly slave would get me stabbed in the
neck. I've clearly underestimated you, especially if you were able
to carry on for two years with such vengeance in your heart
without my detection. That in itself is worthy of being called the
slave of Nickmon. Although this enchanted dagger could pierce
my skin, it's not enough to kill me. Besides, you're not even a
cultivator. What other means do you have to kill me?"
"You underestimate me too much. There's no way I'd believe so

naively that I could kill you with a single knife. I put some poison in
your tea that you just drank. The poison is a dangerous one that
will burn your organs within. Nickmon, you cannot escape death
today!" The girl let out a cold laugh as she spat out her hatred for
him.
"What? You've poisoned my tea?!" The head of the Nickmon

Family cried out with terror. Throwing himself at the girl, he roared,
"Hand over the antidote at once!"
She had been prepared for such an action and training to run for
two years. The moment he had charged at her, she ran for the
door, quickly disappearing from sight.
He had not given chase and instead stared venomously in the

direction she had disappeared. Angrily, he said, "Where did this
bitch get this enchanted dagger and such colorless odorless
poison? " Asking himself the questions, he hurriedly took out a
bottle filled with pills from his space ring. He then swallowed the
pills to alleviate the poison or at least half its current progress in
his body.
After swallowing the pills, the head of the Nickmon Family stalked
out of his room. Calling forth for his men, he and the hundred
others immediately left the household right away.
Leaving with haste from the Nickmon family compound through

the hidden path, the young girl went to the dark alleyway where
she was instructed to go. Her body was in a weaker state than
before since she had been struck by the head of the family. She
had received no major injuries, but she was not a cultivator yet.
Her body was not accustomed to taking such a blow thus, it
heavily impacted her condition, causing her face to pale.
"Did you get the job done?" When she reached the dark alleyway,
a voice appeared from behind, she quickly turned behind to see
her mentor standing in front of her with a calm smile on his face.
Chapter 176 - Homecoming
The Sunrise mountains rose in snow-white brilliance, giving a

silent invitation for the soul to accept its beauty. Upon the glimmer
of sleeping sun on the horizon, the forest was so snowy white.
The white blanket of snow rested upon the trees, boulders, and
the ground as if it were a feather cushion, soft and warm. It
covered the ocean of trees in perfect white, revealing the
engrained beauty of winter.
The snowflake took her dance in the wintry air, pure water made
all the more beautiful by her crystalline form. The rain of
snowflakes looked like they came to earth from heaven itself,
blessing the living beings on the ground.
Amidst the rain of snowflakes, two figures flying towards a snow-

covered building in the distance. One of the figures looked exactly
opposite to the white rain, Michael.
"It's beautiful" Michael reached his hand out to catch the

snowflakes like a little kid while flying towards the sect with
Christopher, who now looked vigorous and less emaciated
because of his cultivation level. His greyish patches of hair grew
denser and black as his body slowly turned into look like fifty
years old Sylvester Stallone.
Whoosh!
A small swirling stream of fire brushed past Michael as he turned

to see the baby dragon soaring through the sky, melting the
mighty snowflakes with his dragon breath.
"Save your breath dicky" Michael chuckled expecting a funny

reaction from the baby dragon and as he expected, the baby
dragon lunged at him biting his head like a cute little puppy.
"Don't..call me that"
While the baby dragon was exacting revenge for calling him dicky,
Christopher started to slow down
"Sect Leader, are you okay?" he noticed that the closer they got to
the sect, the slower Christopher flew.
"It has been fifteen years" Christopher stopped flying as he looked

at the building in the distance. Unlike Michael who was excited to
return, Christopher's heart and mind fought with each other to
accept the new reality.
Fifteen years ago, he left the sect with his son on a journey to
search for a way to break the curse. At that time, he was afraid
that the curse might transfer to Claire. He knew Claire would
either accompany them or won't let them go, that was why they
decided to leave without telling her the truth.
"What do I tell her about her father?" Christopher looked at

Michael as he was really expecting an answer from Michael.
Michael sighed in his mind. Usually, he would try to avoid sticking

his nose into others' business but anything related to the sect was
his business because it would directly affect the Sect's legend and
the number of badass points he would get.
Before hearing Christopher's story, he had a soft spot for the

elves, not because the female elves looked gorgeous but in the
books he read and the games he played, the elves were portrayed
as an oppressed race. For instance, many novels he read had the
elves enslaved by humans. After transmigrating to this world, he
couldn't completely put aside these books as just fictional books,
considering he transmigrated to this world with the system.
However in this world, elves were not enslaved or oppressed, on

the contrary, each race had its own kingdoms and empires.
Slavery was considered unlawful and punishable by death in few
kingdoms and although slavery was not completely got ridden, it
was also not as bad as some books described, at least, not in
Elon Continent.
"Tell her the truth Sect Leader, she deserves it '' Christopher took
a long breath before nodding. Both of them then picked up speed,
soaring through the snowflakes towards the sect.
******************************
At the same time in the sunrise sect, a group of children led by

Cindy and a group of disciples led by Jack was running around
the building, taking cover and hiding from an unknown danger.
"Take it suckers!" a voice echoed through the area. In seconds of

the warning, the air was thick with snowballs so compacted that
several feet solid and icy.
"Not again," said Jack, looking at the snowball flying towards his
face in slow motion. The very next moment, the snowballs made
of freshly fallen snowflakes burst open on the impact with his face,
showering crystalline fragments that glint in the wintry light.
"Take cover!" little Cindy shouted at her little army before

frantically running behind the stack of bricks and making a
stockpile with her little hands to retaliate with. From the lull in the
action, she knew Sister Aelia is doing the same to replenish what
she already used,
"Today we white walkers are gonna win, Sister Aelia!" Cindy

taunted from behind the stack of bricks.
"Today will be no different than yesterday little girl" came the calm
voice of Gaya. "get ready to get your little buts kicked"
Plop!
Plop!
Plop!
Just after the voice disappeared, Cindy and the kids were hit by
balls of ice with no mercy from above.
"RUN!" Cindy frantically crawled away to avoid the balls of snow

while Gaya stood atop the building roof and kept hitting the little
children with deadly accuracy.
"Come on, attack her while she's distracted with them" Jack had
enough of getting attacked mercilessly by Aelia. He started this
snow fight to exact revenge on her for constantly bashing him but
ever since the snow fight started, it was him and the little kids who
got their butts kicked by Aelia, it didn't go as he planned, not at all.
Furthermore, each passing day, Aelia was stepping up her game
as it had become nearly impossible to hit her.
Until now, only Claire managed to land a couple of hits and after
that, she was buried in snow by Aelia.
"Hey Jacky, are you trying to sneak up on me?" Jack's neck hair
stood straight up hearing Gaya's voice. He slowly turned up to see
her wickedly smiling at him with watermelon-sized snowballs in
each hand.
At that moment, Jack knew he had no chance to escape but to

take the snowball like a man.
"Attack he-"
Plop!
Before he could even order his buddies to attack her, he received

yet another snowball to his face. This time the force was so great
that Jack stumbled back into the pile of snow on the ground.
"RUN!" realizing they have no chance of retaliating against her

speed of attack, the disciples chose to strategically run away
rather than stand there and get hit by the snowballs.
"Fear me bitches as I am the Queen of Snowball fight!" her

laughter of triumph echoed through the mountains.
Plop!
Just as she was evil laughing stood atop the roof, a huge snowball
soared through from the sky and blasted her down to the ground.
"Who the fuck hit me in the back?!" she was enraged to lose her
winning streak. Plus she was stunned at the attack's speed, she
did not even sense the attack coming.
She quickly picked herself from the ground and stared in the
direction of the snowball that just hit her down. In the sky, she saw
another snowball flying towards her.
"No you don't!" she quickly dodged out the snow ball's way before
it hit the ground where she was a second ago.
"Attack!" Cindy and her minions returned to the spot after seeing
Gaya fall down and Jack too gathered his group to utilize the
moment. However, they didn't expect the rain of snowflakes would
become the rain of snowballs as countless snowballs rained on
them, hitting their bodies.
"Show yourself damn it!" Gaya yelled while evading the snowballs
but still many snowballs hit her right in the face.
"You should play with some in your size" A wide grin emerged on
Gaya's face when she heard the voice. She turned her head in the
voice's direction to see Michael descending from the sky.
"Brother Ghost!"
"Senior Brother Ghost!"
"Senior!"
"Brother Ghost is back!"
Cindy, the little kids, and all the disciples who saw Michael came
running to him as he landed on the ground with Christopher. For a
few moments, none seemed to notice the old man. Just as they
were running to Michael, the baby dragon descended on Michael's
shoulder gracefully flapping his wings.
"Ghost" Gaya approached locking her eyes with Michael and the
baby dragon. The baby dragon stared at her with love before
quickly changing his gaze to a slight enmity.
"What took you so long?" she locked Michael with a long warm
hug ignoring the old man standing beside him and staring at
everything in wonder.
"Nothing big, just a few mutated beings and life-threatening

dangers in the Treacherous ocean"
"What?!" her embrace tightened the moment she heard the name
'Treacherous Ocean'
"I'll tell you everything later" Michael gently pushed her away to
look at Christopher,
"Sect Leader, you should go meet Sect Leader Claire alone"
"Sect leader?" The disciples wondered as they all looked at the

old man before their eyes widened in utter shock, their bodies felt
weak and even Gaya took a step back further away from the old
man in disbelief.
"Soul Refiner" while they were staring at Christopher

speechlessly, Michael turned towards Jack.
"Jack show him Sect Leader Claire's house"
It took Jack several seconds to come out of the shock of seeing a

Soul Refiner with his own eyes.
"Yes...yes...Sect Leader Claire...yes..got it..." Jack stuttered.
Christopher took a deep breath before slowly following Jack

towards Claire's house to meet his granddaughter after fifteen
years.
They all including Michael and Gaya stared at Christopher in

silence.
After his figure disappeared, Gaya turned her gaze towards the
baby dragon and started an intense staring contest with the scaly
creature.
"Dicky"
"Shitface" the baby dragon replied and shocked everyone around
them.
"The baby dragon can talk!"
"Oh my god!"
While the female disciples were staring at the baby dragon with
sparkling eyes, only Jack's group realized the danger the baby
dragon in,
"She's going to turn that noble dragon into a foul-mouthed

bastard"
"Brother!" Just after Jack and Christopher left the place, Michael
heard Cindy's voice as he looked down with a smile to see the
little girl throwing herself at him.
Chapter 177 - A Kiss To Seal
The Deal
Under a large snow-covered tree, Michael was looking at the

River town on the horizon. On his shoulder sat the baby dragon
only he did not stare at the River town but stared at Gaya who
was standing behind Michael tensed, her body was slightly
shivering in a mix of both anger and shock.
Michael told her everything that happened after he left her at

Royal land except the things that the system did. She seemed
stunned hearing the events that happened in the Treacherous
Ocean until she heard about the part where he Spirit walked with
Lailah. When Gaya heard that, she had pretty complicated
feelings arise inside her, jealousy, anger, a regret of not
accompanying him into the Treacherous ocean, and murdering
intent towards Lailah.
Her emotions and reactions did not surprise Michael as he was

expecting this. He knew that any girl who is in love would feel
exactly like her when another girl comes into the picture. Although
Gaya never expressed her feelings for him, he knew she loved
him, he was not oblivious to that fact but only waiting for her to tell
him that she loves him.
It was one of the reasons that Michael chose not to have sex with
Lailah because he wanted to be faithful to one girl, Gaya.
However if what happened between him and Lailah made Gaya
lose interest in him, he would not force her and hope to find his
better half in the future.
"Did you know about Spirit walking?" after remaining silent and
pondering about the events, Gaya asked.
"Only from the memories of Abras," He said, turning his head to
look her in the eyes. Surprisingly, there was no anger in her eyes.
"Did you have any kind of feelings for that bitch?"
"If I had, I would have chosen the other method to neutralize the
energies" Michael did not even take a moment to think about her
question as he answered truthfully.
"Good," she said, walking towards him. When she got closer to
him, closer to the point his warm breath brushed past her face.
She looked him in the eyes before wrapping her hands around his
neck to pull him closer to lock her lips with his.
In her kiss were the promise of years and the sweetness of

waiting for real love. The kiss was not at all the same as in the
movies, but one steeped in a passion that ignites. It was the
promise of realness, of the primal desire that lives in us all. And
with it, she told him that she is awake, connected within, that she
embraces himself rather than hide as a copy of those romantic
idols. There was something so heavenly about the kiss in the rain
of snow, a tender moment that just wouldn't wait. It was that burst
of love that is expressed, not caring if the snowflakes soak
through to chill the skin. The kiss was a connection that shows the
strength of the feeling, the mutual need. Nature could bring the
rain of snow but their inner sunshine warmed them from within.
A few seconds after, Michael pulled her closer, slightly lifting her
from the ground to show his appreciation of her. In that moment of
the kiss, their chemistry became an ever-bright flame. In that kiss
was the sweetness of passion, a million loving thoughts
condensed into a moment.
Drops of happy tears flowed down from the corners of the baby
dragon's eyes as he embraced the both of them with his stubby
wings and placed his little head on their faces.
Their kiss lasted longer until they both ran out of air in their lungs.
"You are mine" her voice contained the right amount of love and
killing intent to warn him that he can't run around seducing girls
anymore.
"And you are mine," he said gently, giving a peck on her flushed
red cheek.
"You both are mine!" The baby dragon broke the romantic moment
with his protest and made the both of them chuckle at the same
time. They looked at the baby dragon before they gave a soft kiss
on each cheek.
The baby dragon curled up against their chest like a baby smiling
and feeling the warmth of family that he never felt with his own
dragon family.
Michael put his arm around Gaya's shoulder, gazing at the

distance and savoring this moment in silence.
[Congratulations! Subordinate Gaya has reached 100% loyalty]
[Congratulations to the host for unlocking Mentor function level 2!]
[The host can now boost your chosen subordinate's cultivation

speed by 40%]
The smile on his face grew wider hearing the notification in his
mind but he did not immediately enter the system but stood with
his better half etching this moment into his brain because not
everything was about power as little things like this made life
worth living.
"Mother, are you looking at me from heaven?" Gaya thought as

she looked at the sky, tears strolled out of her eyes. She had only
a few memories of her mother, she remembers her mother would
say that 'There is only one happiness in life to love and be loved'
After her mother died, she never loved or was loved by anyone,
even her father paid little to no attention to her because at first, he
had to rule the kingdom, and then, he married another Salesi and
had Xanali together.
A few weeks after he met Gaya, even without him knowing, he
started to care for her as Abras's soul brought back the real
Michael beneath the cold uncaring shield that he erupted to
protect himself from getting hurt again after what happened to the
orphanage he cared for.
His caring for her changed Gaya from within and made her feel
what it's like to be cared for and loved. With him, she felt the
protection of a father and the love of a mother, and the affection of
a playful sibling.
Looking at the tears on her face, the baby dragon moved his
claws to gently wipe off them.
"Cry baby" he giggled after wiping off her tears,
"Jerk" she flicked him on the head as a return to his snarky

comment before turning her gaze at Michael.
"When will you marry me?" she boldly asked.
"After I dethrone your father and make you the queen of

Nagaland," he said. It was not an excuse to delay marrying her
but a promise he made to himself a moment ago. He wanted to
give what she always desired, the throne of Nagaland. From now
onwards, she would be his better half, his soul mate, his queen
and he would give anything that his queen desires and he knew
she would do the same to him.
"Then you will only get kisses from me, nothing more!" she
stomped the ground, she expected him to marry her today itself
but seeing the love in his promise, her heartfelt warmth.
"Oh?" she pulled her closer,? "it's more than enough," he said
before savoring her lips one more time.
*******************************
After leaving the place where they started the journey as each
other's soul mate, they returned to Michael's home in the sect.
With hot tea made by Raylene in their hands, they were laying on
the sofa with the baby dragon in the middle of them.
"So did you find out who was running around pretending to be
Lucifer?"
"About that, I have good news and bad news. The good news is
all of the fake Lucifer's victims were sick noble sons of bitches that
we would have eventually killed. The bad news is I think it's the
guardians who are pretending to be Lucifer to catch the real
Lucifer, us"
"Oh, how come?" Michael was surprised a bit by Gaya. If what

she said was true, then it would show him that the guardians
would play dirty to catch him.
"Because of this" she flicked her wrist as a portrait of a man

wearing an eyepatch and a hat with feathers appeared in her
hand.
"He goes by the name Quinn, he's a bandit captain wanted by

many kingdoms. He has a large number of powerful beastmen
under his command. A few years ago, he killed a guardian and his
family which made him the priority target of the entire guild. He
was hunted down by the guardians and declared dead but I saw
this evil fuck alive and kicking in the forest surrounding the Royal
Land"
"What's the connection?" the baby dragon asked. Michael told the
baby dragon about his Lucifer persona and everything related to
the Dark Lord as the baby dragon had to know to help Michael in
the future.
"Those nobles who got killed by the fake Lucifer, they weren't
killed in the Royal land as the Guardians and the Church is
claiming, they were all killed during their travels'' After Michael left
the Royal land searching for the Doctor, Gaya discreetly collected
information about the killings. While she was gathering
information, she learned about the security that the nobles had
and wondered how did the fake Lucifer manage to kill them
deceiving all the guards and security measures.
And her question was answered when she learned about each
noble's schedule before they died through various means such as
bribing and torturing the servants of the dead nobles without
revealing her face.
She found out that all the victims had two things in common, one
that all of them were killed after they traveled outside the kingdom
and guessed only their bodies were brought down to Royal land to
display to the people. Second, they had all done some evil deeds
that deserve nothing more than a gruesome death.
She then immediately collected information to form a list of

potential victims of fake Lucifer and learn about their schedule.
With this information, she identified one possible victim, the cousin
of Minister Gerty.
And that's where things got interesting...

Chapter 178 - The Fake Lucifer
And Nightmare
"Since Gerty's cousin and his wife did some fucked up shit as well
as they had to leave the kingdom to attend a gala at Kethen, I
guessed they would be the next target. Then, I followed them but
not before taking that camera thingy we were using to monitor
Dular as I had a feeling I might need that. Just like I guessed,
when their carriage was passing through the forest, they were
attacked by a group of highly trained beastmen"
"How high?" Michael asked.
"Gerty's cousin had four Level 10 and ten level 7 Core Formation
warriors but it only took three level 8 Core Formation beastmen to
take them down in just forty seconds. They came, attacked and
disappeared just like that" Gaya said, snapping.
Michael's brows raised slightly hearing Gaya. Even three of him

couldn't take fourteen Core formation warriors under forty seconds
as the beastmen did according to Gaya.
"What happened next?" the baby dragon asked her curiously.
"What do you think? I followed them to their campsite but I

couldn't get closer to the camps without alerting them as they had
a magical barrier around the place. I waited there for an entire
day, waiting for them to make a move, and the next day, I saw
Quinn walking out of one of the huts followed by two frickin Core
Strengthening level 3 beastmen. However that wasn't what
surprised me, it was what happened next" she paused for a
moment to build up the tension as the baby dragon slowly stood?
up waiting for her to continue,
"The lackeys of Quinn came out of the hut carrying the bloodied
bodies of Gerty's cousin and his wife. I knew something really
fucked up was going on and followed them deeper into the forest
until I saw them placing the two bodies in the middle of the forest.
At first, I thought they were just leaving the bodies for the
predators to eat but when I tried to get closer, I sensed another
buried and this time the barrier was several times stronger than
before. I knew I would be attacked by the barrier or get caught by
the one who set the barrier so I kept a safe distance and used the
rare mind-controlling scroll on a bird"
"Why did you do that?" The baby dragon questioned Gaya to see
her roll her eyes.
"To strap the camera thingy around the bird's neck to get a bird's
eye view" Michael felt proud of her. She did the right thing
because the mini camera was bought from the system store and
had no magical trace to it so barriers set by the cultivators couldn't
detect the camera, this was one of the reasons that he used it to
monitor Dular without the orc detecting the camera. Plus, the
camera could be instantly connected to any glass orb that Gaya
had in her space ring. The only downside of the camera was if it
wasn't set by Michael himself, there wouldn't be any recording of
the feed but it didn't stop Gaya from using the camera.
"As I was waiting for something to happen, the camera thingy got
a picture of a cloaked figure who picked up the bodies and
disappeared in a flash. The next day, the church and guardians
declared that Minister Gerty's cousin and his wife were brutally
murdered by Lucifer in their home"
"What makes you say it was the guardians who have been
pretending to be Lucifer?" this time it was not the baby dragon but
Michael asked the question.
"Think about it human, who could? bring the bodies into the
kingdom and display the bodies in the daylight without alerting the
holy guards or the guardians unless it was the guardians
themselves"
"What about the church and holy guards?" he asked again as
Gaya shook her head.
"I know the church and the holy guards, they won't go around
murder people unless someone picked a fight with the church.
Some of those dead nobles constantly paid donations to the
church, although they were evil pieces of shit, they went to church
regularly. Why would the church kill them to catch Lucifer?
Besides, the priests won't let something like this happen as it
would stain their image and the fake Lucifer is throwing up on their
image. So that leaves us with one possible suspect, the
Guardians. I did not see the cloaked figure and have no real proof
to back my claim human but every fiber in my body is telling me
it's the guardians"
"I trust your judgment" Michael agreed with her because what she
said made sense to him. He knew it must be either the church or
the guardians who had the resources and power to display the
bodies in the daylight without alerting the guards. The good thing
was all the dead nobles were evil so his image of evil killing
Lucifer would not take a major hit because of the fake Lucifer but
still, he had to tell the Royal land that it's not him, the real Lucifer
who was killing the nobles.
If it was before he went to the treacherous ocean, he would have

let the fake Lucifer run around as he did not have the chance to
kill the nobles who were now protected by the holy guards and
their own guards. However, with the Inventor Trait, he could
assassinate them without getting closer to the nobles. Of course,
it would require him to do a good old-fashioned stakeout,
information gathering, and planning to assassinate them except
he was great at those things.
"Do you still have the list of evil nobles in Royal Land?"
"Of course I still have it"
"Why are you two grinning?" the baby dragon asked, noticing the
devilish grin on their faces.
"You will know soon, Dicky"

"Don't call me Dicky!"
"Ouch,"? the baby dragon lunged at Gaya, biting her hand

mercilessly in anger.
"Speaking of Dicky, we need to name him" Michael put aside the

list for a moment and said, pulling the baby dragon from her hand.
"We already did, his name is Dicky, hehehehe"
"Release me, I'm gonna take a bite out of her!" The baby dragon
struggled to get out of Michael's clutch as he reached out his
claws to at least scratch her. Looking at the furious baby dragon,
she just stuck her tongue out to make fun of him.
Michael patted the baby dragon's head while thinking of a badass

name suitable for a mighty dragon.
"Nightmare" after deep thinking, Michael found a name for his

baby dragon.
"I don't like it, what about Assholan?"
"Bitch!"
"Hey!" Michael released the baby dragon as they both began to

roll around the floor playfully fighting with each other. He grabbed
the list to pick his next target.
It didn't take him long before his eyes landed on a familiar name,
Minister Gerty. He did not need to ask what Minister Gerty did to
end up on Gaya's list because if Gerty made it to the list, he must
have done some evil shit, Michael knew it.
However, before he could start preparing for the assassination, he

had another most important task to finish. He quickly took a piece
of paper from the table before them and began to write a list of
things he needed to finish the task as well as test his inverter skill.
"Dicky, you are just at the Foundation stage, you cannot hurt me,"
Gaya said flicking the baby dragon on the forehead.
" But I can still burn your clothes" the baby dragon revealed an
evil smile as he quickly ran up to her neck and grabbed her neck
from behind using his claws.
"The fuck?! Don't you dare, I just bought these!" she felt the baby
dragon's body getting warmer and warmer, she struggled to grab
him but the baby dragon easily avoided her hands thanks to his
small body.
"Quit it you two" Michael laughed seeing the two play and fight like
little children. Yet the two of them did not stop fighting until he
used a low-powered wind blast to throw them onto the sofa.
"Do you know what happened to Ella and Mathias? I thought he

would come here to make me apologize?" Gaya stopped fighting
with the baby dragon as Nightmare flew into Michael's hand, tired
of fighting.
"After I returned to the sect, I sent potions and pills to her so she
could use them to earn the support of elders and some influential
disciples. Three days ago she sent me a message that she has
been convincing people to join her and so far everything's going
well. Probably Mathias had forgotten about you in the midst of
saving his seat"
"Make sure Ella stay alive, it's most likely that Mathias wouldn't go
down without a fight"
Gaya simply nodded hearing him.
"How's the construction work of our restaurant going on?"
"Pretty well actually. We had no ambushes after the first reapers

attack, so it's going on at full speed. The dwarf said the restaurant
will be finished by the start of next week. And oh, Olivia is staying
with Claire, and just like I said, Aragoth built a mini-portal for her
to travel between Aragoth and here. Now we have? Aragoth and a
Soul Refiner to protect our sect, so we should speed up the
renovations and stuff" She felt excited thinking about how rich
they would be after making Sunrise sect one of the best sects in
Elon.
"Yes, we have a lot of work to do"
Chapter 179 - A Storm Is
Brewing I
After leaving the warmth of the house, he stepped outside into the
bone-chilling cold and saw Cindy and her group making a
snowman. When the little girl saw him, she dropped the snow in
her hand, running towards him.
As usual, she threw herself with utmost trust that he would catch
her.
"You gained some weight, Cindy. I can barely lift you" Michael
pretended to be struggling as the little girl laughed.
"I've grown stronger. Teacher Claire said I would soon reach the
Foundation stage" she flexed her biceps before locking her gaze
with the baby dragon, her eyes sparkled as she reached her
hands out to grab Nightmare.
"Brother can I please please please hug him?" she pleaded to

Michael, seeing Nightmare swiftly avoiding her little hands.
"Come on Nightmare, don't disappoint a cute little fudge like

Cindy"
"Yeah, be a good pet hehehe" Gaya chuckled embarrassing

Nightmare but before he could do or say anything, Michael gently
grabbed the little dragon and handed him over to Cindy.
"He's sooooooo cuuuuuteeeee!" Cindy squeezed him against her

chest, showering Nightmare with kisses.
"Come on little….human...stop...it" but no matter how hard he

protested, Cindy did not stop kissing him.
"Who would have thought a terrifying dragon would be showered
with kisses by a little girl?" Nightmare pleadingly looked at Michael
asking him wordlessly to save him from this embarrassment.
However, this scene was too cute for Michael to stop. He just
carried Cindy in his arms, walking towards the herbal garden to
plant the new rare herbs he picked from the treacherous ocean.
On his way to the herbal garden, he noticed the renovation work

was 70% completed and ready to move onto constructing new
buildings. A couple of disciples ran through the snow carrying
firewood from the nearby forest to their student quarters.
"How're you doing, Senior?"
"Greetings, Sister Aelia"
"Hiya Cindy"
The disciples happily greeted them before continuing their work.

None of them seemed to notice Michael's cultivation level though
or they would have freaked out immediately. He noticed the
disciples weren't wearing suitable clothes for winter but wearing
their usual uniforms.
Thinking about this, he just nodded at them with a smile while

Cindy gave them a short wave as she was busy squeezing
Nightmare. After strolling through the snow, Michael came to his
herbal garden where a group of disciples shoveled the snow from
the garden under the supervision of Elder Reiner. Just like the
disciples he met before, the disciples who were working in the
garden too did not wear winter clothes and even Elder Reiner
wore normal clothes. Although a cultivator could use Arch Energy
to keep the body temperature unchanged, it was a waste of
energy to constantly use it to keep the body warm rather than just
simply wearing suitable clothes.
Even Michael felt it would be a waste of energy to keep his body

warm using Arch energy rather than wearing winter clothes. Yet
until he could actually buy some winter clothes, he had no choice
but to use Arch energy so he wouldn't freeze to death in this
climate.
"Ghost, you're back, I heard what happened to the baby dragon, is

he alright now?" Elder Reiner's eyes were filled with concern and
worry. He quickly placed his palm on the baby dragon's head like
he's checking the baby dragon's body temperature.
"human save me!"? Elder Reiner took back his hand in lightning-
fast and stared at the baby dragon trembling in shock.
"So it's true, even the baby dragons can communicate using
human tongue"
"Of course I can talk, now help me human!" Nightmare tried to get
out of Cindy's clutches by asking elder Reiner to save him.
"Come here, little fellow"
"Let me hug him just a little more" Nightmare sighed in relief but to
his shock, Elder Reiner too acted like? Cindy, squeezing him
before kissing him on the forehead.
"What is... with you humans...squeezing...me?"
"Elder Reiner, I bought some new herbs, how about we plant them
now?"
"Really?! Here take him" Elder Reiner's face brightened up in

excitement. He quickly gave back Nightmare to Cindy before
Nightmare could escape.
"I assume you took them from the Treacherous Ocean"? Elder
Reiner calmly asked and his calmness really surprised both Gaya
and Michael.
"Yes, Elder Reiner. You seem awfully calm about that" Michael
said.
Elder Reiner just patted Michael on the shoulder,

"Youngbloods like you need to take risks like that. Besides, I knew
you would survive that place"
It was a breath of fresh air for Michael to see Elder Reiner act so
calm even after hearing that he went to the Treacherous ocean.
The vote of confidence made Michael like Elder Reiner more than
the other elders.
"Elder Reiner, where are the other elders? And have you seen
Claire?"
Gaya asked, doubting that Elder Reiner still has no idea about the
return of Claire's grandfather.
"They are in seclusion, I think they won't be available for another

three days and Claire, she's in her home. Why do you ask?"
"Because the previous sect leader, Christopher Merigold is not

dead and he's with Sect Leader Claire right now" Elder Reiner
halted his steps as a sliver of cold chill ran through his spine, his
usual smile instantly vanished from his face and replaced by a mix
of complicated emotions.
"No...it...can't...be...how"
"It's true, Elder Reiner, whoa" Elder Reiner stumbled on Michael

as he quickly grabbed the old man to steady him.
"You, get your ass over here"? Gaya shouted at one of the
disciples shoveling snow.
Not only the one who was summoned by Gaya but also every
disciple who was working in the garden came running to Elder
Reiner when they saw Michael holding Elder Reiner's weak body.
"Grandpa Reiner, what happened to you?"? Cindy stopped petting

Nightmare, looking at Elder Reiner, her eyes already started to
well up in tears.
"This is why you never break shocking news to elders too

suddenly, Aelia" Gaya shrugged hearing Michael.
"Yeah, you dum dum, you almost killed that old human" Nightmare
did not let go of this opportunity to mock her while hovering above
her head.
"Ghost, how... where?" Elder Reiner asked in a weak voice.
"I think it's better if you ask the previous sect leader himself, Elder
Reiner," Michael said as Elder Reiner slowly regained his normal
composure to go meet the previous sect leader himself.
"Do you think I should break the news to Elder Sandra?" Gaya
laughed thinking that she almost gave a heart attack to Elder
Reiner. The old man's reaction saddened and shocked the others
but for her, it was funny.
"No, you shouldn't," Michael said before slapping the back of her
head
Plop!
"Jerk!"
****************************
After Elder Reiner went to meet Christopher and Claire, Michael

stepped into his garden and planted all the new herbs he brought
such as Blue Camelia, Mountain Saffron, Ivory Dill, Autumn
Leaves, Worm Mustard, and many others.
Since the disciples did not know much about herbs, they couldn't
recognize the value of the herbs they were planting along with
Michael. However, Gaya recognized a few of the rare herbs such
as Blue Camelia, and bounced up and down in excitement
thinking about how much money they would make by selling the
herbs to nobles and alchemists.
"If I can eat that, Ghosty, I can definitely reach Foundation stage
level 3 in a few weeks" Nightmare sniffed the Ivory Dill with
sparkling eyes only to get swatted by Michael.
"Go away, it's not for you to eat, not yet"

"Hehehe" Gaya laughed at Nightmare getting chased away by
Michael leisurely sitting on her chair without helping Michael in the
garden works.
"That was intense" While Michael was gently planting the herbs,
he saw Jack walking into the garden flabbergasted.
"I've never seen sect leader Claire cry like that" Jack sighed sitting
on the ground near her feet.
"Did you see Elder Reiner?"
"Yeah, he's currently with sect leader Christopher. Brother Ghost,

Sister Aelia, do you think Sect Leader Claire would step down
from her position?"
The disciples working with Michael looked at him waiting for his
answer,
"I don't know but I guess sect leader Christopher won't take the
position even if sect leader Claire decided to give him," Michael
said like it was only his guess but deep down he knew Christopher
wouldn't take the Sect leader position as he has more important
things to worry about, like searching for a permanent way to lift
the curse and rescue Claire's mother from the elves.
Since Michael had to face the great clans anyways, he planned to

use Claire's mother as an excuse to fight the elves unless they
choose to stay the fuck out of his way of conquering this world.
"Jack, I need you to hit Bradford and buy these things for me"
Michael gave the list of things he needed to build his secret
weapon to beat all the guardians and the church.
When he finished building what he's planning, the church, the

guardians, and all of the nobles in Gaya's hit list wouldn't even
know what hit them.
The time for relaxation was over and after returning to Abyssal,
the time for bloody action would begin and Lucifer's name would
spread through the entire kingdom.
"Take the pegasus and also" Michael handed over the list to Jack
before turning to look at all the disciples,
"Bring the biggest cloth merchant in Bredia to me"
********************************
Hi readers,
As usual, this chapter is about the little things that would make the
story flow flawlessly. From the next chapter, the next surprising arc
will begin, and trust me, it's going to be one hell of a ride packed
with action and adventure.
Chapter 180 - A Storm Is
Brewing II
When the sun's light faded away and the darkness surrounded the
mountains, Michael and Gaya left their home through the
backdoor. They informed Jack that they are going to secluded
cultivation and not to be disturbed.
After reaching the Core Formation stage, Michael's flying speed

increased significantly, it only took them five hours to reach the
Dark forest.
"No matter how many times I enter this place, it still gives me the
creeps," Gaya said, staring at the dark walls of the Abyssal.
The winter climate blanketed everything in white snow except the

dark forest as not a single drop of snow could be seen in the
forest. As usual, the dark storm clouds hovered over the forest
with continuous flashing purple streaks of lightning. It was a
domain that stood independently radiating an evil vibe, a vibe that
could be even compared to the Treacherous ocean.
"This is home, Dark Queen," Michael who was now adorning

Lucifer's armor, said.
He truly did feel at home much as he did when he was at the sect.
To be honest, he liked Abyssal more because here, he was
himself. Deep down he knew Ghost was just a facade and Lucifer
is the real him.
Michael did not waste any time interacting with Dular but went
straight to his room on the far end of the underground.
"Dicky would love this place" Gaya jumped onto the bed that
Michael bought from the system and placed it in his room which
was used by her more than him.
His room had not many things and seemed empty. Only a few
things occupied the space such as a large table and a comfy
chair, two six feet tall book racks, and a spacious fancy black bed.
"We can't bring him here, anyone with half a brain could connect
Nightmare to Ghost and guess Ghost is Lucifer," Michael said,
sitting before the large table to build things.
Leisurely supporting her head using her hand, Gaya stared

curiously at him to see what he was up to. Michael willed the
system to take out the things Jack bought for him.
Soon afterward, on the table appeared a stack of mirrors. Each

individual mirror was the size of a 24 inch monitor.
"What do you wanna do with all these mirrors, see yourself from
various angles?" Gaya chuckled.
"We are going to see the entire Bredia" behind the black mask,
Gaya was stunned to hear his words. She quickly stood up and
came closer to see him applying a greyish glue-like substance on
one side of the mirrors.
"Let me help too," she said, taking another brush from the table to
apply the greyish substance on the mirrors just like he does.
"What do you mean by seeing the entire Bredia?" while applying

the glue, Gaya asked Michael.
"It's easier to show than explain" Michael continued to apply the

glue. After a few minutes, Michael used the Arch energy to lift the
mirrors before placing them one after another on the wall before
him.
In just a few seconds, the entire wall was filled with mirrors and
reflected nothing but the images of Gaya and Michael.
"Now what?"
"Now im going to build an army of spies" Gaya's face was full of
wonder and confusion but before she could ask a question, she
saw him take out a big chunk of metal ore, cogs, and gears, and
quite a few other items.
"Junk metal" In a single glance at the metal ore, she identified it

as the Junk metal. She took the metal ore in her hands, staring at
Michael wordlessly asking him why did he buy this ore of useless
metal.
"Why do you call this a Junk metal, because it has no Arch Energy
radiation?" Michael asked without showing any emotions but
inside, he was laughing at the people of this world thinking about
their ignorance.
"Duh"
The Junk metal as its name suggests had no use whatsoever

because unlike everything in this world that radiates at least a bit
of Arch Energy, the Junk metal did not have the ability to contain
Arch energy. Since it contained no Arch energy, the bond between
the molecules was extremely weak for a metal, in other words, it
did not possess the strength of an average metal and it was
barely considered as a metal in this world.
"Tell me how the defense spells and arrays work?"
"Why? you already know that"
"Just enlighten me"
One could see her roll her eyes if it wasn't for the mask yet she
sighed and explained to him.
"It's simple actually, the defense security spells and arrays work
by detecting the concentration of Arch energy. For instance, a rare
security array would usually detect anyone at or above the Body
Strengthening stage except the people who have the mark that
prevent array or spells from activating. As for the lifeless things,
the array or spell would remember everything around its effective
area when it was initially cast and if something new entered its
space, it would identify the thing as an unknown object and
activate the countermeasures as well as inform the one who cast
the spell and guards"
Her words reminded Michael of his previous life. As an assassin,

he often had to deal with security technologies like motion
sensors, security cameras, heat sensors, and many more. In a
sense, these security arrays and defense spells were the same
but extremely deadlier and effective than the security on earth.
In this world, a cultivator radiated Arch energy, and no matter how

powerful a cultivator becomes, one could never stop the Arch
energy radiating from the body, in fact, the more powerful one
becomes, the more the Arch energy he/she would radiate.
As Gaya explained, the arrays and spells work by detecting the

Arch energy radiated from the body or a thing. This was why the
assassins or thieves in this world had a hard time infiltrating and
killing high-profile targets like the king or ministers and often tried
to kill the targets outside their stronghold.
Since the spell or the array would activate in a very short amount
of time, even killing the target from a distance using a powerful
bow was not an option for assassins in this world.
"Now tell me, if I throw this Junk metal into a security array, do you
think it would activate the array? "
"Of course not and do YOU think someone hasn't tried making an
arrow out of the Junk metal and killing someone from a distance?"
Gaya asked, emphasizing the word you.
Michael just calmly shook his head, of course, he knew someone

might have tried to use this Junk metal's trait to break the security
spells or array.
However, they did not have a system and an Inventor trait to

breach the security.
"Just watch" Anticipation made Gaya jump on the table and sit
there staring at what he's doing.
Before starting to build his army of spies, he took a one feet long
tubular metal and a few other parts that had runes on them. Most
of these parts were used to assemble magical objects such as
carriages, weapons, and tools used by people of various
professions, therefore, he could directly buy the parts rather than
custom building them.
After looking at him assembling the parts and gluing them

together, she saw him taking the Junk metal ore and placing them
before him. Under Gaya's gaze, Michael gently caressed the long
metal tube in his hand, it resembled the shape of a ballpoint pen,
only it was one foot long and had a diameter of three inches.
"Let's see, Ignitia" holding the pointy end of the metal tube at the
Junk metal, Michael cast Ignitia as a bolt of lightning went straight
into the metal tube.
"Wow" Gaya's eyes immediately widened in shock and surprise

seeing a bright blue color light appear out of the metal tube's point
end forming a hole in the metal ore.
"What is this?" Gaya asked curiously. This was the first time she
saw a light cutting metal with this precision and ease. Normally,
she knew the blacksmiths would heat the metal using various
means before cutting them, and even though it was a weak Junk
metal, Gaya could tell the heat coming from the blue light could
easily cut many strong metals such as iron, silver, and gold.
"It's called Laser, with this I can build my army of little spies"
"How?" her eyes sparkled, wanting to play with the laser like a
child.
"You'll see" After successfully building a laser to cut the metal in

desirable shape for his first big move in taking over Bredia, he had
everything he needed to build little spy cameras.
Michael's full focus was on the task at hand as he began to cut the
metal ore and assemble various parts in front of Gaya's eyes. He
felt like Batman who was creating Batarang in his Batcave.
"Spider?" After Michael assembled his first spy camera, Gaya
took it gently and examined it with eyes full of curiosity and
wonder. The spycam on Gaya's hand was the size of a shirt
button, it had eight tiny legs and instead of eight eyes, it had only
one eye on the center of its head.
"How does it work?"
"System, connect the spyder cam to one of the mirrors" Before

answering Gaya, Michael entered the system to connect his spy
cam to one of the mirrors. He did build the spycam to use Arch
energy and link with any orbs without the help of the system but
with the help of the system, he knew that he could create a state-
of-the-art surveillance unit in Abyssal.
"It will cost the host 20 badass points"
"Do it"
Michael experienced a tingling sensation in his mind after he

ordered the system. Soon afterward, he exited the system to feel
that he could control the spyder cam using his thoughts instead of
a remote.
"Whoa!" Behind the mask, Gaya's jaw slightly dropped when one
of the mirrors suddenly began to show her face. She stared at the
mirror and the spyder on her palm repeatedly until Michael gently
grabbed the spyder cam from her.
"With this, we can soon spy on the entire Bredia"

Chapter 181 - The Real Lucifer
Is In Royal Land
"Wonderful!" Gaya joyfully clapped, thinking about the

opportunities these little spiders would bring them. She focused
on the spiders Michael is building but no matter how hard she
focused, she couldn't even sense a trace of Arch energy from
them as expected of the spiders made of Junk metal.
One by one Michael connected the spiders to the mirrors building

a state-of-the-art surveillance unit in the Abyssal. After building a
couple of spiders, his speed increased significantly. It took him
approximately two hours to build sixty spiders before finally
running out of parts and materials.
"We have sixty spiders so we have to use them efficiently. Can

you build more of these and how do you control them?"
"I can control them using a telepathic link and at the moment I can
maximum control sixty-five spiders" the number of spiders he was
able to control depended on his cultivation level, at the Core
Formation stage, he could maximum control a hundred spiders
when he reaches the level 10.
At level 1, sixty was his threshold but sixty spiders were more than
enough for him to spy on the important nobles and figures in
Bredia.
"Since that's the case, I suggest we send some of them to the

church, guardians, and the King of Bredia"
"It's my plan too but we should test our little spies first" a devilish
smile could be seen behind Michael's black mask and the same
could be said to Gaya.
At this moment, the world had not one but two Dark Lords, Lucifer,
and his Queen. The two of them were made for each other as
they had the same target in their minds, Minister Gerty.
"So what are we waiting for, let's go" Gaya was excited to see the
spiders in action.
"I have one more thing to do, how strong is your venom?" the
sudden question slightly surprised her,
"Anyone below my cultivation stage would definitely die if my

poison entered their body. The weaker they are, the faster they
die"
"What about the people above your cultivation stage?"
"Core Strengthening stage beings will be weakened instantly and

would die in a few days if they dont take an antidote or a potion to
counteract the poison. I'm not completely sure of what will be the
effects to anyone above the Core Strengthening stage" Michael
heard what she heard silently before taking out a vial and a few
herbs he picked from the Treacherous Ocean and the Sky garden
from his space ring.
"Spit it out"
"Okay"
Plop!
Michael lightly slapped the back of her head when she was about
to spit saliva into the vial instead of the poison.
"Why did you do that?"
"Spit your poison not your saliva" she punched him the shoulder
and said,
"Next time use the word poison, you dumb fuck"
"Oh, I'm a dumb fuck? Just give me your poison, your royal
highness" he couldn't help but chuckle after hearing her. With the
smirk on her face, she lifted the mask as her canines slightly grew
longer like a vampire. Soon from the point of her two canines,
dark green drops of poison dribbled into the vial permitting a
nauseating stench.
After the vial was half-filled with Gaya's poison, Michael conjured
the alchemy flames above his hand and began to throw the herbs
on the table into the green flames.
Gaya patiently waited for him to complete the potion brewing.
"System, can you remove the Arch energy radiation from this
potion?" Michael asked the system, staring at the colorless liquid
in the vial before him.
[It can be done for 1000 badass points]
"Hmm, thousand points huh?" Michael pondered for a moment

before ordering the system to do it.
"Take it"
A small layer of light that could only be seen by Michael wrapped

around the vial before fading away from the eyes. The next
moment, Michael could not sense any Arch energy radiation from
the potion, it was completely colorless and odorless.
"What is this?"
"A better variant of your poison" Michael handed over the poison
to Gay to inspect. She took a sniff and then stuck the point of her
tongue to taste test it.
"It is my poison but how can it not have any trace of Arch
energy?"
"I'm a 5-star Alchemist with ancient knowledge and im awesome"
"Yes, you are" Gaya leaned closer to lift his mask before locking
his face with hers to merge in a passionate kiss.
*******************************************
(A week after Michael built his spy cameras)
At the moment in Royal land, two cloaked figures were standing

far away from a mansion blending with the surrounding trees. The
mansion was located in a residential area of the Royal land, there
were no buzzing crowds, line of buildings and merchant carriages
could be seen in the area around the mansion.
From the outside, the mansion looked old but wonderful. It was
built with tan stones and has red brick decorations. Large,
octagon windows added to the overall look of the house and have
been added to the house in a very symmetric way.
The mansion was square-shaped. The house was fully

surrounded by glass overhanging panels. It had two floors, the
second floor was smaller than the first, which allowed for a roof
garden on two sides of the house. This floor had a very different
style than the floor below.
The roof was low and rounded and was covered with stone slabs.
Two large chimneys on each side of the manor poked out r of the
roof. Several large windows let in plenty of light to the rooms
below the roof.
The manor itself was surrounded by a gorgeous garden, including

hanging grapevines, a pagoda, a pond, and many different
flowers. On top of the beautiful garden, the manor was filled with
soldiers in iron armour, people with staff, and archers.
Despite the heavy snowfall and the cold, the soldiers did not seem
to slack off, the patrolling units were strolling through the knee-
high snow without getting tired.
There was only one road that came out of the main gate and
except for a group of soldiers who were patrolling, there were no
carriages or people could be seen traveling on the road.
The two figures who were looking at the manor from the distance
wore simple tunics, they did not stand out much and anyone who
saw them would think they were just resting under the shade of
trees. Besides the two cloaked figures, there were a couple of
travelers and merchants who were resting before campfires to
escape the cold of the winter.
"Time to let the spiders out the bag" one of the cloaked figures
took a small pouch from their pocket and opened the pouch as
several little spiders in various colors jumped out of the pouch.
Soon the spiders changed their colors to blend in with the
environment like a chameleon, some spiders on the ground
changed their colors to snow-white while those that were on the
grass changed their color to green.
"Creepy but I like them," the other cloaked figure said in a

feminine voice.
Obviously, these two figures were Michael and Gaya who spent a
week flying to Royal land from the Dark forest. Since they were
here to spy and kill Gerty, they changed their appearance by
changing their clothes and the color of their hair using a simple
potion brewed by Michael.
"Let's head back to the tavern and monitor the spiders from
there"? Michael paid for a room in a tavern nearest to Gerty's
manor. After moving the spiders into the pile of snow on the road
to the manor, Michael and Gaya began to walk in the direction of
the tavern.
The streets before Michael was blanketed with snow but it did not
seem to stop the people from coming out of their homes. He saw
many fancy carriages running through the streets while people
wearing fur-covered winter clothes strolling through the snow to
their work.It took Michael a few minutes of walking to exit the
residential area and enter the town's square where he saw the
handiwork of fake Lucifer a few weeks ago when he was at Royal
Land.
Michael and Gaya did not spend much time on the crime scene.
They swiftly went to the tavern and entered their room without
socializing with the crowd in the tavern.
Their room was just like any other room in a tavern, it had a bed, a
table, and a chair but the room was cleaner than the tavern he
used to stay in the river town.
"Shut the door"
While Michael was placing the orbs on the table, Gaya used Arch
energy to keep the door shut and prevent anyone from
eavesdropping from the adjacent rooms.
"Let's see" Michael closed his eyes to connect the ten spiders he
dropped from the pouch to the orbs before him.
Soon afterward, each orb showed the scenery of snow and a

mansion in the distance. Michael began to control the spiders
from his room,
"Damn snow, it makes patrolling so tiring"
"Shut up and do your job, we will be hanged to death if something

happens to Minister Gerty" while the spiders passing the patrolling
soldiers, Michael heard their conversation through the orbs.
"Lucifer really fucked up Jarod Gurty and his wife, I hate to say but
they deserved it after what they did to the southerner slaves"
"Why are you shedding tears for southerners? Those weaklings

wouldn't be in this position if they were blessed with the ability to
cultivate"
"Don't be an asshole, Liam. Imagine that if you were sent to

another continent as a slave, that's a worse fate one could have.
Minister Gerty is one sick bastard for in the trade for southern
slaves" Michael hid the spiders in the snow to listen to the soldiers
as they continued,
"Shhh! Are you planning to get killed? Even the Guardians or the
King have no problem with importing southern slaves"
"What a bunch of hypocrites, as long as the slaves from the

southern continent, the Guardians are fine with it huh?" Michael
snickered. The more he learned about the Guardians, the more he
realized that the Guardians are not what most people think they
are.
*******************************
Finally done with all the info fillers for this ark. From the next
chapter, expect the badass action of Lucifer!!!!
Chapter 182 - Welcome To Hell
"Fuck! I'm freezing. I cannot stand this, I'm going to use Arch
energy to warm myself "? Inside Gerty's manor, one of the
soldiers patrolling through the corridors complained to his
colleague.
"Keep it together man, the captain ordered us not to waste energy

warming ourselves" the soldier who complained reluctantly
nodded rubbing his hands together.
"Gary that lucky bastard was assigned to the hall where they have
that cozy fireplace, why didn't someone build a fireplace here?"
"Fireplace in a corridor near the servants' latrine, yeah a great

idea" the guard replied with a voice overflowing with sarcasm.
Creak!
"What is that?!" The two soldiers immediately stopped their

chatter when they heard a creak coming from above them. Their
bodies tensed as their gripes on their spears tightened,
Squeak
Squeak
Shortly, they heard the squealing sound of a rat.
"It must be a damn rat"
"Shit I nearly wet my pants," the soldier who was complaining

about the fireplace said, letting out a breath of a sigh.
"Hey it's time, look normal,"? the soldier said suddenly standing
straight without leaning on the wall behind him.
The other one also did the same and quickly hid the discomfort of
the cold from his face. A few minutes after they were standing
straight, a group of three people in full iron plate and chainmail
walked towards them from the far end of the corridor. The two
soldiers felt the cold in the area disappear as an overwhelming
pressure made their breathing heavy.
When the trio of iron-plated warriors got closer to the two guards,
they stared at the two guards and the area for a moment before
walking away from them.
Only when the trio disappeared from their sight, the two soldiers
could breathe normally.
"Just their presence is enough to make breathing hard"
"No shit, they are Core Formation level 10 warriors, what do you
expect?"
Creak!
"It's that damn rat aga-" before the soldier could finish his
sentence, a figure leaped down from above through the ceiling
and stuck a dagger into the soldier's throat.
The figure did not give the time for the other soldier to react, in
lightning-fast, the figure took out the bloodied dagger from the
soldier's throat and stabbed the other one straight through the
eye, ending his life swiftly. After ending the two soldiers' lives, the
figure dragged their bodies quickly into the latrine behind. The
figure then pulled away the dark clothes as the pool of blood on
the ground reflected an image of a young girl with brown hair.
"I hope this is the last time I have to kill" Arria stared at the two
dead bodies in the ground with eyes full of pity. She then walked
out of the latrine before sticking an out of order sign on the door.
It had been four years since she became an apprentice of a Grim

Reaper called Dagger. He was not only her mentor but also her
master, the one who holds absolute power over her, in simple
words, she was his slave.
Unlike many other masters, he gave Arria a way to earn her
freedom, which was to kill his targets for him, and eventually, he
would release her from the slave bond. Although he did not tell
how many people she had to kill, it was still better than having no
hope to get her freedom back. Plus, the fire of vengeance inside
her made her do anything to kill general Quintus who invaded
their homeland and captured her brothers as slaves.
She never wanted any of this but to rescue her brothers, she
needed to become strong and from what she heard from Dagger,
she was blessed with a godly ability that let her completely mask
the Arch energy radiating from her body which would prevent the
cultivators and arrays from detecting her.
She still had much to learn about this ability and use it to its
maximum potential. According to Dagger, Gerty was running a
slave mine in Kethen and said killing Gerty would save hundreds
of southerners from becoming slaves in the Elon continent.
Thinking about the slave traders, the flames of anger burned

hotter inside her heart. With a cold killing intent in her eyes, she
navigated through the corridors to Minister Gerty's room.
"Get ready to go to hell, Minister Gerty" When she came before a

six feet dual door that had the words 'Minister Gerty' in delicate
carving, she mumbled under her breath with a wicked smile on
her face.
"Three minutes" reminding herself the remaining time before the

next group of holy guards came to guard the room, she knocked
on the door before taking out a vial from her chest pocket in the
maid outfit she's wearing
"Who is that?" a calm voice sounded from the other side of the
door.
"My lord, Lord Rickman sent me here with the potion you asked
him to get"
"Oh? Come in come in" Hiding the expression of disgust from her
face, Arria opened the door to see an old man with shoulder-
length white hair standing before a window. The old man turned
his gaze away from the windows with a kind smile. If one did not
know about the true nature of the old man, they wouldn't think of
him as the notorious slave trader and a man who loved to abuse
young slaves on a daily basis.
The kind smile on his face even made Arria wonder if this really
Minister Gerty she read about in a file Dagger gave her.
"Give me the potion" however her doubt disappeared when she

saw the kind smile turning into a wicked smile looking at the sky
blue potion in her hands.
"Yes, my lord"
"This is just what I need right now" the old man grabbed his
crotch, wickedly smiling at Arria.
If Michael was he would have recognized the potion, it was the

potion that most of the old men at his age desire, the lizard's
dream which was used to temporarily cure erectile dysfunction
and increase stamina.
This potion would give him the ability to wash away the sorrow of
losing his cousin. He had to pay a hefty sum to get his hands on
the potion.
"Rickman you bastard, you really know what I want" Minister

Gerty took the potion from Arria's hands like it was his baby before
staring at her from head to toe.
"Come closer darling" taking a long sniff at the potion,? the old
man called her.
"Yes, my lord"
She wished she could just kill him here and now but Dagger
ordered her to kidnap Minister Gerty with the help of a
teleportation scroll. However, it didn't mean she cannot stab him in
the gut avoiding his organs to vent her anger.
"Do you want me to undress you, my lord?" she caressed the old
man's thighs with her fingers.
And just when Minister Gerty was about to swallow the potion,
Arria punched him in the balls.
"Ah-" the old man wanted to scream but Arria punched him in the
throat in a blink of an eye, shutting the old man's cry.
After what happened with Nickmon family head, she did not dare
to waste any time as she quickly retrieved the teleportation scroll
from her space ring.
The moment after she tore the teleportation array, a golden light
wrapped both Arria and Gerty before disappearing along with
them. However, in the heat of the moment, Arria failed to notice a
small spyder on Gerty's shoulder.
**************************************
Somewhere far away from the Royal land, Arria and Minister
Gerty appeared in the middle of a room. The room was decorated
with cobwebs and dust. Arria could only see trees through the
broken windows.
"Welcome to nowhere, Minister Gerty, hehehehehe" from the dark

shadows of the room, a tall figure emerged to greet Arria and
Gerty.
Minister Gerty was not a powerful cultivator, he was only at the

Body Refining stage so he was still feeling the excruciating pain of
getting his balls punched.
He growled in pain and slowly looked up in the direction of the

voice to see a tall figure wearing red robes and a clown mask.
On his chest dangled a medallion with a wolf head etched on its

surface.
"Master" Arrira bowed deeply towards the clown-faced man and

stepped aside from Gerty.
"Hehehehehehe, you did good my student, hehehehehe" His
laughter filled the silent room with wickedness and sent a cold chill
running through Gerty's spine.
"Who...who...are...you? What what do you...want?" Images of his

cousin's body and the victims of Lucifer flashed across his mind
making him think the clown is the infamous Lucifer.
"Are...are...you Lucifer?" Gerty crawled back in fear,
"Hehehehe, Lucifer? Me? People call me Dagger" In a blink of an

eye, the clown took out three long jade daggers from nowhere. He
played with them by throwing and catching the daggers like in a
circus.
"Don't worry about Lucifer, hehehehe. You are perfectly safe from
him or her although I don't think Lucifer's woman hehehehe"
"Release me! Do you know who I am?" After seeing he was not
kidnapped by Lucifer, Gerty was not as afraid as he was a second
ago.
"Of course I know who you are, didn't you hear what I called you a
moment ago?" Dagger stepped closer to Gerty while playing with
his daggers.
"Although it's me who's going to kill you, it's Lucifer who would
take the blame, hehehehehe"
"What-"
Chill!
Gerty's voice was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass.

Dagger immediately stopped playing with the daggers while Arria
quickly took out a dagger just like the one in the clown's hand.
"ah..ah...AHHHHHHH!"? Dagger turned his head to see Gerty's

screaming in horror, his face turned extremely pale. Dagger did
see fear in Gerty's eyes earlier but now the fear in his eyes was
nothing like before.
"Go...go away!" He was about to approach Gerty when he saw
Arria frantically singing her dagger in the air.
"Hehehehe, what's happening?" Dagger was confused seeing his

student act like a maniac. He looked around the room, scanning
every dark corner. While he was scanning the room, he felt
something moving on his shoulder,
"Whoa?!" He quickly grabbed the thing moving on his shoulder to

see a flickering spider caught between his fingers.
"You gave me quite a shock spidey, heheheh"? he stared at the

spider. The spider however suddenly exploded into white mist,
"Damn, an exploding spider" without his knowing, he inhaled the

white mist and began to cough.
"Cough"
"Cough"
"Cough"
"What (cough)... what's...hehehe...(cough)"
"Welcome to hell, Clown" a terrifying unearthly voice appeared out

of nowhere, making Dagger stumble back.
Chapter 183 - Perfect Assassin
The clown was frantically looking around the room to see where
the voice was coming from.
Pulch!
"Ah!"
While he was looking around, an arrow soared through the broken

window and penetrated his right shoulder.
"Hehehehe, who...is...that?" a terrifying fear began to sprout in his

heart, making his body shiver without his control.
Minister Gerty and Arria already lost consciousness and Dagger

could barely stand straight.
"Another Clown trying to use my name to kill" the voice appeared

again before the door exploded into countless pieces of splinters.
Through the smoke of dust, Dagger saw not one but two figures
walking out. Even in the dim lighting in the room, their red eyes
shone like rubies.
When the dust settled, Dagger vaguely saw that although the two
figures looked the same, he could tell one of them is a woman as
her armor was curvier to fit a woman.
"He's dead, pathetic little worm" She may be a woman but her
voice sounded nothing like a woman, it sounded animalistic and
terrifying.
On the ground, Minister Gerty laid there unmoving, his face was
as pale as white paper and blood was seeping through his
nostrils, eyes, and mouth.
"Hmm, although this human is weaker than this one, she's still
alive," Gaya said, walking at Arria.
"My gut tells me that we should keep this one alive," Michael
nodded. Since the girl was just at level 1 of the Body refining
stage, she should have been dead with the amount of fear toxin
she inhaled yet she was alive, which surprised Michael.
He quickly retrieved a small syringe containing the antidote for the

fear toxin and threw it to Gaya. While she was injecting Arria,
Michael's gaze turned back to the clown in front of him. On a
normal day, this clown would have given Michael and Gaya a
tough fight except when the spider exploded, he inhaled the mix of
Fear toxin and Gaya's poison that Michael created back at the
Abyssal. Every single spider contained this mix of toxins, he did
not think it would be of such use so soon.
After he inhaled the toxins, Michael sent pure fear toxin into the
room, resulting in Gerty's death. Considering the clown was at
Core Strengthening level 3, Michael and Gaya did not take any
chances as she shot him with an arrow dipped in her poison.
Dagger was already affected by the toxin that came out of the
spider and the Fear toxin, therefore, he could not react in time to
reflect the arrow as he would have in his peak form.
Now the weakened Dagger could barely be considered as a Core

Formation warrior.
"Death Range" Even with all this, Michael still activated the Death
Range.
The very next moment, the darkroom became darker.
"I have a few questions, answer me and I'll let you live," Michael
said, lifting the clown by his neck.
"Wh-"
Creak!
Michael snapped the clown's right hand like a twig when he was
about to ask Michael a question.
"I ask, you answer, not the other way around" Dagger tried to fight
through the pain while sensing Lucifer's cultivation level but he
was unable to.
"Why did you kidnap Gerty?"
After realizing he couldn't use a spell under his clutch, Dagger

decided to spin him a story to buy enough time. He hoped either
the holy guards or guardians would come here to rescue Gerty
somehow. But again, he was the one who picked this place and
surrounded it with runes in the first place to avoid anyone coming
after Gerty.
"I..received...a contract...to kill Gerty, hehehe"
"Why is he laughing?" Gaya asked, reaching out at his clown

mask to unmask him.
"You're an elf"
When she removed the mask, the one who stared at Michael was
a pointy ear elf. He had patches of red hair, blue eyes, and a burn
wound that left a mark stretching from the top of the left cheek,
running towards his right nostril and ending on his chin leaves a
bad memory of his unfortunate past.
Despite the fact, he belonged to the most beautiful race in this

world, there was something wicked about him. The burn wound,
the way he laughs made Michael wary of him and Gaya smelled a
faint stench coming from his body.
"Hehehehe, yes"
"Someone cursed this elf" Michael could not notice but the Nagas
were blessed with a heightened sense of smell, therefore, Gaya
instantly recognized the reason for the faint stench was a curse.
"I don't care about that, who gave you the contract?" Michael
asked the elf. He couldn't care less of who cursed the elf or why
because the clown was about to steal his kill and use his name
Lucifer to hide his tracks and that punched Dagger the ticket
straight to hell.
"I...don't...know," Michael noticed the medallion hanging on his

chest. He pulled the medallion in the other hand,
"You're a Grim Reaper,"? Gaya said. Michael did not forget that it
was a group of Grim Reapers who ambushed the dwarf who was
building Michael's restaurant.
"Then why didn't you kill Gerty in his room, why did you teleport
him here?"
"It's...it's..."? seeing how the elf mumbled, Michael realized that he

lied about getting a contract to kill Gerty.
Creak!
"AHHH! Hehehe" Michael broke the elf's other hand and weirdly,
he screamed and laughed at the same time.
"By lying, you're just playing with your own life," Michael said while
Gaya grabbed one of the daggers lying on the ground.
"Let's just kill him and ask his student" she raised the dagger
aiming at his throat when he screamed.
"Quinn! Hehehehe" Both Gaya and Michael were surprised to

hear the name Quinn again. He was the one who has been killing
the nobles and helping the fake Lucifer.
"System, scan Gerty's body and teleport everyone to Abyssal!"
[The host had only 2000 badass points remaining. Scanning the
body and Teleportation to the abyssal would cost the host 3000
points. Would you like a loan of 10,000 badass points?]
"Fuck, do it" Michael screamed at the system. A glimmer of light

wrapped around Gerty's body, scanning him for a rune or anything
that would give the location of Abyssal to the mysterious person.
[Scan completed]
[The system found the rune of tracking in Gerty's body]
[2000 badass points will be required to remove the rune]
"Yes, remove it and teleport us now!" the familiar light of

teleportation wrapped around everyone before disappearing from
the room.
************************************
Gaya saw the throne made of skull and bones and realized she
was teleported back to Abyssal by Michael. She knew something
must have happened for him to use teleportation without warning
her but she did not question him in front of the elf.
"What did Quinn want with Gerty?"
Teleportation was an extremely powerful spell wielded by a few

handfuls of people in the world. Even in the elven land, a mage
with the ability to teleport was extremely rare and powerful. The
way he instantly teleported them made Dagger realize that Lucifer
might just be the real devil everyone was claiming him to be.
He did not dare to lie again as his life was more important than
Quinn's.
"He called in a favor...he wanted me to kidnap and bring him to

the cabin. That's...that's all I know...I swear, please let me and my
student go" By looking in the elf's eyes, Gaya could tell he told the
truth about the favor but when he asked specifically asked him
and the girl to let go, her interest in the girl peaked because an
evil person like him mostly wouldn't think about anyone else other
than himself.
"I have one last question, tell me the truth and I will let you both
go"
Dagger's body loosened up a bit as a breath of sigh escaped his
mouth.
"Who is that girl and how did she get past the arrays back at
Gerty's mansion?"
Michael noticed a hint of reluctance in the elf's eyes before he

opened his mouth to answer.
"She..she has..the ability to..." his voice trailed off looking at Arria
who was lying on the ground unconscious. She was supposed to
be his trump card and the way to rise in power but now, he had no
choice but to reveal her secret.
"Ability to do what?"
"Hide the Arch energy radiation coming from her body"
Behind the masks, Michael and Gaya raised their brows in

surprise and shock. He used the junk metal to build spiders just
for this exact reason, he thought a living being, especially a
cultivator couldn't hide their Arch energy radiation no matter what.
It was supposed to be impossible, even he could only hide the
cultivation level from the eyes of others for a short amount of time
but his presence could still be detected by arrays and cultivators.
If what the elf said was true about the girl, she is the perfect
assassin for this world until Michael upgrades the system to hide
his presence.
"Dark Queen"? Michael turned his gaze at her without losing his
grip around the elf's neck.
The elf had no time to react before Gaya stabbed the dagger right
between his eyes, ending the elf's life in a blink of an eye.
Chapter 184 - A Gift From The
Real Lucifer
[Ding! Subordinate Gaya killed a Core Strengthening stage level 2

cultivator. The reward is 300,000 Experience points ] the system's
voice sounded in his mind.

"What should we do with the bodies?"
"We can burn this clown's body, as for Minister Gerty, we need to
use his body to send a message to whoever playing fake Lucifer"
"We should make the Netherels carry his body to Royal land along
with a little message," Gaya said. Unlike living beings, Netherels
wouldn't get tired and the adventurers or soldiers would inform the
church instead of attacking them, this made the Netherels perfect
for this task. Plus, the church or guardians won't be able to
interrogate the dead.
Also, it would be befitting to send the dead to do the devil lord's

work.
"Dular '' His call for the orc echoed through the dark halls. In a few
minutes, Dular came to the throne hall running and when he saw
the bodies lying on the ground, his heart skipped a beat. Not that
he never saw dead bodies but every time he saw the two devils,
an overwhelming fear would energy in his heart.
He had no idea that the reason for his fear is the fear toxin emitted
by Lucifer and Gaya's suit of armor.
"Lord Lucifer, Your Highness" After a few moments of staring at
the bodies in fear, he bowed deeply towards Lucifer who was
sitting on his throne, and Gaya who was searching through the
clown's body.
"One locked space ring coming up" Gaya threw the space ring
she took from the elf's body to Michael.
Michael caught the ring and tried to see the contents inside but
something prevented his senses from accessing the space ring.
"System"
"200 badass points" he did not even have to tell what he wanted
the system to do as it asked for points directly.
"Take it" in a couple of seconds, the something which prevented

Michael from accessing the space ring disappeared, letting him
search through the contents of the space ring.
Everything inside the space ring was ordinary, stuff such as

daggers, robes, a couple of thousand gold coins, and few
spellbooks except an ordinary-looking diary.
"Interesting" it was the diary that caught Michael's attention the

most. He took out the book as Dular's expression immediately
changed from fear to shock.
Dular knew even though the previous owner of the ring died, no
one could access its contents for at least a few days but Lucifer
unlocked the ring in a matter of seconds.
"Summon the Netherels for this month and send them to Royal
land with that body" while Michael was reading through the diary,
Gaya issued an order to Dular.
"Before that" Gaya ripped off Gerty's cloth before starting to write
a few letters on his bare naked body using her claws.
"Guardians stop pretending to be me, Lucifer" Gaya chuckled

while writing this because even if the Guardians were responsible
for the killings, this would still bring a lot of heat for them from the
church and the holy guards, if they were, this would startle them.
"System, I need a firework that paints the words 'Lucifer is

watching everyone in the sky when it explodes"
After a few minutes, Gaya saw him close the diary and walk
towards Gerty's body. He noticed Gaya's handiwork on the dead
body before placing his hand on Gerty's chest.
**********************************
"Where...where am...I?" Arria opened her eyes slowly to see

nothing but a gloomy dark hall.
"You're awake" the same voice she heard before she lost
consciousness sounded again from behind, sending a cold chill
running through her spine.
Her hands moved towards her waist searching for the dagger yet
she couldn't find her dagger.
She cautiously turned around scanning the hall like she was
trained to.
She saw tremendous braziers hanging from each of the sixteen

basalt columns light up every part of the throne hall and blanket
everything in a dark glow.
A black fur rug split the entire room in half and was matched by
the thinner ones on either side of the hall while pointed banners
with burnished plumes dangle gently from the walls. Between
each banner stands a tall candle, many of them have been lit and
in turn illuminate the portraits of cloaked figures.
"Arria Geta of Wesite"
At the end of the black rug, she saw a figure leisurely sitting on a
throne of skulls and bones atop an elevated platform. The woman
beside him wore identical armor and both of their eyes glowed like
rubies. She couldn't see their faces through the black skull masks
they were wearing.
The throne was covered in skulls and bones of various races such
as humans, orcs, and beasts. The throne itself radiated dark
energy around the figure sitting on it.
"Where...where is Dagger?" she mustered her courage to speak

to the figure on the throne. She could sense the absence of the
slave bond.
"Dead"
Arria followed his finger to see a body lying on the ground. With a
flick of a wrist, the woman behind the figure moved the body as
Arria saw the familiar clown mask beside the dead body and
confirmed the fact that Dagger is really dead.
Although she was finally free of the slave bond, she did not feel
free. Her eyes then frantically searched for Gerty because he was
the only one who could answer her questions about her brothers'
whereabouts.
Michael noticed her searching for Gerty,
"Minister Gerty is dead too" her heart skipped a beat and utter
despair hit her core.
"No...no...it...can't...be" her knees gave out as she dropped to the

ground. Streaks of tears flowed out of her eyes while making her
eyes redder and redder.
After reading Dagger's personal diary, Michael very well knew

about the reason behind her tears but he let Arria feel the despair
before he could make a deal with her.
"You...you...killed..them" an intense killing aura exploded from her

body as Michael saw the Arch energy radiation coming from her
body completely disappear.
He and Gaya were stunned by the sight of this. Arria dashed at
Michael without thinking about anything else, she just wanted to
kill him.
"Wind blast" Michael slightly raised his hand, sending a wave of

wind to blast her backward.
"How far will you go to save your brothers? I know where they
are"
The blast of wind threw Arria off balance but when she heard him,
her body was tense.
"You have an ability that's very useful to us, agree to serve us as a

loyal subordinate and I'll take you to your brothers"
"You...you know...where they...are?" she stuttered as tears

continuously rushed out of her eyes.
Gaya wryly smiled thinking that it would be easier to get the girl to
serve them than they initially expected.
"Yes, agree to be our subordinate and serve us loyally, you'll get

your brothers, freedom, and many other things you wouldn't have
even dreamed of"
She did not care about anything else but her brothers, the only
family she has left. If he could really get her to them as he was
saying, she would be his slave to him to see her brothers one
more time.
"Save them and I'll do anything you ask of me" Arria said. She
was not dumb enough not to believe that the man on the throne is
Lucifer. Although many people thought of Lucifer as an evil entity,
if he could reunite her with her brothers, she would consider him
as an angel because ever since she came to this continent, she
did not meet a single good person. As far as she was concerned,
there were no good people in this continent, especially all the
cultivators she met were rotten to the core.
"Take this and go to Iridium mines in Central Kethen" Michael
expected this and prepared to deal with the scenario. He quickly
retrieved the teleportation scroll he bought from the system,
throwing it at Arria's feet.
"Your brothers are working in the mines as slaves, use the scroll
when you meet them, it will teleport you back here," said Michael.
"But if you try to do anything stupid like escaping, we will look for
you, we will find you and we will kill you" Gaya spoke like female
Liam Neeson from Taken. The powerful aura she just radiated
made Arria's body weak as she struggled to even take a breath.
Arria picked up the scroll at her feet while Gaya walked towards
her.
"This will hurt" Arrira heard the words from the figure before she
felt a sharp pain in her head.
Gaya grabbed the unconscious body of Arria,
"Put her somewhere closer to Kethen," Michael said sitting on his

throne. He did not want Arria to know she was in the Dark forest
until she became his subordinate.
Michael also retrieved two spiders from the system and sent them
crawling towards Arria. The spiders soon crawled into her dress to
hide. If she did try to escape after rescuing her brothers, Michael
planned to activate the spiders to inject them with poison, ending
their lives because no matter how powerful or unique she is, if she
tried to betray him, he would end her life without a second
thought.
With the hidden spiders, Gaya took her to the teleportation array
adjacent to the throne hall that was the only way of getting out of
Abyssal without breaking a wall.
Chapter 185 - House Of
Winston
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 6500 (debt 12000 badass points)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2
Ring of Fire - 54% Mastery

Status: Healthy

badass point(s))
3-Star Inventor
Subordinates: Gaya - Warrior (loyalty level 100%)
Raylene -? 5-star Chef (loyalty level 97%)
The Abyssal
After sending Gay to leave Arria near Kethen, Michael was staring
at his status page with a gloomy face. No matter how many
badass points he earned, they would disappear just like that. The
stronger he got, the more badass points he needed.
"Now that I have Majestic and will soon open the restaurant, I
should upgrade Banker function"
[30,000 badass points will be required to upgrade the Banker

function to level 4. The conversation ratio will be 1000 gold coins
to 20 badass points]
"It'd be a good idea to auction some of the herbs and spell scrolls
I got from the Nether Realm" Michael decided to go to an auction
hall to sell some of the less useful items in his storage. He had
many Rare spell scrolls and herbs that would fetch a great price.
"Also, I have to meet Nathen's uncle" Deciding his next two
destinations, he rested on the throne waiting for Gaya to get back.
After waiting for another half an hour, she arrived at the Abyssal.
"I left her at Kethen's border, do you think it's a good idea sending
her alone? I heard security in the slaves mines are pretty tight, if
she tried anything stupid, she would be killed"
"That's why I gave her the scroll, even if she had an idea to
escape, she would be forced to use the scroll because of the
security"
"How do you know about her brothers anyway?"
"Surprisingly that clown had a habit of writing a diary" Michael

threw the diary to Gaya.
"Reading others' diaries is fun," she said excitedly catching the

diary.
"Do you know a good place to auction a few things?"
"Oh?" she sounded surprised,
"Why?"
"I need gold coins, a whole lot of gold coins," Michael said even
though he knew that she would wonder why he needed so many
gold coins.
"There's a Phoenix auction manor branch in Kingdom Kethen,

they host high-end auction on the weekends"
On the contrary to Michael's expectations, she did not ask him

why.
"You aren't going to ask why I need so many gold coins?" Michael
was really curious as he directly asked her.
She did not give an answer but calmly walked at him before sitting
on his lap.
"I said we shouldn't have any secrets between us and you still
seem to have a few secrets of your own, I'm not going to ask you
to reveal them all because I trust that you have a good reason not
to tell me. Whatever the reason is, I know you will tell me when
the time's right"
Michael's heart immediately warmed hearing her. He just lifted her

mask and kissed her full of love and passion. If the system was
just a system as he thought when he first came to the world, he
would have decided to keep the system's existence a secret from
her forever but he was proved wrong, the system was not just a
system. He knew that in the future he will have to fight
otherworldly supreme beings to protect him and the system, at
that time, whether he liked it or not, he would have to reveal the
system's existence because she was not only his soul mate but
also a powerful being who could help him in the battle.
"Wow, that was...intense," Gaya said, taking her lips away from
his.
"Shall we return to the sect, my queen?"
"Yes we shall, my king"
**************************************
"How dare they attack innocent people in the domain of the

Winston family?!"
In the backyard of Winston's family compound, Sabrina Winston,

the second daughter of Lord Angus Winston was barking like a
mad dog.
"Calm down Miss, we have already sent men to investigate the

bandit attacks" Samuel, an old butler who was serving the
Winston family for many decades pleaded with the young girl.
"Now that I'm back, I will personally bring those evildoers to

justice" Sabrina unsheathed her sword from the sheath that was
adorned with little blue roses.
"Please don't do anything rash Young Miss, at least wait for Young
Master Noah. The Young Master said he's coming here in a
couple of days"
"Big brother is coming?! Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" The
anger within her eyes vanished instantly when she heard the
news of her brother's arrival from Samuel.
Samuel sighed in relief thinking this would keep the young miss in
the home.
"Then it's more important for me to get rid of those bandit bastards
before big brother comes. What do the other guardians think of
him if his own homeland was infested with bandits?"
"At least let me put together a team, Young Miss," Samuel sighed.
He thought saying her brother is coming would keep her in the
home but now he realized he just made her even more willful to
go after the bandits. Ever since she was a little girl, she had a
heroic spirit just like her other siblings.
This heroic spirit earned her a place in the Holy Trident Academy,
one of the best academies in the Elon Continent for girls. Samuel
felt proud of the son and daughters of Lord Angus like they were
his own grandchildren. He watched Noah grow into a capable
young man and get into the Guardian Guild, he watched Young
Miss Rowena, Noah's elder sister become the holy maiden of Sky
hall, an existence that could be compared to the Great Nine clans
and he watched Young Miss Sabrina becomes the youngest
disciples of Holy Trident Academy.
While thinking about the three, a sliver of sadness emerged in

Samuel's eyes but the old butler quickly hid it before Sabrina
could notice.
"Uncle Samuel, what are you waiting for? I'll go out looking for the
bandits the first thing in the morning"
"I'll go put up a team to accompany you right away, Young Miss"
Sabrina sheathed her sword, rolling her eyes

"Just make sure they don't slow me down"
"Of course, Young Miss" Samuel bowed deeply before leaving the
garden area to assemble a team to go with Sabrina. Since all the
reports he received mentioned that all the bandits were at the
Body Refining stage, he knew Sabrina, A Body Refining stage
level 4 warrior and a team of Body Strengthening warriors would
eradicate the bandit problems.
"Samuel, when will Noah arrive here?" Just as Samuel was

leaving the garden area, he heard a gentle voice as he turned to
see Diana Winston, the Lady of the House Winston.
She walked towards him through the garden full of flowers.

Golden, long wavy hair neatly coiffed to reveal a lovely yet worried
face. Big, round golden eyes, set narrowly within their sockets,
one could see a faint black circle under her eyes. Her face
contained a gentle smile but also a deep sorrow.
"My lady," Samuel bowed, greeting her with a smile.
"Young Master Noah will be here in a couple of days, you don't

have to worry my lady"
"I'll always worry about my children, Samuel,"? Diana said, looking

at the last of the sun rays at the horizon.
"Have you found an Alchemist capable of brewing the potion of

phoenix?"
"I've already sent the men to Lord Gabriel's house requesting his
help, my lady. Considering Young Master's status as a trainee
guardian, he might help us. I also sent men to the Sunrise sect
asking for their 5-star Alchemist? but I don't think he could brew
the potion of phoenix"
"It's the young man named Ghost right?"? Diana asked Samuel as
he was surprised by the fact that she knew about him.
"Yes, my lady. How do you know his name?"

"Maids love to gossip, Samuel. Why do you think he cannot brew
the potion? if what I heard was right, he seemed to be a very
talented young man"
"He may be a 5-star Alchemist my lady but he's too young, he

cannot be compared to Lord Gabriel who has been in the alchemy
fields for decades. That young man's age is only a quarter of Lord
Gabriel's experience"
"You cannot gauge talent with age, Samuel. You should know this
better than everyone else"
"Yes my lady, forgive me for my ignorance"
Since Noah was little, he would share everything with Samuel as

he considered the old man as family. Because of their
relationship, Noah admitted that he got the spot in the Guardian
guild because Ghost rejected in the first place. Although Samuel
knew Noah would have gotten the spot eventually, he couldn't
help but feel a slight bitterness towards Ghost. The old man's
heart refused to believe that this Ghost is better than his Young
Master.
********************************
"Boss, we received a message from our inside man. Sabrina

Winston is coming looking for us tomorrow morning"
"Wonderful, let see how that brat feels when I send his little
sister's head and body in two different parcels"
At the moment somewhere else in Kethen two men were plotting

their revenge against Noah Winston. They prepared to give
Sabrina a nasty surprise but they had no idea that someone far
worse than Sabrina is on his way to Kethen...
Chapter 186 - Do Not
Overestimate Yourself
The Winston family domain's border was adorned with mother

nature's wonders such as rivers, waterfalls, ocean of trees, and
grasslands. Until the Winston family's young generation, they
were a small noble house under Duke Marvin except now they
had become one of the powerful and influential noble families in
Pen Town.
Unlike Kingdom Bredia divided into four baronies, Kingdom

Kethen was divided into four duchies: Rosegate, Pen Town,
Flamefair, and Icefair.
The main reason for the Winston family's ascension to power was
the engagement between Noah and Alicia whose family was the
most powerful family, in Icefair. The two families allied together
against one of the oldest and influential families, House of
Bellwatch in Pen Town to destroy them overnight.
House Bellwatch tried to engage Alicia into their family, but Noah
ruined their plan, resulting in a full-scale war between the two
families. In the end, they were wiped out and their properties were
seized by the Winston family which made them rise in power
quickly.
The young generation of the Winston family was extremely

talented, especially House Head Lord Angus's children. The
Eldest daughter, Rowena became the holy maiden of Sky hall, the
second one, Noah got into Guardian guild and the last Sabrina
became the youngest disciple of Holy Trident Academy in
Kingdom Dradel.
At the border of Pen town and Flamefair was divided by Maple
Forest, a beauty beyond words. The forest was full of red yellow
and white maple trees. The forest was calm, their colors were
depleted by the winter and painted with white.
At the moment, a group of riders was galloping through the snow

disturbing the silent forest. The leading rider of the group was a
young girl in her late teens. Her golden hair danced around her
shoulder while her hazel eyes contained a hint of anger and
resolution. She was neither too fair nor too dark but she had nicely
tanned skin along with the perfect structure.
Her one hand was on the reins while the other was on the sheath
hanging on her slender waist. It was adorned with little blue
flowers, the iconic blue jasmines of Holy Trident Academy.
She stopped her horse in the middle of the forest staring at her
surroundings. In her eyes, there was nothing but snow-covered
trees but the usual silence of the forest had become unsettling.
"Young Miss, why did we stop?" Despite Samuel's strong

opposition, Sabrina only brought five Body Strengthening stage
warriors. She thought a large group of warriors would spook the
bandits into hiding.
"I know you're there" Sabrina didn't answer the guard but spoke
while aiming her sword at a frozen maple tree thirty meters in front
of them.
"No point in hiding, I can sense your presence" the five guards
behind Sabrina became agitated as they quickly retrieved their
weapons to protect the Young Miss.
"Well well well, I'm surprised" A figure wearing full white robes to
blend with the snow stepped aside from the tree Sabrina was
aiming her sword.
"Even though I was using a concealment spell to hide my

presence, you still found me," the man in white said.
"No spell can hide your presence completely, you should have
known this if you went to a school or an academy instead of
becoming a bandit" seeing the man was only at the level 2 Body
Strengthening stage, the guards behind Sabrina loosened up their
bodies a bit. They knew that their young miss could take anyone
under Body Strengthening stage level 4 regardless of her
cultivation level. She was just a Body Refining level 6 warrior yet
the spells she possessed and the training she got from the Holy
Trident Academy made her a formidable warrior.
"Where's the rest of your group? If you surrender without resisting,

you won't be sentenced to death" Sabrina said as the man shook
his head, still smiling.
"What about you and I duel? if you win, I and my men will
surrender"
The man said.
"Young Miss, something's not right, we should arrest him and

head back to the manor"
"Don't worry Visir, I'll make this duel a quick one" Sabrina waved
her hand at Visir, one of the senior guards of the Winston family.
"But if you'll lose, how about make me and my men the protectors
of the? Maple forest. We like this place"
"I accept, shall we start?" Sabrina asked, jumping down from her
horse.
"Miss, please ask your men to put away their weapons, I fear they
might interfere if I gain the upper hand in our duel," the man said
looking at Sabrina's men.
"Shut up you lowly thief, you can't-"
"Tell your men to put away their weapons, Visir"
"Young Miss, please-"
"It's an order, Visir"

Visir was shut by Sabrina before he could advise her against
putting their weapons away because if they were ambushed, mere
seconds of drawing their weapons back might cost their lives.
However, they couldn't do anything against their Young Miss's

order.
Letting out a sigh of defeat, Visir signaled the men to put away
their weapons.
"I can't believe it worked" the man who challenged Sabrina

mumbled under his breath.
Although he knew Sabrina was not an ordinary cultivator, he still

believed that he could defeat her before they put their real plan in
motion.
However, when he noticed Sabrina sheathing her sword, he

frowned.
"Arrogant bitch" he cursed her in his mind.
"Call of Frost!" The man cast the spell as the snow surrounding
him vibrated violently before transforming into an eight feet tall
snow giant.
"Pathetic" Sabrina shook her head disapprovingly looking at the

rushing snow giant.
"Holy Trident blade" when these three simple words escaped her
mouth, a swirling tornado emerged from the ground between the
snow giant and her. The tornado forced the snow giant back
before settling down to reveal a six feet blue sword that sparkled
radiance. The heat radiated from the blade melted the snow
around as it hovered in the mid air between the giant and Sabrina.
"Cut," Sabrina said waving her hand as the blade cut the snow
giant into two pieces leaving the bandit man startled.
The first spell was cast by a Body Strengthening warrior, the

second one was created by only a Body Refining stage warrior yet
the latter obliterated the first spell in just a matter of seconds. It
was because the first spell was an Uncommon one while the spell
cast by Sabrina was a Rare spell.
Normally a Body refining stage cultivator couldn't cast a Rare

category spell as it would require so much Arch energy than a
usual Body Refining stage cultivator would have but Sabrina was
anything but normal.
The last couple of seconds flashed across the man's eyes over
and over again. He was already warned by his leader that the girl
shouldn't be underestimated yet he did exactly just that. She did
fall for his boss's scheming but she didn't fall for his spell.
"Ice Daggers, come forth!" After coming out of his initial shock, he
quickly cast another spell utilizing the snow around him to further
strengthen his spell.
His hands shone in glimmering white as the snow beneath and

around him transformed into several daggers, the number of
daggers were in between fifty to sixty, all aiming their pointy end
towards Sabrina.
Visir and his men gawked at the daggers, fear and worry for their
Young Miss riddles their faces. Yet, there was no fear in Sabrina's
eyes, only indifference.
"Holy Trident Shield, Holy Trident Arrows" She cast two spells at
the same time effortlessly.
The first spell created a translucent dome around her and then the
second spell created a single large arrow that shone like an arrow
made of gold.
"Let's finish this, shall we?" Sabrina calmly said, raising her right
hand at the man. Following her hand, the arrow slowly tilted,
aiming itself at the man.
"Enough playing" his boss's voice sounded in his mind, letting him
know that he should start the real battle.
"GO!" the man screamed as the daggers soared through the cold
wind except they couldn't go through the translucent dome around
her.
At the moment when he screamed, Sabrina thought he was only

ordering the daggers but the very next moment, she saw several
more figures emerge from the snow.
"Kill them all!" he yet again shrieked as a rain of arrows came

down on Sabrina and her men. The dome kept her safe but before
Visir and his men could cast a defense spell or draw their
weapons, the arrow penetrated them, ending two of the five
guards' lives in an instant.
"It's an ambush!" Visir screamed and rushed towards Sabrina who

was standing several meters away from him.
While riding towards her in the horse, Visir grabbed a shield from
one of his fallen comrades to shield himself from the arrows.
"Did you really think you could catch us with only five guards?
How fucking stupid can you be?" The man's laughter and his
words were like fuel to Sabrina's anger. The veins in her eyes
popped to make her eyes blood red in anger,
"Holy Trident Flaming Palm!" the dome around her disappeared

as a gigantic palm made of nothing but blazing crimson red fire
appeared behind her.
Compared to the heat the palm was radiating, the heat radiated by
the Holy Trident Sword was nothing. The snow around her
vaporized and trees caught fire.
"A Rare spell can turn the tides between a Body Strengthening
and Body Refining warrior but it wouldn't matter when a Body
Refining stage warrior fights with a Core Formation warrior"
suddenly another voice reverberated in the forest before a spear
flew out of nowhere and struck Visir through the chest.
"Ice Storm" Before Sabrina could locate the source of the voice, a
mini Ice storm emerged from the ground before Sabrina, engulfing
the flaming palm.
"Boss is here!"
Chapter 187 - Nightmare’s
Interference
Sabrina looked up at the sky to see a man descending from the

sky on his flying sword. He was tall and had sky-blue robes. On
his chest, the letters B and W embroidered delicately. When
Sabrina's eyes fell on his face, she took a step back in shock,
surprise, or both. Half of his face burned, only patches of burned
hair occupied half of his head. He seemed ugly and terrifying at
the same time. It took her a few seconds to recognize him using
his other half of the face.
"Alden...Alden Bellwatch"
"Oh, you recognized me. People don't recognize me anymore

because of THIS!" he pointed at his burned face, screaming at
her.
"Inferno Punch!" his scream echoed through the forest. It was

hard to identify his emotions by looking at his face but his voice
contained uncontrollable rage and agony.
A few seconds after his scream, the surrounding air began to

become hotter and hotter, melting the snow into water and then
vaporizing it. Suddenly, a burst of blood-red flames blasted
Sabrina, sending her flying away ten meters before her body hit
the ground with a thud sound.
The anger within him amplified the spell's power. The taupe-
colored fur on her dress was completely burned by the spell and if
it wasn't for her quick reflection to block the spell by covering
herself with Arch energy, her flawless skin would have been
roasted.
"Kill them!" Alden ordered the men pointing at the three struggling
guards.
"Stop!" Sabrina screamed before trying to stand up but she was

too late as the bandits already slit the guards' throats. The blood
oozed out of their throats painted the white snow in red.
"They paid the price for what you and your family did to mine"
"I'm gonna tear you apart," Sabrina's mind told her that she had
zero percent chance to defeat him yet the rage within her heart
wanted her to fight, it wanted her to avenge those guards.
"Boss, I cannot believe this stupid bitch accepted my challenge

and asked her men to stay down" the man who dueled with
Sabrina chuckled. Although he chuckled, he avoided direct eye
contact with Alden.
"Because she's too arrogant, just like her brother, Noah Winston"
when he said Noah's name, the bandits around Alden felt the
overwhelming murderous intent. They all just wished to devour the
beauty in front of them but after seeing the murderous intent in
Alden's face, they sighed realizing that she wouldn't be so
beautiful when Alden is done with her.
Standing a few meters away from Alden, Sabrina drew her sword.
Her sword's blade was azure blue that glimmered giving a unique
aura to the sword.
"This is not going to be a one on one, this is going to be a gang

bang" an evil grin mixed with a cruel expression appeared on his
half-burned face.
"Fuck her up!"
"Really?!" The man dueled Sabrina became really excited as he

looked Alden in his eyes with excitement filling his whole body.
Plop!
Alden however slapped the man wiping off the excitement from
his face,
"Not literally you idiot, kill her"
"Yes, boss!"
Facing twelve Body Strengthening warriors and one Core

Formation warrior, Sabrina stood firm as she knew escaping from
them was impossible. Even if she used her lifeblood, there was no
chance of coming out of this battle alive.
"I should have listened to you, old man" She regretted her
decision to only bring five guards with her.
"Frostbite"
Several dozen spears made of ice flew at her from all directions.
Her grip on the hilt tightened as she swung her sword, cutting
most of the ice spears but few of them already penetrated her. Her
grey dress slowly turned red, especially around her shoulder and
thighs where the ice spear went throughout rather than grazing
her.
"I'm gonna send your body in? pieces to your family so they can
feel how it's like to lose someone they love"
Pulch!
Sabrina threw up mouth full of blood as her body began to turn

pale. She could feel her body failing her. As her life was fading
away, she just wanted to embrace her mother one last time, she
wanted to see her family.
"When...my...brother...comes" she stuttered, wiping off the blood

from the corners of her mouth.
"I know everything about your brother. That's why I won't directly
fight him but kill everyone he cares about, no matter how long I
have to wait for an opportunity. I will strike from the shadows,
taking one life at a time from your family"
"Leave her alone" just as the other bandits were about to end
Sabrina's life, a childish yet gruff voice appeared.
The very next moment, they were stunned to see a baby dragon
with shiny crimson scales landing in front of them.
"She's now under the protection of I, Nightmare" Nightmare puffed

his chest out and held his head high proudly.
"Boss, that's a dragon!" Many of the men behind Alden screamed

in unison as they subconsciously took a step back. Although after
the Dragon clan disappeared from the face of this planet, there
were still many dragons living scattered around the world and all
of them were extremely powerful, powerful enough to burn an
entire city in a matter of hours.
However soon the fact the baby dragon was only a Foundation
stage level 3 beast reached their brain as the sudden fear
emerged in their heart faded away.
"Who...what...fly...away" Sabrina coughed up blood, warning the

baby dragon to escape.
"Boss, let me catch that dragon. We'll be settled for life if we

auctioned this dragon" one of the men reminded Alden. They
wanted to quickly finish off Sabrina and catch the dragon who's
just pitifully looking at them.
"I dont know where the fuck you come from but this is between me
and her, get the fuck out of here lizard!"
Alden was in no mood to catch the dragon or sell it to the highest

bidder. After what Noah did to his family, he no longer cared for
anything but revenge.
"If you can interfere with an honorable duel, why can't I interfere
with your despicable attempt to kill this human girl?" Alden gritted
his teeth as blood already started to seep through burned muscles
in his face.
"What will you do? What CAN you do?" Alden menacingly asked
Nightmare, conjuring a fireball in his hand.
"Nothing but I have two buddies. Either of them can and will end
your pathetic lives in a couple of minutes tops. So if you value
your lives, I suggest you start running now" Sabrina's body now
completely becomes pale as white paper due to the blood loss.
She saw the world around her spinning, dizziness finally caught
up with her making standing still a challenge.
"Kill her and this lizard"
The men were disappointed with Alden's order as they wanted to

catch the dragon alive. However, they did not dare to question
Alden because he was the one paying them and he already killed
one of them by burning him just because he questioned Alden's
orders once.
They did not want to make the same mistake. Sabrina slowly
dragged herself to shield the little dragon that tried to help her, she
wanted to do one last kindness before dying.
"Stand down, you stupid girl" Nightmare sounded calm but one
could sense the disappointment and bitterness in his voice.
Nightmare was hunting for meat when he saw everything that

happened with Sabrina and the bandits. At first, he just wanted to
leave them be but the images of him chased by humans
helplessly flashed across his face. He felt sympathy for the human
girl, he wanted to help her just like Ghost helped him.
However, he also felt pity for the guards. If she quickly captured
the man before accepting the duel or brought more men, she
would have had the chance to escape, or at least the guards
would have survived by running away.
Because her arrogance and overconfidence made her overlook

the obvious ambush, she got her guards killed and almost got
herself killed. Without giving her any time to react, Nightmare
flapped his wings creating a blast of wind that knocked down
Sabrina.
"Frost-"
"What's going on here?" Just when the men were about to cast
spells to attack Nightmare, a calm voice sounded from above
before Alden saw a youngster and a young girl in full black
descending from the sky.
"Whoa, you're fucking ugly"? the men behind Alden almost tripped
on their feet when they heard the young woman comment on
Alden's face.
"Dicky, what the fuck are you doing here, and who the fuck is
this?" Gaya pointed at the unconscious Sabrina.
Nightmare already accepted being called Dicky as he knew

there's no stopping the Naga from calling that.
"Core Formation stage" Alden and the men frowned looking at

Michael's cultivation level.
After looking at the dead guards and the girl, Michael could
connect the dots to see what had happened here. Nightmare
quickly flapped his wings, taking off from the ground. He then
landed on Michael's shoulder before explaining everything from
Sabrina's duel to Alden's ambush.
For a moment, a glint of anger appeared in Michael's eyes, not

towards Alden or his men but actually towards Nightmare. The
baby dragon was not aware of this but Gaya read Michael's
expression like a book.
"Dicky put his name on the line, human. We should help him keep
his word"
"Get out of my way!" Alden screamed after seeing them whisper

among themselves, interrupting his perfectly plotted murder plan.
Michael turned his gaze towards Alden and sighed,
"Look, I don't care what's the history between you two but I can
tell her family did something bad to yours. You have every right to
kill her, her family, and do what you like, I get that. But my familiar
here put his name to protect the girl, so leave her alone this time
and kill her another time"
Chapter 188 - Her Brother’s
Name Is NOAH WINSTON
Despite the temptation of killing all of them, earning enough

experience points to level up, Michael chose not to kill them right
out of the bat and gave them a chance to escape. He did not want
to meddle with Alden as he wasn't completely aware of Alden's
background.
Michael paid no attention to Alden anymore, he turned his gaze

back at Nightmare who was standing on his shoulder.
"You got yourself into this mess, so clean out the mess"
"What do you want me to do?" Nightmare felt wronged by the way

Michael talked.
"Take their bodies, put them on a horse" Michael felt no pity for
Sabrina but he did feel pity for the guards who lost their lives
because of her arrogance.
"Do it" Nightmare was taken aback by the seriousness of

Michael's voice. This was the first time Michael talked to
Nightmare without putting on a playful voice.
"Okay," Nightmare purred like a kitten before flying into the forest
to find the horses that ran away when the battle started.
"What about the girl?" Gaya asked, seeing Michael walk away
from Sabrina, turning his back on Alden and his group.
"Inferno Wave!" However just as Michael was walking away, he

heard Alden scream, casting a spell to kill not only Sabrina but
also him, a big fucking mistake.
"Lightning Dash" before the wave of blood-red fire engulfed
Sabrina, Michael activated Lightning Dash.
The crescent moon-shaped flame did not stop when it hit the
ground where Sabrina was but traveled unstoppably to the place
where Michael was a second ago. The snow on the ground was
instantly vaporized as the trees that were hit by the flame
obliterated into nothing but ashes.
Whoosh!
Before Alden could confirm whether his flame wave hit the targets
or not, an arrow pierced straight through his chest. It was so fast
that he only felt the pain after a couple of seconds the arrow went
through his chest.
"Boss!" the men scream, drawing their weapons and preparing to

cast spells. They saw the young woman with the bow aiming an
arrow at Alden.
"That was a mistake, buddy" Alden heard the youngster's calm

voice again but now, it sounded from behind.


Continued notification sounds rang in his mind. Alden's men were

so confused and shocked to see him appear behind them in a
blink of an eye.
"I gave you a chance, something that most don't get. Yet, you
chose to attack me, a big fucking mistake"
"Kill them!" Alden did not waste any moment. He yelled the order
at his men while conjuring Arch energy to cast the powerful spell
in his arsenal.
Alden witnessed firsthand what would happen when you
underestimate your opponent when he fought Noah and he did
not choose to make the same mistake again. Therefore, he chose
to use his most powerful spell.
"Lightning Dash" Michael on the other hand wanted to end the

battle quickly but also wanted to increase his mastery over the
Ring of Fire.
Before Alden could finish his spell or his men could even start to
attack him, Michael appeared at the center of Alden's men.
"Ring of fire" Alden and his men felt warm energy pulsate from his
body.
With a booming and unearthly humming sound, a wave of fire

many times brighter and hotter than Alden's inferno fire
discharged from Michael's body, burning three bandits to a crisp
instantly.



"Ahhhhh it burns!"
The remaining nine Body Strengthening warriors were squirming

and screaming in agony on the ground.
"Don't let anyone escape"
Gaya nodded before rapidly firing arrows that pierced through the
bandits' legs, making them unable to run.
Considering Michael's mastery with Ring of fire was at only 54%,
there was no perfect ring around him or pulses of flame waves in
circles. The waves of flames chaotically blasted the bandits away.
"Frostbite"
"Frost giant!"
"Crystal rain!"
From Michael's activation of Lightning Dash to Ring of Fire,

everything happened so quickly. Only after Michael killed three of
the men, the rest of them realized what just happened.
They rapidly cast spells, attacking him with all kinds of objects
made of ice. Alden hand-picked thirteen warriors who specialized
in ice spells that utilize the winter and the snow. However, the heat
coming from the Ring of fire was so hot that it melted the objects
created by his men to attack Michael, taking away their
advantage.
Pulch!
"Boss!"
[Ding! Subordinate Gaya killed a Core Formation stage, level 4

Cultivator. The reward is 150,000 Experience points]
Just when Alden was about to attack Michael, an arrow layered

with golden light pierced through Alden's head, splattering grey
brain matter all over the ground and on everyone who stood
closer to him, including Michael.
"What? He was about to cast a powerful spell"
Gaya shrugged, explaining the reason for her action. After Alden's
body hit the ground, the rest of the men mostly lost their will to
fight. They had no time to wonder how a Body Refining stage
cultivator like her killed a Core Formation warrior like Alden except
they knew this is no time to wonder.
"Damn you woman, you killed him because you are fucking
hungry!" Michael shouted at Gaya before sending bolts of
lightning through the bandits who were running away.
"It was you dumb fucker who forgot to get my traveling pack from
Raylene" She yelled back while firing rapidly firing arrows at the
bandits with deadly accuracy. Each arrow shot from her bow like a
bullet from a gun.
In the middle of the snow-covered maple forest, screams of agony

reverberated. Each time a bolt of lightning or an arrow fired, it took
a life.
The splattered organs and blood had given the Maple forest its
red color, only now, the red was not from red maple trees but from
the bandits.
"I don't know how a cultivator could get hungry!"
"I do!"
Michael and Gaya were quarreling like an old couple as they

moved around the area, killing the bandits mercilessly.

"Now you're breaking through. Fuck you and your wargod body!"
Hunger and envy of him breaking through by just killing people
made her even more furious.
"Then why don't you go back to the sect and get your traveling
pack?" Michael air quoted the two words 'traveling pack' which
was nothing but all kinds of food prepared by Raylene for her.
"Maybe I will," she exclaimed. She put on her 'no talking with you'
face while Michael decided it's not very healthy to argue with a
hungry woman.
Neigh!
Michael turned his head towards the direction of the sound. He
saw Nightmare leading a horse by pulling the rein using his
mouth. Regardless of Nightmare's little body, he had several times
more strength than an average human being.
"You two killed them all"
"Yeah no shit, burn the bodies before someone comes searching

for them," Gaya said to Nightmare while avoiding eye contact with
Michael.
While Nightmare was lifting the dead guards using his claws and
mouth, Michael advanced towards Sabrina. Fortunately, he
poured a healing potion when he initially used Lightning Dash to
save her from Alden's spell. If not for his healing potion, she would
have died due to blood loss.
"Wait a minute, I know that symbol" When he lifted Sabrina from

the ground, Gaya noticed the blue jasmine decorated sword
sheath.
Putting her anger towards Michael aside, she came to check

Sabrina's sheath. Luckily, Alden's spell still messed up her organs
as she was still unconscious.
"It's a sheath given to all Holy Trident disciples, where did she get
it?"
"Yeah, she was using spells that had the words Holy Trident, "
Nightmare said, putting the last dead body on the horse.
"Then she must be a disciple of Holy fucking Trident"
"I guess it's a big deal" after looking at Gaya's awestruck

expression, Michael knew Holy Trident must be a very powerful
place.
"Very. Holy Trident Academy is said to be the most powerful

academy in Elon. They are so powerful that they would make
Aragoth look like a declined sect"
"Interesting" Finally a slight smile appeared on Michael's face.
"Nightmare, did you find anything that could lead us to her home?"
While floating in the mid-air, Nightmare scratched his head

recalling the conversation Alden had with Sabrina before his eyes
lightened up.
"I heard that half-burned human say her brother's full name, Noah
Winston"
"Noah Winston?!" Even Michael was surprised to hear the familiar

name.
He couldn't believe that he just saved Noah's sister.
"Let's bug his home!" Gaya was excited and so was Michael. If he
could bug Noah's home, especially Noah's room, he might give
some valuable intel about Guardians and even make him carry
the bug into Guardian guild headquarters.
"Next stop, Winston's"

Chapter 189 - Ghost At Noah’s
Home
After finding another horse in the frozen maple forest, the duo
began their journey towards Pen Town instead of going to Icefair
where the phoenix auction manor branch was located. To reach
Icefair, he would have to pass through either Flamefair or Pen
Town. Going through Pen Town would take two days while going
through Flamefair would only take one day from the maple forest.
Since there were still four days left to the auction and the girl
laying on the horse before him was Noah's sister, Michael
changed his initial plan to going through Flamefair.
Gaya was unusually silent during the journey. She was still giving
him the silent treatment whereas Nightmare too flew along with
him without uttering a word. However, Michael did not start a
conversation because he enjoyed the serenity.
The path through the snow was narrow, not more than three
horses could travel side by side. Trees on each side of the path
were covered in snow. The quietness Michael was enjoying got
interrupted by the howling sound of the wind that was followed by
a heavy downpour of snow. He was fortunate enough to buy a
long winter coat that was made of black bear coat, according to
the cloth merchant he met at the Sun Rise sect. The same
merchant agreed to supply the sect with winter clothes. Michael
was still considering the design for the sect's uniform as he
loathed the current orange uniform. Claire was already on the task
to design the new uniform and as a Guardian of the Sect, he
asked her to make the uniform black.
Even with a fur-covered winter coat, the chillness made his hair
stand up. He quickly retrieved a blanket he packed before
covering Sabrina's body with it. How could he let Sabrina freeze to
death after saving her from Alden?
Wondering what the uniform would look like, Michael gave a mild
kick to the horse to fasten the pace. After passing through frozen
waterfalls, trees, and a few buildings along the way, a vague
figure of a city wall appeared in his eyesight.
The heavy snow obstructed his eyesight. If not that was a

problem, every breath he released turned into a cloud of white
smoke, obstructing the view before him even further.
As he was riding through the snow, he felt two soft hands

wrapping around his chest.
"You can use Arch energy to warm yourself" Michael responded to

her burying her face on his back.
"I'm still not talking to you, jerk" she head-butted his back.
"Suit yourself, I considered? taking you out for dinner at a nice

restaurant in Kethen but meh"
"You're kidding?"
"Nope"
She was excited, tightening her grip around his waist. She never
went on a real date with him. Although they spent most of their
time in each other's company, Gaya always wanted to spend
some time with him, without all the planning, battle, or any kind of
stress.
"I know a nice place in Pen Town" She moved her hands from
Michael's waist and stretched his cheeks like she was playing with
a chubby baby.
Flying beside them, Nightmare just rolled his eyes and continued
to fly towards the city gate. When Michael's group got closer to the
city gate, a group of guards wearing surprisingly high-quality fur-
coated armor.
"Halt your steps!" The guard leading the group had a sturdy body
forged in battle. His long brown beard imprisoned countless
snowflakes, almost making his brown beard white. He wearily
stared at Michael, but his mouth opened a few millimeters wide
when his gaze fell on Nightmare.
However, the sight of frozen bodies on the horse led by Nightmare

turned his surprise into hostility.
"Dead bodies!" The guards behind him quickly drew their

weapons out. There was no fear in their eyes even though
Michael, a Core Formation warrior could kill them like stepping on
an ant as they were only at the Body Refining stage except the
lead guard who was at Body Strengthening stage.
"Relax, they were killed by the bandits in the Maple forest,"

Michael said, like he did not notice the guards at all. Although the
lead guard didn't take out his spear attached to his back, he
moved towards Nightmare slowly and cautiously to check the
dead bodies.
The lead guard conjured a small orb of fire to melt down the snow
on one of the dead bodies. Soon when the ice melted down from
the dead body's chest, the lead guard's eyes widened. He
frantically melted the snow on the other bodies before one of the
guards behind him screamed,
"It's the guards of the Winston family!"
"Sir, follow me," the lead guard said, taking the reins from
Nightmare. The baby dragon was more than happy to give the
rein to the guard.
"To where?" Gaya's voice was grim but Michael patted the hands
around his waist, wordlessly asking her to calm down.
"To the Winston Family compound"
"Lead the way" Michael gestured at the guard. It saved him the
time to ask someone the directions to the Winston family. The lead
guard overlooked Sabrina on Michael's horse. This wasn't unusual
as the lead guard might have assumed her as another dead body.
The guards opened the large metal gates to reveal Pen Town. The
first thing that caught Michael's eyes was the tallest building in
Pen Town, a clock tower that resembled London's big ben. The
rest of the buildings were covered with snow, barely revealing
their oak wood walls and birch wood rooftops.
Regardless of the snow, the township itself looked gorgeous. Pen

Town had a captivating atmosphere. There weren't many civilians
on the streets that arched in organic swirls around the aromatic
bakery, cheerful taverns, and other buildings considering the
heavy snowfall. There wasn't a big jaw-dropping difference
between any Cities in Bredia and Pen Town.
Majorities of the buildings were two-story while occasionally

Michael noticed three or four-story buildings. The buildings were
built very close to each other like train blocks but the pavements
were spacious enough to have benches and small places to sit
and eat, to relax as folk went about their day.
Michael followed the lead guard's horse to meet the Winstons.

After passing through lines of crowded buildings, the Pen Town
opened up to reveal it's inner-city where the prominent families
were located.
Shortly a miniature version of the city gates appeared before him.

The walls were illuminated by torches and had archers patrolling
on them.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
From the other side of the walls, three loud bell sounds
reverberated. Soon, Michael heard the gates open as another
group of guards walked out of the gates led by an old man with
neatly combed hair.
He was dressed very conservatively and formally, consisting of a
waistcoat, grey striped trousers, a white shirt with a Windsor cut,
and a black tie. Without a second look, Michael knew he must be
the Winston family loyal butler.
"Captain Giles, what brought you here?" Although the butler's

eyes betrayed his surprise when he saw Nightmare, he remained
composed as a butler should be.
"I brought some bad news, Samuel"
"Can we talk inside? she needs a warm place to heal properly"

Michael interrupted Captain Giles, attracting the butler's gaze
immediately.
Michael jumped down from his horse as all the guards in the
vicinity tensed up. He ignored the guards, taking Sabrina into his
arms
"Young Miss!" Even the sight of the dragon couldn't make the
butler act out of proper composure but the sight of Sabrina lying in
Michael's hands did.
Captain Giles was stunned, he thought it was another body but in

reality, it was Sabrina Winston herself.
"What happened to her?" the old butler leaped at Michael like a

cheetah, checking her pulse.
"She's fine but she won't be if we keep standing out here in the
freezing cold"
"Follow...follow me" the old butler wanted to take Sabrina from his
arms but with the way the blanket wrapped around her, Samuel
feared that even slight exposure to cold could kill his Young Miss.
Therefore, he led the way into the family compound, letting
Michael carry her in his arms.
"Move out of the way!" the butler frantically waved his hands at
the fancy-robed people on the way.
When everyone thought the heavy downpour couldn't get any
worse, it did. The wind caused walking difficult as Michael felt like
an invisible force pushing him back while the howling wind made it
almost impossible to hear the old butler.
After the struggle with mother nature, they finally entered a

building to see a spacious hall where several people who wore
high-quality fancy robes occupied.
"Sabrina!"
"Sabi!"
"Sabi!"
From all the directions, Michael heard people shout at the girl in
his arms.
"Where is her room?" Michael asked before those people could

swarm him like bees.
"This way, up the stairs" the old butler led him upstairs. Nightmare
saw countless eyes staring at him rather than the girl in Michael's
hands. A few of the children were reaching their hands at him,
probably to pet him but Nightmare ignored those snobby little kids.
"What happened to Sabi?"
"Who is that youngster carrying Sabrina?"
"Is he one of Noah's friends?"
"He's so handsome"
"And powerful"
Even in a situation like this, Gaya could hear a few girls drooling
looking at Michael instead of worrying about Sabrina.
The butler soon opened the first room on the second floor to
reveal pink painted walls. The wall behind the large bed had a
rainbow drawn on it while a large life-sized teddy bear occupied
the corner beside the bed.
Michael gently placed Sabrina on the bed before taking out

another vial of healing potion from his space ring because by
looking at the slight paleness of her skin, he knew she needed
another healing potion.
However, when he was about to pour the vial into her mouth, his
hand was stopped by someone. He turned back to see the one
who stopped him was a golden-haired youngster in his early
twenties.
"What is that you're trying to make her drink?!" His voice was
unnecessarily loud and contained a hint of murderous aura.
"It's a healing potion, you moron" The youngster's tone pissed

Gaya off as she swatted the youngster's hand away from
Michael's.
The situation was immediately tensed up,
"She was attacked by a powerful spell. If she doesn't take another

healing potion in the next two hours, her organs will fail" Michael
looked at the old butler instead of the youngster. He wasn't a
healer but he knew that her life would be in danger if she didn't
take another healing potion. He really wondered what kind of spell
Alden used that required two healing potions to heal Sabrina.
Chapter 190 - A Mother’s Love
If it wasn't for Gaya swatting the youngster's hand from Michael's

hand, Nightmare would have bitten or even used Dragon's breath
on him. Nightmare sensed a tinge of negative energy from the
youngster towards Michael.
Michael chose not to pour the healing potion into Sabrina's mouth
but placed the potion on the table beside her bed.
"Do what you want, she's your family"
"Please, forgive our rudeness young master" Samuel quickly

bowed before taking the potion in his hand. He then took a sniff as
his eyes widened in shock.
"This..this...is a healing potion and it's 80% pure" Michael had a

feeling that the old butler might know more about Alchemy than
anyone else in the room.
"What do you expect? He's a 5-star Alchemist" Gaya said loudly

enough for everyone to hear her words crystal clear.
"You're Ghost of River town, the 5-star Alchemist of Bredia" One

of the guards who accompanied Captain Giles shouted, making
everyone stare at Michael in a new light.


…
It was obvious that most of the people in the room had heard his
name before. Otherwise, he would have earned almost four
thousand badass points just by Gaya revealing his identity.
Only Samuel focused on the task on hand as he moved closer to

Sabrina to empty the healing potion into her mouth.
"Wait, what if it-" the same youngster who interrupted Michael

shouted but Samuel already emitted half of the potion into her
mouth.
It only took a couple of seconds for Sabrina's body to regain the

rosiness.
Samuel heaved a sigh of relief.
"Sabi!" Just as Sabrina's body was turning from pale to fair,

someone screamed her name.
Michael turned his head to see a woman in her late thirties. Tears
rolled out of her beautiful face. She came running to Sabrina's
side,
"What happened to my Sabi?!" She shook Sabrina's shoulder, it

had enough force as well as gentleness.
"Mom" Sabrina slowly opened her eyes. Out of nowhere, Sabrina

lunged at her mother, hugging her tightly. Sabrina too sobbed
continuously without giving a damn about the audience. Although
she was a brave girl, she almost died back at the Maple forest,
which really shook her to the core.
"Young Master, what happened back there?" Captain Giles asked

Michael. Everyone quickly turned their gazes from Sabrina to
Michael, curiously looking at him for his answer.
"It was Alden...Alden Bellwatch" Sabrina's voice contained a mix

of shock and anger.
"Alden Bellwatch? The heir of House Bellwatch?!" Captain Giles

asked while the people in the room seemed stunned.
Knowing he could earn badass points by telling them what
happened at the Maple Forest, Michael started to explain how he
saved Sabrina without coming out neither too braggy nor too
humble.
The events unraveled back at the Maple forest sent chills running
through everyone's spines. The old butler almost looked like he
was about to have a heart attack. His body shivered, not because
of the cold but because of the thought of losing Sabrina, the little
princess of the Winston family.
Michael could tell Samuel is blaming himself for everything that

happened but Michael didn't give a damn. All he wanted was to
milk as much as badass points from these people and bug Noah's
room.
Nightmare's actions may have brought him an opportunity but it

might also put him in danger if Alden had someone behind him,
someone dangerous.
"Sabi!"
"What happened to you?!"
Another three shouts sounded in the room as three women in their

early forties or late thirties entered the room. They ignored
everyone else, running directly towards Sabrina.
"Aunty!" Soon, Sabrina got embraced by the three ladies.
"Thank you, thank you so much, Young Master" Samuel grabbed

Michael's hand, shaking it frantically with both hands. It was true
that Samuel held a bit of a grudge because Ghost was a better
Alchemist than his young master, Noah. However, at this moment,
all the grudge in his heart towards Ghost vanished away and was
replaced with gratefulness.
Samuel couldn't even imagine what would have happened to

Sabrina if Ghost did not appear when he did. He also felt grateful
for the baby dragon sitting on his shoulder.
"No need to thank me but please be careful next time" Michael
patted Samuel's shoulder before turning his gaze towards Gaya.
"Aelia, let's go" Michael began to walk out, expecting Samuel to

stop him.
"Young Master, please' just as he expected, Samuel called out to

him, stopping him in his way.
"You saved out Young Miss's life. Please let us show our
gratitude" While Michael was pretending to be thinking about how
he could politely decline his offer, one of the three ladies who just
recently arrived came to him.
The lady had a resemblance with the woman who came first. She
looked at Michael, her eyes were filled with tears and gratitude.
She grabbed Michael's hands, squeezing them
"Thank you, thank you so much" Just as the lady was expressing
her gratitude, Sabrina and the three ladies, including her mother
came to Michael.
The lady who came first looked directly into his eyes. She seemed
tired, a line of black circles occupied her skin under her eyes.
Surprisingly, she took Michael's face in her soft hands, like a
mother grabbing her child's face.
"Thank you"? ever since he said he saved Sabrina, everyone was

thanking him but nothing felt more genuine than the words
escaped her mouth. Compared to her, even Samuel's words
seemed fake.
She gently brushed his hair, "You saved our family's happiness."
Michael did not expect such a gesture from the woman but he
couldn't help feeling a warmth in his heart.
Both in his previous life or the current one, he never felt a

mother's love. This was the closest he got to a mother's love. The
woman in front of him was looking at him like she was looking at
her own son.
Just as he emerged in wonder, his instincts screamed at him as
he saw one of the guards behind Captain Giles drawing out a jade
dagger from his waist.
"Watch out" Michael embraced Diana before turning around,

showing his back at the guard.
The next moment, Michael's Responsive shield kicked in yet he

felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
"Lady Diana!"
"Diana!"
"Intruder!"
"Ghost!"
The room was thrown into chaos when the guard suddenly drew
his weapon, trying to kill Diana. The guard was trained, extremely
trained as he was faster than everyone else in the room except
Michael. Him drawing his dagger to plunge it into Michael's
shoulder happened in just a few seconds. Even though the
Responsive shield absorbed most of the force behind the guard's
stab, it still penetrated the shield stabbing Michael in the shoulder
because the guard was at the Body Strengthening stage level 7.
Gaya lunged at the guard radiating overwhelming killing intent that

pushed away many people in the room. The guard took out his
dagger from Michael's shoulder to stab him again but Michael was
faster. He protected Diana in one hand and grabbed the guard in
the other.
The guard may have managed to stab him the first time but
Michael wasn't going to give him a second chance.
"Ignitia" Golden bolts of lightning emerged from Michael hand that

was around the guard's neck
"AHHHHHHH!"
Pop!
The guard's scream abruptly stopped when his head exploded
into a red mist like a watermelon.

"Ahhhh!"
"Mother!"
"Diana"
"Lady Diana!"
Various shouts sounded in Michael's head as his hand still tightly

wrapped around Diana. Only after the guards drew their weapons
out and confirmed there were no more assassins in the room,
Michael released Diana but bolts of lightning still danced around
his hand, making crackling electricity noise.
The sudden change of events stunned Nightmare. After seeing a

human plunging his dagger into Ghost, Nightmare's heart rapidly
pounded against his chest.
But Gaya's heartbeat felt like it wanted to jump out from her chest.
The whole room was dead silent for a few moments before the
three ladies who seemed to be Diana's sisters surrounded her.
"Lady Diana, are you alright?"
"Diana, are you hurt?"
"Who dared to attack the Lady of Winston family?!"
"Guards!"
While everyone's in shock, Gaya leaped at him, checking him as

her eyes began to well up.
"Human"
"It's okay," Michael reassured Gaya.
Nightmare was still in shock as no words came out of his mouth.
"I'm fine" Diana was still shivering yet she let out a smile and
came to check on Michael.
"You're bleeding!" Michael turned his gaze from Gaya to Diana

when he heard the gentle-looking lady scream.
Before even Michael could notice his bleeding shoulder, Diana

tore a piece of cloth from the cape hanging from her behind. She
frantically wrapped the cloth around his left shoulder.
"It was...my...fault" Tears rained down from her eyes.
Many who came out of the shock were surprised to see this
gesture. The Lady of the Winston family tore her expensive dress
to tend to a total stranger's wound.
Samuel quickly glanced at the house guards, wordlessly telling

them to escort everyone except the closest family members
outside.
Diana forgot about everything including Sabrina's close death

experience as her mind went blank seeing the blood coming out of
this youngster's shoulder. Michael could easily drink the healing
potion and heal his wound but he was already being led to
Sabrina's bed by Diana.
"Lady Diana, I'm fine" Michael was surprised by her motherly love.
The affection, the motherly love in her eyes were genuine and
pure. For the first time in his two lives, he was experiencing a
mother's love.
"You're not!" She yelled at him, again like a mother.

Chapter 191 - Lending A
Helping Hand
Realizing the woman has lost all reasoning because of shock,

Gaya retrieved a healing potion from her space ring.
"Here, take it" Gaya sat on Michael's other side, handing him over
the healing potion. He was sandwiched between a loving mother
and a caring girlfriend.
"Come here" while Nightmare was gawking at Diana, Sabrina

plucked him up from Michael's shoulder.
Nightmare seemed he's still in shock as no words escaped his

mouth to protest.
"Lady Diana, I'm alright. Look the bleeding stopped" Michael told
her again. Even without his control, his voice sounded extremely
gentle.
"Samuel, bring me Healer Adele" Diana frantically shook her

head, refusing to let go of his hand.
"Yes, Lady Diana"
Michael sighed. He initially wanted to spend a few hours here so

he could release the spiders into the house but now he realized
that Diana is going to make him stay here for at least a few days.
"You must be tired after everything that happened. Come on

Sweetie, I'll make something for you to eat. You too sweetheart"
Diana said, locking her arms with Michael's. She then smiled
beautifully at Gaya before playfully pinching Gaya's rosy butterball
of a cheek.
"Meet my sweet mother" Sabrina finally let out a chuckle,
neglecting what happened a few hours ago.
**********************************
Mushroom soup, bitter greens with tomatoes the size of peas, rare
roast beef slices as thin as paper, noodles in a green sauce,
cheese that melts on one's tongue served with sweet blue grapes.
The servers, all young people dressed in white thick tunics with
layers of fur move wordlessly to and from the table, keeping the
platters and glasses full.
When Diana said she's going to make something to eat, Michael

didn't expect she would prepare a frickin feast. After seeing the
various delicious-looking dishes on the table, Gaya's face
lightened up a bit.
The aroma radiating from the dishes overwhelmed both the

Dragon and the Snake's senses.They couldn't wait to dig into the
food but they had to wait for everyone to seat themselves at the
table.
It was a long oak table that could easily let thirty people dine on.
The throne-looking chair at the front of the table was empty which
obviously belonged to the Lord of the family.
Diana seated herself next to Michael, acting like a personal maid

to him.
Fortunately, Michael's plate did not have enough space to contain

all the dishes Diana personally cooked.
"Lady Diana, are you planning to kill me with food?" Michael

chuckled only to receive a slap on the wrist from Diana.
"Noah is a really lucky guy" Michael stared at everyone at the

table. The dining room was filled with laughter. Everyone seemed
to forget what happened earlier and emerged themselves in
nothing but happiness.
Except for the youngster who stopped Michael earlier, everyone
was extremely friendly towards Michael, Gaya, and the little
dragon.
"So Ghost, what's your plan on Kethen?" Diana's elder sister,

Amelda asked. Just like Diana, Amelda, and her younger sister,
Natalia too had golden hair. Although the three ladies were
laughing happily, Michael noticed a tinge of sorrow buried deep
within Natalia's eyes. Every time Natalia's eyes fell on the chair
Nightmare was sitting on, the sorrow became more obvious. Her
smile would instantly disappear from her face for a moment as her
eyes slightly welled up. Natalia did a good job wiping out the tears
from the corners of her eyes but Michael noticed this without
Natalia noticing him.
The three beautiful women were so graceful that they could make
anyone respect them in a matter of seconds.
"We're attending the weekend auction in Icefair" Michael

answered, placing the spook and the knife on the plate.
"Buying or selling?" Amelda questioned him.
"Let him eat in peace, Ami," Diana playfully yelled at her sister.
"Selling but if something interesting comes across, I might buy it"

Michael answered with a smile.
"How's the food Aelia, Nightmare?" Diana asked. Nightmare was

surprisingly good at maintaining table manors, he did not eat like a
wild beast at the dining table but used his claws to pick the meat
from the plate and ate almost like a human.
"Good, Lady Diana" Nightmare had a good impression on Lady

Diana. He politely answered her although it was nowhere close to
the cooking of Raylene.
"Good" Gaya answered Diana taking a bite of the mushroom fry.
"Good?! Aunty Diana's cooking is the best"? the same youngster

rolled his eyes, making a few people at the table awkwardly smile
because of his tone.
"It's that they used to eat Raylene's cooking, Lady Diana. She's a
5-star chef"
"Oh...what?! A 5-star chef?!" It took several seconds for Amelda to

realize the meaning of Michael's words.
"You are all welcome to the opening of our restaurant" Michael

gave them an invitation as it would increase the reputation of his
establishment quickly.
"Of course, we will. Now would you like some roasted pulse
tetra?"
"Do I have a choice, Lady Diana?"
"No"
The laughter continued as they all talked about some boring

things which Michael answered with either a smile or a nod.
"He's just like Noah, isn't he?" Amelda asked Diana as Gaya
almost coughed up the food in her mouth. Michael was the last
thing one could compare to Noah.
"Except your choice in dress colors, am I right Samuel?"
"Yes, Lady Amelda. Young Master Noah likes to wear white

whereas Young Master Ghost seemed to favor black" The old
butler said before stepping towards Michael with a bottle of wine.
"Water is enough for me. I don't drink wine, ale, or any kind of
liquor" Michael surprised everyone at the table yet again. They all
stared at him like he spoke some forbidden words.
"You don't drink liquor?" Sabrina asked. Surprise and disbelief

were written all over her face.
"Yes, bad for the body and hinder your cultivation speed" As a 5-
star Alchemist, Michael knew all about a cultivator's body. It was a
lucky coincidence that his non-drinking habit was actually a good
thing for his current life as liquors affected the body, obstructing
the energy paths in one's body resulting in a slow cultivation level.
"That might be the reason for your cultivation speed huh?"

Sabrina said. Michael could tell the girl had just taken a note in
her mind and expected her to follow his habit from this day
onwards.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning to sell?"
Amelda seemed to like asking questions.
"A few herbs like Cold Grass, SeaWeed, Raven flower"
"Raven flower?!" Natalia almost screamed. Everyone's gaze fell

on Natalia as Michael noticed a glimpse of sorrow emerge on
Diana's face.
"Yes," Michael's voice trailed off.
"Natalia, we already have a Raven flower, remember?" Diana

asked as Natalia sighed.
"It's just that my nephew has fallen sick to Star pox. We had to
scour through the kingdom to find the Raven flower. If only Lord
Gabriel accepts to brew the phoenix potion" Amelda sighed.
Michael noticed Diana open and close her mouth as she had
something to ask. He had already guessed what that would be but
he wanted them to ask rather than offering his help.
"Sweetie, can you? '' However, Michael's heart completely melted

before even she could ask for his help. She had this weird effect
on him ever since he saw her. He couldn't bear to see the woman
he just met a couple of hours ago plead.
"You don't need Gabriel to brew the Phoenix potion. I can brew it
in my sleep"
The whole room fell silent after the words escaped his words.
Natalia's face lightened up. She immediately stood from her chair
before running to Michael.
"Can you?" Natalia squeezed his palms.
Gaya's jaw slightly dropped, she wondered what made her selfish
human offer his help like candies. First, he almost risked his life to
save Diana and now, he was about to help save Natalia's son.
Their main plan was to bug Noah's room but she could tell he was
deviating from the plan.
" Have you got all the ingredients?"
"Yes Young Master, we got everything one needs to brew the

potion"
"Wait, we only got enough ingredients to brew a potion. What if he

messed up?"
"I trust him, Jacob" for the first time, Michael saw the gentle-
looking Diana turning into a domineering woman. The smile on
her face was replaced with a stern look, her sharp gaze seemed
like it could cut anything in half.
"How can we trust this guy?" Jacob protested but this time his
tone was not as loud and rude as before.
"It's that or waiting for Gabriel to accept your request. I think I

don't have to tell you about the Star pox"
"Shut up, Jacob!" Natalia snapped. All the grief buried within her
exploded in the form of anger.
It was not a secret that Star pox would kill the infected in three
months if left untreated. Only wealthy people like Noah's family
had the resources or the gold to get the cure, the phoenix potion.
However, the potion was extremely reactive, it had to be used in a
few minutes after brewing or it would react with anything such as
air and lose all of its medicinal quality. This was the reason that
the phoenix potion wouldn't be available in auction houses and
needed to be brewed at the spot by an Alchemist above 3-star
level.
Weirdly enough, Michael had a soft spot for the motherly lady,
Diana. Only because of her, he decided to lend a helping hand
instead of giving Jacob the middle finger.
Chapter 192 - Playing Good
Samaritan
"Samuel, bring him the ingredients" Diana quickly ordered the old
butler before the situation could escalate further.
"Humph" Jacob snickered before storming out of the dining hall

with a few of his lackeys following him behind.
"Jacob"
"Let him go, Amelda" Diana grabbed Amelda by her hand when
she tried to stop the youngster. The previous laughter in the hall
was completely gone and replaced with silence. They had never
seen their kind third lady snap like that. Even after her only son
fell victim to Star pox, she never showed the grief on her face as
she believed her family would do absolutely everything to save
her son.
It had been two months since her son was infected with star pox.
If they didn't give him the phoenix potion within the next thirty
days, there was no doubt that she would lose her only son.
"Now, where is your son, Lady Natalia?" Michael wondered why

Jacob wants him gone as soon as possible. He didn't have to act
that way. Michael had a feeling that Jacob is feeling threatened by
his presence but couldnt find out why yet.
"This way, Young Master"
"Enjoy the rest of the day, gentleman" Diana announced looking at

the people in the dining hall. Knowing the meaning of her words,
they all bowed and left the dining hall.
Only the three ladies, Sabrina, Samuel accompanied Michael to
Natalia's son's room. Considering there were no guards following
them, Gaya retrieved a couple of spiders from her space ring
before leaving them in dark corners of the corridor without anyone
noticing.
Except for Michael none of them had a clue about the little spies
in their home. After passing Sabrina's room and following Samuel
for a few more minutes, Michael appeared before a door that had
the name Andrew written on a dark brown oak door.
Samuel opened the door to reveal an old woman was sitting on

the bed. Beside the old woman, a blonde youngster sleeping
peacefully. The old woman was applying a purple ornament on
Andrew's forehead.
"Healer Adele" The old woman waved her hands at Amelda as

she was telling all of them to scurry off.
"Healer Adele, we have found a 5-star Alchemist," Samuel said.

Only then the old woman turned her gaze away from Andrew.
Soon, she locked eyes with Michael.
The system notified Michael of her healer trait. Despite the

disheveled hair and rather normal-looking clothes, healer Adele
was a Core Formation level 5 cultivator.
A glimmer of surprise flashed across her face looking at Michael.
"Grandma" Sabrina ran to Adele like a puppy running to its owner.
"I heard what happened. I'm glad you're safe, Sabi. You should
have listened to Samuel and took more men with you"
Michael ignored their conversation, walking towards Andrew to

check on him. His memories from Abras contained information
about star pox and the book of alchemy he used to become a 5-
star alchemist made him understand not only star pox but all the
diseases in this world.
Except for his forehead that had purple ointment applied on, the
rest of his body was pale. Tiny marks shaped like a star riddled his
body. Furthermore, his body temperature was jumping between
hot and cold.
"How pure will the potion be?" Healer Adele asked while Michael
was feeling Andrew's temperature by placing his hand on
Andrew's neck.
However, instead of giving a straight answer to Adele, he

questioned her.
"How long has he been like this?"
It was obvious Andrew is infected with star pox but when Michael
checked his temperature, he sensed Andrew's abnormal pulses. A
patient with star pox was supposed to have a slow pulse rate but
Andrew's pulse rate was abnormally high.
"For the last two months"
"And how long has he had this high pulse rate?" He was really
curious as his tone conveyed his curiosity.
"His pulse rate has been increasing since last month"
"Nightmare, you can see energy pathways inside a body, right?

Check his energy pathways"
"What's happening to my Andrew?" hearing the conversation

between Adele and Michael, Natalia's eyes rained down tears.
Amelda and Diana wrapped their hands around her to console
her.
Nightmare flew towards Michael before comfortably landing on his

shoulder. His black eyes then turned blue staring at Andrew.
Everyone except Natalia who was sobbing looking at Andrew

starred at Nightmare for his answer. They had no idea about
Nightmare's ability to see energy pathways in a cultivator's body.
Even Michael had no clear idea about the extent of Nightmare's
power. To learn more about dragons, he needed to travel to Ozer
but for now, Michael had no desire to travel there.
The room fell silent. All the eyes were on Nightmare, expecting
him to speak up.
"Energy clusters are forming inside his body, blocking the Arch
energy from circulating his body"
"What...what...does it mean?" It was not Natalia but Diana who

questioned Nightmare. Her voice stuttered and her eyes welled
up.
Healer Adele frowned but before she could speak, Michael

needed to do one more thing before drawing the conclusion.
"Lady Diana, I need Daydream Bearberry, Putrid Belladonna, and

Blistering Berry. I will tell you why later"
"I will get them to you, young master" Samuele left the room.
These were all common ingredients found in any noble household
as they were used to treat common colds, flu, and wounds.
"You think..." Healer Adele however knew why he was asking for
those three herbs. Her voice trailed off, she didn't think of that
particular possibility before.
"What's happening to him?" Gaya came to his side and whispered

in his ears.
Michael didn't answer her but waited for Samuel to arrive. Soon,
the old butler entered the room, carrying a tray with the three
herbs on it.
"I need some space," Michael said. They quickly walked away
from him to the corner of the room without asking any questions.
They wanted to but they chose not to except for Sabrina.
"What are you planning to do?"
"You will see"

Michael would have answered her but he planned to show off his
Alchemy skills to earn more badass points from them. If he told
them what he's about to do, they would be more focused on that
rather than being awestruck by his skills.
The green flames emerged from his hand lightning the entire room
in green. He then waved his other hand as the herbs flew straight
into the flames.


He was laughing inside happily seeing the increase in badass

points. Diana and everyone were stunned to see him brew a
potion without the help of the cauldron. He showed them that he's
on the next level compared to Noah.
"Grandma, how is he?" Sabrina's jaw dropped in shock. She

questioned Adele,
"Even Gabriel can't do this' ' The old woman's voice was not loud
but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Seeing that Adele
addressed Gabriel by his first name without any honorifics,
Michael realized that Adele might know him personally.
He snickered inside because after establishing connections with

more power houses, he would show his true potential to the world.
At that time, Gabriel wouldn't be the number 1 Alchemist of Elon
anymore, he would be the second.
After today's events, he was positive that the House of Winston

would support him. After all, he saved not only Sabrina but also
Diana from getting assassinated in her own house.
Soon afterward, a sky blue liquid formed inside the green flames.
"If this potion changed its color from blue to green" Michael's voice
trailed off. He looked at Adele to finish his sentence.
"He was poisoned" As Michael expected Healer Adele finished his

sentence.
"Poisoned?!"
"Healer Adele, what are you talking about?"
"NO!"
The room was filled with the cries of the three ladies. Sabrina had
an expression of shock and disbelief on her face.
Michael waved his hand, sending the sky blue liquid towards
Andrew before they could ask any questions to him. He was
almost certain that Andrew was poisoned and wanted to confirm
his suspicion. The Winstons were already in his debt and by
saving him, he would not only earn badass points but could also
increase their trust.
Since the House of Winston was the most powerful family in Pen
Town, he wanted them as allies. He planned to use them to
expand his business empire.
The sky blue liquid spread itself on Andrew's body like a blanket.
Natalia prayed to the gods asking them the potion to stay blue.
She did not want to face the reality that her son might be
poisoned.
However, the gods betrayed her as the sky blue potion slowly
turned from blue to jade green. Diana and Amelda's hearts
skipped a beat seeing the transformation.
"He was poisoned,' Adele was startled. If it was the star pox, she
knew a talented 5-star alchemist like him could brew the phoenix
potion to save Andrew. However, on top of star pox, Andrew was
poisoned. This made healing Andrew a lot more complicated.
Natalia fainted on the spot. She couldn't bear to face this new
reality.
Everyone was so stunned that they failed to notice the grin on

Gaya's face. She was already planning to ask for a permit to open
businesses in Pen Town without any taxes. By saving Sabrina and
Diana, they could most probably earn the permit but if Michael
could cure Andrew, there was no doubt that they would receive
the permit.
Little by little, she felt less annoyed with Nightmare because if it

wasn't for him sticking his nose into Sabrina's business, it would
have been difficult to get into Winston compound, bug their house
and earn the permit to operate any business without paying a
single gold coin.
Plus, when Noah heard about Ghost saving his family twice in a
single day, he would feel indebted to him. This might help Michael
in the long run.
Chapter 193 - Actions And
Consequences
"Sweetie, you can cure him right?" Diana wiped off the tears that
were running out of her eyes. Michael was not a soft-hearted guy
but when he saw the pain, grief, and helplessness in Natalia's
eyes, helping this helpless mother became his main objective, and
taking advantage of the situation became secondary.
"First we need to find what kind of poison is in his body. A wrong

antidote could complicate the situation further" Michael did not say
kill him for the sake of Natalia but everyone could tell he was
sugar-coating it.
"Lady Diana, this is not a coincidence. First Alden tried to kill

Sabrina and another one tried to assassinate you on the same
day. Someone really wants to hurt your family"
"But Alden is dead right?" Sabrina asked.
Honestly, the three ladies were in denial of the assassination

attempt on Diana. However, Michael's words shattered their wall
of denial.
"Where are the men?" Gaya asked. She noticed that the majority
of the people in the house were women and children and Diana
seemed to be the authority. Gaya wondered where Diana's and
the other two ladies' husbands were.
"My husband and my brothers-in-law were summoned by Duke

Slade, along with most of our soldiers"
"Is there a war going on that we don't know about?"

"Yes. Duke Marvin is at war with Duke Avon" Sabrina answered
Gaya as everything made sense to Michael. Since House Winston
sent most of their manpower to accompany the Duke Marvin war,
it became the perfect time to seek revenge by killing the people in
the compound. They were basically sitting ducks to be
slaughtered at this point. Michael really questioned the
competence of Diana's husband because it was pretty dumb to
leave his family unprotected like this.
"Noah should take care of his family before taking care of others,"
Michael thought in his mind.
"We'll be safer after Young Miss Rowena and Young Master Noah
arrive"
"When will that be?" Michael wanted to leave the place before
Noah came. Michael did not like the company Noah keeps,
especially Alicia.
Besides, if Noah brought Xanali with him, it might jeopardize

Gaya's safety. He wasn't going to take any chances when it came
to Gaya's safety.
"Healer Adele, can you find what kind of poison in his body?"
Sabrina asked Adele but the old woman shook her head.
"The poison might have already mixed with Andrew's blood. It'd be
damn hard to find it now"
"No...Andrew!" Natalia began to scream. Her cry reverberated the

entire compound.
"If I were you, I would start rounding up my enemies who have the
motive to hurt my family," Gaya said.
"Uncle Samuel, get me a team. I'll hunt down all our enemies"
Like she learned nothing from today's events, Sabrina volunteered
for this task.
"No. We'll ask Captain Giles to do that" Diana immediately

rejected Sabrina.
"But mom"
"No buts!" Yet again, Diana raised her voice, stomping the ground.
Sabrina halted her steps in shock and didn't choose to test her
mother's patience.
"Please...save...my...son" Natalia stuttered, sobbing in grief.
"I need to be alone to find a way" Michael did know a way to

identify the poison in Andrew's body but he wanted to take time to
heal him because he trusted his instincts.
Michael then stepped towards Natalia and squatted in front of her

to take her hands.
"I will save your son" He then whipped off the tears running from
her eyes.
He was not a goody-two-shoes who would help out anyone but

something about this family made him help them. Something deep
down of him couldn't let this family suffer. There was still no doubt
that Michael would kill Noah in a heartbeat if he stood in Michael's
path but Michael really wished he didn't.
Besides by helping this family, he could build a good samaritan

reputation that would hide his Lucifer persona. After all, many
wouldn't suspect a good doer to be an evildoer in the night.
"Thank you," the three ladies said in unison as Samuel stepped

forward to lead Michael to his room.
*******************************************
"Where did this bastard come from?" Jacob was shouting at a

figure wearing a cloak to hide their face.
The veins on Jacob's face seemed like they were about to

explode. He was shaking and walking from one end of his room to
another.
"It doesn't matter. Alden is dead, we need to find another way to

get what we want" the hooded figure said, taking off his clout to
reveal himself.
"I know that Giles. Alden is fucking idiot who lost all his reasons
after Noah killed his family. I said I could kill Andrew without all
that star pox nonsense but no, he said he wanted Noah's family to
suffer"
Captain Giles listened to Jacob's rant, stroking his beard.
"Now that he's gone, I can finish off Andrew before that Ghost
bastard cures him and moves on to kill Noah. Then, I will be the
next Lord of the Family"
"Don't forget our deal, Jacob. My employer wants Diana dead"
"What's your employer's beef with that bitch anyway?"
"I don't know the exact reason but I can tell it's something to do
with Noah"
"Of course it is. That bastard runs around pissing off the
powerhouses, making more enemies to House Winston. He's
more trouble than what he's worth" Jacob's face turned red as a
fresh tomato in anger. Ever since they were little, Noah always
overshadowed him by overachieving in pretty much everything. It
was the sight of the girl he loved with Noah that snapped Jacob.
When he first laid his eyes on the red-haired beauty, he
immediately fell in love only to realize that she was a guardian
who came to Pen Town accompanying Noah.
Jacob never expected the red-haired beauty to fall in love with

Noah. Although they acted like they were just friends, Jacob
wasn't a naive kid to believe they were just friends. The tension
between Noah and the red-haired beauty was obvious to him.
Jacob now wanted to kill Noah and take over the family before the
elders name him the next in line for the family head seat.
"Who was that guy who tried to kill Diana today? That was a dumb
move Giles"
"I think it was Alden's backup plan to hurt Noah. Good thing that
Ghost guy killed him instantly without capturing him alive" Giles
heaved a sigh of relief.
"What are you gonna do about Andrew? I'd say let him be, he
won't be alive in a month anyways"
Jacob frantically shook his head, taking out a small vial of purple
glistening liquid.
"I have a feeling Ghost might be able to save him. I want both
Noah and Andrew to die. Only then I can get what I want without
killing most of the elders"
"Is that the same venom you used to poison Andrew?"
"Yes. If it wasn't for Alden asking me to use only a few drops, I

would have used the entire bottle and killed Andrew two months
ago" a devilish grin appeared on Jacob's face.
"What about the Phoenix potion? Didn't Alden say giving Andrew
the Phoenix poison was equal to killing him?"
"Yeah, the potion and this poison would react in some sort of
weird way, killing Andrew horribly"
"Then let Ghost brew the potion? Why did you try to stop him
earlier?"
"Look what happened now. That fucking bastard found out

Andrew's poisoned and currently making something to save
Andrew. If he hadn't seen Andrew or tried to brew Phoenix potion,
they wouldn't have found the truth. Now I have to finish the job"
"How do you plan to do that?"
"Don't worry about that Giles. I can poison Andrew in front of

Natalia and she wouldn't even notice"
Giles saw a glimmer emerge in Jacob's hand. He looked closer to

see a tiny needle come out of the ring in Jacob's middle finger.
The needle quickly retracted itself back into the ring as Jacob
willed.
"Few more drops of poison would do the trick" Jacob grinned,

pouring the purple venom a few drops at a time onto his hand.
The ring in his hand glimmered gain before absorbing the venom
into itself.
**********************************
"I knew something was off about that guy" Inside the room given
to Michael by the Winston's, he and Gaya were watching Jacob
and Gaya through the mirror connected to the spiders.
"Stupid fuck. If you want to kill someone, you shouldn't draw all
attention to yourself" Gaya shook her head like she was
disappointed in Jacob.
It was Jacob's stupidity of messing with Michael that made

Michael send a few spiders to his room. If Jacob had just stayed
silent all the time, Michael wouldn't have suspected him in the first
place.
"Although we know about Jacob and Giles, we can't go accuse

them unless we say that yeah we bugged your entire house"
"Only people like Guardians need evidence Gaya. People like us,
we create evidence"
Michael took out a paper and quill from his space ring to forge a
letter that was supposed to be from Captain Giles to Jacob,
implying all the information needed for the Winston's to suspect
both of them.
Michael didn't worry about Giles's mysterious employer because

that was not his problem, it was Noah. After all, although Michael
had a soft spot for this family, he knew he can't always be there to
save them.
Who knows if he was lucky, he could get a gift from the system
when he cured Andrew. He did get one when he saved Raylene
and the children.
Chapter 194 - Creating False
Evidence
"You look cute," Michael said, squatting down to brush Gaya's

head. She was in her miniature snake form. Her scales were
glimmering in violet, two round eyes with vertical slit pupils stared
at Michael. In Michael's eyes, she resembled a king cobra of
earth, only she was violet and one and a half meters long.
"I'm not cute" she hissed but Michael surprised her with a kiss on
her snakehead.
"For me, you are" Michael already put the letter in his interlinked
space ring so she could access the letter when she reached
Jacob's room. Then, he took out a colorless liquid and poured the
liquid all over her body.
"You're wet" He blinked at her, letting out a playful smile.
"And you are a pervert" she hissed again before leaving the room
towards Jacob's.
A few minutes after Gaya left the room, Nightmare flew through
the opened window to Michael's shoulder.
"I checked the surroundings, no intruders in the vicinity"
"It's better to be safe than sorry"
Michael patted Nightmare on the head. He then just sat on his bed
waiting for Gaya to finally put his plan in motion. While sitting on
his bed, he could see the shadows flicker outside the room
through the gap under the door. It was obvious either one of the
three ladies was waiting for him outside his room.
Ignoring the person outside his room, he began to control the
spiders to move to every room in the manor. From today onwards,
if anything happens in Noah's home, Michael would know it
sooner than Noah himself. He did not have a clear idea about
what he could learn from bugging Noah's home but he hoped that
he would get some valuable information on Guardians.
After a few minutes of waiting, the violet snake slowly advanced

into the room through the opened windows before transforming
into her human form.
She then looked at him, giving him a thumbs up with a wide grin
on her face.
"Everything's in place but before we go out, we need to decide

what should we ask in return for what we did to them"
"What do you have in mind?" Michael asked as Nightmare stared

at her curiously.
He could tell her by looking at her face that she already has
something in her mind.
"License to open businesses in Pen Town with no taxes. Free

permits from the Winstons"
Although Michael had no plans to open any business in Pen

Town, he knew getting these free permits would greatly help him
in the future. Until now, he had no need for permits as River town
is said to have belonged to the Sunrise sect. Therefore, he didn't
pay any taxes to Baron Totonk except a small percentage of the
profits to the sect.
The only source of income for the Sunrise sect was this small
percentage they got from the Majestic. However, this would soon
change when they merge with the Broad River sect.
"Don't ask them before they ask what we need," Michael said.
"Alright"
Gaya knew they would try to repay Michael's kindness somehow
and when they try, she would ask for free permits.
"Let's go"
With a plan to end both Giles and Jacob's lives, Michael walked
towards the door.
"Sweetie"
The moment Michael opened the door, he saw Diana waiting for
him with Amelda and Natalia.
The three ladies leaned towards him. expecting his answer.
"I have found a way to save Andrew but we need to act quickly"
"Thank the gods" Diana and Amelda heaved a sigh of relief as

Natalia shed tears of joy.
"Lead the way" Michael gestured at Diana with a smile as she

frantically nodded before walking towards Andrews's room. On his
way to Andrew's room, he saw a large group of guards gathered
at the hall on the first floor.
Sabrina was standing in front of them and seemed to coordinate

with the guards.
When Michael opened Andrews' room, Samuel was covering

Andrews with a thick wool bed sheet to prevent the cold from
seeping into his body.
Sitting on the bed beside Andrews, healer Adele was applying an

ointment on Andrews's forehead. The pungent smell of the
ointment overwhelmed Gaya's sensors in her nose to make her
frown. Yet, she controlled herself from complaining about the
smell.
"Young Master, have you..." The old butler's voice trailed but when
he saw Michael nod his head, Sameul's face brightened up.
"I'm going to use an ancient method here so I'd appreciate it if you
all kept this as a secret" Except for Healer Adele who creased her
brown bushy brows, everyone in the room nodded in agreement.
He noticed Healer Adele's expression but didn't give a shit

because he just said that to make what he was about to do more
dramatic.
"Don't panic, I need to take some blood from his body"
Natalia nodded as he said, staring directly at her.
"Aelia, dagger" Gaya retrieved the silver dagger from inside her
winter coat and handed it over to him.
Michael then made a small cut in Andrew's right palm before

placing an empty vial to collect the blood. They saw him add a few
other herbs into the vial with the blood and conjure the green
alchemy flames.
The blood and the herbs he added started to change color under
the heat provided by the flames. Soon, the blood-red transformed
into a pale golden color.
"When thrown into the air, this potion will lead us to the nearest
source that contains the poison in his body. If I can get my hands
on the poison's purest form, I can use it to brew the antidote, and
then, the phoenix potion will cure him of the star pox as it should"
As they were staring at his potion, he waved the vial as the potion
inside splashed into the air. However, the gravity couldn't get the
potion to hit the ground but the pale golden liquid floated in the air
before slowly forming a trail from the room towards outside.
The trail soon began to sparkle in the air like millions of tiny
fireflies leading them towards something. They were all stunned
by the sight, even Healer Adele's mouth slightly opened in
surprise. She had never heard of such a method nor a potion but
she knew the world is full of mysteries and new things. Therefore,
she stood up from the bed, following the light trail behind Michael
and the ladies.
"Hmm, the trail is glowing brighter than I expected," Michael said,
rubbing his chin.
"What does it mean?" Amelda asked.
"It means the source is closer" they followed the light trail through
the corridors to the front lawn. The guards who saw the sudden
change in the air were tensed up, but Diana waved her hands
nonchalantly, gesturing to calm down. Soon afterward, Sabrina
joined the group to follow the light trail as she asked about the
light trail from Adele.
Jacob's room was located on the far end of the first floor. To reach
his room, one had to go through the hall passing several rooms.
All of them expected the light trail to go through the door leading
them outside but surprisingly, the light trail took a turn going
towards the elders' rooms.
"What's happening?" Amelda asked in surprise. Though the

others didn't utter a word, Gaya could see the shock in their faces.
Fortunately, when Gaya went to Jacob's room in her snake form,
there weren't many guards inside the house to notice a snake.
She also had to thank the man or the woman who decorated the
house with countless tables, flower vases, and sofas that provided
her with the much-needed cover to finish her task without getting
detected.
"Why is the light trail going into Jacob's room?" Everyone was
thinking about it but it was Sabrina who spoke her mind.
This was a question that only Michael, Gaya, and Nightmare knew
the answer for because Michael planned it in the first place.
"Weird" Michael pretended to be surprised.
"If my guess is correct, the poison's source is close"
"Look at the brightness of the light trail, I guess the source is

inside the house" Gaya folded her arms against her chest
confidently.
Diana and Amelda's faces lost their colors. They were bewildered
about the light trail.
Michael followed the light trail until he reached Jacob's door.

Standing in front of the door, Michael could sense the fluctuations
of Arch energy in the surroundings, indicating Jacob has been
cultivating.
"Lady Diana," Michael said, taking a step back from the door.
"Jacob" Diana knocked on the door, calling his name.
"Jacob, open the door"
"Coming" after a few more knocks on the door, they heard Jacob's
annoyed voice.
When Jacob opened the door, his annoyed expression quickly

turned into a somewhat surprised expression. Jacob took a brief
moment to stare at everyone standing outside his door and
noticed the light trail leading up to the middle of his room.
"Aunty, what's going on here?" Jacob frowned.
"Ghost" Diana called out to Michael. She had no idea how the
poison in Andrew's body could be found in Jacob's room.
"It's here Lady Diana. Unless you have another way of saving
Andrews, we can't turn back without searching this room"
"What?! Search my room?!" Jacob was already annoyed at Ghost

for hindering his plans and when he heard that he wanted to
search the room, Jacob snapped.
However, Jacob could only raise his voice while making a fist
because Jacob knew as a Body Strengthening level 3 warrior, he
had no chance of winning against a Core Formation warrior like
Ghost. Since Ghost had already saved Sabrina and Diana, Jacob
knew that the Winstons would definitely protect him even if his
father wanted to take any action against Ghost.
"Step aside Jacob" Sabrina pushed Jacob away before entering
the room.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Ghost," Sabrina said.
Chapter 195 - Basilisk Venom
"What is this light and why are you searching my room?!" Jacob
tried to stop them but Sabrina had already shoved him aside and
entered the room.
Following Sabrina, Michael, Gaya, and everyone standing outside

the door entered Jacob's room, ignoring his angry shouts.
Sabrina followed the light trail in Jacob's room to a small two feet
tall mahogany cupboard beside his bed.
"Aunty, are you going to tell me what's going on here?" Jacob

scowled at Diana,
"It depends on what we find here, Jacob," Diana replied flatly.

Since Jacob was little, Diana knew he was always the problem
child in the family. He would always get into trouble as his father
had to bail him out every time.
His behavior worsened for the last few months for some unknown
reason. Last month he almost killed a strumpet by beating her to
death, if not for Noah saving the poor girl and healing her in time,
she would have died.
Diana could recall dozens of incidents like this in just a few

seconds. Although she didn't want to believe it, it wouldn't be a
surprise if Jacob had something to do with the poison. If he did
something to do with poisoning Andrews, Diana would personally
send him into the dungeon before trying him at a family trial.
"Humph, go ahead. Search all you want"? Jacob snickered before

folding his arms in anger.
"The light trail ends near that cupboard" Michael pointed at the
small cupboard to Sabrina.
Still, there was no change on Jacob's face as he knew they
wouldn't find anything in his room that would incriminate him.
Sabrina opened the drawer, searching through the contents such

as potions, combs, scrolls, and usual stuff that a cultivator would
have. She almost closed the drawer before she noticed a glimmer
of light coming from under all this stuff. She rummaged through
the items to find the light coming from a letter that had no writings
on the outside.
Jacob was so busy staring at Ghost, he failed to notice the veins

under Sabrina's face popping out. Her eyes instantly turned red as
one could hear the sound of her gritting teeth.
Shock and disbelief occupied her face,
"What is it, Sabi?" Amelda asked after sensing the killing intent
radiating from Sabrina's body.
The killing intent was so intense that it instantly drew Jacob's

attention towards her. He noticed Sabrina standing near the
cupboard like she was nailed to the ground, slightly trembling.
"Jacob, everything is in place to kill that bitch Sabrina. I'd make

sure it looks like a bandit attack" Sabrina began to read the letter
out loud. Her words stunned everyone, including Jacob.
"After killing Sabrina, Alden ordered me to bring an assassin into

your home to kill Diana. I'll tell you the details when we meet next.
Also, keep the poison you used to poison Andrew safe, we might
need it to kill Noah"
Nightmare expected someone to interrupt or ask something but all

they did was stand there speechlessly. He almost rolled his eyes
when he noticed Gaya pretending to be thoroughly shocked. He
had to give it to the snake for her acting skills.
"Victory shall be ours, Giles"
"What?! What is that?" Jacob's body began to shiver after Sabrina

finished reading the letter. He had zero clues about how or when a
letter like this reached his room.
"I don't know anything about that letter. It's not true!" Jacob
shouted.
Even the eyes of Samuel contained a tinge of killing intent hidden

within.
"So that's why you want me gone huh?" Michael asked to fan the
flames of Sabrina's anger, so she would start attacking him. Just
like he planned, she lunged at him, conjuring Arch energy around
her fist.
Although she was just a Body Refining stage cultivator, she was
extremely quick as Jacob didn't have time to react before she
punched him in the chest as hard as she could. If the letter had
anyone's name except Jacob's, she would have at least doubted
the words on the letter but when it comes to Jacob, she
completely believed the letter. Her anger overwhelmed her brain
as she almost forgot about Giles's betrayal.
"Ah!" Since Jacob did not conjure Arch energy in time to protect
himself, the force of the punch broke a few ribs and sent him flying
onto the wall behind him.
"Ask him where the poison is before you vent your anger on him"
Michael reminded Sabrina.
"Sabi!"
"Jacob you little bastard!" Even Amelda, the kind-looking lady, lost
her composure when it came to Jacob. It was really funny to
Michael how they all completely believed the letter he fabricated.
Yet, if Jacob wanted to blame someone, he had to blame himself
for being an asshole.
"Lady Diana!" Soon, the commotion brought the guards patrolling

around the house. They saw their Young Miss drawing her sword
as Jacob growling on the ground.
"I know nothing...about that letter" Jacob wanted to tear Sabrina
into pieces but he knew attacking her only made him look guiltier.
Plus, the guards would rather attack him with Sabrina than protect
him because he has a history of abusing the guards.
"Give...me...your...space ring"? Sabrina spoke with powerful killing

intent. If Jacob truly had nothing to hide, he would have given the
space ring to her except he really had a vial of Basilisk venom that
he used on Andrew in his space ring as well as the needle ring on
his left hand.
"No! This is atrocious. I have nothing to do with anything that letter

mentioned"
"The Young master has nothing to worry about. Give your space
ring to Young Miss and clear your name" Samuel said, waving his
hand at the guards to stay put.
"Paralyzing Wave!" Suddenly, a wave of amethyst-colored wind hit

Jacob. When the wave hit Jacob, his entire body froze as they all
turned to see Natalia standing beside Diana with her hands
reaching out at Jacob.
"Take his space ring!" Natalia's usual soft gentle voice now
sounded full of rage. Her golden hair fluttered in the cold wind,
making her look domineering and powerful.
Everyone who saw her like this was stunned. Among the three
ladies, Natalia was the calmest and kind soul. They had never
seen her angry until now.
Sabrina swiftly took the space ring from Jacob's finger while he
frantically rolled his eyes. He could not move a muscle in his body.
Michael expected Sabrina to ask his help for breaking the seal on
the space ring but she surprised him when she broke the seal
using a spell.
The next moment, a bunch of scrolls, ale bottles, swords, potions,

and gold coins appeared on the ground. All of them were inside
his space ring a moment ago.
Michael looked at all the items on the ground before his gaze
landed on a dark purple vial among the potions.
"What do we have here?" Michael made his way to the vial and
picked it up.
"Is that Basilisk venom?" Healer Adele quickly recognized the

venom.
A few gasps sounded from the guards. Most of them obviously

heard about Basilisk, the mere thought of the monster sent a chill
running through their spines.
"Yes, this is the venom used to poison Andrews" After pretending

to be studying the venom, Michael exclaimed.
"Explain why you have this poison in your space ring Jacob,"
Diana asked, gently pushing Natalia's hands down to release
Jacob from the spell.
"I….I..."
"So it's true...you were plotting to kill me and my mom!"
"Wait!"
But Jacob's cry had no effect on Sabrina as she charged at him

again curling up her fist. She punched him in the face,
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes, Young Master Jacob was trying to murder Lady Diana and
Young Miss Sabrina"
"Young Master Noah and Young Miss Rowena is going to shred

him to pieces"
"It was fortunate that we had Ghost to save Lady Diana in time"
The guards began to chatter among themselves.

The guards didn't know what was written on the letter and those
who knew didn't utter a word. They wanted to capture and
interrogate Giles without alerting him. Samuel still couldn't
completely believe that Captain Giles was plotting with Jacob to
harm the Winstons. However, Samuel was old enough to know
that people are full of surprises.
"Enough!" Just when Sabrina was about to punch him again,

Jacob released a burst of Arch energy to push her away. The
violent burst of Arch energy knocked everything in the room such
as books, lanterns, and flower vases. The items on the ground
were blasted away in many directions.
The burst momentarily broke the effects of the spell cast by

Natalia.
"How dare you all treat me like this!" Jacob barked like a mad
dog.His neatly combed hair now a mess. Bloodstains on his teeth
made him look even worse.
"And you!" Jacob's gaze turned towards Michael.
"Everything went wrong after you came here. You're manipulating

them spouting lies about Andrew"
"Really Jacob?" Michael just calmly smiled,
"After all we've seen, you're trying to blame me?" He then looked
at Sabrina,
"You should deal with him before he force my hand"
"Fur-"
"Wind blast" Jacob snapped and tried to cast a spell but when he
opened his mouth to cast the spell, a wave of wind from Michael's
hand blasted him onto the wall again. The force of the wind was
so powerful that a web of cracks formed in the wall when Jacob's
body collided with the wall.

Continued bell sounds rang in his head after he blasted Jacob.

Wind blast was simple and quick to cast spell. Although the Wind
blast was still at level 2, his current cultivation level significantly
did not affectboosted all of his spells' power.
Jacob hit the ground with a thud sound but he didn't move after
falling down. The wind blast knocked him out. Sabrina gave a
short nod of approval at Michael. Michael only got three thousand
badass points since Michael did not use any fancy spells such as
Ring of Fire or Ignitia.
Yet Michael was glad that he almost earned 15k badass points
ever since he came to Pen Town. He wanted to do the first thing
after earning a couple of more thousand badass points and settle
his debt of badass points.
" Meet me at the training hall," Sabrina ordered Samuel. Amid this
chaos, she didn't forget about Giles. She wanted to interrogate
Jacob more before taking any actions against Giles.
Chapter 196 - Copy Cat In
Flamefair?
"The cure worked, Natalia. He'll be fine" Healer Adele gently

brushed Natalia's head. The three ladies had seated themselves
on Andrews's bed, surrounding him.
It took Michael ten minutes to brew the Basilisk venom antidote as

well as the Phoenix potion. He intentionally brewed the potion in
front of the guards and maids to amass more badass points. As
he expected, his plan worked too well as he earned a whooping
10k points by impressing the crowd.
He now had 22,000 badass points. With interest, he had to pay

13,000 badass points to the system.
"Give these to him when he wakes up" Michael placed a healing

potion on the small cupboard beside the bed.
"Excuse me" He then gave a short nod at everyone in the room

before leaving Andrews's room.
They all showed Michael a smile filled with gratitude. He knew

they would soon come to thank him one by one but for now, he
gave them the privacy they needed.
He left Andrews' room with Gaya and Nightmare. After reaching

the room given to him, Michael jumped on his bed with Gaya. She
placed her head on Michael's chest as Nightmare cuddled
between them.
"Are you still mad at me?" Nightmare asked in a meek voice. For
a moment, he sounded like a scared cat rather than a scary
dragon. Looking at the pet dragon giving him puppy eyes, he
smoothed the dragon's warm body.
"I was" Nightmare uncurled himself and stood on Michael's chest
on four legs, staring at Michael.
"But I just wanted to help that human girl. Just like you helped me
in the Nether Realm"
"This time, your choice to help her didn't have a dire

consequence. What if Alden still had a powerful family behind
him? What if Sabrina really deserved to get killed? What if Alden
didn't deserve to get killed? What if Alden was stronger than us?
what if Alden escaped and decided to kill everyone at the sect as
an act of revenge?" Michael continued to raise questions slowly
making Nightmare realize what could have happened because of
his actions.
"Helping others isn't a problem but helping without knowing

everything is. If I only want to increase my own power, I could
easily roam around this world, helping people, killing bad guys,
and being a goody-two-shoes. But I don't want that, I want to build
a government, a government that rules everything under my
leadership. That's why I take every step carefully, thinking about
every possible outcome" Michael explained.
Aside from the prophecy of him being the dark lord, Michael really
wanted to control this world because of the novels he had read in
his previous life and his life experience.
The main characters in those novels would triumph over

everything to become the peak existence but if they turned back
and look at their life path, they would have nothing but a harem of
beauties, if they didn't die somehow.IF he acted like those main
characters, he could have a fun-filled life with the system. Yet he
knew the world would eventually forget about him and move on
unless he often showed them who's the boss. What's the best way
to do that than ruling them.
A god is only a god until he has worshippers right?
If Michael didn't rule this world, he would just be a character in the

history books. Besides, organizations like the Great CLans would
eventually become strong enough to challenge him and if he was
alone, his fun-filled life would definitely come to an end unless
Michael built his own Great Clan, powerful enough to face all the
others while uprooting his enemies on his behalf, he would be a
god forever.
"You helped me without even knowing my name" Gaya rolled on

his chest to take her eyes away from the ceiling to him.
"That was need not help"
"What do you mean?" she raised her brows. Clearly, it was not the
answer she was hoping for.
"I just came to this world knowing basically nothing. Hence I

needed someone to tell me everything I wanted to know. You were
a crippled girl and looked kinda okay too, so I rescued you"
Her eyes twitched like she was controlling her urge to punch him
in the face.
"What do you mean kinda okay?"
"My mistake, you're not kinda okay. You're fugly"
"What's fugly?" Nightmare asked while she was clenching her fist.
"Fucking ugly"
"Bastard!" she started to headbutt his chest furiously as Michael

and Nightmare laughed out loud. Soon, he grabbed her by her
hands, stopping her from wiggle. Their eyes locked in, entering a
staring contest. Little by little, Gaya's anger dissipated as she
began to breathe heavily. He moved closer and closer until she
could feel his warm breath on her face.
"You're the prettiest girl in my heart"
Nightmare immediately closed his eyes with his wings when

Michael locked his lips with hers. The tender kiss made him
almost forget about the existence of Nightmare near them. Until
they tie the knot, Gaya didnt want to have sex with him and
Michael respected her decision. Although he had the prettiest girl
lying beside him on a warm bed on a cold night like this, the only
thing he could get was a tender kiss. Michael savored every
second of the kiss.
"Lesson learned" Nightmare wiggled himself in between them,

breaking the kiss with his little body.
"good" Michael moved his head away from Gaya's. He then licked
his lips, a wry smile was plastered on his face.
"Let's see what's happening around" A tablet-sized mirror

appeared in Michael's hand from his space ring. A bright light
flickered inside the mirror a few times before it showed the
Winston family hall.
They saw a few guards standing in the corners and a group of

guards patrolling, nothing caught Michael's interest until the mirror
showed three guards standing around a campfire at the garden
outside.
"My cousin Lamar just came back from Flamefair and you're not
going to believe what I heard from him" Nightmare hopped on
Michael's shoulder to get a good view of the mirror.
"He said the whole town is under lockdown, he said that he had to
pay his way out"
"No surprise there, Flamefair and Icefair always get the worst of
the winter" the guard replied in a thick accent while warming his
hands above the fire.
"It was not the winter that made those Flamefairers piss their
pants, Trent. Someone is killing the wealthy cultivators in their
own home and Duke Avon put the entire Flamefair in lockdown"
"Good Lord, do you think it's Lucifer?" The guard's voice stuttered
in fear. The mere mention of the name Lucifer made his legs turn
into jelly.
"I don't know but he said the guardians were swarming the place,
so it's possible"
"Then Lucifer should kill that bastard Avon and end this fucking
war" The third guard replied.
"That's not all, a few days ago, someone killed a few soldiers of
Duke Avon at the slave mines"
"Slave mines? Why?" the guard with a thick accent asked.
"Who knows"
"Did they catch the one who attacked?"
"Lamar said he heard the one who attacked used a teleportation

scroll to escape. I guess it must be some rich brat who loves the
thrill "
"So she used the teleportation scroll," Michael said. Bugging

Noah's home had already started to pay off. He never expected to
find out what happened at FLamefair without even going or
sending someone to Flamefair.
"It seems the guardians left the Royal land to come to Flamefair or
we have another copycat"
"Either way, I have to go to Flamefair"
"You mean we have to go to Flamefair right?"
Michael shook his head, "No, you go to Abyssal and make sure
Aria put her heart into serving us"
"But-" she was about to protest when Michael put his finger on her
lips
"No buts. We can't be at two places at the same time. You go to

Abyssal and I go to the Flamefair"
"What about the auction at Icefair?" Nightmare asked.
"We'll leave tomorrow morning and if you can, you meet us at the
auction"
"Alright" Gaya sighed.
"Where is that Diana lady? We cannot leave without getting those

free permits"
"Speaking of Diana, is it me or that human seemed to be treating

Ghosty differently?" Nightmare asked them. Gaya nodded at
Nightmare as she noticed the way Diana acted too.
"She does look like a textbook mother but yeah, I did notice how
she treated a total stranger like her own son. I mean you did save
her and her daughter but still, she was way too much caring"
"What if she was way too caring? There are many good people in
this world and she is one of them. I just hope Noah doesn't get in
my way, I'd really hate to make her cry"
"The way I see it, that guy is really pushing his luck. One day, he's
gonna get himself killed for pissing off the powerful people in Elon"
Gaya dismissed Michael's thought of killing Noah with a wave.
Knock!
Knock!
Just as they were speaking and cuddling each other on the bed,
someone knocked on the door.
"Coming"
Just by the gentleness of the knock, he could tell it's either one of
the three ladies who knocked on the door. When he opened the
door, he was proven right as Diana stood outside.
********************************
Hi
This is me your author and I'm looking at you, readers of my novel

in ranobs.net and novelgate.
First, I'm happy to see you reading my novel but I'd greatly
appreciate it if you read it on the official platform, Webnovel. The
coins you spend unlocking is my income and although money is
not the motivation for my writing, it does keep the lights on. So, if
you can come to webnovel and read it here, it means a lot to me.
Please do not encourage and enable piracy.
Enough of the nittybitty stuff. I've been reading your comments

and realized you guys and gals have many questions for me.
Some of you seemed to be wanting to know more about omegas,
the background of the dark lord, and the system. Let me tell you
this, I can dump all the information in a single chapter and be
done with it but I won't do it because it would spoil the mystery
touch around the novel. However, I can tell that I will drop more
clues in the upcoming chapters that will shed some light,
answering a few of your questions. Next, a few of you wondered
why did Ghost turn soft?
Yeah right, a cold and ruthless person like him suddenly helps
strangers, it does sound contradicting to his character.Yet, you
have to remember that Michael is not the Michael back on earth,
his soul was merged with Abras's, slightly changing his
personality. These changes wouldn't be visible until Michael face
the things related to Abras. You will know the answer to your
question in the upcoming chapters, nothing is simple when it
comes to the Dark Lord and this world. You will begin to see the
bigger picture soon. Let me finish with this, everything you expect
from a ruthless cold mc will happen.
I will share the discord link in the next chapter...
Again, I'd appreciate it if you all come to Webnovel where I can

easily connect with the readers.
Please do not enable or encourage piracy.

Chapter 197 - He Is My Son II
"Lady Diana, is everything alright?"
"Yes, yes. Everything's perfectly fine, thanks to you" She said but
Michael could tell there's something else she wants to talk to him
about.
"Come on, let's go for a walk. This has been a long day" Michael
nodded as Diana waved her hands at Gaya and Nightmare to
follow her.
Soon, they walked through the corridors, hall and reached the
garden outside. A transparent energy dome around the garden
prevented the garden from completely blanketed by snow. The
sky was vacant of any stars as a winter sky should be. Occasional
glimmering stones lighted the garden as various color flowers
danced in the wind. Especially a line of five-petal flowers that drew
their attention with its navy blue color.
Michael walked behind Diana brushing his hand through the

flowers.
"Lady Diana, it's not safe for you here. Why don't we go inside?"
Although he sensed no hostile activity nearby, he didn't want to
stay outside because Giles was still alive and he could easily plot
another plan to assassinate Diana.
If the assassin was at the Core Formation level either he or Gaya

could prevail, otherwise, they would be in real trouble.
"It's fine, I feel just as safe with you as with my children"
"I guess thanks?" Michael scratched the back of his head with a
doubtful smile.
Diana was in front of him so she never saw his expression.
"No, it's us who must thank you for all you've done for me and my
family" Diana halted her steps, turning back to look him in the
eyes.
"Thank you" she took Michael's hand and clenched it tightly.
"I don't know how I would have faced Natalia if I let anything
happen to Andrews" Glistening tears rolled out of her beautiful
eyes. He desperately wanted to wipe those tears off her face. This
was a new kinda feeling for him.
"Happy to help, Lady Diana"
Standing a few meters away from Diana and Michael, Gaya

slightly raised her brows. She was with him for almost a year now
but this was the first time she saw him vulnerable like this. Even
when he was with her, he would never seem vulnerable but when
he was with Diana, he acted differently.
Both of them stood under the drizzling of snowflakes. No words

were coming out of their words but silence enveloped them.
Michael felt a calmness he never experienced before.
"Hmprh" Gaya coughed to break the silence. Finally, Diana let go

of his hands and stepped back.
"Sweetie, you never told me where your parents are? They must
be proud to have a son like you"
"I would have known if they stuck around to raise me " Michael
just smiled but both Gaya and Diana could sense the pain behind
his smile.
"I...I...I am sorry" Diana stuttered.
"Don't be, Lady Diana" He quickly hid the pain and anger from
showing on his face.
"Even if we know you for few days, you're family to me, Sweetie"
He did not know what to tell as he just stayed silent for a few
moments.
"Tomorrow, you'll get to meet the whole gang" Diana clenched her
hands together against her chest in joy. A blast of happiness
flashed across her face.
"About that Lady Diana. I have to leave as early as possible

tomorrow morning" the smile on Diana's face froze.
"Why?"
"I must leave as soon as possible Lady Diana, trust me. I hope
you understand my situation" After seeing the resolve in his eyes,
Diana could only sigh.
"At least wait until Natalia comes out of Andrews's room. She
would want to speak with you and I haven't even got you
something to thank you for what you've done"
"You can thank us by giving us free permits" Gaya hurriedly

shouted at Diana.
"Free permits?"
"Forgive my girlfriend's enthusiasm. It just we are planning to

expand our businesses and she thinks Pen Town will be a perfect
place"
"Done, just wait here for a few moments"
***************************
When the sky became brighter, Michael wrote a letter that had a
few parting words for Diana. He then placed it on the table before
leaving the room through the opened windows with Gaya and
Nightmare. He soared up into the skies, his shadow gradually
vanishing into the distance.
A few hours after Michael left the room, Diana opened the door to
see the empty room. Seeing the room empty, her eyes revealed a
perplexed look as if she couldn't bear to watch him go. At the
same time, tears trickled out of her eyes.
She then saw the letter which Michael had left behind. This
caused her to freeze for a second before she approached the
table and picked up the letter. She sat on his bed as she gazed at
the words written by him.
"Lady Diana, I'm not very good with goodbyes and this is the best
I could do. If fate permits, we'll meet again soon" she muttered
repeatedly.
After a long time, her expression fell as she whispered to herself,

"Forgive me"
She then placed the letter down as she crawled into his bed.
Within the covers, there was still some warmth left behind by him.
Diana laid down on the pillow and pressed her face deep into the
pillow.
"Diana" while Diana was sobbing on Michael's bed, Amelda

entered the room. She was stunned by the empty room and her
sister crying.
"Diana, what happened? Why are you crying and where are
they?" Amelda asked, walking to the bed to console her sister.
When Amelda seated herself on the bed, Diana crawled to her

and placed her head on Amelda's lap.
"Did he leave without even telling us?"
"He told me yesterday night. I just wanted to say goodbye to him"
"They must have had some important thing to take care of Diana
but why are you crying like this?" Amelda too noticed the way she
treated Michael. She didn't want to question her sister when
Michael was around and since he's gone, she was able to ask
Diana.
"Because... Ghost… is my son, Amelda" She burst into crying
more after speaking these words. The grief, regret, and pain
overwhelmed Diana's heart.
"Diana...he's not your son...You know he can't be" Amela's heart

began to beat faster and faster. She could still remember that
night vividly every time she closed her eyes. She wanted to forget
about everything that happened that night but until now, she was
unable to.
"No...he IS my son...the wishing stone...it worked" Diana stood up,

wiping off the tears from her face.
She then flicked her wrist as a multi-color gem appeared in her

hand. It flickered a few times before losing its shine.
"This..this is the stone Noah gave you" Amelda was speechless.

She was stunned when Noah gifted the stone to Diana on her
birthday. It's said that a wishing stone could grant its holder's
wishes if he or she wished from their heart and their wish wasn't
about hurting others.
Noah also said that there's only a couple of wishing stones

existing in this world.
"I wished to see my Dean and the very next day, I met Ghost.
Ghost is Dean, Amelda"
"Stop it, Diana!" Amelda shouted as Diana's face froze in shock.
"That baby couldn't have survived, it's dead. You have only one
son and you to accept that"
"No!" Diana stomped her feet as the entire room trembled.

Amelda was pushed back several feet by the arch energy
exploded from Diana's body.
"Twenty years ago, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have trusted that

oracle. A mother knows her children Amelda, he is my son"
It had been twenty years since Amelda saw her sister like this. If
she didn't stop cultivating twenty years ago to punish herself, she
would have been half immortal by now. Two decades ago, she
was a warrior feared by many kingdoms in the Ozer Continent.
Amelda's body shivered under the overwhelming aura radiating
from Diana.
However, Amelda had to overcome this fear and calm her sister
down.
"Even if he is your son, do you think he'll be happy to meet us, the
ones who left him to die on a sacrificial stage in the middle of a
forest?"
The overwhelming powerful aura slowly dissipated from Diana's

body.
"You know what would the Skyhall do to him if they knew the baby
survived and grew into a youngster? They will kill him" Diana's
legs gave up as she dropped to the ground.
She felt just as helpless as she felt twenty years ago. Even an
animal would fight to save its child but she left her two days old
baby to die. Ever since that night, Diana couldn't stop hearing the
baby's cries.
If it wasn't for her family, she would have already taken her own
life.
"Ah" Diana cried out loud.
"Don't speak about this with anyone, Diana. If by any chance he's
your son"
"He is," Diana sobbed as Amelda sighed, wrapping her hands

around Diana to console her.
"He can't be the son you want him to be. He'd be killed along with
everyone he knew in this world, don't do that to him"
"so...you...want me to pretend like my son doesn't exist. Rowena
and Noah can protect him, we can protect him from the Skyhall"
Amelda shook her head,
"If we tell them about Ghost, Rowena will throw away her holy
maiden position and Noah will fight for his twin brother but they
can't win against the Skyhall, Diana. Even if Noah brought the
entire Guardian guild with him, Skyhall will destroy them, you
know this better than anyone"
Diana had no response as she knew the truth in Amelda's words.

She could only cry, that was all she could right now.
"I know how hard this is for you Diana but Dean can't be with us
unless he could become strong enough to destroy the Skyhall"
Chapter 198 - Nightcrawler,
The Serial Killer
In a multitude of precious metal hues, snow clouds, silver and

black, adorned the sky as if they long to kiss the land. Under the
snow clouds and rain of snowflakes, Michael was flying towards
Flamefair without a clue about what just happened back in his
room. If he had enough spiders, he would have placed them in
every room including in the room he stayed in. Therefore, he
prioritized the hall, Noah's room, and a few others and did not
place one in his room. If he had done that, he would have realized
that Diana is his mother. More correctly, Abras's mother.
Even before coming to this world, he had been the reason for the
separation between Diana and her son.
"How far is this Flamefair?" Nightmare asked, standing on his

shoulder.
"I think we'll reach the Flamefair town in a few hours"? The
smokiness of the winter prevented him from clearly seeing the
villages beneath him on the land. He could barely see structures
of buildings and dim lights produced by the torches in those
buildings.
"The guard was right, the winter is harsher here than in Bredia or
Pen Town"
"So what should we do when we find this copycat?"
"Kill him" Michael simply shrugged.
"We have three days until the auction which means we have three
days to find this copycat"
"What if it's like Gaya said, what if this copycat is a guardian's
doing?"
If the system was on safe mode before, he may have chosen to

intrude. Since it was not the case, Michael would definitely kill the
one pretending to be him even if that one was a guardian.
"Then we'll kill them too"
Michael and Nightmare continued to fly towards the north

according to the map. Soon, towering man-made structures and a
gigantic city wall vaguely appeared in the distance.
"I can sense some powerful presence on the city wall, Ghosty"
Nightmare informed Michael.
Although Michael could not see or sense any presence, he knew

Nightmare saw the world and the energy around the world
differently than any other species in this world.
Considering many cities he had been in had no flying inside the

city walls rule, he descended to the ground to enter the city
through the main gate.
Soon, as he was expecting, a group of soldiers approached him.
"Another Nightcrawler hunter I presume" The person who was

leading the guard patrol was a woman. She stood at least seven
feet tall with the structure of a professional bodybuilder. Her bulky
structure seemed bulkier with the jade green armor that was
covering her from her head to toe.
Regardless of her monstrous height and figure, Michael stayed

calm except his heart skipped a beat when he saw the golden G
etched onto her chest plate.
"A Guardian" Michael's mind quickly recognized the symbol. It

was the same symbol he saw on Peyton and Xanali's robes. He
quickly willed himself to sense her cultivation level. She was just a
few months of cultivation away from reaching the Core
Coupled with her physique strength and the power of her armor,
he knew it would be difficult to defeat her in a one-on-one battle
unless he fought her as Lucifer.
"Hahaha, look guys, he came to hunt the Nightcrawler with a

fucking dragon" the woman laughed pointing her gigantic hand at
Nightmare.
The soldiers in iron-clad armor behind her let out an awkward

smile mixed with shock and surprise. The appearance of a
guardian and what he heard from the guards at Noah's home
helped Michael get a good idea about what she was talking about.
Just when Michael was about to ask her a question about hunting
Nightcrawler, her smile disappeared from her face and was
replaced by a stern look.
"I know who you are. Humph, you must be the guy who's calling
himself Ghost"? she snickered. Nightmare bore his sharp razor
teeth because of the way she ridiculed Michael.
"Do I know you?" The usual calm smile on Michael's face was
nonexistent when he asked the woman. Rejecting Peyton's offer
to join them as one of their lackeys certainly made an impression
about him on the guardians and Michael knew it.
"Pay 2000 gold to enter the city and hunt Nightcrawler. The city is
off-limits otherwise"? the woman spoke, turning her back to
Michael.
"So be it" Michael knew there's no point in arguing with this

woman as he threw a pouch containing the gold to one of the
guards. The woman had already stepped through the city gates
and disappeared from Michael's eyes.
"Young Master Ghost, you're clear to go in '' unlike the guardian,

the guards seemed to speak to Michael with the utmost respect.
They barely looked at Michael and Nightmare in their eyes. It
might be respect or fear but Michael didn't care which. He just
nodded with a smile before walking into the city through the main
gate.
The city of Flamefair was built in the shadow of an enormous
mountain and was truly a leading-edge wonder. Its uniqueness
was matched by the backdrop of a majestic mountain that has
helped shape the city into today's city. The skyline was scattered
with distinct skyscrapers and they had been designed to adorn the
city and each other.
When Michael took his first step into the city, he saw the usual
buildings such as smithies, bakeries, lines of houses, and clothing
stores as he would have in any other city. However, what made
FLamefair distinct in his eyes was how barren and empty the
streets were. Even if this was the winter season, he knew a large
city like this shouldn't be this empty and lifeless. He saw zero
people on the streets except for patrolling soldiers.
"Is that a dragon?"
"Who is he?"
"That's one majestic creature"
"He's making himself the target of the Nightcrawler, bad move"
He heard the patrolling guards murmuring while just a sight of

Nightmare standing on Michael's shoulder was enough to impress
the guards and increase his badass points.
"Where to?" Nightmare asked as Michael began to walk through

the snow-covered main street.
"The first place you should go to if you want to gather information,

a tavern"
It took him a couple of minutes walking before arriving in front of a

two-story building made of grey stones and red bricks. A
beautifully calligraphed board that had a drawing of an old plump
woman with a mug was hanging above the door.
"Old Martha" Nightmare read the board as they entered the tavern
through the old, metal door. He was welcomed by whispers and
aromas of what's probably food, hopefully. The bartender on the
other end of the tavern was cleaning the mugs and when he saw
Michael, he quickly smiled at him but his smile quickly froze on his
face looking at Nightmare.
It was as dull inside as the streets outside. Hard wooden beams

supported the upper floor and the rows of small, molten candles
attached to them. The walls were decorated with mounted animal
heads and small animals.
The tavern itself was almost completely abandoned. On the walls

of the tavern, Michael saw a wanted poster. Dark, curly hair
clumsily hung over a skinny, frowning face. The man on the poster
wore a monocle that gave rather an evil vibe.
"Nightcrawler" Nightmare read the name while Micheal grabbed

the poster from the wall.
"100,000 gold coins for whoever brings the Nightcrawler to Duke's

palace, dead or alive"
"That's a huge bounty" Michael placed the bounty poster in his

system storage before walking to the bar counter.
"Young...Master...we...don't...allow-"
"I'm sure you'll make an exception" The bartender stuttered,

staring at Nightmare. Before the bartender could finish his
sentence, Michael slid a small pouch of gold count to the
bartender to shut his mouth.
There were more than enough coins for the bartender to make an
exception to his no pets allowed rule. Since that was the case, the
bartender forced a smile out, he was still freaked out about the
dragon staring at him.


…
Just walking into the tavern with Nightmare granted Michael

badass points as he always expected because having a dragon
as a pet was definitely badass.
"Why so serious? Let's light up this place" Michael turned to look

at the few people in the tavern.
"Drinks are on me, Ghost of River town!" Michael hoped they

could identify him with his name and when he saw the people
slightly drop their jaws, he knew they recognized him.

….
"Yeah!"
"Oh my god, it's really him!"
"The 5-star Alchemist of Bredia?"
"Heck yeah!"
Some cheered thinking about free booze while some were

stunned to see a renowned figure like him at the same tavern
where they are. A few daring adventurers quickly came to
Michael's side and seated themselves beside Michael.
"Keep the ale flowing, bartender!"
What was a better way to loosen their tongues than buying them
free drinks? It would make them drunk and drunk people tell no
lies.
"Of course, Young Master" The bartender almost forgot about the
terrifying Dragon because he knew how much these people would
drink if they don't have to pay for the drink. Thanks to Ghost, he
could very well sell enough drinks to make up for the drought of a
week he had previously because of the Nightcrawler.
"So what brings a famous guy like yourself to Flamefair, especially
during a fucked up time like this?" A middle-aged adventurer with
a thick bushy beard asked Michael.
"Of course he came to hunt down Nightcrawler, Old man" a young

adventurer shouted at the middle-aged man.
"What can you guys tell me about this Nightcrawler?"

Chapter 199 - Growing
Support For Lucifer
"Not much except he started killing two weeks ago. Until the
guardians decided to warn the people, the duke kept
Nightcrawler's existence a secret" One of the adventurers said,
taking occasional sips of ale.
"Of course, he kept it a secret. The duke of Pen Town has been
kicking his ass since the beginning of this war. He didn't want to
demoralize the soldiers further by telling them about Nightcrawler.
How would you feel if you're fighting a war far away while
someone might kill your family back at home?"
"I would dessert," a few of the adventurers shouted, raising their

mugs together.
"Are the guardians anywhere near catching this Nightcrawler?"
"They've been investigating" the bushy beard middle-aged man air

quotes the words showing his disappointment with the guardians.
"Who knows?it might be the guardians who were doing the killing
as Lucifer said"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Everyone turned their
gazes at the young man who just spoke.
"Don't tell me none of you went to Royal land recently," the young
man asked before slamming his empty mug on the table.
"Refill" he shouted at the bartender,
"Two weeks ago, I was at Royal land, doing an escort job. And
while we were passing the town square, we saw it" the youngster
took a long sip.
"Saw what?!"
"A small army of Netherels. We all saw them carrying Minister

Gerty's body. The words Guardians stop pretending to be me,
Lucifer was written on his body" the youngster finished his ale in
one long gulp. Not only Michael but everyone in the tavern could
tell that the youngster was pretty shaken up recalling the sight of a
small army of Netherels.
"It might be anyone trying to blame the guardians" From the

corner of the tavern, someone said.
"I never said what happened next" the youngster slammed the
mug again
"When the Guardians approached the body, Gerty's body

exploded and the blood formed the words, Lucifer is watching
everyone in the sky"
Only Michael knew it was not blood but fireworks he brought from
the system. It was obvious this youngster exaggerated the last
part but exaggeration would be good for Lucifer's reputation.
"Now tell me what or who could control the mindless Netherels

and write in the sky in blood?"
"I'd say it's Lucifer"
"Of course it's Lucifer, I heard of Gerty. He was a real son of a

bitch and I would say he got what he deserved"
"Lucifer, Nightcrawler, this world is really going towards a shit

storm" a few adventurers sighed.
"What happened to the Netherels?"
"What do you think? The holy guards smote them to hell"
"It's fucked up to even think the guardians pretended to be Lucifer

and killed those nobles"
"Not for me, I always knew the Guardians were up to no good.Im
glad that someone or something like Lucifer is going to keep them
in like"
"If you ask me, I'd say let Lucifer hunt down all those fucking
noble bastards. Most of them deserve worse than dead"
Michael was slightly amused to see most of the adventurers in the

tavern support Lucifer. If most people in the continent think like
these adventurers, anyone Michael kills would be branded as a
sinner by the people which was exactly what Michael wants.
"What more can you tell about this Nightcrawler?" Before the
conversation completely turns towards Lucifer, Michael asked the
question.
"Though the guardians announced Nightcrawler's existence, they

didn't share much except he kills people at night"
"Yeah no shit"
"How many people did he kill?" Michael asked.
"Six I think"
"Nah, with Lukan a few days ago, it'd be seven"
"If you want to know more about him, you should go ask what's
her name again" the bushy beard adventurer rubbed his beard
trying to recall the name.
"Nesta, she's the one leading the task of catching Nightcrawler"
"Yeah Nesta" the bearded adventurer exclaimed,
"But be careful, I heard she has quite a temper. If I were you, I

don't want to piss off that giant"
"Nesta huh?" Michael mumbled under his breath. If she was in

charge of catching the Nightcrawler, Michael knew killing
Nightcrawler as Lucifer would teach her a lesson. However, his
first priory before starting the hunt was gathering more information
about the Nightcrawler.
***************************
After getting as much as information he could from them, Michael

rented a room in the same tavern. Considering Michael multiplied
his business by many folds, the bartender, also the owner of the
tavern, was happy to give Michael his best room for free.
Of course, Michael knew it was also a business tactic as he could

later double his prices saying that the famous 5-star Alchemist,
Ghost of River town stayed at his tavern.
"System, bring up my status window" Lying on his bed, he ordered

the system as the familiar window appeared before Michael's
eyes.
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Badass Points: 8500
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2

Death Range - LVL 2
Status: Healthy

badass point(s))
3-Star Inventor
The Abyssal
"Hmm, I need to upgrade my spells and banker function"
[Host should really consider taking a loan and upgrading the

spells]
The system sounded extremely greedy.

"Nah, for the time being, I don't want any more loans from you,"
Michael said as he remembered something about Nightmare.
"Hey system, now that you're online, can you make Nightmare a
Royal Dragon"
[It would take 400,000 badass points to make a Forest dragon a

Royal Dragon] he was with the system long enough to tell the
greedy system was hiding something.
"Spit it out"
[what? The host should get more badass points if you want to
make your pet dragon a Royal dragon]
"What the? Are you arguing with me now? I know you know a
second method system"
For a moment, Michael heard a sound like the system sighing.
[Or you can find a Royal Dragon and pay the system 50,000
badass points to start the ritual to transform Nightmare into a
Royal Dragon]
"That seems reasonable. See we can work it out" Michael

chuckled.
"System, with my current Inventor level, I cannot make the thermal

camera. So, can you do something about it like turning the
camera I make into a thermal camera?"
[The host can buy a thermal chip from the system store for 200
badass points]
"Excellent"
[why does the host want a thermal camera anyways?]
"This place is basically under lockdown, anyone who ventures

outside at night will be a suspect. If I want to find out what's going
on without getting into a fight with Nesta, I have to send out a
drone to first survey the area. Who knows? With a little bit of luck,
I might find the Nightcrawler himself"
Michael knew that if Nightcrawler was able to venture out at night

without getting detected by the guardians, he might have
something interesting with him to cover his tracks. It was highly
unlikely that even an assassin could kill a noble in his own room,
especially after the city had been put under the surveillance of the
guardians.
After what happened with Gerty, if the guardians did pretend to be

lucifer as Gaya said, they wouldn't try to do the same thing again.
"Nightcrawler...what secrets do you have?" Michael already

plotted a plan to use Nightcrawler to his advantage.
"Hey, are you there?" When Michael closed the system's

interface, he heard Gaya's voice sounding in his head.
"What is it?" Michael adjusted the earbud in his ear and asked
Gaya.
"They really fucked up Aria's brothers, human"
"What do you mean really fucked up?"
Nightmare quickly placed his little head over Michael's ear to

eavesdrop.
"The slave mine was not only used to mine iron but it was also
used for traffic organs and sick experiments on the slaves. You
really need to get down here, I don't think they'll last long"
"I'll put some special healing potion into the interlinked space ring,
give it to her. It will keep them alive until I come"
"Got it. By the way, how's your hunt for the killer going?"
"Still collecting information but I'll finish it soon"
"What's Dicky doing?"

Michael noticed the smile on Nightmare's face. It was surprisingly
beautiful, for a dragon.
"He's here," he said.
"Keep that lizard safe. Don't let him get into trouble while im away"
"Yes, mother" Michael chuckled and he could hear Gaya giggling

on the other end.
"After giving the healing potion to them, I'm going back to the sect
to see how're things back there"
"Then I will put some instructions for Olivia to study in the ring,
give them to her"
He already assigned the task of studying all the herbs and their
characteristics in his herbal garden and since he couldn't be with
her all the time to guide her, Michael wrote a few pointers in a
book for her to study. If she could become extremely loyal to him,
he would make her the head of his Alchemy business chain as he
was planning.
"Will do. Just stay safe out there" she said in a gentle voice before
cutting the call.
Chapter 200 - Meeting Sadie
Again
The next day Michael woke up before everyone at the tavern.

When he reached the downstairs where the bar was located, he
saw the adventurers were still snoring. Some were lying on the
ground while some were using the long oak tables as their bed.
"Young Master Ghost" the tavern owner stopped sweeping the

place and greeted Michael with a wide grin. The joy of yesterday's
business lightened the tavern owner's face.
"We'll server breakfast in an hour, Young Master"
"Nah, I have to be somewhere else. We'll meet again" Micahel

saluted with two fingers with a smile before leaving the tavern. He
had to get all the things to build a drone and let it survey the city. If
it wasn't for Aria's brothers' situation, he could have spent some
time in Flamefair before leaving to Iceflair to attend the auction
except now he had to do everything in a rush.
Recalling the directions given to him by the adventures yesterday,

Michael made his way to the burning star, a well-known store in
Flamefair run by Duke's concubine. Michael was informed that if
he wants to buy whether a common item or a rare item, he should
look in the burning star. The parts required to build a drone
weren't rare but could be found in any auction houses or stores
like the burning star. A drone was not the only thing in his mind,
he wanted to make small projectors that would be used by him to
telecast what he's going to do. That was going to be his quickie
way to earn thousands of badass points as well as spread
Lucifer's reputation.
The streets were not very different from yesterday. The patrolling
guards stared at him wearily but they didn't stop him to
investigate. He knew they might have been informed by Nesta to
leave him alone or they were sure that Michael can't be the
Nightcrawler.
The more he walked towards the center of the city, the richer and
fancier the surroundings became. Lavish water fountains with
frozen water, elegant buildings made of marble stones, and
painted glass occupied his eyes.
Besides the rich scenery, he saw few people who weren't soldiers
in full plate armor on the streets. However, they all wore colorful
masquerade masks to cover their faces. On top of the masks, the
ladies wore feather hats while men wore long capes.
"What are they wearing?" Nightmare questioned Michael. His little

dragon eyes watched them curiously.
Soon, the nobles caught the dragon checking them out and
quickly began to murmur, pointing their fingers at Michael and the
dragon standing on his shoulder.
"Ohh, Calpernia, look at him. Is that a dragon on his shoulder?"
"It can't be"
"Who is he?"
The nobles were curious yet they didn't choose to talk to Michael.
The getups amused Michael, reminding him of the masquerade

balls secretly hosted by the rich people on earth. After walking on
the main street and turning a few corners according to the
adventurers, a majestic tall tower appeared in his sight.
The tower was over 60 meters tall. Bright lights could be seen
from every single level, and there was a large pavilion on the
rooftop. It was an incredibly stylish building that resembled the
shape of the Chrysler building in New york.
This single tower showed Michael the wealth of the Duke as even
in this world, maintaining such a majestic building like this would
require hundreds of thousand gold coins.
"One day, I'll own a building like this" Michael said to himself as he
walked towards the building, passing the guard patrols on the
street.
The burning star tower looked different from close proximity. When
standing near the front entrance and looking at the golden
entrance, one could feel the aura of wealth and prosperity.
The burning star was the biggest trade power in Flamefair. They
ran many different kinds of trading businesses, including an
alchemy store that was exclusive to certain customers. It was run
by the people of Gabriel, the alchemy king of Elon. On top of this
store, many were run and owned by the Duke and his concubine.
The Flamefair was huge and cannot be compared with Bradford

or any other three major cities in Bredia. If one stood on a
mountain a few miles away, they would discover that Flamefair
was a few hundred square miles of land with beautifully built
buildings. The whole city was filled with a magnificent
atmosphere, and even during a time of war like this, the city would
still be illuminated with lights.
They entered the brightly lit burning star tower. When he opened
the glass doors, he was welcomed by a warm wave of air.
Nightmare could see the hidden arrays around the large spacious
hall that were warming the air inside, so the customers would feel
comfortable.
The first floor was a trading space with small shops built within.
These shops were not run by the Duke and his concubine. They
were spots rented out, and the Duke would only collect rental
payment from them.
The floor might have looked grand but nonetheless, it was rather
empty except for a young woman standing behind a marble
counter at the end of the hall.
"My lord...you...can't bring pets inside" the girl had beautiful curly
golden hair with hazel eyes. At the moment, her hazel eyes were
filled with a cocktail of emotions such as fear and shock.
"Pet?! Grrrr," Nightmare growled showing his razor-sharp teeth at

the girl.
"First, he's not a pet, and second, you should put a board outside"
Despite the girl's reaction to Nightmare, Michael answered her
calmly.
His warm smile slightly calmed the girl. He knew she was just
doing her job and there was no need to make this a big deal.
"As you can see, he's a dragon and I think a noble creature like
him would behave himself which cannot be said to most of the
humans"
"My Lord...but..."
"It's not a good move to make the Ghost of River town, the 5-star
Alchemist wait because of some petty rule, Mia" a familiar voice
resounded as Michael turned to see a gorgeous girl in a violet
thick thigh cut dress.
"Sadie Kaplan" It was none other than Core Disciple of

SilverMoon and Michael's one-night stand, Sadie Kaplan. The last
time he saw her was when the River town was attacked by
Netherels. It was one of the best nights he ever had since he
came to this world.


"You never fail to amaze me Ghost" her voice contained a hint of

shock. She tried to hide the shock behind her seductive smile.
"I have two questions, Ghost. How the hell are you cultivating?
And where the fuck did you get a dragon?" she asked while slowly
walking towards him like she was walking on a tramp at a fashion
show.
When she got closer, she leaned forward to lip-lock but Michael
avoided the kiss on the lips by giving a friendly hug.
"Huh?" Sadie creased her beautiful sharp brows.
"I didn't expect to see you here," Michael said, pretending not to
see her reaction.
"Me neither and you haven't answered my questions Ghost"
"The answers are I'm awesome and got him from Nether Realm"?
he looked so arrogant when he answered her but in Saide's eyes,
he looked so hot too.
"I need everything in this list, can you get me these?" He retrieved
a paper note, sliding it towards Mia, the girl behind the counter.
After realizing the youngster in front of her was actually the

famous Ghost of River town, Mia didn't open her mouth about the
burning star's rules about bringing pets inside. They would often
make exceptions to many rules for people such as him so it was
not new to her.
"Of course, my lord"
Taking the list, the girl ran to the room behind her to get the items
while Sadie gestured at him to follow her to the sofa. Her eyes
were curiously staring at Nightmare.
"Can I?" Saide reached out to pet Nightmare after seating herself
comfortably on the sofa.
"No" Yet, Nightmare outrightly rejected her, moving from Michael's

right shoulder to left.
"He's a dragon Sadie, you cannot pet him" Michael calmly said as
she pouted.
"It's still hard to believe you have a dragon and at the Core
Formation stage, Ghost. You've reached Core Formation from
Body Refining in what, six months?"
"Give or take"
"What's your secret?" Michael knew she was trying to get his
cultivation method, but even if he did tell her, she wouldn't believe
it.
"If you want to cultivate like me, you should try to venture into the
Treacherous ocean"
"I heard about your little trip and who you brought back," said
Sadie.
It wasn't a big surprise for Michael as he made sure the news of

Christopher's return spread across Bredia and other kingdoms
because having a Soul Refiner would make sure his base of
operation stays safe from the rogue cultivators. His herbal garden
was basically a small treasure trove that had the herbs that could
be sold to a shit load of gold coins in trade centers.
"I guess, you're here to get new spells or weapons for the
upcoming tournament. I really wish you went to Iceflair instead of
coming here"
Those drunken bastards never mentioned anything about a

tournament which now really piqued his curiosity. A tournament
was the best place for him to be badass and earn thousands of
badass points.
"A tournament huh?"
"You do know about the upcoming Bredian championship

tournament right?" His silence told Sadie that he really doesn't
know about one of the biggest tournaments in Elon.
"It's gonna start in just three months. How could you not know
about one of the biggest tournaments in Elon?"
"Please enlighten me"
Chapter 201 - The Runic
Teleportation Function
"Well, the tournament has two championships. One is to choose

the champion of the younger generation which mostly have Body
Strengthening disciples. The second championship is the main
one, this is where the core disciples of the big sects compete.
Considering you've reached the Core Formation stage and you're
the Core disciples, you won't be competing with the younger
generation but with us"
Michael grinned recalling the events that happened at Heaven's

gate competition. At that time, Celena and her boyfriend Alex
Fisher threatened him not to step on the 100th step, and ever
since he came across Celena at the waterfall by mistake, she was
looking to mess with him. This tournament looked like a good
place to kick their asses and prove to everyone that he is the
number one in Elon.
Just imagining how many badass points he could reap from this
award made his blood boil in excitement.
"Why are you grinning?" Sadie creased her brows, seeing the grin
on his face.
"Core disciples huh? I assume Celina and her boyfriend will be

there" Michael did not stop the tinge of killing intent from emerging
in his eyes.
"Yes, but you can't kill them. Killing is strictly forbidden in the
tournament and it's the referees' job to keep the competitors alive"
"They can try," he snickered inside. He was positive that he could

come up with a plan to kill anyone he wants at the competition
with the help of his Alchemy talent and the help of the system.
"Is that so? Tell me more" However, he was not going to share his
thoughts with Sadie.
"In the main championship, there will be 6 rounds. First-round,

second-round, third-round, semi-final one, semi-final two, and the
grand final. What type of contest and battles in each round will be
decided by the tournament committee depending on the number
of disciples competing"
Sadie continued to explain how the competition works. After

taking mental notes, Michael asked,
"What about the first championship for the Body Strengthening

stage disciples?"
"It's pretty straightforward. First-round will be a knockout round,

the second will be one on one battle and the winners will yet again
battle in the final. We would know who takes the championship in
a couple of days after the tournament begins"
"I know who's going to win it, Gaya," Michael thought. Making
Gaya reveal her true cultivation level to compete in the second
championship might cause some unwanted suspicion on her but
none would suspect her if he makes her look like a Body
Strengthening stage cultivator and compete in the first
championship.
He doubted the spell she was using to hide her cultivation lever
would be enough to fool the competition committee. Hence, he
planned to ask the system to help Gaya hide her true cultivation
level. If they both won the championship of their league, it would
catapult the sect's reputation through the sky.
"Young Master" while they were talking about the tournament, Mia
finally returned with a silver space ring in her hand.
"All the items in the list are here. The space ring is on the house"
Michael took the space ring from her hand to see the items inside.
One could see metal bolts, gears, various colors of stones, coils,
and many other components inside his ring. If he gave this ring to
someone else, they wouldn't be able to make anything but thanks
to his unique inventor trait, he could make hundreds of spiders
and a few dozen drones.
"It'll be 8000 gold coins, Young Master Ghost"
"Only 8000?" Sadie was taken aback by surprise. She thought

he's here to buy a weapon or potion recipe which would have
definitely cost more than 20,000 gold coins yet what he bought
was only 8000.
[The host should have brought all the items in the system store as
it would have been high-quality items and saved you the time
you've wasted here] The system's annoyed voice sounded in his
mind.
"I could have if your prices weren't so outrageous. I can't afford to

spend the points on anything unnecessary for now" Michael
entered the system to reply.
[Take a loan host]
"Didn't I make myself clear before. I don't want any more loans"
[Hehe. You will take a loan] he was stunned for a moment hearing
the system's laugh. He could swear that the laughter seemed
sinister.
"So you can now laugh, good to know. Why do you think I'm
gonna take a loan?"
However, the system did not reply as it went silent. Knowing that it
wouldn't answer him no matter how many times he asks. He just
exited the system and sighed in his heart.
"The space ring alone would cost 10,000 but yeah, I can see
what's happening"
It wasn't uncommon to see trade centers like the burning star give
discounts or freebies like this to establish a good relationship with
figures like Michael, a 5-star Alchemist.
Michael accepted their gesture with a happy smile before willing

the system to place stacks of 8300 gold coins on the ground.
"Keep the change, Mia"
"It was nice to see you again, Sadie" Michael turned his gaze
away from Mia and looked at Sadie.
"Why don't we talk in private, in my room?" Mia's cheeks became

red hearing the seductiveness of Sadie's voice.
"I have somewhere else to be Sadie. Besides, I have a girlfriend

now"
"Does it really matter?" Sadie shamelessly leaned forward but

Michael took a step back. She tried to seduce him but never tried
to use her telepathic abilities as she saw what happened to Nyla
when she tried to use the tactic on him during Heaven's gate
competition.
"It does. We'll meet again" He said as his face was void of any
expression.
Looking at the way he acted, Sadie didn't feel annoyed at him but
desired to find a loyal man like him as none has ever rejected her
because they have a girlfriend or boyfriend. She wanted to meet
the lucky girl who got a man like him.
Sadie let out a long sigh before turning back to walk to her room.
Mia was busy counting the gold coins as he failed to notice a tiny
spider following Sadie.
**************************
[Does the host plan to fly to the Dark forest and then fly to Iceflair
from there?]
"I was going to but now I know you have a better way. Am I right?"
[There is] the system said as he entered the system and saw a
blue card with a golden outline floating before him.
Function name: Runic Teleporter
Function: Enable the host to instantly teleport to the base of

operations and the places marked by the system.
Upgradable: No
[Say the word and the function will be enabled] The system tried
to rush him but he had a few questions.
"I have a few questions like what the heck is the price?" Michael
raised his voice at the end of his sentence.
[Only 15,999 points. The host can accept a loan of 20,000 points
and enable the function]
"This is what you were planning" he sighed realizing the meaning

of the system's words before. He really didn't want to take another
loan but this function was very tempting for him as it would be a
great help traveling between kingdoms. However, he couldn't help
but feel there might be some catches to this function.
"I assume there are some restrictions"
[The Runic Teleportation function cannot be used during a battle.

The runes can only be placed in less populated places]
"Runes are free to place or do I have to pay you?"
[Each rune will cost the host 4000 - 10,000 badass points
depending on the distance between the host's current location and
the destinatination]
The system's words made his brows raise as he had one more
question for the system.
"Does this function only let me teleport?"

[No, the host can teleport subordinates and familiars with him for
no additional cost]
"That's a surprise," said Michael, thinking deeply about taking the

loan and buying the function.
"This does save me a lot of time and energy," he said to himself

before taking a deep breath.
"System, give me a loan and buy this function"
[Wonderful] The system sounded pleased to hear his answer.

Soon afterward, his badass points went from 8500 to 28500 and
then it decreased to 12501.
Now that he had the Runic teleporter function, a new jade green
window with a list of names appeared in front of him. Currently,
there were two names on the list, Sunrise sect, and the Abyssal.
Both of them were his base of operations.
However, he had to place a rune somewhere in Flamefair before

teleporting to Abyssal. This would save him the time of flying back
to Flamefair from the dark forest. On top of saving time, he could
now be Ghost in one kingdom and be Lucifer in another with ease.
If he had to find a downside of this function, he would say it's the
restriction of being unable to use the function during battle.
Considering there was another upgradable teleportation spell in
the system store, the restriction was understandable as if he
desired to teleport during a battle, he had to buy the upgradable
teleportation spell.
The reason Michael didn't buy the teleportation spell was

according to Gaya, the teleportation spell was considered as a
Legendary spell in this world. Therefore, if someone saw him
teleport during a battle, it would make him a target of many. He
decided to buy the teleportation spell only after he reached the
Core Strengthening stage. For now, the Lightning dash was a
perfect substitute for the short-range teleportation spell.
"Since I got a loan and bought the function as you recommended,

can you show me the places on Flamefair where I could leave a
rune?"
A map of Flamefair appeared before him with a few golden dots

on the holographic map.
"That's the tavern" He quickly recognized the place the golden dot
was on as the tavern he spent the night.
"Good" He began to walk in the tavern's direction while moving

the spider he left at the burning star to a dark corner in Sadie's
room.
Chapter 202 - An Assassin
Subordinate
"How do I place the rune System?" Standing in a dark alley near

the tavern, Michael questioned the system.
[Place your right hand on the wall before you. A prompt will
appear]
"Alright," said Michael, placing his right hand on the brick wall in
front of him.
[This is a suitable place for a teleportation rune. Does the host

wish to mark this area and add the location to runic teleportation
locations?]
"Yes"
The very next second he agreed to the system's prompt, a dim

golden light appeared from his right hand. The dim light then
transformed itself into an orb of light before it disappeared into the
wall.
He opened the teleportation locations in the system to see the

name Flamefair tavern among the list. Looking at the list, he only
needed to focus his gaze on the name Abyssal as another prompt
appeared.
[Does the host wish to teleport to the Abyssal?]
"Yes and equip my Lucifer armor"
An unearthly humming sound rang in his head while everything

began to turn dark around him.
*********************
"Fuck!" Michael stumbled on the wall as he felt like throwing up.

The world was spinning around him as every muscle in his body
ached.
Teleportation was not a new experience for him. Regardless,

using this function was a whole new experience for him.
[The host is feeling the aftermath of the teleportation. Your body

will soon adapt to the new experience and next time you teleport,
you won't be feeling like this]
Michael's legs trembled as he leaned on the wall, waiting for his

body to feel better. After taking a few deep breaths, he looked
around and realized that he's standing in his room in Abyssal.
The fancy bed and sofa Gaya forced him to buy was a dead
giveaway.
"Uwak!" Michael heard something hitting the ground as he turned

to see Nightmare throwing up on the floor.
"Uwak!" his shiny crimson red scales lost their glow. Nightmare
tried to speak but all that came out of his mouth was the meat he
ate yesterday.
"Stay in this room. Don't come outside"
"I wish... uwak" Nightmare threw up again. Michael steadied

himself before leaving the room. Navigating through the dark halls
and corridors, Michael reached the throne hall.
"I should put lights on this place"
It was a place built by the order of the death for the dark lord but it
didn't mean the place to be dark. He wanted to put some lights on
so Abyssal could feel less gloomy and dreary.
Considering Gaya left the Abyssal to go to the sect, the throne hall
was empty. Instead of calling Dular to ask where Aria is, Michael
walked towards where the rooms were located.
After entering the corridors, he could feel the energy fluctuations
around Dular's room. It was obvious that the orc was cultivating
and he had no intention to interrupt Dular's cultivation.
With the help of Environmental scanning, Michael sensed a life

presence in one of those rooms before him. The life presence was
accompanied by two faint life presences. He knew they must be
Aria's brothers.
When he got closer to the room, he could hear a muffled sobbing

sound coming from the room. He didn't ask or knock on the door,
but rather directly opened the door to enter.
"Ah!" He saw Aria jump back in sudden shock seeing him

suddenly enter the room. If Michael wasn't wearing his Lucifer suit
of armor with a mask, she wouldn't have been jolted like this but
his black mask and tall bulky figure freaked her out.
Instead of looking at Aria, his gaze was drawn towards the two
figures lying on the bed. Both of them had neither legs nor arms,
they were limbless. On top of them, he could see stitch marks and
deep scars all over their bodies.
They might have looked handsome before except they were now
anything but handsome. He could even see that someone had
burned their hair.
"They were tortured and then experimented on," He thought to

himself while walking towards them.
"She...she said...you...can...save them" Aria mustered up her

courage to walk closer to Michael. She stuttered as her body
shivered. It was a sign of anger and helplessness.
Aria stared at him expecting an answer yet she got nothing. Her
eyes welled up slowly, losing the last bit of hope she had for
saving her brothers.
"System, can we do something about them?"

After looking at their state, he realized that even his alchemy skills
weren't enough to save them.No matter how hard he thought, he
couldn't find a potion or pill that would help them grow limbs.
[The system requires 500 badass points to scan their bodies]
"Take it" a layer of light covered their bodies before vanishing. Aria
couldn't see the light layer as Michael did.
[Besides the lack of limbs, organs such as kidneys, pancreas, and

energy veins were removed from them. They were removed while
they were still conscious. On top of this, they were tortured to the
point that pieces of their souls had already departed from their
mortal bodies. The system also found residues of various
chemicals in their blood and brain which could make healing them
difficult]
"You can heal them right? Healing them will ensure her absolute
loyalty. Plus, I have a feeling that these two will also be valuable
subordinates to me in the future"
[The system can heal them for a price]
"No shit"
[50,000 badass points for healing the body and 25,000 badass
points for growing legs and arms for each]
"Fuck" He cursed in his heart.150,000 badass points were not

something Michale could spend leisurely. He could upgrade his
spells and use the points to become stronger. This made him think
that whether healing them would be worth it.
He knew that only Aria could give him the answer. Given her
ability to completely hide the energy radiation from her body, if she
could become a deadly assassin by training and cultivating, her
loyalty would be priceless to his cause. The way to earn her
absolute loyalty was by healing her brothers.
[Healing them is the best course of action] the system said but he
knew the system was saying this to make sure that he would heal
them thus giving the system his badass points.
Michael always trusted his guts and currently, his guts told him
that Aria will be a worthy subordinate. He turned his gaze away
from the bed to see Aria staring at him as tears were rolling out of
her bloodshot eyes. Her parents were killed, she lost her
brothers,sold to another continent as a slave, saw her best friend
burned alive by a noble, served under a clown to kill nobles and
when she thought she's going to reunite with her brothers, her
world was yet again turned upside down. Looking at Aria, even
Michael felt pity for the girl.
"Besides the lack of limbs, organs such as kidneys, pancreas, and

energy veins were removed from them. They were removed while
they were still conscious. On top of this, they were tortured to the
point that pieces of their souls had already departed from their
mortal bodies. I can also sense residues of various substances in
their blood and brain which could make healing them difficult"? he
repeated the words of the system to fan the flames of her
emotions.
First, he wanted to feel so helpless before giving her a ray of

hope. Aria's legs failed her as she dropped to the ground after
hearing his words. Anger and helplessness started to cannibalize
her soul.
"Healing them is not impossible. However, it will take time" her

heart skipped a beat as she looked up at him. Her mouth kept
opening and closing without uttering a single word.
"Your absolute loyalty is my price for healing your brothers" Aria

had nothing to give him except her body and she was ready to
give herself to him if he could heal him and required her to do so.
Yet, he didn't ask her body but loyalty.
"If I have to be a slave to him to save my brothers, so be it," Aria

said to herself before kneeling in front of him.
"I will die for you if it would bring my brothers back"

"Do you accept to be my subordinate?"
"Yes, master"
[Does the host wish to accept Aria as a subordinate?]
"Yes"
Subordinate: Aria
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage level 2
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
Trait: Assassin
Her loyalty level did not surprise him, after all, he hadn't healed
her brothers yet and she barely knew him.
[The system recommends the host to keep injecting them with the
90% pure healing potion to prevent any more pieces of their souls
from departing]
The system's voice sounded in his mind as he retrieved a healing

potion he specifically made for him and Gaya from the system
storage. He then handed it over to Aria before gesturing at her to
stand up.
"Inject this to their bodies. This will keep your brothers alive and
give their bodies the strength to withstand the healing process as
starting the process now would kill them" Aria clenched onto the
healing potion like her life depending on it.
"Meet me at the throne hall in ten minutes. I want to know more

about you and the slave mine where you found your brothers" said
Michael before leaving the room.
He was very curious about what kind of experiments were going
on in the slave mines and who was doing these experiments on
the slaves. Infiltrating the mines would give him more information
before deciding what to do with the mine. Besides, it would always
be a great help for him to kill bad guys and earn experience
points.
Whoever running the experiments on the slaves had no idea that

they just drew the attention of someone they shouldn't have,
Lucifer.
Chapter 203 - Hunting The
Nightcrawler I
"Miss Aelia, everything's finished. We can open the restaurant

whenever you want" Daniel and Ricky were reporting the status of
the restaurant to Gaya as she was munching on the cookies.
Crumbs of cookies were all over her pearl white dress and the
sofa yet she couldn't care less.
"I'll inform Ghost and come to a decision. Now go make sure

there's no problem at Majestic"
"Yes, Miss Aelia" They bowed deeply before leaving her room.
With Gaya's guidance and the pills given to them by her, Ricky
and Daniel reached the Body Strengthening stage. Previously,
one could count the bones in Ricky's body but now, he developed
a well-toned body. Daniel on the other hand shed all the fat as
well as his bushy beard.
Their transformation was shocking to many people in River town

who have known them for so long. When they quit their guard job,
many thought they were making a mistake, after all, working
under the king of Bredia would provide them with a stable income
and pension. However, those people who thought this became
jealous as Daniel and Ricky did not only earn a handsome salary
but their social status was also elevated by Ghost.
"Sister Aelia, may I come in?" Jack asked, standing near the door.
"What is it? Is someone messing with the new girl again?"
"No no no" Jack frantically shook his head. Only yesterday, he

saw Gaya beat the shit out of a guy who groped the new girl at the
counter's ass.
She was so ruthless that she set the guy's butt on fire.
"She's doing fine"
Considering a portion of the profit they were making in Majestic is

going to the sect, Gaya hired a female disciple of the sect to be
her assistant. By being Gaya's assistant meant that the girl has to
do everything that Gaya does at the Majestic, including the
occasional curses at the customers to keep them online. Thanks
to Ghost and Gaya's reputation, there weren't as many unruly
customers as when they first opened the Majestic.
On top of the girl, Gaya also hired a group of adventurers as the

security in case someone tried to steal or attack the Majestic while
she was away. Even if the adventurers couldn't stop the attacks,
they would function to slow down the enemies a bit by either
getting killed or wounded.
"Miss Ella is here to meet you, Sister Aelia"
"Go and tell her to come in" Soon after Jack left the room, Ella
entered the room. She was still in full black with a hood covering
her burned skin.
Seating herself on the sofa, Ella looked around, searching for

Ghost.
"He's col...tivating. Tell me, how's your thing gi...ing?" Words

barely escaped her mouth which was filled with biscuits.
"With everything you've given me, most of the disciples, teachers

and elders will follow me"
"Most? You've got a specific number in mind?"
"We've 140 disciples, 23 teachers, and 6 elders. Out of them,100

disciples,15 teachers, and 4 elders are on my side. The rest of
them were too loyal to Mathias"
"Or too stupid," said Gaya, placing the empty cookie jar on the
table.
"Alright, I'd say we put this merger on the road. Demand the
election to vote for a new sect leader now. Since you've got the
majority of the elders and teachers at your side, you can easily
win it but something tells me you would have done it by now if
there isn't a problem with that plan"
Ella sighed, nodding her head.
"Mathias found a loophole in the document written by the

founders. The election can't be held for another couple of years"
"Fuck the elections!" Gaya punched the sofa in anger.
"Enough of this election shit. Let's kill this fucker and be done with
him"
"No way we can kill him. The only reason he's still not killing me or
my supporters is that he's afraid of your previous sect master, the
Soul Refiner. Besides, nowadays, he's not leaving his room and
always cultivating"
"This seems like a good test for Aria" Gaya remembered Aria's
ability to pass through defense arrays without triggering them.
Handing over the operation to kill Mathias would be a good test for
Aria, Gaya thought.
"Wait a sec," She said to Ella before going to the kitchen. Ella saw
her coming back with a flower vase.
"Put this near Mathias's room. We'll take care of the rest"
"What is this?"
"You don't want to know. Just do what I said"
************************************
"Next time...give me...a fucking...uwak...warning..." Gaya threw up

on the floor after Michael brought her to Abyssal by teleporting
her.
"It's a new teleportation scroll I just created. You'll get used to it"
"I better be" he gave a few minutes to stabilize her body.
"Gross," Nightmare said, hovering over her head.
"Go away...uwak" she swatted Nightmare away before continuing

to throw up. Considering she filled her belly with cookies, it took
her a few minutes to empty her belly.
"Here" Michael gave her a bottle of water and wiped off her mouth
using a kerchief.
"Don't you have...a juice or something"
Thut!
Michael slapped the back of her head, "just drink the water"
"Raylene really spoiled this snake" Nightmare ridiculed Gaya.
"Enough you two. Come we have work to do" he said walking

towards the surveillance monitors he glued to the wall in his room.
Soon afterward, he willed the system to show the feed of Sadie's

room.
While the system was displaying the feed, he retrieved all the
parts he bought from the burning star to start building the drones.
"Hey look it's the human who tried to kiss you" Nightmare bit his
tongue quickly realizing that he shouldn't have said this. Yet it was
too late as he felt a cold killing intent radiating from her body.
"What?!"
"Relax, I told her that I have a girlfriend. Nesta?" However, before

Gaya could say anything, she saw him stop whatever he was
doing to stare at the monitor.
"We'll have this conversation later" she mumbled as she stared at

the muscular woman on the monitor. After Nesta, a few other
youngsters with guardian symbols embroidered on their chests
entered Sadie's room. All of them looked very serious.
"Is it done?" Sadie asked Nesta.
"Yes," Nesta said, throwing a file on the table before Sadie.
"I assume everyone has read this file" except for Sadie who
gawked cluelessly, nodded their heads.
"What were you doing? Banging Ghost?" Nesta asked as Michael

felt the air around him became colder.
"I wish. Apparently, he has a girlfriend now"
"Good for him. Alright, let me run everyone through the plan
again, listen carefully" Sadie leaned on the nearby wall to listen to
Nesta.
"From an hour ago, we the guardians and the duke have

withdrawn the troops and recalled the hunt for Nightcrawler"
"Interesting," said Michael.
"What's the plan?"
"The plan is simple, Sadie. We? withdraw the men, let

Nightcrawler crawl out of whatever hole he's in, and when he does
bam!" Nesta punched a hole in the wall, "we nab that bastard"
"How?"
"Take a look at all the paintings' ' Nesta threw the file at Sadie as
she began to rummage through the file. Since the spider couldn't
cover the photos inside the file, Michael had no idea what the
paintings looked like.
"Those are the paintings of Nightcrawler's victims. My team did a

good job putting it all together. Can you see what they all have in
common?"
Sadie remained silent for a few moments before answering Nesta.
"They all have red hair?" Sadie said furrowing her brows in doubt.
"Exactly. That sick bastard has a thing for redheads. However,
that's not the only thing my team found. Look at the map, that's his
hunting circle"
"Although redheads are not very common, there must be at least

a fifty redheads living in this area"
"Thirty-six to be exact and all of them are being replaced by my

men as we speak," Nesta said and continued,
"As you all know, ever since we put the city under lockdown, there
wasn't a single new murder that matched Nightcrawler's mo. The
behavior predictors at the guild had classified Nightcrawler as a
serial killer. The longer he goes without killing, the stronger his
desire to kill again. We may have still no idea how did he manage
to kill those nobles who had powerful defense arrays, we now
know that he will strike as soon as he feels safe"
"Are you pretending to be withdrawing the troops or..."
"No tricks. For the plan to work, we really have to convince the
Nightcrawler that we called off the hunt. Only then, he would
emerge again and make a move on one of my thirty-six men"
"You're taking a pretty big risk here, Nesta" Sadie said as Nesta
laughed.
"No risk, no reward Sadie. You know this better than anyone"
Michael swiftly moved the spider through telepathic connection to

take a glimpse at Nightcrawler's hunting area. The spider had a
risk of being caught by Nesta or anyone the guardians in the room
but it was worth the risk. If they did catch the spider, Michael
would destroy the spider remotely so they would get nothing.
"Just a little more" Michael mumbled looking at the spider getting

closer and closer to the file. If he could manage to move the
spider directly above the file on the table, he would get a glimpse.
"System, the moment the file comes into the sight, take a picture"
[It would be 50 badass points]
"No problem"
Fortunately, the camouflage of the spider was enough to avoid

getting detected by the guardians. Regardless of all the safety
measures Michael built in the spider, he still treated spying using
the spiders cautiously.
[Picture taken successfully]
The moment he heard the confirmation sound from the system, he

immediately moved the spider to a safe dark spot.
"Let's hunt this Nightcrawler ourselves"
***********************
Here's the discord link to my server where you can see the
character images, listen to character theme music and have a
chat with me...
https://discord.gg/yMCZbVNbpC
Chapter 204 - Hunting The
Nightcrawler II
The winter sky was a barren land filled with nothing but clouds.
Only the howling wind and heavy downspout of snowflakes were
the true companions of the night. Ironically the city of Flamefair
lacked flames during this winter.
One could not even see the guards patrolling around the Duke's
manor. The soldiers were long gone into the barracks after leaving
defense arrays activated around the manor. Not only the Duke's
manor but every single important place was now protected by the
arrays, not the guards unless they were willing to use Arch energy
to keep their bodies warm.
The heavy downpour of snow soon became a merciless blizzard.

The blizzard wind seemed like it was trying to replicate the sound
of wolves howling at the moon.
Those who were living outside the city suffered most of the winter.
Most of them lacked the necessary winter clothes and cozy home.
For the nobles, winter was a perfect time to increase their family
size. The majority of the nobles treated the winter as their sweet
little escape from reality. However, their perfect reality was
messed up by a single person, Nightcrawler.
Now the nobles had to spend their nights in fear as the cold was
not the only reason for their shivering.
"You messed up human, I see no shit except blue," said Gaya

staring at the monitors back in Abyssal.
"It's called thermal vision. To put it simply, my drone will pick up

the heat signatures emitted by someone or something. Since
Nesta withdrew the troops, leaving the Flamefair vulnerable,
there's a possibility that Nightcrawler would emerge from his hole"
"Ghosty but look at the blizzard there. We can't bet this

Nightcrawler would pick this night to hunt"
Nightmare was right, the blizzard might throw a wrench on

Nightcrawler's plans but Michael strongly believed that he would
choose this night to hunt.
"You heard Nesta before. He's a serial killer, if I'm right, he's still
learning the craft. Unless he learned to control his urge to kill, he
will emerge from the dark"
If Michael had either personally seen the crime scenes or read the
file Nesta's team put together, he would have completely learned
that Nightcrawler is still an amateur serial killer. Michael wondered
how Nightcrawler managed to get in and out of the nobles' house
without triggering any defense mechanisms. If this Nightcrawler
too had an ability to hide his arch energy radiation like Aria, he
would prove to be a worthy cadaver for Michael to experiment on
in the future. Recruiting a serial killer had too many risks as most
of the serial killers tend to work alone.
"What are those thingies you made me put in all around Bredia
and Kethen?"
"It's easier and fun to demonstrate rather than me explaining"
The three of them stared at the monitors in silence before Gaya

cleared her throat attempting to get Michael's attention.
"Hrrggmm" she cleared her throat again but seeing no response

from him, she grabbed Michael's chair, turning him around to look
at her.
He saw her staring at him with her hands folded against her
gorgeous chest. No matter how many times he has seen her, she
still mesmerized him. If she showed her original face, he knew he
has to fight noble brats from morning to night as she was an
angelic beauty who would turn a straight woman into a gay and
gay man to straight in a few seconds.
Even when she was mad or annoyed, it only boosted her beauty.
"What?" Michael shrugged. The little dragon was slowly walking

backward from Michael.
"So that bitch tried to kiss you huh?" it was not a question but
rather sounded like a threat.
"I thought I made myself clear. How about the next time I see her,
I'd go for the kiss?" he joked, removing the black skull mask from
his face.
"Like this'' he pulled her closer as she stumbled on him. Without

letting Gaya speak, he closed her mouth with his. The longer he
kissed her, the stronger he pressed her head against his. It was a
deep kiss willed with flames of passion and love.
"Look!" Nightmare's shout broke their kiss. The little dragon raised
his claws pointing at the mirrors. Gaya's meaningless anger
completely vanished away after the kiss as she cuddled him
tightly.
Cuddling on the chair, they both looked at the mirrors to see a red
humanoid figure moving over the rooftops.
"Welcome to the party pal" he willed the drone that's catching the
figure's feed to follow. By looking at the thermal image of the
figure, Michael could see the figure has a medium height with
skinny body type.
"What's that?" Because he was familiar with thermal images, he

quickly saw the abnormal heat emission from the figure's body. All
of the figure's body was golden yellow but his chest area was
bright red. The red around his chest area was also pulsating.
"Nightmare, come here buddy" The little dragon hopped over to

him as Michael put a collar around his neck. A small glimmer of
light shone on the middle of the collar, it was the camera he built.
"What is this?"
"It has a built-in camera. Look there, now I see what you see" he
pointed at one of the mirrors as Nightmare saw Michael's and
Gaya's faces in the mirror.
"Plus, there's a mic and speaker attached to the collar. These will
let us communicate regardless of the distance" He didn't build
these himself but bought from the system because it only cost him
100 badass points.
He was too busy building four drones and spiders as he decided

to buy them from the system rather than building them himself to
save time. Moreover, the collar had a tiny poison dart that could
be fired by Michael through a telepathic connection.
"We'll teleport to Flamefair. Follow him, it's highly unlikely that

someone would notice you through the blizzard. Remember, don't
get closer. I'll talk you through this"
"Let me go with him" Gaya interrupted Michael before he could

leave the chair.? "If this Nightcrawler isn't stronger than me, I'll
shoot him with one of the knockout arrows and bring him here"
He rubbed his stubble beard he had started to grow recently.

Gaya was a far better shot than him, he was good but she was
better. There was certainly a possibility that he could miss the shot
at Nightcrawler thanks to the blizzard yet he was confident that
she could make the shot using her Legolas bow.
Time was of the essence. Nightcrawler wasn't hunting as he was

probably thinking, he was being hunted by the guardians.
Nightcrawler had no idea that he was going to walk straight into a
trap. If Michael wanted to catch him, he must act now before it's
too late.
"Alright but if you feel something amiss, get the hell out there"
"I killed a group of grim reapers with a knife. How hard can this
be?" she said, cracking her neck.
"And I killed a group of trained assassins with an ice pick but that
doesn't me we should be careless"
He stood up from his chair before putting his black mask on. She
too wore the mask that he gave her to change her face and then,
she put on the black mask to finish her female Lucifer getup.
"Oh shit, here we go again" she couldn't help but curse, recalling
how bad she felt after being teleported using his new method. She
closed her eyes involuntarily.
The very next moment, she felt like she was being torn into
countless pieces before a sudden chill hit her face. She opened
her eyes to see she was standing in an alley knee-deep in snow.
"Go"
Gaya and Nightmare took off from the ground like a rocket leaving
the ground. In their rush to find some action, they forgot to ask
what Michael's going to do.
"System, hide my presence," he said as the energy being radiated

from his body became less and less until it had almost gone.
Taking out a mirror from his storage, he monitored Nightcrawler
who was still moving on the rooftops. The blizzard was definitely
making his advancement towards his target a pain thus saving
him from the guardians.
However, the guardians weren't his only problem.
"Ghost, I can see him. He's...he's...just at the... Body Refining

stage" Michael was thoroughly stunned to hear Nightmare's
words. He could sense the doubt and uncertainty in Nightmare's
voice.
"I see him too. What the actual fuck? How could a Body Refiner
manage to kill those nobles? Does he have a special ability like
Aria?"
"Take him down and we can find out his secret. Avoid hitting his
chest though"? he guessed that the thing pulsating could be
Nightcrawler's secret. Therefore he didn't want it to get damaged
by Gaya's arrow. Considering he himself brewed the knockout
agent that was smothered on Gaya's arrows, he couldn't be more
positive that it would knock him out the second the arrow hit
Nightcrawler's body.
He could feel the tension building up inside him. He had a strong

feeling that this is going to lead him to something big other than a
shit load of badass points he would get when he livestream killing
Nightcrawler to the entire Bredia and Flamefair.
"Target insight"
"Take the shot" Michael took off from the ground like superman.
He soared through the air towards Gaya's location as fast as he
could. He wanted to get Nightcrawler, subdue him with the help of
the system before teleporting back to Abyssal.
Chapter 205 - Lucifer Is Live
[The system scan is completed. Nightcrawler doesn't have any

means to escape Abyssal unless the host choose to let him go]
In one of the empty rooms of the Abyssal, a bold skinny man was
tied to a chair that resembled the torture chairs in the movies. His
ankles, feet as well as wrists were tied to the chair using barbed
wire. This man was the infamous Nightcrawler who was terrorizing
Flamefair and its citizens.
[Nightcrawler's ability is very similar to subordinate Aria's masking

ability] The masking ability was what impressed Michael, resulting
in Aria's recruitment. At the moment, Aria could only mask her
energy radiation to fool common defense arrays and Body
Refining stage cultivators. Anything above the common category
and anyone above the Body Refining stage could easily detect
regardless of her ability.
Michael wasn't so clear about the masking ability because even

Gaya had no knowledge of such ability. When Michael asked the
system, it only informed that her ability to mask her energy
radiation would grow with her cultivation level. If he wanted to
know more about this ability, the system required him to upgrade it
to the next level.
[However, unlike subordinate Aria, Nightcrawler's ability seems to

be originating from the artifact attached to his heart and is
superior to subordinate Aria's masking ability]
"How do I detach this artifact from his body?" he asked curiously.
[Killing him would do the trick]
"Oh I plan to" he sneered, exiting the system. Nightmare was

hovering around unconscious Nightcrawler while Gaya was tieing
the barbed wires more tightly.
"Here crack this baby open" she threw a space ring towards
Michael.
A few seconds after he paid the system the badass points, he

could see the contents inside the space ring.
"A serial killer indeed" the space ring contained nothing but vials
of blood. Those glittering red vials were neatly stacked in a line
inside the space ring. With a single glance, he could tell these
were Nightcrawler's souvenirs taken from his victims. Unlike what
he was told back at the tavern, there weren't seven blood vials but
there were a total of ten blood vials. This meant one thing, he
started the killing way before the guardians had predicted.
"Anything interesting?" Gaya asked, leaning on the wall with her

hands folded against her chest.
"Take a look at this yourself" he threw back the space ring to her
but before she could catch the ring, Nightmare snatched the ring
in the mid-air.
"Hey! Give me that" she tried to grab Nightmare but he was

zigzagging around her to annoy her more. Seeing the play like this
in front of an infamous serial killer like Nightcrawler made Michael
frustrated and amused at the same time.
"Nightmare, give her the ring before she nails you to the wall" he
warned Nightmare when he saw Gaya reaching for an arrow in
her quiver.
"So easy to annoy, hehehe" the little dragon chuckled before

landing on Gaya's shoulder.
She swiftly grabbed the ring from his mouth with an annoyed look
on her face. But the annoyed look was soon replaced by a frown
when she saw the contents inside the space ring.
"Are these?"
"Yep, the vials containing the blood of his victims"? this was the
grossest thing she had seen in her life, in fact, this was not even
close. Yet, this was the first time she saw a serial killer and his
souvenirs with her own eyes
"Let me see" Nightmare grabbed the ring from her hand.
"How about we kill this low life and collect his blood in a vial?"
The little dragon's soft side was slowly vanishing due to his and
Gaya's influence on him. Michael was glad to see this change
because a dragon-like him must be ruthless to his enemies. In the
future, they would have to fight countless foes and any kind of
mercy or reluctance to kill a foe would cost them their lives.
Michael was sure that the guardians or any of his future foes
wouldn't show them any kind of mercy.
"Let's wake this fucker up" NIghtmare quickly flew into Michael's
cape, attaching himself onto his back. Gaya slapped Nightcrawler
so hard that the slapping sound echoed through the empty room.
He could swear that he even saw molar teeth bursting out of

Nightcrawler's mouth with a splatter of blood and saliva.
"Where...ah!" the pain hit him only a few seconds after he opened
his eyes.
Piercing gray eyes set concealed within their sockets, watching its
surroundings wearily. As Nightcrawler's vision became less blurry
and realization of he had been captured reached his brain, he
tried to wiggle against the barbed wire shackling him to the chair.
However the more he struggled, the more he felt the excruciating
pain of barbed wire sinking deep and deep into his flesh.
"Ah...let...me...go"? Both Michael and Gaya saw Nightcrawler

frantically trying to move away from them without asking who they
were, which meant he already knew the answer to that question.
While he was struggling, Michael retrieved the drone from his
storage. Gaya stepped away from the drone's camera angle into
the corner of the room to blend with the darkness. The light in the
drone's camera flickered before emitting a stable blue light,
indicating to him that it's ready to broadcast the feed to
everywhere Gaya put the projector balls. The projector balls would
automatically find a suitable place in the area to project the feed
so the people could see and hear Lucifer crystal clear.
At the moment, the projector balls were projecting the feed to

every corner of Flamefair and Bredia. One of the places the
projector balls projecting the feed was the burning star building
itself. With the help of the system, he built the projector balls to
project the feed in the sky itself. Therefore, if there wasn't a large
wall or building nearby the balls to project, they would use the sky
itself as the projector screen. Plus, the projector balls had all kinds
of audio enhancement that could make his voice extremely loud
which could give the otherworldly effect to Lucifer.
"System, activate the projectors,"? he said to the system,

signaling Gaya to put a cloth around Nightcrawler's mouth.
Michael stood in front of the drone with his hands behind.
"Welcome to my hell, people of Bredia and Flamefair"


A few moments after he activated the projectors through the

system, badass points began to rain as he continuously heard the
notification sound ringing in his mind.
"I've been watching you, studying you. I saw massacres,

corruption in every place, nobles and cultivators treating
commoners as worse than dirt, commoners selling their bodies
and stealing, slavery, experiments on people, and many, many
more sins"
His unearthly voice reverberated through all the Bredia and
Flamefair.
"This continent is slowly turning into a hell and in hell, you have to
answer to me, Lucifer"
[wonderful] amidst the ringing sound of the notification, he heard

the system's voice that sounded extremely pleased.
"Since the people who should have protected the innocents have
been failing miserably, it's time every sinner in this continent
experiences the justice served in hell" After these words escaped
his mouth, he slowly stepped away sidewards for the drone
camera to get Nightcrawler.
"Let me introduce the human whom you've known as

Nightcrawler. He may elude the justice of mortals because of lack
of evidence or the incompetence of the authorities. In here, I'd be
the judge, jury, and the executioner" Michael let the words sink in
the peoples' hearts. After a few seconds of silence, he went on,
"He has killed ten people, four of them were innocent. They were
just commoners who did their best to provide for their families. He
hunted them like prey, he enjoyed killing them, every single
moment of it" Michael ran his claws through Nightcrawler's face.
Everywhere his sharp claws touched Nightcrawler's body, blood
seeped through the cuts.
"In my hell, you're all nothing but miserable preys. If your

authorities had caught him, he would have been fed, given a cozy
little prison cell, and then a fair trial, there's nothing fair in giving
this murderer a trial. Too much waste of time" Michael's hand
stopped running around Nightcrawler's face as he clenched
Nightcrawler's bald head and slowly began to apply pressure.
"Mmhhhhmmmm…." Nightcrawler violently wiggled against the

barbed wires feeling the pain of his skull getting crushed by
Lucifer.
"Just like he did to those innocent mortals, his death too will be
slow and painful" Gaya could hear the cracking sound coming
from his bald head. Webs of blood seeped through the cracks
appearing in his bald egg. Michael felt like he's been slowly
crushing an egg in his hand.
"Every sinner in this continent will pay for their crimes, just like
those who did before Nightcrawler as well as those who were
claiming to be me. You can escape mortal justice but you can't
escape mine. No amount of gold or connections will save you in
my hell"
Pulch!
Michael suddenly used all of his strength as Nightcrawler's head

exploded into a red mist like an exploding watermelon. Splatters
of grey matter oozed out of Michael's hands to the ground as
Nightcrawler's body was still twitching.
"I will give the sinners one more chance. Within the next two
months, surrender to the authorities and pay the price for your
crimes. The authorities should give a most fitting punishment for
their crimes or after two months, this will continue. Remember,
you can't beg for forgiveness from me"
****************
The southern continent arc will begin from the next chapter.
Expect pirates, gladiators, and much much more...
Chapter 206 - The Top Priority
Of The Guardians
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2

Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Banker - LVL 3 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 10 badass point(s))
Runic Teleportation
3-Star Inventor
Aria - Assassin (loyalty level 28%)
The Abyssal
"Wonderful"? even after settling his debt, there remained 66,500

badass points. From now on, he decided to leave more projector
balls everywhere he visits so the next time he goes live, he could
get more badass points.
[Yes you should] as the system read his mind, it replied to him.
"How do I get the artifact from him?"
[Open his chest and you will get the artifact]

"Great" Exiting the system, he couldn't help but roll his eyes. He
was not a surgeon who could delicately open up Nightcrawler's
chest.
"Dagger"
Gaya threw the jade dagger hanging from her waist.
"What are you doing?" Nightmare asked while hovering around

Nightcrawler. Gaya moved towards him avoiding the grey matter
on the ground.
"I'm going to open up his chest to get what I want"
"Need a hand" she grabbed Nightcrawler's shoulder to hold him

firmly while Michael cut open the chest. Seeing her helping him,
he couldn't help smiling. She was perfect for him in every way.
There weren't many girls who would help their boyfriends cut open
someone's chest, even if the chest belonged to a killer.
Yet, Gaya was happily doing her wifely duties. Honestly, he looked
forward to giving her the throne of Nagaland so he could marry
this perfect girl.No matter how many people he would have to kill
in Nagaland, he would do it for her.
Thinking about his bright future with her, he plunged the dagger
into Nightcrawler's abdomen. He then worked his way upwards
like gutting a fish. Blood and guts oozed out of the body yet they
never slowed him down.
"This is gross," Nightmare commented looking at the gore.

Eventually, after a few more minutes, they could see the heart as
well as a small copper cube. The cube was attached to the heart,
radiating a faint light and a humming sound.
[Ding! The host has found an ancient artifact]
[The system requires 30,000 badass points to initiate a scan that

could lead the host to something special]
"Do it" he never hesitated. The last time the system asked him
badass points to find something interesting, he ended up with the
Abyssal, his own little Batcave. Therefore, when the system
tempted him again, he jumped the gun.
[Great. Initiating the scan...]
"What the fuck is this?" Gaya poked the copper cube after Michael
gently ripped it off from Nightcrawler's heart. Nightmare stared at
Michael for his answer but instead of giving Gaya the answer, he
patiently waited for the system to finish scanning the artifact.
[Scan completed. The host should get a world map]
"Gaya, do you have a map?" she took out an old worn-out

parchment from her space ring. He feared that opening the
parchment would crumble down the old piece of paper.
"Old Risel has been with me since I first started my adventure"
"You named your map?"
"Don't judge me" she giggled as she handed over the map to
Michael.
After delicately opening the parchment, he saw the map of this

world for the first time. There were four large pieces of land, each
divided by vast oceans.
The largest continent among the four was the continent named
Awor which was doubled the size of Elon and Ozer. The smallest
yet farthest content from Elon was the Southern Continent also
known as Midras. The Southern continent was made of four
kingdoms; Lidora, Gisal, Yetopia, and the Praido Kingdom. There
wasn't much information on the map about each kingdom's
characteristics or what they have to offer.
As he laid his eyes on the southern continent, a dot of blue light

could be seen only by him in the Kingdom of Gisal.
"This is our next destination"

"You gonna tell me what is in there?"
"The origin of this artifact" She wanted to ask how he knew that
but she decided not to. Even after he revealed most of the
information about him, she could tell that it was only the tip of the
iceberg as he seemed to have a secret that he couldn't tell her.
However, she trusted him to tell her everything one day until then,
she would keep her questions bottled.
"Southern content is a two-month journey from here if we get in a

good condition ship"
"Ship? Why can't we just fly there?" Nightmare asked.
"First of all, when we enter the atmosphere of the Southern

continent, we won't be able to use Arch or any kind of energy.
Second of all, there is no land to take a rest in the Midras ocean.
Unless you have a better way, I'd suggest we hop on a merchant
ship"
She removed her mask as she stepped closer to Michael.

Regardless of the blood and gore around him, he could smell the
sweet fragrance radiating from her.
"I always wanted to visit the southern continent and now it's going
to be even better with you"
"It's not gonna be our honeymoon or anything" Michael sighed

remembering her no sex until marriage rule. Although he
respected her wish, he would be lying if he said he don't care
about taking the kiss to the next level.
"Shh," she put her finger on his lips.
"No marriage, no fling but it doesn't mean we have nothing to do

during our journey" His eyes sparkled as his heartbeat rose. He
felt like a virgin boy who just got a date to lose his virginity, he
couldn't wait to get on a ship to the Southern continent.'
"Don't mind me" Looking at how close they were standing to each
other, Nightmare rolled his eyes. And just as the little dragon
expected, they locked their lips despite their rather disturbing
surroundings.
"Let's just first go to the auction and make some money"
"I'd bet they have some nice swords," Gaya purred, gently kissing
her ear.
"After the auction, remind me to visit the house of Bradley. You

said they are mainly in business for private security" he said
recalling Nathen's uncle, Lord Malan's request to visit the house of
Bradley.
"Yeah, not number one or anything but they have a decent

operation going on"
"If everything goes smoothly, we can use them to protect our

assets"
"Extra security to Raylene doesn't hurt"
Considering Raylene was a 5-star chef and she would be more

famous once they opened the restaurant, they had to make sure
she stays safe. One could not say for sure that no one would
harm her or try to kidnap her.
"Let Dular use his Netherels to clean up this mess and the mess
you two made in my room" the snake and the dragon revealed an
embarrassed smile thinking how hard they threw up in Michael's
room, especially Nightmare.
It was fortunate they have Netherels to do the dirty work.

Otherwise, they knew he would make them clean up the mess.
**************************
(Somewhere else in Elon Continent)
"Did you see that, Xanali?" Peyton was watching the vast forest
before her standing on the edge of a mountain.
Xanali, the red-haired princess and half-sister of Gaya, carried a
face of anger as well as confusion.
"Yes, everyone in Bredia and FLamefair saw it. It won't take too
long for the news to reach the entire Elon"
"He was mocking us. The guardians were the authorities he

mentioned who failed miserably" Peyton was radiating killing
intent as her body was shivering in anger.
"His words, Peyton. The real questions we should ask are how did
he project himself? What kind of spell was he using? Was that
really Nightcrawler he killed? "
"Our mages are working on it. As for the Nightcrawler, it was that
brute Nesta's assignment. After Lucifer's little show on Royal land
using Gerty's body and Netherels, he just made the top of the
priority list. But it also tainted our reputation, according to our
spies, more than a few really believes the nobles were killed by
the guardians"
"It is the truth, Peyton. We went too far, we shouldn't have killed
those nobles"
"You never understand do you?" Peyton said coldly, turning her

gaze from the horizon to Xanali.
"You can't clean a mess without getting your hands dirty.

Sometimes it's necessary for the good guys to be the bad guys to
do some good. If you think the bad guys will play by our rules,
you're naive and stupid"
Peyton didn't hold back as her words pierced Xanali's heart like
needles. At this moment, Xanali wondered what Gaya did and
said could be really the truth about this world.
"Captain Gerard almost pulled the plug of operation new dawn.

We cannot afford to take any more shits thrown at us by Lucifer.
Increase the recruitment process, I want every prodigy or talented
kid on the block to join the Guardians. We can use their love for
power to our advantage ``. Peyton's cold words stopped Xanali's
train of thought.
"Then the championship tournaments in three months would be a

good place for some fresh blood"
"Start the screening process now. The tournament might have a

chance to get delayed by a couple of months. Tell Noah about the
recruitment, I'd bet he know some freaks of nature"
*******************'
Sorry for not replying to your comments as I've been very busy
lately.However, I did read all your comments.I Will soon start to
reply, keep those comments coming
Chapter 207 - Icefair And The
Auction
After teleporting back to Flamefair, they didn't spend any time as

they took off towards Icefair to go to the House of Bradley as well
as attend the annual Phoenix manor auction. In the skies, the trio
occasionally noticed several groups of people in fancy winter
clothes and mercenaries in armor flying towards Icefair.
Considering the snowfall had worsened since he left Flamefair,
Michael could barely recognize the faces in the sky through the
snow.
Icefair was roughly one thousand kilometers away from Flamefair,

and with snowstorm affecting their flying speed, it took them a full
day to reach Icefair.
Among the four duchies of Kethen, Icefair was a far more

accomplished and fancy-looking city by far compared to the other
three duchies. The constant war between the Rosegate, Pent
Town, and Flamefair was one of the main reasons for Icefair's
development. The duke of Icefair made his fortune by selling
weapons, food, and many other resources needed for a war to the
other duchies. In simple words, Icefair was the oil that keeps the
war between the others running.
As they approached, large groups of travelers could be seen on

the roads beneath them on the ground. As far as the eye could
see, various types of people such as merchants, mercenaries,
commoners, and nobles could be seen sharing the roads.
When the city walls appeared in their sight, Michael, Gaya, and
Nightmare descended from the sky to the ground. As usual, at the
gates, several soldiers were standing in a line. They were there to
make sure every single soul is paid an entrance toll before entry.
After paying that entrance toll, entry to the city would be given
without trouble. While standing in a line, Michael could feel many
eyes landing on him and Nightmare on his shoulder yet no one
openly approached him. He also saw some of the merchants
paying more than the entry fee to avoid the forceful inspection of
their goods.
The soldiers were agitated to see the dragon but they quickly
regained their composure. After witnessing them taking bribes and
forcefully inspecting the goods of those who didn't bribe them, he
understood what kind of soldiers they were.? They were the type
who loved to bully but couldn't stand to be bullied in return.
Knowing that anyone who had a dragon for a pet would not be of
ordinary stature, the soldiers didn't dare trouble Michael and
Gaya. Hence, Michael's group was easily able to enter the city
without any hindrance.
Entering the city, Michael looked around the place with observing
eyes. Unlike Flamefair, Icefair streets were filled with people of all
classes. A group of workers was constantly shoveling the snow
away from the streets to make life easier for caravans and the
people. The white marble stone used to construct the majority of
the buildings on each side of the street gave a unique charm to
the city as the occasional frozen water fountains and white maple
trees enhanced the beauty even further.
"The auction won't start for another two days, let's find an inn and
eat. I'm starving"
"How could you starve? The Arch energy will keep your body
sustained"
"Alright, no more meat for you then" She flicked Nightmare's head
as the little dragon quickly shouted
"No!" Nightmare feared that he wouldn't get any more of those

delicious juicy mean Ghost was giving him.
"Im surrounded by two gluttonous creatures"? It wasn't hard to

find an inn when he could let Gaya and Nightmare follow the scent
of Ale and food.
Arriving at a rather decent inn within the city, Michael booked a
room before the inn could run out of rooms to rent.
"I wish we could open restaurants in every city we go and make

Raylene cook for us there" Michael did not even sit on the bed to
relax before she started to rush him. With a sigh, he followed her
to the downstairs where they were serving plenty of local
delicacies. Although these dishes couldn't hold a torch to
Raylene's cooking, a warm meal in the winter had to be
appreciated.
Seated right next to Michael, Nightmare devoured a platter of

roasted meat with the grace of king much to the curiosity of
everyone else around them.
Michael was enjoying his salad and the warm glass of water with
a smile. The reason for his smile was not the salad, it was
because he was receiving badass points constantly ever since he
entered the inn with a dragon.
"What a majestic creature"
"Do you know what family that young man is from?"
"I have never seen him in Icefair before"
"Who do I feel like I know of him from somewhere?"
The three of them completely ignored the chattering around them.
Looking at the dragon, many young misses in the inn let out a
depressed sigh. They stared at the dragon with a look of envy on
their faces.
"Waiter, bring me another plate of this roast"
"Coming right up, Miss"
Gaya didn't even bother to look up to see Michael's reaction as

she continued to eat the platter of food in front of her. The rate at
which the food was devoured was almost as she had been
starved for several days.
"That salad any good?" she asked gawking at his bowl of salad
after devouring the food on her side of the table.
"Why, you want this?"
"Let me take a bite" just as she was moving her hands towards his
bowl, the waiter came to her with the dishes she ordered to save
Michael's salad.
Eventually, after the snake and the dragon filled their bellies, they
left the inn, taking a stroll around Icefair. As they walked,
Nightmare's little head swiveled back and forth. He took in all the
sights while curiosity filled him.
Plenty of people on the streets found themselves turning their

heads to look at Nightmare. Plenty of surprising whispers could be
heard, and many young girls made less-than-discreet comments
at the dragon and at Michael. There had been several young
daredevils who tried to flirt with Michael but each and every one of
them had been chased away by Gaya with a punch to their faces.
"For fuck sake, this city is filled with shameless horny bitches"
Gaya cursed after sending a young girl flying with a kick to her
butt.
At that moment, a drumming sound could be heard from the front

as a group of red-robed men came striding through the city with a
huge clamor. The scene looked like a wedding concession with
the festive celebration, but the contents of their words caused
everyone on the streets to feel stunned.
"Good news everyone! Our Phoenix Auction Manor will be

auctioning off two Epic class spells in the upcoming annual
auction…" The man leading the group was speaking through a
giant, gold horn with a blast of sound that could be heard in all
directions.
"What? The Phoenix Auction Manor has two Epic spells to sell, is
that true?"
"Heavens, more have appeared? And there's two of them at the
same time, did I hear that right…?"
"If the auction is going to be selling one of those, we must go and

inform the lord…"
"This annual auction is getting better and better"
"I wonder what else they have in store to auction..."
Following the announcement, the people began to chatter more

and more with excitement. There was no doubt that the news of
two Epic spells would soon spread farther and farther as well.
"I'd bet this is just a warm-up," Gaya said after the announcement
group disappeared from their sight. Regardless of the city being
full of people, Michael saw no quarrels or battles in the city.
Instead, it seemed the mercenaries and the young masters of the
rich families had kicked their arrogance down a notch. Even they
realized that one could never be too sure if one would meet a
civilian or a person one could not offend. After all, men of great
strength did not need to reveal it to the public.
"Let's get back to the inn" Eventually when the nightfall came, the
snowstorm sent the people running to their homes searching for a
warm place. Considering the trio didn't come across anything
worth investigating, Gaya wanted to return to the inn. Nightmare
was already deep in sleep after a hearty meal.
Except for the poor soldiers who had to keep patrolling the streets,
Michael saw no people in the streets on their way to the inn. His
black clothes almost turned white in the snow. After dusting all the
snow off of his clothes and Gaya's hair, he entered the inn and
then to his room.
"Stop" Suddenly he stopped at the entrance to his room.
"What?" Gaya asked, seeing him raise his brows. She held the
sleeping Nightmare in one hand and took out the dagger in the
other.
"Someone was here before" he pointed at the ground as she saw
a faint mark of a boot print coming out of the room. Unless the inn
appointed anyone to clean their guests' room without their
permission, she knew someone went inside their room.
"No one should have entered the rooms, especially during this
auction time" she whispered.
He nodded before pushing the door open. His environmental

scanning did not reveal any life signs inside the room that meant
whoever was there has long gone by now.
When he entered the room causticity, the room was just as he left
except for a letter with golden outlines and red wax seal. They
moved towards the letter slowly.
"That's the seal of House Bradley," she said when she saw the
two-leaf symbol on the wax seal. It was the symbol of none other
than the House of Bradley.
"It seems Lord Malan couldn't wait to see you, human"

Chapter 208 - Annual Auction I
Michael picked up the letter. He could feel a metal card inside the
letter.
Carefully tearing the letter open without giving a damn about a

letter opener, he started to read the words written on high-quality
paper in beautiful handwriting.
"Hey kiddo, little birdies told me you're here in Icefair. If you're

here at this time, I guess you came to the auction and I liked to
think you'll also visit us. Pardon our method of reaching out to you
as we are currently dealing with a delicate situation in which you
can help us out. Come meet us after the auction. P.S I have left
something you might need to get into the auction, Lord Malan"
He lifted the letter as a card made of silvery metal landed in his

hand. The one-inch thick card had the symbol of House Bradley
etched on it.
"Nice, a VIP access card" Gaya recognized the card in a single

glance. Except for the auctions that happened in Nagaland, she
never had a VIP card outside. It was not because she couldn't
afford it but being a VIP kinda attracted people's attention and she
liked to be anonymous when participating in auctions.
"What did he mean by 'I need to get into the auction?" reading
those words, he couldn't help recalling his little fiasco with Lord
Julius in Phoenix island.
When he met Julius, he was a Core Strengthening stage level 5

and if he now reached level 8 or even level 10, Michael didn't give
a damn as he would reach that in a few months. He hoped Julius
let go of whatever grudge he may have been holding against him
as Michael would hate to kill him because he would rather use
Julius and his operation to his advantage than killing him.
However, if Julius chose to do otherwise, Michael would plot a
plan to replace him with one of his subordinates in the future.
Unlike young masters like Noah who would go on a killing
rampage because of petty grudges, Michael liked to kill fewer
people and use the infrastructure they've built over years to his
own benefit. This would prove useful in the long run. For example,
Julius has set up a perfect operation of trade among continents
and killing Julius and all of his people would crumble this
operation to dust but if Michael was to replace Julius as well as
few others with his minions, the entire Phoenix auction manor
would work for him.
"I'm gonna get shut-eye. Wake me up early in the morning"
"I'll cultivate. Some of us don't have the privilege of a War god

body like some lucky bastards" He just waved off before placing a
system store-bought silk quilt on the bed.
Gaya sat on the ground in a meditation posture to cultivate while

the little dragon hovered between them trying to decide whether to
sleep with Michael or cultivate with Gaya.
Looking at Nightmare's dilemma, she just grabbed him by his tail.
"You're gonna cultivate with me. It's a shame that you're still in
Body Refining stage level 1. Slowly absorb the energy coming
from this" She said, taking out the bone of the Fusion stage
cultivator that Michael brought from the Nether Realm.
"System, can I also boost Nightmare cultivation speed by 40%?"
[Yes, familiars will get the boost as well as your chosen

subordinate]
[The host's current chosen Subordinate is Gaya]
[The host can currently boost the cultivation speed of two

subordinates]
"Great. System, boost Aria's cultivation speed. I will bring some

resources to Raylene when I get back to the sect"
"I can feel it. I'll reach level 9 in a couple of weeks, im awesome!"
Gaya proudly exclaimed looking at Nightmare. She had no clue
that her cultivation speed was being boosted by Michael. Coupled
with her innate talent, the 40% boost can let her match Michael's
cultivation speed itself as he couldn't go on a killing spree every
single day.
The night quickly passed. Dawn somewhat broke the dark winter
skies from the horizon, marking the opening day of the Heavenly
Phoenix Auction, which had long since opened its gates. The
giant gates had been decorated with ribbons and lanterns as both
people and workers streamed in and out of the building. In the
distance, quite a few dressed-up people stood there, waiting for
the auction house to open.
Today was the day of the annual auction at the Phoenix Auction
Manor. In the past, this had always been the busiest day for the
Phoenix Auction Manor, but today, they had the two Epic spell
scrolls and various unique items for sale. This year was even
livelier than the years before. Regardless of the rain of cold
snowflakes, there were already many people waiting by the gates.
The Phoenix auction manor building was exceptionally tall,

despite being only three stories tall, it had already reached several
dozen meters higher into the air than of a typical five-story
building back on earth. Just like most of the buildings in ICefair, it
had been also built using a marble-like shiny white stone and
decorated with sky blue windows. On top of the great big gates to
the auction house was a three-meter tall board that had the three
words " Phoenix Auction Manor" written in fancy calligraphy.
More and more people began to gather at the Phoenix Auction

Manor and filled up the nearby streets. Caravans found it
extremely difficult to get by or find parking. Many people had been
waiting for at least 2 hours before the ear-splitting sounds of a
gong and firecrackers could be heard. This year's annual auction
had finally begun!
The auction this year wasn't like the past auctions. In the past,
there was no fee to enter the auction house either to participate in
the auction or just to watch it. However, because of Epic spells
and the uniqueness of the items, the admission fee this year hiked
up to 50 gold coins. This was not the amount a villager or farmer
could afford but again, this was not a place for the poor.
Although this hike in prices made many people unhappy, it did not
deter the people with money in their pockets. At the same time, it
had gotten rid of the people who were merely there to watch the
show and not buy anything. In this way, there was enough room
for all the rogue cultivators and mysterious figures that were
extremely interested in the items
After the gates opened up for the auction house, the people who
already had tickets and waited outside for a very long time began
to enter through the entrance in a straight line. On the other side
of the buildings, there were much fewer people and all of them
wore elegant clothes that basically screamed nobles.
"VIP's please come this way" a young man was standing near the
entrance, screaming his heart out. Since Michael had a VIP
access card thanks to Lord Malan, he walked towards the VIP
entrance. He waited until the nobles in the line before him entered
the auction house.
As he reached the inner halls of the Phoenix Auction Manor,

ignoring the nobles' shocked look at Nightmare, a large expansive
area greeted his eyes. The place was filled with neat rows of
seats for as far as the eye could see. It was clear that the number
of seats had surpassed 500.
The area had two stories worth of seats, and the two stories
combined had a total of over 1,000 seats. Installed on the sides of
every seat were dozens of private rooms for the honored guests,
each separated by a tinted glass wall. From the inside, they could
still clearly see the outside, but no one on the outside could see
what was happening on the inside.
"That way" Gaya showed him the stairs to get to the second floor
where the private rooms for the VIP guests were located.
However, just as he was about to walk the stairs, he noticed a
lady in red robes eyeing him and murmuring something with the
young man who let Michael in. It was obvious they were talking
about him as they did not take their eyes away from him. Soon
afterward, the lady walked towards him with a rather stern look on
her face. Gaya frowned looking at her expression because she
was full of smiles when she let the other VIP guests in.
"Ghost I assume," the lady in red robes said. She was the first one
to completely ignore? Nightmare as she didn't even look at the
dragon standing on his shoulder.
"Yes"
"It seems we have to check your VIP status"
"Is there a problem?" He folded his hands against his chest as a

sign of irritation.
"The auction will begin in three hours.IF you want to auction your
items, please seek out our manager Miss Vargas on the first floor"
a voice of an elder sounded throughout the building.
"Tell them, I'll be there in a few minutes" the red robes woman
said as he realized the woman before him is the manager of this
branch, Miss Vargas.
"Well this saved me the trouble of finding you to auction this"
His goal was today to auction the rare herbs he found at the
Treacherous Ocean and some of the rare spells he got from the
Nether Realm. By doing this, he would get richer and use the gold
coins to develop his business empire. Because of this plan, he
first wanted to tempt this lady for her to stop acting like a bitch.
Only if she still continued to act this way he would leave this place
but if he walked out of this place, the name Julius would certainly
make its way into his kill list along with this woman.
Her stern look took a turn as her brows arched up when she saw
the silk apples in Michael's hands. The fragrance of the fruits
instantly made her mouth water. Just a single glance could tell her
that these fruits were at least two thousand years old. An
alchemist would buy the silk apples instead of an Epic spell any
time of the day and she just saw Alchemy king Gabriel's disciples
settling in one of the VIP rooms.
"Choose wisely Miss Vargas. Petty grudges and lose a valuable

customer or wipe the slate clean and make some sweet sweet
money"
Chapter 209 - Annual Auction
II
"This is..." Vargas reached out to grab one of the silk apples in the
basket. Michael had a total of thirty apples but he chose to auction
only five because according to the system, it could extract the
seeds from the other apples and help him grow silk apple trees
after it reached version 4.0. The probability of getting healthy
seeds out of a silk apple was 40% according to the system,
therefore, Michael decided to keep most of the apples instead of
auctioning them.
However, before she could touch an apple, he pulled the basket

away from her.
"Congratulations Master Ghost we have checked your VIP status

and are honored to offer you a permanent VIP status of your own
as you don't need to carry the VIP card of the Bradley family
anymore"
It was really surprising how Vargas's expression changed in a

blink of an eye. Unlike before she was now grinning ear to ear.
After all, she was a businesswoman who knows what's good for
business. Her change of character wasn't a big shock to him
because after his time spending with the merchants in this world,
he knew these merchants are cunning, shameless, and do almost
anything if it brings profit to them at the end of the day. It also
revealed Michael two things; she wasn't under a strict order of
Julius not to let him anywhere near his Phoenix auction manor
houses and she wasn't as good as she's thinking. Otherwise, she
would have behaved like this from the beginning and not like the
bitch she was before.
"My assistant here will give you your VIP access card after the
auction"
"Make it black"
"As you wish" Vargas's grin grew wider as she sighed a sigh of
relief. Michael nodded approvingly before handing over the basket
of silk apples to Vargas. She grabbed the basket as her life
depended on it and held it against her ample chest tightly.
"Remember we are not selling the apples, we're auctioning them"

Gaya said with a cold tone. Just like in any other auction house,
the Phoenix auction manor too had two options for the sellers to
choose from. They could either sell the items to the Phoenix
auction manor or auction the items in events like this. By choosing
the latter, the sellers had to pay a small fee before the auction and
a small cut in the gold coins after successfully auctioning the item.
Those who want to make gold coins quick and hate to pay a cut
could choose the option to sell. There was no downside for this
option as the Phoenix auction manor was trusted by people to
give them the right price. They wouldn't sully this reputation by
swindling their customers, downplaying the value of the item like
in pawn shops.
However if one decided to auction the item instead of selling, the

starting bid price would be always somewhat less than its actual
value. If bidders chose not to go for high bids and the item ended
up being sold way cheaper than its actual value, there was
nothing the seller could do except take the bid money. This risk
would be greater when superpowers compete for the item as they
would often intimidate others not to place bids more than them if
they took a liking to the said item.
Plus, selling the items instantly was always a great way to remain
anonymous as the deal would happen between the auction house
and the seller, no third parties included. In the method of auction,
however, the bidder, the representative of the auction house, and
the seller would meet in the same room for the exchange of
money and item. If the bidder chose to pursue the seller or the
seller chose to get the item later on from the bidder's corpse, there
would be a problem. End of the day, it boils down to the rarity of
the item, the number of gold coins, and the greediness of either
party included in the deal.
"But..."
"Auctioning it is" Michael interrupted Vargas when she was about

to speak.
"And put these in the auction too" The next moment, he made
Vargas's heart almost jump out in shock by taking out a few three
thousand years old herbs such as Storm Leaf, Bitter Barberry,
River Chicory, and Ash Bloom. He plucked these from the
Treacherous ocean. Her body became rigid.
"Whoa!" Vargas gasped. Either of these herbs could go for

300,000 gold coins minimum. Yet she also knew that Alchemists
like them rarely auction rare herbs such as these. She couldn't
help but wonder why he's auctioning these herbs that most
alchemists consider priceless.
For other alchemists, they were indeed priceless but for him,
these were just overrated junk because he could get the same
medicinal qualities these herbs provide from common plants
which weren't even acknowledged as herbs by the alchemists in
this world.
"That's all. I'll see you after the auction" Michael said before
leaving her to get to his VIP room.
When they disappeared from Vargas's sight, he grabbed Gaya's

hands, halting her steps.
"Go sit with the crowd"
"Why?" Nightmare asked cluelessly yer the little dragon saw an

evil grin slowly emerge on their faces.
"I'll contact you through the earbuds and keep you updated"
Gaya nodded as he placed his hand on her face.

"System change her face"
Gaya felt the familiar tingling sensation underneath her skin as

she could feel her face changing.
"Change your face again before meeting me after the auction"
Even without Michael explaining what he was thinking, she knew

exactly what he wanted her to do. In fact, she always did that for
fun when she was a rogue cultivator but now, she could have fun
as well as get rich.
After Gaya went to sit with the commoners and lesser nobles, he
and Nightmare walked up to the stairs reaching the second floor.
The second floor of the auction hall, was where all the private
rooms were located. Those who had the privileges of staying in
one of those rooms were all wealthy people with great influence.
"This time, we have to get something nice"
"My family gave me quite a chunk to get a weapon for the

upcoming tournaments"
"Nice. I heard they sell some great ass weapons in the auction"
Michael was the first to enter the second floor but soon many
youngsters and elders reached the floor from other entrances.
Michael quickly grabbed Nightmare, putting him inside his coat
pocket.
Only a few of them were able to take a glance at Nightmare

before he disappeared into Michael's pockets. They stared at
Michael murmuring among themselves before entering their VIP
rooms.
Michael just slowly walked past each room as he soon came in

front of a door that had the symbol of the Bradley family etched on
it. However, he didn't enter the room as the others did but waited
for the corridors to become empty. Considering the VIPs were far
less than the lesser nobles and commoners participating in the
auction, after waiting for fifteen minutes, one couldn't see a soul
except Michael.
"Spy my little spiders" he retrieved the spying little spiders from
his system storage and let them crawl through every VIP room in
the area. Only after every single spider reached their respective
room to spy, he entered the room allocated for him.
The decoration within the private room was simple. There was a
long solid wood table right in the center, and in front of the table,
there were a few big fancy sofas. In front of these sofas, there
was crystal clear glass. He could see the entire auction hall as
well as the stands on the center stage of the auction hall while
sitting on the sofa. On the center stage, a bunch of youngsters,
the majority of them were girls, still bringing more and more
stands covered in red cloth to the stage. A few of them contained
the herbs Michael gave to Vargas.
At the moment, there was a huge piece of cloth covering the

majority of the stands, making everyone unable to see what was
hidden underneath. After some time, the auction hall had been
completely filled up, with every last empty spot being crowded
with people standing close together.
Just as the final seats were taken and everyone had settled down,
a golden eruption of fireworks exploded overhead, instantly
calming down the noise. After that, an old man in a gray robe
slowly descended from above and landed right onto the stage.
The old man was in his fifties, and his sleeves fluttered with every
soft breeze passing by. His oily face carried a friendly smile,
leaving a good impression on all those who watched him
The clothes covering the items also slowly started to ascend into
the air, revealing the items to the crowd.
The elder's eyes swept the audience as he cleared his throat and
loudly announced, "Honored guests, I thank you all for
participating in our Phoenix Auction Manor's annual auction. I,
Goron Lanyon, will be the host for this year's auction, and so I
hope everyone today will be able to see an item they will want to
buy!"
The elder paused for a moment to clear his throat once more
before continuing to speak, "This year the Phoenix Auction Manor
has seen its busiest year. That is because this year, we shall be
auctioning off many precious items that our Phoenix Auction
Manor has already announced and many more that we just
acquired. Trust me, even this old man has only heard about some
of these items only in legends. I hope you've brought your pay
cubes with you" The old man joked as a small tremor of laughter
reverberated through the hall.
"What these items are, I am sure many people here are already
aware of. So I will not waste any more time describing them but I
will give you a detailed explanation about the new items to the
best of my knowledge" When the elder was speaking, he had
used his Arch Force to magnify his voice so that everyone in the
auction hall would be able to hear it. The old man continued to
explain the rules without stopping.
"What a talker, hurry up and start the auction!"
"Yeah, I'm going to fall asleep!"
Many people couldn't take it anymore as they began to shout at

the old man. But the old man did not give a shit until he preached
every single rule about the auction.
"Alright, I think everyone should have a clear understanding of the

rules now. Let the auction begin"
At the sound of the elder's words, ten men suddenly walked

toward the stand, encircling it. Their eyes stared coldly at the
audience as if showing off their positions as bodyguards.
Finally, Michael stopped playing with Nightmare to take part in the

auction that's going to give him something interesting...
*********************************
Keep guessing my dear readers...keep guessing...I can give you a

clue...Abyssal...
Chapter 210 - The Blackwing
Saurus
"Honored guests, we shall now auction away the first item. What
this hidden item is, I will reveal it to you now ``. With that, the old
man extended his arm to grab the cloth and abruptly tore it away
to reveal a small vial bottle. Inside the small vial, a silver liquid
glowed, lighting the entire stage with its light.
"The very first item is the Radiant Soul Healer. For the honored
guests who are unfamiliar with this item, it is hard to come by
medicine that has the healing effect of a hundred high-quality
healing potions combined. As its name suggests, it could not only
heal physical wounds but it could also heal any soul damages to a
certain point"
"The starting price of the miraculous once in a lifetime item has

the starting price of 50,000 gold coins! Minimum 5000 increase
per new bid, you may begin bidding!"
"55,000 gold coins!"
"60,000 gold coins!"
"70,000!"
"75,000 coins!"
...
Just as the host finished speaking, the people in the audience

immediately started to fight over the Radiant Soul Healer. This
potion was indeed superior in every way compared to the healing
potion Michael brews. This potion required extremely rare herbs to
brew. He could make more gold coins by selling normal healing
potions than searching for these rare herbs which was a waste of
time in his opinion. Of course, he could always buy the herbs from
the system store except the system's price for each herb was
ridiculously high.
As Michael sat and watched the people around him fight for the
medicine, there was a faint smile on his face. He realized this
auction is going to make him richer than he was initially expecting.
After a fierce battle, the bottle of Radiant Healing Potion was sold
to the highest bidder for a price of 95,000 gold coins.
The whole audience became silent for a few moments after the
first item. Everyone stared at the auction stage, waiting for Goron
to bring out the next auction item.
Surprisingly the old man didn't give another long-winded speech

or any description about the item; instead, he just pulled away the
cloth revealing a glowing longsword. The longsword was
constantly producing a buzzing sound, and it was trembling from
within to escape the glass box.
Many people could identify that it was a Rare Weapon with a

single glance.
ANy weapon that was above uncommon class was extremely

scarce and expensive in the Elon continent because, in the Elon
Continent, there were only a handful of Blacksmiths who reached
3-star or star levels above it. That handful of Blacksmiths rarely
sold anything they made in auctions like these since they all tend
to sell the weapons to only a certain people they wish to.
Therefore it was very difficult for a rogue cultivator or one who

doesn't have a powerful background to obtain a Rare Weapon.
The last time Michael saw these weapons in action was at Nether
Realm. They were quite powerful yet he wasn't interested in them
as the people sitting downstairs.
"This is a Rare Weapon, and the starting price is 100,000 gold

coins. Each new bid must be increased by 10,000 coins. Do I
have 110,000?"
"110"
"120,000 coins"
...
The audience sitting downstairs kept bidding. Some people had

earned quite a lot of money during many trade fairs around the
continent, and they didn't have a Rare Weapon. Therefore, they
wanted to buy one now.
The auction house did after all have to consider everyone's

feelings. If the entire auction was all about exceptional and
precious items that only people in VIP rooms could afford, those
people downstairs would only be bystanders. Hence, the auction
started auctioning some ordinary items. It also served to make the
atmosphere livelier.
The special guests on the second floor were all quiet. They didn't
pay any attention to the sword. They knew that the auction had
just started, and the items shown at the initial stage would just be
some ordinary items. The real deal would appear later.
"Noah, why aren't you bidding?"
Michael was surprised to see Noah, Alicia, the golden babaroo

named Norvin, and Maisy, the little girl who tried to take Nightmare
for herself in the Nether Realm. He felt Nightmare's body heat
rising looking at the mirror in his hands.
"So they are also here," Michael thought. He kinda expected to

see familiar faces like them, after all, this was a major event in the
Elon continent.
"I don't want another Rare weapon" Noah waved off Norvin.
In the auction hall, a rogue warrior won the Rare Weapon for
200,000 gold coins. This was basically the standard price for an
ordinary Rare Weapon. There were after all different qualities
amongst all Rare Weapons. For example, a Rare weapon forged
by a 5-star Blacksmith would be far more superior and powerful
than a Rare weapon forged by a 4-star Blacksmith.
There was nothing special about the next items, they were all
some Rare category spells and some ordinary pills. The auction
continued for nearly an hour, but none of the special guests on the
second floor had started bidding yet. On the other hand, the
atmosphere downstairs had become heated. All the warriors were
yelling and shouting their bids. People began to fight over item
after item, especially for the ones that were rare and very hard to
come by. Among all of these items, not a single one of them
interested Michael or Noah.
"Alright. All the previous treasures were mere appetizers. Next up

will be the real deals. Everyone, please hold your breath, try and
guess what this is!" The host suddenly stopped speaking as his
eyes swept over the audience. Almost as if everyone was one
huge collective consciousness, the whole audience concentrated
on the stand in front of the old man. Compared to the other
stands, this stand took up a lot of space on the stage.
The old man smiled, walking beside the stand. The old man
looked small standing near the cloth-covered stand. The stand
was at least 7ft tall and 10ft wide. "If we received this item earlier,
we would have promoted it just as we did to the Epic class spells"
the audience gasped. Through the mirror, Michael could see even
the VIPs standing straight taking an interest in the item. He too
wasn't an exception.
There was a huge red cloth covering whatever was inside, making
it so that no one could see what was underneath it. However, a
huge protrusion underneath the cloth allowed many people to
guess just what was being hidden. Everyone in the auction hall
had their eyes glued to the red cloth-covered thing.
As the old man slowly took the black cloth away, the hidden object
underneath was finally revealed to the eagerly anticipating crowd.
Underneath was only the pitch-black-colored body of a magical

beast that weirdly resembled the Tyrannosaurus rex. A few of the
closer and more observant guests could clearly see the small
black wings on the back of the magical beast. This magical beast
was just quietly lying inside the cage, completely still. Its body was
about 9ft long, 6ft tall. This was when the beast was lying, not
when standing on its four legs. If it was standing, it would be at
least 12ft tall.
"Don't tell me that this is the Fusion Stage Magical Beast…."
"Fusion Stage Magical Beasts actually look like this? It's clearly
dead but how could it still radiate Arch energy?"
"Today is the day that I finally got to see a Fusion Stage Magical
Beast"
"It really is a Fusion Stage Magical Beast's carcass. It seems like

a Blackwing Saurus"
...
"Human, we must get this corpse no matter what" He heard

Gaya's voice through the earbud. She sounded extremely excited.
"Definitely someone from your end will get this, just make sure
you know who" he could tell she was suppressing her voice so no
one near her would hear her. It was no secret to Michael that if a
cultivator and a magical beast of the same stage fought, most of
the time, odds were at the side of the magical beast because the
magical beast has a tougher body, more resistance to spell
damage, and innate abilities.
Magical Beasts were also very different from humans as they

would usually stick to their own areas instead of strolling out and
about. If they did come across any humans, those humans would
surely die. He knew how powerful a Fusion stage cultivator could
be after traveling with Lailah. If it wasn't for the system leaving a
mark in her soul that prevented her from hurting him, he would
have shred to pieces in a blink of an eye when she attacked him.
She was the most powerful cultivator he had ever met since he
came to this world. A few veena notes from her could kill a
hundred Core formation warriors in a few mere moments. So he
was able to imagine what damage a Fusion stage beast could do.
After the Fusion Stage Magical Beast was revealed, the originally
quiet auction house instantly buzzed to life. Everyone's gazes
gathered on the Fusion Stage Magical Beast's body lying on the
stage. The sounds of intense discussion and gasps of amazement
overlapped ceaselessly. Among the people present, quite a few
had lived for dozens of years, yet had never seen a Fusion Stage
Magical Beast before now.
"Ladies and gentlemen"
Suddenly, the old man's voice spread throughout the entire

auction house. After these words, the loud and chaotic auction
house gradually calmed down.
The old man standing on the stage smiled as he looked at the

hundreds of thousands of people attending the auction and loudly
declared,
"Ladies and gentlemen, this magical beast in front of me is indeed

the Fusion Stage Magical Beast Blackwingsaurus. Although it has
already lost its monster core, it is still a treasure. I'm sure that
everyone sitting here knows that eating a Fusion Stage Magical
Beast's meat for a long period of time will not only strengthen your
body but will also improve your cultivation speed. A talented
Blacksmith could forge powerful weapons and items using the
skin and bones of the magical beast. Don't forget that consuming
a potion or pill made using the parts of this beast would
significantly decrease the chances of meeting bottlenecks in your
cultivation journey. However, what I'm going to tell you next is
what makes this magical beast truly special"
Including Michael, everyone was on the edge of their seats

expecting the old man's next words. Many people in this world had
reached the end of their lives trying to break the bottlenecks
between two cultivation stages. The chances of meeting
bottlenecks after breaking through to the Core Formation stage
were higher than any other stage. Because of this, many were
stuck on the Core Formation stage, trying desperately to break the
bottleneck to reach the next stage. Although the chances of
stumbling upon a bottleneck at the Core Formation stage were
higher, it doesn't mean there are no bottlenecks in the stages after
Core Formation.
"The skin of this Blackwingsaurus can withstand a tremendous

amount of damage. Even our warriors and mages of the Core
Strengthening stage couldn't cut through the skin, and they
attacked with Rare class spells and weapons"
After hearing the host's last sentence, the originally calm auction
house once again burst into a clamor. Everyone was staring
intently at the Fusion Stage Magical Beast on the stage, filled with
feelings of desire and greed.
At this time, everyone imagined one thing, an armor made of

Blackwing Saurus skin that could make them nearly invincible
before a freakin Core Strengthening stage cultivator.
Chapter 211 - Michael Is Too
Poor
The very next moment, the host's voice resonated through the air
once more, "Right now, the Blackwing Saurus will be auctioned.
The starting bid is 300,000 gold coins. Every time a new bet is
proposed, it must be at least 10,000 gold coins higher than the
previous bid"
"I bid 310,000 gold coins…"
As soon as the host finished his declaration, a bid was

immediately heard from one of the VIP rooms.
"320,000 gold coins…" A voice from another VIP room declared.
"330"
"350,000 coins…"
"400,000"
One after another, frighteningly high bids rang out from the VIP
rooms in the auction house. Currently, none of the people sitting in
the general area of the auction house could interject.
If one wanted to purchase the Blackwing Saurus, they not only

had to have enough money, they also had to have a certain
amount of strength. Otherwise, as soon as they left the auction
house, the Blackwing Saurus would get stolen from them.
That's why the people fighting over the Blackwing Saurus right
now had to have reached a certain level of power, and were not at
all concerned about it being stolen from them.
"Half a million coins"
The fight over the Blackwing Saurus was extremely intense. In

just the blink of an eye, the price had already risen to the
astronomical value of half-million gold coins. Moreover, it was still
rising, without showing any signs of stopping.
"600,000 gold coins. This Blackwing Saurus will be our Foxlow's.

If anyone dares to fight us for it, they'll make the entire Foxlow
clan their enemy" A deep voice echoed from one of the VIP
rooms. Its tone was extremely arrogant, and it was evident that
the person was determined to win.
"Foxlow clan, as in Kingdom Dradel's Foxlow clan?"
"It's actually the Foxlow clan. They're Kingdom Dradel's number

one clan and are extremely powerful. Even the Kingdom Dradel's
lord is extremely courteous to the Foxlow clan. I didn't think that
they'd come to attend this event."
Hearing the words ``Foxlow clan", the auction house immediately

buzzed with conversation. Although the Foxlow clan was not a
superpower of Kingdom Dradel, their relationship with the King of
Dradel and the important noble families of Dradel gave them
enough power to become an influential house there.
"Haha, Foxlow clan's people, you can't say that. This place is an
auction house. No matter what, it will go to the highest bidder. Our
House Fisher will bid 1 million gold coins. This Blackwing Saurus
will be ours for sure." A slightly aged voice rang out from the
opposite VIP room in response to the Foxlow clan member.
"Isn't the House Fisher a power from Royal Land? "
"The House Fisher is extremely low-profile. Even the Royal family

of Royal Land avoids clashes with House Fisher."
"Yea, I remember a few years back, one of the rich, spoiled

princes offended a young miss of the House Fisher, and the
prince was mercilessly beaten by the miss's bodyguards.
Everyone thought the Royal family would be outraged at House
Fisher but instead, the Royal family issued an apology notice to
House Fisher"
"No shit, it's said that the House Fisher is actually the strongest
family in Royal Land. However, because they're extremely low-
key, they normally don't show themselves, to the point where
some people have never even heard of them"
"You're absolutely correct. I wasn't aware of them until I went to

MorningStar and met Alex Fisher"
"House Fisher...isn't Celina's boyfriend's name Alex Fisher?"?

Michael thought after the little quarrel among the VIPs.
After the House Fisher had spoken, the only sounds heard were
of a few people discussing among themselves. For a while,
nobody else bid. Even the previously determined Foxlow clan had
suddenly fallen mute in a period of hesitation.
"Royal Land, House Fisher" Michael took a mental note of this

family. Based on the scene unfolding in front of him, he could
already see that the House Fisher was quite powerful.
After a moment of silence, an extremely energetic, middle-aged

man finally said from within another box, "Haha, I didn't think that
the House Fisher would be so interested in this Blackwing Saurus.
In that case, our House Oswen won't enter this fight over this
magical beast. I hope that the House Fisher will return the favor
by not bidding for the next item"
"Haha, of course. We won't participate in the battle over the next

one." The slightly aged voice from the House Fisher could be
heard once more, this time with a hint of a smile in his tone.
"In that case, our House Oswen won't bid for this Blackwing
Saurus"
"Our MorningStar Sect will also give up on it…."
....
After House Fisher's declaration, powers that weren't at all weak
began to give up on the fight over the Blackwing Saurus one after
another, giving the House Fisher some face.
"Hehe, I thank everyone for House Fisher" An elder from the

House Fisher laughed gently.
"Human, don't bid. We'll take the beast in some other ways''
Michael heard Gaya's voice. He wanted to screw them by bidding
for the beast but he chose not to because this was not the time
nor the place to make a powerful enemy for the sake of petty
grudge against Alex and Celina. Besides, as Gaya said, they
could always steal the Blackwing Saurus from them.
After everyone stopped bidding for the beast, the Blackwing

Saurusd was given to the House Fisher for the successful bid of 1
million gold coins.
"We shall now proceed to auction the next item. Bring it up!"
This time the old man lifted the cloth to reveal an old worn-out
spell scroll.
"This is one of the Epic spells you've all been waiting for. This
spell will let the caster conjure a storm around the position of the
caster. The storm will last for two full minutes. it can obliterate
even a group Core Strengthening cultivators and heavily wound a
Soul Refining cultivator" the people in both downstairs and the VIP
rooms gasped in shock as the host continued,
"For the obvious reasons, we cannot let one of our mages cast the
spell. But you can imagine its power from what I just said. For two
whole minutes, you'll be a God of Thunder. The starting price is
500,000 gold coins, with each minimal bid being 20,000 gold coins
more.
As soon as the host finished talking, a frightening amount of

prices started to be called out from the audience. Perhaps it was
because this was one of the Epic class spells, everyone started to
battle it out even more intensely than before they did for the
Blackwing Saurus. Quickly, the original price of 500,000 had
reached up to triple its amount.
"1.5million…"
"1.6million"
In a few moments, the price of the spell had reached a price of

1.6million.
Hearing the endlessly increasing price of gold coins, the seated

Michael couldn't help signing. His total wealth was only 3.5 million
but these families were willing to spend millions to acquire a spell
scroll. Even if he wanted to get this spell, now he simply couldn't.
"The House Oswen bids 1.65million…"
"The Foxlow clan bids 1.7million…"
"The Golden Valley bids 1.73 million…"
The prices continued to increase as many sides continued to fight

bitterly over this spell and they increased the bid by more than
20,000 gold coins each time.
Quickly, the Blackwing Saurus had surpassed the 1.8million coins

mark.
"The Foxlow clan bids 1.9million gold coins."
Immediately the Foxlow clan offered the high price of 1.9million

gold coins, making many gasps for air in shock.
An Epic spell was extremely rare in Elon Continent and any single
Epic spell could make a cultivator dangerously powerful even if
the cultivator wasn't at higher stages of cultivation. Even the
superpowers in Elon didnt have more than a couple of Epic spells
under their belt and adding one more than their rival would always
give them the edge. Hence, the superpowers went all in for the
spell.
Before the auction house could resume its price war, another
voice called out, "The House Oswen bids 2million"
The House Oswen had one-upped the pressure on the Foxlow

clan.
"Bang!" Then suddenly, another sound came out from the Foxlow
clan box.
Michael saw there are a total of 5 middle-aged men and an elder

sitting in the Foxlow clan VIP box. One of the middle-aged men
dressed in a white robe heavily slammed his fist on the wooden
table in front of him, creating an indent in it.
"House Oswen, you dare to compete with us, the Foxlow clan?
Fine, we'll make you regret it." The white-robed middle-aged man
said through clenched teeth, a dark expression on his face.
The other people had unsightly expressions on their faces.
"If we continue fighting like this, I'm afraid that the Epic spell price
will clamber up to a point that even we cannot reach," The elder
said with a downcast expression.
"What other choice do we have? This fucking spell has attracted

quite a few people. Now, all the powers still fighting over it aren't
any weaker than our clan." The white-robed middle-aged man
said in exasperation.
"2.1million"
At this moment, another voice declared a price. Seeing the price

climb higher and higher, the expressions of the few people from
the Foxlow clan became more and more unsightly.
The middle-aged man's eyes flashed fiercely, and he shouted,

"Foxlow clan bids 2.2million"
"Jesus Christ! I should start planning to rob these people,"

Michael thought, raising his brows.
[Only if the host has adventured out more, you could have found a
subordinate with a forger trait. Then, you would have been able to
forge a spell to make a shit load of gold coins] the system scolded
Michael. Its voice was not at all friendly, in fact, it sounded
extremely annoyed.
The VIPs continued to fight for the Epic spell until House Oswen
won the spell for a whopping 2.5 million gold coins. Although
Michael was jealous of their wealth, he was also happy thinking
that his herbs had the chance to sell for more than he had been
expecting.
After the Blackwing Saurus and the Epic spell, everyone was at
the edge of their seats waiting for the next item. Many couldn't sit
still without craning their heads to scan the stage.
"Something's wrong" Michael could see the genuine smile on the

old man's face disappear as it was being replaced by a fake one.
Almost as if he was trying to smile and look calm. The old man
walked to the stand which was not as big as the Blackwing
Saurus's.
"Oh come on"
"Show us the item!"
"Yeah, show us!"
The people downstairs began to shout at the old man's sloth-like

movements. Finally, with a small sigh, the old man removed the
cloth to reveal nothing but a round pebble.
"What the fuck?"
***********************************
I've been thinking about releasing two chapters a day and creating
a 10 chapter privilege for 470 coins. If you show me your support
by leaving chapter comments saying 'GO FOR IT AUTHOR'? I'll
get straight to work.
Chapter 212 - It’s Gaya Time
When everyone looked at the round rock, they were taken aback
by surprise because it radiated only the amount of energy a
normal rock on the streets would. The rock had a greyish outside
and no matter how close the people looked at it, they couldn't
guess what's special about the rock.
[A Demon soul] Michael the system said with a sliver of surprise in

its voice.
"A Demon soul? This world has demons too?"
[No. A demon is an extraterrestrial being]
[The system's level is too low to explain the origins of demons]
"Thought so" he sighed.
[However, acquiring this item would earn the host a demon

subordinate with 100%]
Michael's previously disappointed face lit up brightly by the

system's words.
Yet, he was with the system long enough to know that there must
be a catch behind this tempting offer. He couldn't sense any traps
from the system's voice but he knew for sure.
[Of course, you have to pay the system to bring the demon soul
back to life from its long slumber]
"I'm not even a bit surprised. just name the price"

"So that rock is really a demon soul?" he wasn't surprised about
the price but he was still surprised about the fact that stone is a
demon soul.
[No. That's just a rock from space. The demon soul is inside the
rock. Only the system is capable of extracting the demon soul
from the rock and bringing to life] the system proudly said as it
almost sounded like brag to Michael.
"It's so cliche you know. A useless looking thing in the auction

ended up being the most op thing"
[It's not cliche if no one in the entire world including the main
character couldn't use the item]
"You think I'm the main character in this world?" he chuckled.
[With the system, it's the host's choice to be either a hero or a

villain to this world. Now go and get the demon soul]
"Jeez, you're so demanding" he exited the system with an amused

smile. Looking at the rock on the stage and recalling the system's
words about 100% loyal subordinates, he felt extremely excited as
he rubbed his palms together.
"Everyone, our appraising team has found that this is a Primordial

Rock. As most of you know, anything that dates back to billion
years is called Primordial also known as the era of gods. Anything
that belongs to that era is extremely valuable and powerful.
Although you're only witnessing a sliver of energy radiation, our
appraisal team is confident that with enough time, one can bring
out the true potential of this Primordial rock"
"So you guys found nothing?" someone from downstairs shouted

at the host.
"I never heard someone try to make a rock sound so special"
"Gaya, go for the rock" he put his hand on his right ear, ordering
Gaya to bid on the rock.
"The fuck are you talking about? That's just a fucking rock" she
growled but she focused all her senses on the rock to see if
there's something special about the rock, so did Nightmare.
"Alright if you're interested in that rock, it must be special though I

don't see anything special. But why aren't you bidding?"
"Because I'm in a VIP room. If I bid on the rock, the other VIPs
would think it must be something special and start bidding but if
someone from the downstair bid, they wouldn't go for it"
"Plus, they would think you're just stupid and you are" Nightmare
placed his little mouth near Michael's ear and spoke.
"I'll strangle you lizard!"
"The starting bid for this Primordial rock is 20,000 gold coins.
Each new bid must be increased by 5000 gold coins" The old man
himself wouldn't buy this rock. However, it came from the personal
collection of Julius, so he believed it must be something special.
"Fuck it, 25,000" Gaya shouted from downstairs.
"Huh?"
"Who is this girl?"
"Why is she bidding on a rock?"
Gaya tried not to react to the comments coming from all

directions. She noticed the host himself raising his brows for a
second before wiping off the surprised look from his face.
"30,000" surprisingly another gentle yet cold voice sounded from

one of the VIP rooms. Michael frowned as he recognized this
voice in a blink of an eye.
"Who is that?" Nightmare asked, looking at the white-clothed

beauty in the mirror in Michael's hands.
"Alicia"
"35" Gaya shouted, gritting her teeth. Just like Michael, she too
recognized the voice. Gaya wanted to jump out of the auction and
strangle Alicia to death because by bidding from the VIP room,
she just spoiled their plan.
[The host must get the item from himself before someone messes
with the rock. Any energy disruptions would kill the demon soul
inside]
"Alicia, why are you bidding on that rock?" Noah asked while
Gaya and Alicia were fighting for the rock.
"Something tells me that's not a normal rock"
"Stop, that's just a rock," Noah said as Michael heaved a sigh of

relief.
Noah wasn't wrong about the rock. The system itself told Michael
that only it could bring the demon soul back to life from the rock
and no one else could do it. If Noah started bidding for the rock, it
would have shaken Michael's core because it could mean that
Noah too has a system. However, now Michael was absolutely
positive that Noah doesn't have a system. Someone else having a
system would have screwed Michael's plan big time.
"45,000" this time it wasn't Alicia or Gaya who bid but someone
from the House Oswen. This was why Michael didn't bid as the
VIPs were starting to bid for the rock. The noble houses like
Oswen were too rich as they could spend even a hundred
thousand or more gold coins to buy the rock just to make sure
whether it's something special or not.
"Alicia, don't bid for the rock. We are thinking about recruiting
someone from the Oswen family to the Guardians, so I would
prefer if you don't offend them for a simple rock"
Michael's face darkened, realizing they are going to hike up the

price. However, he couldn't simply let go of this item. He prepared
to go to any lengths to get an item that was recommended by the
system.
"You will pay for this bitch" he gritted his teeth, looking at Alicia in
the mirror.
"50,000" Gaya raised her hand. After House Oswen began to bid,
no one dared to laugh at the bidding anymore. Except for the host
who was standing on the stage with a wide grin on his face.
"100,000" the elder from House Oswen doubled the bid as the
people gasped again, shocked by their wealth.
"105,000" Gaya was infuriated but never doubled or past the five
thousand gold coins mark.
"150," one could say that the elder is starting to be annoyed by

Gaya.
"Girl, stop bidding, you're not going to get that rock, '' one of the
elders from House Oswen's VIP room laughed at Gaya.
"Old fucker, I'm going to get that rock and shove it up your
grandma's ass" for a moment, everything stopped moving after
her words resounded through the hall. The people were
dumbstruck as their jaws almost dropped to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Michael quickly asked. He was struggling

to decide whether to laugh or knock her on the head for her
badmouth.
"I know these fucks, let me deal with this'' she hushed Michael as
he decided to let her take the lead with this. He knew she could
take care of herself and after getting the rock, they could just
teleport away from Icefair. Considering there was a no-fight inside
the auction manor rule, House Oswen had to wait for them outside
but she could just change her face to escape their wrath. Unless
House Oswen brought a Soul Refiner or anyone above the Soul
Refining stage, no one could see through her mask.
"How dare you!" the elders of House Oswen shouted as loud as

they could in boiling anger. Their faces turned blood red as
Michael saw one of them punch the table in front of him to pieces.
"155,000" Gaya placed her bid, ignoring the shouts.
"Girl, what are you doing? They are going to kill you" an old man
sitting beside Gaya warned her.
"Oh my god, who is this girl?"
"She's dead"
"No one disrespected a noble house like that in public like this"
"They are going to kill her"
"Yes, this is why I love auctions!"
Some felt afraid while many felt excited thinking about the
upcoming killing.
"That girl is just a Body Refining stage cultivator, why did she
provoke them like that?"
"Hundred and si-"
"So you old fucks want the rock for yourselves to shove it up your
old asses?"
Before the elder could place the next bid, Gaya interrupted his
words by provoking them. Again, the whole hall went into death
silence.
"I'll kill you!"
"Gentleman" the host felt pity for Gaya as he knew they were
going to kill her but when he saw the House Oswen was trying to
start a fight, he interjected to enforce the law.
"Remember the rules, you can settle your scores outside the
Phoenix manor premise. And young miss, please be respectful
towards your elders"
"Unless there's a rule saying be respectful towards the elders

inside Phoenix manor auction house, shut the fuck up and do your
job"
The old man quickly shut his mouth. He had no replies as there
was really no rule mentioning that participants must be respectful
towards anyone.
Again, they never came across provoking like this in the past.
"155,000 once"
"You are dead, you hear me? You are fucking dead!" an elder
screamed from his room.
"Hundr-"
"You must love shoving rocks up your asses so much" just when
the elders were about to place the bid, she provoked them again.
"155,000 twice"
"Shut up old fucks or I'll keep dragging your fucking family's

respect through the mud" she stood up from her chair, showing
her middle fingers at House Oswen's VIP room. She then turned
her gaze at the host,
"What are you waiting for? Sell the rock to me before I find a stick
to beat your old ass"
Chapter 213 - Bid War For
Michael’s Herbs
"155,000 going thrice. Sold to the girl with number 21!" Finally,
Michael heaved a sigh of relief. If it wasn't for the mask, what
Gaya did would have brought a calamity upon them. Thanks to
the system, she only had to get the rock from the auction house,
change her face somewhere private, and simply walk out of the
auction house with him.
"Good, we will take the Primordial stone from her dead body after
our men took turns with her"
"Not before? I fuck all your women to death" without even

standing up, she just showed them the middle finger looking at the
rock on the stage.
"Who is this girl?"
"Noah, I think you found your match in provoking nobles" the

golden babaroo, Norvin laughed.
"For a change, it's not going to be us running for our lives," Alicia
said coldly.
"I've never seen a stupid girl like her before," Norvin said,
munching on an apple.
"Unless she has a way to escape" Noah didn't think of the foul-
mouthed girl as being stupid. On the contrary, he could sense she
definitely has a way to escape.
"The next item we are going to reveal will be something that you
can buy nowhere else. This is a must-buy for Alchemists but it
doesn't mean warriors have no use for them. On the contrary, any
alchemist regardless of their star rank could create miraculous
pills and potions with these"
The old man slowly pulled the red cloth of another stand to reveal
a basket with silk apples and various rare herbs in it.
"This basket contains five four thousand years old Silk apples, two
thousand years old Lake Petal, two three thousand years old Void
Chervil, and five four thousand years old Queen Grass. Every
single herb is extremely fresh and retains all its medicinal
qualities"
Numerous outcries sounded within the auction ground when they

heard the names of the herbs. Even those who weren't familiar
with the herbs' uses, knew that anything so old must be extremely
rare and valuable. Those who were Alchemists or familiar with
Alchemy felt a chill running through the spines as their bodies
shivered. Every single herb the host named was a Legendary
herb that could be used to make powerful potions and pills. They
also knew that these herbs only grew in places that many didn't
dare to go.
"Are you interested?" Alicia saw Noah suddenly sit up straight.

She guessed that since Noah himself is a 3-star Alchemist, he
must be thinking to get the herbs for himself.
"Juicy '' Norvin drooled, staring at the Silk apples. His eyes
sparkled as he involuntarily reached his hands out at the apples.
Noah's eyes stared intently at the basket. A wide grin appeared on

his face, "finally something interesting"
"Host Goron, you must tell us where these herbs came from.
Considering each herb's medicinal quality is influenced by the
place they grew, an alchemist has to know about the birthplace of
the herb" Michael saw a youngster in forest green winter robes.
Behind the youngster was a group of youngsters of his same age
wearing the same forest green robes.
The old man knew the question came from one of the disciples of
Alchemy king Gabriel himself. The appraisers had already given
him a couple of places these might have come from but before he
could give the names, another calm voice appeared from another
VIP room.
"They are from the Treacherous Ocean" the mere mention of the
name Treacherous Ocean made everyone gasp in shock. Many
turned their heads in the direction of the voice. They couldnt see
through the glass to identify the person who just answered.
"How do you know?" the disciples asked from his VIP room
"Because I picked them from there" As he said, he retrieved the

laser he used in the process of making spiders. He then used the
laser to cut a small round in the glass.
Everyone was speechlessly staring at the round forming up in the

mirror. Because the second floor was built in an open square
shape, except for a few VIPs, the rest of them could see the hole
along with everyone downstairs.
Soon, a little dragon came through the hole carrying a silk apple in
its claws. It flew straight to the stage where it hovered above the
old man's head.
"A Dragon!"
"Oh my god!"
"Look at its claws, it's carrying a silk apple!"
"Who is this person?"
Many mumbled among themselves. The entire auction was

paused by the sudden change of events. At the moment, every
pair of eyes gawking between the dragon and the VIP room it
came from.
"Ghost"


...
"He certainly knows how to make an entrance without showing

himself," Norvin said as Maisy, the little girl stared at the dragon
without batting an eye. Her eyes slightly welled up. Alicia gently
patted the little girl on the head.
"Human, what are you doing?" Gaya asked, "promoting ourselves

and if we are lucky, we might end up making friends with some of
the noble houses here"
"Or enemies" she replied
"They are the same" Nightmare said and dropped the apple as the
old man quickly caught the apple. They saw the little dragon flying
back to the VIP room with opened mouths.
"Our appraisers did find out that these herbs could have come
from the Treacherous OCean and now we have confirmation from
a 5-star Alchemist, the Ghost of River town himself. It's an honor
to have you as our guest, Young Master Ghost" the old man
bowed in the direction of Michael's VIP room. He was old enough
to understand why he revealed himself.
"He said he picked it from the Treacherous OCean"
"Did he venture into the Treacherous OCean?!"
"Oh my god, he must have"
"Holy shit"
Including the elders sitting in the VIP room became restless

realizing the meaning of Michael's previous words.
"Totally worth it" the badass points kept increasing without slowing
down. It put a wide grin on Michael's face. He was grateful for the
disciples who asked a question that provided him with an
opportunity to make an entrance.
"So he's here" Noah stared at Michael's VIP room. Ever since he
was born, he never felt in debt to someone else other than his
father and mother, However, for the first time, he felt indebted to
Ghost after he heard how Ghost saved not only his sister but also
his mother. When he heard everything that happened while he
was away, he was shaken to the core. Noah couldn't even
imagine what could have happened to his family if it wasn't for
Ghost. Despite his slight disapproval of Ghost for being selfish
and using his talents to make money instead of helping others, he
wanted to thank him. Noah heard from Peyton how he used the
Netherel attack in River town to his own advantage. If it was
Noah, he would have given all the healing potion for free to those
who were hurt instead of using their misery to make money.
Moreover, although Noah knew he didn't steal the dragon-like

Maisy was complaining, his fondness for the little girl made him
take a dim view of Ghost furthermore.
Regardless of what he thinks of Ghost, Noah knew one thing for

certain, if it wasn't for Ghost, his family would have been torn
apart. For saving his family, he wanted to thank him regardless of
Peyton's strong disagreement.
"The starting price of the treasure basket is 400,000 gold coins.

Any increase in the bid must not be less than 20,000" The old
man smiled and spoke. He glanced at the auction grounds where
private conversations had erupted. "So… everyone, please place
your bid"
The expression of the old man did not change when faced with
this completely silent situation. A warm smile remained on his face
as he knew the VIPs would throw their gold coins to acquire these
precious herbs, especially the disciples of Gabriel.
"450,000" The silence continued for around half a minute before it

was broken by a bid that was transmitted from one of the VIP
rooms.
This bidding price had just sounded when it appeared to have

triggered a chain reaction. Bids were cried out one after another.
Within less than a couple of seconds, the price was raised to
700,000.
"Gaya, increase the price"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll monitor the VIP rooms and let you know when to stop"
"800,000"
"Shit, It's that girl again. Alright, alright, I won't curse" she added
before some nobles might back off, afraid of her bad-mouthing
their family. After all, even if they did kill her, the rival families must
use this to ridicule them for years. However, after hearing that she
won't curse, the VIPs somewhat felt relieved while many in the
downstairs felt disappointed.
"850,000" Noah placed the bid.
The sudden leap in price immediately caused an uproar to

resound across the entire auction. Michael was happy and
shocked at the same time. He knew Noah's family was not a
superpower but still, Noah seemed loaded.
Compared to Michael, Noah did have way too many enemies but
he also killed many and their pay cubes ended up inside Noah's
space ring. Plus, he had the financial backing of the Guardian
guild, Xanali, and Alicia.
"I need those herbs no matter the price," Noah's words put a smile
on Michael's face as he gave the signal to Gaya to increase the
bid.
"880,000"
"900,000 gold coins"

"House Fisher, 950,000 gold coins" The noble houses began to
start using the House names to intimidate but Michael knew Noah
would back off and it worked in his favor.
Chapter 214 - Michael Is Rich
Again
"House Kane bids 1 million gold coins' ' for the first time since the
auction started, House Kane entered the bidding war for the
herbs.
"House Kane huh?" Michael recalled meeting Adam Kane, a

prodigy of Golden Valley during Heaven's gate competition. He
was one of the four celebrity disciples who came to judge the
competition along with Alex Fisher, Cellina, and Sadie.
"1.1 million gold coins" Noah placed the bid.
"Humph! 1.2million" an elder from House Fisher harrumphed

before placing a bid of 1.2million gold coins.
"1.4million" Gaya raised the bid by 200,000 thousand after getting

the signal from Michael. Sitting in his VIP room, he had no time to
be happy about the ongoing bidding war as he kept monitoring
each and every VIP room, trying to learn their highest bidding
point.
"1.6million"
An elder from the House Kane room bid once again, and he
increased the bid with another 200,000 thousand, causing the
auction sight to become intense.
"1.6 million! Those noble houses are filthy rich!"
"House Kane and House Fisher are always at their throats in

Royal land. Although their rivalry runs deep, they never entered
into an all-out war.
An auction place is one of the few places they could fight head to
head without risking a war"
"We're gonna be so rich" Nightmare laughed happily looking at the

bidding war.
"So House Kane finally decided to join heh?" An Elder from House
Fisher teased the elders in House Kane's room. Michael stopped
jumping between the VIP rooms and focused on the quarrel
between House Kane and House Fisher. Because of Celina, it
was inevitable that he would fight Alex Fisher. At that time, House
Fisher may have become his enemy but if there was an enmity
between House Kane and House Fisher he could exploit it to
become House Kane's ally.
"We rather don't join than begging other houses to back down"
"Humph! 2million" the elder of House Fisher's voice became

angrier after House Kane ridiculed them about the earlier event
where House Fisher asked House Oswen to back down from
bidding for Blackwing Saurus.
After calling out his bid, House Fisher elder continued, "Let's see
who has the balls to bid against us"
"2.5million" Even before the elder could close his mouth, Gaya
raised the bid by another 500,000 thousand gold coins. Many
people watching this scene turned their gazes at Gaya who
shouted at the host,
"What the fuck are you waiting for? Is this the way the great
phoenix auction manor does things? How could you let these old
fucks bully people not to bid? Shouldn't this be a fair auction? How
can we, normal people, bid if those old fucks threatened to kill us
if we did?"
"Yeah! How could you?"
"The girl's right. The Phoenix auction manor should condone

actions such as this" Almost everyone in the downstairs started to
yell and throw their shoes at the old man.
Seeing this, the old man's friendly smile was replaced with a cold
expression, he immediately said, "Attention, friend from the house
Fisher, this is a fair auction, you can't disturb other people's
decision"
Usually, the Phoenix auction manor would let the noble houses
fight or bully others because the Phoenix manor valued gold coins
more than the happiness of people downstairs. End of the day,
bullies brought more coins than the bullied. This was the first time
a girl from the downstairs almost riled up the crowd to this point.
"House Fisher bid 3 million" As the elders did not hear the old
man's words, they placed the next bid but the people downstairs
were somewhat calmed down. After seeing Gaya returning to her
seat, many followed her lead to continue to enjoy the bidding war.
We have a 3million bids. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if

you miss it, you're going to regret it for the rest of your lives. Does
anyone have a higher bid?"
The old man asked. When he found out that no one else wanted
to bid any higher, his face contained a smile. As a qualified
auctioneer, he clearly knew that this basket full of Legendary
herbs and Silk apples would at least reach 5 to 5.5 million. But,
because of House Fisher's threatening words, no one else dared
bid further. This really pissed the old man off.
"Since no one else is bidding, I'll now announce; the Shangguan

Clan wins this for 3 mill-…"
"4 million."
Before the old man could finish speaking, a calm voice sounded
out from Noah's room. The old man was startled for a moment,
then he immediately showed a joyful expression.
"Damn! Who is that person? He directly ramped the price up to 4

million, incredible!"
"I think it's Noah who bid just now. That youngster is incredibly
overbearing! Not only has he offended Aragoth and few other
major powers, but he's also now going to offend the House Fisher"
some who recognized Noah's voice said as his words spread
across the entire downstairs.
"He doesn't give a shit about them as he's now a member of

Guardian guild"
......
The audience was agitated, especially when they found out that
the person who bid was that young man, Noah.? "Haha, good!
VIP number 3 has just bid 4 million. Does anyone else have a
higher bid? Anyone?"
The old man was laughing out loud, and his mood was instantly
lightened. Within private room number three, Noah was calmly
sitting on the sofa. He didn't want any conflict to arise with House
Fisher. He could let go of anything else, but not this basket of
valuable herbs.
The audience burst into an uproar. The entire auction hall was
filled with gasps of shock. It was hard to imagine how furious
House Fisher was right now. Many noble houses had just backed
off, but now there were two reckless youngsters who stood out
and fought with them.
"Humph! 5 million."
The elder from House Fisher snickered coldly. As a superpower

and proud noble house of Royal Land, it would be really
embarrassing if they lost to either this young man or the young girl
sitting downstairs. Therefore, he increased the bid by a million.
"5.5 million."
But, just after House Fisher bid, Noah's voice sounded out from
private room three once again.
"These kids are really taking House Fisher on a ride" Michael saw
the elders from House Kane laughing at House Fisher. They didn't
seem like they really wanted the herbs but rather seemed like they
wanted to mess with House Fisher.
"Let's just join the party, 6.5 million" One of the elders placed the
bid knowing that House Fisher would rather pay the price than
losing to House Kane.
The 6.5 million bid once again sent a storm through the audience.
An even greater uproar arose in the audience, no one could
remain calm any longer. Even the host who stood on the auction
stage was so shocked that his mouth was wide open. 6.5 million
gold coins, had far exceeded the actual value of the herb basket.
He didn't expect the price to reach such heights.
Right at this moment, Noah and the young girl's image had
become huge in his mind; he was starting to fall in love with them.
As an auctioneer, if he could make the price of an item exceed the
actual value, he would be able to get a huge reward.
"7.5million"
"Insane! This girl is insane! 7.5 million gold coins, how can she be
so rich? And why is she sitting with us instead of in one of those
VIP rooms?"
"9 million" Noah silenced the crowd with his bid. While looking at
Noah's body language, Michael couldn't be 100% positive that he
would go for higher bids, therefore, he ordered Gaya to stand
down. Michael didn't want to push his luck.
"It's called being filthy rich. Looks like Noah is going to get these
herbs no matter what, and he doesn't even care that doing so is
the same as offending the House Fisher. I wonder if the house
Fisher will make an even higher bid."
"I don't think so. They aren't stupid, 9 million has exceeded the
herb basket's actual value. Furthermore, they also don't know if
Noah will make another bid"
"I don't think that foulmouthed girl gonna go for the herbs
anymore"
"Yeah, look at her. Two reckless youngsters stoodShe's not raising
her hands''
......
The audience was heated. Everyone was discussing amongst

themselves. The name Noah had once again become a hot topic.
"Good, very good!"
One of the elders of House Fisher said the word 'good' twice, and
his voice was filled with rage. Anyone could tell how angry he
was, and how much he hated the young man.
"Noah, I guess you've managed to piss off a superpower once

again after all"
Norvin, the golden babaroo laughed. The monkey couldn't take his
eyes from the Silk apples. On the other hand, Noah wasn't stupid
as he knew the herb basket wasn't worth the price he paid but
what the others dont know is that he has an ancient potion recipe
that requires these herbs to make. Once he consumes the potion,
he would certainly increase his star level in Alchemy. In other
words, he paid 9 million to become a 4-star Alchemist.
A few moments after the basket disappeared from the stage, the
door to the third private room was opened. The auction house
branch manager Vargas carried a silver plate in her hand as she
walked into the room. On top of the plate was a golden card
"What an astonishing deal, young master Noah"
She said with a beautiful smile on her face. "Keep this and bring it
to my room on the down floors to pay and get your item"
"Will do, Miss Vargas"

Chapter 215 - Making Friends
After Michael's herbs were sold to Noah, many items such as

weapons, spell scrolls including an epic scroll, and artifacts were
auctioned to the highest bidders. Most of the items ended up in
the hands of noble houses as expected.
"I picked up a tail" Exiting the downstairs, Gaya saw a couple of

bodyguards of House Oswen following her behind.
"I put the gold into your space ring. Just get the rock and find a
place to change your face"
"Young Master Ghost, someone is waiting to meet you," Michael

said, opening the door to see the servant boy he saw when he
entered the auction house.
"Who?" He wasn't surprised and in fact, he was expecting

someone to meet him. After all, he just showed everyone that he
still has one Silk apple remaining. The servant boy then took out
the Silk apple he gave to the host a while ago. The boy's hands
were shaking as cold drops of sweat appeared on his forehead.
He tried his best not to make any sudden movements. It was
obvious that the boy was terrified of Nightmare regardless of
Nightmare's cultivation level. Nightmare on the other hand just
avoided making direct eye contact with the boy. The little dragon
hated when people were terrified of him for no reason. On the
contrary to Gaya's advice to make people fear you, Nightmare
didn't enjoy making people terrified of him.
"The elders of House Kane and House Fisher, Young Master.

House Kane is waiting for you in VIP room one and House Fisher
is in VIP room two. If you say the word, I'll lead you to them"? For
a few seconds, Michael just stood there calculating the pros and
cons about meeting either of them for the third time in his mind.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to go with what he always
planned,
"Let's go meet House Kane first", that being said, the servant boy
began to walk towards the rooms at the far end of the second
floor.
While he was following the boy, one of the oak doors slammed
open as a group of middle-aged as well as old men stormed out of
the room. Their black hair with strands of grey hair was neatly
combed to the back while some of them sported a ponytail.
Michael could smell a faint fragrance of lavender and weirdly, the
smell of hair gel. All of them wore a brown long coat with a silver
embodiment of a panther on their chest. On their backs hung long
golden spears that kept radiating an extremely low-frequency
whistling sound.
"I want that bitch alive!"
"We have to make an example out of her!"
"I've already sent the men tailing her. The moment she steps out
of the auction manor premise, we'll get her" in their anger, they
failed to notice Michael walking past them.
"House Oswen," Michael thought. He noticed that all of these men

were at the Core Strengthening stage. If Gaya was to get into
trouble with them, unless she could perform a miracle, she would
be captured and probably tortured to death. Good thing, she had
the mask to change her face wherever she wanted. All she had to
do was find the lady's restroom, change her face, put on new
clothes, and walk out of the room as a new girl.
"They're really pissed," Nightmare commented, staring at the

disappearing figures. Gradually the sound of their boots hitting the
wooden floor lessened.
The servant boy didn't dare to comment on the scene as he

silently led Michael to a door that had a beautifully calligraphed
number 1 was drawn on. The door was just opposite of the door
that had number two drawn on.
"Young Master" the boy halted his steps, gesturing at Michael to
enter the room.
"Keep it" Michael retrieved a pouch with a few gold coins in it

before throwing the pouch to the boy. Just the clinking sound of
the gold coins was enough to make the nervous boy smile in
excitement.
"Thank you, Young Master" The boy grinned ear to ear as Michael
entered the room after giving a gentle pat on the boy's shoulder.
When he entered VIP room number one, he was welcomed by

three elders who had the looks of an old man in his early or mid-
sixties. A wide fake smile was plastered on their faces. Behind
those three elders stood seven bulky bodyguards. The
bodyguards were armed to the teeth as Michael couldn't see a
part in their body that hadn't been covered by metal.
Anyone with a little battle experience could tell this much armor
would restrict movement speed, especially since the wearer was
just at the Core Formation level. A naked eye could only see ten
people in the room but Michael could see with his Environmental
scanning on top of his eyes. His scanning revealed that there are
five more level 10 Core Formation beings hiding in the dark
corners of the room as well as above him.
Nightmare also noticed these hidden beings,
"System you know the drill. If something goes wrong, buy a

teleportation scroll and activate it"
[The host means buy two teleportation scrolls right? One to

teleport the host to subordinate Gaya and another one for teleport
the both of you out of here]
"She can change her face and get out of here" he telepathically
said to the system.
"Master Ghost, it's nice to finally meet a gifted youngster like you.
I'm Walter Kane of House Kane" the old man with a scar across
his left eye greeted Michael with a wide smile.
"This is Edison and Martin, my fellow elders of House Kane" he
repeated the words, House Kane, with a sense of pride and glory.
Edison and Martin looked like typical old men in their sixties,
nothing special about them except for the shiny letter 'K'
embroidered on their chest.
Michael shook each elder's hand firmly as they gestured at him

towards the sofa.
"Nice Dragon" Elder Edison said, staring at Nightmare. His

greediness could be seen in his eyes yet the greediness quickly
disappeared when his eyes fell on Michael.
"Yeah, got him from Nether Realm. So, Elders although it's nice to
see figures such as yourselves of a proud house, I can sense
there's something you wish to talk about"
"Not a person beating around the bush heh? I like it" Elder Martin
chuckled approvingly towards Michael's attitude of straightly
getting into the business.
"We do have something we wish to talk to you about. But before

we do that, we'd like to know more about what you said earlier,
especially the part where you got the herbs from the Treacherous
Ocean" Although Elder Walter had the decency not to show his
doubt on his face, Michael could see the Elders' doubt as clear as
a day in their eyes.
"If you're thinking how the hell did a Core Formation guy like me
survive the Treacherous ocean, I didn't, at least not alone. I had
the help of a Fusion Stage cultivator" His words immediately
shocked the elders as Michael continued,
"I cannot reveal his name as he likes his anonymity so much.

Long story short, he wanted my Alchemy skills inside the
Treacherous ocean in return for his word to protect me" he
effortlessly lied through his teeth but as any professional liar
would do, he mixed a small amount of truth into the lie to make it
believable.
"A Fusion stage cultivator" Elders mumbled. After Michael's lie,
the elders slightly leaned forward instead of leaning on their back
as a sign of fear and respect because anyone with a Fusion Stage
cultivator as his friend must be treated with respect. The elders
did know he might be lying or telling them the truth, either way,
they didn't want to get on the wrong side of this young man. If they
did, the majority of House Kane would sacrifice them to avoid a
conflict with a Fusion stage cultivator. After all, these elders were
not part of the main Kane family. However, it didn't mean these
elders were expendable and powerless. On the contrary, these
elders held quite a lot of power through connections and favors
inside the family. It's just that this power wouldn't save them if they
were to become a reason for a conflict with a Fusion stage
cultivator.
"How else could I get out of the Treacherous Ocean alive?"

Michael chuckled to lighten up the mood.
The elders and the bodyguards also laughed with Michael,
" I wonder if the House Fisher will also have doubts about my
adventure into the Treacherous Ocean" He asked, playing with
Nightmare by gently rubbing the little dragon's head.
"Well, we can find out when we meet them next door" Nightmare's
words caused the elders' smiles to vanish from their faces in a
blink of an eye.
"They are waiting for you?" Elder Walter asked, leaning forward.
His usually calm face now seemed tensed,
"Yeah, but I chose to meet House Kane first. So elders, why am I

here?"
After the elders realized that the House Fisher might be looking to
meet him for the same reason they did, they chose not to waste
any more time, asking irrelevant questions.
"We want to buy the Silk apple and any herbs you still have"
"If you have any," Elder Walter said after Elder Martin.
"I do have two more silk apples and a few more herbs. I'll give
them to you but I don't want gold coins' ' his answer didn't put a
smile on their faces, instead, it made the elders frown.
"What do you want?" Elder Walter asked
"I want to be House Kane's friend. As you elders know, my growth

is already making me quite a few enemies. I prefer to have more
friends in powerful places rather than enemies"
Surprisingly Elder Walter grinned hearing Michael's words. In his

old mind, he already decided to gamble on Ghost's future. Looking
at Ghost's cultivation level at a young age, he was positive that
Ghost would break into the Half Immortal stage or even Immortal
stage. If House Kane were to ally with him from this stage, it
would be House Kane who would make a powerful ally. Besides,
allying with Ghost first would prevent House Fisher from gaining
an ally like Ghost.
Chapter 216 - Preparing To
Leave The Northern
Continents I
Just by meeting House Kane first instead of House Fisher,

Michael may have pissed off the elders of House Fisher. After
what he witnessed in the auction, House Fisher didn't seem like a
family that plays by the rules and accepts a fair defeat. It was
kinda obvious that if he beat Alex in the upcoming tournament, he
would get into the bad side of House Fisher.
"Think of this as a mutually beneficial relationship. Although I

might not look like someone who could help the great House
Kane, I think you elders know my potential" the elders were
surprised to see him speak what's in their minds. If anyone else
tried to become their friends by trading these herbs, the elders
might not have accepted the deal but when it comes to Ghost,
they immediately decided to accept the deal.
"Don't worry Master Ghost, House Kane always protects their

friends and you are one of them" Elder Walter stood up, reaching
out his hand for a handshake.
With a grin on his face, Michael shook his hand again. He then
took the silk apples and herbs.
"We have a bright future ahead," Michael said, handing over the
herbs to Elder Walter. In return, Elder Walter flicked his wrist as
two six feet tall silver banners with a huge 'K' embroidered on the
middle appeared beside Michael.
"Keep one to yourself and place one in your sect. The banner will
let everyone know that you and your sect are under the protection
of House Kane" This banner thing worked in favor for both
Michael and House Kane. As Elder Walter said, it would protect
Michael and the sect but it also symbolizes House Kane's
relationship with Michael. These elders were definitely playing the
long game by offering the banner as well as gambling on
Michael's bright future.
After taking over the world to himself, he might consider giving

House Kane a chunk of it because of this deal. He would neither
forget nor forgive his enemies but at the same time, he would also
remember his allies.
"Alright elders, I'll see myself out "
"There's no fun in letting you out of this room alone. Come on, I
want to see their faces when they realize you chose House Kane
over House Fisher, hahaha" Elder Martin laughed out loud. He put
his hand around Michael's shoulder like they were best friends.
Michael didn't mind it. If he were to be seen with the elders of

House Kane in a place like this, people would spread the word
that he's a friend of House Kane faster. Considering he would
leave for the Southern continent soon, he had to make sure his
sect and the herbal garden stayed safe while he was away.
Coupled with the existence of Soul Refiner at Sunrise sect and
House Kane banner, no one would dare to attack them.
However, contrary to their expectation, when they opened the

door, they saw the door to the VIP room two is wide open. There
was no one inside the room.
"Shit, bastards ran away to save themselves the shame"
*********************************
Leaving the elders of House Kane, Michael followed the nobles to

Varags's room.
"What took you so long?" Gaya was waiting for him outside, which
seemed to be Vargas's room. She was wearing new clothes and
her Aelia face.
"So everything's okay?"
"Yeah, those old fucks are still waiting outside the ladies restroom,
hehe"? she then tossed a space ring to Michael,
"Noah was here before someone from the guild came to take him
away. I took the token from the ring and got our coins"
"Thank god. Seen with him is like asking for trouble considering
the number of enemies he has" he sighed in relief. The auction
blessed him with millions of gold coins and a powerful ally but if he
was to be seen with Noah, it might attract the eyes of Noah's
enemies towards him.
"Let's get out of here" They rushed out of the auction manor
before House Fisher could see Michael. Plus, he was too excited
to examine the Primordial rock they bought.
[A suitable place for a runic teleportation nearby] when he stepped

out of the auction house, it was already dark. The howling sound
of the wind indicated to them there's a blizzard coming. Lines of
carriages were waiting outside the street blanketed in snow for the
nobles.
"Are we teleporting?" Nightmare asked, looking at the weather.
"Oh, shit" Gaya sighed, following Michael behind. When they

reached a dark alley near the auction house, she saw a golden
light appear from Michael's hand before disappearing into the wall.
Before she could say anything, she felt the familiar vibration as
she closed her eyes.
**********************
When she opened her eyes, she was welcomed by Michael's

darkroom in Abyssal.
"I need...to...lie down" Nightmare stuttered as he flew towards the

bed to lie down while Gaya took some deep breath controlling the
urge to throw up.
As the two were fighting with the urge to throw up, Michael took
out the Primordial rock from his space ring. It looked no different
than a normal rock on a street.
"You cost me 155,000 gold coins"
"It better be worth it," Gaya said.
"System, do your thing" he willed the system as the rock began to

tremble. Gaya walked closer to the rock to see it's radiating a faint
whistling sound as well as a dim light.
[Extracting Demon Soul...]
[10% completed...]
[11% completed...]
[Estimated time for completion is two days...]
"You never told me what's so special about this rock?"
"There's a soul of a demon inside"
"Yeah, WHAT?!" It took a second before she realized what he just

said.
"A demon? What the fuck are you doing? Stop it!" She tried to
take the stone away from Michael's hands but he just stopped her
from doing so by wrapping his one arm over her waist.
"Don't worry" he whispered into her ear sending a chill running

through her spine. Getting tightly held like this froze her body and
mind. They had been kissing, cuddling, and hugging for quite a
long time yet every time felt like a first time to her.
"Do you know anything about demons?" He pulled her perfectly

structured body even closer to him. Although she wasn't the type
of girl to blush every single time a man touches her pinky, a red
shade did appear on her cheeks.
"Not much… I only read about them...they are bad" her words
stuttered. For the commoners, a demon was nothing but a myth.
However, the Great clans and kingdoms like Nagaland had
records about demons that weren't just stories.
"Aren't we?" He put the rock on the table, turning his full focus on
the beautiful woman before him.
"We are the good kind of bad. You really know what you're
doing?" he could still see some concerns in her eyes but they also
contained the unwavering trust.
"Are you gonna tell me that you learned how to bring a demon
back to life from the memories of Abras?"
"No. I'm sorry that I'm not telling you everything. I trust you with
my life Gaya but I can't tell you..." before he could continue, she
put her finger on his lips, interrupting his words,
"We are going to be together forever so I'm sure that you'll find the
right time to share things with me" she then took the initiative to
close his lips with hers regardless of Nightmare's existence.
***********************************
"Mama, Brother Ghost, and Sister Aelia are here!" Cindy

screamed as loud as she could. Raylene rushed out of the kitchen
to see Ghost carrying Cindy who is carrying Nightmare in her
hands.
"Master Ghost" Raylene shoved all of Cindy's toys trying to make

the place presentable. This house was recently built and gifted to
her by the sect. Regardless of the fact this is a new home, it was
filled with furniture and ornaments, courtesy of Gaya.
Gaya personally decorated the house herself. The interior of the

house resembled a high-end apartment. A few glass walls
accompanied by white marble walls gave a majestic charm to the
house. Still, it was hard for Raylene to keep the house clean due
to her busy schedule. She had to go to the restaurant in River
town every morning to help the dwarf in the kitchen fittings,
prepare food for Cindy and the children at the sect, cultivate with
Sect Leader Claire, learn how to write and read from Elder Mark
and in the little bit of free time she has, she had to improve her
cooking skills. Of course, Gaya would come to judge her cooking
by finishing all of them.
"Are you busy or something?" Michael plunged into the sofa with
Cindy in his arms. Gaya didn't sit beside him but stormed into the
kitchen following the delicious smell of food.
Cindy was a year older now. The baby fat in her face was slowly
disappearing but her childish behavior wasn't going anywhere.
She crawled her little body into Michael's winter coat.
"I was just preparing dinner for well...everyone, '' she laughed.
One could see the tiredness in her voice but it was overshadowed
by her happiness. Her face was brighter than usual,
"Master Ghost, when are we opening the restaurant?"
"About that, I want you to hook the customers of Majestic with

your cooking skills" she gawked at him cluelessly as he began to
explain,
"A fancy building isn't going to draw the amount of crowd I want. If
we are to open the restaurant with a bang, we need to spread the
word of your skills to every single noble in this kingdom"
"This is...so...good" from the kitchen, Gaya howled. It was like a

blind cat got into the kitchen, the sound of utensils clashing came
from the kitchen nonstop.
"We need to make Aelia out of every single noble," He said, letting
out a sigh.
Leave The Northern
Continents II
"What do you want me to do, Master Ghost?"
"I want you to make tea and appetizers. Send them to the
customers of Majestic while they were waiting for their turn, Jack
and his group will take care of supplying them. By doing this, we'll
get them addicted to your cooking, then we'll have them flood
towards our restaurant when we open"
"Biscuits!"
Michael felt Cindy body stiffening after Gaya screamed joyously

from the kitchen, The little girl let go of Nightmare,
"Sister Aelia, those are my biscuits!"
"Not anymore"
"Cindy!"
Cindy completely ignored Raylene's cry, rushing towards the

kitchen to save her biscuits from Gaya.
"Don't forget to focus more on your cultivation Raylene. We have

a lot to do in this world" After giving a gentle pat on her shoulder,
Michael left her house leaving Gaya to finish her fight with Cindy.
At this time, Raylene didn't know the full meaning of his words.
Leaving Raylene's house, he calmly strolled around the sect

enjoying the peace and beauty of the winter. Nightmare flapped
his wings, taking off to the sky from his shoulder. After
Nightmare's departure, only the snowflakes and the howling
sound of the wind accompanied him.
There were no disciples present. He knew they were either

cultivating or studying under the elders. Considering they now had
a stable income as well as resources to cultivate, the disciples did
not slack off but focused on cultivating.
Except for the main headquarters, a huge library and a dome

around the herbal garden Gaya was planning to build, the rest of
the construction works had been completed. Now each elder had
their own mansion and cultivation halls that would rival the big
sects themselves.
"She really has good taste" Even with a limited budget, she turned
this place around. One could not laugh at the sect for being too
shabby anymore because this place looked anything but.
Eventually, Michael came to his herbal garden to see Olivia

dusting off snow from the leaves of the herbs. The green hair
beauty was too focused on her job as she completely failed to
notice Michael. She was gawking between the notebook on her
lap and the violet flower in her hand.
The notebook was written by Michael himself. It was like a

beginner's guide to Michael's alchemy knowledge.
"Violet Sunflower… it's so beautiful" Olivia mumbled before gently

plucking the flower.
"And poisonous"
"Ah!!" she fell face-first into the pile of snow in shock when she
suddenly heard Michael's words from behind. Not a single soul
was here to see Olivia's downfall that made Michael chuckle.
She quickly wiped off the snow from her face to see Michael
laughing at her. Her face turned red in embarrassment.
"Holy gods teacher! You scared the life out of me"

"I did, didn't I?" he helped her up from the pile of snow before
taking the notebook from her hand.
"Teacher, I thought you were in seclusion" Her embarrassment

quickly vanished away when her thirst for knowledge
overwhelmed her senses. She had too many questions to ask him
after studying the notebook.
Initially, when he was ordering her to work the herbal garden with
Elder Reiner, she had her doubts about his teaching methods but
when she began to read the notebook, she realized how important
it was to work in the herbal garden.
"I assume you have questions for me" just by looking at her eyes,
he could tell she has so many questions for him. Her curiosity and
the thirst for knowledge were so obvious on her face.
"Teacher in the notebook, you mentioned that we should use

Galvin stone instead of Cockatrice tear in Heat-resisting potion.
Can you explain why?"
"You know Heat-resisting potion requires Galvin salt which is

found in Galvin stone right?"
"Hmm," She nodded,
"But Galvin stone is extremely rare hence the potion is so

expensive. Galvin stone is not the only source for Galvin salt, it
can be found in Cockatrice tear too, just in a different state"? He
grabbed a handful of snow from the ground,
"This is water in its solid form, we call this ice. Heat it up, it will
become water" the greed alchemy flames emerged from his palm,
turning the ice into water
"Heat it more, the water will lose its liquid state and take the state
of vapor. Three states but the same element. The same goes for
Galvin salt, in Galvin stone, the salt is in its solid state. In
Cockatrice tears, the salt is in its liquid state. It's indeed a bad
practice to taste the ingredients but sometimes, it'll help you
identify the items or herbs with the same qualities"
"So lick the ingredients, noted" she quickly took a mental note
before getting her a gentle knock on her head,
"Just get someone who could speak and has a high tolerance for
toxicity. A goblin would do the trick" Considering goblins could eat
almost anything, they had a high tolerance for toxicity. Plus, they
could be taught to speak the common tongue instead of a goblin.
"I hate slavery, so just pay the goblin a monthly salary or

something he or she desires" he basically worked as a slave for
drug dealers for a part of his childhood. they would always say
they own him and the rest of the orphans. This made him hate the
idea of owning another human being. Back on earth, slavery was
almost abolished except for a few dark shitty parts of the earth but
in this world, although slavery was a crime punishable by harsh
sentences, one could not say it's completely abolished. There was
always someone secretly trading slaves for nobles for their sick
pleasures.
The law against slavery was only for people of the Northern
continents which were Elon and Ozer. Slavery was completely
legal in the Northern continents if the slaves are from the
Southern continent also known as Midras.
Michael only saw the glimpse of the slave trading between the
Northern and Southern continents through what happened to
Aria's brothers. What they did to those brothers was beyond cruel.
It gave Michael the idea of what they would do to the Southern
girls.
Sooner or later Michael knew he would need an army to face the

Great Clans and a promise to abolish slavery would get him the
support of thousands of slaves across this world. If they could
help him take over this world, he would end slavery once and for
all. He was not naive to think that he could end slavery single-
handedly without having real control over this world.
For now, all he could do was not be the master of any slaves.
Although he would have to sacrifice or bend some of his moral
codes in the path to conquer this world, he would always try his
best not to become the things he hates.
"Let's talk and walk" he continued to stroll around the herbal
garden, answering her questions one by one. After answering
every question she had, he understood which parts she must
focus more on. He gave her a short lecture as well as another
notebook containing more questions and assignments for her to
do while he was away.
"Teacher, are you going into seclusion again? With this speed of
cultivation, you're going to become the youngest Core
Strengthening stage cultivator in Elon" She said, grinning ear to
ear. Even with the little time she spent with him, she got years'
worth of knowledge from him.
"Oh teacher forgot to ask, are you competing in the Alchemy

tournament?"
"How many fucking tournaments are there?" he thought.
"When is that?"
"A few months after the championship tournament. It will be like

the championship tournament for Alchemists. Unlike the
championship tournament, there are no age or cultivation
restrictions"
"Who is going to judge the tournament?" Michael wasn't planning

to be one of the competitors but to be one of the judges. It would
be more badass to judge the Alchemists all over the world rather
than competing in the tournament. What's the use of being a 5-
star Alchemist if he has to compete with low-star Alchemists?
Her face brightened seeing that her teacher is considering joining

the tournament. She wants to see him compete and win the
trophy, with her being his helper of course.
"Will Gabriel be there to judge?" Michael asked,
"Yes, of course, teacher. It will be a great honor for you to show

your skills in front of him andother legends in Alchemy"
"Show my skills?" Michael chuckled as Olivia gawked at him
having zero clues about why he was laughing.
"If Gabriel will be there as a judge, so should I. It will be a good

place to show who the real number one Alchemist of Elon
continent is"
Leave The Northern
Continents III
Leaving Olivia in one of the guesthouses that they built newly,

Michael went straight towards Claire's home. From the outside,
the mansion looked very elegant. It had been built with oak wood
and had blue stone decorations. Large, triangular windows let in
plenty of light and have been added to the house in a very
symmetric way.
The mansion was equipped with a modern kitchen and one large
cultivation room and bathroom, it also had a spacious living room,
five bedrooms, a small dining room, and a small storage room.
The building was shaped like a short U. The two extensions were
linked by a covered patio. The second floor was smaller than the
first, which allowed for a roof garden on one side of the house.
This floor had a different style than the floor below.
The roof was high, triangular, and layered, and was covered with
grey wood shingles. Two small chimneys sit at the side of the
house. Large, skylight windows let in plenty of light to the rooms
below the roof.
The house itself was surrounded by a modest garden, covered

mostly in grass, a few flower patches, and a small pond. The
garden was completely blanketed by the snow while the pond
seemed like a glass floor.
"Brother Ghost" two male disciples who were standing outside the
entrance greeted Michael when they saw him.
"I had no time for hiring professional bodyguards" Michael turned
back to see Gaya gracefully walking towards him. There were still
some biscuit crumbs around her cherry red lips and her grey
winter fur coat.
"Let Daniel and Ricky pick suitable candidates"
"I'll send them the message" Ricky and Daniel were guarding the
restaurant as well as helping the dwarf with some finishing
touches to the restaurant.
They were now like Michael's representatives in River Town.
Stepping into the house, the howling sound of the wind finally
came to a stop. The interior of the house was elegant with fancy
sofas from this world, chandeliers, flower vases, and bookshelves.
"Sect Leader Claire" Michael called out, standing in the hall. He

could sense two life signs in the house, one was at the roof while
the other was at the cultivation room.
"Ghost? Coming" Claire's gentle voice sounded from the second

floor. A few minutes after, the beautiful blonde walked down the
stairs with a smile. This was the first time Michael had seen her
truly smile with joy. There was always a tinge of sadness deep
within her eyes but now the sadness was replaced by a fit of
anger and motivation.
Her cultivation stage surprised him a bit because, in a few

months, she had reached the Body Strengthening stage. Of
course, the elders and Claire must thank Michale because he was
constantly supplying them with potions and pills so they could
cultivate faster than usual.
" Sit down, make yourselves at home" She gestured at them

towards the sofa as Michael and Gaya plunged into the sofa.
"Wow, you're really giving your sect leader a hard time by

cultivating this"
She laughed. He expected her to sit on the opposite sofa but she
seated herself right next to Michael.
The very next moment, she grabbed his hands,
"I never thanked you for saving my grandpa." The ability of Claire
to create tears really surprised Michael. In a blink of an eye, tears
began to roll out of her eyes
"I'm not like before yet I can hold back the tears. If it wasn't for
you..." her voice trailed off,
"I did what I had to do as the Guardian of the sect. No need to

thank me, Sect Leader Claire"
"Just thank us by leading the sect to the golden days," Gaya said.
A burst of a chuckle came out of her, defeating the tears of
sorrow.
"With you guys by my side, I think I can do that" He then willed the
system to take 500,000 gold coins from his storage. The moment
the gold coins appeared in the hall, the golden light reflected by
the gold coins lightened up their faces.
"This will be enough for you to buy everything I need to brew the
potion to cure Elder Sandra"
************************************
Settling everything with Claire, they went to their house to make

final preparations before leaving for the Southern continent. The
only thing they had left to do was visit House Bradley.
Michael informed Claire that he would enter into seclusion but in

reality, he would meet with Malan before leaving to the Southern
Continent. He already bought a mask similar to Gaya's to change
his face.
When they opened the door to their house, they were welcomed
by the sight of a light orb on their sofa.
"Nightmare?" They looked closer to see that it was Nightmare
who's radiating a bright light around him.
"What's happening?" Michael frowned looking at the violent

energy fluctuations around Nightmare's body. The Arch energy
was flooding into his body from the atmosphere.
"He's going under Dragon metamorphosis. Yes! We can leave him

behind" she seemed weirdly excited as she almost bounced in joy
looking at Nightmare like this.
"Although I didn't plan to bring him along with us, why are you so
excited about leaving him behind?"
"It's because..." she moved closer to Michael. Their noses almost

brushed each other,
"We can have some alone time" his heart skipped a beat thinking
about the possibilities. The seductive voice she just used sent
electricity through his spine. He couldn't wait to get on a ship to
the Southern Continent.
"Can we put him in Abyssal? It's safer there"
"No, teleportation might interrupt the Arch energy flow. We have to

leave him here"
"How long will he be like this?"
"Since this is his first metamorphosis, it'll only take two or three
months"
"System, can you teleport him to Abyssal without interrupting his

metamorphosis?"
[Sure, just pay me 50,000 badass points] the system sounded so

haughty as it already knew Michael's answer.
"Nope" as the system expected, he declined its offer because the

safety measure around Nightmare was still active. If anything
threatened Nightmare, he would be immediately teleported to
Abyssal. By placing the banner of House Kane, he made sure the
sect stays safe from any hostile activity but even if someone
dared to take Nightmare during his metamorphosis, Michael didn't
need to worry about Nightmare's safety.
Sitting beside Nightmare, he took a note out from the system

storage. Gaya saw him scribbling something on the note before
placing it near Nightmare.
"Take care, buddy"
**************************************
Suddenly in a dark alley near the Phoenix auction manor, two

figures appeared from thin air. Michael changed his usual black
armor to something from this world. A long winter grey coat with
black linen breeches. He let his shoulder-length black hair dance
in the wind instead of covering it inside a black hood. One could
now clearly see the stubble beard he started to grow recently. The
cultivators in this world had control over their beard growth, most
tended to stop the beard from growing completely but not Michael,
he liked to sport many looks instead of the same clean-shaven
look.
They followed the signboards in the streets to the House Bradley

compound. After a while navigating through the labyrinth of snow-
covered streets, he saw a huge compound not far away.
As they walked closer to the house which was filled with a

majestic and imposing aura, he noticed soldiers wearing various
types of armor such as light armor and heavy armor patrolling the
buildings on the other side of the gigantic metal gates.
Some servants were bringing what seemed to be hot beverages

to the guards patrolling in the bone-chilling cold winter. Michael
also noticed the lack of street urchins, commoners, or any
merchant stalls on the premises.
Everyone he saw was either a soldier or a servant of House

Bradley.
After staring at the entrance for a while, Michael and Gaya walked
toward the main gate which was tightly guarded. However, before
he could talk to the soldiers outside the gate, an old man, who
appeared to have the position of the housekeeper, hurriedly came
through the small gate beside the giant metal gate.
"Welcome to House Bradley Young Master Ghost, Young Miss

Aelia. Please follow me" the old man surprised both of them by
quickly recognizing them. Clearly, the old man knew their
identities, so Michael did not waste time asking questions like how
he recognized them. He just nodded, gesturing to the old man to
lead the way.
After entering through the small gate that the old man came
through, a pretty female servant hurriedly walked out from one
corner. After which, she gently said a few words to them before
leading the way from in front.
They followed behind the female servant at neither fast nor slow
pace. Gaya seemed indifferent to the luxurious mansion but his
gaze swept over everything. The towering atmosphere of the
buildings caused him to secretly nod his head.
Walking on a small path that was paved by rough greyish stone

fragments, his eyes suddenly narrowed slightly. From his
Environmental scanning ability, he noticed numerous hidden
beings hiding in the dark corners of the mansion as he entered
deeper into the compound. Many sharp arrowheads that were
painted black to cover the reflection were slowly moving within the
mansion. Any little sign of trouble would instantly cause them to
send out an attack. He could tell these secret archers and
assassins were noticing his every single movement.
"Not bad..." Gaya too noticed these people and gave a small nod
of approval. Following the girl, they soon came to a luxurious large
hall. Their gaze passed through the unlatched door and was able
to faintly see a couple of people standing within it.
The young servant girl left the hall without uttering a word leaving
Michael and Gaya alone. Soon, Michael began to walk forward
towards the door.
He gently pushed open the door,
"Finally, You're here Ghost"

Leave The Northern
Continents IV
Lord Malan spread his muscular arms wide to embrace Michael

into a bear hug. Since gestures like this would strengthen the
bond between them, Michael too embraced Malan without
avoiding the hug. Gaya searched the hall for Nathen but weirdly
no one could be seen in the hall except two guards who quickly
left the room after they entered.
"I heard you made a friend out of House Kane," Lord Malan
asked, releasing him from the hug. Then Malan acknowledged
Gaya's presence by patting her on the shoulder.
"Word travels fast huh Lord Malan"
"Very" Lord Malan who recently reached the Core Strengthening

stage gestured at them towards the sofas. Various beverages
including wine and ale were placed on a round table in front of the
sofas.
"Help yourselves out" Lord Malan took a glass for himself before
pouring the ale into the glass. Michael nodded as he poured the
grape juice into two glasses. He took one glass and handed over
the other to Gaya.
Lord Malan was surprised to see a heavenly blessed youngster

such as Ghost treat a Body Refining normal-looking girl like this
because any prodigy would have let the girl pour the drink. Ghost
was not only a talented prodigy but also a 5-star Alchemist, if he
wished, beauties and even princesses would be in line to be his
wives. They would treat him as their king yet Malan could tell just
by this simple gesture that he's treating this girl as his queen.
Either Michael or Gaya had zero ideas that a simple gesture like
pouring a juice to another made such an impression on Malan.
"So Lord Malan, how's life treating you?" He asked, taking a sip of
the grape juice.
"I assume you have something important to talk to me or you

wouldn't have sent a secret letter"
Lord Malan's face turned serious as he sighed, "I didn't like that
method kid but I had to make sure no one sees you with anyone
from House Bradley"
"What's in your mind, Lord Malan? Im sure you have a good

reason to do that"
" What do you know about House Bradley?"
"Nothing much, just the important things like House Bradley

provides one of the best security services in Kethen and has
numerous powerful connections across the continent" Gaya
answered. Considering Malan noticed how Ghost treated the girl,
he knew she must be important to Ghost. Therefore, Malan
decided to give her the same respect as he was giving Ghost.
"For the outside world, House Bradley is thriving but in reality,

House Bradley is in deep shit. Vultures are picking our clients one
by one"
Gaya wondered why he was telling such weakness to two

complete strangers. Noble families like them tend to keep things
like this completely secret. She guessed that if he's telling this, he
might ask something huge to be done by them.
"I know you're wondering why am I telling you all this" Malan
leaned forward to refill his glass before speaking his kind.
"I've been watching you kid. You're making connections and a
name for yourself, I can tell you that you have ambitions other
than just reaching the immortal stage" Malan let out a deep
breath.
"How do you like making House Bradley your lifelong ally?" Malan
asked,
"I have to say Lord Malan that I'm indeed interested in such an
offer. But first, you have to tell me what do you want from me?"
"I want you to brew this undetected poison to kill my brother" Lord
Malan flicked his wrist as an old worn-out scroll appeared in his
hand.
"So you want us to kill the current leader? If he's messing up, why
can't you and the elders force him to retire or something and
choose a new leader?" Gaya asked while Michael was checking
out the scroll.
Lord Malan sighed heavily. He was hoping for them not to ask this
question because it was really embarrassing for him to answer.
However, this embarrassment was nothing compared to his
family's future.
"It's because my brother has found a loophole to hand over the

leader position to someone else"
"Nathen?" Gaya asked,
"I wish. Apparently, Nathen has no interest in becoming the

leader, all he wants is to become an Alchemist like you" Michael
did not show any expression on his face
"Then who does he want to be the next leader?"
"The whore he's fucking" A wave of anger emerged in Malan's

eyes. He continued to curse with a gritted teeth
"He's planning to marry that whore"

"It stinks but it happens' ' Gaya knew the feeling too well. His
father married Xanali's mother after Gaya's mother died. Ever
since he married her, Nagaland has been declining. Once a
superpower now became a kingdom with most debts to settle.
If killing her father would save her kingdom, she would do it in a

heartbeat. Therefore, she sympathized with Malan who is trying to
save his family from being destroyed by the mistakes of a single
person.
"Lord Malan, why kill your brother when you can kill her?" Michael
asked
"Him"
"Say again?"
"The whore's him, not her" Both Gaya and Michael couldn't help
raising their brows in surprise while Malan's eyes twitched in
embarrassment. Even though it was nothing to be ashamed of,
this world didn't tolerate or taken lightly to same-sex relationships.
The churches of various gods were strongly against same-sex

marriages but there weren't any laws against them.
"Marrying a man whore, that's new" Gaya had traveled almost

everywhere in Elon and Ozer yet this was the first time she heard
that ahead of a noble family is thinking about marrying someone
of the same gender.
Now she could understand more why Malan wants to kill his own
brother. If word got out of this marriage and he actually married
him, she was positive that House Bradley is good as dead. On
one side the churches would use all of their power to make life
harder for House Bradley while the other rival families would use
this to poach clients from House Bradley.
"What's stopping you from killing him, Lord Malan?" Unlike Gaya,
Michael was indifferent about who's fucking whom.
" We suspect that man whore might have some connections with
one of our rival families. If we killed him, they might release some
scandalous documents or something that shouldn't be released.
We cannot afford to take this risk. But if my brother were to die a
natural death before he goes through with his marriage plan, I'll
become the next family head and use all of the Bradley family
resources to finally put an end to this fiasco"
"Natural death, that's where this potion comes huh. This is indeed
a very complex potion that can't be brewed by anyone other than
a 5-star Alchemist"
Lord Malan seemed like he already knew this.
"But there's a problem with this poison, Lord Malan. Although it's
colorless as water, one with an acute sense of smell could smell
the poison. Are you willing to take the risk, I mean if you get
caught, you'll be ended as a traitor" Lord Malan rubbed his
forehead, trying to make a decision
"If you give me the ingredients, I can prove it to you" After a few
minutes of pondering, Malan waved as a bunch of various
ingredients appeared on the table.
He wanted to check whether Ghost's statement about the poison

was true or not. Seeing Ghost did not right out of the bat refuse to
brew the poison, Lord Malan could heave a sigh of relief.
Michael ignored the badass points notification sound in his mind

and focused on brewing the poison. Malan heard about Ghost's
alchemy skills but seeing Ghost brew the poison with his own
eyes still stunned him. In his eyes, Ghost looked like he's breezing
through the process, showing no difficulties on his face despite
the fact that this poison is one of the most complex potions to
brew.
"Here you go, take a whiff," Michael said, pouring the colorless
liquid into a glass vial. He then handed over the poison to Malan
"It stinks" Gaya twitched her nose as, among the three of them,
she got the most acute sense of smell.
When Malan brought the vial closer to him, he began to smell the
nauseating smell. It was faint but it was there. Malan realized the
meaning of Michael's words. He knew that if he used this to
poison his brother, he would definitely detect the poison's
presence.
"You know you cannot use this Lord Malan. Fortunately, I know
something that could do the trick, your brother wont suspect a
thing" Before Malan could react to his statement, another glass
vial with a colorless liquid appeared in Michael's hands.
This was the same poison Michael was using in his spiders to
poison his enemies if he desired to. However, Michael did not
remove the arch energy radiation from the poison in his hand
because it would freak out Malan and even lead to his own
downfall.
"This is..."
"It's my own recipe. This poison is ten times more lethal than the
poison in your hand. Plus, it's odorless and disappears from the
body in a matter of seconds, so even if a 6-star Healer came to
check the body, they will find nothing"
Leave The Northern
Continents V
Lord Malan finally saw the dark side of Ghost. The usual cool
smile disappeared and was replaced with a cold murderous look.
Even he felt slightly nervous after hearing about the poison in
Ghost's hands.
"Use this to kill your brother" Michael handed over the poison to
Lord Malan.
Lord Malan took a long sniff yet he could smell nothing. It was no
different than water.
"As you said earlier, I do have ambitions and I like House Bradley
to be my ally. After killing your brother, you and I know that it'd
take even more cleaning in the house before stabilizing the family.
I'll help any way I can to strengthen your position as the house
leader"
"In other words, we'll supply you with this poison to take care of
the vultures and anyone who opposes you in House Bradley,"
Gaya said. Lord Malan knew that he had to kill more people after
killing his own brother. Until now, he was trying to be ignorant of
the fact but these two youngsters reminded him.
Michael now took the upper hand in the negotiation. Lord Malan
was desperate enough to ask his help to kill his own brother, how
could Michael not use this opportunity to establish a connection
with House Bradley?
If he could get his arms around the leader himself, House Bradley
would be as good as his own. At this time, he would help do their
dirty work, in the future, however, they would be the ones doing
his dirty work.
"In return, I want House Bradley to provide me the security service

for all my future business empires"
"What's your current price? 25% in profits? We'll give you 10%"
Gaya finished Michael's sentence. Malan very well knew that the
moment he revealed his desperation, they gained the upper hand.
Yet, this deal did sound like a good one to regain House Bradley's
power. He heard about the Majestic and the restaurant Ghost was
building; it didn't take a genius to realize the revenue of fifty
Majestic stores. If House Bradley were to protect everything Ghost
builds,10% of the profits would be in millions per month. Just
imagining it tempted Malan, overcoming the reluctance of killing
many people on his way to the throne.
"Don't you have a single problem with my plan?" Lord Malan

couldn't help asking. The last time he saw Ghost, he was with
Nathen and they seemed like good friends.
"If you're asking me if I have a problem with killing Nathen's father,

I don't. You approached me with a good deal and I took it, it's how
this world works Lord Malan. We have to grab the opportunities
that come in our way because they don't come often"
*************************************
Finally, Michael left the House Bradley compound leaving Malan

with the poison to kill his brother. How he poisons his brother
didn't bother Michael.
"So what happens to your no killing innocent rule?" while walking

through the snow-covered street, Gaya asked.
"Do you really think Malan's brother is innocent? Besides, even if

he is, we cannot conquer this world without directly or indirectly
killing a few innocents. I'm not stupid or naive to think we can get
everything we want without sacrificing a few innocents or bending
some of our moral codes"
His words made Gaya arch her brows. She gently placed her
hand on his shoulder,
"You are playing Lucifer, human, you're not him. Don't become the
evil dark lord that the guardians claiming you will be"
"I know but there will always be dark before dawn" the more
Michael moved forward with his plans to conquer this world, the
more blurry the lines between good and bad become.
Soon, they found a dark alley to change their faces and clothes to
become completely new persons before leaving for the Southern
Continent.
"Where to?"? Michael asked. He now looked like an average-

looking youngster with shoulder-length raven black hair. As the
majority of the youngsters in this world, he sported the clean-
shaven look instead of his current stubble beard look. His grey
long-sleeved, leather jacket covered him too well below his knees
and was half buttoned up slightly off-center. The sleeves of his
jacket were quite narrow and reached down to well below his
hands, they were decorated with a decorative band almost at the
edges.
The jacket had a wide v-neck which revealed part of the stylish
black shirt worn below it and was worn with a dark rope belt,
which was held together by a big belt buckle. The rope belt was
mostly decorative but did serve its purpose
His black pants were simple and quite narrow and reached down
to his soft leather boots. The boots were made from pretty
unusual leather but were otherwise an ordinary design.
Gaya on the other hand changed her hair from golden to dark
brown and put the hair into a long ponytail instead of letting her
hair free as she usually did. She wore the exact same clothes as
Michael except she wore a breasts holder underneath her shirt.
"To Kingdom Dradel"
As she said, they took off from Icefair towards Kingdom Dradel.
Regardless of night and day, they continuously fly towards
Kingdom Dradel, taking only a few breaks for Gaya to munch on
the food she brought. She was a girl who would share everything
with Michael except her biscuits. However, Michael would steal
some of her biscuits just to make her mad which would eventually
lead him to taste her cherry lips in the mid-air.
It took them two weeks to reach the capital of Dradel. The city
immediately reminded Michael of the city of Venice.
"Welcome to Bay City,"? Gaya said, looking at the city on the

horizon. Michael could see depots, huge ships that he only saw in
fantasy movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, and buildings built-in
water. Except for huge sail ships, the city completely resembled
Venice to him.
He couldn't see a city wall around the city nor any guards.
"What are looking at? Bay City has no entree fees, fuckers milk
the people by other taxes like a trading tax" they descended to the
streets on the water.
The people seemed like they were accustomed to seeing new

faces every single day. The women carried baskets filled with
freshly baked bread while most of the men near the depot worked
various chores. Occasionally, Michael could see fancy carriages
strolling towards the harbor area. However, his eyes were focused
on the gigantic man of war at the harbor. The ship had three
masts, each with three to four sails. The man of war was? 60
meters long and almost had 130 guns: four at the bow, eight at the
stern, and the rest in each broadside
"How much would that cost us?"
She was familiar with his desire to buy fancy things like this.
"100 million gold coins minimum. I'll add that to the list you want to
buy" she chuckled, punching him on the shoulder. Although she
wouldn't be able to get him a man of warship for 100 million gold
coins without him knowing, she would definitely gift him with
something just as awesome as a man of warship.
"I want a fleet of man o warships' ' After hearing his desire to buy
a bunch of islands to enjoy his weekends, this didn't surprise
Gaya very much.
He began to walk towards the harbor taking his gaze away from
the man of war on the horizon.
[Upgrade your Inventor trait to Star level 6 and the host will be
able to build ships that makes this man of war looks like a fishing
boat]
The system's voice made him halt his steps.
"Why are you smiling?" Gaya noticed the sudden wide grin on his
face,
"We should find ourselves a loyal 5-star Blacksmith"
"Didn't you say Jack could become a blacksmith? He's loyal, why
don't we kidnap him and make him work for us, I mean the other
us?" She wanted to kidnap Jack to Abyssal but Michael knew this
was not the right time to make a move on Jack. First, he wanted
to see what it was like to be in the Southern Continent. If lady luck
was on his side, he might be able to bring an army of Gladiators to
Abyssal.
"We can talk about that after we came back from Southern
Continent"
"What do you think we'll find in Kingdom Gisal?" Kingdom Gisal

was the place the system showed him to go to find the source of
Nightcrawler's artifact.
"I don't know but we'll find out soon enough," he said, walking
through the crowd in the depot area. Soon after they crossed the
depot area, they entered the harbor area where he saw ships of
all sizes docked.
For the first time, he noticed groups of soldiers in metal armors at
the far side of the harbor. On their side of the harbor, all the ships
docked in were military ships that had cannons, mortars, and a
few weapons Michael had no idea about.
"Ships to Kingdom Bredia!"
"We have ships going to the Ozer Continent, come to me to buy

your tickets!"
"Three places available on a ship to the Southern continent!"
Michael turned his gaze away from the military harbor side to see
a group of youngsters shouting at the crowd in front of them as
loud as they could.
"What are we waiting for? let's go"

Leave The Northern
Continents VI
Michael and Gaya approached the young boy who was shouting
to get people on board a ship to the Southern Continent.
"Greeting young sir and young lady, are you thinking about visiting
the beautiful Southern Continent?" the boy quickly asked Michael
and Gaya,
"You could say that" the boy's face brightened up to see potential
customers,
"Then you come to the right place. I have three tickets to onboard
Captain Lars's majestic warship, Striker. Let me tell you this, you'll
find no safer ship to travel than the Striker" the boy said, placing
his hand on the chest.
He sounded so truthful but Gaya knew he would say anything to

sell the tickets.
"How much is a ticket?"
"Just 100 gold coins. If you buy two, it'll be 180 gold coins. You
should buy them quickly young sir, there aren't any other ships
going to Southern continent in this weather"
Michael looked at Gaya as she nodded. The young boy grinned

ear to ear.
After he handed over the pouch containing 180 gold coins, the
young boy just weighed it using his bare hands before putting it
into his space ring. They were surprised to see a space ring in a
young boy who wore nothing but ragged tunics that had several
holes in them. Again, they understood that this young boy might
be working for someone influential and powerful around this part
of the city. Otherwise, he couldn't have afforded to keep his space
ring intact with his hand.
"Follow me, young sir, young lady"? instead of giving the tickets,
the young boy gestured at them to follow him behind.
"Customers coming through" Surprisingly they followed the young

boy to the military side of the harbor where Michael saw armed
soldiers patrolling.
However, they didn't stop them but let them through, asking no
questions. Soon, they came before a galleon. The ship had a
broad hull and a carved keel and figurehead of a sea dragon. The
ship could easily reach the length of 50m and was armed with 30
cannons. If Michael was to compare this ship to something he had
previously seen, he would say this ship looks like the black pearl.
"Here you go" the young boy took out two silver coins from his
space ring.
He tossed each of the coins to Michael and Gaya.
"No spell casting on the ship" the young boy warned before
running to sell the remaining ticket.
"You sure we can use Arch energy in the Southern Continent?"

Gaya asked again. This was the third time she had asked the
same question since they left Icefair.
However, he was unable to give her anything except a simple

answer of yes. The system required him to actually reach the
location where the Arch energy would be cut off from their bodies
before offering him the solution.
Since the system assured him that he could afford the solution it
would tell him, he wasn't afraid of reaching the Southern continent
but rather he was excited.
"Ask this question again and I'll kick your snake butt"
"Let's see who's kicking whose butt, hehe" he had a bad feeling
seeing her evil laughter yet he threw his arm around her neck
before pinching her rosy cheek.
The wooden plank creaked as they walked. When they reached

the upper deck of the ship, they were welcomed by the sight of the
ship's crew preparing to leave the harbor. They took a second to
notice Michael and Gaya before returning to their duties. They
didn't wear any kind of armor or uniform but wore open shirts and
linen trousers. The commonality between all of them was the
cutlasses hanging on their waists and the smell of the sea.
"Move yer asses maggots. I need striker cleaned an' prepared fer
leavin' the 'arbor soon as possible, snap to it, lads" on a platform
above the deck, a muscular man with a feather hat shouted at the
crew standing near the rudder. In Michael's eyes, he looked like a
typical pirate with a long dirty beard, a rum bottle in one hand, and
an eye patch.
"do ye 'ave the tickets?" a skinny crew member with greasy

blonde hair approached Michael and Gaya.
"Yeah" they showed the coins given to them by the young kid.
"arr, mates we 'ave guests, cultivatin' guests. This one here looks
like a genius o' some kind. Lass looks fine too"
"Why dont you get the fuck out of my face and send someone else
to show us where we'll be staying?"
The crews were stunned to see a gentle-looking girl speak the

way she did.
"harr, I like that there one" the captain leaped from the rudder and
landed right before them like he was trained in the circus.
"ye be welcome aboard cultivators" the captain tried to imitate a

noble bow sarcastically.
"the Cap'n likes them" the crew laughed,
"Where we be going, yer cultivation be as jolly as shite" the

captain stared at them from top to bottom before taking a long sip
of his rum.
(jolly=good)
"I' be Cap'n lars an' this here old matey o' mine be called
Striker.do what I say an' when I say an' ye'll reach southern
continent alive. Try to use yer fancy spells 'ere, I'll personally
throw ye into the sea" Lars let out a burst of Arch energy to reveal
his Core Strengthening stage level 7 cultivation level.
"Trent 'ere will show ye where ye'll be stayin'" Lars leaped again to
reach the rudder again as the skinny crew member whose called
Trent led Michael and Gaya to their rooms in the lower deck.
"We 'ave to sleep at night so don't do it so loudly. We won't

complain if ye do to 'ehehe" Trent laughed, fanning the flames of
Michael's excitement.
She expected Michael to open his mouth to say something but

she turned to see him licking his lips. He then winked at her as
she couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"You wish" she flicked Michael's forehead.
"Why be the cultivators like yourselves goin' to the southern

continent?" walking down the wooden stairs, Trent asked.
"To do business that's called none of your fucking business" Gaya

was already annoyed by Michael's evil look and Trent's question
made her even more annoyed.
"ye 'ave some mouth lass"
"I plan to take full advantage of it" Michael teased her, pinching
her perfectly sculpted waist.
"Ah" she squealed after he pinched her hip, throwing a glare at

Michael. Yet she soon laughed which gave Michael a bad feeling.
"What is she planning?" He asked himself. After walking a few
more steps, they came before a six feet tall wooden door. Trent
opened the door to reveal a small room with two bunk beds. The
room gave off a serious claustrophobic vibe as it barely had any
room to move around.
"At Least we have a window," Michael sighed, looking at the small

window near the bunk beds. If not for the windows, he knew they
would be choked to death at night.
"We won't be sleeping in nights anyway" Gaya entered the room

shoving Trent away.
Michael couldn't help but undress her in his mind. Although he

had a bad feeling, he ignored those feelings, imagining a steamy
night with her.
"Alright love birds, we serve what we catch in a few 'ours" Trent

left them in the room.
Michael entered the room lowering his head to avoid hitting the
door frame.
"I call the top bed" She shouted but when she was about to jump
to the upper bed, he pulled her by her waist.
"Where are you going?" Michael was lying on the bed and she
was on top of him. The bed creaked as both of their noses rubbed
each other.
"Let me go" she tried to wiggle herself out of his hold.
"Give me a kiss," Michael chuckled. His fingers were running

around her smooth back.
"Winter, small room, sea view. What a perfect time" Gaya stopped
trying to get out of his hold.
"No marriage, no me" she teased him by slowly running her

fingers around his chest.
"You never told me what kind of marriage you want? Simple
wedding or fancy wedding?"
"Don't you dare go for the simple one, I would kick your ass" she
pinched his cheek,
"Fancy it is"
"I want our marriage to be one of a kind" she placed her head on
Michael's chest,
"Flowers, music, fireworks. I want everything to be perfect"
"Everything will be more than perfect for my more than hotwife"

the word wife made her blush and at the same time, put a
beautiful smile on her face.
Michael knew behind all that tough lady shell is a soft beautiful girl
hiding. Only in situations like this could he see that soft girl.
If anyone asked if he plans to marry someone on earth, his

answer would have been a big no. However, now he couldn't wait
to tie the knot. With her by his side, it felt magical. He couldn't
even imagine a life without her. The same thing goes for her too.
She wanted to be with him forever. Even if the entire world was
against him, she would stand in front of him, not behind or beside,
she would stand in front of him shielding him from the world.
Michael very well knew that this is just a calm before the
upcoming storm. Therefore, he decided to enjoy every second of
these peaceful moments.
At this moment, no one except one knew the fate of the Southern
Continent is going to be changed forever.
******************
As Michael thought, this chapter is just the calm before the storm.
Get ready to come on a bumpy rollercoaster ride from the next
chapter!!!
Chapter 222 - You Are Fat,
Human
"What are you thinking, Lars? It's not like this is your first time"
Captain Lars was sitting in his captain's room which was located
directly under the rudder platform. He was talking to a glimmering
gemstone at the center of his table. The table was a mess as
other than the glimmering gem, one could see various maps,
papers, and metal pieces that seemed to have come from a
broken cutlass.
"They do not seem like nobody cultivators. I don't want to get into
trouble with them pesky guardians. Especially when I'm thinking'
about retirin' from everythin'" Lars leaned back on his chair, taking
a long sip from the rum bottle in his hand.
The blue gemstone glimmered brightly,
"Dont worry Lars. I investigated them, they are nobodies, they

have no connections with guardians. Besides, you know my deal
with them, I give them information and in return, they will turn a
blind eye to my hobby" a thick voice of a male appeared from the
gemstone.
Lars began to rub his greasy beard before removing his hat to
reveal his bald head. He put the hat on the table with a sigh,
"Then we make the transaction after we cross the void line. Don't
approach us before, I'm not riskin' striker take any damage if that
there scurvy dog decided to throw some fancy ass spells"
"We are not amateurs Lars. Just give us a sign when you want to
make the transaction. Hey, forgot to mention, watch over for
pirates, I heard they are attacking merchants ships quite often
now"
"Let them come, I'll show them what this bad lad could do" Lars
snickered as the gemstone began to lose its shine and eventually
dimmed out completely.
*****************************************
Somewhere else in the ocean, something gigantic was moving in

the dark depths of the ocean. It was so deep in the ocean that no
mortal could venture into it without exploding due to the high
pressure.
The deepest depth of the ocean only had glowing anemones for a
light source.
"Hmmmmm" the moving object emitted unearthly vibrations that

sent ripples across the deep ocean. One could vaguely see the
structure of a warship thanks to the glowing anemones.
"Cap'n, that stinkin' Striker be 'eadin' this here way"? inside a

darkroom in the gigantic object, a voice said.
"what good us attackin' another ship would do?" another voice

sounded tired and uninterested in attacking a ship.
"it's what we do Cap'n, we be gentlemen o' fortune. who knows

'ow long we'll sleep this here time? so we must make the most out
o' this"
(gentlemen o' fortune = pirates)
"I'm not the Cap'n, Wiley. The Cap'n be long dead" the voice said.
"ye was the quartermaster when the Cap'n died, that there makes
ye the Cap'n now. So do yer captainly duty Cap'n"
"Alright, send the word fer the men to prepare. We'll attack the
Striker when I give the order. The crew should use some fun
before enterin' the long slumber"
*****************************************
"I want you to take me right here, right now"? Gaya was slowly
undressing, speaking in a seductive manner. She took off her
winter coat, revealing the shirt she was wearing within.
Michael dashed at her and lifted her off the ground to fasten the
undressing process,
"Wake the fuck up human!" Suddenly Michael's body stopped

moving as he heard a voice. The Gaya in her hand slowly
disappeared into the light, he opened his eyes to realize that it
was just a dream, a sweet dream.
"Couldn't you have waited just a little bit longer? I was just
undressing you in my dream"
"Fucking pervert!" She began to beat his chest like a drum but she
was careful not to fall into his hold again.
"There's nothing perverted about it, you're my girl" he laughed.
"And why are you waking up in the middle of the night? Go

cultivate"
He grabbed onto his blanket without any intention to give up. The
sound of the waves, the cold breeze of the wind, and the small yet
warm room gave his mind the peace to go for a long nap.
"Unless you want me to bath you in cold water, you'll get up"
"Alright, alright im getting up but this is better be good snake" he

rolled his eyes, finally letting go of his quilt.
"Good boy" she ruffled his head like he was a little boy before
dragging him out of the door by his hand.
"So do you think the dream would come again?"? He teased her
on his way to the upper deck.
"Fuck human, what has gotten into you?" she sounded annoyed
yet amused at the same time.
"A cold winter, sea, a beautiful girl who loves me in my bunk bed.
You have no idea how much it would take a guy to control himself"
"Hehehe" she chuckled as they soon reached the upper deck.

Michael expected to see crews running around the upper deck,
making sure the ship stays in top condition but to his surprise, he
saw no one. He stared at the rudder to see it automatically
spinning like it was put on autopilot.
Even in the captain's cabin, there were no lights on.
He knew everyone was probably sleeping drunk to their throats

yet he was here, standing on an empty deck in the middle of a
freezing winter.
"Don't" when he was about to take his winter coat from his space
ring, she stopped him.
"Are you kidding me? I'm not freezing to death" he raised his
voice. Unlike him, who was standing here bare chested, she was
wearing the winter coat and everything to keep her body warm
without the use of Arch energy.
"I said I'd give you something special when we get on a ship to the
Southern Continent right? This is it"
"This is what?"
"Training to improve your close combat skills"
Michael's jaw dropped a couple of inches. His eyes were full of

disappointment, he seemed like a kid who got robbed of his
Halloween candies. Even the system began to laugh inside his
mind. He was not expecting this kind of physical activity.
[heheheh, burn]
"But I was thinking...sigh" he sighed without finishing his

sentence.
He wanted to get mad at Gaya but he couldn't as he knew it was

his fault for dreaming. She then slowly unmasked herself to show
her real face which made Michael's heart skip a beat. Raven black
hair, perfect facial features, and a goddess-level hourglass figure,
she was a beauty beyond words.
He could stare at her all day, she was that beautiful. Miss
Universes could hold a torch against her beauty.
"I've seen you fight and it's an embarrassment" Her words brought
him back from staring at her beauty. Soon, he frowned
"Just a little motivation," she said, playing with her hair.
"Embarrassment huh? Why don't we spar?" Golden tiny light bolts

emerged from his body, crackling around his body. He was ready
to use Lightning Dash and teach her a lesson.
Gaya immediately took a step back. She knew if he used his

speed spell, it would be damn hard to land a hit on him but she
was expecting him to use this spell.
"You can't use any spells. That bitch Sadie didn't tell you
everything about the first few rounds of the championship
tournaments, did she?" she asked.
"In the tournaments, there will be a round where you just have to
fight, No Arch Energy, no spells, just good old fashioned brawl"
The crackles of lightning disappeared from Michael's body. He

was absolutely positive to win a brawl if he could use the Lightning
Dash. However, if he was unable to use his speed spell, he wasn't
as confident as before. Without using Lightning Dash, he knew
Gaya could beat him in a couple of seconds because he saw her
fight, her combat techniques and skills were far superior to the
techniques he learned on earth and inherited from Abras.
"System, can you use the mentor function to boost my training?"
[Yes. The system can activate the Mentor function to speed up

your learning process of new fighting technique as well as
improve it for a price of course]
After getting the confirmation from the system, a small smile
emerged on his face. If he could learn Gaya's fighting technique
and perfect it with the help of the system, he would beat all the
competitors at the tournament black and blue. On top of this, he
was already thinking about a prototype that would ensure his
victory.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"Just start with free weight training to shed all that shabby fat in
your body"
He was surprised because although he wasn't as toned as some

magazine models, he was lean and had noticeable muscle
definition. Any girl would love to see him naked but not Gaya.
"You're telling me this is fat," he asked, pointing at his six-packs.
"Meh" she waved off before flicking her wrist. The next moment,
Michael saw numerous metal plates, logs, bags that looked
freakin heavy and a bunch of unknown things appeared on the
deck.
"I got these from a muscle mountain I killed. We can use these to
get you into shape" she kicked one of the metal balls towards
Michael's direction,
"Remember, you can't use Arch energy or any of your freaky

things. Do this and I'll bunk with you every night after the training"
"Done" Michael did not need any motivation other than this. It was
a damn good deal if anyone asked him.
Chapter 223 - Birthday
Celebration
"Come on move your ass"
"Ah, fuck!'
On the upper deck, Michael was carrying a 300kg log on his

shoulder and walking from one end of the ship to another through
the knee-high snow on the floor. All of his muscles were
screaming as even in the cold weather, he was sweating like he
was walking in the desert.
Despite his suffering, she was hitting him with a stick every time
he slowed down. One could see zigzags of red lines on his fair
back. During his training, she was a completely different woman.
After training, although he would drink a healing potion to heal
himself, she would massage his back, pour him coffee and care
for him like a perfect wife.
Her care for him during the daytime was absolutely worth all this
pain in his mind.
"You're such...a...bitch"? Yet, Michael couldnt help cursing when

she attacked him with a stick again.
"What did you call me?!"? she was laughing yet she put on a mad
face just to make him walk faster to avoid getting hit by her. She
didn't love or take any pleasure in hitting him, it was part of
training before she could actually teach him the secret fighting
technique she inherited from her mother. Gaya's mother's father
created this technique himself while Gaya's mother fused a few
other techniques and Gaya was trying to perfect the fighting
technique.
Before the tournament began, she wanted to teach him the
fighting technique so he could beat all the fighters in the
tournament. After walking the 50th time carrying the 300kg log, he
finally completed the set. He was exhausted as he wanted to
immediately lie down on the snow yet he had a lot of other
workouts to do.
"Good, let's work on your kick"? she lifted his right leg. He
adjusted his body not to fall down while his left leg was on her
shoulder.
"Leg work is vital to what I'll teach you soon. Now, lift it higher"?
she was lifting his leg higher and higher to the point he began to
feel excruciating pain between his legs.
"keep it still for thirty minutes"
It has been a week since he started his first training. This was the
second most painful week he ever had, the first one was when he
was training with Spectre back on earth.
"So you did this when you were training?" he asked Gaya who
was sitting on a pile of snow.
"I'm not a puny human so no, I didn't" she retrieved her snacks
from the space ring. She had enough snacks to feed an entire
family of five for a whole month.
"You know, you should learn how to cook," Michael said while
trying his best to keep his leg higher.
"Why is...thot?" words barely escape her biscuit-filled mouth.
"As if yo...know...hob..to cook "
"Fo your information, I do know how to cook" Michael proudly said

putting his trust in the system. If push comes to shove, he would
become a star chef himself. After all, personally cooking was more
romantic than buying from a restaurant.
"Really?" she swallowed everything in her mouth, gawking at him
in surprise.
"Then, I'll learn"
Meanwhile down in the crew member quarters, Captain Lars was

lying on a bed. He was drowning himself in rum as the crew
members surrounded him, they were gossiping.
"Be they still doin' it?"
"yeah, I'm afraid that there lad might die before we 'and them o'er
to the buyer"
"that lass be a fuckin' dominatrix"
"Why be they trainin' anyway? it's not like 'avin' muscles would
save them after they cross the void line"
"why would they even go to the southern continent? if I born in the

northern continents an' be able to cultivate, I'd stay the fuck out o'
a place where I cannot use me powers"
"Cultivators be evil shites. They do evil shite every single day like
grabbin' a piss. Jolly thin' they 'ave a guardian guild to put them in
the leash, just imagine a gentleman o' fortune ship with cultivators
fer the crew"
"don't forget about the void. If it wasn't fer the void, the northern
kings would 'ave long conquered the southern continent"
Captain Lars dropped the empty rum bottle to join the

conversation,
"Ye got it all wrong men. The void line isn't savin' the southern
continent from the northern continent, it's the other way around.
The southerners make northerners look like a pissin' little child
when it comes to doin' evil shits. Slavery, constant massacres,
piracy, organ trafficking, experiments on poor bastards, an' a shite
load o' other evil things. Oh, I forgot about the corruption, if ye
'ave gold coins, ye can do anythin' an' bribe anyone. Them
senators be just pirates livin' on the land"
"Speakin' o' gentlemen o' fortune, Cap'n, I 'eard some powerful

kingdoms in the Awor continent puttin' to the sky a naval unit to
clean up the pirates. Licky aft on pirate cove said other continents
might call these pirate destroyers"
For a few moments, the crew quarters went into silence mode.
"Another reason fer me to retire. I'm too old to deal with new shits"
Lars sighed,
" Cap'n, what about us?"
"After sellin' the two cultivators, we'll split the gold an' go our
separate way"
"I'm plannin' to join a pirate crew, I always wanted to be a pirate"
"I'm goin' to the pirate cove an' drink to death"
"I just want to travel"
The crew started to discuss their future endeavors after selling

Michael and Gaya to the one who called, the buyer. The
cultivators would lose their connection with arch energy or any
kind of energy after crossing the void line and become mortals like
them, these crew would use this to sell them to the buyer. Neither
the crew nor the Lars knew what would happen to those they sell
but they didn't care for them as much as they did for the gold
coins.
****************************************
Meanwhile, in Pen Town, Noah's house was lit up brighter than

usual. The house sparkled with various colored light stones. The
house was decorated as the house was on earth during Christmas
time. The house was filled with laughter and happiness.
Diana was sitting on the far end of the oak table, looking at her
family and the countless delicacies on the table. A giant teddy
bear-shaped cake took most of the space while on the top of the
number, one could see the number 22 made of sparkling material.
The table was occupied by all the Winston family members but it
was the two sitting on Diana's left side and the one sitting on her
right side at the table that got the most attention. The one sitting
on Diana's left was a young girl in her mid-twenties, she had raven
black hair, a perfect jawline that made her extremely beautiful. Her
hazel eyes scanned everything and everyone in the room calmly.
A tiny black mole above her lip enhanced her beauty even further.
Despite her calm look, she was the strongest in the room, Core
Strengthening stage level 10. She was Noah's big sister, Rowena
Winston, the holy maiden of Skyhall.
The golden babaroo Norvin was jumping around the table, picking
every delicacy he could before jumping onto Alicia's shoulder.
Maisy was enjoying the fried turkey leg while trying to catch
Norvin to pet.
At the table, Natalia was laughing with a golden-haired youngster,

Andrew Winston. He was completely cured after Michael gave him
the antidote for the poison and healed the star pox. Amelda was
running around, bringing more and more food to the table despite
Butler Samuel's strong disagreement with her doing all the work
that should be done by him.
Amelda waved off Samuel as she came to Noah carrying a huge

chunk of juicy golden meat slice.
"Why am I not seeing an empty plate birthday boy?"
"Aunt, no!" Noah shouted but Amelda already put the slice of meat
in his place, ruffling his hair playfully.
"Take mine too" Sabrina used this opportunity to pass the slice of
meat on her plate to his.
Everyone laughed seeing Noah's helpless reaction.
"Lady Diana, may I bring you another grilled fish?" Samuel asked.
Diana was looking at her family but one could see her mind was
somewhere else.
Except for Amelda, no one knew what she was thinking.
"Mom" Rowena placed her hand on Diana's shoulder. Yet Diana

seemed not to have noticed Rowena or anyone else, she just kept
staring at the 22 at the top of the cake.
"Lady Diana" while she was staring at the cake, a guard covered
in snow entered the room. Only now, Diana's gaze turned away
from the cake. Looking at the guard, she almost stood up
"Young Master Ghost has left the Sunrise sect to enter seclusion,
Lady Diana. No one knew where he went" the liveliness that
appeared in her eyes vanished away after hearing the guard's
words. Her eyes almost welled up but she was able to control
them from rolling out of her beautiful eyes.
"It's my fault. I should have invited him back at the auction" Noah
sighed.
"It was either wait for him or save a village from a rogue cultivator,
Noah. I think you made the right choice" Alicia said, her voice
contained a tingle of coldness.
"It's unfortunate, I wanted to thank him for saving me" Andrews

shook his head.
"And I wanted to save him for saving mom and Sabi"
"Didn't you say he was at Core Formation level 3 when he's here?
I wonder what kind of cultivation method he's using to
breakthrough this fast" Andrew spoke while many family members
gasped in surprise. His cultivation speed was compared to
Rowena herself.
"Did you search everywhere?!" Diana raised her voice. This day
wasn't only Noah's birthday but also her other son, Dean's also
known as Ghost by the world. She wanted to see her son again
on his birthday yet the disappointment was turning into pointless
anger inside her.
Chapter 224 - The Connection
Between Ghost And Lucifer
"It's no one's fault,"? Amelda raised her voice and turned her gaze
towards the guard standing in the doorway.
"Kim, take the day off" the guards left the dining hall after bowing
in her direction.
The joyous laughter vanished away as silence occupied the hall.
"Is it true young master Noah that young master Ghost is a friend
of House Kane? I heard from our spies that he has seen with
Elder Walter at the auction house"
Samuel changed the topic to make the hall lively again. A few
sounds of gasps could be heard in the hall. Most of the family
members knew how hard it is to establish a connection with any of
the Noble families in Royal land let alone becoming a friend of
House Kane, one of the most powerful families in Royal land.
"Then he made an enemy out of House Fisher and probably

House Oswen too" Alicia snickered. Every pair of eyes landed on
her expecting an explanation for her statement. Diana's heart
skipped a beat hearing her son has made an enemy out of two
powerful families. If Noah pissed off any of the noble families, he
had his family and Guardians to protect him but her other son had
to face them alone. This made her motherly feelings to protect her
son erupt in her heart. Two decades ago, she utterly failed as a
mother, she wanted to redeem herself yet she wouldn't be able
with Skyhall in her way. Until Skyhall exists, her son would always
be in danger unless she never reveals the fact that Ghost is her
own son.
Neither her family nor Ghost was strong enough to take on the
Skyhall, she knew this and this was the only thing keeping her
from reuniting with her son.
"I heard he and the daughter of the second Oswen brother have
some bad blood between them. Hence, he made an enemy out of
House Oswen"
"What's her name?" Andrews asked,
"Celina, Celina Oswen.Since he has reached the Core Formation

stage, he would either fight Celina or her fiance, Alex, Alex Fisher.
By allying with House Kane, the rival family of House Fisher, he is
already on the bad side of House Fisher. Unless he loses to either
of them, he would be in trouble with those families"? Alicia
explained.
"Do you think either of them can defeat him in the championship
tournament?" Natalia asked. Although Alicia didn't want to believe
it, she thought either Celina or Alex would be able to defeat
Ghost. In her mind, only Noah could defeat him among the same
generation as Ghost.
"No. I saw each of them fight. They can't defeat him" said Noah,
recalling the time when he fought with Ghost against the Core
Formation beats inside the Nether Realm.
"If it wasn't for the stupid rule that guilds cannot compete in the
championship tournaments, brother Noah would have defeated
him," Maisy said as many of the family members nodded in
agreement.
Rowena saw the uncertainty in Noah's eyes for the first time.
Rowena trained with her little brother and she could tell that even
though Noah was at the Body Strengthening stage level 10, he
could beat anyone below Core Formation level 5 yet he seemed
uncertain about defeating a Core Formation level 3 cultivator.
Diana heaved a sigh of relief thanking the rules preventing the

guardian guild from competing in the tournaments. The last thing
she wanted was her two sons fighting each other. If they were to
face Skyhall in the future, her children must stand together rather
than against each other.
"Noah, do you think you can defeat him if you fought him in the
tournament?" Rowena calmly asked.
"I'm not sure. I have a feeling that he hasn't shown the full extent
of his power to the world yet. The tournament will be a good place
to study him"
"If that's the case, I'm sure the Guardian guild is already putting up
a file on him. Places like the Guardian guild dont like to deal with
the unknown"
"What about Skyhall?" Sabrina asked while Rowena took a sip

from her wine glass.
"Unless one reaches the Fusion stage, Skyhall wouldn't care. We

have bigger fish to fry" her face showed no expression, neither
arrogance nor pride could be seen in her eyes. If Alicia was cold,
Rowena was colder.
However, she loved her family the most. If she had to choose
between Skyhall and her family, she would choose the latter in a
heartbeat. When came to know about the assassination attempt
on her sister and mother, she personally hunted down all the
known associates of Giles and Jacobs without showing them a
shred of mercy.
"I don't want any of you to fight with Ghost," Diana said. It didn't
sound like a request but rather like an order. Noah saw her
looking at him when she talked. He frowned because, in his
mother's eyes, he saw something that's more than gratefulness of
Ghost saving her and Sabrina.
"Allying with Ghost, a 5-star Alchemist and a prodigy is good for

Winston Family"? Diana quickly said before her children started to
doubt her.
"I agree with Aunt. If it was up to me, I would have given him the
banner of the Winston family as a token for showing our gratitude"
some of the elders nodded in approval.
Yet Noah seemed to disagree with Andrew.
"Noah?" Andrews noticed Noah's silence and called out his name
to hear his opinion.
"I think the Winston family and Ghost has some conflict of
interests" Noah took a sip of wine before continuing,
"I don't think selfish people like him would not bring any benefits to
the Winston family"
"Selfish?" Diana frowned,
"Yes, he could have joined the Guardians and helped many with
his talents yet he chose to get richer"
"And he stole my dragon," Maisy shouted, punching the table with

her little fist.
"Noah, he saved Sabrina and Aunt on the same day. I don't see
how that's selfish" Andrews said.
"I am grateful for what he did, there's no denying that. But didn't
Sabi say it was the dragon who came to her rescue first" besides
Noah doubted that Ghost might have something to do with
Jacob's letter because Noah doubted that Giles would be stupid
enough to put his name on a letter that completely incriminates
him.
Yet he wasn't completely sure about that and Giles turned out to
be guilty when Rowena went on her killing spree. Although Giles
escaped, Noah knew it was only a matter of time before he found
him.
"Of course he came to save the dragon and ended up saving

Sabrina," Alicia said. After hearing their words, Diana stomped the
ground as the ground trembled,
"Stop it, all of you. We will not forget what he did. If it wasn't for
him, Sabi, Andrews, and I'm wouldn't be here. I don't want to hear
any of you speak so ungrateful ever again in my house!" the entire
hall went dead silent seeing Diana's domineering face. It wasn't
often she would lose her cool like that.
On top of that, this was the first time they saw her raise her voice
at Noah.
Even Noah himself was stunned to hear her.
"Enough of this. Today's a celebration so let's celebrate" Amelda

quickly tried to elevate the mood in the hall.
**********************************
Inside Peyton's manor, Xanali and Peyton were staring at a table

full of documents.
"So Connor lost him?" Peyton creased her brows as Xanali shook
her head.
"Ghost has been using teleportation scrolls to travel between

kingdoms, Peyton. How could Connor follow him? However
despite him using teleportation scrolls, I'd say Connor did a good
job providing us with all this information on Ghost"
"Teleportation scrolls huh. I wonder where he is getting all those

rare scrolls" Peyton rubbed her chin while Xanali put Michael's
portrait next to the portrait of a question mark.
"Lucifer said he's giving the criminals two months. Ghost went into
seclusion at the same time. Lucifer came just a few months after
Ghost made his appearance at River Town. We don't know
anything about him before he came to River Town" Xanali kept
listing out facts to Peyton.
"Few days before Nightcrawler was killed by Lucifer, Ghost came

to Flamefair" Xanali paused for a moment,
"Where are you going with this Xanali?"
"I think Ghost is working for Lucifer" Peyton just stared at all the
documents at the table, pondering about what Xanali just said.
"Everything you said might be just a coincidence but, we can
neither confirm it nor deny your doubt. I like your theory, we just
need more solid proof" Peyton was desperate to find Lucifer so
she could hunt him down. His accusation of them killing the
nobles almost jeopardized the whole operation and brought down
the wrath of a guardian captain.
"Allocate more resources to Connor and bring us the best

teleportation expert in the guild. I want to know every move Ghost
makes"
"As you wish. Also, I want to put a surveillance team around the
Sunrise sect"
"Go ahead but be careful. A Soul Refiner is living there"
Xanali nodded with a smile. She then quickly stacked all the
documents on the table neatly.
"Let me guess, you were invited to Noah's birthday party"

Chapter 225 - Death In The
Family
The forest surrounding the Sunrise sect was large, thick, and
archaic. Its canopy was ruled by monstrous linden, purple
cottonwood, and gigantic chestnut. The occasional beam of light
that made its way through the canopy allowed bright shrubs to
cultivate the rich grounds below. Coiling climbing plants grasped
many trees, and a medley of flowers, which blossomed brightly,
protruded from the otherwise colorless view. A variety of sounds,
belonging mostly to vermin, filled the air and were out of sync with
the trickling sounds of a gentle river stream.
Hiding within the thick forest, Connors was watching at a

construction site a few hundred meters away. He was wearing full
white clothes to blend in with the snow in the forest. At the
construction site, he could see several black-uniformed disciples
helping the construction workers. Just by looking at the
construction site and the tons of wood, marble stones, and
glasses they were bringing in, he could tell they were building not
just a house but a huge mansion. The dwarf engineering was a
dead giveaway showing the intricate design of the mansion.
"Where are you, Ghost?" Connors mumbled. It has been a month

since he was allocated more resources to gather more information
about Ghost. Considering Ghost disappeared using a teleportation
scroll a month ago, he couldn't follow him. Therefore, he was
surveying the sect and his underlings were surveying Ghost's
restaurant in River Town.
Whoosh!
A shadow brought extra darkness to the forest as Connors looked

upwards to see Ghost's pet dragon hovering over the sky before
flying towards the construction site. This was the third time he had
seen the dragon, yet it always freaked him out regardless of its
Body Strengthening cultivation level.
It wasn't a full-grown dragon yet. The dragon was almost 3m long,

almost the size of a full-grown horse. Bright scarlet red eyes sat
well within the dragon's rounded, scaled skull, which gave the
creature a frightening-looking appearance. The dragon had
crimson red shiny scales that made the dragon look more majestic
and noble. Two small crystal growths sat atop its head, just above
its thin, curved ears.
Its nose was short and had two wide, slitted nostrils and there
were crystal growths on its chin. Several razor-sharp teeth poked
out from the side of its mouth and gave a preview of the terror
hiding inside. A wide neck ran down from its head and into a
slender body. The top was covered in wide scales and a row of
small tendrils runs down its spine.
The dragon's belly was covered in radiant greyscales and shinier

than the rest of its body. Four slender limbs carried its body and
allowed the creature to stand sturdy and elegantly.? The most
iconic feature of the dragon was its colossal wings that grew
starting from just above its shoulders and ended at the end of its
shoulder blades. The wings were bladed in structure, the skin of
the wings seems to glow as if made from the fire itself and armor-
like scales grow on top of the wing's primary bones.
Its graceful tail ended in a sharp, arrowhead-shaped tip and was

covered in the same scarlet red scales as its body.
"How's the work going?" The dragon's voice sent a chill running
through Connor's spine yet at the same time, it kindled his hunting
spirit. He wanted to hunt down this creature and put its head on
his wall. It would definitely increase his status among the other
guardian trainees in Operation Dawn.
When Connor received Ghost as his target from Peyton, he was

beyond excited because unlike Lucifer or any other targets on the
list, Ghost seemed to be the most overrated yet easiest one in his
eyes. The only drawback was Ghost's teleportation. Now, Peyton
allocated more resources and a team of dedicated teleportation
experts working on a rune that would track Ghost's activity even
after he teleports.
If he could gather enough evidence to neutralize Ghost, this would

catapult his career through the roof. His family spent millions of
gold coins to help his cultivation, otherwise, he wouldn't have
reached the Core Formation stage at just 27 years old. If he could
become a full-fledged guardian, he could earn what they spent in
just a couple of years. As any guardian, his life would be spending
nights with countless beauties as well as attending balls organized
by various noble families.
Whoosh!
The dragon flapped its wings, taking off from the ground. The heat
radiated from its body melted the snow where it was standing a
moment before. Connors quickly hid behind a chestnut tree, it was
not the time for him to hunt this creature.
Connors continued to watch the construction site as well as the

female disciples who were bringing hot beverages to the workers
through a rune placed monocular.
Krick!
Suddenly in his interest in checking out the female disciples, he

ignored the sound coming from behind.
"Hey!" Connors almost dropped the monocular as his body jerked

when he heard the voice. He immediately turned back to see a
golden-haired youngster staring back at him. On the ground,
Connors saw a basket full of chestnuts as the golden hair
youngster unsheathed his sword.
"Jack" Connors knew almost every single known associate of

Ghost. So, he naturally recognized the golden-haired youngster
as Jack, one of the most loyal lackeys of Ghost.
"What are you doing here?!" Jack saw spell scrolls, weird pieces
of equipment lying around the white-clothed man. Jack couldn't
see his face through the mask yet his fully covered face only
increased Jack's suspicion.
"Calm down" Connor let out a burst of Arch energy showing his
cultivation level.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Jack shouted at
Connors fearlessly. The image of Gaya and Ghost in his heart
gave him the courage to face a Core Formation intruder.
Connors was slightly surprised to see the fearless expression on

Jack's face as he slowly stepped towards Jack.
"You sick bastard, are you spying on us?!" Jack took a step
forward.
"Yes," Connors calmly said,
"Surrender peacefully" Jack threatened Connors. Unlike Michael

or Gaya, Jack never had real-world battle experience. If he had,
he would have called for help instead of asking Connors to
surrender.
"If you come with me peacefully, I'll ask Sister Aelia to go easy on
you"
"Hahaha" Connors burst into laughter after hearing Jack's words.

Jack creased his brows, until now he didn't think to call for others.
His devotion towards Gaya and Ghost gave him blind courage.
"Aelia, the Body refining bitch of Ghost?"? Connors laughed

thinking that JAck threatened him by mentioning Aelia, Ghost's
girlfriend instead of using Ghost's name.
"How dare you!" Jack lost his cool when he heard Connors call
Aelia a bitch. Although Gaya would constantly slap him around, he
always thought of her as his big sister. Every time he got into
trouble, she would beat him silly but always got him out of the
trouble at the end. Jack respected and loved Ghost as his brother
but he worshipped Aelia because compared to Ghost, he spent
more time with Aelia. Even when all of his friends were against
him for loving Nyla, Aelia supported him saying he should listen to
his heart rather than to others. She was his big sister he never
had.
Jack leaped at Connors raising his sword. He tried to use what he

learned from Ghost in sword mastery.
"Void step" Connors cast the spell as Jack saw him vanish into
thin air.
The very next moment after he saw the intruder vanish, he felt a
sharp pain in his chest.
pulch!
Jack coughed a mouthful of warm blood. He looked down to see a

sharp dagger sticking out of his chest. Jack tried to take out a
healing potion from his ring but before he could access the ring,
he felt another excruciating sharp pain in his chest.
Jack's body lost the strength to stand straight as he stumbled

down on the ground. He crawled through the snow towards a tree.
Connors appeared beside Jack before kicking Jack in the gut.
The kick sent Jack flying into a tree. He coughed up more blood
as his vision began to blur, he barely saw the white-masked figure
squatting in front of him.
"Sister...Aelia...cough...cough...will..."
Pulch!
Jack wanted to scream in pain but all he heard was a chuckle

from the masked figure.? Placing his hand on Jack's shoulder,
Connors slowly thrust his dagger deeper into Jack's heart.
"Come...for...you...cough" the words barely escaped Jack's mouth.

It was too late for Jack to realize that he should have called for
help. Even in his last moments, he believed his Sister Aelia would
come out of nowhere and save him. He refused to believe that he
was dying. The snow below him turned red from the blood coming
out of his wounds.
"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Connors said,
removing Jack's bloody hand from his chest. In his last moments,
Jack felt the embroidered symbol on the masked figure's chest.
Connors saw Jack close his eyes but he could swear that he saw
a tiny smile on the corner of Jack's bloody mouth. Since his place
was uncovered by Jack and probably someone could soon come
looking for Jack, Connors immediately gathered all of his
equipment, preparing to leave the place.
Although he was dying, he didn't worry about his family because

he knew Ghost and Sister Aelia would look after them and avenge
his death. An image of him getting slapped around by Gaya
appeared in Jack's mind before everything turned into darkness.
Chapter 226 - Welcome To The
Southern Continent
"It's been 33 days since we left the Dradel," Michael said,

watching the cloudy night sky. Today was a rest day from his
hellish training. He wanted to spend the day with Gaya peacefully
but she was unusually silent. She was standing on the edge of the
ship, staring at the direction they came from.
"What is it?"
??
Michael came to her side to accompany her in staring at the dark

sea.
"I'm feeling something I've never felt before," she said. Her voice
was quieter than usual.
"It might be seasickness," Michael just shrugged. Surprisingly she

didn't laugh or give a reaction at all, she just kept staring at the
horizon.
"I can't describe this feeling, it's like someone's desperately calling
me. Do you think something could have happened at the sect?"
He shook his head.
He made sure that his sect stays safe before leaving, but even
after everything he did, it's far beyond his control if something still
happened.
For now, he wanted to get the artifact related to Nightcrawler's

artifact as soon as possible. After that, he would revive the demon
soul waiting back at the Abyssal.
Instead of using words, Michael just wrapped his hand around her
shoulder. She gently kissed his arm before resting her head on his
shoulder. Having him beside her made her feel better.
"In a few more hours, we'll cross the void line"
On top of her words, he could already feel the density of the Arch
energy gradually decreasing in the atmosphere. He took a long
breath, after crossing the void line, it was up to the system to save
their bacon.
[The system will scan the atmosphere to create a solution in an

hour] the system reassured Michael.
The further they moved towards the invincible void line, the force
of the wind increased significantly. His long grey long coat
fluttered back in the wind along with his raven black hair.
Approximately two hours later, Michael noticed a significant

decrease in the snowfall. In the distant sky above the horizon, he
could see a couple of glimmering stars in the sky. He was staring
at the welcoming sight of the cloudless sky when he noticed an
object floating in the sky.
[The system has scanned the atmosphere and found that

something extraterrestrial is consuming the Arch energy in the
atmosphere around the Southern Continent] Michael entered the
system after he heard the words.
"Extraterrestrial? Can you identify what sort of alien we are

dealing with?"
[System's level is too low]
He sighed except the system's next words shocked him even

more,
[But the system recommends not to go search for the

extraterrestrial being at least the host is an Immortal]
"I thought i'm the only alien in this world but it seems I was wrong.
What about the solution? If it's consuming all the Arch energy..."
his voice trailed off
[Although the extraterrestrial being is consuming the Arch energy

in the atmosphere, it's not void of Arch energy.No cultivator or a
magical beat could use the tiny amount of Arch energy in the
atmosphere but]
"But you can" he finished the system's words
[Yes. So get ready to give the system 40,000 badass points to

enable the Energy extractor function]
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Death Range - LVL 2

Serpent-Maga - 80% Mastery
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
3-Star Inventor
The Abyssal
"40,000?! Jeez," he sighed in his mind before asking more about

this function,
"So if I pay what you ask and enable the function, can I use my full
cultivation power in the Southern Continent?"
[No. You will be able to use your cultivation power 3 hours a day.
Your chosen subordinate can use their cultivation power for 2
hours a day]
"You know what? I'm not even surprised" he knew there must be a
catch when it comes to system's offers. Despite the time limit
restriction, he had no other choice than enabling the function for
40,000 badass points.
[Stop pondering too much host. It's not like you have any choice]
the system snickered.
"I have to stop upgrading, you sound more and more like an
asshole,"? Michael said in an irritated voice after he heard the
system's words filled with arrogance. The system did not reply as
it remained silent until he asked another question.
"So the function is upgradeable or not?"
[The next upgrade will let the host use your cultivation power for 5
hours and subordinates can use it for 4 hours but you're too poor.
Get me 200,000 badass points and then we'll talk]
The system sounded more like Gaya. He could only deal one
Gaya at a time so he remained calm despite the system's tone.
"Alright, I'll buy the function"
[Wonderful, was it so hard?]
"You're being a jerk because I have to depend on you more to

survive in the Southern Continent, aren't you?"
[hehehe] Michael was stunned for a moment to hear the system

giggle. He could tell it's becoming more and more like a human
being with time and level. He wondered how human-like it would
be when he upgrades it again.
A few moments after, the badass points decreased from 90,000 to

50,000.
[The system has successfully enabled the Energy Extractor?
function]
[The host can now choose a subordinate to share the energy

Extractor function with]
"Do I really have to spell the name? its Gaya"
[Leave the system and place your hand on subordinate's

forehead]
Rather than Michael exiting the system, he was thrown out of the
system as everything around him began to move.
"What an asshole of a system I have" he cursed the system in his

mind. He then turned his gaze away from the object to Gaya. Her
face was still dull, it was obvious she's still trying to figure out the
reason for her bad feelings.
"This will cheer you up" Michael placed his hand on her forehead.
She was about to ask a question when she felt a tingling
sensation inside her head. Along with the tingling sensation, she
was able to sense Arch energy in the atmosphere as she was
back on the Northern continents.
"What?" she let out a quick bark of laughter in shock. Her mouth
kept opening and closing.
"How?"
"I can use my cultivation power for 3 hours a day and you can use
it for 2 hours"
When Michael thought about it, the three-hour time was not less
but rather it was enough. By using spells, no one in the Southern
Continent would be his match. Hence, there wouldn't be a need
for using Arch energy for three hours.
He just had to find a way to travel without flying because flying

was the only thing that could require him to use Arch energy for
more than three hours.
"We are gonna rule the Southern Continent!" As Michael guessed,
this made Gaya forget about the bad feeling and made her
bounce in joy.
He couldn't help smiling looking at her laugh.
"We still have to deal with the utmost caution, Gaya. What we are
about to do will get every major power including the top heads of
the Guardian guild. They might not come looking for us in the
Southern Continent as it would be equal to suicide, they will use
every bit of their resources to watch our every step "
"Can't we just conquer the whole Southern Continent three hours

a day?" she rubbed her hands together, her eyes sparkled
regardless of Michael's statement.
"We will conquer the Southern Continent but I won't rush it. I don't
think we can rule an entire Continent just because we can use our
cultivation power. As a princess, you know more about ruling than
me"
"Yeah you're right" she took a deep breathe controlling her

excitement
"It's not that simple. Let's just do what we always do first, recon"
He nodded, "why wage a war on a kingdom when you can just

control its rulers?" said Michael with an evil grin. Michael wanted
to be the shadow ruler of the Southern Continent by controlling
every senate. According to Aria, in most of the kingdoms in the
Southern Continent, the kingdom was ruled by the Senate instead
of a king or a queen. The Senate was composed of ten senators
and two consuls who were elected by the senators. The two
consuls had the most power in the Senate. They had control of
the army and the treasury, the two of the most important bureaus.
Aria also mentioned that only nobles could vote and stand as
senator candidates.
The more he heard about the Southern Continent, the more it felt
like ancient Rome. The arena and the gladiators were already a
dead giveaway yet everything he heard from Aria strengthened
his assumption.
"'ere ye be. We 'ave crossed the void line fer yer information" they
suddenly heard the voice of Captain Lars. They turned back to
see him walking towards them along with a group of his crew.
In Lars's eyes, Michael saw a tinge of pity. Gaya didn't look his
eyes but the cutlass in his hand, she creased her brows
"What do you plan to do with that cutlass in your hand, Captain?"
Lars didn't answer Gaya but looked at the distant sky as everyone
saw a gigantic eagle soaring through the sky towards them. The
eagle carried a steel cage that had just enough space for two
people.
"Lars my friend" suddenly a voice reverberated from the sky.

Chapter 227 - The Silent
Reaper I
Michael looked up to see the eagle slowly descending from the

sky. The steel cage was on top of the lower part of the eagle's
body while two grown men were riding the eagle by standing
above its shoulder. The two men were in their mid-thirties and
wearing a gold-embroidered toga. They reminded Michael of the
ancient Roman noblemen.
These two men weren't radiating zero amount of Arch energy but
the amount was negligible. If they tried to walk through a defense
array, they would definitely trigger the array however they would
be considered as the weakest of the commoners back on the
Northern Continent.
??
Yet here they rode the eagle with a domineering attitude.
Kakaw!
The eagle let out a loud ear-piercing cry, it sounded like a raven
somehow rather than an eagle.
Thud!
It landed on the ship, shaking the ship for a few seconds. The
eagle then turned its head to stare at Michael and Gaya
menacingly.
The one wearing a toga with a purple line stepped onto the ship
first while the one wearing a white toga with red lines carried a
medium side chest before placing the chest before Lars.
"Trent" Lars signaled the greasy blonde crew member who
welcomed Gaya and Michael to the ship when they first
onboarded Striker.
Until now, the two noblemen wearing toga did not even look at
Michael or Gaya. Trent licked his lips walking towards the
medium-sized chest. His skinny hands slightly trembled
approaching the chest. When he opened the chest, his face
brightened up due to the glistening gold and gemstones inside the
chest. Even Michael's eyes sparkled looking at the rubies,
diamonds, gold bricks, and various colors of gemstones shining
inside the chest.
"3 million, as we agreed" the one wearing the toga with purple
lines smiled at Lars. The crew behind Lars were looking at the
chest full of goodies like starving dogs staring at the bbq.
Michael folded his arms, leaning back on the ship's foresail

wooden beam. Gaya saw his face, totally calm and cool like
nothing's going on here. Only his eyes were occasionally gawking
at the chest full of goodies.
"Okay guys, what's the plan here?" Finally, Michael opened his
mouth after Trent closed the chest.
"Why don't you two piggies save us the trouble and get yourselves
into the cage?" the one with the red line toga waved off at them
without even looking at them in the eyes. However, the one with
the purple line toga who also had a bald head turned his gaze at
Gaya. His blue eyes scanned Gaya from her head to toe,
"I heard cultivating women are way better than our southern ladies
but it seems like I heard wrong" he shook his head
disappointingly.
"That was a big mistake" Michael mumbled as he could already

feel a cold killing intent. It wasn't much about what he said but the
way he said it. She hated being compared to other girls and he
just compared her with northern ladies, a big fucking mistake. Yet,
she remained silent.
"Ye 'eard the man" Trent shouted at them. Michael saw no fear in
Trent's eyes, the fear he saw when he first met him. One didn't
need a genius to figure out that the reason for Trent and every
crew members' newfound courage is that Michael and Gaya lost
their ability to cast spells.
"We be sellin' ye daft dumb" Trent laughed along with his crew
members.
"We can see that" The calm look on his face began to disturb
Lars. After exchanging pleasantries with Lars, the one wearing red
lines toga turned his gaze towards Michael and Gaya.
"Don't make me drag you into the cage, piggies"? the scar running
across his face made his warning even more menacing. Michael
was still dazed thinking why these Southerners look like Romans
of the ancient time back on earth.
He was making connections in his head that he failed to notice the

crew members including taking their cutlasses out of their
sheaths.
"You should know that even without the Arch energy, we can fuck
you up" Gaya cracked her knuckles. Most of the cultivators spend
their time cultivating or practicing spell casting or if they had any
specialization like Michael, they would use the time to improve
their skills. Most of them wouldn't come to the Southern Continent,
therefore, they didn't have to think about what they would do
without Arch Energy. Besides, ninety-nine percent of the fighting
styles required Arch energy, so their combat skills wouldn't be
useless in the Southern Continent.
However, Serpent-Maga was not one of those fighting styles. Only

four people in the world could use Serpent-Maga, Gaya, Gaya's
father, Xanali, and Michael. Among them, with the help of the
system's mentor function, he was perfecting the fighting style to
unlock its maximum deadliness.
After 30 days of training, he was at the point where he could

survive a fight with Gaya for more than five minutes, taking less
beating from her and landing several blows to her.
"The girl got teeth. I will look forward to opening her up" Michael
was surprised. There was no lust in his eyes but something evil,
he had seen this evil before. It was the same look a notorious mad
scientist who tried to find a cure for a brain tumor back on earth.
The scientist's cause was noble except he was kidnapping people
and doing all kinds of horrible experiments on them until he
kidnapped a wealthy person's daughter and ended up getting
assassinated by Michael himself. This toga-wearing man had the
same look in his eyes as the mad scientist once had.
Though unlike on earth, Michael wasn't disgusted by this look, he

felt curious. This time he wanted to kidnap the evil scientist and
interrogate him so he could exploit the toga-wearing southerner.
Boom!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Just when Michael was about to really use his Serpent-Maga on

these poor crew members, the two roman looking guys exploded
into a bloody mist.
It took them a few seconds to realize what just happened.
"Pirates!" Captain Lars screamed as Michael turned back to see a

huge ship leaping out of the water like a whale. Seeing the ship
that emerged from the underwater, Michael took a few steps
backward in fear. He had seen this ship before, the flying
dutchman. The ship floating a few hundred meters away from him
looked very similar to the flying dutchman in the Pirates of the
Caribbean movies.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Three loud booming sounds reverberated the calm sea. The
Eagle was still in shock but before it could even react, the iron
cannonballs fired by the pirate ship turned the eagle into the third
red mist of the day.
"It's the Silent Reaper!" Lars screamed again, rushing to the

rudder. Michael and Gaya leaped out of the place where they
were standing to avoid being hit by the cannonballs.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
"Get the cannons ready to fire!" Lars shouted,
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god"
"God saves us"
"Please God, I don't wanna die!"
The crew members were running around scared to death while

avoiding the cannonballs and exploding wooden structures.
"Do you see that ship?!" Michael had to shout to overcome the
sound of cannonballs exploding.
"Yeah, it's hard to miss!" Gaya replied.
They still didn't use Arch Energy to save time. They were hiding
behind the mainsail wood beam looking at the pirate ship that
resembled the flying dutchman. The crew members and Lars
forgot about them after their clients exploded into a bloody mist.
"Wait here!" Michael shouted,
"Where are, Fuck!" Before she could ask, she saw him running
towards the chest rolling on the deck. Lars was turning the ship to
avoid getting hit by the Silent Reaper as everything loose on the
deck began to roll around. The hull and the seawater clashed to
produce waves that soaked everyone and everything wet on the
deck. One could doubt that whether it was the seawater or they
actually got themselves into a storm as the booming sound was
similar to thunderclaps and the light produced by the cannons in
the Silent Reaper resembled flashes of lightning.
"Don't!" Trent saw Michael's intention to steal the chest. He came

yelling at Michael with a cutlass in his hand. The other crew
members were busy with keeping the ship afloat as well as
cannons ready to fire once they turned the ship sidewards to the
Silent Reaper.
Despite the ship shaking violently, Michael swiftly turned his body
away from the trajectory of Trent's cutlass. Trent lost balance
when his sword missed its target, when he was about to stumble
forwards, Michael wrapped his hands around his neck, instantly
twisting it with all his strength.
Crack!
Trent's lifeless body was thrown into the sea when Lars turned the
ship suddenly. Once again, the chest rolled away from Michael's
grasp as he himself almost lost the balance.
"That's mine!" Lars noticed Micahel chasing the chest and yelled
while turning the rudder using all his strength.
Lars shouted but didn't order the crew members to catch or kill
Michael because he knew what he was dealing with here, the
infamous cursed ship, the Silent Reaper. He never expected he
would run into this particular pirate ship on the day that he was
supposed to make one last trade before retiring.
Hmmmmmmmmm!
Suddenly, they heard an unearthly humming sound as the Silent

Reaper stopped firing.
"It's going to dive again!" some of the crew shouted

Chapter 228 - The Silent
Reaper II
Michael was completely stunned to see a gigantic ship like the

Silent Reaper diving in and out of the water like a huge whale. He
couldn't help but wonder how the pirates on the Silent Reaper
survived the dive without getting thrown into the sea.
The resemblance to the Flying Dutchman, the overwhelming fear

on Lars's crew members' faces, the way Lars himself trying to get
away from the Silent Reaper showed Michael that there's
something aerie about the ship.
??
However, his full focus was on the chest that contained 3 million
worth of goodies for now. As the god himself was bringing down
his wrath on them, a ferocious storm surrounded them. In the
distance, Michael could vaguely see a dark devastating tornado
coming in their direction. A navel fight in the middle of a storm was
not how he expected to spend this day.
"It's diving!" Lars screamed, his voice contained nothing but fear. It
made Lars completely ignore Michael who was chasing around
the chest full of his retirement fund.
"What the fuck?!" On the other end of the ship, Gaya was holding
a wooden pole to steady herself when she saw the Silent Reaper
slowly sinking into the water. "What kind of ship could jump in and
out of the sea?" She thought.
"Captain, get us away from that ghost ship!" The momentarily

pause of not getting attacked by the Silent Reaper made the crew
members take a breath. They shouted at Lars to save them.
"Got ya" The moment the ship stopped violently shaking, Michael
grabbed the chest.
"Stop him!"
"That's ours!"
Boom!
Just when some of the crew members were shouting at Michael

for grabbing the chest, another loud booming sound reverberated
the sea.
The ship began to vibrate as soon the vibration turned into violent
shakes.
Whhhoooooooosh!
The next moment, the Silent Reaper jumped out of the sea just a
couple of meters away from them. The seawater displaced by the
Silent Reaper drenched and even threw some of the crew
members out of the ship.
The Silent Reaper cast a huge dark shadow over the Striker. Due
to its enormous size, the Striker looked so weak and tiny in front
of it.
The figurehead of a Reaper holding a scythe looked down on

everyone on the Striker as they all lost their courage to fight. In
this close, they all knew the Silent Reaper could fire some of its
front cannons to completely destroy them without even giving
them a chance to escape.
Only Michael stared at the Silent Reaper with curiosity and

wonder without showing any fear on his face.
"This is perfect" he mumbled, staring at the figurehead of the

Reaper holding a scythe. The dark greyish sails, the black hull,
and its almost 200 feet length made his eyes sparkle. Already in
his mind, he started to imagine Captaining the Silent Reaper,
living a pirate life.
He ignored the worn-out-looking hull, the rust-covered cannons
poking through the hull, and the ship's old condition itself. All he
had in his mind was becoming the captain of the Silent Reaper.
This ship instantly stole his heart.
"Surrender or Die" soon, a deep voice sounded from the Silent

Reaper. It felt like the ship itself was talking to them as the crew
dropped the cutlasses, they had no courage to fight against the
Silent Reaper.
Soon after they all dropped their weapons, the Silent Reaper
slowly turned sidewards revealing its 25 broadside cannons that
could obliterate the Strike in one go. The Striker was small for
Michael to get a look at the crew of the Silent Reaper. While he
was craning his head, a plank was thrown to the Striker from the
Silent Reaper.
[Firewall activated...]
[Blocking telepathic attack from the Silent Reaper!]
Michael suddenly heard the system's warnings inside his head.

The warnings made sense. The Lars's crew were so quick to give
up all their hope and courage, now Michael knew why. Something
from the Silent Reaper had terrified them, just like his Fear toxin
except the Silent Reaper seemed to be meddling with minds
telepathically.
Michael quickly turned his gaze away from the ship top Gaya.
There was indeed fear in her eyes but she didn't look pale or
terrified like the rest of the crew.
"System, can you block the Silent Reaper from playing with
Gaya's mind?"
[Subordinate Gaya has enough mental strength to fight off the

telepathic signals coming from the Silent Reaper]
"Fuck my luck" Lars mumbled before walking the plant to the

Silent Reaper. Although he seemed less affected by the Silent
Reaper, he was definitely not Captain Lars that Michael met
before. One by one the crew members began to follow Captain
Lars.
"Let's go" Michael waved at Gaya.
"What the fuck just happened? First, they wanted to destroy this
ship and now want everyone to surrender? And did you notice
how miserable the crew became after that weird voice sounded
from the ship?" She rapidly fired questions at Michael.
"Come on let's go" Gaya was slightly surprised to see the

excitement on his face. He looked like a kid who's going to his
favorite place.
"You're awfully excited," She asked, joining the line of the crew
walking the plant to the Silent Reaper.
"The chest?"
"Inside my space ring," he answered Gaya while walking.
"Trouble really follows us huh? First, those Southern jerks wanted

to buy us and now, a freaky ass ship wants us to get onboard" she
had to raise her voice a bit because of the thunderclaps. Also,
they had to walk carefully as the storm was powerful enough to
push them down into the sea from the wood plank they were
walking on.
"I need to cut this freakin 'hair" Michael cursed his shoulder-length
hair when it became wet and flew across his eyes, blocking his
vision.
In a battle, if his hair blacked his vision even for a split second, he
would die. He would be a laughing stock if he died because of his
long hair.
"Move faster" Michael almost pushed the one walking in front of

him. He wanted to get the view of the Silent Repear's crew
because he really wondered whether he would meet Davy Jones
himself or not.
A few minutes later, Michael finally saw the crew he was waiting
for. The remaining crew including Lars was surrounded by a group
of dirty greasy pirates who smelled like rotten fish. The crew of the
Silent Reaper came in all sizes including midgets to 7ft tall giants.
They were all human unlike Michael anticipated, there was no
octopus-faced crew member.
The Silent Reaper crew didn't wear any distinctive clothes but
ragged dirty clothes.
"I had to say, I'm kinda disappointed," Michael said to himself.

Considering the Silent Reaper looked and functioned very similar
to the Flying Dutchman, he was kinda expecting to meet a crew
resembling the Flying Dutchman's too. Yet, instead of those
terrifying crew, he was welcomed by a crew that could be
compared to Captain Barbossa's and Jack Sparrow's crews.
The Silent Reaper's crew was licking their lips staring at Gaya.
They seemed like starving dogs. Both Michael and Gaya ignored
these dirty pirates. They just wanted to see how the situation is
going to play out before revealing their secret.
"Welcome to the Silent Reaper" taking his gaze away from the
crew, Michael turned his head in the direction of the voice to see a
tall muscular man towards them. He had dark skin as an African
male, he stood almost 6' 2" feet. This black man had an
authoritative feel about him, and he had a scar running across
from his left upper eye to his right cheek.
One couldn't see a single hair on his clean-shaven head, he had

pierced both earlobes. The thigh-sized arms looked like they could
crush a man to death while his torso had defined muscles. He was
neither wearing something fancy nor dirty ragged like the rest of
the crew but just a short-sleeved transparent tunic and khaki color
breeches. He was accompanied by two cutlasses that hung on
each side of his waist.
He had the perfect thick voice for his muscular body. His dark
eyes scanned everyone on board for a few seconds before they
landed on Gaya and Michael.
"What do ye pirates...want?" Lars interrupted the man's gaze by
stepping forward after mustering all his courage to do so.
"Look 'ere Cap'n, a fearless one" a bald man standing only 4ft
laughed at Lars. Soon, the rest of the Silent Reaper crew cackled.
"What can ye offer, Cap'n lars o' the Striker?" the black man asked
with an amusing smile on his face.
"3 million worth o' pillage, in exchange fer me an' me crews' lives' '
Lars turned his head to look at Michael who was standing among
his crew.
Michael smiled. He didn't think Lars actually noticed the chest

taken by him. Following Lars's words, every pair of eyes on the
ship fell on Michael and Gaya.
"Interestin' offer an' interestin' people" the black man said,
"ye took a lass on board, no wonder ye ended to the sky in our

sight" the short man had a surprised look on his face.
"ye don't take a lass onboard, they be bad luck" another one of
the crew members exclaimed. This one had a bald head, a greasy
beard, and teeth that were so dirty that it would make even an
aged dentist raise his brows.
The black man signaled his men to let Michael and Gaya come
forward.
"No one steals from me" just when he was walking past Lars, he
said in a husky voice.
*********************************
Hi Readers of Ranobes and other sites,
If you are wondering why there was no update for some time, it's
because I was tested a covid positive. I had to take bed rest.
Always check Webnovel for my announcements as I explained
about my condition and update schedule in Webnovel.
However, now I'm 90% recovered thanks to everyone's wishes, I'll
start updating regularly as I used to. Again, I'm sorry for not letting
you all know about everything earlier.
Chapter 229 - Shortest Fight
While the Silent Reaper was engaged in a battle with the Striker,
Gibson was snoring regardless of the loud cannon exploding
sounds on his tiny little bed that barely had enough space to
support his whole body. One could see a couple of empty rum
bottles on his hairy chest. His once first body now turned flabby,
fat covered most of his muscles. A particularly notable feature was
his missing limb. He lost his right leg when he was serving under
Her Majesty many years ago. At that time, he wouldn't even have
imagined a pirate life yet here he is, sleeping in a pirate ship.
Chap!
??
He slapped his own cheek in sleep to find a peanut stuck in his

bushy sideburns. The empty rum bottle on his chest reflected a
round face with a softly shaped jaw, a straight nose, and two
sleepy brown eyes. His medium-length hair was all over the place
as some of the strands were running into his mouth.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
"What now?!" Finally Gibson couldn't take any more of violent

shakes or the loud booming sound. He picked his body from the
bed before fitting the wooden leg to substitute his lack of right leg.
"Even a curse couldn't cure the hangover of mine, hehe" Gibson

chuckled, throwing away his empty rum bottles. He then picked a
small leather drinking pouch,
"Thank god" he smiled seeing that there's still some rum left in the
pouch.
Pulch!
On top of his hangover, the shaking ship made walking in a

straight line pain in the butt. While he was stumbling forwards, a
broken splinter of wood exploded from the hull and stabbed him in
his shoulder.
one would expect him to scream or atleast flinch but he didn't

even notice the six-inch splinter sticking out of his shoulder.
"We are cursed yet here we are, destroying who knows what"
Gibson mumbled taking a short sip from his leather pouch. None
of the crew including the current Captain Bull knew the full extent
of the curse.
The curse stripped away their sense of touch, smell, pain, and
touch.
On top of that, the curse occasionally made the crew enter a deep
slumber that could last from a couple of months to several years
and no crew of the Silent Reaper could leave the ocean, if their
feet touched the ground, they would be painfully turned into
ashes.
He was telling the crew that the curse is also making the Silent
Reaper playing with the minds of the enemy crew but the pirates
were too dumb or ignorant to listen to his theory.
If the pleasure of getting drunk was stripped away by the curse,

he would have taken a boat to some island and killed himself.
Other than drinking rum, there was no pleasure in his life. It would
be a lie if he said he didn't love the life before the curse. He loved
being a pirate, more than being a soldier in the royal navy under
her majesty.
After the curse, the previous Captain started to pillage every ship
he saw, not just for gold but for more information about the curse.
He believed someone could tell them how to break the curse.
Although it was highly unlikely to find someone who knew about a
curse put by a sea folk elder, it was better than just aimlessly
roaming the ocean.
"Surrender or Die"
"Here it goes," Gibson halted his steps to take some deep

breaths. After this, he wouldn't have time to take a breath because
he would be busy interrogating the hostages. Just because he
was a soldier before pirates, the pirates gave him the job of
interrogating. Somehow they failed to understand the fact that he
was a navigator on a royal navy ship. For the pirates, everyone on
a royal navy ship was a soldier.
"Pick yourself up Gibson," Gibson said to himself before taking a

long sip of rum.
Stumbling through the bunk beds of his fellow pirates, he finally

reached the stairs leading to the upper deck. Walking the stairs
wasn't as easy as once it was for him when he had two human
legs. Now the wooden leg made even the simplest thing like
climbing the stairs a pain.
"Twenty more to go Gibson, only twenty more" he looked up at the

twenty steps in front of him and sighed.
"Nineteen"
"..."
"..."
"Eighteen"
Eventually, after fifteen whole minutes of heavy breathes and long

sips of rum, he finally made it to the upper deck. Gibson saw
Captain Bull staring at a young man who seemed very out of
place to Gibson. The young man looked cleaner than everyone
else, he wore a long grey coat and black breeches. After many
many years, Gibson saw a clean guy. The young man had the
perfect jawline and features that would make any girl's heart beat
faster. He was so handsome that he would make every prince
Gibson had met pale in comparison. Even with his long coat,
Gibson could see the muscles hiding within.
His eyes were so focused on the youngster that he failed to notice

the girl standing among the hostages. Despite being surrounded
by pirates, Gibson saw no fear on the young man's face, he saw
only amusement.
"Right on time, Gibs"
"Yeah, ye be welcome to the seven seas o' livin' gibs"
"You three sheets to the wind bastard"
"It's time ye woke to the sky ye old fuck"
Gibson ignored his crew members' shouts as he saw the young

man turn his sharp gaze towards him. Gibson felt like the Sea
Devil himself staring straight into his soul. There was something in
the young man's gaze.
"Here's my counter offer, Captain Bull," Gibson heard the young

man speak.
"Agree to serve under me or I will kill everyone here," The young

man paused for a second before continuing
"one by one until you accept" Everyone including Gibson was

stunned. He was surrounded by sixty pirates and one monstrous-
looking Captain Bull.
"Hahahahah"
It took the pirates a couple of seconds before bursting into

laughter. Even normally serious Captain Bull chuckled in
amusement after the young man's words. Not only the crew but
some of the less affected hostages had a smirk on their faces.
"Now that there ye 'ave a comedian an' 3million worth o' pillage,
can ye let us go?" after the laughter died down, Lars opened his
mouth. Because of Lars's strong mental power, he was far less
affected by the Silent Reaper than the rest of his crew.
Captain Bull however didn't answer Lars, he just stared at the

young man. Gibson limped to the side to lean on a wall to see
what's going to happen. Somehow he had a feeling that this
young man was not kidding around.
"Ye want to be the Cap'n?" Bull asked as Gibson saw the young
man nodded.
"Ye 'earrr that lads, 'e want to be the Cap'n o' our cursed Silent
Reaper"
"Stop wasting my time Bull. Fall in line along with your crew or I'll
kill you first to make a statement"
"'ahahaha, you'll kill me?" Bull laughed while the rest of the pirates
stared at the young man with cold killing intent in their eyes.
"Alright, I'll let ye try" Bull took out his two cutlasses. The crew
quickly cleared the center of the stage for Captain Bull to kill the
young man.
"Give him a sword," Bull said to the short man but he saw the
young man shake his head walking towards the center of the
deck. Every pirate and hostage on the ship stared at Michael like
he was the stupidest person they had ever met. By comparing
their body alone they could tell that Bull could snap the young
man in half. If he had taken the weapon, he would have at least
had a fighting chance but now, he seemed like dead meat in their
eyes.
"No need" the young man stood a few meters away from Captain
Bull without a weapon in his hand.
"What is he doing?" Gibson asked himself looking at the young

man.
"Are you gonna stand there all day?" Bull was provoked by his
words and the careless look on his face. He clenched his two
cutlasses tightly to leap at the young man.
The pirates and the hostages were expecting a gory beat down
when they saw the young man calmly raise his hand.
Zzzz Rrrrrrrr!
Boom!
The next moment, they were stunned beyond words to see a thick
bolt of golden lightning shoot out of the young man's hand. In a
blink of an eye, the lightning bolt went straight through Captain
Bull's head as his head exploded into a red mist.
"He...he...cast...spell…" Gibson's body went rigid while many

people lost control over their bladders. They were scared shitless.
For a long couple of seconds, they just stared at the headless
body of Bull wandering around on the deck without uttering a word
or moving a muscle.
It wasn't a long fight with fancy moves. In fact, the fight didn't even
last for more than a couple of seconds. From Bull raising his
cutlasses to his head exploring happened so quickly.
What shocked everyone more than Captain Bull's death was the
lightning bolt shot out from his hand. They wanted to find another
explanation except they simply couldn't.
"How did he cast a spell inside the Void line?" This was the
question that ran inside the minds of many.
"Cap'n!"
"Ca...p..."
Words barely escaped from some of the loyal pirates. It had been
a long time since the pirates felt fear.
While they were about to raise their cutlasses, Gibson heard the
young man spoke again,
"I can break your curse"

Chapter 230 - Becoming A
Pirate Captain
With one swift jump. Michael landed on the wooden edge before
the ship's rudder. He balanced himself like a professional rope
walker. The very next moment, Gibson saw another figure landing
on the edge just beside the young man. The girl's black hair
beautifully fluttered in the wind while the flashes of lightning
revealed her perfect hourglass structure to every single one of
them. The girl made the pirates even more terrified because the
pirates think that if a girl comes on board a ship, it's bad luck for
all of them.
They were still in shock when Gibson saw the young man started
talking,
??
"You may address me Lord Lucifer and her as Dark Queen"
The name Dark Queen somewhat felt weird yet the reason
Michael chose the name was that it would be more suitable and
badass in the future when he actually has an army of soldiers
under his command. Besides after he marries her, she would
become his official queen, the Dark Queen.
"I know it'll be hard but anyone who intercepts my speech will die
like your Captain Bull," Michael said after sending another bolt of
lightning near Bull's bleeding headless corpse.
"You've all seen a glimpse of what I can do to anyone who stands

against me. Now I'll tell you what I can do to those who stand
behind me" Gibson's hangover disappeared after he saw what
happened to Bull and now giving his full focus to the young man.
"I can make you rich and powerful like you've never even
imagined" Michael flicked his wrist as the chest he stole from Lars
appeared on the deck below him. The light radiated from the
goodies inside the chest brightened up the faces of the pirates.
"This is just a glimpse. I also know what you desperately need

now is not pillage but a way to break the curse" What he just said
got the interest of the pirates more than the shining chest did.
"As long as you agree to serve me, you won't be bothered by the
curse" Michael reached his hand out at the pirates as a hot wave
of air brushed past them.
"I can feel the hot air" Gibson mumbled, feeling a sensation after
more than a decade. Not only Gibson, but every single pirate was
also dumbstruck by the sensation of feeling hot air on their faces.
Just by looking at their faces, Gaya could tell they want this
feeling to last forever. Gibson never thought a simple thing such
as hot air on his face would make him this happy.
"This is better than booze," Gibson said to himself. It took

everything in him not to speak anything aloud. He was very
positive that uttering any word would get him killed.
While Gibson was in a daze, he noticed Shorty, the 4ft pirate

slowly raising his hand.
"Go ahead" Gaya really didn't want to laugh at Shorty but it took
so much control not to laugh.
"Can we go to the mainland or step on any land for that matter?"
"Yes, you can but all of these can happen only if you serve me
loyally. I don't have any place for disloyal crew on my ship" Gibson
saw a couple of pirates grin, he could tell that they already
decided to join this young man's crew. If it was for their Captain
before Bull, they would have hesitated to jump the crew or even
fought the young man for attacking their captain because he had
won all their loyalty including Gibson's.
Since that Captain was long dead and the young man was
claiming that he could break the curse, there was nothing to
hesitate about. Plus, the 3 million worth of gold, diamonds, and
gemstones didn't hurt.
"Now speak your mind," Michael said, folding his hands against
his chest.
The pirates stared at Michael for a few seconds, their eyes were
full of fear towards Michael. Yet, Shorty stepped forward
mustering his courage,
"If you join your crew, what's our share in pillages?" Both Michael
and Gaya were surprised by the pirate's question. They were
expecting questions related to the curse yet the short one asked
about their share.
"What's your share under your late Captain Bull?"
"Before the curse, we would share in eighty twenty ratios. Eighty

for Captain, twenty for us"
"You'll get double under my command"
"I'm in '' the short pirate didn't even take a second after hearing
Michael's last statement. He just awkwardly knelt down on two
knees pledging his loyalty.
"System" Michael willed the system to partially break the curse in

his mind. The next moment, Gibson saw a bright light beam
coming out of the young man's hand. The light beam reached
Shorty as his face began to show a cocktail of emotions.
Soon, tears began to roll out of his eyes,
"I can feel again, the air, the smell of the sea"
"Step aside Shorty" Gaya waved her hand as Shorty was moved
aside by a gust of wind.
"You have ten seconds to decide your next move" Michael's voice
was cold rather than calm. In a short time, the pirates would be
the ones getting the most out of this deal. Therefore, if they
hesitated even after he explained everything he could do for them,
he would kill every single one of them except Shorty.
"Yeah, fuck it" Gibson limped towards the young man. His old
instincts told him that following the young man would be the best
choice he could make in his life.
Gibson saw a slight smile energy on the young man's face when
he stepped forward.
"Cap'n!"
"Lord Lucifer!"
Following Gibson, every single pirate on the deck awkwardly bent

their knees, pledging their loyalty to Michael. As before, the light
beam shot out from his hand but this time, it enveloped all the
pirates in a bubble before vanishing from the sight.
When the bubble disappeared, the pirates began to cry like little
children. They were slapping themselves, pinching themselves as
well as tasting the saltwater on the deck.
It was acceptable in Michael's eyes. After all, they never felt

sensations like this in years. He gave them the time to enjoy the
moment. Tinkering with the curse did come with a cost as they lost
the Silent Reaper's ability to terrify the hostile crews. According to
the system, that was a by-product of the curse and by removing
the curse partially, Michael also removed that ability. He knew it
was a necessary sacrifice to earn their loyalty so it was worth the
trade.
"Now I have to deal with you guys' ' Michael turned his gaze
towards LArs and his crew members who were standing still in
fear and shock. Some of them even peed in their pants imagining
what might happen to them.
"Let...let...us...go '' Lars stuttered in fear. With the ability to cast

spells inside the void line, Lars knew these two would be a god
and goddess in the Southern Continent.No matter how powerful
the spartan army was, Lars knew a couple of spells could easily
decimate them.
"Let you go? Hahaha," Michael chuckled. The pirates stood up

with newfound loyalty towards Michael.
"You fucker wanted to sell us" Gaya's voice was cold.
"Tell us who your contact was and i'll kill you quickly" Lars's mouth
kept opening and closing. To be honest, he only talked with the
buyer through the communication stone. The two who came riding
an eagle were just the subordinates of the buyer. They never told
Lars their names or where they were from.
"You dont know" Michael could tell that Lars had no idea about the
two toga-wearing Southerners by looking at his eyes. Michael
disappointedly shook his head before nodding at Gaya.
"Poison grasp" She uttered the words pointing her finger at Lars
and his men as a green mist began to form out from thin air. The
green mist soon transformed into itself a giant hand. The giant
hand then swooped the group from the floor.
"Wow"
"What is this?"
"How can they cast spells?"
"New captain and his girlfriend is awesome"
"Oh my god"
Including Gibson, every single pirate was in awe. They were

speechless as Lars and his men struggled against the hold of the
green giant mist hand.
Gaya pointed her fingers at the sky as the green hand ascended
from the floor with the men.
"Inferno" she fired a spark of fire at the green mist.

"No!"
Lars and his men screamed. The poison already seeped into their
bodies, making them cough out blood. When the fire spark hit the
green mist, it instantly caught fire. Soon the green mist exploded,
lighting up the night stormy sky.
Their blood rained down on the pirates making the scene

horrifying. She demonstrated what she could do to inflict fear in
the hearts of the pirates.
Michael just stared at the sky where the group exploded. He knew
with cultivation power he could do anything in the Southern
Continent but rather using his 3hr power to attack the kingdoms,
he wanted to forge alliances with the senates. Controlling the
Senate from the shadows seemed to be the best way to go.
*************************
I had a fever when I wrote this chapter so please forgive me if you

see any typos or errors. I barely got myself up to write. There
might not be a chapter release tomorrow as my doctor said to take
a day off.
Chapter 231 - A Nudge In The
Right Direction
"Where am I?"? Michael opened his eyes to be welcomed by a

blood-red sky. He was floating in the air but no matter how hard
he tried to wiggle his body, he was unable to.
"System" he called out for the system yet there was no response.
He couldn't feel the system in his soul anymore.
??
"Am I dreaming?" He took a deep breath, calming his mind. The

last thing he remembers was kissing Gaya good night.
Booooooooooommmmmmm!
Suddenly an ear-piercing vibration reverberated the blood-red sky.

Along with the vibrations, he was able to regain control over his
body. Still floating in the middle of the sky, he looked around to
see nothing but barren land filled with dark smoke. There were no
life signs, the sky was blood red, the atmosphere was dark and
gloomy. He felt like he stepped into a post-apocalyptic world.
While he was staring at his surroundings, he saw a woman and

two little children. They looked exhausted beyond words as the
woman seemed to be walking using her last bit of strength. The
two children in her hand barely had any flesh, they were just skin
and bones.
As he was watching them, they stumbled down on the ground. He

tried to move his body but he couldn't. The very next moment, the
scenery in front of him changed. After the scenery changed, he
wasn't floating in the sky above a barren land. On the contrary, he
was floating in a place that seemed to be a city.
The sky was still blood red and although he could see humans
walking down on the streets, they weren't much better than the
woman he saw earlier. They were all extremely skinny, in their
eyes, there was no life. They seemed like zombies who had no
desire to live anymore. Looking from above, these people
resemble ants as they were obediently walking in a straight line.
After staring at the people for a while, he looked at all the

buildings which seemed to be made of red cement. When he
looked closer, he saw glimmering runes on the buildings. The
more he observed the place, the more he doubted that this was
just a dream.
He was about to call the system again when he noticed a couple

of people walking in the line drop dead in a blink of an eye. He
expected the people to react to the people before them dropping
dead, yet they walked past the dead bodies as nothing happened.
Michael was unable to find a logical explanation for everything he
had seen in this weird place.
Surprisingly, Michael saw hooded figures covered in blue robes

descending from the sky.
"Hey!" he shouted at them yet they didn't seem to hear or notice

Michael. The hooded figures landed beside the dead bodies.
"Two thousand and five dead today so far"
"Yesterday I had burned four thousand bodies"
Their words made Michael frown, "this doesn't seem very dreamy
to me" he mumbled. The two hooded figures then waved their
hands as crimson red flames engulfed the dead bodies on the
ground.
The scenery changed again as now he was floating in the sky

above a large circular stage. The stage was occupied by more
hooded figures he saw before, children of various ages and more
skinny people. Except for the hooded figures, the others were
chained and brought to their knees.
"Stealing is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death"
Michael turned his head towards the voice's direction to see a
hooded figure holding a long scythe. Before the chained man in
front of the hooded figure could react, the scythe cleaved his head
right off his shoulders.
"Skipping the line is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by

death" another voice followed by beheading.
"Praying to Sun God is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by

death"
"Attempting to cultivate is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by

death"
"Using Arch Energy is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by

death"
….
Michael heard the hooded figures on the stage exclaim before

they behead the people regardless of their gender. The hooded
figures showed no mercy at all. Some crimes like stealing and
skipping the line were hardly punishable by death, yet the hooded
figures cleaved their heads off for these pitiful crimes.
The scenery changed again and again and again. One time, he
saw a lifeless aerie forest, the other time, he saw people fight like
animals for a water puddle. He also saw a 7ft hooded figure drop
a nuke in a city.
Michael lost count of the sceneries he saw. After everything he

had seen, he was sure this world had already turned into hell if it's
not already the actual hell and the hooded figures were the
demons.
The real question was why and how is he seeing all this?
Suddenly everything around him turned dark as someone

switched off the lights around him.
"This is what's going to happen if you fail to conquer this world
Michael" Suddenly a gentle soothing voice reverberated in the
dark space.
"Who are you? And where am I?"
"What you've seen is the Elon Continent in four hundred years

from your current time" the voice didn't answer Michael's first
question but answered the latter.
"The future?" Michael was stunned as the voice continued,
"The events you saw are just some glimpses of the result of your
failure"
The voice said. Although Michael wanted to stay calm and think
rationally, what was happening to him was beyond rational.
"You have the ultimate power in your hand, use it to reshape the
world before the world is engulfed by the evil"
By ultimate power, he felt like the voice was talking about the
system.
"The thought of innocents dying in your war to conquer this world

is holding you back from achieving your true potential and
reaching your goals. After everything I showed you, it's time for
you to shed all your hesitations. Be the Dark God you meant to
be" after the voice spoke these words, the scenery once again
changed.
"Human, are you alright?" Michael was standing straight up on his

bed, sweating bullets. He turned to see Gaya's concerned face
"You were having nightmares," she said, gently wiping the sweat
off his face with her nightgown. Instead of telling what just
happened, Michael entered the system interface to question it,
"System, are you aware of what happened to me now?"
[what are you talking about?] Surprisingly, the system seemed to

have zero clues.
"Something just took me four hundred years into the future and it
also knew about you"
[what?!]
The system sounded completely shocked.
[The system cannot search the host's mind, something's

preventing me] he heard the system after a few moments of
silence.
[what else is the voice mentioned?] the system asked.
Michael sighed before telling everything that happened from the

beginning. Since even the system didn't have any idea about what
happened to him, he had to discuss this with the system to find
some real answers or explanations.
[it can't be one of the omegas...]
"When the fuck are you going to tell me about the omegas and
you?"
[not yet host. You're not even strong enough to face the guardians
let alone omegas. If what you told me is true]
"It is true" he gritted his teeth as the system continued,
[You have to focus on taking over this world as it seems to be the

crucial step in your journey towards Godhood]
"Are you telling me that I'm a god in the making?"
[Don't get cocky host. The future is not something set in stone,
anything can change the future. For now, we have to focus on
your goals] the system then kicked him out to the real world
without a warning.
"Fuck" he cursed in his mind as Gaya was still wiping off the
sweat on his face.
"We need to talk" Considering the system was no help to him, he
decided to talk with Gaya. The two of them leaned back on the
bed frame before Michael began to tell everything he saw.
***********************
"There's still a chance that what you saw was just a dream but
what you said didn't seem like a dream to me" After listening to
Michael in silence, Gaya spoke.
"What could be so powerful to show you the future? Some kind of

god?"
"You're awfully calm about this' ' Michael couldn't help but
comment on her calmness. Even he was slightly freaking out, she
seemed to be less affected than he was.
"Since you are a freak of nature, everything linked to you is

anything but normal. Getting a glimpse of the future is freaky yet
we still have the chance to prevent everything from happening" he
nodded to her words,
"Whatever dragged you to the future is not something we can

understand or comprehend unless it allows us to. My question is,
however, who were those hooded figures? The guardians? Or
something else?"
Michael removed the warm quilt to leave the bed. He walked

towards the windows. Just like his heart, the sea was also not
calm. The storm was still ravishing the ocean violently with the
company of the heavy downpour and thunderclaps.
"Whoever they are, I have a feeling that we'll meet them soon," he
said looking at the dark stormy sky through the window. The
flashes of lightning revealed a newly found resolution in his eyes.
At this moment, Gaya could tell that something's changed within
him.
Chapter 232 - The Pirates
Cove
"What are you working on?" Gaya entered the captain's cabin to
see Michael leaning back on his chair fiddling with nuts and bolts.
"I just have to calibrate a few things" he was too focused on the
project as he failed to notice Gaya looking at his world over his
shoulder. She could see it kinda look like the grappling hook they
were using but instead of hooks, she saw him place multiple
syringes on a gauntlet. The gauntlet was smaller than the
grappling hook.
"Oh you're here" Michael finally noticed Gaya.
"Give me your hand"? He didn't even wait for her as he just took
her right hand. With her hand on his hand, Michael grabbed the
gauntlet before gently placing it around Gaya's wrist.
"It's gonna sting a bit"
"What? Ouch!" She felt a sharp pain in her wrist. It was like a
couple of bees stinging at the same time. She looked at the
gauntlet to see the syringes plunging themselves into her wrist
before completely disappearing.
"Are you gonna-"
"Don't move" She was interjected by Michael. She rolled her eyes
a bit and looked at him and placed a transparent glass-like sticker
on the back of her neck.
She expected it to sting as earlier but she only felt a slight tingling
sensation in her brain.
"When I cut your hand, think of a healing potion" She frowned but
she ultimately nodded her head. With a gentle smile, he picked
the dagger hanging from her slender waist.
Carefully Michael made a cut on her left forearm as she thought of

a healing potion as he instructed her to. Suddenly, she felt the
syringes inside her right wrist move,
"Can you feel something?"
"Yes, those needles are moving" As she said, a wide grin

emerged on Michael's face.
"It's working"
"When did I become a guinea pig for you?"
"A cute little guinea pig" Michael chuckled, pinching both of her
soft cheeks.
"It's my new invention, I call this APD. Automatic Potion

Dispenser" Michael rummaged through the junk on the table to
grab another gauntlet.
"The name is pretty explanatory. I was able to squeeze in eight

syringes, fill the syringes with whatever potion we need and
whenever we need it, we just have to think about it. APD will inject
the potion directly into our bloodstream. The best part is, it's made
of junk metal so no energy radiation"? She could tell by his wide
grin that he's so proud of his invention. After hearing what he said,
it was obvious how useful this could be in a real battle where
enemies won't wait until one takes out his potion and uses it.
"With this, it's almost guaranteed that we'll win the championship
tournaments" Gaya's face lit up instantly. She knew in the first
couple of rounds, using potions would be forbidden. However, if
they used this gadget, the judges would have no idea as it would
radiate zero energy.
"It's cheating but I like it" She revealed an evil grin.

Making the device wasn't costly as it only required him to use
some common materials. However, what cost him more was the
sticker he placed on Gaya's neck. The sticker was an advanced
metal that controls the pulses between the drive and the brain.
Since his inventor trait was not high enough to build components
that manipulate biochemical signals inside the body, he had to buy
it from the system. A single sticker cost him 5000 badass points
and it could only allow two kinds of potions to be loaded into the
APD.
"Ah...Captain...Lord" suddenly, someone awkwardly knocked on

the door. He could tell it's Gibson who is standing outside by the
voice.
"What does he want?"
"Let's go see" Michael put on the APD beneath the sleeve before
leaving the captain's cabin. When he opened the door, he saw
Gibson, Shorty, and a few other pirates waiting for them.
In their eyes, there was fear more than respect. The way he killed
Bull was still freaking out the pirates.
"Lord Lucifer, we'll reach the pirate's cove in an hour," Gibson

said. The sky was unusually clear. Nodding at Gibson, Michael
walked to the edge of the ship to soak in all the sunlight. After
numerous days of heavy downpour, it was a welcome sight to see
the sun once again.
"I need you to stop drinking, Gibson" looking at the clear sky,
Michael said.
"I can't have a drunk for a first mate" his words stunned Gibson,
"This will help you stop the habit" Michael tossed a slimy purple
potion to Gibson. He knew how hard it was for addicts to stop their
habit. If it was on earth, recovering from addiction would take an
immense amount of willpower and dedication but in this world, all
Michael has to do is make a potion that would help one get rid of
the addiction.
"It's either drink this, get rid of your addiction, and get fucking rich
like a king or end up as a snack for the sharks below" Michael let
his words sink into Gibson's mind for a few seconds before
offering something that he won't be able to refuse.
"Plus, I'll get you a new leg, not some wooden artificial stuff, a real
leg" Although Michael had no way of making limbs grow again at
the current time, he was positive he would get the ability through
the system or find a 6-star Healer subordinate to do so in the
future.
Also, he didn't give a shit about others' drinking habits. For all he
cared, they could do whatever they want with their gold coins in
their free time but he wanted Gibson to stay clean.
"Lord Lucifer...you can...do that?"
"Gotcha" Michael snickered inside after seeing the excitement in

Gibson's voice.
"Yes, get clean and I'll get you a new leg" the other pirates
including Shorty also looked excited for their fellow pirate Gibson.
"Loyalty towards us is the only price you have to pay us" Gaya
leaned on the ship's mainsail beam and said.
*******************************
"That's the pirate cove, Captain" Gibson pointed out the big island
surrounded by countless ocean boulders. The boulders acted as a
natural defense against the ships as they prevented the ships
from reaching the island.
The only way to get into the island without swimming seemed to
be the large docks at the far side of the island. Surrounding
waters were filled with small fishing boats and nets. In the
distance, a couple of pirate sail ships with skulls and swords for
flags docking at the docks.
"It's good to be back here after all these years," Gibson exclaimed
with a burst of joy. Gaya noticed all the pirates were bouncing in
joy.
"Listen up, when you get into the island, do not say anything about
what happened to Bull or anything related to me. I'm just a pirate
like you and she's my girlfriend. If you blabber anything to anyone,
I'll personally end you"
For a few moments, the pirates looked dumbstruck but soon, they
all just nodded in agreement.
"If anyone asked about the curse or Captain Bull, Captain Bull lost
his life lifting the curse, that's the story"
"Captain, it'd be hard for them to believe that you two are pirates"
Gibson whispered to Michael standing beside him near the rudder.
"Just say we came from the Northern Continents"? Since it was

not possible to get dirty like the rest of the pirates, Michael asked
Gibson to tell the truth to cover up his real identity.
Besides, he would soon reveal himself as the Captain of the Silent

Reaper to the world. He just wanted to gather more information
about this part of the world before making any important steps.
"Gibson, I also want you to buy everything on the list" Michael

handed over a piece of paper to Gibson with a pouch of gold
coins. Gibson opened up the paper to see a list of familiar names.
They were all items, metals, and things related to the ship itself.
The closer his ship got to the docks, the clearer he could see the
island. The pirate cove was a tropical island with various wooded
buildings and occasional watchtowers. Trees such as palm and
coconut added a certain charm to the island. What made the
island more beautiful was the colorful coral reefs, they were like
nature's carpet welcoming them into the island.
The tv shows and movies didn't do justice to the beauty of pirate

cove in Michael's view.
"This is gonna be fun"

The Silent Reaper slowly made its way to the docks under the
shocked gazes of little children who were standing on the shore.
Its black eerie look gave chills to many citizens of the pirate cove.
Just by looking at all those fresh fishes caught by the net, Gaya's
stomach started to scream for some grilled fish.
"I assume you're all headed to a tavern"
"Of course Captain...sorry...how do we call you now?" Shorty

seemed like he cannot wait to step on the shore and get drunk to
his throat.
"For now, I'm David and she's Eli"
"See you at the burning candle David, Eli " Shorty don't wait for
the ship to get docked but jumped into the water outside. The
other pirates were slightly afraid of stepping onto the shore yet
Shorty decided to rush towards the shore with no worries.
"He's excited" Gaya chuckled seeing the little guy swimming like a
shark chasing him behind.
"Get yourself a bath and meet me at the tavern," Michael said to

Gibson before leaving him behind. Gibson took a sniff of his shirt
and realized the urgency of a bath and a set of new clothes.
Chapter 233 - Trouble Will
Always Find Its Way To
Michael
After leaving the Silent Reaper at the docks, Michael and Gaya
wandered through the sandy roads of Pirate Cove. Everywhere
Michael turned, he could see tropical trees, buildings made of
nothing but wood, broken fishing boards that were being used to
shelter drunken pirates, and little children playing pirates. The
island was pretty lively.
"I am Captain Red Beard, bow before me!"
"If you're Captain Red Beard, I'd be Captain Tanasha"
"Did you see the scary ship at the docks?"
"It's the Silent Reaper, my grandpa told me stories about it"
"Who's the captain?"
While Michael and Gaya were roaming the island, he heard

children and grown men gossip about the Silent Reaper. Because
the Silent Reaper appeared at the Pirate Cove nearly three
decades ago, many stories about the ship turned into rumors.
Only a handful of elderly citizens in their seventies had more
information about the ship, its crew, and the curse.
As he was walking, his courage was raised by the light, which

streams through the palm and coconut trees lighting up the
beauties of the island, and stopped to smell the flowers and
examine things, which he never thought existed.
"Cutlasses forged using the finest steel!"

"Rum barrels wholesale!"
"High-quality tobacco and sugar!"
Under the shade of tropical trees, merchants were shouting loudly

to attract the attention of newly arrived pirates.
"Not a single food stall" Gaya sighed after searching the line of
merchant stalls for something to eat.
"There's no clothing store either," Michael said. He wanted to

change his clothes to blend with the natives yet wherever he
looked, he couldn't find a clothing store or a place where he could
buy some piraty clothes.
"Let's go to the tavern, I'm beat"? Gaya was sweating as she was
inside an oven. The lack of Arch energy in the atmosphere took a
toll on her body.
To find the tavern, Michael didn't have to ask for direction, he only
needed to follow the grown men.
Eventually, after following some men, they reached their

destination.
"The burning candle" Michael read the signboard hanging above

an old wooden door. From the outside, it looked lively, folksy, and
enchanting. Softwood and well-crafted wooden beams make up
most of the building's outer structure. It was near impossible to
see through the dirty windows, but the sounds of dancing and
singing from within could be felt outside.
As they entered the tavern through the well-crafted, wooden door,

they were welcomed by amazing, but unknown scents and
laughing voices.
The bartender, who was a middle-aged woman, was a little

preoccupied with customers but still managed to welcome them
with a wink.
It was as engaging inside as it was on the outside. Several walls
supported the upper floor and the large candles attached to them.
The walls were loaded with hundreds of small ship parts, all
signed and most likely donated by fellow pirates.
The tavern itself was packed. Pirates seem to be the primary

clientele here, which often led to exciting evenings. Several long
tables were occupied by separate groups of pirates, all enjoying
themselves, but they kept to themselves. Among the tables were
Michael's crew who seemed to be losing their consciousness due
to the rum they were chugging nonstop. Some were even dancing
on the table while others were cheering from them by clapping
and yelling.
The other, smaller tables were also occupied by people who were
playing games and, judging by their laughter, were either telling
jokes or great, perhaps embarrassing tales. Even most of the
stools at the bar were occupied, though nobody seemed to mind
more company.
Michael did hear tales about this tavern back on the ship,
supposedly it was famous for something, but he couldn't
remember what for. Though judging by the music and how many
people were dancing, it must be the live band who just started
playing.
"There are some empty chairs" Gaya pointed at the few empty
chairs at the far end of the room as they walked towards the table
to prepare for what would undoubtedly be a great morning.
In the heat of the moment, most of Michael's crew completely

failed to notice him until Shorty whispered something into their
ears. They all gave a quick glance at Michael before resuming
what they were doing.
Few of the waitresses were still busy serving the other pirates.
Michael and Gaya were not in a rush so they just waited for one of
the waitresses to come to them.
"How long are we gonna stay on this island?"

"I have to make a few upgrades to our ship. Few days tops I think"
"She's not a whore Holman, let her go" the bartender's shout drew
Michael's attention towards a waitress near Shorty's table. The
waitress was trying to get herself free from the hold of a scar-
faced pirate.
"She's a big girl, she can decide what she's gonna be tonight" the
scar-faced pirate took out a pouch, pouring out gold coins on the
table. By the look on the other pirates' faces, Michael could see
that they were fortunate enough to plunder a rich merchant ship or
two. Besides, among all the people in the tavern, these guys had
shinier cutlasses and wore cleaner clothes.
"Look for someone else, Holman" the waitress freed herself from
his grab by swatting his hand away. The golden hair waitress
quickly rushed back into the kitchen leaving Holman and his crew
behind.
"This place hasn't changed a bit" Suddenly Michael heard a

familiar voice as he turned to see Gibson walking towards them.
Compared to the man he met before, Gibson looked like a new
person.
"It's really a wonder how a bath and a new set of clothes could do
to a man" Gibson scratched the back of his head in
embarrassment. Michael gestured at him to pull up the empty
chair to their table.
"I'll get us something" Gaya left the table leaving Gibson and
Michael behind. Gibson would have offered to get something but
she didn't give him any time to offer his aid.
"Tell me about yourself, Gibson"
Michael noticed his hands were shaking as well as his eyes were
checking the rum served by the waitresses. It was obvious he
wanted a drink. Michael took his attention from the booze with the
question.
"Well, I was serving under her majesty before losing my leg and
becoming a pirate"
"Her Majesty?"
"The Empress of Awor Continent"
The Awor Continent was the largest in this world. It was larger
than Elon and Ozer Continent combined. He knew little to nothing
about Awor Continent except the fact that he had unfinished
business to take care of in Awor.
"On a scale of one to ten, how powerful is Awor Continent?"
"Twenty or even thirty, Cap...David '' Gibson almost said his real
name but quickly corrected himself.
"The scholars say there are multiple magical ley lines under the
land of Awor. Hence, everyone and every kingdom are fucking
powerful. Also, those snobby bastards are? ridiculously rich"
"Seems like my kinda place. We'll go there in the future" Gibson

was about to protest this idea of them visiting Awor Continent
when his eyes widened in shock. He noticed Holman checking out
Eli, the girl who killed a group of pirates like they were nothing. It
took Michael a second to notice the change in Gibson's eyes.
Gibson slowly turned his gaze away from Holman to Lucifer but
unlike he expected, the young man remained calm. Although the
mask Gaya wore significantly reduced her beauty, her perfect
hourglass structure, and her grace made her stand out in this
crowd, especially when the tavern was lacking in ladies.
Michael knew he can neither stop every man who checks out
Gaya nor cleanse the world of perverts. Therefore, he remained
calm as it wasn't worth his time to start a fight just because he's
staring at Gaya from her top to bottom.
Right at the moment, Michael noticed another set of eyes staring

at Holman and Gaya. The figure was wearing a hood to cover his
face, he wore what a typical pirate would wear except his boots
looked military. Now that the figure attracted Michael's attention,
he noticed the figure was sitting in front of glass bottles on the
table before the bartender. For a normal person, it would raise no
flags but for a highly trained assassin like Michael, it said many
things about the figure.
Gibson heaved a sigh of relief when Gaya left the bar counter
without giving Holman a chance to mess with her. The tavern was
neutral ground and a place under the protection of the three great
pirate captains. Fighting inside the tavern was forbidden, if anyone
tried to start a fight, they would become the target of three
captains. The last thing Gibson wanted was Lucifer to kill the three
pirate captains and mess with the equilibrium of the Pirate world.
The figure quickly turned his gaze away from Holman as he

pretended to take a sip from his mug but Michael saw him using
the glass bottles in front of him to monitor everything around him.
Using reflective surfaces to monitor the area was a classic trick
used by spies and assassins.
Michael couldn't help but wonder what is a spy or an assassin

doing in a tavern like this. Gaya placed a tray with three mugs
filled with rum and three grilled salmon on the table before sitting
beside Michael.
"It'd be weird if I ask for water to drink in this place, so just pretend
to drink the rum," she said as her eyes looked at Gibson.
"Pretend, got it Eli" Gibson mumbled as he reached out to touch

the grilled salmon because he thought one of the three plates of
fish was his.
Plop!
When his hand were about to touch the fish, he was swatted away
by Gaya,
"Don't even think about it" Gibson saw Lucifer chuckle while Eli
began to dig into the grilled fishes.
"Fuck… it's bad yet I can't stop eating,"? she said, cleaning the
fish to its bones.
While Gaya was stuffing her belly, Michael was calmly looking
around the tavern, listening to all the conversations going around
him.
"Who the fuck gave you this?!"
Yet again, Michael heard Holman's voice. This time, Holman's

shout silenced the entire tavern. Every pair of eyes were on
Holman as he trembled in anger.
"It was him,"? the waitress pointed her hand at none other than
Michael himself. Michael was taken aback by surprise by the
waitress's words.
Everyone in the tavern including Gibson and Gaya stared at

Michael.
"You!" Holman gave a kick to the table in front of him as the table
violently clashed with the wall. The sounds of plates and mugs
scattering on the floor could be heard throughout the tavern.
Chapter 234 - How To Throw A
Punch
Michael was pretty confused for a moment except when he saw

the hooded figure staring at both him and Holman, he began to
doubt that this might be the hooded figure's handy work.
"He's good" Michael couldn't help praising the hooded figure.

Although he kept his eyes on him, the hooded figure still somehow
managed to orchestrate something to make Holman pissed off at
him. What was on the piece of paper Holman's holding was still a
mystery for him yet it was enough to make Holman and his crew
very angry.
"Ah shit here we go again" Gaya rolled her eyes. She was too
focused on filling her belly that she failed to notice the hooded
figure.
"Cool your pants Holman, fighting is not allowed here" the

bartender lady yet again shouted at Holman. It somewhat slowed
down Holman's walking pace towards Michael but it didn't
evaporate the anger in his eyes, not at all.
Meanwhile, everyone in the tavern seemed extremely excited to

see some action, including Michael's own crew. Unlike the rest of
the pirates, his crew knew the result of the upcoming fight yet they
wanted to see some fancy magic again.
"Oh this is gonna be good"
"Who is that guy? I've never seen him before"
"Look at the way he dressed, he might be someone from the

Northern continent"
"Who cares where he's from, let's enjoy the show"
"Go get him Holman"
"Yeah fuck him up!"
The pirates were drunk, they wanted to have some fun besides
drinking and what was happening right in front of them began to
quench their thirst for blood and chaos.
"You and me, outside"
"The fish is tasteless anyways" she wiped her mouth with a white
cloth as Gibson just stared at her stunned because there was
nothing but fish skeletons on her plate. She almost licked the
plates clean yet she seemed so disappointed, her appetite really
did shock Gibson.
"David, let me go talk to him" Gibson whispered to Michael who

was still leaning back on his chair as nothing happened.
"I like where's this going" Michael took a glance at the hooded
figure sitting at the bar counter before standing up. He brushed off
some of the dust on his dress as Gaya and Gibson stood up to
follow him behind.
In a couple of minutes, the whole lively tavern became empty as

everyone went outside to see the fight, even the bartender quickly
cleaned the glasses to get outside.
"Is it too early to show us who we really are?" Gaya asked while
walking behind him towards the door.
"Way too early"
When Michael opened the door, he was welcomed by a large

crowd consisting of children, pirates, ladies, and surprisingly a
couple of dogs. The crowd was standing in a circle, in the center
of the circle was Holman. Michael immediately got all the attention
when he stepped outside.
"I don't know who set you up but I'm gonna find out" Holman
removed his shirt showing his scar-filled torso. He was flexing his
muscles, kicking the sandy mud on the ground and snarling his
teeth at Michael. All of his gestures really made Michael wonder
what the hell was on that piece of paper that Made Holman so
mad.
Michael stared at the crowd, searching for the hooded figure. It

took Michael a couple of seconds to find the figure standing on a
balcony of the building next to the tavern. The balcony had drying
clothes that helped the hooded figure hide behind.
"I don't know what's on the paper but I had nothing to do with it"
Michael calmly said while the crowd opened up to make way for
him to the center of the circle.
"Let me be the judge of it" Holman however did not listen to

Michael. He seemed like he wouldn't back off without a fight.
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
The pirates lost their patience as they began to chant the word
'fight' over and over again. Right at the moment, Michael was
standing just a couple of meters away from Holman. Gibson and
Gaya were standing right behind Michael while Michael's crew
stared at the scene with a rum bottle in their hands.
"Who wants to bet? " Shorty shouted at the people, taking out a
pouch of coins.
"Place your bets and win five times the coins" Shorty used the
pirates' drunk status to his advantage.
"Hell yeah"
"50 coins on Holman"

"100 on Holman"
"Five times you bastards! Take out your coins and be a man"
Shorty riled up the pirates to bet more. Shorty picked up one of his
fellow pirate's hat to collect all the coins along with the bidder's
name. He was surprisingly quick to get coins from almost
everyone except a couple of dogs in the crowd. After collecting
the coins, Gaya saw Shorty tug her sleeves
"Can you tell Cap to take a few punches before finishing him off?"
"You are one little fucker" Gaya chuckled seeing Shorty's courage
and stupidity. He really surprised her by asking her to ask Michael
to take a few punches just because Shorty wants more people to
bet on Holman.
He may be a little crazy but Gaya liked his quick wits and courage.
"We'll split the coins, fifty-fifty"
"Really? I mean yeah sure" Shorty wanted to keep everything to

himself but what Gaya said freaked him out yet he had to agree
with her. He was not that stupid to argue with a woman who could
kill him using her pinky.
"Take a few hits" Shorty saw Gaya place her hand on her ear,
whispering something. Shorty then noticed Lucifer turn his head
for a second and nod.
"Alright, are we doing this or what?" Michael asked Holman who

was still flexing his muscles to attract the ladies in the crowd.
"We're doing it" Holman finally stopped flexing his muscles after
hearing Michael's words. After reaching 89% mastery over the
fighting technique Gaya taught him, he could predict almost every
possible move Holman would make in the next few seconds. If
Michael wanted to he could knock out or kill Holman in just a kick
to his neck. However, he decided to take a few punches from
Holman, not because Gaya asked him to but because he wanted
to see how strong are these people compared to those in the
Northern continent.
Since they were unable to use Arch energy or any kind of energy,
he wanted to see if they were blessed with some other powers
such as strong bodies.
Holman rushed at Michael, slightly covering his face like a boxer.

He was obviously expecting Michael to throw a punch but unlike
he expected, Michael just stood there. Because he never put up
his guard, Holman quickly threw a punch at Michael's face.
Thop!
The very moment Holamn's fist connected with Michael's face, it

produced a thopping sound as the force of the punch pushed back
Michael several steps backward. At the same time, the APD
kicked in, injecting the healing potion into his bloodstream.
Michael was stunned by the punch, it felt like someone hitting him
with a sledgehammer using all their might. The force behind the
punch gave Michael a piece of valuable information, the
Southerners definitely blessed with more raw power compared to
the people of Northern Continents. This meant that although they
lack the ability to cultivate, they were not as vulnerable as Michael
thought.
In other words, Holman had the strength of a Body Refining stage

cultivator. The pain he felt quickly disappeared thanks to the APD
yet a small trickle of blood flowed out of the corner of his lips.
Michael spat the blood as a small smile emerged on his face.
"Who taught you to throw a punch? Your grandma?"
"Oooh"
The crowd laughed, which made Holman more furious as he

rushed at Michael again to close the gap between them.
Thop!
Thop!
This time Holman punched Michael in the jaw with his right hand
and landed a blow to his left rib cage using his left hand. Yet
again, Michael felt an excruciating pain for a second before the
APD injected the healing potion into his bloodstream.
"You! I'll bet 200 more on Holman"
"400 on Holman!"
"The return has gone up, ten times the coins people, ten times!"
Shorty kept shouting while the pirates stupidly fell for his trick.
Soon, they started to pour out the gold coins excitedly.
Meanwhile, Michael continued to take a few punches to fully

comprehend the extent of Holman's raw strength and stamina.
"Why aren't you going down?!" Holman couldn't believe he was

smiling even after receiving his punches. He definitely felt the
youngster's rib broken by one of his punches yet he showed no
expression of pain on his face.
"I'll now show you how to throw a punch" Michael cracked his
knuckles.
However, before taking a step towards Holman, he turned back to

throw a glance at the hooded figure standing on the balcony.
Holman rushed at him again to finish him off while he was staring
at somewhere else. As Holman threw the punch aiming straight at
Michael's nose, he swiftly evaded the fist. The next second,
Michael uppercut him in the jaw using just enough force to knock
him out. Considering he gauged Holamn's strength,? he put
enough Arch energy to give him the power to knock him down.
Thop!
"Ooh"
"What the?!"
The moment Michael's fist met Holman's jaw, he was immediately

knocked out by the force. His body hit the sand producing a thud
sound as the onlookers were made speechless.
"Get up!"
"Hey!"
Gibson and the crew were yet again stunned by his display of
strength. They kinda expected him to use some magic spells but
they never imagined him to knock Holman out in a single punch.
"That's how you throw a punch"




"Sweet" Michael grinned. When he killed Captain Laars and his

men, he never received experience points. Considering they were
not cultivators, it didn't surprise him, he was only kinda
disappointed. However now after receiving almost 3000 badass
points just by knocking out Holman, he began to feel the
excitement rising inside him.
Chapter 235 - Undead Island I
"Is he dead?"
"It can't be"
"Hey get your ass up"
"Fuck me, I just placed 500 coins on him"
"My coins!"
"Stand Up!"
The pirates began to splash whatever booze was in their hand on

Holman's unconscious body except no matter what they threw at
Holman, he wasn't waking up.
"Get him!" Suddenly, one of Holman's friends yelled orders at the

others, pointing his finger at Michael. There were a total of seven
men in their early thirties who rushed at Michael to avenge
Holman.
"Ca-"
"Keep your mouth shut" just when Gibson was about to call him
captain and ruin their disguises, Gaya elbowed Gibson in the
ribcage to shut him up. She then quickly gave a glance at the rest
of the crew to stay still.
Six of Holman's friends surrounded Michael while one knelt down

to check on Holman.
"Seven versus one, the odds are against you boys," said Michael
calmly.
"Pfft, you stupid?"
"We're gonna mop the floor with you"
"Let's teach him a lesson!"
Holman's friends taunted Michael. Considering they were pretty

drunk, they seemed to forget how he knocked out their friend
Holman with a single punch. Just looking at their footwork and
hand movements told him that they don't know any special fighting
technique.
"Let's do this" Michael just raised his finger to call them up as two
of Holman's friends rushed at him from the front while one moved
from Michael's behind.
The distance between the two coming from the front was
approximately 4 meters while the one trying to attack him from
behind was only 2meters. Therefore, he had to deal with the
closest one before dealing with the others.
When a fist came closer to him, he just stepped forward and then
sideways as the guy lost his balance due to missing the punch.
Before he could stumble down, Michael kicked his right knee,
instantly breaking it.
"Ah!" he screamed in agony, dropping to the ground. However, he

did not give the guy any time as Michael grabbed his neck before
sending a knee to the side of the guy's face, knocking him out
instantly. Plus, one could hear a jaw-breaking sound when
Michael's knee hit his face.
After dropping one guy to the ground, the two who were rushing at
him from the front halted their steps in shock because everything
happened so fast as many weren't even completely sure of what
just happened.
Although the two halted their steps, Michael did not stop as he
dashed at him as fast as he could without using any Arch energy.
Even without Lightning Dash, the training he underwent made him
extremely agile, strong, and fast.
The booze slowed down the two guys' reflection speed. Wasting
no time, he elbowed one guy on the side of his face. The jaw was
separated by the elbow as he went down without a scream. The
very next moment, he twisted his body, swinging his right leg. The
side whip kick instantly knocked the other guy, producing a short
thud sound.
At this time, the rest of Holman's friends began to rush at Michael

from his front, left and right. With a swift kick to the gut, he sent
the guy coming from the front stumbling back. Then he twisted his
body, sending a fist into the guy's face. Michael felt his knuckles
breaking the guy's nose. The blood splashed across the ice as
well as stained Michael's fist.
The last guy suddenly started to walk backward in fear because

he was the last one standing. The one who was checking on
Holman already dragged Holman out of the way from the fight.
Even after being shaken violently, Holman still did not recover his
consciousness.
"I told you the odds are against you" Michael said, kicking the guy
who he sent stumbling backward with a kick to the gut before,
finally knocking him out.
Thop!
"You come here!" the last guy screamed at the one who was
pretending to check on Holman. One could see that the guy was
freaked out seeing his friends getting knocked out one by one.
This time, Michael did not rush at him but just picked up a half-
drunk rum bottle from the ground. The crowd was stunned at the
scene as they now stared at Michael like he was some kind of
freak. They watched Michael walk towards the last guy with the
bottle in his hand.
"You..."
The guy mumbled as he tried to unsheath his cutlass. Michael

grabbed the guy's hand stopping him from reaching his sword,
"Next time, run away"
Crack!
Michael smashed the bottle in the guy's head with enough force to
knock him down. Out of the seven men, six were knocked out. He
turned his gaze towards the last man who was on the ground
beside Holman,
"Tell your friends, this ends right here. If they try anything silly,
that'd be the last thing they do" After warning the guy, he just
turned around, walking towards Gaya and Gibson.
"Put this in your ear"? he placed an earpiece in Gibson's hand,

whispering to put it into his ear. Among the chaos, no one noticed
the little exchange between Michael and Gibson. The onlookers
were too focused on losing their money to Shorty.
After Michael left the area, Shorty did not linger around as he
knew the pirates would rob him blind if he stayed. Shorty gathered
his crew before running behind Gibson.
*******************************
After the fight, Michael and Gaya walked into a dark alley near the
tavern. Michael had to lose the crowd as some people who lost
coins because of him might try to start another fight. As much as
he could, he wanted to stay off the grid without showing any of his
powers before he could get a complete idea about this part of the
world, getting into regular fights would ruin his plan.
"Where are we going?"? Gaya asked. The place was dark,

nothing but trash to accompany them in the alley. The tall
buildings on either side prevented much of the sunlight from
lighting the alley, hence the darkness.
"You're gonna come down or keep following us" Michael stopped

walking and shouted looking at the top of the wooden building
beside him. Gaya was confused but she soon saw movements up
on the roof. Just a few seconds after Michael's shout, the hooded
figure leaped down from the top of the building and landed in front
of them comfortably.
"Who the fuck is he?" Gaya asked Michael while he just stood
there calmly, waiting for the hooded figure to start speaking.
"You made me" the hooded figure spoke with a thick accent. He
was standing at least 6ft 5inches with enough muscles to compete
in a body-building competition back on earth. Yet he seemed so
agile.
"I noticed. It'd be nice if you tell me why did you choose me and
what do you want"
"Call it a gut feeling. I'm putting up together a team and after what
I saw, I'd say my gut feeling was right"
"It was you who set up that Holman guy, wasn't it?" Gaya
connected the dots as the hooded figure's silence confirmed her
theory.
"Team for doing what?"
"A simple retrieval. There are risks but you'll 3million in gold
before and 3million after the job's done"
"6million for a simple retrieving, I'm interested"
He didn't believe someone would pay 6million for a simple

retrieving job. However, he wanted to learn more about this part of
the world and its people. Doing this job would not only make him
rich but also help him gather more information. Besides he wanted
to know who's willing to pour out that many coins and for what.
Even if the team just consisted of four people and the same
payday for everyone, it would cost the one running the operation
24 million. If someone was willing to pay 24 million, he knew what
he wanted to be retrieved must be worth it.
"Meet me at the docks in eight hours, we'll be headed to Gisel"

The moment the hooded figure mentioned the name Gisel,
Michael's brows arched up. Kingdom Gisel was his destination, it
was where the source of Nightcrawler's magic radiation hiding
artifact. He paid the system a hefty sum to get the location, he
even left the demon soul stone back at the Abyssal to get his
hands on the artifact before anyone else could. Now it seemed
like someone's already putting together a team to get the artifact.
Before Michael could ask any further questions, the hooded figure
used a grappling hook similar to Michael's to reach the rooftop
and disappear. The design of the grappling hook was different
from Michael's mark 3 yet he was surprised by the device.
According to Aria, the Southerners always compensated for the
lack of Arch energy with technology and science. Now that he saw
the hooded figure use such a device, he began to form an idea
about this part of the world.
"Gisel? It's where we're going. Somehow I can't believe it's just a
coincidence"
"Either way, we'll see this through," said Michael.
"Where do you want me?"
"Get to Gibson and follow us discreetly. I'm doing this alone" He

gave a gentle pat on her shoulder before leaving the alley. Since
they didn't want the hooded figure to know the Silent Reaper
belonged to them, they had to be cautious, they had to keep their
cards close to their chest without revealing them because they
could be used to their advantage if the hooded figure tried to
double-cross them after the job was done.
Chapter 236 - Undead Island II
Dusk came sooner than expected, the last of the sun's rays
cosseted behind soft grey clouds. The sandy streets of Pirate
cove took on the look of an old photograph, every familiar thing a
shade of grey. Slowly the view faded to blackness and the night
began, slowly letting the stars in the sky shine. The sound of
waves hitting the sea boulders as well as the birds chirping
radiated a soothing effect to everyone on the island.
Right at the moment, Michael stood on the docks looking at the

sun disappearing into the horizon. He felt peaceful as the time
flew by without his notice. Soon when the light of the sun
completely vanished, a merchant ship sailed towards him to dock
at the docks.
"Hop in" After the ship stopped, Michael saw a 7ft gigantic man
throw him a plank to get on board the ship. The moment he
stepped on the upper deck, he noticed a handful of crew running
around the deck.
"Welcome on board, new guy"? Michael had to look up to see his

face. He had ruffled short-length hair, well-defined muscles like a
bodybuilder. He only wore brown breeches as well as black boots,
nothing to cover his upper body. On his behind, Michael noticed a
huge Warhammer hanging on.
Coupled with his dark skin, the man could give a heart attack to
any soft-hearted person. Regardless of his terrifying body, he
welcomed Michael with a genuine smile on his face. He also
reached out for a handshake,
"how're you doing?" Michael shook his hand with a smile.
"Hey gang, move your asses over here, the new guy's here!" he
shouted with his thick voice. Soon after his shout, a group of
people walked out from the captain's cabin. He saw a young short
golden-haired girl with a crossbow, a brown-haired youngster with
a rapier hanging on his waist, a short person with a hood covering
his face, and finally, a youngster with big round glasses on his
face.
Michael looked around to see the hooded figure he met in the

alley but he wasn't with the group in front of him.
"So what's your specialty?" the golden-haired girl asked. She was
an average-looking girl, fair skin, square jaws, hazel eyes. the
only unique thing about her was the tattoo on her neck, a tattoo of
a raven. Unlike the man who welcomed Michael, there was no
friendly smile on her face, she seemed as she was pissed off at
someone.
"Depends" he just shrugged.
"That ray of sunshine is Marcella" the big man began to introduce

them one by one to Michael,
"He calls himself Brownie" he pointed at the brown-haired

youngster,
"I think it's something to do with his brown hair" the big man
whispered with a chuckle,
After introducing Marcella and Brownie, the big man pointed his
finger at the short hooded figure,
"That's Jessie," the big man said as Jessie waved his hand,
"You might wanna hide your things from him" the big man
whispered again before pointing his finger at the glasses-wearing
youngster,
"I'm Jonah, welcome...welcome aboard" before the big guy could,

the youngster introduced himself with an awkward smile.
"You can call me, Logan" Logan again reached out for a
handshake,
"David" Once again, Michael shook his hand,
"You got quite a grip, David" Logan gave a friendly pat on

Michael's back.
"I don't see any piece on you, David. Where we are going, you'll
need something" Marcella said,
"Let's bring him up to speed" Michael turned his head towards the
captain's cabin to see a bald muscular man with various tattoos
covering his neck walking towards him. Judging by the height and
the device strapped around his wrist, he knew this guy is the
hooded figure he met earlier.
The man had tanned skin, a round face with small lively eyes. He
was not as tall as Logan but not short as Jessie either.
"Follow me"
"That's Ross, in case you didn't know" they all followed Ross
behind into the captain's cabin. When they opened the door,
Michael saw another man wearing full leather armor standing
behind a round oak table. The armor looked sturdy. The man was
an inch taller than Ross, neatly combed his short black hair to the
side. On his back, Michael saw a shiny silver round shield as well
as a long sword hanging on his waist.
After everyone entered the room, Ross closed the room while the
man tossed a paycube towards Michael
"Your advance is in the paycube, you can cash in any of the banks
in Southern Continent"
"Alright, I assume you're all acquainted,? so let's start the briefing

"
"What happened to Rowan? And we don't know anything about

this guy" Marcella's words slightly annoyed Michale but he let
Ross handle her.
"Rowan went to the Island with the recon team and the less we
know about each other is best"
"Quit whining Marcella, David seems capable to me," Logan still

had a smile plastered across his face yet he sounded like he
doesn't like Marcella very much. In Michael's eyes, the two of
them were polar opposites, Logan seemed like a nice friendly guy
while Marcella seemed like a typical cold-hearted bitch.
"David, you know where we are going exactly?" the man in armor
asked Michael,
"Ross said we're going to the Gisel Kingdom for a simple retrieval
job. But I know it might not be that simple, considering the payday.
So bring me up to speed"
The man nodded and continued, placing his finger on the map on
the table. Michael saw he was pointing at a small island near the
Kingdom Gisel.
"Harford Isle, now known as the zombie island" Michael was

genuinely surprised by the man's words.
"You call them Netherels," Ross said.
It was obvious Ross gathered information about him at the tavern

through one of his crew members. However, by the look of Ross,
it was evident that the crew members kept their mouths shut
about Michael using arch energy inside the void line.
"You dealt with them before?" the man asked,
"Yeah, killed a few"
" you're okay with venturing into an island filled with fucking
undead because you killed a few" Jessie, the hooded figure
opened his mouth for the first time. He had the voice of a
teenager, if Michael had to guess, he would say Jessie is eighteen
or nineteen years old.
"As some of you may know, the annual hunting of the undead
starts two days from now. We'll enter the island as hunters, reach
the center of the island, get what we need, and get the hell out of
there. This is the short version of the plan"
"The longer version is, the island is divided into three circles. The
outer circle has fewer undead creatures, hence less dangerous.
The deeper we move forward towards the center of the island, the
dangerous it'd be. After we get through the outer circle, we'll meet
the recon team here" Ross pointed at the river on the map
"The recon team went there with professional builders. If

everything went according to the plan, there'd be a ship waiting for
us "
"How did the recon team enter the island before the hunting
season begins?" Logan asked, looking at Ross and the man in
armor.
"Let's just say my employer called in some favors," said the man
in the armor.
"Moving on. After we get on the boat, we'll travel straight to the
center of the island where we believe the undead are building a
temple"
Except for Marcella and the man in armor, everyone else was
stunned by Ross's words. Back in Abyssal, Dular was using rituals
and a mysterious book to control the Netherels to do his bidding. If
what Ross said was correct, someone on this island or something
was controlling the Netherels just like Dular.
"Undead building a temple? Are you kidding us right now? The

last time I heard, undead can't think for themselves" Logan threw
his hands in the air, refusing to believe Ross's words.
"The normal undead can't but the alphas can," Marcella said as
Ross and the man in armor nodded,
"Alphas?" Michael asked as he wanted to know more about the

alphas that Marcella was talking about.
"New breed of Undead. We believe something in the island is
mutating the undead, the alphas are the completely mutated
ones-" Ross was intercepted by the man in armor when he was
going to finish his sentence,
"As for what's mutating the undead, it's no one's concern"
The others might have no idea but Michael knew what might be
mutating them, the same artifact he's looking for.
"What about the terrain of the island?" Logan asked,
"The island is a rainforest. Hope you've all brought umbrellas

people" Ross joked.
Everyone looked gloomy except Michael. The rainforest would

give him the advantage to double-cross them and disappear after
getting his hands on the artifact. Plus, he firmly believed that most
of these people would die before reaching the artifact because he
already injected himself with the vaccine for Netherel bite. He had
to buy a few herbs from the system but with the help of his
alchemy knowledge and ample amount of Netherel samples, he
was able to make the vaccine.
"Rain and forest, the two things I hate the most" Logan rubbed his
temples.
"If you need any last-minute supply or a weapon, go get them

now. We'll leave the docks in one hour"
Michael was the first to leave the room after Ross's words. He had
to retrieve the Doombringer and the mark 3 grappling hook from
his space ring without anyone noticing.
Chapter 237 - Uninvited Guest
"I thought you were a sword kinda guy" when Michael stepped
onto the upper deck, Logan came to him with a surprised look on
his face. His doom bringer was majestically hanging on his
behind, gently reflecting the moonlight.
"It looks heavy" Logan's eyes were sparkling looking at the

Doombringer. Michael could tell Logan's craving to hold the
Warhammer in his hand.
"It is" Michael took the Doombringer from his behind and twisted
the handle stylishly. Because he was not using any Arch energy,
the weight of the Doombringer made his biceps flex out. After his
intense training, his body became toned and each muscle in his
body had a definite definition.
"Can I hold it?" Logan looked like a big 7ft baby staring at a candy.
"Sure" Michael chuckled as he handed over the Doombringer to

Logan.
The big Logan was excitedly smiling but when he grabbed the
handle of Doombringer, his smile disappeared.
"Dang it, it's so freakin heavy" Michael was slightly surprised to

see a muscle mountain like Logan struggling to lift the
Doombringer without using all of his strength. The weight training
plus the Serpent style fighting technique changed his body from
the molecular level, making him stronger and faster than most
people. This was the reason why Gaya was able to break wood
logs like they were eggshells, she was damn strong.
Now that he had undergone the training with the help of the
system, he was stronger and faster than Gaya herself and on a
different level compared to anyone in the Southern Continent.
"Whoo, you're stronger than you look, David" Logan said, putting
down the Doombringer on the floor by its head.
"Work on your weight lifting big boy" Michael gave a friendly pat
on Logan's shoulder with a chuckle.
"Alright guys, we're leaving" Ross stood at the helm, preparing to

leave the docks. After hearing his shout, the ship's crew began to
unravel the sails.
The ship slowly started to move as they all felt a sudden jerk.
Michael walked over to the edge of the ship, leaned on the edge,
looking at the starry night above the peaceful ocean.
"So what do you think about the team David?" Logan leaned on
the wooden railing beside him.
"No clue, what's your take?"
"You know what, I'm glad you're here because you're the most
normal person on the ship" Michael looked over his shoulder back
at the team and couldn't help but agree with Logan. Brownie was
muttering something under his breath while Jessie, the hooded
figure checking the crates lined up near the mainsail pole. On the
far end of the ship, Jonah appeared to be occupied with the starry
night. Although Marcella seemed normal, Michael knew she would
be the last person to talk to in the entire ship.
Logan was dead wrong about him being normal but compared to
the others, he was the friendliest and normal-looking person on
the ship.
"Ross is kind of the team captain here. Marcella is our tracker,

Jessie is the thief, I don't know how a thief could help with our
mission. I heard Brownie is some kind of undead expert and
Jonah, I have no idea why we are bringing him along with us"?
Michael took a mental note in his mind. If he wanted to double-
cross them at the end, he needed to know everything there is to
know about them.
"How do you know all this?" he asked Logan,

"Because I was the first to get recruited by Ross"
Michael nodded, "and let me guess, your specialty is killing

undead"
"Undead, overgrown beasts, bandits, etcetera etcetera. The

mercenary job requires killing pretty much all the above"
Being mercenary wasn't very much different from being an

adventurer. They both would get the job done for an amount.
Since Logan didn't seem like a genius guy, he made the right
choice by becoming a mercenary in Michael's mind. Also, Logan
seemed like a nice easy going guy.
"I guess you're also here to keep the undead from killing the team"
"Yeah, you can say that"
"Why did you come to the Southern Continent anyways? I thought

you cultivators hated crossing the void line"
"You know?" Michael was slightly surprised but he could tell Ross
might have told Logan about where he came from.
"Come one, the way you dress is kinda dead give away. Besides,
H and Ross told us about you"
"H? You mean the guy in armor?"
"Yeah, no one here knows his real name, he just goes by H. I

don't know what his deal is but he rubbed me the wrong way.
Whatever, tell me David, do you miss being a cultivator? What
could have possibly made you come here?"
Michael didn't feel like Logan was prying but was genuinely
curious about the reason for his trip to the Southern Continent.
Besides, it was a logical question as cultivators rarely came to the
Southern continent.? No matter how powerful a cultivator was, if
he crossed the void line, he would instantly turn into a mortal.
"Well, I like to travel and always wanted to see what the Southern
Continent look like"
"Let me tell you about the Southern Continent. It's like a shiny
apple that is rotten in its core. The Southern continent is infested
with slavery, racism, war, hunger, plague, and all the evil shit you
can think of. Trust me, your place would seem like heaven after
you spend a few weeks in any of the Southern Kingdoms " He
saw Logan's smile disappear from his face for the first time. He
always looked like a jolly guy yet when he talked about the
Southern Continent, he looked gloomy.
"As a mercenary, I saw my share of evil shits. This world has gone
to hell David, all we can do is ride out the wave, you know what
I'm saying?"
"It gonna sound corny but Logan, you can still clean this world, if
you follow the right person"
For a moment Logan stared at Michael,
"Nah" Logan shook his head, "After getting paid for this job, I'm
gonna put down my hammer, buy a land, house and live the rest
of my life in the most beautiful place in this world, Aston Village"
Michael was disappointed to hear him but he couldn't blame the

guy for thinking to settle down. If Logan showed any signs to
continue being a mercenary, Michael would have paid him to work
under him. He knew forcing Logan to work under him was just a
waste of time, so he decided to let Logan do whatever he wanted.
Besides, it was unlikely for all of the team to survive on the island.
He fought Netherels and he knew how strong and deadly they
could be. If the artifact was making the Netherels kinda smart,
they might use the rainforest to their advantage and if they did, it
would be extremely hard for the team to kill Netherels.
"Where is this Aston Village?"
"Gisel Kingdom. Since you like to travel, I'd be thrilled to give you
a tour of our humble village after the mission. What do you think
about that?"
"Sure thing"
"Wonderful" Logan gave a friendly pat on Michael's back with a
wide grin on his face.
"Everythings connected to Gisel," Michael thought to himself.

Michael already decided to conquer the Gisel Kingdom first, by
conquering, he wanted to control the senate or most of the
senators.
He had no time or desire to play the king for now. His goal was to
form two armies, a naval army using the pirates and a military
using gladiators and the slaves of the Southern Continent.
"I got to take a leak" Logan rubbed his belly before leaving the
place.
"Gaya, do you have eyes on the ship?" He established a

connection to Gaya through his earpiece.
"Yep, we're perfectly blended with the darkness and following your
ship"
Michael looked around slowly except he couldn't see the Silent

Reaper or any other ships following them.
"I can't see you which means others can't too. It'd be tricky after
the sunrise"
"Don't worry about us, we know their destination so we'll make it

to the island faster than you are and wait for you there" said Gaya.
After exchanging a few words with Gaya, Michael cut the

connection before someone could notice him moving his mouth.
Marcella was always looking at everyone as she was spying on
them. She seemed particularly suspicious of Michael for some
reason. Michael noticed this but he chose not to make any moves
on Marcella because if everything went according to his plan, she
wouldn't be a problem and most probably the undead would take
care of her.
Thud!
Suddenly Michael heard a loud thud sound coming from one of
the crates lined up near the mainsail pole. Marcella immediately
raised her crossbows as the others who heard the sound turned
their gazes at the crates.
"Captain!"
"It's coming from one of those crates"
"What do you mean crates? I loaded them, there's nothing but

food in those crates"
Michael noticed Ross leaving the helm while Marcella loaded a

bolt into her crossbow, ready to fire at whatever was making the
sound.
"Let me out!"
This time it was not a thud sound but a voice of a young girl came
from the crates.
"What's going on here?"
Michael saw H, the man in armor coming out of the captain's

cabin after the commotion. He looked at Marcella and then at
Ross,
"Someone's in there," Marcella coldly said.
"I'm coming out of this bloody crate!"

Chapter 238 - Another Team Is
Hunting For The Artifact
The crew members quickly unsheathed their cutlasses to attack

the intruder as soon as she came out of the crate. Pretty much
everyone had their weapon in their hand except Michael and
Ross. Michael really didn't think that whoever was inside the crate
posed a threat, hence he still seemed calm. On the contrary,
Ross's face had shock and confusion plastered on it.
"Don't attack" Ross declared, his voice contained a tinge of anger

as well as anxiety. Since Ross was the captain, the crew nodded
as they slowly stepped back a few steps from the crates. Marcella
though still kept her crossbow aimed at the crates.
Soon afterward, the top of the wooden crate slowly opened as a

young girl in her late teens stood up from the crate. The girl had
black hair, a beautiful oval face, round lively blue eyes, and
smooth silky skin. Although the girl wasn't a kingdom toppling
beauty or something like that, she would attract many youngsters'
attention.
"Maria, what the hell are you doing here?"
Marcella turned her gaze towards Ross, she was surprised. Not
only Marcella but everyone on the ship was surprised by Ross's
words.
"Ross, who is she?" H asked with a deep frown on his face. His
voice was not as friendly as before. The girl just stared at Ross's
face, expecting him to answer the question instead of introducing
herself.
"She's my daughter and she's leaving" Ross tried to grab her by
her elbow but she swatted away Ross's hands before he could
touch her.
"Daughter?"
"Ross has a Daughter?"
"What is she doing on the ship?"
The sudden appearance of Ross's daughter made the crew

gossip as the silent atmosphere of the ship disappeared.
"How did she get into the crates?" Jessie, the thief, opened his
mouth, directing the question at Ross himself.
"Maria, whatever the reason you have for being here, I don't care.
You need to leave" his words were like that of the father, caring
yet strict.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm coming with you to the undead
island. Whether you like it or not"? the girl folded her arms against
her chest, refusing to listen to Ross. For a few moments, no one
could hear a sound except for the sound of waves hitting the
ship's hull. Everyone was stunned listening to the girl. Many
wouldn't dare to look in the way of the undead island yet Maria
was trying to go to the island for some reason.
"Come over here" This time, Ross didn't let her swat his arms
away as he grabbed her by her elbow. Everyone saw Ross
dragging the girl to a corner of the ship, away from prying eyes
and ears.
"You" Marcella called out one of the crew members staring at

Ross and Maria. Her shout immediately brought back the crew
member to his senses.
"Huh?"
"What was supposed to be in those crates?" Marcella asked,

"Aw shit," the crew member cursed as some of the crew members
began to sweat bullets.
Seeing their reaction to her question, Michael's curiosity piqued,
"Food, we were keeping two days worth of ration in those crates"
Right after the crew members answered, even Michael's calm

expression changed. The ship at least contained fifty people
including the team, if they didn't have food to fill those bellies, they
would be in big trouble before even reaching the island itself. A
big person like Logan would have to eat an ample amount of food
to sustain his body except that they seemed to be lacking food.
"Tell me you keep extra ration somewhere here" Marcella gritted

her teeth. The crew member was shivering and walking backward
in fear.
"We...we...do" Her anger somewhat lowered down by his answer,
"It could only feed everyone for a day," another crew member
said. They were short on rations as the journey to the island would
take two days, if the wind was on their side rather than against
them. Maria had already compromised the mission by throwing
away their food, even Michael had to eat if he didn't want to use
precious Arch Energy to sustain his body.
H and Ross were busy talking to Maria while the rest of them
looked at each other's gloomy faces.
"You idiots!" Marcella lost her temper. She yelled at the crew
members,
"what were you doing when she was throwing away the food?!
How about I throw your useless asses off the ship?"
"Calm down, no one's thrown anyone off the ship" Logan

interfered before the situation escalated into a fight.
"We'll just have to manage with the ration we have and try to-"
"Try to do what? You want us to fish or magically create food for
all of us" Marcella rebuked,
"If we could divide the ration into-"
"Shut up, glasses" When Jonah tried to offer a solution, she shut
him up with a shout. She was really pissing off Michael. Instead of
thinking of a solution to their problem, she kept throwing temper
tantrums. In other words, she was being an A grade bitch.
"Jonah, go and figure out how we should divide the rations,"

Brownie said, giving a friendly pat on Jonah's shoulder.
"If anyone has prior experience of fishing, get to work. I assume

you keep fishing equipment in the ship"
"Yeah we do"
On top of being an expert on the undead, Brownie seemed like a

guy with good leadership skills. After the crew members ran to the
lower decks, Marcella returned to her quarters uttering no words.
"Do you know how to fish on a running ship, David?" Logan

asked, rubbing his temple.
"Nope, how about you?"
"I was kinda hoping you would lend me some fish"? Logan
chuckled, regardless of their current situation.
*****************************
"What were you thinking Maria? The undead island is not a place
you would go to despise your father"
"I'm going because of you, to fix your mess"
Ross was stunned as she continued,
"I told you not to do anything when you found the weed in my
locker but what did you do? Interrogated Johnny like he's some
kind of criminal and informed him to the academy '' she was
shivering in anger at her father. If it wasn't for people standing
nearby, she would have shouted to vent her anger.
"Every time you enter into my life, you fuck up everything. Why
can't you just be a normal father for once?" her voice broke at the
end,
"I don't regret my actions, Maria. But you will if you come to the
undead island. You're gonna jump onto the boat and go home,
end of discussion"
She stomped the wooden floor in anger, "I can come with you and
you can keep me safe or I'll go to the island by myself and
probably die. Either way, I'm going after Johnny"
After Maria's mother died because of Netherel Bite, he always

drowned himself in work, commanding a spartan unit of Gisel.
Maria always blamed Ross for killing her mother instead of locking
her in a room until someone finds a cure for Netherel bite.
Coupled with her anger and Ross's separation from Maria
distorted their relationship.
"Johnny is not the right guy for you Maria. He's not worth this risk,
please for once quit being stubborn"
Ross begged her to reconsider going to the undead island yet she
seemed resolute in her decision. Since this was the hunting
season, there would be many ships approaching the undead
island in the next few days and he knew she would be able to get
into any of those ships to reach the island. He would never forgive
himself if he let her go alone and die, hence he reluctantly decided
to bring her along with them. At Least he would be there with her
to protect her.
The island already took his wife away from him, he would never
let the island do the same to his daughter.
"You stay with me all the time" Ross took a deep breath and
spoke.
"Do you have any idea where Johnny might be on the island?
We'll be much safer with the team and they won't come looking for
Johnny with us"
She retrieved a map from the bag hanging on her waist,
"My friend took this from one of the crew members of Johnny's
ship"
She handed over the map to Ross. The moment he opened the
map, he was stunned because the 'X' mark on the map was the
location of the artifact he's looking for. This meant that another
team is looking for the same artifact as he is.
"He's going to the island's center"
She frowned looking at her father's serious look on his face,
"What does it mean?"
"It means he's with the team that searching for the exact thing as
we are"
While they were in the middle of the conversation, H came back.

Ross handed over the map to him. H too had the same look on his
face as Ross when he laid his eyes on the map,
"Another team is hunting for the artifact H, do you know about

this?"
H shook his head,
"Thanks to your daughter we have no food to sustain for more

than a day. Now this, we have to sail faster Ross" H handed over
the map back to Ross before looking at Maria,
"What are you gonna do about your daughter?"
"She's coming with us"
"You kidding me? She's a civilian, not to mention a liability. She's

already compromised the mission by throwing away the food, I
won't let her jeopardize the mission further"
"This is my operation and my decision H. If you don't like the way I

do things, you can report me to the senate and we both know who
they gonna support"
H knew his words were nothing but the truth. Until they could find
the artifact, H knew he had to rely on Ross's skills. The senate
leaders personally appointed Ross for this mission, the last thing
H wanted is to piss off the senate leaders which would piss off his
employer.
"This is a bad idea," H said before walking away.
"This is" Ross said to himself. Whether he likes it or not, Ross

knew H is right but because of his daughter's stubbornness, he
had no other choice.
Doombringer
While Jonah was trying to calculate the appropriate amount of

ration one should consume, Michael and Logan were sitting
leisurely on the ship's ledge with a fishing rod in their hand.
Michael's expertise in fishing came from watching others do in the
movies while Logan had no expertise at all.
"Some say fishing will calm your soul"
"It is kinda relaxing, Logan" the full moon in the sky, the sound of
the ocean, and the slowly moving sail ship made fishing relaxing
regardless of Michael's inexperience in fishing. In his previous life,
he never had time to enjoy such activities. Plus, he always liked to
spend his little bit of free time playing video games, improving his
skills as well as watching movies or tv shows. Only since he came
to this world, he was able to enjoy simple things in life like fishing.
Even if he couldn't catch a single fish, he was enjoying peace and

calm.
The little chit-chat with Logan gave him an idea about the
Southern Continent.
"I heard cultivators don't sleep or eat. It's weird, but you don't have
to scrounge the god's green earth just to fill your belly huh"
"It's bs, it's not that cultivators don't eat or sleep, it's that we don't
need to eat or sleep to sustain our body. Take me for example, I
eat and sleep back there like you people here"
Logan started to pour out all the questions about cultivators and
cultivation as Michael answered his questions one by one. He
answered Logan's questions in a manner that would tempt Logan
to try to become a cultivator. Currently, it wasn't impossible for the
Southerners to become cultivators after leaving the void area aka
the Southern Continent but most of them tend to have extremely
slow cultivation speed as it would be difficult for their bodies to
adapt to the new environment.
The time flew quickly as the sun started to rise on the horizon,
painting the sky in bright orange with its golden rays. The upper
deck slowly began to get filled with more and more crew
members. After sleeping last night with an empty belly, they all
seemed weak and exhausted.
The sun wasn't the only thing Michael saw on the horizon, he
could see a merchant galleon ship
"Look! A ship" One crew member shouted, his voice contained joy.
Even Logan began to grin widely looking at a merchant ship.
Merchant ships were usually filled with rations and they could buy
rations to fix their current situation.
Michael put down the fishing rod on the deck as Ross came out of
the captain's cabin with his daughter. Despite the mess she
caused, Maria looked refreshed after a beauty sleep. It was
obvious Ross gave his potion of ration to his daughter as any
good father would do.
Looking at the crew members bouncing in excitement, Ross took

out his monocular to examine the merchant ship approaching
them. The first thing he examined was the flag flying above the
sails. The white flag had a symbol of lotus,
"Esmail merchants" Ross recognized the ship's flag, so did H. H

heaved a sigh of relief as they would be able to buy rations from
the merchant ship but Ross had black lines on his forehead,
"They are far away from their usual routes"
Everyone had a relieved look on their faces except Ross. He

knew Esmail merchants and their usual routes, this area of the
ocean was far away from their routes. Hence he was skeptical,
unlike others.
After talking to the team as well as some of the crew members,
Ross realized one thing, they all blamed Maria for their situation.
They were right to do so. He knew he can't keep her absolutely
safe all by himself, he would need the team's support in keeping
her safe after entering the island. If there was bad blood between
them and Maria, keeping her safe would be a difficult task.
Because of his love for Maria, he ignored all his doubts about the
merchant ship. Slowly but steadily the merchant ship approached
them while the crew members waved their hands at the merchant
ship, calling out for help.
Since Michael had no idea about the merchant ship or its routes
like Ross, he too felt relieved to see the ship approaching.
Although the fishing was indeed relaxing, at the end of the day he
had to eat.
"I'll go get the coins" H walked back into the captain's cabin to
bring the coins. The merchant ship was now only fifty meters or so
away from them. Ross's tensed body loosened a? bit looking at
the crew members on the merchant ship. They were all wearing a
shirt with the Esmail merchant logo embroidered on their chest.
Michael was watching the ship approaching from the far end of
the ship with Logan. Little by little, the merchant ship's shadow
darkened the deck as the merchant ship stopped beside them.
The merchant ship was perfectly aligned sidewards
Soon, a wooden plank dropped from the merchant ship to their

ship. After the merchant ship came to a halt, Michael was able to
see the faces of everyone on the ship clearly. As he looked at
them, he couldn't help frowning. They all seemed tense, slightly
trembling. Even the one walking the plant to them had no smile on
his face which was weird because a merchant would always
typically smile.
Michael stared at the old man approaching them, he was partially

bald and like most of the merchants, he too had a fat belly.
Looking at the sweat on the old man's face and the way the
merchant ship perfectly aligned sideways, he began to have a bad
feeling about this.
"Pirates!" the moment the old man stepped onto the deck, he
shouted.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
But it was too late as the merchant ship bombarded their ship with
cannonballs. Logan was thrown away by the force of the impact
near him as Michael jumped away to cover himself.
"Open fire!"
Ross leaped towards the helm to move the ship after shouting an
order at the crew. The sudden attack caught the crew members
completely by surprise as a few of them were blown to pieces by
the cannon fire.
The air reeked of gunpowder and wooden splinters flew

everywhere, inflicting major and minor wounds to the crew.
Logan was crawling somewhere to hide behind a cover yet the

gigantic sledgehammer on his back slowed down his movements.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The merchant ship started their second-round while Ross's crews

were busy running chaotically around the deck to save their lives.
"I want everything valuable on the ship!" Michael heard a shout as

he looked at the merchant ship to see a middle-aged man with a
greasy red beard at the helm. He wore a long red coat with two
sabers hanging on his waist. Like every pirate he met in this
world, he was dirty, spoke in a thick accent, and chugging rum like
water.
"Hahahaha" also he laughed like a maniac looking at the carnage

he was causing.? Following his mad laughter, pirates who were
previously hiding in the lower decks began to swarm out of the
ship to pillage Ross's ship.
"Watch out!" H shouted at Logan as Michael turned his gaze away

from the maniac on the opposite ship to see one of the sail poles
falling in the direction of Logan.
The speed of pole falling was much greater than Logan crawling
away, therefore, if one didn't stop the pole or help Logan, he
would die. Right at the moment, everyone was fighting for their
lives and unable to help the others like Logan. The reason for
Logan's state was the first cannonball that landed just near him,
the force knocked out Logan. If someone else was in Logan's
place, the force would have killed them.
The pirates easily jumped onto the ship and began to attack
everyone they saw. Michale quickly took the Doombringer from his
back, not to kill any pirates but to save Logan. He threw the
Doombringer aiming at the sail pole that was about to crush
Logan.
The Doombringer soared through the sky,
"Shit" Just when Logan was about to accept his death, he saw the
sail pole blasted into smithereens.
Thud!
He covered his eyes to prevent the wooden splinters from blinding

him but he clearly heard a loud thud noise amidst the sound of
battle. When he opened his eyes, he noticed Michael's
Doombringer lying on the floor.
"Get your ass up, big guy"? Logan saw David reaching his hand
out to help him up.
Logan didn't waste any time as he quickly stood up before another
disaster hit him.
"I owe you one"
Michael just nodded, "let's kill some pirates' ' He clutched the
Doombringer tighter. Logan also took his huge sledgehammer
from his behind with a blood-thirsty look on his face. Since they
almost killed him, Logan wanted to pay them back ten times back
by crushing them with his sledgehammer.
Even though there were many people on the ship, one pirate
picked Michael as his target. With a curved saber on his hand, he
rushed at Michael.
Looking at the pirate running towards him, he swung the

Doombringer as fast as he could. His speed caught the pirate off
guard, the Warhammer hit the pirate's rib cage before his saber
could cut Michael. The pirate's rib cage caved as he was sent
flying off the ship. The blood, bone, and pieces of lung splattered
across the deck. His death was horrible, even surprising Michael.
Until now, Michael only used Doombringer to kill Netherels. This

was the first time he killed a mortal. When he attacked the pirate,
it only felt as if he was crushing a bag filled with nothing but
eggshells. There was no resistance as the Doombringer crushed
the pirate without an effort.
Chapter 240 - Brutal Killing
Spree
On the other side, Logan swung his sledgehammer, crushing two

pirates' heads. The pirates were prepared to fight light-armed
people like Marcella but not prepared to battle fighters with heavy
weapons such as Michael or Logan. Although some pirates
avoided running to Logan seeing his muscular build, there were
still some daredevils who tried to kill Logan.
Michael was an unstoppable force on the ship. Everywhere he

went, blood and bones splattered across. The busiest person on
the ship was Ross as he was surrounded by five pirates, the
pirates tried to kill the captain of the ship, ending the battle before
they lose more of their brethren.
"What's taking you all bastards this long? finish them off" the
pirate captain shouted at the pirates.
More and more pirates came out from the lower deck after his
shout. Michael really wondered how many pirates are hiding in the
merchant ship.
"I had enough of this"? he brought down Doombringer's wrath

upon another pirate. The head exploded, spraying blood and grey
matter all over Michael. His grey long coat was painted red. The
blood not only drenched his face but also painted his face red.
With the Doombringer in his hand, he looked like the God of War
reincarnated.
Since Logan was fighting relatively nearby to Michael, he noticed

a few of Michael's brutal kills. When the blood-covered face turned
towards him, Logan's heart skipped a beat in shock, it wasn't as
he never saw someone kill pirates but the way Michael killed them
and the thick blood and the broken bones on him that shocked
Logan. It gave him a devilish look.
"Help Ross!"
Logan quickly finished off the pirate he was fighting. He nodded at

David, quickly moving towards Ross. He thought David's gonna
cover him but his jaw dropped when he saw David leaping onto
the merchant ship that was filled with pirates.
"Hey!" Logan was stupefied, he never for a second thought David

would decide to take the fight to the pirates without backup. There
was no one to fight beside him on the ship like on Ross's ship.
Anyone with some battle experience could tell there's no way
David would survive fighting the pirates alone.
"What's he doing?!" Marcella also noticed David jumping to the

pirate ship. She screamed at Logan but Logan asked the same
question to himself.


Michael landed right on the center of the pirate ship.

Unintentionally he landed like the iron man which triggered the
system to award him with badass points.
"What the?" Even the pirate captain never expected someone to

jump onto his ship. He was surprised but looking at the blood on
the young man's body, his killing intent rose up. It was evident that
the young man killed many of his men brutally to get painted in
blood like this. Even the floor he landed quickly had tiny puddles
of blood that trickled from his body and the Doombringer.
Boom!
Before the pirates could attack him, Michael swung the
Doombringer as fast as he could at the mainsail pole. As
expected, when the Doombringer collided with the sail pole, the
wooden pole blasted into countless pieces of splinters. The force
of the hit knocked back a few of the pirates standing around the
sail pole while the splinters impaled some of the pirates, inflicting
some amount of damage.
"Bastard" If it was his ship, he would have lost his mind if

someone destroyed the mainsail pole which would cost a fortune
to repair. Since it was the case as he recently captured the
merchant ship and posed as merchants to pillage other ships, he
was mostly just annoyed to see the youngster destroy the ship.
The force also slightly pushed Michael back. Using this

opportunity, one pirate quickly slashed at Michael with his cutlass.
The training did make his body several times stronger but without
using Arch energy, he wasn't invincible or untouchable. The
cutlass cut his back as he felt a sharp pain across his back.
The APD quickly injected half of the healing potion into his
bloodstream. While the wound was healing, Michael didn't give
the pirate another chance to cut him. When the pirate slashed the
cutlass at him again, he bent his back as the cutlass brushed past
his forehead. The other pirates did not let their fellow pirates fight
alone, they all rushed at Michael to overpower him.
Back on the Northern Continent, the cultivators tend to fight one

by one. They often let one or two cultivators fight on the front side
while some cast supportive spells from the side. The reason
cultivators avoid attacking one at the same time was the spells
they cast could wound their own team. The pirates were the polar
opposite of cultivators, they liked to gang up on an opponent.
After evading the cutlass, it was his turn to attack the pirate who
cut him. He swung the Doombringer in a circle without doing any
fancy moves. The pirate who cut him was unfortunate enough to
welcome the Doombringer's head with his head. The head
exploded into a blood mist, splattering skull pieces and grey
matter across the place. Some grey matter ended up on Michael's
face yet it was not enough to make him show an expression of
disgust. However the other pirates weren't as strong as Michael,
seeing the headless body of their fellow pirate, they were
momentarily stunned.
While they were stunned, Michael swung the Doombringer again

at the headless body like a hammer hitting a nail. The headless
body completely mashed by Doombringer further stunning the
pirates.
It was a very brutal kill. Utilizing their shock, Michael continued to

swing his Doombringer at every pirate he could see.? Although he
was swinging the Doombringer chaotically, he was careful not to
let any pirates come close enough to cut his head off.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Many of the surrounding pirates were either killed or knocked

back by the Doombringer. The more pirates he attacked, the more
blood spattered across his face, obstructing his view. It slowed his
move as a few of the pirates managed to strike him.
Standing on the helm platform, the pirate captain saw the young
man wreaking havoc among his men. Even after he was
surrounded by his men, the Warhammer in his hand, crushed
everyone in its path.
"What's happening?" he mumbled to himself. He saw his men

land more than a couple of times yet he was moving as he never
suffered any wounds. One could not differentiate the young man's
blood from the blood of his men on his body. He was bathed in
blood, the more blood ended up on his body, the more he looked
like a devil.
When the young man first landed on the ship, he had twenty men
on the ship but now, they were reduced to seven. Looking at the
dead bodies on the deck, his veins popped in anger. He wanted to
call everyone on the merchant ship to kill the young man.
Yet the anger blinded his rational thinking. He unsheathed his
cutlass, deciding to join the fight himself. At this time, the pirate
captain had no idea he was running towards his death.
"Ahhhhh!" Michael let out an evil scream continuing to crush

everyone in his path. Even after killing a pirate, he never stopped
swinging his Doombringer until the body turned into a bloody
mess. Although three pirates lost all their courage and decided to
run, he threw the Doombringer at them, knocking them down.
"Grh" the pirates who were knocked down by the Doombringer

grunter in pain. The pirate captain saw the young man walking
towards the three crawling pirates, he ran as fast as he could to
save his men. Yet his heart skipped a beat when he saw the
young man crushing their skull by stomping on them.
The young man kept stomping on the dead pirates while

screaming like a mad wolf. However, suddenly he stopped
stomping the pirates. The pirate captain saw the young man
grinning, except for his teeth, there was no spot on his face that
wasn't covered by the blood.
Every muscle in Michael's body ached, most of the healing potion

in APD had been injected into his bloodstream. The battle was
harder than he initially expected. If he used dual swords, the battle
would have been much easier and received a few cuts to his body
because of his 89% mastery over swordsmanship. The
Doombringer was supposed to be used with his spells. Since he
never used any spells, the pirates did manage to land several
deep cuts.
Putting the Doombringer on his shoulder, he slowly walked

towards the pirate captain. Not that he wanted to walk slowly but
the exhaustion made walking difficult. At the moment, Michael
ignored the battle noises coming from Ross's ship. The killing
intent he felt towards the pirate captain canceled all the noises
around him. Michael wasn't the only one with killing intent, the
pirate captain radiated more killing intent than Michael because he
just lost a huge chunk of his crew power to a single man. He
slashed violently at the young man as the blade deeply cut his left
cheek.
However, his mind went blank when he saw the wound closing up
at a rapid speed.
"What...what the...hell are you?"? In a couple of seconds, the

wound completely disappeared.
Michael grabbed the pirate captain by his neck without giving him
a chance to swing his cutlass again before putting the
Doombringer on the ground.
"Captain!"
The pirates who noticed the pirate captain in Michael's clutch

stopped fighting as they screamed. For a few moments, the battle
completely stopped as they all stared at Michael and the pirate
captain who was being lifted up from the ground by his neck.
"Your death"
Chapter 241 - Undead
Monkeys
"Drop it!" Michael's killing intent filled voice reverberated the sea.
Looking at their captain twitching in the air due to lack of breathing
air, not all of them but a few loyal pirates dropped their cutlasses
in the hope of saving their captain from the blood-covered
monster.
"Or he dies"
"Do... as he says!" The words barely escape the pirate captain's

mouth. Soon, one by one, the Pirates dropped their weapons.
Quickly Marcella and the others rounded up the pirates away from
their weapons. The bodies of pirates and crew members alike
were lying on the deck in their own pool of blood. Most of the
bodies belonged to Ross's crews because the pirates caught them
off guard as well as killed a lot using cannon fire.
While everyone was staring at Michael to see what he's going to

do next, he threw the pirate captain to Ross.
"Your op, your rules" He let Ross deal with the pirate captain and
the rest of the pirates. Every single fiber in his body ached. If the
fight continued, he would be forced to use Arch energy, revealing
his secret.
"Men, take everything we want from their ship"? Ross put his
cutlass on the pirate captain's throat before ordering his men.
They all waited for Michael to cross the wooden plank first. Only
after he crossed the wooden plank, the crew members moved to
the pirate ship.
On Ross's ship, everyone moved away from Michael's path. Many
crew members were trembling at the sight of blood-covered
Michael. Even Logan avoided direct eye contact with him. He was
too exhausted to deal with everything else. Logan saw him sitting
down on the floor.
"Where did Ross find him?" H asked himself. In his forty years of
life, he had seen many great spartans and gladiators fight but he
never saw someone as bloodthirsty as the young man. Even a
spartan or a gladiator could kill a maximum of 10 men at a time
but the young man killed almost twenty men single handedly. H
was indeed terrified yet a sly grin appeared on his face because
he knew the young man would be a great asset to complete the
mission.
Eventually, after an hour, Ross's crew took everything they

needed from the pirate ship.
"Ross, what're you gonna do with them?" H asked. The pirates

were tied around their wrists including the pirate captain.
"You took everything, let us go" the pirate captain shamelessly

spoke these words. Just an hour ago,he wanted to kill everyone
and pillage the ship.
"Seriously" Marcella put her crossbow at the pirate captain's

forehead.
"Let's kill these fuckers and dump their bodies into the ocean"
Marcella's words made the pirates' hearts skip a beat.
"Put them back on their ship. I had seen enough death for a day"
"Fuck!"
Almost every pirate on the deck cursed. Their mainsail was

broken by Michael, so they wouldn't be able to sail the ship.
Putting them back on their ship was equal to killing them. In this
part of the ocean, there weren't many islands nearby hence
swimming wasn't an option, and getting rescued by another ship
might not happen.
The pirate captain was the only one who felt relieved by their
decision. He was fortunate enough to get a communication stone
from Captain Redbeard himself. While Marcella was leading them
back to their ship, the pirate captain took a glance at the blood-
covered monster. He felt extremely excited to inform everything he
saw in him back to Redbeard. A person who could heal like him
would be worth a whole lot of coins. Next time, he would come
chasing the young man with an entire fleet of Redbeard.
At that time, he would avenge his fallen pirates.
"He's gonna make me so rich" Taking a last glance at Michael, the

pirate captain left Ross's ship.
*******************************
After a day and a half, the sun rose at the horizon enabling
everyone to see their destination, the undead island.? From the
distance, one wouldn't see the horror hiding in the island among
the ocean of thick trees.
"That's the place, David" Logan let out a heavy breath. After
seeing Michael's bloodthirsty look, Logan wasn't as talkative with
Michael as before. Not only Logan but many on the ship kept their
distance from Michael.
This didn't irritate Michael as his current dress irritated him. After
bathing in blood, he had to throw away the dress and wore a
typical pirate robe. At Least he found something black to wear.
But even after changing his robes, he reeked in blood.
"Get ready team" Ross ordered as every team member began to

assemble on the deck. Ross handed over the helm to someone
else. Soon, Maria came out of the captain's cabin wearing metal
armor that looked too big on her. There wasn't a spot on her body
that wasn't covered by metal. Now he realized what Ross was
doing a day with all the armor they pillaged from the pirate ship.
He put together many pieces of armor to create armor fitting to

Maria. Although the silver armor would definitely slow down her
movements, it would save her from getting bitten by Netherels to
an extent.
Other than Maria, Jonah also wore a full plate and chainmail
armor. Unlike Maria, it perfectly fitted him. Everyone else only
wore leather armor which would provide some protection without
restricting their movements.
Even Logan wore a mud color vest-like armor as well as arm

bracers to protect himself.
"Our mission is simple, get to the center of the island and retrieve
an artifact" Ross began to speak,
"Follow my lead. If you want to survive, do what I say when I say.

Recently I heard, another team might be hunting for the same
thing as us. So we move as fast as we can. David cover our
backs, Logan you're on the front with Marcella"
Logan nodded, moving to the front. Jessie was standing on the

left side of the group while Brownie was standing on the other
side. The group was formed on a pentagon shape with H and
Ross leading them.
"I'm not gonna lie, we will face undeads. Aim for their head, finish
them off quickly"
After listening to Ross for another ten minutes, the ship finally
came to a halt. One by one, they jumped down on the shore
leaving the comfort of the ship.? They were standing on an artistic
sandy shore as coupled with the blue sea behind them painted a
beautiful picture of a scene. A line of large thick trees stood a
couple of meters away from them like loyal soldiers guarding the
island. Even the dark rain forest had a charm to it.
"We'll camp when the sun goes down"
H said in a low voice. All of them walked forward without breaking

the pentagon formation. Michael wondered how they were gonna
keep the formation after entering the forest because just from the
outside, the forest looked thicker than the amazon forest itself.
It would be near impossible to walk through the vegetation without
breaking the formation. Since H and Ross were leading the group,
they took out a machete to cut through the thick forest.
The rainforest was far-reaching, thick, and ancient. Its canopy was
competed for by oak, sycamore, birch, and many other trees
unique to this world that left barely enough light through the
canopy.
There was no sound of an insect, bird, or reptile, no call of a

human voice, only the steady rhythmical lap of the sea. The sound
of the sea made everyone slightly shiver with fear for what's lying
in the jungle. The heat of the sun pounded down on them as they
gathered up the courage and kept moving.
Silent tree limbs dropped from most trees, and a hodgepodge of

flowers, which grew in abundance, enhanced the otherwise
uniform backdrop. The deeper they walked into the forest, the less
they heard the ocean.
A hodgepodge of animal noises, which were caused by birds and

vermin, reverberated through the air along with the fresh smell of
the forest ground and were accompanied by the occasional
sounds of breaking twigs beneath the feet of larger animals.
"Bloody mosquitos" Logan cursed, trying to swat the mosquitoes

landing on him.
"I hate rainforests," Brownie spoke silently.
Even Michael who loved forests had to curse this forest when he
looked down to see the leeches on his boots. He never would be
grateful for a pair of boots as felt now.
As they were moving forward, suddenly Ross raised his hand,

wordlessly telling them to halt their steps. Every single one of
them looked around their environment vigilantly, expecting a
surprise attack from someone or something. Michael closed his
eyes for a moment to listen to any weird sounds around him.? The
more he concentrated, the more he could hear the sound of
monkey chatter. If it was any other forest, a simple sound such as
monkey's chatter would have freaked them out but in the undead
island, the sound made them clutch their weapons tighter.
Keek!
Keek!
Keek!
The sound got louder and louder. They could tell they were being
surrounded by probably a group of monkeys. They hoped the
monkeys would not be undeads.
Abruptly the sound completely stopped. They all had a look of

confusion on their faces but soon the confusion became vigilance
as they saw red gemstone-like eyes glaring at them through the
darkness of the forest above them. Those eyes above them
glowed while the air soon became putrid, overwhelmingly putrid.
Chapter 242 - The Father,
Mother And The Son I
Meanwhile back on Pentown, Diana was walking around her

garden, watering the plants. Tending to the garden always
soothed her soul. The snow covering the garden slowly melted in
the sun's heat. The long winter was finally leaving as Spring was
around the corner to welcome them with beauty.
"There is my beautiful wife" A young but confident voice sounded

in the garden. The voice instantly put a faint smile on Diana's
comely face.
Standing 6' 3" tall, a cream-skinned man entered the garden with
a gentle smile. He had a stoic feel about him. His dark brown eyes
were small and sharp as swords eyebrows on his angular face.
The raven black hair fluttered in the wind as he was walking. Just
like Diana who looked young as a girl in her late twenties, despite
his real age, the man seemed to be in his early thirties. Even
many youths never had toned arms, a broad torso, a well-defined
waist, and toned long legs like him.
He wore perfectly pressed masculine clothes. A long white winter

cloth with grey wolf fur and finely made black trousers. He put the
two sheathes containing his swords on one of the benches in the
garden before embracing Diana and placing a gentle kiss on her
rosy cheek.
"Welcome home, Ethan"
"Jeez, I missed you so much"
"Why didn't you come earlier? You could have spent some time
with the kids? "
"I wanted to Dian but the peace talk between the dukes took
longer than we all expected"? Only she could see the exhaustion
of battle behind his lively eyes. They had been married for so long
that she could read his face like a book.
"I'm sorry Dian" his smile was replaced by an apologetic look.
"For what?"
"I know what happened while I was away. It almost stopped my

heart, Dian"
She could see the stoic manly wall he put around him slowly
crumbling down. He was a husband long before he became the
House Lord, so even if he put up a wall to look stoic to others, he
would show his vulnerable side only to Diana.
"I'd never leave my family unprotected again, I promise" he

squeezed her hands. She had seen the look on his face before
when he fought against her brother to marry her.
She smiled to ease his pain for not being there for her,
"Im fine Ethan, the gods won't let anything happen to us"
"Your smile would always make everything better"
The two of them made their way to the bench holding each other's
hands.
"Jacob huh? I always had a bad feeling about that little fucker.
What did my brother do to deserve such trash?"? Ethan
disappointedly shook his head. He was worried about his brother.
Ever since he was little, his little brother always had his back.
When they heard what Jacob did, his brother was shaken to the
core. At Least his little brother was blessed with a good obedient
daughter to wipe off the shame Jacob brought on him.
"I cannot thank Ghost enough for saving you and Sabi"
The mere mention of the name 'Ghost' brought waves in her soul.
As a mother, she wanted nothing but to reunite with her son. Her
heart ached everytime she thinks about her son. She never slept
ever since he met him, every time she closed her eyes, she could
hear his cries, and the images of her leaving the baby on the altar
flashed in her mind.
To this day, she could never forgive herself for being so helpless,
so weak to be made to leave her baby in the middle of a forest.
The only thing that stopped her from cultivating again was the seal
inside her body. It would alert Skyhall the moment she starts
cultivating again.
Except for Amelda, the rest of the world was thinking that her
cultivation came to an end when she was injured ten years ago
but it was only a facade. Skyhall made sure the mother of the
Dark Lord would never grow strong enough to challenge them or
reveal anything about the Dark Lord.
If it wasn't for Rowena's mentor, they would have killed her the
moment she gave birth to the twins. Even though the Skyhall
showed her what would happen to the world if the Dark Lord was
left alive, her heart and mind never accepted that her son would
become evil as they claimed.
An evil person never would have saved Sabrina or healed

Andrews or put his life in danger to save a stranger like her.
"Dian, are you alright?" he noticed the slight change in her

expression,
"The last time I heard, he was still in seclusion"
"I'll go to his place in person to thank him as soon as he came out

of seclusion"
"Take me there too," she quickly said. Automatically a smile

appeared on her face thinking about meeting her son again.
"I thought nowadays you hate traveling" he chuckled while

pinching her cheek playfully.
"No, I just hate boring places"

"My Lord" As they were speaking, a guard in full plate armor
entered the garden. The guard was not one of the house guards
but a soldier from Ethan's army.
"The Oracle is ready to meet you"
Ethan almost forgot about the Oracle until the guard reminded
him. He left the Oracle at the guest room before coming to meet
Diana. The Oracle asked everyone to leave the room so she could
meditate in silence.
"Dian, you need to see the Oracle, she's the real deal. If it wasn't
for her, the peace talks between the dukes never would have
happened"
A tinge of anger emerged in her eyes. When Noah and Ghost

were in her womb, she met an Oracle who revealed that one of
her sons is going to bring chaos to the world and then informed
Skyhall. Hence, she didn't want to meet another Oracle.
"Who told you to bring an Oracle here?!" Ethan was taken aback
by surprise. For a moment, he saw the Diana he first met. This
was the first time she had raised her voice after getting married to
him.
He was confused. Except for Amelda and Diana, no one knew

anything about Skyhall or what they did to Diana.
"Dian"
Diana quickly realized what just happened. Taking a deep breath,

she controlled the anger boiling inside her.
"I just heard some bad stories about these fortune-tellers and I
don't trust them, that's all"
"One could hide the truth but not bury it" Suddenly a gentle voice
reverberated in the garden. Every timeThe voice sounded like a
piece of soothing music, calming Diana's anger in a blink of an
eye.
The guard stepped aside to reveal a woman in full orange robes.
This azure-skinned woman had a warm feeling about her.
She had a square face with a rounded jaw, a flat nose, narrow
lips, and her crimson eyes were sparkling with patience and
mystery. Her curly long black hair rested in a bun above her head.
The golden nose stud and the piercing in her both ears added a
certain charm to the woman's grace.
She was blessed with the muscle of an athlete and the fat of a
baby. She wasn't the most beautiful woman Diana had seen but
she was the most graceful woman. She was something robust
and real.
She wore rudraksha bead mala around her neck while a red bindi
occupied the center of her forehead.
"Oracle" Ethan stood up to welcome her. The grace she radiated

made Diana stand up unconsciously,
"I'm not an Oracle but just a guide for those who are lost or
searching for ways to fix your past mistakes"
Diana felt like the woman was directly talking to her. The guard
quickly ran to the lady with a chair to sit. Even the way she sat on
the chair had grace to it.
"Oracle, meet my wife, Diana"
"You have everything a woman could ask for yet your heart is like
an ocean, never calming for a moment" The lady calmly said,
looking at Diana.
Ethan and Diana seated themselves back on the bench. The

guard took his leave after bowing towards them.
"Oracle, I don't understand" As far as Ethan was concerned,

Diana had everything. If she wanted anything, she only needed to
ask and the entire Winston family would go to the edges of this
world to bring what she asked.
"She does," The Oracle said. Ethan couldn't help but look at both
of their faces. His face had confusion written all over it. Diana on
the other hand was lost in words. Unlike Ethan, Diana could make
sense out of the lady's words.
"Gods wouldn't have created darkness if it was evil. The choices

you made took out the darkness in your life. Hence the light in
your life disappeared as light cannot exist without darkness" Ethan
was stunned to see the tears rolling out of Diana's eyes as water
broke out of a dam. Her entire body was trembling.
"Dian, why are you crying? Oracle, what is happening here?"

Ethan wrapped his arms around his wife while pleading to the
lady.
"Don't cry my child, fate can be such a cruel mistress. You were
weak and helpless. You thought you were sacrificing the gift
blessed upon you by the gods for the sake of this world and your
family"
Diana dropped to her knees at the lady's feet. Ethan was

dumbstruck by the sight of his wife clutching the Oracle's legs. He
had never seen Diana cry like this as his heart started to pound
against his chest. Seeing her wife like this, he could sit still, he
also dropped to the ground, trying to console his wife.
"Dian...tell me...what's going on?" He stuttered yet Diana kept

crying her eyes out.
"A single drop of poison is enough to poison a pot of milk. A single

secret is enough to spoil the relationship between a husband and
a wife. But know this my child" the lady looked at Ethan,
"The world is an evil place and you are in the center of it. Anything
you do without thinking it through will endanger everyone you love
and care about"
Chapter 243 - Misguided
Mortals And The Corrupted
Ones
"Dian!" Ethan clenched Diana's shoulder's tight, forcing her to look

him in the eyes.
"I...can't," Diana stuttered. Realizing her wife was hiding

something major from him, he felt a mix of anger, shock, and
disbelief. She shook Diana by her shoulders. Yet no words
escaped her mouth.
"If you...know...everything...you...should...know...why I can't...tell

him the truth" She continuously sobbed. The lady only revealed a
gentle smile.
"Let me tell you a story. Two decades ago, there was a mother
who was blessed with god's ultimate gifts" The lady's words
turned Ethan's gaze away from Diana. Diana wanted to stop the
lady from revealing the truth as she feared for her husband's life
but no words came out of her mouth. Something prevented her
from speaking.
The lady paused for a moment while Ethan tried to make sense
out of her words.
"She wanted to scream that she's pregnant with twins standing on

top of the world. That mother never thought a simple feeling as
the feeling of her twins kicking her womb would make her so
blissful. Becoming a mother to a beautiful angel was the proudest
moment in her life. The mere thought of becoming a mother of
twins made her the happiest woman in the world"
Ethan listened to the Oracle without uttering a word. Even when
he was listening to the Oracle, he never took his arms off of
Diana's shoulders.
"The only thing she missed was her loving embrace of her
husband. She was expecting her husband but the one who came
was a misguided mortal"
Diana still struggled to stop the lady from revealing the truth.
Except her entire body refused to move to her will.
"The misguided mortal showed the mother a vision, a glimpse of

the future. What the mother saw shook her to the core. The
mother refused to believe what she saw but bad things happened
to her family like the misguided mortal predicted. Death in the
family, sudden storms, natural disasters, and many things brought
nothing but death. They weren't enough to convince the mother
her child is responsible for all the death until her husband almost
lost his life, just like the misguided mortal claimed" Little by little,
Ethan began to connect with the story.
"When her husband came home, she wanted to tell everything.

However, a powerful organization of misguided mortals put a seal
on her husband before taking her away, along with two of the
woman's blood. The misguided mortals showed the woman more
glimpses of the dark future awaiting the world and her family. The
misguided mortals offered the woman two choices: give up her
child or be killed along with her family as a punishment for
bringing the darkness to the world. In the days following, the
misguided mortals showed the woman the changes happening in
the world. The woman didn't want to believe it but everything
seemed connected to her. The place she first made love before
conceiving with the twins was destroyed by a meteor, the time she
went to after she got pregnant was crumbled into pieces and the
one first told her she was pregnant died in a mysterious illness
and much more"
Ethan didn't want to believe the woman in the Oracle's story is his
wife. He refused to believe her as he wanted this to be just a
story, nothing more.
"When the day of her delivery came, all the natural disasters
occurred at once, killing thousands of people all around the world.
The beautiful twins in her hands didn't make her happier as she
expected, instead, she was afraid. Even after everything, the
woman begged the misguided humans to let her raise the child to
be someone else but the misguided mortals had already started
the prophecy they wanted to stop. They forced the mother to
make the ultimate sacrifice, leaving her child at an altar in the
forest she gave birth to. The tears she shed leaving her child was
the final ingredient they needed to start the ritual"
Regardless of her body's stiffness, her eyes continued to pour out

tears. The anger and sadness Diana felt when the lady paused
talking couldn't be described by words.
Just as Ethan was about to ask Diana about the Oracle's words,
his right hand glowed.
"NO!" Diana broke the invincible force that prevented her from
stopping and speaking. She screamed yet the voice was muffled
by the lady. Ethan felt excruciating pain as his body began to
tremble.
"Save...save...him" the words barely escaped Diana's mouth. The

Skyhall placed a seal in Ethan's body which would activate if he
was to know about the existence of his other son or what his wife
went through the night she gave birth to Noah. It was a powerful
seal that had its own consciousness. The Oracle's words made
Ethan suspect that he has another son and it triggered the seal.
"Om" Suddenly the lady opened her mouth pointing her finger at
the golden glowing on Ethan's right hand. Another light appeared
out of the lady's hand as the light shot out at Ethan's hand. The
moment the two light's clashed, the excruciating pain he felt
instantly disappeared.
"Ethan!" Diana screamed, she hugged Ethan using all of her

strength.
"Dian, was it you?" Embracing his wife as tight as he could, he

asked.
His mind believed that the mother in the Oracle's story was his
wife because it was obvious after seeing Diana's reaction and
what just happened yet his dumb heart was refusing to believe it.
He promised himself that he would protect his family no matter the
cost but now, he felt like he miserably failed to keep his family
safe.
"Yes"
Ethan's mind went black getting hit by the truth. In a blink of an

eye, the swords he left at one of the benches trembled before
soaring through the air to him. His eyes turned blood red as the
killing intent radiated from him sent a chill running through Diana's
spine.
"Om" the lady spoke, this time her voice was gentle and calm
unlike before.
The killing intent and the anger within Ethan quickly disappeared.
Both of their emotions were also calmed by the lady's words.
Ethan released Diana from his hug, turning his gaze again at the
Oracle.
"Where...where is my son?"
"What ritual?"
The first question was asked by Ethan while Diana asked the
latter.
"The misguided mortals believed the child's soul contained

unimaginable power; they wanted to take it for themselves. To do
that, they had to strip away the child's soul" Diana almost
collapsed to the ground. Her body uncontrollably shivered while
she felt an excruciating pain in her heart.
"However the ritual didn't go as they planned and the child's soul
was split into two pieces. One part of the soul ended up in a
desolate place void of any energy while the other part of the soul
remained in its body"
"My son, is he...dead?" For the first time in her life, she saw a
trickle of tears roll out of Ethan's eyes. It showed her the pain he's
feeling right now.
"That's the answer only the time could tell"? The lady smiled but
Diana shook her head,
"I know my son is alive, I met him!"
Once again, Ethan was completely shocked by her words,
"Where? Where is my son?!" Ethan shook Diana for answers,
"Where is our son, Dian?! Where is he?!" the shaky voice

reverberated through the garden.
"Ghost...Ghost is our son!"
Tears burst out of her eyes as she collapsed on Ethan's chest.

There was no expression on the lady's face, she just calmly stared
at them.
"How do you know?"
"I don't care what anyone says, I know, I know he's our son. I'm
his mother"
For a few moments, only silence filled the garden. No one uttered
a word
"How are you gonna prove it to him, my child?"
After a long pause, the lady asked, breaking their embrace. Ethan
saw Diana struggling to answer the Oracle's question.
"I don't... know...but no matter what it takes, I will show him that
he's my son"
"Proving and accepting are two different things, my child. The

road ahead of you is filled with thorns, may the gods be with you,
protecting from the corrupted ones"
Just when Diana was about to ask for the lady's help against the
Skyhall, she turned into a golden light and disappeared into the
sky, leaving them flabbergasted. Ethan could tell it was not
teleportation or a spell, it was something else.
*********************************
Ethan and Diana never left the garden, the sun had fallen yet they
were still staring at the night sky without leaving the garden. Diana
held his arms tightly, it took her a great effort to convince him not
to do anything rash that would attract the Skyhall's attention
towards them. When Rowena was selected as the holy maiden of
Skyhall, Ethan felt extremely proud but now, it felt like Rowena
was kept as a prisoner in Skyhall.
"Even if he's our son-"
"He is, Ethan"
"How are we gonna explain to him that we failed to protect him?"
"It was me who failed to protect my son, I was too weak"
After hearing the whole story from Diana, he didn't blame Diana or
anyone else except Skyfall and himself for not being able to
protect his family. Knowing that he could do nothing against the
Skyfall, he felt so weak and helpless.
"When we were a happy family, our son grew up as an orphan.

How many hardships would he have gone through? Why did this
happen to us? How could our son be evil? Dark Lord? What does
that even mean?"
Chapter 244 - Consequences
Of Jack’s Death
The sky was black tranquility married to the poetry of stars that
filled the sky like pale corn into freshly turned ground. It was the
softness that called the body and brain to rest and let the heart go
to its steady rhythm. Night came as a reward of sorts, a
restfulness above to calm anyone's soul except it couldn't calm
Ethan's.
The more Ethan thought about everything, the more questions

emerged in his mind. Eventually, he ended up with more
questions than answers. Diana's heart bled looking at the tears
running out of Ethan's eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he was
unable to stop the tears from forming in his eyes.
"How am I gonna protect House Winston when I couldn't even

protect my wife and son?"
"It'll be alright Ethan"
"No, it won't be Diana. You were right, we cannot go to war with

Skyhall, at least not with our current strength" It took an immense
amount of effort for Ethan to sit still, controlling his killing intent
towards Skyhall. Every single fiber in his body wanted him to fly to
Skyhall and kill the ones responsible for what happened to his
family. However, years of leading the Winston family and the
maturity he achieved made him think rationally rather than act on
impulse. As the mysterious Oracle said, if he did anything without
thinking it through would only put his loved ones in harm's way.
"First we need to find a way to break the seal in your body. If you
could cultivate again without alerting them, we'll be one step
closer to saving our son" Ethan wiped the tears off of his face as
an unwavering resolution to fix his mistakes appeared in his eyes.
His biggest mistake was being so weak and he decided to fix it
once and for all.
"Rowena and Noah must not know about this, Dian. If they knew
what the Skyhall did to you and their brother, they would wage war
against him without a second thought, especially Noah" he said,
gently wiping off the tears away from his wife's face.
Although he knew winning a war against Skyhall is near to

impossible, he had to look confident as a good husband and a
leader should. Even if the odds were against him, he wouldn't
forgive himself if he did nothing to save his son.
"Our son, he's staying in the Sunrise sect right?"
"Yeah, our son is the Core disciple of the sect" One could see the
pride in her eyes as clear as a day. She knew her son earned that
title.
"Let's just go there" she let out a quick bark of laughter in

disbelief. As much as she loved to see her son again, she didn't
want to alert the Skyhall which might be watching her every move.
"We can form an alliance with the sect. The least we can do for
our son is make his life better and keep anyone from harming him.
What do you say, Dian?"
"I'll go get ready"
Her face brightened instantly like someone holding a candle in

front of her face.? Before he could remind her that it's night and
they should leave in the morning, she ran back into the house to
get ready.
**********************************
The mountains around the Sunrise sect looked like a majestic

painting. They rose in snow-white brilliance, a silent invitation to
good for the soul not to accept. Upon the rise of the sun, the
forests covering the mountains were so snow-white. The forest
seemed calm on the outside but under the snow-blanketed
canopy, a blood trail could be seen on the ground.
One could follow the blood trail to see a man running for his life.
He was breathing heavily, his clothes were partially burned as well
as most of the skin on his back.
Regardless of the wounds on his body, the man kept running.

After running for an hour, he finally stopped running.
"Who is there?!"
The man with the wounds stumbled onto a tree in exhaustion. He

stared in the direction the voice came to see a man holding a
spear walking from the darkness of the forest.
"Axel!" Regardless of the wounds and blood on the man's body,

he was immediately recognized by the man holding the spear.
Finally, Axel let his body collapse thinking that he's safe from it.
"Is that Axel?!"
"Are we under attack?"
"Ari, what happened to Axel?"
Ari, the man who was dragging Axel to the camp, was swarmed
by his fellow bandits. No one knew there's a bandit camp in this
part of the forest. The ocean of trees, the thick canopy as well as
the predators roaming around the forest prevented anyone from
the Sunrise sect from finding out the whereabouts of their camp.
Ever since a disciple was killed in the forest, the sect was hunting
every single bandit hiding in the forests. The forest was endless
yet the size of the forest never stopped the sect from hunting the
bandits.
Ari dragged Axel through the knee-high snow to one of the huts.
"Ari" there were three bandits inside the hut. Unlike the bandits
patrolling the area around the camp, these three bandits wore
thick fur-covered winter clothes, covering every part of their
bodies to keep their bodies warm. It indicated their higher status
among the bandits.
"Put him here" one of the three bandits pointed at the table on the
hut's center. The other two bandits quickly wiped off the maps,
documents, and things lying on the table as Ari put Axel's
unconscious body on the table.
"Open his mouth" Ari forced open Axel's mouth as one bandit
poured a healing potion into his mouth. The healing potion was
not as dark green or consistent as Michael's potion. This potion
was watery consistent with pale green color.
"Where's Captain Quinn?" while the potion was slowly healing

Axel's wounds, he asked the three lieutenants.
"He went to meet a client. Do you know what happened to him?

Did he say anything?"
Ari shook his head, "He collapsed before I could ask what
happened but isn't it obvious, his camp must have attacked, just
like the others" the three lieutenants stared at each other in
silence for a second before one of them said,
"When he woke up, ask him what happened, just in case. I'll go
and bolster our security"
"Bolster the security?! Are you kidding me? We have to leave,

now!"
The more camps they lost, the more tension rose among the
bandits. Many started to rebel against the lieutenants while some
even fled the kingdom fearing for their lives. This camp was one of
the few last camps remaining around the forests of the Sunrise
sect. The only reason many bandits were still sticking around was
Captain Quinn's promise to them, he said he would take them to
the main camp in the forests of the Royal land yet they were
waiting to move for two months.
"Calm down, Ari. We can't be sure of what happened to him.
Captain Quinn already sent a team to hunt it down, I'd bet they
already killed it"
"He did?"
"Yes. You know Captain Quinn, he would always put his men first
before the bounty"
"GRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
Just when Ari's anger was somewhat calmed down by the

lieutenant's words, a thunderous roar echoed through the forest.
Ari's body became rigid as he felt a cold chill in his spine. He
dropped the spear in his hand, losing all the courage in his heart.
The lieutenant seemed no worse than him. He was shivering and

mumbling something under his breath. The fear of death
overwhelmed their senses.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Soon the silent forest became chaotic. Ari could hear the screams
of agony outside the camp.
"No...i...can't...die" Ari mumbled in fear. At this moment, there was

nothing more important to him than his own life. Therefore, he
decided to escape, only to get stopped by the two lieutenants in
the hut.
"You can't leave. Go fight that thing, it's an order!"
"Fuck off!" Ari shoved them away forcefully. Ari was stupid enough
to stick around even after the sect started to hunt them down like
prey but he was not stupid enough to obey a suicidal order.
He ran as fast as he could to the outside. The moment he stepped

outside of the hut, his heart stopped looking at the embodiment of
the death and carnage itself, Nightmare, the dragon of Sunrise
sect.
The camp huts and trees around the camp were reduced into
nothing but charcoal. The waves of heat from the dragon fire
melted the many bandits' skin off. The dragon before Ari was huge
with shiny crimson scales and two horns protruded out of its head.
"Where is Quinn?!" his bladder betrayed him when he heard the

dragon speak. Yet the wetness around his crotch instantly
disappeared due to the heat coming from the fire around him.
Zzzhhuuuuuuuuu
A crimson red fire that had a mix of violet streamed out of the
dragon's mouth, turning the bandits trying to escape into ashes. At
the moment, only the lieutenant's camp was not on fire.
Ari wanted to run before the dragon's gaze could fall upon him yet
his body refused to move. He stood still in overwhelming fear.
Everyone he knew is dead, burned alive. Their screams filled with
agony now replaced by the sound of fire cracking the woods.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
The moment the dragon's red eyes fell on him, he screamed as

loud as he could unconsciously. The last thing Ari saw before
everything turned black was the dragon's gigantic claws
approaching him.
Chapter 245 - Our Son Has A
Dragon?!
Nightmare ripped open the last remaining hut with his razor-sharp
claws. Although Nightmare wasn't as tall as a full-grown dragon,
he did stand nearly nine feet tall.
"Oh my god!"
"No no no no no"
The two lieutenants stumbled backward in fear. Nightmare moved

his head closer to the two lieutenants, the hot smoke coming out
of his nostrils brushed past the two lieutenants. Like many other
bandits, they peed themselves. They never thought they would
see a dragon this much closer.
The fire reflecting on its crimson red scales made him more
terrifying.
"Let's go for a ride" Nightmare's rage-filled growl almost made the

two lieutenants faint. He swept the two bandits off the ground
before flapping his red wings to take off. The wings sent a shock
wave that was powerful enough to put out the fire around him.
Nightmare flew higher and higher into the sky. Realizing how high
they are in the sky, they stopped struggling under Nightmare's
clutch. If they were to be put down by the dragon, they couldn't
even imagine the output.
"Where...where are? you...taking us?"
Nightmare didn't answer as he continued to soar through the sky.

After flying for another ten minutes, Nightmare started to descend.
The bandits expected the dragon to bring them to the sect except
the dragon brought them to the middle of the forest. Although they
were flying for only ten minutes, they crossed several kilometers.
Everywhere the bandits turned, there was nothing but trees. The
thick canopy barely let the light through, hence their surroundings
were dark and gloomier. The moment Nightmare released them,
their instincts to escape kicked in as they tried to crawl away.
However, an invisible force prevented them from moving any

further. Soon, the force lifted them up in the air. The bandits
hovered in the air while Nightmare began to interrogate them.
"Tell me where Quinn is and I'll grant you a quick, painless death
or I'll slowly roast you two like chicken and eat you"
Nightmare's body began to glow more and more, indicating the

dragon's flame forming inside his body.
"He's in Royal land, meeting someone. That's all we know!"
Nightmare was slightly taken aback by surprise. He never

expected the two lieutenants to break so easily. The bandits he
interrogated before either tried to fight him and died or never
answered him until Nightmare roasted them alive. Ever since Jack
was found dead, he was hunting the bandits day and night. He
blamed himself for not being there when Jack was murdered. The
guilt drove Nightmare crazy.
After decimating many bandits camps in the forest around the

sect, Nightmare finally found the leader of these bandits, Quinn.
Considering they had no leads whatsoever in the murder of Jack,
Nightmare targetted the bandit leader who's responsible for all the
bandit camps around the sect. He wanted to find the murderer
before Gaya comes back. Jack was an annoying little brother to
her. The whole sect was afraid of telling Gaya about Jack's death.
Including Nightmare, everyone knew she would go berserk.
His death affected the entire sect more than anyone would
imagine. Jack was one of the disciples who never left the sect
even when the sect was on the verge of closing. He was loyal to
the core.
Nightmare stared at the two bandits for a few seconds. The look in
their eyes told Nightmare that they weren't lying.
"Please, let us go!"
"Please"
The bandits begged Nightmare to let them go. If it was before

Jack's murder, Nightmare would have found some mercy in his
heart but after he saw Jack's body, he felt no mercy for kings like
bandits. The more he grew, the more he understood the meaning
of Ghost and Gaya's words. They always told him to be ruthless
and unforgiving. After Jack's death, he realized why. There was
someone in this world who was ruthless enough to kill a kind,
loving person like Jack in cold blood, so he knew what this world
would do to people like Ghost, Gaya, and him.
"No" Nightmare sent a puff of hot breath towards the flowing

pirates. The bandits tried to wiggle but the hot breath melted them
in a blink of an eye.
Even their bones falling onto the ground were partially melted by
Nightmare's breath.
He felt no pity for the bandits. As far as he was concerned, the

sect would be safer with fewer or no bandits in the forests. With
another flap, he took off into the sky, it was time for him to return
to the sect.
************************************
Except for a few black clouds of smoke coming out from the
forests, the mountains of the Sunrise sect looked calm and
beautiful.
"Have we reached the sect yet Felix?" Diana was sitting on seat'
edge of the carriage with Ethan by her side.
"We will soon, my lady"

The old man driving the carriage said with a chuckle. This was the
tenth time she had asked the question. After asking the old man,
she opened the window to see the view outside. What she saw
outside mesmerized her and Ethan. The last days of winter
always had a calming beauty to them.
The roads were previously blanketed by snow but now, there were
more puddles along the road than snowbanks.
The little sprouts coming out of the snow-covered trees seemed

like little babies waving at them. The sound of birds chirping
sounded louder than the wheels of the carriage itself. Perhaps
charming was the name to the effect the birds provided for them.
"Is it me or does the carriage feel less bumpy?" Ethan asked.

Even when he was traveling in Pentown, the carriage would be
bumpier but After they entered River town, the ride was extremely
comfortable and smoother.
"It's the paved roads, my lord. The masons who paved Royal land,
the same masons paved these roads too"
"Oh?" Ethan was pleasantly surprised. Unlike Diana, he had little

idea about the sect's current state of affairs. Diana did say the
Sunrise sect was not as declined as before but he never expected
the sect could afford the masons of Royal land.
"Wow"
"Wow indeed Lord Winston. My friend's niece recently got into the
sect. She tried to get into the MorningStar first but the teachers
who came to oversee the selection rejected her. The little girl was
pretty heartbroken"
Every time Ethan travels with Felix, the old man would make his
ears bleed with stories, gossip, and all sorts of things. Most of the
time, Ethan would pretend to be cultivating or just nod without
paying any attention to the old man. However, now he was
genuinely interested to hear everything about his son's sect.
"Couple of my buddies who often travel to the Sunrise sect
recommended it to my friend. I don't know how but he convinced
her daughter somehow to apply for the sect and now every time
he sees my buddies, he would take them to free meals "
"Why?" Ethan asked. The old man turned back for a moment
sensing the genuine curiosity in Ethan's voice. It made the
talkative old man even more talkative.
"You see my lord, the girl was at the Formation core stage when
MoriningStar rejected her. It wasn't a surprise, considering those
people only take the best of the best and the girl certainly isn't
one. Formation core at age twenty is mediocre at best. However,
after joining the Sunrise sect, she reached the Body Refining
stage level 5 in just three months and that's on par with some of
the talented noble kids. Apparently, all the disciples in the sect are
getting free pills and potions to help with their cultivation. I mean,
many nobles are lining up in the sect to buy those things yet the
disciples getting them for free"
The old man paused for a second and went on,
"The sect has to thank Ghost for their change of fortune. I don't
think another 5-star Alchemist would be willing to give his pills and
potions for free, even if they were his brothers and sisters of the
same sect"
His words about Michael put a smile on Ethan's face.
"Have you seen him, Felix?"
"No, my lord. But I heard great things about him, do you want to
hear it?"
"Yes...I mean, it's to know more about figures such as him" Ethan
quickly hid his jumpiness. Wanting to pour out the stories in him,
the old man didn't notice anything weird about Ethan's curiosity.
"Stop!" Just as the old man was about to talk about Ghost, they
heard a shout as the old man stopped the carriage quickly. Diana
slightly put her head outside the window to see a young man in a
full black uniform walking towards them. The young man's black
dress kinda resembled the dress her son wore. Soon, the security
carriages following Ethan's carriage came to halt as soldiers of the
Winston family surrounded Ethan's carriage as they were trained.
Yet, in front of thirty guards in full armor, there was no fear in the
young man's eyes.
"What's all this?"
The young man asked Felix, his voice neither arrogant nor afraid.
Instead of letting Felix sort everything out with the young man,
Ethan himself stepped out of the carriage.
Only after seeing a Core Strengthening level 8 cultivator, the

young man's calm expression changed.
"Kid, why did you stop us?" Ethan asked,
"How may I address you, sir?"
"It's Lord Winston of the Proud House Winston. We are going to

meet with Sunrise Sect Leader Claire" one of the guards
answered the young man,
"With all due respect, Lord Winston, the sect is closed to

outsiders. Sect Leader Claire and Nightmare's orders"
"Closed? Why?" Ethan asked with a confused face. He wondered

what made them close the sect as it was pretty unusual for a
growing sect to close their doors on outsiders.
"Recently one of our brothers was killed in the vicinity. Until we

find who was responsible for such evil deed, the sect is closed-"
Roar!
The young man stopped talking as the Winston soldiers

immediately retrieved their weapons after hearing a thunderous
roar. Even Ethan clenched the sword hilts on his waist when he
heard the roar.
A few seconds after the roar, a huge shadow cast down on them,
darkening the area.
"What the?" Ethan's jaw dropped as he looked up at the sky to

see a dragon descending.
"Dragon!"
"Protect Lord Winston!"
'
"Dragon attack!"
"Holy gods!"
The guards immediately surrounded Ethan and the carriage with

the swords in their hands. Felix the old man was as pale as a
white paper looking at the dragon. When the dragon landed on the
ground, Ethan saw its crimson red eyes staring at everyone.
"Stand down" the young man shouted at the guards before they
could do something stupid like attacking a freakin dragon.
"Who are these people?" the dragon's voice made the guards
even more terrified,
"You've grown little dragon"
Nightmare's vertical slit pupil became rounded when he heard a

familiar voice. He stared at the carriage standing on his two legs.
"Lady Diana!"
"Dian, go inside" Ethan ordered but still, his wife stepped outside
the carriage with a smile on her face.
"Lady Diana" Everyone was stunned to see the dragon tilt its head
looking at Lady Diana. Gently brushing off Ethan's hand, she
walked forward with no fear in her heart.
************************************
((Michael's action will be resumed in the next chapter))
Chapter 246 - Annoying
Monkeys
The Winston family soldiers tried to stop Diana from walking

towards the Dragon yet their efforts were in vain. Ethan didn't stop
her but followed her behind. Although the Dragon's physique and
innate ability would give the dragon an edge if they battled, he
was confident enough in his strength to defeat the dragon if it tried
to harm them.
"Relax everyone, I know him" Diana waved off at the guards to

lower their weapons. Taking a few more steps, she came closer to
the point where Ethan could sense the heat radiating from the
dragon's body. They both looked up, in Ethan's eyes, there was a
mix of amazement and caution while in Diana's eyes, there was
nothing but kindness and warmth.
She reached out as Nightmare gawked reluctantly for a moment

before slowly lowering his head to graze her hand with his face.
The soldiered were stunned to see Diana tame such a majestic
terrifying creature.
"Good dragon" Diana gently stroked Nightmare's scaly head.

Somehow her presence made him calm.
"I guess you can go be on your way to the sect then" realizing
Nightmare and the woman know each other, the young man
stepped aside from the paved road.
Nightmare opened his eyes but kept his head in her hands,
"Ghost is in seclusion, Lady Diana"
"I know. We're here to see Sect leader Claire"

Finally, Nightmare took his head back from her hands. He stared
at the four carriages standing behind Diana as well as the Core
Strengthening man who Nightmare guessed Diana's husband for
a few seconds.
"This is my husband, Ethan Winston. Ethan meet Nightmare"
"Pleasure to meet you, Lord Winston"
"The pleasure is mine"
Ethan was surprised by the dragon's behavior. Many would

describe a dragon as ruthless, deadly, terrifying, and many other
adjectives but polite would not be one of those words. However,
the dragon in front of him spoke in such a cultured manner.
After being forced to sit in all the classes conducted by the elders,
Nightmare shed some of the bad habits he picked from Gaya. For
instance, giving respect to those who deserved it and conduct in a
respectful manner.
For a couple of weeks, the disciples were terrified to sit with a

dragon or to see him but after a while, they treated him like one of
them. But it didn't mean they weren't afraid of them, they just
accepted to live with him.
"Follow me"
Nightmare took as the force of his wing flap pushed back many
guards and made the horses even more terrified.? It took them a
few minutes to calm the horses before starting to follow the
dragon.
"You conveniently forgot to mention he has a dragon, Dian"
"Then I wouldn't have seen the look on your face" She giggled.
Looking at his wife being happy after a rough couple of days, he
was glad he decided to come here.
The paved road made following the dragon much easier, even
going up on the mountain never felt bumpy or difficult. Eventually,
when they reached the flat land, they began to see more black-
uniformed disciples around the area. Some were playing in the
snow, some sat under the trees, cultivating, some were carrying
bags that looked heavy. Other than the disciples, it was the
buildings and the construction sites that surprised Ethan the most.
He could tell these buildings were built in dwarven architecture as

the base and modified a little. Each building was surrounded by
either a garden or garden with a fountain. Instead of cutting down
all the trees, they built the buildings without destroying the trees
around them which was the real beauty of the sect.
Regardless of the winter, he could see the construction works

going on at full speed. Many disciples including female disciples
were helping however they could.
"For a sect that was declining until recently, they're turning the ties
pretty fast"
*********************************
After an exhausting day, Michael finally laid under a tree to rest.

He looked up at the sky through the small gaps in the canopy. The
sky was filled with dark rain clouds, the thunderclaps indicated the
arrival of a heavy downspout. Rain was the last thing he wanted in
this god-forsaken rainforest.
Others weren't so different from Michael, they too chose a tree to

rest their bodies. A few meters away from them, broken money
limbs, as well as monkey dead bodies, could be seen. This was
the third wave of the monkeys they fought even since they
stepped into the forest. The undead monkeys were so weak and
fragile as they were more of an annoyance than a threat except
for people like Jonah. Surprisingly Ross's daughter Maria was
trained in the arts of the spear as she defended herself well
instead of relying on her father.
Keak!
Keak!
"Ah shit, here we go again" Michael heaved a sigh of exhaustion.
Even if those monkeys bit him, he wouldn't turn into an undead
but he had to put on a show so the team members suspect him of
something. Especially Marcella who was always keeping an eye
on him for some reason. After he massacred the pirates single-
handedly, she became wary of him.
The only silver lining of killing these monkeys was their colors.
Never before Michael had seen colorful monkeys such as violet,
pink, bright red, and green monkeys.
"Only if they stink less" these monkeys smelled so bad that he

wanted to cover his nose in the middle of the fight.
Soon the little monkeys surrounded them for the fourth wave of
attack. Michael looked up at the tree he was resting under to see
at least ten colorful monkeys staring at him. Their skin was slowly
peeling off from their bodies but that never seemed to slow down
the monkeys.
To make the fight less exhausting, he pretended the monkeys

were cricket balls and his Doombringer was the bat. Every time a
monkey took a leap at him, he would swing the Doombringer,
sending the monkeys flying into the trees. His swings contained
enough force as the monkeys exploded when they hit the trees.
Keak!!
An undead monkey jumped at Michael from the tree above,

screaming as loud as it could. Its skin from the face peeled away
while it was in the mid-air, revealing the skeleton of its face.
"Sixer!"
He swung the Doombringer at the monkey. The moment it came

into contact with the monkey, the little creature's skull cracked
open as the? brain mattered splat all over his face.
"Fuck...gross!' Michael spat in disgust. He never thought the little

fucker was so fragile.
Keak!
Keak!
Keak!
The horrible death of their fellow friend not at all slowed them
down from leaping at Michael. He continued to swing his
Doombringer. Many swings ended up hitting the monkeys but still,
some of the monkeys managed to escape the swings.
Michael quickly shook his body as he picked up a rock from the

ground. He smashed the rock into the purple monkey while
swinging the Doombringer in his other hand.
The rock split open the monkey's head, killing it instantly. This
time he closed his mouth so none of the disgusting bits would end
up in his mouth.
Just like in the Netherels, the black goo oozed out of the dead
monkey's body.
Marcella was standing on a branch. The higher vantage point

gave her a perfect spot for killing the monkeys on the ground but
when the monkeys swarmed the tree she was standing on, she
began to have a hard time. Michael thought since she was using a
crossbow, she would have a hard time-fighting in close combat
but when he saw Marcella taking out a dagger and stabbing the
monkeys in their head, he was proved otherwise.
The way she fought showed him that she's a well-trained person
in both long and close-ranged combat.
"Let's move!" Ross shouted. The monkeys kept coming at them.

Ross knew soon they would be overwhelmed with superior
numbers. The team quickly began to move deeper into the forest.
"David, Logan, hold them!" H shouted at Michael and Logan.
"Go go go!"
Michael and Logan quickly moved towards the team. The two of
them fought side by side to keep the monkeys from following the
rest of the team. Some of them did manage to follow the team as
the monkeys used the tree branches to travel while they were on
the ground.
"Damn monkeys!' Logan screamed as he kept swinging his

Sledgehammer. Coupled with his body strength, each time a
monkey came into contact with the Sledgehammer, the black ooze
splattered across.
"Let's go!" Michael shouted hearing more and more screams. He

covered Logan while he was retreating back into the forest.
"David!"
"Go! I'll follow you" Since it wasn't the place nor the time to argue,
Logan ran deeper into the forest, following the team's trail. After
seeing David massacre a group of pirates single-handedly, he
knew David is a better fighter and freak than him. Hence, he
trusted David to take care of these annoying monkeys even if their
numbers were in the sixties.
Michael turned back to see if they had all disappeared from his
sight. He could count at least fifty monkeys surrounding him. They
all weirdly targeted him.
"Time to wrap up" his lips slightly curved upwards as he put the
Doombringer on the ground. He raised both his arms at the
monkeys,
"Wind Blast"
Chapter 247 - Deeper Into The
Island
The force of the wind fired out from his hands blasted the
monkeys in a blink of an eye. Many weak fragile monkeys
exploded into black mist before even hitting the trees. His smile
turned into a disappointed look. He really wished he could get
experience points from all these dead monkeys or at least some
badass points. At Least he wanted to reach Core Formation level
8 somehow before competing in the championship tournaments.
Putting his thoughts aside, he looked around to see if there's any

monkeys remaining but there wasn't a single monkey in the
surroundings.
"I wonder if Dular will be able to control these Netherels"? He

couldn't help asking this question to himself. If Dular was able to
control them, he would have an army of the dead under his
command to do his bidding.
"Is everyone alright?" somewhere deeper in the forest, finally

Ross and the group stopped running. Ross asked as he noticed
their missing teammate,
"Where's David?"
"I don't think that freak made it," Maria said. Everyone turned their
gazes at Logan as he was the last person to see David.
"He'll come. It'd take more than some undead monkeys to kill him"
Logan said with utmost confidence even though the overwhelming
number of monkeys he saw before leaving David's side made him
question the odds of his survival.
"We'll camp here for two hours and if he's not here by then..."
Ross did not finish his sentence but everyone knew the meaning
of his words. Except for Marcella and Maria, the rest had gloomy
expressions on their faces. Not because they were thinking David
died but because he was the strongest of them all and this part of
the forest was said to be the least dangerous. If they lost their
strongest in this area, they couldn't even imagine what would
happen in the center, the most dangerous place on the island.
"Whoo, those monkeys were annoying" they all freaked out when
they heard a sudden voice. The direction the voice came was
dark, they all stared at the darkness as slowly a figure merged
from that darkness.
"David" Logan grinned, sighing inside.
"Did you kill them all?" It was Jonah who asked Michael the
question. Michael just shook his head,
"Of course not, there were so many I had to back off. Thank gods
they didn't follow me" the overwhelming number of monkeys as
well as the way he spoke made them believe him. They didn't
want to believe he could kill all those undead monkeys. After all,
he was just a normal human being like the rest of them.
"Weird, normally undead won't stop until either they're dead or

their prey is' ' Marcella threw a doubtful glance at Michael. It was
obvious she didn't believe a single worth that came out of his
mouth.
"If you have doubts, you better go and ask those monkeys"
Michael couldn't care less about what she's thinking. After getting
Ross to guide him to the artifact, he would show them his true
powers. At that time, Marcella might end up as another victim of
Lucifer.
"Humph" Marcella snickered before turning her back. Logan

walked towards Michael while the others began to set up a
temporary camp on the ground. After the long battle with the
monkeys, they wanted to get some shut-eye, even if it's only for
two hours.
"I knew those monkeys can't stop you"
"Yeah you bet"
The two of them fist-bumped like best friends,
"It's your turn to watch big guy, I need some shut-eye if I'm gonna
fight another undead"
"Logan is already on the job, my friend," he said, placing his hand

on the chest in a funny manner. While Logan was watching over
them, Michael lied down under a gigantic tree with heart-shaped
leaves. The roots created a hollow place on the ground that
Michael used as the bed. The sky still looked menacing with all
the dark clouds above them. If he was back in his Sunrise sect
home, he would have loved the thunderclaps because he loves
sleeping during the heavy rain. The warmth of his bed, the sound
of rain droplets hitting the roof, the smell of the ground, he loved
those things.
However, at this moment, he wished it would not rain. The forest

was bad as it is with all the leeches and undead, the last thing he
wanted was heavy rain.
"Hello, human are you there?" Just as he was about to close his
eyes, he heard Gaya's voice in his head.
"Yep," He whispered.
"I sent those pirates a rescue ship with our little Spyders"
"Good. I want them to spread rumors about me as far as they can.

Where are you now?"
"We are at the far north of the island. I can come to you if you
need my help" her voice sounded like she really wanted him to
say yes. If she were to come to him, it would definitely complicate
his plans. Therefore he couldn't say yes, however, he did have a
task that she could help him with.
"There's another team hunting for the same artifact as we are. Try
to locate them and kill them before they could get their hands on
the artifact"
The glimpse of the future turned him more ruthless. Just his order
to kill them without sparing their lives made Gaya realize this
change. If it was before, she knew he would have told her to
chase them away or stop them by giving them a small beating.
"You sure you want me to kill them? I could just chase them away
from the island"
"They came into this hive of undead searching for that artifact, so
we can't expect them to back off unless you can do something
that really scares the shit out of them more than the undeads
themselves. You think you can pull something like that?"
For a few moments, Michael heard no answer from Gaya,
"Do what you want, just keep them from reaching the artifact
before me"
"Will do, just put one of those drone thingies into the interlinked
space ring"
"Already done that"? After casting the Winblast to kill those

monkeys, Michael refilled the APD and transferred the drones to
Gaya's ring before coming to regroup with them.
"Contact me when you're done with them"
"What's happening on your end?"
"I'll tell you everything later, now I need to get some sleep"
"Is it raining out there? It must be since you're so desperate to

sleep rather than talking to me"
"Goodbye," Michael cut the connection. He would have continued
to talk to her if Logan wasn't coming in his direction. He willed the
system to turn off the earpiece before closing his eyes. Ever since
he saw the future, he rarely slept. When he first came to this world
with the system, he really thought this was going to be some fun-
filled journey of reaching the top, crushing his enemies, and
having everything he wished for but now, he was forced into
saving this world. Although he already decided to save this world
by conquering it, he was not completely doing it for the goodness
in his heart. He was doing it for himself. The world he saw was not
suitable for an immortal such as himself in the future. How could
he live in a world that turned into hell?
If he wanted to live his life to the fullest, enjoying every second of

it, he had to first save the world. Besides, after witnessing the
future world, he definitely felt less guilty about killing people such
as the other team who's hunting for the artifact.
**********************************
"Wakey wakey" Michael slowly opened his eyes to see Logan

patting his shoulders. It felt like he just closed his eyes but the two
hours went by like a flash.
"Yaw" letting out a short yawn, he stood up and brushed off the
dust on his dress. The rest of the teams seemed like they never
slept.
"Sleep well?"
"Like a baby"
Logan's brows arched up slightly, "only you can sleep like a baby
in a place like this"
"It's because you were protecting us big guy" Michael patted

Logan's back chuckling.
"Haha very funny"

The rest of the team gathered their things while Ross took a
glance at the map once again. If he was correct, they were eight
hours walking distance from the river where the recon team would
be waiting for them with a boat.
"If we go this way, we have a better chance meeting with Johnny"

Maria whispered to Ross, pointing at a different path leading to
the river than the one marked on Ross's map.
"You saw those monkeys... If something happened to Johnny" her

voice was mixed with anger and desperation to save her
boyfriend. Ross stared between the map and his daughter.
"It's not like this new path is less dangerous than this one" Ross
convinced himself for the sake of his daughter. If he were to find
Johnny first before he could reach the center the better. But he
knew he can not let the team know that he's taking a detour for his
daughter, hence he decided to omit the itty bitty information of him
taking a detour.
"Be at your best, people. We'll face deadlier undeads on our way
to the river"
Thankfully Ross didn't waste time giving them any pep talks which
would have bored the heck out of Michael. He wanted to get the
artifact as soon as possible so he could finally quench the thirst
for curiosity.
"Let's move"
Chapter 248 - The Dark Lord’s
Power Is Gonna Skyrocket
Somewhere else in the Ozer Continent, Noah, Alicia, and Maisy

were flying above the clouds. As usual, Norvin was comfortably
lying on Noah's shoulder while munching on a hundred years old
dragon fruit.
"Finally, we're getting promoted to actual guardians from trainees,"

Maisy said excitedly. Her big round eyes sparkled thinking about
being a guardian which would end all the power struggle between
her family and their rivals.
"It's time they promoted us but I still? feel like we're just filling the
shoes of that four guardians who got exiled because of this new
freak roaming around calling himself Lucifer "
"I'd say we should thank him. Haven't you seen the drop in the
crime rate? It's crazy what fear could do to petty criminals" Norvin
replied to Alicia. The little girl Maisy looked up at Noah to hear his
thoughts but he remained silent.
He couldn't cultivate peacefully in the last couple of days. Every

time he closed his eyes to cultivate, he could hear Abel's voice. It
had been almost seven months since Abel disappeared. Although
he didn't want to believe it, Noah had a feeling that Abel lost his
life inside the Nether Realm. The guilt of failing to save his friend's
life had become a thorn in his heart.
"Shut up monkey. One day or another, an innocent person gonna

up in that psychopath's crosshairs. The world will go to hell if
everyone starts to play judge jury and the executioner "
"You're such a hypocrite. How many people have we killed so
far?"
"We were defending ourselves, we didn't go searching for people

to kill or pass judgments on people. That's what king courts and
the guardian guild are for. If those scumbags where to go to the
guardian guild or Kethen King's court with the complaint against
us instead of trying to kill us, we would have gladly cooperated as
we weren't guilty of anything"
"So you're saying unless it's defending ourselves, we aren't

allowed to kill and seek justice with a king's court or the guardian
guild"
"Yes"
Maisy tried not to get herself into the argument between Norvin
and Alicia. In her mind, they were both right as she wouldn't be
able to pick a side.
However, the little girl did hate the idea of someone running
around kidnapping, torturing, and killing people in the name of
justice.
"Wow" Norvin and Alicia stopped arguing when they saw a

majestic palace floating above the clouds. Twelve majestic marble
pillars held the triangular roof. The banner of the Guardian guild
fluttered in the wind along, radiating a noble aura around the
palace.
"The flying angel" Noah mumbled under his breath. He had seen
countless majestic structures made by various races yet this was
the most grandeurs of them all. He wondered how they made
such a gigantic palace fly around.
A few other figures could be seen flying into the palace at high
speed. Wasting no time, Noah and his companions flew straight
into the palace. The moment they crossed the twelve pillars, they
were immediately teleported into a large spacious hall where they
saw Peyton and Xanali waiting for them.
"What happened?" Noah noticed the gloominess on Xanali's face.
The usual shine on the red head's face was nowhere to be found.
Aside from Xanali, Peyton also looked very serious.
"The guardian prophet is on her way here" Peyton whispered

although there were only a handful of people standing in the hall.
"Who's she? Some kind of fortune-teller?" Norvin tilted his head

bewildered.
Thop!
"Ouch"
Alicia slapped the back of Norvin's head,
"Shut your mouth, damn monkey"
"She's someone who's extremely important to the guild.

Apparently, the last time she came out of seclusion was fifty years
ago to help the Guardians put an end to Zulo, the Necromancer. If
she's coming today, it must be something extremely important"
Only Noah seemed to know who Zulo is while the others had a
confused look on their faces. They kept gawking at Noah and
Peyton for either of them to explain except they didn't utter a word.
Soon, more and more guardians arrived in the hall. Some were
even at the Soul Refining stage.No matter how powerful one was,
they all seated themselves on the ground, waiting for the
Guardian Prophet to arrive.
"The Guardian Prophet has entered the Flying angel" suddenly a

gentle voice echoed through the hall as the ground itself began to
tremble. They all noticed the floor at the hall's very front rising to
form a stage.
"Come on,"? Peyton gestured at them to follow her. They all

followed Peyton to sit at the very first row in front of the stage.
No one in the hall uttered a word, even a pin-dropping sound

could be heard crystal clear.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
As they were waiting for the prophet a heavy wind appeared in the
hall out of nowhere. The howling sound of the wind slowly turned
into a soul-soothing melody as an orb of light emerged above the
stage. Gradually the light disappeared, revealing a wrinkly old
woman in ragged clothes. Her white hair was messy just like her
brown robes. One would not believe she's such an important
person of the Guardian Guild as she looked no different than a
beggar. But none dared to utter any words in her presence. A few
seconds after her appearance, everyone's brows slightly arched
up, no matter how hard they tried to sense her cultivation level,
they were unable to see it.
The old woman stared at the people sitting in front of her before
raising her hand.
"Aww"
Noah heard Norvin grumble as he himself felt a sharp pain in his

hand. He looked at the place that was hurting to see blood flowing
out of a cut from his right hand. The wound looked like someone
cut him with a sharp blade.
Every single one of them had the same cut on their hands. It was
obvious the old woman was the one who cut them, they wondered
why. The blood spilled from their hands flew above the old
woman, forming a blood orb. Slowly the blood orb descended on
the old woman's head. Many thought the blood would drench the
old woman but the blood was completely absorbed through the
messy hair into her head.
"AHHHHH!" the moment the blood orb disappeared, the old

woman screeched like a canary. Her cry made many guardians
close their ears.
"Stay still" just when some of the guardians tried to run towards
the old woman, the same voice that announced the prophet's
arrival appeared again. This time, the voice didn't sound as gentle
as before.
Followed by the old woman's screech, her pupils slowly moved
back into her skull. In a couple of seconds, her eyes completely
turned white,
"The Dark Lord has found his path" she spoke in such a horrific
manner. Her voice was neither of a woman nor a human. The
voice was so unearthly, nothing like Noah or anyone in the hall
ever heard before.
"The Guardians failed to kill the Dark Lord when he was just
wandering without any powers of the Dark Lord. Soon he's going
to get a power that will rival the powers of the gods themselves.
His powers will begin to manifest" the whole building trembled as
she spoke. The bright hall slowly started to grow darker and
darker
"Search and destroy the evil powers scattered around the world
guardians. Every time the Dark Lord obtain one of these, his
powers will grow by leaps and bounds" her voice grew more and
more animalistic,
"Accept your destiny and you'll be able to stop the Dark Lord,
Lightbringer"
Noah felt something happening inside him, he never experienced

such a warm feeling. Although the old woman's words were
common for everyone, he felt like they were directed at him.
"The Light within you is much less powerful than the Darkness
inside the Dark Lord. You must find a way to kindle the light within
you. Only then, you'll match the Dark Lord's power"
Until now, Michael never received any powers that solely

belonged to his future self, the Dark Lord. But the old woman's
visions showed her the glimpse of the powers he's going to
achieve soon.
When the old woman's eyes turned normal, breathed heavily.
"You must….you...must….stop...him," she said in a normal voice

but it was filled with fear,
The few glimpses of the Dark Lord's powers were enough to
shake the old woman to the core. Her bloodline was guiding the
Guardians ever since the guild was found and the most powerful
foe she faced was the necromancer, Zulo but Zulo's total power
could not hold a torch to the few glimpses of the power she saw
from the Dark Lord.
She believed the words that came out of her mouth were not hers
but they belonged to the gods. But she never knew that the Dark
Lord himself is a god in the making.
Who is the Lightbringer?
Can he really stop the Dark Lord?
These were some of the questions that emerged in her mind.

When she was disappearing into the light once again, she put
aside all the doubts in her mind. To defeat evil, they had to believe
in themselves.
While teleporting herself away from the Flying Angel to her cave,
she closed her eyes concentrating on the blurred vision she saw
before, the vision that freaked her out the most. Even after the
gods left her body, that image alone stuck in her mind. It was
extremely difficult for her to see the visions again but she tried,
she tried her hardest to make some sense out of those images,
she tried till her nose bled.
"Three heads" A shadow of three heads in a storm cloud above

the sea was the last thing she saw before losing consciousness.
Chapter 249 - Michael And
Team Vs A Black Panther
The team cut through the thick veins and branches towards the
river. The canopy was already thick enough but coupled with the
dark clouds in the sky, they barely had enough light to see what's
in front of them.
"I should have brewed the cat's eye potion" Michael reminded
himself. His face had many tiny red spots courtesy of the
mosquitos in the forest. The whining sound of these blood-sucking
insects proved to be more challenging than the annoying undead
monkeys.
Thud!
Michael suddenly heard a thud sound like something heavy hitting

the ground. He paid close attention to the front to see Jessie, the
thief lying on the ground.
"Hey, you alright?" Brownie reached his hand out to help Jessie,
"Yeah, got stuck in a vein" He quickly got up with the help of

Brownie.
Stumbling and falling in a place like this was nothing out of the
ordinary therefore they continued to walk forward as nothing
happened. Yet, Michael's brows creased,
"Weird"
Logan who was walking beside him was busy slapping the
mosquitos to pay attention to Michael's look on his face.
Crich!
"Stop" Michael's face muscles tightened as he ordered them to
stop.
Crich!
"Formation"
Ross whispered as the fighters in the group such as Michael,

Logan, H, and Marcella surrounded the weak to protect them.
They stood still instead of moving.
Crich!
This time they heard the sound of twigs breaking more clearly.
Michael felt like he was inside the Predator movie. The forest in
the movie was not nearly as thick as this one. Everyone looked at
their surroundings. All they could see was vegetation, nothing
more.
Crich!
Crich!
It was clearly the sound of something big stepping on the twigs.

Marcella slowly raised her crossbow higher in the direction of the
sound. They prepared themselves for another battle. Michael
could tell something is about to jump out from the darkness.
"Dudum dudum dum dum" he played horror music inside his head
for fun.
"Please be something big and less fast"? The team would lose
their mind if they heard Michael's wish.? The Doombringer in his
hand was not suitable to kill something that tiny and agile as the
undead monkeys without using the Lightning Dash. If something
emerged from the darkness big and slow, he would have an
easier time killing it.
"Fuck" Marcella cursed as her eyes went wide in shock. the others
swallowed mouths full of saliva looking at the creature standing on
top of a branch.
Finally, Michael turned his head and realized his wish had come
true. The creature that was standing on the branch was an
undead black panther.
No one dared to close their noses despite the stench coming from
the panther.
The panther's skin wasn't coming off of its body as it was with the
monkeys. It was evident that this panther has been turned into an
undead recently or even a couple of hours ago. If it wasn't for the
stench and the lack of pupils, they wouldn't have assumed the
panther to be an undead.
Unlike those monkeys, it didn't mindlessly leap at them to attack

but jumped from branch to branch as it was studying their
strengths and weaknesses.
"What's it doing?" Logan whispered,
"Don't make any sudden movements" Ross whispered while

holding his silver scimitar tightly. He also moved closer to Maria so
he could protect her when the panther starts to attack them.
"Let's back away, slowly" H whispered before slowly taking one

step at a time.
"Grrrr," The panther growled as their bodies went stiff,
Thud!
Finally, the panther leaped down to the ground from the tree
branch. Looking at the team, the panther bore its teeth
menacingly.
"Come on kitty kitty" Michael raised his Doombringer as the

panther scratched the ground with its paws.
"GRRRR!" Suddenly the panther leaped at them. Its drool

splattered across the ground, permeating even more stench. Due
to the lack of pupils, they were unable to guess its target. It looked
like it was targeting Michael but just when he was about to attack,
the panther changed its target to Logan.
Michael swung his Doombringer but he missed it by an inch. The

Doombringer brushed past the panther's head while it lunged at
Logan.
Fortunately, Logan had a quick reflex as he raised his

sledgehammer to prevent the panther from taking a bit out of his
neck.
"I don't have a clear shot!" Marcella shouted, trying to get a good
shot at the panther. Logan and the panther rolled on the ground,
the panther was trying to bite him while Logan was trying to push
away the big cat on him
"Don't move!" Michael yelled at Logan. He held the sledgehammer

that's stuck between the panther's jaw even tighter.
Boom!'
This time, Michael didn't miss. His Doombringer's blunt head

struck the panther's rib cage. The panther went flying away from
Logan. It then hit a large tree before falling down. The tree the
panther hit trembled due to the force.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Marcella used the opportunity to shoot bolt after bolt at the

panther. Although every single bolt hit the panther, none could
penetrate the thick skull of the panther.
"GRRRR!"
The panther growled again. The Doombringer caved in the

panther's rib cage. When it stood up, black fluid started to ooze
out of the wound yet it didn't slow down the panther's movements.
With a forceful push to the ground, the panther leaped into the air.
Everyone raised their weapons to defend themselves when they
saw Michael also leaping higher into the air. Their jaws almost
dropped to the ground in shock, even Ross's eyes went wide.
"What the fuck?" Logan's eyes looked like they were about to pop
out from the sockets. His mind couldn't figure out how David could
jump so high with that heavy weapon in his hand.


….
BOOM!
In the mid-air, Michael and the panther clashed. Michael swung

the Doombringer with all his strength. The Doombringer struck the
panther's back but it wasn't without a cost, before the attack could
sin in, the panther headbutted Michael in the chest. Everything
happened so quickly, the team only saw the panther hitting the
ground after getting struck by Doombringer and Michael flying into
a tree before hitting the ground.
"Shit!" Logan wanted to help David but in a blink of an eye, the

panther stood up with its spine sticking out of its back. It lunged at
them, fortunately, it was not as fast as before because of the
broken spine.
The APD quickly injected a healing potion into Michael's

bloodstream, healing the wounds as well as easing his pain. Even
after he was completely healed, he didn't stand up to join the fight.
If he did otherwise, they would definitely suspect him more as a
normal human being would not be able to stand up after taking
such a blow. Jumping into the air was already pushing his luck but
the four thousand badass points were worth the risk.
While lying on the ground pretending to be injured, he stared at

the fight happening a couple of meters away from him. The more
he watched the fight, the more he realized the threat within the
team.
On the other side, Logan was swinging his Sledgehammer while

Marcella fired bolt after bolt at the panther. After seeing the
endurance and the strength of its body, the others backed off from
the fight, leaving Marcella and Logan to deal with the panther. If
any of them tried to attack the panther with a sword, they knew
they would be killed in a second.
Experienced fighters such as H and Ross took an occasional

slash at the panther. Their experience was evident to Michael.
The two guys slashed at the muscles joints connecting limbs,
further slowing down the panther.
The more time went by, the worse the panther looked. Countless
bolts sticking out of its body and the black fluid was oozing out of
the wounds. Since the panther's speed significantly slowed down
thanks to Ross and H, Logan was able to land heavy hits on the
panther.
"AHHHH!" Michael noticed Logan letting out a battle cry. His

muscles flexed out, each muscle had perfect definition, especially
his biceps that were bigger than many peoples' thighs.
"Finally something interesting" Michael mumbled. He fixed his

eyes on Logan who's fighting more and more violently. It seemed
like he entered a berserker mode.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The panther was getting pounded by Logan left and right.No

matter how much black ooze spattered on his body, Logan did not
slow down. He kept beating the black panther all over its body.
"Hit its head, idiot"? Michael rolled his eyes. If Logan had landed
those hits on the panther's head, its head would have split open
by now, ending the fight.
He wanted to rest until they finally killed the panther but he had to
intervene before the team got slaughtered by the new threat that
only Michael knew about.
"Go for its head!"
Marcella screamed at Logan looking at the panther's vulnerable

state.
"Cut off its limbs!" Ross shouted at H before dashing towards the
panther. The two experienced fighters in the team worked
together to cut its limbs. While Logan was going berserk on the pa
nether, they slashed at its limbs as strong as they could.
"Grrrr,"
The panther growled when Ross and H cut off the four limbs. The
two of them pushed their limit to move fast and cut off its limbs.
"AHHHH!" Logan roared loudly before bringing down the

sledgehammer onto the panther's head. The moment the
sledgehammer collided with the panther's head, it cracked open
the head like a coconut. The brain matter exploded into a black
mist. Finally, the team was able to heave a sigh of relief looking at
the panther stops moving.
Chapter 250 - Hunt For The
Artifact Begins I
Gradually Logan's flexed muscles went back into his body. He

was breathing heavily when he saw David standing up.? Apart
from a few splashes of red blood and black goo on his robes, he
looked perfectly fin in Logan's eyes. The same couldn't be said to
Logan himself as he wanted to stop fighting the urge to faint.
Logan bent down, clenching his knees to support his body from
falling down. The rest of the team was too spent to gawk at
Michael in surprise.
"Keep your shit together big guy, we have one more thing to take
care of" Michael gave a shot pat on Logan's shoulder before
walking towards the rest of the group.
On his way, Michael picked up a crossbow bolt from the ground.

They all wondered what's he doing
Bam!
Their bodies again tensed up when they saw Michael lift Jessie by
his neck and slam him against a tree. The tree trembled as leaves
and twigs blasted away by the force,
Marcella immediately raised her crossbow at Michael while the

others also had serious looks on their faces.
"What the hell are you doing?!" H shouted,
Instead of answering, Michael just stared at the masked face of

Jessie for a few moments.
"What..." Jessie tried to speak but words barely escaped through
against Michael's clutch.
"Did anyone notice that the black panther never targeted Jessie or
attacked him?" They were all confused by Michael's question. In
the heat of the battle, they never noticed anything weird.
"He stayed out of its target range, so what?" Marcella growled,

refusing to let Michael manhandle Jessie like this. She knew and
trusted Jessie more than Michael
Giving no answer to Marcella, he just ripped off Jessie's cloth

covering his arm. The moment H and everyone saw Jessie's right
forearm, they took a step back from him. Marcella's eyes went
wide as her body jerked in shock.
Jessie's forearm had a two-inch diameter circle bite mark. The

area around the mark was riddled with yellow and blue veins.
"It's...nothing..." Jessie mumbled,
"He was already infected when the battle started, that was why
the panther never targeted him, that was why he was stumbling
on the way"
The first thing that raised the suspicion on Jessie was when he
stumbled down. If Jessie was here, it was obvious he's an expert
thief. Otherwise, Ross or H wouldn't have hired him. A single
misstep would cost a thief's life hence they trained themselves to
take each step with utmost care no matter where they are. For an
expert thief like Jessie, falling down clumsily was pretty unusual.
The next thing was when the team fought the panther, although it
focused its attacks on him, Logan, and Marcella, it never seemed
to target Jessie. Besides, he also kept scratching his forearm
instead of throwing the throwing knives hidden inside his cloak.
"How long?" H asked, gently patting Michael's hand, wordlessly

telling him to loosen his grip.
Michael did loosen his grip but didn't let go,

"Grhh" only a menacing growl came out of Jessie's mouth. Jonah
cautiously stepped towards Jessie, adjusting his glasses to
examine the wound.
"Judging by the color around the wound, I'd say three hours"
"That's approximately the time we faced the undead monkeys,"

said Brownie. Thinking weak undead such as the monkeys
managed to bite Jessie, he just shook his head in disappointment.
"If my guess is right...he will turn undead in...one hour" he

stuttered in fear. The reality of someone he knew will be undead in
a matter of time freaked him out.
"Whatever he's here for, we have to do it without him" Michael's

face was calm. There was no shock or fear on his face despite
holding a soon-to-be undead in his hand. He spoke looking at H
and Ross since this was their operation and only they knew the
real reason to bring a thief to this island.
H just nodded, without stating the obvious.
"Sorry dude, any last words?"
"Grrrrah,"
"Suit yourself"
Pulch!
Michael stabbed the crossbow bolt he was holding in the other

hand through right between Jessie's eyes, killing him quickly and
painlessly.
"Check yourselves, I'd hate for you to turn into an undead" H said,
quickly hiding his concern from showing on his face. With the
system on his side, Michael couldn't care less about losing a thief.
It was indeed a pity for the team to lose one but at the end of the
day, it was expected.
"You cannot leave him like that" Maria protested against leaving
Jessie's body.
"We don't have time to give him a proper burial" Ross sighed but
the others showed no concern for Jessie's body. After all, Jessie
died and it was just the mortal shell.
"It's the least we can do for him. Undead or not, he was a human
being"
"Let's move" H ignored the protest of this naive young girl. Michael
followed H behind. Although he trusted Gaya to find and stop the
other team from reaching the center, he still didn't want to waste
any time doing cores for this stupid girl.
"If you don't, I will!" the girl stomped the ground. She looked
extremely stubborn as she began to walk towards Jessie's body.
The team stared at Ross while H clenched his teeth in frustration.
Not only H, but Michael also looked pissed. Unlike the rest of
them, he needed to find the artifact the most, it was his real
mission, not escorting them safely.
Ever since they started the mission, Maria had been nothing but
trouble. If she wasn't Ross's daughter, they would have personally
kicked her off the ship.
"It's not a good idea to stay here any longer. The corpses might
attract predators or even undeads " Jonah, the expert on undeads
warned them. He was already gawking around to see if there's
any more undead creatures approaching them.
"Ross" H looked at Ross to knock some sense into his daughter,
"Maria, we're leaving" Ross tried to stop her but she just swatted
his hand before he could stop her.
"I said I will give him a proper burial he deserves!"
"You kidding me? We have to go before anyone else ends up like

him" Finally Marcella said something that Michael approved of.
"This is not the time for stubbornness Maria" Ross spoke in a

grave voice.
"This is exactly the right time. How could you leave him like this,
like he was some kind of animal? Would you leave if it was me?"
After this, the father and daughter began to argue. Michael was
already annoyed at these two for delaying the mission. He paid no
attention to the argument. All his attention was on his
surroundings but he could hear the argument heating up.
While everyone's focus was on the father-daughter duo, he

slipped behind a tree for cover.
"Fly my little bird" he gently tossed the palm-sized drone into the
hair. The white drone transformed its surface into an army
camouflage to blend with the forest.
However before the drone could fly deeper into the forest, he
controlled it to fly around them, making a rustling noise.
"Something's coming" Michael quickly stepped out from the

darkness of the tree. H shouted at the team as he had nothing to
do with the noise,
zzzhhhhhhh
The noise immediately stopped the arguing.
"We're moving" This time everyone followed H, leaving Ross and

Maria behind. They didnt think Ross would be dumb enough to
stick around, burying Jessie. Digging a grave for Jessie at this
moment was equal to digging two more graves for him and his
daughter.
"You're coming with me" Ross grabbed Maria by her hand and
started moving. She was still stupid enough to struggle but this
time, she couldnt escape Ross's hold.
Michael followed them behind while the drone kept making noises
by flying around them. Looking at the speed they were running, he
wished he used the drone earlier which would have saved them
some time.
They continued to run as fast as they could. Even after a couple of
hours, they never dared to stop. Eventually, after running for so
long, Michael heard the sound of water flowing.
"The river is closer," H reminded them.
"Human, we have a problem" suddenly, he heard Gaya's voice.

What she said slowed his pace of running,
"What is it?"
He whispered,
"It wasn't one team hunting for the artifact, it's two. One group was
already dead when I tracked them down"
"Where?"
The thickness of the trees suddenly declined as they stepped out

of the forest to see a beautiful river.
"Near a river on the south"
Gaya answered but he already knew the answer. The shore was
filled with almost twenty bodies. Their blood painted the golden
sandy shore red.
"What happened here?'
The sunlight entered in abundance due to the lack of canopy

above them. It reflected on the dead bodies and the broken ship
parts floating on the river.
The team cautiously took steps forward towards the dead bodies.
Everyone was on their guard. He wished he sent three more
drones so one would have surveyed this direction. The drone he
sent unfortunately covered the forest quite some distance from
this place.
After slowly approaching the sight, they came to the first dead
body on the shore. It was of a middle-aged man. He wore a toga
just like the two southerners Michael met on Lars's ship. He
wondered what a nobleman was doing in a dangerous place like
this.
Michael squatted down beside the dead body to study the wounds
inflicted on the body.
"Gaya was right, he wasn't killed by an undead but a human"

looking at the clean-cut across his throat, he could tell it was the
handiwork of a human. No undead would kill with such precision
or leave the body untouched.
"They were killed by humans" Marcella came to the same

conclusion as Michael.
Chapter 251 - Hunt For The
Artifact Begins II
"Ross, you need to see this" a few meters away from Michael,
Marcella called out for Ross. Underneath her feet, there was a
body of a blue-robed youngster. Marcella's face had an unusual
frown. Ross causality walked towards Marcella while constantly
staring at the surroundings for any surprise attack.
Michael closely stared at Ross's face for any expression. Just

when he got close to Marcella, dark lines appeared on his
forehead.
"It's Rowan" From the distance, Michael's lip read Ross. Soon, he
saw the others walking towards Marcella and having the same
disturbed looks on their faces as Ross.
"It must be his team then,"? said Logan, his eyes squinting at the
broken ship parts floating on the river. One by one, the team
members began to look gloomy.
"Even with the ship, reaching the center would be a pain. What're
we gonna do now?"? Brownie's voice already showed his
reluctance to continue the mission.
"Then we go with the plan b, go through the forest" H immediately

opened his mouth before anyone could ask Ross to back off from
the mission. It seemed to Michael that H was more desperate to
complete the mission than Ross himself.
"It's suicide"? Ross however shook his head. They could reach
the center through the forest far more quickly than traveling on the
river but it was the powerful undead army living in the forest that
made them go with the river.
"I agree with Ross. A single panther almost killed us and the deep
forest will have hundreds of them"
Except for Jonah and H, everyone nodded their heads. Michael on

the other hand, although he knew going into the forest might even
threaten his life, he wasn't going to abandon the mission like the
rest of them.
[The host should build a raft]
"Long time no hear, system" Despite him sitting in the middle of

dead bodies, the system's voice put a smile on his face.
"I was already thinking that," he thought, looking at the wooden

planks, bamboo trees in the forest as well as the ropes around the
area. The team who killed Rowan's team was thorough. They not
only killed them all but also destroyed the ship they built. Building
a ship from scratch was far beyond what Michael could do at his
current Inventor trait. Even if he had the required level, he needed
a blacksmith to complete the ship.
Therefore, the best thing he could do was a raft, using the

materials around him. While making a blueprint to build the raft in
his mind, he controlled the drone to fly ahead, following the river.
"Shit" his mind played him the visuals being captured by the
drone. The smile foxy smile from his face vanished instantly. It
was replaced by a stern look. Crocodiles, undead, and alive
crocodiles. He could count at least fifty full-grown crocodiles
swarming the river ahead of them. What made him sweat a cold
drop was some of the undead crocodiles were swimming against
the river's current, in other words, they were comings towards
them.
"Guys, we can build a raft" Michael almost shouted. He had no

time to waste anymore. The other team hunting for the artifact
was rushing enough and now he had to deal with these crocs.
Using Arch energy to fight them might seem like a solution but he
had a feeling the stronger foes are at the temple where the artifact
is.
Besides, building two rafts would not take much time considering
his Inventor skills.
All of their gazes instantly turned towards Michael. Of course,

doubt and disbelief of what he just said were written all over their
faces.
"We have all the necessary materials to build two of them. It won't
be as comfy as a ship, but it will take us to the center. That of
course, if you still want to get the job done"
"You think you can build them?" Jonah's voice contained a doubt
yet also a glimmer of hope just like those brown eyes behind his
glasses.
"If you guys quit skulking around and help me, I can get the rafts
on the water in an hour" Yet again, Michael peeked at the corner
of his mind to see the crocks.
"They're the deadliest predators in the world for a reason" Michael

couldn't help praising the crocodiles after seeing their speed. The
river's current was pretty strong yet they moved so fast and swiftly
against the current.
"We're in too deep to back off Ross"
"I won't turn my back on Johnny"
H and Maria tried to convince Ross to move forward with the

mission as Michael expected. If it wasn't for the fact that the flying
time to the center is almost four hours, he might have shown his
true face. To save the precious three hours of cultivation power,
Michael decided to stick with them. The more people he
surrounds himself with, the less chance he would end up undead
chow.
"David, what do you need from us?"
After taking a few long moments, Ross finally asked Michael.

Anyone with two eyes or one eye could tell how reluctant Ross is.
No one knew what's at stake other than Ross himself.? Getting
the artifact was the only way to save Gisel kingdom's lead senator
who's the one holding the kingdom together. If he died, the whole
kingdom would be thrown into chaos, the enemy kingdoms would
wage war to take a piece of Gisel, thousands of people would die
while many would become slaves.
The desperation to save his motherland forced Ross to go with

this suicide plan.
"Maria, plea-"
"Not gonna happen father!"
Yet again Maria stomped the ground, refusing to listen to Ross.
"she's stupid and stubborn as fuck" Her stubbornness truly

surprised Michael. He had never seen such a stubborn and stupid
girl before in his two lives. After looking at the number of
crocodiles rushing towards them, it wouldn't surprise Michael if
half the team lost their lives. Since Logan could prove to be a
good subordinate, he might save him if the push comes to shove.
"The rafts won't protect us as a ship would. This is a suicide plan,

we should go back" Marcella sounded extremely serious. Michael
clenched his jaws as black lines appeared on his forehead.
"Go back and get nothing or follow me and get thrice the payment
you've agreed"
The moment H uttered these words, many in the team let out a
surprising burst of chuckle. Their frowny faces showed a slight
smile, a greedy smile except for Marcella. Even Marcella rubbed
her chin, thinking about the coins.
Logan's reaction was obvious as his eyes sparkled. Although

Michael smiled to pretend like he was intrigued by H's offer,
somewhat he couldn't completely believe H's words.
"You sly fox, you don't believe everyone will survive" Michael
snickered inside. He didn't loathe or get mad at H though. It was a
logical move considering the risk of moving forward. If most of
them died, H wouldn't have to pay them.
What made Michael wonder was whether H would double-cross

the survivors or not.
"I don't know about you guys but the payday is worth the risk. I'm
following H ' Logan was the first to step towards Michael to help.
While Ross was trying to convince Maria to back off, the others
agreed with H one by one.
"Whatcha need me to do?" Logan asked,
"Get me as many bamboos as you can"
Logan picked up a scimitar from one of the dead bodies before

going into the forest.
"What about us?" Brownie asked while Marcella and Jonah stood
behind him. H was discussing something with Ross. Maria
surprised Michael by digging graves for the dead bodies.
"Get the wooden planks floating on the river. Do it fast, who knows
what lingers around this forest?" Michael started to collect things
such as ropes to start building the rafts.
****************************
After almost fifty minutes of hard work, Michael finally finished

building the two rafts.
"It's not a ship but they will get the job done"
The two bamboo rafts didn't exactly look like a typical raft. Each
raft contained three layers of green bamboo. Michael also tied
wooden barrels with the raft to make them float better. Since he
knew about the upcoming threat, he used the wooden planks as
the walls to somewhat provide protection against the crocks. In
simple words, each one was a raft with three walls.
He knew the walls would be destroyed by the crocks in a few

moments after meeting them but those few moments could save a
life. He knew that the more people he had to fight the undead, the
better his chance to obtain the artifact.
"H, Logan, Jonah, Marcella on one raft. The rest of us will get on
the other one"
This meant Michael, Ross, Maria, and Brownie would be on the

same raft. He kinda wished Logan to be on the same raft as he is
but he doubted the raft could take the big guy and his
sledgehammer along with him and the Doombringer.
"I'll go first" Michael walked towards the raft floating behind H's
raft.
"Whoo," When he jumped on the raft, it wobbled for a moment

until he balanced himself.
"They're close" When he peeked at the visuals being captured by

the drone, he noticed the crocks getting closer and closer.
Although he still looked calm, he was pretty serious about the
upcoming battle.
Soon, one by one, the team jumped onto the raft.
"Sigh" only after he saw everyone standing on the rafts without

drowning in the river, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Chapter 252 - An Alpha
Undead
Traveling on the raft against a calm wind seemed peaceful, almost

making them forget where they were. H used the long bamboo
stick as a paddle to move the raft faster while on Michael's raft,
Brownie used the bamboo paddle.
"You seem tense," Maria said looking at Michael. He was

surprised to see this stubborn stupid girl noticing his inner
emotions.
"Is it weird considering where we are going?" he shrugged. He

could have smiled yet he showed no expression on his face. After
getting a question as an answer, Maria frowned before sitting on
the raft to relax her muscles.
At the moment, Michael was standing behind the raft, in front of

the back wall made of wooden planks. Except for Maria, no one
turned back to notice what he was doing. He chose this place so
he could concentrate on controlling the drone which would let him
know the whereabouts of the crocs.
While Michael was looking at the footage being captured by the

drone, out of nowhere an arrow shot straight at the drone. The
drone flew chaotically above the river before finally falling into the
water.? But before it went down, Michael saw a humanoid figure
on a boulder near the river.
"Is that an alpha?" his brows furrowed. This was another

difference he found in the Netherels of the Southern continent.
Back in the Northern Continent, a netherel bite wouldn't turn a
cultivator into a netherel, it was the exact opposite here. It was
obviously the lack of Arch energy in the peoples' bodies here. If
Jessie was a cultivator and had Arch energy running through his
energy veins, he wouldn't have turned into a netherel or undead.
As he learned recently, the alphas were stronger and intelligent

undeads who possessed intellectual equal to a human. In other
words, alphas were perfect killing machines.
After the alpha undead shot down his drone, he had no way of
knowing the crocks' whereabouts or how far the undeads from
their current position were.
Michael put the Doombringer on his shoulder, preparing himself

for the upcoming battle.
"Guys, I feel like something's heading in our way. You might

wanna put your guard up" Michael warned everyone on the raft.
For a few moments, Ross gawked at him doubtfully but ultimately
Ross nodded.
For a few more minutes, he heard only the sound of the river's
flow, the birds chirping as well as the creaking noises produced by
the rafts. It was until he started to hear the ear-piercing scream
which was followed by growling noises of countless undeads.
"Watch out!" Logan shouted from his raft. Michael peeked through
the wall's holes to see either side of the river is getting swarmed
by humanoid undeads and undead beasts.
"Graahhhhhh!"
"Grrrrrrrr!"
"Eeeeeeekkkkkk!"
Various terrifying noises came from all around them.
"Move move move!" H shouted as the first raft began to move

faster. The undeads standing on the shore swarmed into the river,
hoping to catch them mindlessly only to get stormed by the river
current. Many beast undeads drowned instantly.
"Fuck crocodiles!'
Yet again Logan warned them with a shout but Michael and
everyone on his raft could see the army of crocodiles swimming
towards them with their jaws wide open.
[There's no way the host could get past those crocs without using
your cultivation powers]
Even the system couldnt stay silent looking at the crocks

swarming the river ahead of them. He could use wind blast to
blast the crocks away. Given the current situation, it seemed to be
the only logical move. It would be nearly impossible for these rafts
to go through the crocks. Probably while they were stuck with the
crocks, the alpha might pick them off one by one with his bow.
Whoosh!
"Brownie!" Just when he was thinking about the alpha, an arrow

went straight through Brownie's head. The blood spattered on
Ross's face who was standing relatively close to Brownie. Michael
saw Brownie's lifeless body falling into the river. The arrow that
killed Browne was extremely fast. In a blink of an eye, it took
Brownie's life. Brownie didn't even see the arrow that took his life.
He was completely clueless.
"Get down!" Ross shouted as they all ducked down. Through the
hole in the wall, Michael noticed a 6ft humanoid figure standing on
a boulder with a bow in his hand. There was no skin below his
neck while half of the skin had fallen off of his face. The messy
patches of grey hair fluttered in the wind behind the figure. His
horrifying figure sent a chill running through everyone's spines.
"An alpha undead!" he heard Marcella's shout. Without Brownie

paddling, the raft started to propel violently.
"Hang on!" Ross cautiously crawled towards the paddle.

Fortunately, Marcella was able to fire a couple of bolts. Her bolts
made the alpha undead retrieve from the boulder to seek cover.
However none couldn't breathe a sigh of relief, the crocks were
still coming on their way.
"Fuck it" Realising there was no way of getting through them
without the help of Arch energy, Michael stood up to wind blast the
crocks.
"Need some help" Suddenly he heard the sweet melodious voice

of Gaya in his ear. He had no idea what she's doing here without
tracking down the other team, still, he was glad that she's here to
help them. It was still too early to reveal the fact that he could use
Arch energy.
"Oh my god!"
"Watch out!"
"What is that?"
Everyone began to shout crazily, staring at the sky. He looked up

at the sky to see a huge boulder flying towards the crocodiles.
Boom!
The boulder hit the crocks with tremendous force, crushing many
crocks while the shock wave blasted the remaining crocks away.
Looking at the shock wave coming in their direction, Logan
paddled the rift to avoid hitting the boulder while Ross shouted at
them to hold onto something.
"Hold onto something!"
Fortunately, both the rafts had sidewalls to prevent them from

falling into the wall. Still, when Maria was thrown into the wall, the
crash sent the wall flying away. Logan's raft wasn't in a good
shape either. Since Logan's raft was the first to receive the
shockwave's wrath, they lost all the walls.
Without giving a thought to what just happened, both Logan and

Ross paddled the raft away from the boulder in the river a couple
of yards before them.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The alpha undead rained down arrows while keeping up with their
rafts. He was like an Olympic gold medalist runner on drugs
merged with an Olympic archer. Despite the raft's speed, he was
able to keep up with them. The remaining side wall was able to
prevent the majority of the arrows from hitting Michael's raft but
the same couldn't be said to Logan's raft which had no walls to
protect them. If it wasn't for Marcella firing back to mess with the
alpha's accuracy, they would have surely lost another teammate,
most probably Logan since he was literally a huge target.
"Stop the alpha," Michael said to Gaya through the earpiece

before the alpha could get lucky and kill one of them. Even
Michael remained behind the wall because of the alpha undead's
precision. He headshot Brownie who was on a moving raft.
"Piece of cake" As usual, she sounded confident.
He was glad she's here. Otherwise, he would have been forced to

reveal his secret. Until he could see the artifact, he didn't want the
others to know that he can use arch energy. Besides, he wanted
to see what H or Ross planned to do when they finally reached
the artifact. It was possible that either of them still holds an ace up
their sleeves.
Right at the moment, the alpha knocked up an arrow to fire but

before he could do that, another arrow came from the forest
behind him. Michael saw the alpha turning his head, sensing
Gaya's presence but it was too late as the arrow went straight
through the alpha's head.
Just like Michael, everyone else
The others who saw the scene were bewildered. First, a boulder
came out of nowhere, and now the alpha was killed by someone,
the sudden change of events confused them.
"Who killed it?"
"Someone's in the forest"

Ross came to the correct conclusion yet he had no idea who was
in the forest helping them. Plus, no matter how hard he thought,
he couldn't find an answer to the question, how or what could
have thrown the boulder with such force.
Everyone except Michael was thinking the same thing. Even the
alpha's death couldnt stop the dumb Netherels from rushing into
the river. Unlike the alpha, they had no brain function whatsoever,
hence they ended up either drowning immediately or flooded by
the river.
They were not a threat, not at all. If they had the ship built by
Rowan's team or it wasn't for the alpha and the crocodiles, this
journey would have been a peaceful one and Brownie would have
been still alive. He was a valuable team member as well as a
great fighter. They needed all the fighters they could. Now they
only had Logan, H, Ross, Michael, and Marcella to face an army
of undeads guarding the temple.
"There are still some alphas heading your way, let me take care of
them," Gaya said.
Chapter 253 - Into The
Pyramid I
The rest of the journey was peaceful thanks to Gaya killing the
alphas before they could attack the rafts. Judging by the frown on
Ross's face, Michael could tell that doubts are rising in Ross's
heart.
"How long?" Michael asked Ross. He held the paddle bamboo in

one hand and the map in the other. For a few moments, he just
studied the surroundings
"If everything goes smooth, we'll reach the center in three hours"
As far as he remembered, the river was running through the

island's center which meant they could reach the artifact sooner
than later. The sooner he gets the artifact, the sooner he could
return to dominate the Southern continent as well as meet his new
demon subordinate.
"Are you hearing that?" Maria asked after everyone started to

hear a faint humming noise. It was very faint yet one could hear it
if focused enough.
Gradually H's raft moved towards the shore as Ross paddled the
raft to follow them to the shore.
"It's good to be on the land" Logan let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Even Michael felt relieved to step out of the raft.
"Follow my lead" Ross took the lead into the dark forest. The
forest looked ancient with giant trees and lush vegetation on the
ground. Apart from the faint humming noise, only the croaking of
the frogs, the gurgling croak of ravens as well as trees rustling
could be heard.
"The air reeks"
Logan twitched his nose. He was right, the air did reek of rotten
flesh.
"Keep your guards up"
It was not like they dropped their guards yet they focused more on
the surroundings after hearing Ross. Every single one of them
took the next step with utmost caution. Even H who seemed to be
in the rush to get the artifact walked slower.
The lush forest made following Ross difficult. In the distance, they
could hear the thunderclaps. Pushing the foliage away, Michael
and Logan followed the team behind.? Without uttering a single
word, they kept walking.
They kept walking as the faint humming noise began to sound

louder and louder. Michael used his Environmental Scanning
senses to scan for any undeads yet he found nothing. It was
surprisingly unusual. Although there were no undeads nearby, he
couldn't shake the eerie feeling. Except for the humming noise,
there was no sound, not even a chirp of a bird.
After an hour of walking, the thick forest seemed to decline. They

could see the light coming through the forest a few hundred
meters ahead of them.
"I'm getting closer," Michael's instincts told him that the artifact is
nearby. He could vaguely feel a tremendous amount of energy
coming from ahead of him.
When they finally stepped out of the thick forest, they were
welcomed by a huge surprise.
"Holy fuck!"
Logan's jaws dropped, just like the rest of them. What they saw
was a pyramid, a miniature size pyramid surrounded by an army
of undeads and trees. It was at least fifty feet tall and thirty feet
wide. Instead of sandstones, this pyramid was built using a
greyish stone that gave the pyramid a dark look.
"What is this place?"
Logan asked as his eyes widened in shock.
"The question should be, how do we reach the inside?" Still, H's
focus was on the artifact, not on the pyramid. He had the least
surprised look on his face. Even Michael was stunned by this
wonder but not H.
[The system is sensing strong First energy fluctuations]
"First energy? Do you think I can use it through Energy

Devourer?"
[Since your body and soul endured the First energy before, you'll
be able to use the First energy with no problem ]
"Awesome" his face brightened. When he first sucked in the First

energy, he was able to get from the Body Strengthening stage to
the Core Formation stage in one go. Luckily, he was again
presented with the First energy source.
"What is this artifact?" He wondered. The artifact never ceased to

amaze him.
"Look over there" Jonah pointed at the other side of the pyramid
as they vaguely saw a rope bridge connecting to the pyramid's top
from the cliff on the other side. If they walked carefully through the
edge, they could reach the other side without alerting the
undeads.
"Hey is it me or do these undeads look weird ?" Logan looked

down on the undeads from the cliff.
"They are hibernating,"? Jonah said, lifting his glasses up. Michael
heard about this phenomenon from Dular. It was like when the
Netherels had nothing to attack in the vicinity, they would enter
into a state that could be compared to humans sleeping. Until they
could sense prey, they would remain in this state.
"Hibernating? What does that mean?" Logan scratched the back

of his head.
"You can think of it as an undead version of sleeping" H quickly

interfered before Jonah could start a lecture about undeads.
Carefully looking at the undeads beneath them, they began to
move towards the other side.
The rope bridge looked ancient, missing many wooden steps yet it
was their best hope to reach the pyramid.
"Human, have you reached the rope bridge yet?" Yet again he
heard Gaya's voice.
"I'll cover your backs" Michael let Logan and the team go first so
he could talk to Gaya without them noticing. They didn't suspect
him much as they had bigger things to worry about. While they
were moving forward, he slowed down, putting some distance
from them.
"Not yet, where are you?"
"Keeping the other team from reaching the rope bridge. Since
you've seen the army of undeads down there, you know what
would happen if they smell blood in the air or any screams"
"Good call, we should not wake them up as long as we could" he

whispered,
"How are you slowing them down?"
"I may or may not have put some bloody flux into their meals" her
voice contained a sliver of devilishness.
"So you keep a bloody flux potion with you huh?'
"Of course I do and you better watch yourself human" she

chuckled before cutting the connection. The bloody flux was a
potion that would cause diarrhea. The fact she had a bloody flux
potion with her didn't surprise Michael very much. Anyways, he
was glad that her potion was able to slow down the other team. If
they were affected by the bloody flux potion, he knew their combat
skills would hit low, and even if they did try to fight them which
was very unlikely considering the hibernating undeads, Michael's
team would have an easy time dealing with them.
While they were walking on the edge, every single one of them did
their best not to kick any pebbles down at the undeads. It was
evident that if they woke one undead up, the whole army would
wake up.
It took them half an hour to reach the cliff on the other side.
Except for Michael, none of them knew that the other team was
hiding in the forest behind them.
"They are coming" Michael sensed the other team moving

towards them with the help of the Environmental scanning. Their
movements were slow probably due to the bloody flux. In a few
minutes, Michael's team heard a voice coming from the forest.
They quickly unsheathed their weapons,
"Stop"
One by one, the other team members walked out from the forest's
darkness. They wore grey hooded robes covering every part of
their body, even their eyes were covered by a black transparent
cloth. However, the one who walked out from the forest last didnt
wear similar clothes. He just wore black armor protecting his torso
and brown leather breeches with black boots. His short golden
hair was messy and his face was pale.
"Johnny"? the moment Maria saw the young man, she almost
shouted. Everyone's eyes widened in shock. Maria leaped at the
young man, embracing him like there's no tomorrow.
"Maria" the young man hugged her back.
"I found you" Maria buried her head into his chest ignoring her
father's gaze. Micahel noticed the black lines appearing on Ross's
forehead.
Johnny lifted her face slowly. Just when he was about to lock his
lips with hers, Ross opened his mouth
"What are you doing here?"
"I could...ask the same"
Johnny sounded like he was too weak to speak. They all noticed
this but only Michael knew the reason. He also felt pity for these
guys because it would have been damn hard for them to disrobe
to let whatever inside them out.
"Did you kill them?" Ross asked. His voice may not have shown
the killing intent but his eyes did.
"Kill who?'
"Father" Maria tried to butt in yet Ross's gaze was fixed on Maria's
boyfriend. Johnny creased his brows, looking confused.
"We didn't kill anyone" Johnny shook his head.
It was them who killed Rowan's team yet Johnny said otherwise.
Michael knew either Johnny's lying which was probably the case
or the cloaked figures killed them without Johnny's knowledge.
"It's obvious you reached this place before us but what are you
still doing here without going into the temple?" H asked. A hint of
anger and embarrassment emerged in Johnny's eyes.
"We encountered a setback, that's all you need to know. Now, are
you going to keep interrogating me or work together to enter the
temple?"
H stared at Johnny for a few moments before nodding at the team

to lower their weapons.
"I have my eyes on you kid," H said in a serious tone. Johnny did
not react but Maria gave H a death glare which H just ignored.
After this temporary truce, all of their focus turned towards the
rope bridge in front of them.
Michael could feel the intense energy coming from the pyramid.
"Finally, this is coming an end'

Chapter 254 - Into The
Pyramid II
H and Ross nodded at Johnny wordlessly agreeing with him to

stroll over the bridge without wasting any time. Michael walked
over to the bridge to see the rope bridge's integrity. The bridge
looked ancient in which the deck of the bridge lied on two parallel
load-bearing ropes that were anchored at either end. They had no
towers or piers. Some of the wooden planks were missing while
some looked rotten due to old age. If this was any other day, no
one in the team would have agreed to walk this bridge yet in this
situation, they had to take the risk.
Michael stood aside deciding to let the others use the bridge first.
He noticed Johnny giving a pat to his tummy before taking the
steps towards the bridge.
"Follow me" Johnny ordered his men to follow him. Although

Johnny didn't seem like a leader figure in Michael's eyes, the
cloaked figures did follow him behind only to get stopped by H,
"Stop"
"What now?" Johnny turned with his brows creased. Coupled with
the bloody flux's effects, H's constant interference annoyed
Johnny.
"Im not stupid to let your guys use the bridge first. We'll use the
bridge one by one. Ross, you go next"
After seeing the stern look on H's face, Johnny realized there's no
point in arguing. Therefore, he just took his first step on the
bridge. His first step caused the bridge to shake. Johnny quickly
grabbed the two ropes on either side to balance himself as well as
stop the bridge from shaking.
One slow step at a time, Johnny moved forward. Even the

thunderclaps from the distance were able to slightly shake this
ancient rope bridge. Since his stomach was hurt by the bloody
flux, he kinda limped towards the pyramid.
The rope bridge may have anchored at two ends but the wooden
planks were only laid until the pyramid's top. After the pyramid,
there were no wooden planks, just ropes. The bridge was either
built on a rush or by an amateur, everyone thought.
Hggggrrrrr!
When Johnny reached the pyramid's top, a bright light appeared,

producing a weird sound. The light soon enveloped Johnny. In a
blink of an eye, Johnny disappeared from the bridge. When
Johnny disappeared, one would expect Maria to panic but the one
who panicked was none other than Michael himself.
"I'll go next" Michael was already standing near the bridge. Hence,
before Ross could make a move, he stepped on the bridge. He
was supposed to go last except they saw him cut in the line. Not
only Ross but every single one of them was shocked. Yet they
were unable to shout or do anything to stop him.
"Careful" Logan almost shouted when he saw the bridge violently

shake. The bridge looked like it could barely take on a walking
passenger but David was running on the ancient bridge. They
were afraid of him collapsing the bridge or worse waking up the
undead army below them.
Michael completely ignored their fears.
Kachak!
The same blue light that enveloped Johnny appeared again to

envelop Michael. The brightness made him close his eyes for a
moment. The next moment, he felt light as a warmth feeling
overwhelmed him.
When he opened his eyes, he was standing in an empty hall. The
walls and floor were made of some kind of dark navy blue stone.
Everywhere he turned, he only saw blue walls, that was it.
"Where's Ross?" Johnny asked but Michael ignored him

completely.
"System, where's the artifact?"
[Scanning the area]
[the artifact is directly below the hall's center]
Michael heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the system. Atleast,

he was sure of the artifact's existence. Now he only needed to find
a way to bring the artifact to the upper ground or find a way to go
below.
"Hey!" Johnny got mad seeing the new guy completely ignore him.
"Where is it?" Michael looked around, walking towards the center.

He was searching for some kind of mechanism like in the games
to activate something.
"Welcome Lord Lucifer" the moment he reached the center, the

ground lit up. He was standing on a gigantic magical rune that
started to rotate. Various magical symbols appeared from the thin
air, they all floated around Michael.
"What...what's happening?"
Johnny was staring at the ground as well as the floating symbols

with a bewildered face.
"Lucifer?" Michael's jaw slightly dropped recalling how the pyramid

called him. It was a robotic voice yet it sounded utmost respectful
when it spoke his name.
"Is this place might be another safehold of the order of the death?"
He questioned himself while staring at the rune below him. He

waited for something to happen, completely ignoring Johnny or
the cloaked figure who just appeared in the hall.
"Holy gods" Johnny saw the cloaked figure dropping to the

ground, worshipping the flying symbols. After the cloaked figure
appeared, someone from Ross's team or Ross himself was
supposed to appear. Yet the one who entered the hall was another
cloaked figure.
"You idiots!"? The moment the cloaked figure saw Michael

standing on the runic circle, he shouted at Johnny and the one
who was worshipping the glowing runes.
Creak!
Johnny was about to take a step forward when the entire hall
trembled. Soon afterward, a long tube containing a pitch-black orb
on top emerged from the ground before Michael.
"Stop him!" Yet again the cloaked figure screamed as his voice
was full of panic rather than anger.
"Is this the artifact?" Michael felt an immense amount of pressure

being radiated from the orb in front of him. The orb was neither
too big nor too small; rather it was the size of any typical glass
orbs used by oracles or fortune-tellers.
[Energy Devouver activated]
[Warning too much First Energy!]
[Warning!]
[Host should immediately enter into a hibernation state!]
[Energy devourer Reactivated!]
[Does the host wish to unlock the artifact?]
His mind was filled with warning sounds yet it couldn't make
Michael back off from getting the artifact.
"Yes"
Johnny and the two cloaked figures tried to reach Michael except
an invisible force stopped them from doing so.
"We cannot let him take that!" the cloaked figure who previously
worshiped the runes shouted. The other cloaked figure turned
back to see Ross appear.
"Use it!" Johnny saw the cloaked figure who appeared second
taking out a red brick with silver wires coiled around it. Johnny
immediately recognized it, the red brick was a powerful explosive
used by the Church of Mohdon.
"Wait" Johnny tried to stop but the cloaked figure was swift. He
placed the brick as close as possible to Michael, fiddling with the
wires coiled around the brick for a bit.
"Run!"
The cloaked figures screamed before running as fast as they

could from the red brick. Since Johnny knew about the explosive
brick, he too ran behind them to the hall's far corner. Fortunately,
the light teleported everyone to the far corner so Ross never had
to run. Staring at the glowing runes and the trio running away,
Ross had too many questions in his mind.
The red brick began to vibrate while its surface emitted a cloud of
black smoke. In a blink of an eye, the cloud of black smoke
transformed into a red hot flame.
Boom!
The red brick exploded with an immense amount of force. The

explosion created a bright light that made everyone close their
eyes. The entire hall trembled as stone pieces from the ceiling
crumbled down on them. When they opened their eyes, they saw
the glowing runes flicker before completely disappearing from the
hall.
"The artifact!" the two cloaked figures shouted in joy seeing the
black orb rolling on the ground where Michael was standing a
moment ago. The cloaked figures completely ignored the body
lying on the ground a few meters away from the orb. It was
Michael, he laid on the ground face down. Puffs of smoke kept
emerging from his charred clothes as well as some of his body
parts.
"Johnny" Ross turned back and saw his daughter appear.
Pulch!
Pulch!
While his gaze was on Maria, he heard a familiar sound appear

from the other side, he would recognize this sound in his sleep,
the sound of a blade piercing a body.
He immediately turned back to see the two cloaked figures lying

on the ground, blood gushing out from their back. Standing beside
their bodies, Johnny picked up the orb on the ground. He held the
orb in one hand while a bloody dagger in his other hand.
"It's mine" Ross saw an evil grin appear on Johnny's pale face.
Although Ross had a bad feeling about Johnny, he never
imagined him backstab two people in cold blood.
When Johnny turned his murderous glance at Maria, a chill ran

through Ross's spine. He quickly stepped in front of Maria,
shielding her with his body. Considering Ross had little to no idea
about Johnny's real combat ability or the artifact's power, he
feared for his daughter's life.
"Stay back,'' Ross said in a grave voice. The last thing he wanted
was his daughter to become collateral damage in the fight
between him and Johnny. While he was shielding his daughter, H
and the others appeared in the hall one by one.
Seeing the three dead bodies, H immediately unsheathed his

sword. Except for the remaining cloaked figures in the hall,
everyone raised their weapon at Johnny.
"What happened here? Who killed them?' Finally one of the

cloaked figures unsheathed his dagger. Because Johnny was
standing so besides the dead bodies, they naturally suspected
Johnny and they were right.
Awakens
"Is that...David?" Logan stuttered, staring at the body a couple of

meters away from Johnny. His muscles went rigid in shock. He
never thought David would die while Jonah, who had no knack for
the battle, is alive.
What happened before they arrived here was still a mystery to

Logan but he was sure that Johnny or that two cloaked figures
could have killed David unless they had used some crooked
means.
"They tried to take what's mine, so I killed them," Johnny

nonchalantly said while fiddling with the orb in his hand. He tried
to figure out a way to activate the orb.
"You murderer!" After hearing these words from Johnny, the

cloaked figures lost their composure as they rushed at Johnny
with no hesitation.
At the same time they moved, Ross felt a gust of wind passing
against his back.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Everyone saw four heads rolling on the floor as the headless

bodies walked around clumsily, spraying blood all over the place
before falling to the ground. The beheadings happened so quickly.
None of them clearly saw the killer during the killings. They
realized who killed them only after the four heads left their bodies.
"Ma...Maria" This was the first time Logan saw the terrified face of
Ross. When they saw the bloody spear and the blood-splattered
white clothes of her terrified them because they never imagined
she possessed such a deadly side. Even her own father never
had a clue about her real skills.
"Quit playing with it Johnny"? Maria ordered Johnny. Her usual

sweet gentle voice was nowhere to be seen as she sounded more
like a battle-hardened villainess. On the contrary, Johnny's attitude
took a one-eighty turn. He immediately knelt down, lowering his
head to avoid eye contact with Maria.
He held out the orb towards Maria like he was giving an offering to
a goddess. The sudden change of events completely stunned
everyone standing in the hall.
"Maria" Ross called out to Maria but his voice was suppressed by
various emotions.
"I'll deal with you all in a sec" she said, taking the orb from
Johnny's hand.
When she looked at Ross, he could no longer see the little girl he
knew. The girl in front of him was a completely different person.
There was no love or kindness in her eyes, just anger and killing
intent.
Ignoring Ross's call, she walked towards Michael whose body was
still smoking. The team stood there watching Maria giving a
couple of kicks to David's dead body.
"Pity, I wanted to kill you with my spear " After kicking Michael's
body, she walked away from him. Johnny didn't stand up even
after giving the orb, he just knelt down on the ground until she
could tell him otherwise.
Creak!
She ripped off Johnny's shirt yet there was no reaction from him at
all.
"Now I assume you all want an explanation" Maria didn't even look
at Ross or anyone but began to clean the blood from the artifact
using Johnny's shirt. She then put the orb in her satchel hanging
on her waist.
"You're all gonna die anyway so it doesn't hurt to tell you"
"Ross" Although the skills she displayed could make her on par
with a highly trained spartan or a gladiator, H still believed he
could defeat her with the help of the team. He knew that Marcella
attacked her from a distance and he and Logan flanking her from
either side would definitely lead the way to beat Maria.
Johnny was a variable but H believed Ross would take him down
if push comes to shove. But first, even if Ross didn't want to fight
with them, H wanted Ross to stay out of their way when they
fought Maria. If he tried to protect his daughter again, this fight
would get complicated or simply result in H's defeat.
"I need to know what she has to tell"? Ross slightly raised his
hand, stopping H from doing anything.
"It's simple actually. Gisel kingdom took the one thing that meant
everything to me, so I'm gonna destroy it and kill all those senator
scumbags with this"? she tapped the satchel. Her murderous grin
showed them that she's very serious about this plan.
"It was my fault, Maria" said Ross. His eyes were full of regret.
Anyone could tell he's telling the truth.
"That's why you're gonna die too. You always put your duties to
the kingdom first, that was why you brought an undead to our
home"
Her murderous voice echoed through the empty halls. After they
heard her, they gawked at Ross in disbelief.
It was Ross's greatest regret. To the outside world, Ross's wife
died of an unknown disease except she wasn't. It was Ross who
killed her after the undead he brought home bit her. In the
Southern Continent, it was strictly forbidden for any kingdom to
bring undeads to the mainland from the undead island. All the
senates and a few kings in the continent took the decisions
together.
Nonetheless, five years ago, the senate and the scholars of Gisel
conducted a secret operation to bring an undead from the island
for experiments. After leading the mission with Marcella, Ross
caught an undead alive. Since they didn't go too deep into the
forest, the operation wasn't as dangerous as this one. But the
operation wasn't without losses either. Ross brought twelve men
with him and returned with seven.
If the safe house they decided to use hadn't caught on fire, the
operation would have ended with only seven casualties. Due to
the complications and the senate's trust in Ross, they put the
undead in the cellar below Ross's home. Since it was supposed to
be one day, Ross reluctantly agreed to the plan.
At that time, he never thought his wife would go to the cellar to

pick up a wine bottle for him. To this day, Ross had no idea how
the undead manage to break out of its cage. Only Marcell, Maria,
and himself knew what really happened to Ross's wife. No matter
how hard Ross tried, he couldn't get the blood of his own wife off
his hands.
Every time he saw Maria, he saw his wife. The guilt ate his soul
itself. A while later, he couldn't take it anymore as he sent Maria to
a sect far away from Gisel. Yet again, he never thought she would
turn into completely a different person.
"You're right to blame me but you're not a murdered, Maria"
"You kidding me? I just killed these people" she devilishly

chuckled pointing her finger at the headless bodies in the hall.
"And don't act like you know me. You were never there for me and
my mother. You failed as a father and a husband, you're an utter
failure. Who would bring an undead to their own home? And even
when we started this journey, if you were a good father, no matter
how stubborn your daughter was, you would have sent her away.
Even then, you put your mission to serve Gisel first" Her words
were spot on. He was too focused on saving his kingdom rather
than his daughter. The scholars and senate were absolutely sure
that they could control the undead army with this artifact, that was
why he risked his life to come here. If they could control this
undead army, no kingdom would stand on Gisel's path or dare to
invade them. The alphas were an example of the artifact's power
to control the undead.
"Since no man came to save me or my mother, I learned to protect

myself and to destroy those who harmed me. I'd bet someone
would kill the senate for me and pay millions of gold for this
artifact"
"Maria this is not you" Ross's voice broke in overwhelming regret.

He tried to knock some sense into Maria.
"This is the new me, that lovey-dovey stupid girl thing was just an
act to fool you. And it seems it can fool anyone, I mean you have
no idea how easily you can manipulate men putting up an act.
Plus, you're all fools, so it was much much easier to fool you"?
seeing the young girl laughing at them made everyone feel
embarrassed and mad. Even H who had decades of dealing with
criminals and battle experience failed to see her true face.
"But I got to give it to you guys, you've done a great job escorting
me here. I never thought getting here would be this easy. I guess
those alphas are just overrated"
If this was a better circumstance, they would gladly agree with her
because they did see only one alpha.
"And you, my slave, are ridiculously underrated. I cannot wait to

hear how you managed to throw a boulder that size."
"Was it you who ordered to kill Rowan's team and destroy the
ship?" H suddenly asked before Maria could get an answer from
Johnny.
"Why would I do that? I'm not stupid to destroy my safe ride. I
don't know who, might be someone else with the grudge against
Gisel. Now enough talking, let's get to the fun part...killing you all"
She licked the spear's blade.
"I didn't master" suddenly, her menacing eyes turned at Johnny

who spoke without lifting his head up.
"What you didn't?"
"Throwing the boulder master. It wasn't me"
She creased her brows. Destroying the ship was a logical move
for anyone with a grudge against Gisel and there were countless
people who fell into that category. However, she couldn't think of a
person who would help them get to the artifact.
"Why don't you ask me?" Maria felt a chill running through her
spine when she heard an unearthly voice coming from behind.
Chapter 256 - I Am The Dark
Lord
"He...he's... moving" Jonah's face turned pale. He stuttered

pointing at Michael's body. Everyone including Johnny and Maria
turned back to see Michael's charred body slowly starting to float
from the ground. They couldnt believe their own eyes.
"What in the hell?" Maria took a step back due to the

subconscious fear in her mind. Visible to the naked eye, his burnt
skin on the arm, neck, and face healed. His body slowly rose up in
the air.
The black eyes soon transformed into crimson red eyes. They
were staring at him in utter shock. Jonah's body shivered like he
was standing outside naked in the wintertime.
His transformation did not stop with crimson red eyes but the
burnt clothes were slowly vanishing into thin air while pieces of
black armor started to cover his body from toe to neck. The armor
looked like a breed between leather and metal. Up to his neck, no
place on his body was left alone, the armor covered every inch of
it.
This was the first time Michael wore Lucifer armor without the
cloak and mask. Logan was the tallest one in the group who stood
at 6feet 7inch yet the transformation made Michael an inch taller
than Logan himself. After the armor was completely set on his
body, they saw dark smoke being radiated from his body. Soon
afterward, his eyes ignited with dark red fire.
These people were somewhat lucky to witness the Dark Lord's

first evolution.
"It...it can't be...you were dead" Maria stuttered in fear. Not only
her but everyone began to fear him because of the fear toxin in
the air. Even if there wasn't any fear toxin in the air, they would
have reacted the same way.
They had never seen someone fly or heal this fast in the Southern
continent. It was clear as a day that he's using magic except they
had no idea how.
"Don't!" when Maria saw him moves forward towards her in the air,
she shouted, taking out the orb from her satchel. She applied
pressure to the orb as it began to produce creaking sounds.
"I'll destroy it" she threatened Michael with the artifact.
"What makes you think I care?"
He just raised his finger. The next moment, a bolt of a golden

lightning bolt shot towards the orb from his fingertip. The orb
shattered by the lightning bolt into countless pieces.
"How...how...are you doing this?" Jonah stuttered while the others

began to question their sanity.
"Magic"
"Impossible"
Michael stopped releasing the fear toxin into the air. He knew the
display of spell casting would keep them afraid. Even he himself
didnt know the complete extent of his new powers. He was now at
the Core Formation level 8. The system put his body into
hibernation so he could absorb most of the first energy radiated by
the artifact. Although his body was put into hibernation, he heard
everything Maria said.
"You...you're good"? He spoke while still floating in the air. It

wasn't just mere words, she really did surprise Michael. Even he
was unable to see through her scheme.
[The artifact will be awakened in ten minutes]

The system reminded Michael. Before the blast, he switched the
orb with the system's help. If he had avoided the blast, Maria or
Johnny wouldn't have thought he was dead. Then they might have
killed him for real as he was unable to move a muscle during the
hibernation process.
Getting blasted by the explosive hurt him like hell yet his hunger
for power gave him the strength to endure the pain. Because he
endured the pain, she left him alone without interrupting his
absorption process as well as the process of opening the artifact.
Meanwhile, the system was opening the artifact, he decided to
test his newfound powers on the people before him.
He was currently using one of his powers, the dark smoke. Since
the system was busy with opening the artifact, it never actually
explained the new powers in detail to him. He was extremely
curious about what the system meant by awakening his Dark Lord
powers.
"Although your plan wasn't perfect, it got the job done. If I'm right,
you already have a way to escape this pyramid" Maria or no one
in the hall opened their mouths. They were either too scared or
shocked to speak.
"I'll let you live if you kneel down and swear your loyalty to me" He
almost felt bad for killing them so he decided to offer them a
choice to save themselves. Not that he expected any of them to
kneel down, still he gave them a choice.
"Since even daughters want you dead, I'll give you three seconds
to make a choice"
Whoosh!
Suddenly an arrow shot towards Michael from Marcella's

crossbow.
"Rude" He caught the crossbow bolt easily before it could reach

him.
"Wind blast" A gust of wind shot from Michael's hand blasted
away the entire group into the wall behind them. They all collided
with the wall before dropping to the ground.
Jonah completely lost his consciousness after the collision, he

remained on the ground without moving a muscle.
"You're time's up to Ross"
Maria saw the same golden lightning bolt that destroyed the
artifact being fired at her father. The lightning bolt went straight
through straight between Ross's eyes, creating almost an inch
wide radius holt in his forehead.
"Noooooooooooooooo!" Marcella screamed looking at the blood

gushing out of Ross's head. His eyes remained open, staring at
Michael with utter shock.
"Murderer, I'll kill you!" Marcella tried to pick her crossbow

frantically. Because he stopped emitting fear toxin into the air, they
somewhat gained the courage to fight back partially due to the
adrenalin.
Seeing her father's corpse lying beside kindled the feelings she
never wanted to feel again. Initially, she thought she was ruthless
enough to kill her father except when Ross was killed by the
monster in front of her, tears gushed out of her eyes.
"Ignitia" He raised his finger again as another lightning bolt shot

towards Marcella. Marcella was quick but she was not quick
enough to evade the lightning bolt.
She could not even knock one bolt in her crossbow before the
lightning bolt ended her life. Michael felt pity when she saw her
dead body hit the ground. If she was willing, he could have used
her as a subordinate.
If it was before he saw the future, he would have let them go or

tried to pursue them to be his subordinates. Except now he
couldn't afford to make a mistake like keeping an unwilling
subordinate even if the system could ensure they can't do any
harm to him. Besides, he knew Marcella or Ross would rather die
than bend their knees before him.
"You...you killed them...you...killed...my...FATHER!" Following

Marcella's death, Maria's anger erupted in her heart like a
volcano. The veins in her eyes popped, turning her eyes blood
red.
"Isn't that what you wanted? Don't tell me you've gone soft"
"I'll kill you!"
"Master!"
Johnny tried to stop Marcella but she had already taken her spear
to kill Michael. Logan on the other side was staring at everything
in complete shock. He never imagined a guy who protected them
along the way would kill them. Even though he knew David for a
short amount of time, he considered him as a friend and it kept
him from lifting his sledgehammer against David.
"Go in peace Maria"
He wasn't mad at Maria for what she has done until now. If he had
to blame someone, it would be Ross who made all the mistakes
that turned Maria into this.
"Ignitia" Feeling pity for her, he fired the lightning bolt from the tip
of his finger. Like before, the lightning bolt went straight through
her forehead. Because Johnny stood behind her, the lightning bolt
pierced his throat. In one lightning bolt, Michael took two lives.
The deaths of MAria and Johnny finally brought Logan back to

reality. He mustered his courage to raise his sledgehammer
against Michael though he knew he had no chance of winning
against a magic caster.
Logan never really believed in gods but looking at David, he

wondered if he's a god himself came to the world to punish them.
"Stand down, Logan" Michael waved his hand as the
sledgehammer in Logan's hand flew away from the big guy's
hands.
"Back at the ship, you said you're going to retire after this mission
and live the rest of your life as a wealthy person. Swear your
loyalty Logan and you'll be richer than you've never even
imagined"
Unlike Marcella or Ross, he liked Logan. Logan was a simple-

minded good guy who would never scheme against him. Because
of that, he tried to convince Logan to be his subordinate.
"Who are you, David? Is David even your real name?"
Despite Logan's look, the big guys had a soft heart. That was why
Michael could see the sadness of losing Ross and Marcella in his
eyes.
"This world will soon turn into a living nightmare, Logan. I'm here
to stop it"
"By slaughtering people in cold blood? After seeing you use magic
inside the void line, I dont know what to believe anymore but one
thing I'm sure David, this isn't how you save the world,"
*********************************
Note: Don't think mc will become a self-righteous goody two shoes

in world-saving drug. He's going to change the world to his liking...
Chapter 257 - Next Phase
"You think this world doesn't need saving? Open your eyes, What
do you think would have happened if Ross gave the artifact to the
Gisel senate? They will control the undead army outside, wage
war against the other kingdoms, and thousands of people will die,
lose their families, and end up being slaves to the rich. If you by
any chance thought of any of them as innocent, you're the most
naive person in the world"
These words played again and again in Logan's mind.
"And look around you man, if this world needs saving, it's from
you. You killed a father, a daughter, and a good friend, for what?
refusing to serve you? Do you really think you're the good guy?"
Michael heard everything without uttering a word as Logan

continued,
"I might be a mercenary but I have no innocent blood on my hand.

If I agree to serve you, I'll end up just like you. So go ahead, kill
me"
"You're so full of it, big guy" Finally Michael couldn't take any more
of this bullshit Logan spouting,
"You think this world doesn't need saving? Open your eyes, What
do you think would have happened if Ross gave the artifact to the
Gisel senate? They will control the undead army outside, wage
war against the other kingdoms, and thousands of people will die,
lose their families, and end up being slaves to the rich. If you by
any chance thought of any of them as innocent, you're the most
naive person in the world" Logan stared at the dead bodies
around them. Deep down, he knew no one here is innocent.
"One day you'll realize that the good guys aren't enough to save
the world "
Michael activated the Lightning Dash, appearing in front of Logan

within a snap of time. Logan felt like he was hit by a big log in the
face before everything turned dark.
He could have easily killed Logan like the others but his instincts
told him not to. Somehow Michael believed Logan would be a
loyal subordinate in the future. After knocking Logan down, his
gaze turned to H who was staring at him with a pale face. Jonah
was still unconscious.
"What about you H? Do you wanna serve me or die?"
Sparks of lightning danced around his fingers. Looking at the

lightning sparks, H shivered.
"I… I'll serve you, my lord" This was the first time Michael saw
overwhelming fear in H's face. Even when they were facing deadly
odds, he never lost the courage yet the fear toxin and the power
he displayed broke H's courage completely. Michael was glad of
H's choice because people like him are easier to keep on the
leash rather than people like Ross who chose death rather than
bending his knees.
"What's your real name?" Michael floated slowly towards H,
"Hei...Heinberg, my...lord" He stuttered without looking him in the

eyes.
"Are you willing to be my subordinate Heinberg?" Michael doubted

the system would accept him as a subordinate because Heinberg
was basically forced to swear his loyalty. It was either bending his
knees or death and Heinberg chose to bend the knee.
"Yes...Yes, my lord" He quickly sat in front of him on one knee

swearing his loyalty.
[Warning. The target cannot be forced to be the host's

subordinate]
[The system recommends a different way to make the target
swears his loyalty towards the host]
Just as he expected, the system threw him a couple of warning

messages. Previously when he was recruiting someone to be his
subordinate, he used a stick and carrot method except now where
he only gave them the stick, not the carrot.
"He doesn't need to be registered with you system"? He ignored

the system's messages. In the Southern Continent, he was like a
god. He doubted Heinberg would be stupid enough to betray him.
If Michael wanted, he could destroy the Gisel kingdom or any
kingdom in the Southern Continent in a couple of days. If he
brought Nightmare with him and he was able to use his dragon
breath, it'd only take a day to destroy any kingdom.
"Rise, Heinberg" Somehow Michael felt like movie villains,

speaking these words through the voice modulator.
Heinberg swallowed a mouthful of saliva before slowly standing

up. He was loyal to the senate leader Caius but not enough to die
for him. Caius always used him to do his dirty works, the only
reason Heinberg world for him was Caius paid him handsomely. It
was under Caius's order he came here to retrieve the artifact,
Ross knew this. However, what Ross didn't know was his
secondary objective. Heinberg was to capture one of the alpha
undeads. After what happened to Ross's wife, the Senate dropped
the idea of experimenting with the undeads. They felt like it was a
far greater risk than they were initially thinking. Besides, except for
Ross, no one was willing to venture into this island and capture an
alpha undead.
"Tell me Heinberg, why did you bring Jonah with you?"
This was a question Michael wanted to know the answer for.
"He...he's here to help me capture one of the alpha undeads, my

lord" Heinberg didn't dare to hide the truth from him.
"Capture an alpha undead? Under whose orders?" Michael had a

hard time believing that an entire senate would be utterly stupid
enough to experiment on an alpha undead that possessed the
intelligence of a human and abilities of a superhuman.
"Senator Caius's orders, he's one of the senate leaders and Jonah
is his son"
Michael frowned, staring at the unconscious Jonah. No loving

father would send their child to this hell unless that father didn't
give a damn about his child.
"Senator Caius huh? I'll meet him soon"? Caius seemed like an
interesting person who would either prove useful to Michael or die.
"Dark Queen, have you finished the task?" Heinberg had no idea
who he was talking to. While he was staring at David, he felt the
hall tremble. Heinberg looked over his shoulder to see another
figure in the dark appear. In a blink of an eye, the figure appeared
beside David. Heinberg felt a chill running through his spine when
he saw the figure who just appeared and what she brought with
her.
Looking at the armor itself, Heinberg could tell it was a girl. She
was also wearing the exact same armor as David but she didn't
radiate black smoke around her or had crimson red eyes rather
she looked normal compared to him.
The girl didn't freak him out but it was the three figures who were
standing behind the girl that made him shiver. Although the girl
covered their faces with black cloth, Heinberg could tell looking at
their skinless body that stinks to high heaven, alpha undeads. She
was controlling them through the chain attached to their collars
like dogs. The alpha undead rattled the chains violently yet they
could never escape. Heinberg took several steps back when one
of the alpha undead reached its hand out to scratch him.
"Dular will have a time of his life with them," Michael said while
Gaya stared at Heinberg and the dead bodies around them.
Because of the mask, she was wearing, Michael couldn't tell the
shock and surprise in her eyes. It was obvious the reason for her
shock was his sudden transformation yet Heinberg's existence
before they prevented her from questioning him about his new
powers.
"No alpha undeads in the forest, if anymore of them is here, they

would be among the army outside"
Michael nodded. The three alpha undeads would be enough for

Dular or him to experiment. He knew the artifact is the reason for
alpha undeads yet he wanted to know more about this new kind of
undead. However, unlike Caius, he was not going to bring the
undeads to the dark forest but planning to bring Dular to the
Southern Continent.
"Did you get it?" her curiosity got the better of her as she asked
him about the artifact. She gawked around to see it but she
couldn't find anything except dead bodies and weapons.
Heinberg too wanted to see what kind of artifact they sent them to
get. Michael tapped his chest,
"It's here, we'll talk about it on the ship"
Gaya nodded, controlling her curiosity.
"Heinberg wake tie him up with this"
Michael threw ropes at Heinberk looking at Jonah. He still hasn't

found out what to do with Jonha but it was unnecessary to kill
Jonah until he knew more about Jonah's ability. Heinberg stared
at Logan, asking what to do with them wordlessly.
"Tie him up too"
Heinberg wondered why he didn't kill Logan. The person in front of

him obviously wasn't much of a kind-hearted guy. Otherwise, he
wouldn't have killed Ross and everyone in cold blood. Heinberg
couldn't help but question why he spared Logan. One thing was
sure for Heinberg, he was planning something with the big guy.
After Heinberg stepped back to tie Jonah and Logan up, Gaya
began to stare at Michael from top to bottom. The black smoke
kinda looked scary to her. Plus, the crimson eyes made him look
like some kind of an evil god.
"Awesome, teach me the tricks too" She whispered. Her eyes

sparkled behind the mask.
[Artifact is ready to open]
[The system recommends the host send Heinberg away before

opening the artifact]
A smile emerged on his face as the time to see the artifact had
finally come.
Chapter 258 - Big Surprise I
Because of the system's warning, Michael reluctantly decided to

wait before opening the artifact.
"What are we gonna do with those bodies?" While Heinberg was

tieing up Jonah and Logan, she asked about the dead bodies.
"We'll give them a proper burial, they deserve it" He was not a
monster to let the bodies rot or throw the bodies to the undead
army outside.
"What do you think about this place?" Michael asked Gaya. It

wasn't anything fancy, just a gigantic empty hall surrounded by old
walls.
"If you think about making this place our base in the Southern
Continent, I have no objection. In fact, I was thinking the same.
The pyramid has nature's protection like the rainforest and the
ocean surrounding the island. Also, we have an undead army
standing outside protecting from well... everything"
She spoke what he had in his mind. Yet he wanted to tell her
something,
"This place was built by the order of the death" Behind her mask,
her brows arched up in surprise,
"The same guys who built the Abyssal?"
"Yeah, when I entered this place first, this building or something

talked. It said welcome Lord Lucifer"
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure. I haven't heard the voice after that"

"Well, for dead guys, they'd been pretty helpful for us. First, they
gave us the Abyssal and now they had given us this pyramid"
She was pretty happy with the place. Without using Arch energy, it
would be nearly impossible for someone to reach this place. If
they destroyed the rope bridge outside, no one in this world could
get inside unless someone could fly to the top of the pyramid and
activate the teleporting light. Thinking about the teleporting light,
she remembered something else,
"Hey, if they built this place, they would have left something to
control the teleporting light right? What about the artifact take it
out, I want to see it"
She shook him by his elbow in curiosity
"Contain your curious snake, we'll open it when we're alone" he

gave a gentle knock on her head.
As payback, she too gently punched him in the shoulder. Finally,

after a few more minutes, Heinberg finished tying Logan and
Jonah. He dragged the two of them to Michael. Logan's face was
swollen on the place where he received Michael's punch. Jonah
on the other hand received no punches yet he completely lost his
consciousness simply due to the overwhelming fear stimulated by
the fear toxin he inhaled. With the bodies tied up, he still had one
more thing to take care of. He flew towards the wall in front of him
as he heard the system's voice in his head,
[Does the host wish to mark this place for runic teleportation?]
"Yep,"? A golden L symbol appeared on the wall before

disappearing out of sight. Now that he had taken care of the
teleportation, he came back to Heinberg
"Heinberg, hold onto them" He barely understood his words

before he saw David raise his hand. Suddenly he was lifted by an
invisible force. His body jerked but he was able to balance himself
by holding onto the unconscious bodies of Jonah and Logan.
Heinberg looked over his shoulder while being lifted into the air to
see the dead bodies also being lifted into the air.
"I'm flying," Heinberg mumbled. This was the first time he had
experienced something like this. When they reached the top, the
light appeared from the very top of the pyramid. Like before, the
light enveloped them. The light disappeared as they appeared on
the rope bridge. The sunlight has completely disappeared but the
moon provided gentle yet beautiful light along with sparkling stars.
For a few moments, Michael just stared at the moonlit sky as it
soothed his soul. The sky had millions of stars, sparkling in
various colors. The distant milky ways added extra charm to the
dark blue sky. In his focus on the sky, he overlooked the Silent
Reaper docked in the sea in the distance.
"Where's the east?"
"This world, it's beautiful isn't it?" he asked, still staring at the sky.
It wasn't as he had never seen such sights back on earth, it's that
something about this world that made even simple sights artistic
and divine.
"Yes, my lord" the sight really made him agree with David
wholeheartedly.
Previously he heard some people who traveled on flying ships

boast about views. At that time, he simply thought they were
boasting about their flying ship trip though now, experiencing the
view himself, he realized they weren't just bragging but telling the
truth.
Heinberg pointed in the opposite direction to where they came

from. Soon, Heinberg began to float again in the air. He went
higher and higher as he was able to see a black ship. The sails of
the ship were up, meaning the ship was docked. He felt pity for
the group who's coming for the artifact or the glory of killing the
undeads. However, even from a distance, Heinberg could tell the
ship wasn't just a merchant ship, it looked like a warship.
"The world will be more beautiful when we rule it"
His heart skipped a beat after the girl spoke these words. If
someone had spoken the same words, he would have laughed it
off but these two could really bring down the entire Southern
continent in a few days as far as he knew.
"That's the plan" he nodded before continuing his journey towards

the east where the Silent Reaper is waiting for them. They flew
above the army of undead and the ocean of trees before landing
on a small mountain peak. From the peak, they could clearly see
the ocean and the Silent Reaper. A small portion of the cliff was
barren without any trees and he chose this place to be their
graves.
"Bury them here"? He quickly entered the system store to buy a

shovel and two knock-out potions.
"Fear not, there aren't any undeads near you" he threw the shovel
at Heinberg as he took off from the cliff with Gaya, leaving
Heinberg with the dead bodies while he took Jonah and Logan
with him.
"I can see the point in sparing the big guy but why did you spare
him?" she asked poking Jonah in the face.No matter how many
times she poked him, he still didn't wake up.
"Sometimes, brains can be just as useful as brawns. Let's make

this guy work with Dular. That way if Dular were to die, we'll have
another expert in undeads"
She was genuinely surprised at his words,
"You think Dular would betray us?"
Since the system went haywire when he tried to recruit Dular as

his subordinate, Michael knew something was up with Dular.
Hence, he put surveillance cameras in Dular's room to monitor
him. Even to this day, Michael was keeping an eye on Dular.
There was no denying Dular's talent in summoning and controlling
Netherels. If he was to face Guardians and probably the nine
great clans, he knew he would have to use the Netherels at some
point. If Jonah could learn everything there is to learn about
summoning Netherels, Michael could dispose of Dular without
worrying about losing the NEtherels. Of course, if Dular remained
loyal to him, he wouldn't kill the orc.
While flying towards the Silent Reaper docked in the sea, he

flicked his wrist as two syringes and a vial of sparkling sky blue
potion appeared in his hand. Gaya saw him filling the syringes
with the potion she had never seen before. Michael soon injected
each syringe into Jonah and Logan to make sure they dont wake
up at least for another twelve hours as the syringes contained a
powerful knockout agent. This potion would be useless against
cultivators so he never bothered to brew and sell them in the
majestic. Since the southerners weren't cultivators, he could
knock out anyone with this potion.
Under the moonlight, Shorty was having a peaceful walk with his
good old friend called rum. The others were long gone to their
beds except him. He was bored out of his mind for the last couple
of weeks, he wanted to go out in the sea, plunder merchant ships.
"I hope the new captain will let us plunder as before. I mean, how
could we call ourselves pirates if we don't do any pirating? On the
other hand, if the new captain wants, he could use magic to make
any kingdom give what we want, is that really pirating? Huh, I'm
talking to myself again!" Short slapped himself. He laid on the
wooden floor, looking at the moon.
"It doesn't hurt to get yourself some rest heh Shorty" Again he
spoke to himself.
"Isn't this past your bedtime Shorty?" Shorty tripped the rum bottle
he kept beside him in fear. His body jerked as he jumped up to
see two figures flying towards him.
"What in the hell?" Shorty rubbed his eyes. For a second, he

thought he was dreaming. The sudden fear removed the rum's
effects, his blurry vision soon cleared up to reveal the figure of
Dark Queen.
"Dark...Dark Queen" No matter how many times he had seen her,

she still freaked him out with her black armor and magic. Shorty
recognized her but he couldn't recognize Michael because Shorty
never saw him in his Lucifer armor.
"Lock them in a cell"
Michael was not in the mood to stay and chat with his crew. He
just threw Jonah and Logan on the floor. Then, he willed the
system to teleport him and Gaya back to the pyramid.
**************************************
What's your guess about the artifact? what will it be? Let me give
you a clue, it's badass!!!!! and oh, I already gave you a clue in one
of the previous chapters? the clue is in chapter 248
Chapter 259 - Big Surprise II
They both appeared inside the hall once again. The light emitted
from the walls around them was enough to see the hall clearly.
"Come on, show me"
"System" he willed the system to hand him over the artifact from
the system storage. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. A small light
emerged above his hand before transforming itself into a silver
oval-shaped object. Although from the outside it looked like an
ordinary thing, she could feel an immense amount of energy
pulsating from within.
"Is that an egg?" she reached out to touch the artifact in his hand.
The thing in his hand wasn't what he expected. At first, it was a
black orb and now it just changed its color to silver.
Crack!
Just as Gaya's hand touched the surface of the thing, cracks

began to form on its surface.
"It is an egg" Michael confirmed his suspicion, sensing a heartbeat

from the thing.
"Ah!"
Suddenly Gaya squealed. He was stunned by her sudden

unexpected reaction. Before he could ask her why he too felt
intense pain all over his body. It felt like his soul itself screaming in
pain for a second. The pain quickly vanished as he saw a tiny
head rising from the egg. Soon, another tiny head rose from the
egg. They were stunned to see two tiny heads but to their
surprise, another head rose. Under their bewildered gazes, the
tiny beast completely broke out of the shell. Another shock hit
their core as they were not three beasts but the three heads
shared one body.
The hand-sized beast shockingly resembled a beast on earth. Not

a real living beast but a beast he saw in movies, King Ghidorah.
The only different factor was the color of its scales and the eyes.
Each head was covered in different color scales. The head in the
center had shiny cloud silver scales while one head in the right
had pure white scales and the left one had black scales. The head
in the center stared at Michael and Gaya with its rather round
eyes that somewhat made the beast look cute.
"Give me something to eat, jerk"? the white head spoke in a

feminine voice to break them out from their daze. The white head
sounded like the child version of Gaya.
"Huh?" she was too stunned to get back at the white head.
"They are in a trauma state because this might be the first time
they have seen our kind. I cannot find any references to our
species in their memories" Michael saw the silver head speak in a
calm voice. The blackhead however remained silent. it stared at
the hall like it was surveying the surrounding.
"System, what kind of beast is this?"
[It's one of the rarest beings in the universe, a three-headed

hydra. The system lacks the necessary information to find how the
three-headed hydra egg ended up in this world but the egg has
been in a hibernation state for over three thousand years]
"Over three thousand years? Wow"
[The system also found that the three-headed hydra emits the
same frequency of energy that has been sucking the Arch energy
in the Southern Continent hence the void area]
"Do you think there might be another Hydra sleeping beneath the
Southern Continent?"
[Yes the system has already informed the host about the
extraterrestrial being consuming the Arch energy. Now it seems
like the extraterrestrial being is a Hydra]
He remembered the system's words. It also warned him not to go

search for the being until he reached the Immortal Stage.
"Jerk? No, the word is bitch, yeah bitch...Give me something to

eat bitch" the white head knarred its teeth at Gaya. She finally
came back to her senses.
"Who do you calling bitch, you tiny fuck, I will rip your head off"
she flicked the hydra's white head.
"Please stop" the silver head pleaded with both of them but the
white head already moved itself to take a bite out of her hand.
Fortunately, the neck was not long enough for the white head to
get to her hand.
"You don't seem like a normal human in your memories" the

blackhead finally opened its mouth, questioning Michael.
"Did you read our memories?"
Michael creased his brows. If the Hydra read his memories, it

would know about his previous life on earth. This was too early to
trust this beast with his previous life. Until now, only Gaya knew
about his origin and he would like to keep it that way.
Luckily blackhead hydra shook its head,
"We didn't read your memoirs but learned the necessary

information and skills such as the language, the species in this
world, etc"
"System?" He called out the system to check whether it's true or

not.
[The system reassures the host that the hydra cannot read one's
memories. It could only absorb certain knowledge from the being
it first touches after its hatches. In this case, the hydra touched
both you and Gaya, so it absorbed the knowledge necessary for
its survival from your brains and also...]
The system's voice trailed away,
"There's always something else with you system, I'm not even
surprised" he mentally prepared himself to hear what the system's
going to say next.
[A hatchling hydra would usually get its knowledge from another

hydra, most of the time from its mother. However, if the hatchling
hydra touched another species, on top of the necessary
knowledge, it would also inherit the personality of the being it
touched]
"Let me guess, the hydra inherited both mine and Gaya's

personalities"
[huh...kinda] If he could move his body while he was interacting

with the system, he would have rubbed his temples. Everything
was complex when it came to him. He learned to blame himself
rather than the system.
"Hit me with it"
[Each head inherited each of your personalities]
"Wait a minute, there are three heads and there's only two of us"
He interrupted the system
[The white head as you may have noticed inherited Gaya's

personality. The blackhead inherited the personality of yourself on
earth. The silver head inherited Abras's personality]
"Huh?" the system confused Michael. Nothing seemed out of

place from the system's previous explanation when it came to
Gaya and the white head. He couldn't help wondering how the hell
did the silver head inherited Abras's personality when he was not
even alive.
[Trust me host, you can't and won't comprehend the process of
hydra inheritance] the system sounded somewhat overbearing
when it spoke these words like it was an all-knowing person and
Michael was a stupid kid
"Then simplify it system"
He tried to remain calm despite the system's attitude,
[Well, hmm] the system went silent for a few seconds before
speaking again,
[The hydra inherits the personality from the soul of the being it first
touched right?]
"Yes"
[if the hydra had touched Gaya only, the hydra would have
inherited only her personality as she has only one soul. But the
host happens to have a split soul, one part Abras, one part you.
Therefore, when it touched both of you, the inheritance process
resulted in the hydra inheriting the personality of Gaya, Abras, and
you. Now the three heads are the best and/or worst versions of
yourselves]
Michael uttered no words but let everything sink in silence.
[What are you so upset about host? You're extremely lucky to get
your hands on a hydra. So quit whining and take the world by
storm]
For better or worse, the system lightened his mood.
"Can I make the hydra my pet? Or a subordinate?"
[Yes, you can for a price]
"What price? I didn't pay you when Nightmare became my

familiar"
[because it's a dragon and the one in your hand is a Hydra, not to
mention of the powerful beings in the entire universe]
He sighed in his heart. After spending his time with the system, he
had learned there's no point in arguing with the system when it
comes to badass points. Hence, he decided to shut up and pay
the price to make the Hydra his familiar, just like Nightmare.
"Are you gonna tell me the price or not?"
[9,999 badass points only] he wanted to slap the system silly

when he heard it shamelessly talked like a salesperson.
"Why don't you round up and take 10,000?"
[Cool, will do]
"Wait, what? Fuck" it was too late for him to regret as he saw
10,000 badass points getting reduced, making his total number of
badass points to 64,000.
Looking at the number, he could tell it was gradually increasing

because of the sect. Since the legend of the Sunrise sect had
been growing, the number of badass points he receives per month
increased significantly.
For now, he had other things to worry about than the number of
badass points.
He came out of the system to see Gaya and the white head
looking at each other menacingly while the silver head tried to
snuff out the anger fire with them. Looking at the three heads, the
system's words made more sense to him. The white head was
Gaya, hungry, bad-mouthing, and ill-tempered. The silver head,
Abras, kind honest loving personality. Finally the blackhead,
cunning, intelligent, shrewd. Looking at the black head's eyes felt
like he was looking at himself in the mirror. The blackhead was the
Ghost before his soul merged with Abras. Among the three heads,
the blackhead, it's was the deadliest, just by looking at its eyes,
Michael could tell. After all, it inherited his personality.
Chapter 260 - Two Hydras
"How long are we here? We don't see any information regarding

our species in your memories, that means we're either extinct in
this world or we came from somewhere else, another world" the
blackhead was spot on. The other two heads immediately turned
their gazes towards the blackhead after they heard its words.
"As far as I know, three thousand years"
"How can you tell?" The silver head which inherited Abras's
personality asked Michael.
"Can we really trust this three-headed beast? Or are these three

beasts in one body? I'm confused"
"Oh I have a question too," the white head said,
"Why don't you shut up? ouch!"Michael flicked the white head
before Gaya started a fight with it again.
"I swear to gods i'm gonna crush this little shit"
The blackhead moved towards the white head, headbutting the

white head to make it shut up.
"You're hitting yourself, you idiot" the white head rebuked after
getting headbutted by the blackhead. Regardless that they were
just born, they began to fight like siblings.
Michael waited for them to finish fighting between them while

Gaya came to his side.
"Let the man speak" the silver head broke off the fight by putting
its head in between them. After a few seconds, all three heads
turned towards Michael.
"Your species are called Hydra. I don't know where you came from
but the blackhead is right, you're not a creature of this world"
"Then how did we end up here?" the silver head asked,
"My guess is three thousand years ago, an organization called the

Order of the Death found you and built this pyramid to keep you
safe"
"Safe from what?" the white head knarred its teeth. The silver
head looked worried while the blackhead did not show any
changes on its face, it remained calm and collected.
"Probably from the Guardians"
"Do you know about the Guardians?" Michael asked the hydra.
"No," said the white head.
"Then we have a lot to talk about but first, you three should know
the situation you're in" the hydra may have been born just a
couple of minutes ago, but after a few interactions with it, Michael
could tell it has the mental capacity of a full-grown human already.
Even Nightmare wasn't as intelligent as the Hydra when Michael
took him in.
"The organization that saved you is no more but their enemies,

Guardians. Now, they are one of the most powerful organizations
in this world. Anything remotely related to the Order of the Death
is considered evil by them. So on top of you guys are
extraterrestrial, your history with the order is enough for the
Guardians to hunt you down and kill you, that's the best case"
"You hear that? That's the best case" Gaya devilishly chuckled
looking at the white head,
"Now tell them the worst case"
"The worst case is three spend your lives in some torture room
where they would do all kinds of experiments on you. You have
three heads, so use your imagination"
He stopped talking for a moment to let everything sink into them. It
was logical for them not to trust him completely. However, Michael
had his ways to make all three heads trust him.
"Lucky for you guys, we share the same enemy, the Guardians
and you three happen to inherit our personalities"
"Wait what?" His last words wiped off the smile on Gaya's face.
"Haven't you noticed? The white head inherited your personality"
"Are you kidding?" both Gaya and the white head asked him at
the same time.
Meanwhile, the blackhead and the silver head stared at each

other before turning their gazes at Michael. First, they wondered
whether what he said about the white head inheriting Gaya's
personality was true or not. Secondly, if what he said was true,
they wondered who among the two of them inherited Michael's
personality.
"I want to ask how you know this but I'm not gonna do that. Like
always, I'll just trust you"
"Let me guess, you're not gonna tell us how you know about us
when there are no other species of our kind in your world" The
blackhead saw Michael nod.
"It's not important how I know. What's important is, you three are
connected to us"
For a few seconds, the blackhead and the silver head focused
their gazes on Michael. The white head however locked in a
staring contest with Gaya. Times like these made him question
Gaya's maturity level. It was like her inner child is still alive and
well. First, he saw her bicker with Nightmare constantly, and now,
she locked horns with the white head.
"If what you're saying is true, who inherited your personality, you
or him?"
"Both. you don't have to completely believe me. We're gonna
suspend some quality time together and you'll come to realize the
truth behind my words"? The two heads looked at Gaya and the
Whitehead.
Michael then took out the artifact he got from Nightcrawler,
"Do you recognize this? Or know anything about it? This is what
led us to you" Finally the white head took its gaze away from
Gaya. The three heads moved towards the artifact, studying the
artifact.
"Hey, I can sense some familiarity with this"
"Me too"
The Silver head and the white head whispered to each other.
"Are we gonna trust these humans?"
Michael or Gaya couldn't hear them as the hydra's voice was way
below the frequency of the human hearing range.
"You see another way? We were just born and we still don't have
enough information about this world to survive. He was right about
one thing, this world doesn't have another one of us, so it's likely
that someone would try to capture and experiment on us" the
blackhead spoke as the silver head nodded in agreement.
"They seem okay and trustworthy to me. After all, if it wasn't for
them, we wouldn't even have been born"
"So what do we do?" the white head asked the other two. The
silver head turned its gaze towards the blackhead.
"We have to be with them until we know more about everything"
The three of them agreed with a nod. Until they learn everything
there is to know about their species and this world, they decided
to live with Michael.
After deciding, they looked back at the artifact in front of them
again.
"One of my kind" suddenly the three of them heard a voice inside

their head.
"Good….very good" the three of them felt an intense pain inside

their heads. They tried to shake the pain away but every single
word the voice uttered increased the pain they were feeling.
Michael sensed the artifact in his hand slightly tremble. A couple

of seconds after he felt the tremble, the three heads began to
bang their heads with each other in pain.
"Something's happening"
Gaya quickly yet gently took the hydra from Michael's palm.
[The system has found another hydra trying to establish a

telepathic connection with the three heads!]
[The system recommends the host destroy the artifact

immediately!]
"Ah!"
"Get...out...of...our...heads!" the tiny hydra screamed. This time

they heard its scream loud and clear. He tried to crush the artifact
but no matter how hard he tried, he simply lacked the strength to
crush it.
"Death Range" the surroundings immediately darkened, almost

pitch black. Gaya could see the literal fire in his eyes burning
brighter and brighter.
Crack!
The artifact produced a cracking sound under his crush. Soon,

more cracks formed on its surface. He couldn't know the exact
extent of his power inside the death range after absorbing the
First energy radiated from the hydra egg. Yet, he could feel his
raw strength at least multiplied by three times.
Finally, Michael crushed the artifact into pieces. But the moment
he destroyed the artifact, a monstrous shout echoed through the
empty halls.
"How dare you!"
The entire pyramid trembled violently as dust and stone pieces

from the ceiling began to fall down. Large cracks formed in the
walls as well as the ground beneath them. For a moment, they
thought the floor was gonna split open. It was a frickin earthquake
on the level of Richter 9.
Quickly Michael and Gaya flew upwards to escape the pyramid.

They didn't want the pyramid to fall on their heads. Soon, the light
surrounded them to teleport them outside.
When they came outside, they saw large cracks running through
the outer walls of the pyramid. The hibernating undead army had
long awoken by the earthquake. The ground cracked open in
several areas as many undeads fell into the cracks.
"No no no" Micahel was afraid of the pyramid crumbling down into
dust. He just found a perfect base in the Southern Continent, he
would hate for it to be destroyed before he could even use it for a
single day.
"Are you guys alright?" Gaya asked the hydra in her hand. The
three heads slowly rose up.
"Here take this, you'll feel better"
"What is...it?"
The silver head ignored the black head's quest as it already

opened its tiny mouth wide open to let her pour the healing potion
into its mouth. Fortunately, after a few minutes, the earthquake
stopped and everything remained as it was except for the several
cracks on the ground surrounding the pyramid and on its surface
itself.
Blackhead and Whitehead felt their pain ease up after the Silver
head drank the potion. They were able to take a few deep breaths
after the earthquake stopped.
"It seems you guys already made another enemy"
He said, looking at the three heads,
"That might another hostile hydra"

Chapter 261 - Leaving The
Undead Island
After the earthquake, they didn't return to the pyramid but flew
back to the cliff where they left Heinberg to bury the others. On his
way to the cliff, Michael saw a few broken trees, cracks large
enough to get noticed from high altitude as well as flocks of birds
flying out of the forest. He was hoping Heiberg survived the
earthquake because Heinberg was the doorway to dominate his
first target, the Kingdom of Gisel.
"So what did you say the name of this island?"
"Undead island. You should stay away from these nasty little
fuckers"
It was weird enough to see her keeping the hydra closer to her
chest like the hydra was her baby and now, she began to advise
them.
"Is she planning to keep it as her pet?" he couldn't help

questioning himself.
He wouldn't mind if she wants to keep the hydra as her familiar.

Everything she has was his and everything he has was hers. He
never thought Nightmare solely belonged to him and he would
never be jealous if she bonded with the Hydra more than him.
Gradually Michael slowed his flying speed until he came to a stop

in the mid-air.
"Why did you stop?"
Michael turned back to look at the tiny hydra in her hand. The
three heads gawked at him, having no idea what he was going to
say next.
"Do you think we should reveal their existence or keep it a

secret?"
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come to a solid decision.

Keeping the hydra's existence a secret will probably be safer for
them until they could figure out their powers but hiding the hydra's
existence would prevent him from earning more badass points.
[Why would you hide the hydra from the world? show off, host]
The one who answered Michael was not Gaya but the system
itself.
"No one likes a show-off System"
[Unless what they're showing off is dope as fuck]
"Fuck that's true"
"Let's hide them when we are on the Elon continent. Here, we

don't need to hide them "
"I think we should keep our heads low" the blackhead voted for
hiding from the world.
"Fuck that,im not gonna do anything. If you want to keep your ugly
head down, go ahead, no one's stopping you" the white head
however disagreed with the blackhead, leaving the Silver head to
break the tie.
The silver head gawked at between Gaya and Michael before

finally fixing its eyes on Michael. For a few seconds, Michael
pondered about the issue in his mind. Taking a deep breath,
Michael made his decision
"We'll do as she says"
Obviously, they couldn't show the Hydra around in the cultivation

continents like Elon because there were so many powerful figures
who could kill Michael in a blink of an eye. However, in the
Southern Continent, he was basically a god-like existence so he
had no need to worry about Hydra's safety.
"System, do the same thing you did to Nightmare"
[It would cost the host another 6000 badass points]
"Don't act like you're not happy about it System"? He said in his
mind, placing his hand on the three heads.
"What're you doing?" the white head chewed his palm yet Michael
just ignored it.
Soon a light emerged from his hand, enveloping Hydra's tiny body.
She was familiar with this sight as she saw him do the same to
Nightmare.
"I miss that ugly lizard" When she saw the scene, her mind
reminded her of Nightmare. She never thought she would miss
seeing Nightmare every morning when she wakes up. No matter
what she did, the dragon would always end up between them on
the bed.
She wondered what he was doing back home. Ever since a

couple of weeks ago, she was having nightmares about someone
calling for her. When she told Michael about her feelings, he said
there's nothing to worry about.
Of course, she didn't know Michael was checking the system to

see Nightmare status. To this day, he didn't think someone would
murder Jack.
[Where does the host want the system to teleport the Hydra?]
"No, teleport them inside the pyramid. That's safer"
The light soon disappeared from their sight,
"What was that?" the blackhead asked,

"When you're in danger, the rune I placed on you will teleport back
inside the pyramid"
"That's wonderful, right guys?"? the Silver head grinned,
"It does sound cool" finally the three of them agreed on

something.
The blackhead had its doubts but for now, it knew there's no use
in questioning him. As far as the blackhead considered, they
needed to depend on the two humans to survive in this world.
"Alright let's go" he turned back, continuing to fly towards the cliff.
It took them only a couple of minutes before returning back to the
cliff where they left Heinberg.
Under the moonlight, Heinberg was standing in the middle of the

graves he dug. He was pretty shaken up by the earthquake,
Michael could clearly see the fear in his eyes.
"So you're still here" She wasn't completely sure that Heinberg
would remain here instead of taking a chance to escape.? She
would rather have one subordinate with a functional brain than
hundreds of stupid subordinates. Heinberg was not stupid enough
to escape through the forest that was filled with dangers lurking
everywhere.
When Heiberg saw the three-headed creature in his hand, the fear
in his eyes got replaced by surprise and shock. He wondered
whether the beast came out of the orb or not. No matter what,
Heinberg knew there's no chance in hell that anyone in the
Southern Continent could take the artifact from these two.
"Let's go" Michael waved his hand as Heinberg began to rise from
the ground. As a sign of respect, Michael stared at their graves for
a few seconds before leaving them in the cliff to their endless
slumber.
"Rest in peace"
****************************************
Under the glistening moonlight, the Silent Reaper was floating on
the ocean calmly. The black warship looked more beautiful under
the moonlight. The ship itself was calm but not the crew members
waiting for their captain.
When Michael finally returned to the Silent Reaper, the entire crew
were waiting for them on the deck, they seemed agitated. At first,
they were pretty creeped out about Michael's appearance with all
the armor, the fiery eyes and the black smoke cloud be around
him. Seeing the pirates' tensed up bodies, Gaya removed her
mask,
"What're you looking at? it's us" Michael, Gaya, and Heinberg
landed on the deck above the captain's cabin. He found Gibson
gawking at him with fear in his eyes as the rest of them. Realizing
he should go stand by his captain's side, Gibson came to
Michael's side slightly limping.
Gibson shuddered, looking at Michael's new form,
"How're our guests doing?"
"They're still...unconscious Lord Lucifer" Heinberg saw enough

pirates in his life to recognize the people in front of him as pirates.
They reeked of rum and ocean.
He recognized their profession but not the ship itself. He

rummaged through his memories but he had never seen this ship
before, not in real life or in military scrolls. Michael willed the black
smoke to disappear. In a couple of seconds, the smoke and the
fire in his eyes disappeared. He had no need for the pirates to be
afraid of him than they already were.
"I assume we have a guest room in this ship"
"Yes, we have a bunch, Lord Lucifer"
Michael nodded. The first thing after he finished grasping the

extent of his new powers, he wanted to take a tour around the
ship to know its layouts, strengths, and weaknesses. Plus, he was
planning to do some upgrades to the ship, mainly to its weaponry.
Although he couldn't do any major weapon upgrades with his
current Inventor trait, he could still improve the existing cannons to
do more damage.
Since this was his first ship and he had taken a liking to the Silent
Reaper, he would make this ship his home on the ocean as well
as the most powerful ship in this entire world.
"Shorty, show him our guest room" Michael ordered Shorty who
was standing in the front of the crowd.
"Aye aye Cap'n Lord Lucifer"
"Make yourself at home, we'll depart to Gisel in the morning"
"Yes, Lord Lucifer" Heinberg bowed, addressing him the way the
pirates did. It was obvious David was not his real name and he
preferred to go by Lord Lucifer, so Heinberg adapted to this new
situation. After all, if the unruly pirates accepted him as their
captain, he knew he made the right choice by bending his knees
unlike Ross or the others.
"You guys can rest as well. We'll go to Gisel in the morning" He

yet again reminded the pirates before turning to look at Gibson,
"I'll be in my room if you need me" Michael walked towards the

captain's deck with Gaya, leaving the pirates. The hydra didn't like
the way the pirates looked at them.. Yet, it remained silent in
Gaya's hand.
Chapter 262 - The Disgusting
Condition Of The Silent
Reaper
Although it had been some time, he never spent time in the

captain's cabin. After walking down the stairs from the upper deck,
he came before the captain's cabin.
Krkkr!
The doorknob creaked, letting him know about its old age. As he
opened the door, he was welcomed by a lackluster room. Like the
doorknob itself, the room looked ancient. There was no dust or
cobwebs could be seen in the room as the pirates cleaned the
room recently. The slow-burning candle on the oak table in the
middle illuminated the room. The room was neither too big nor
small, it was nearly the size of a master bedroom.
Except for the white silk cushion on the room's corner, everything
had a worn outlook to them. He thought Gaya would have
redecorated the room. When he looked over his shoulder at Gaya,
she just shrugged.
"I was busy doing chores for you"
For a few seconds, he scanned everything in the room. There

were two old 6ft tall books racks on either side of the room. He
never expected a pirate captain to read books though. Near the
book racks, one could see small bronze statues of naked ladies,
covering their breasts with their hands. The room reeked of rum.
For a person who never drank alcohol in his life, he would never
spend a day in this room.
On the top of the book racks, he noticed more bronze statues as
well as some old feather hats. Apart from these things, there was
nothing in the room.
"Gibson"
It only took Gibson a couple of seconds to come to his side,
"Except that cushion and the table" he pointed at the silk cushion
he bought from and presented to Gaya,
"I want everything out"
"My lord, everything?" Gibson creased his bushy brows,
"Yes everything"
Michael stepped outside the room while Gibson signaled the

pirates to follow him into the room.
"Why throw everything out?" The silver head of the hydra meekly
asked Gaya,
"Did you see that room? It's not fit for a king and queen"
"I want my own place to sleep" the white head promptly said while
the blackhead remained uttering no words.
"Also tell them to clean the room, I want it spotless"
He didn't think he could get rid of the smell without using a potion
or completely water wash. Since using a potion to clean the room
was way easier than cleaning the room with water, he thought of a
potion to do so.
"Show me the crew quarters"
Initially, Michael wanted to know more about his newfound

powers. However, after seeing the condition of his cabin, he
changed his mind. If the captain's cabin was in that condition, he
couldn't even imagine what a horrible nightmare would be in the
crew quarters.
"Lord Lucifer" Gibson dragged his voice, hesitating to step
towards him.
"It can't be that bad" Gaya avoided venturing into the crew
quarters or anywhere in the ship to the matter.
"Come on Gibson, let go"? the door for the below deck was
located a couple of meters in front of the mainsail pole. Michael let
Gibson walk forward while he and Gaya followed him behind. The
closer he got to the door, the more cold sweats appeared on his
face. He was afraid of what the captain would do after seeing the
mess downstairs.
Creak!
Creak!
Creak!
Every step he stepped on made a loud annoying creaking noise. It

wasn't a big surprise considering the ship's age and the curse that
condemned the ship to stay at sea forever or until they broke the
curse.
There was barely any light in the downstairs,
"Just a moment, Lord Lucifer" Gibson ran his hands through every
corner of his shirt to find a match to light the lantern hanging on
the wall.
"Don't bother"? Michael snapped his fingers as an orb of green

flames appeared above his hand. The green light illuminated the
room clearly. Before him was a small pathway leading to the other
end of the ship. Either side of the pathway was filled with wooden
barrels and a couple of bunk beds. The below deck reeked of rum
ten times more than the captain's cabin.
He was taken aback by the number of barrels lying around. The

pirates clearly didn't bother to stack the barrels. He saw at least
fifty wooden barrels before him.
"What's in those barrels?"
Although he had a feeling that those barrels are full of rum, he still
asked Gibson because he couldn't completely come to terms with
his crew wasting gold on this much rum.
"Huh...it's...rum, Lord Lucifer"
"I want to know how much you bastards spending on buying rum
tomorrow at the earliest"
What they spent their gold on was not his business still he gave a
damn about it because how could the pirates follow his orders if
they were drunk to their throats. He didn't want mindless drunks to
be his crew.
He continued to venture forward with his alchemy flames lighting

the way. The sight remained constant as everywhere he turned,
he saw nothing but wood barrels. The barrels were taking so
much space that could be used to store useful items such as
gunpowder, alchemy ingredients, and rations.
"You guys ever eat or survive on only rum?" Gibson scratched the
back of his head in shame. Ever since Lucifer ordered him to stop
drinking and start drinking the potion, he hadn't drunk a single
drop of rum. However, the rest of the pirates began to drink more
than usual in the joy of escaping the curse.
Half of the pirates spent half of their cut in buying barrels of rum.
The other half spent all their gold on the rum. The pirate cove ran
out of rum as they had to order a new batch just for them. Gibson
knew this would eventually come to the captain's eyes but he
never thought the day would come this soon.
"This is worse than I thought"? they barely had enough space to

walk.
After crossing countless barrels, they came before a plain wooden

door. Instead of opening the door, Gibson stood in front of him,
hesitating to open it.
"Will this get any worse? Don't answer me" Gaya shook her head
as Michael sent a wave of wind that pushed open the door.
The moment the door opened, his nose was overwhelmed by the
smell of puke and rum.
"Eww"
The three heads buried themselves in Gaya's hand, covering their

noses. If a public toilet that hadn't been cleaned for years and a
sewer had a baby, it would smell way better than what he was
smelling now. He thought he had a high tolerance for stink but
today, he was proven wrong.
The sheets covering the bed were turned brown from white.
Obviously, the pirates didn't wash them for decades.
"I'll give all you batards a day to clean the fuck out of my ship"
Michael didn't even bother to brew potions but bought detergents

and chemicals from the system. Gibson saw hundreds of small
bottles filling the area behind him. They all had colorful labels, he
never saw these things before in his life.
Usually, people would mix the detergents and these chemicals

with water to clean the place. However, after witnessing the ship's
condition as well as the stink coming from every corner, he bought
enough chemicals to wash the entire ship without the need of
mixing them with water.
After giving them to Gibson, he turned back to leave. He really

didn't think he could venture into the ship any further without
throwing up. If he had known the ship's condition before, he would
have let Heinberg stay on the upper deck instead of giving him the
guest room. He wondered what might be the condition of the
guest room.
"I pity our prisoners," Gaya chuckled.
"I don't even want to look at the prison" Michael walked back to
the upper deck without turning his back. He watched enough
horrible things for one day.
When he reached the upper deck, the pirates were dragging the
book racks out of the room. They almost took everything out of the
room,
"Captain, where do we put these?" Shorty came running to

Michael, with a proud smile on his face. His face shone like he
managed to do something incredible.
"Put them on my head" Michael twisted Shorty's ears. He directed

his frustration on poor Shorty.
"Ahhhh, Cap...Lord...Ahhhh"
The other pirates stopped what they were doing and began to
laugh at Shorty.
"Stop laughing you fucking idiots. I just saw the mess you've been
making in my ship"
The smile instantly disappeared from their faces when they heard
him. They began to shudder thinking he would throw away the
rum barrels just like the things in his room.
"Get the fuck out of my sight and clean the mess downstairs"?
Michael wasted no time after saying this as he launched himself
into the air with Gaya.
After seeing everything, he lost interest in decorating his room.

How could he decorate his room while the rest of his ship smell
and look like shit?
"I take it back, I want to stay as far as I can from that ship," the
white head said. It didn't bother to hide the disgust from showing
in its voice.
For a few moments, he just hovered in the air, looking at his ship
below until Gaya broke his focus.
"Are you gonna keep staring at the ship or show me your new
powers?"
*****************************************
As usual, this is the last filler chapter( kinda a calm before the
storm chappy). After all, hereon, the chapters will be filled with
action, gore and BLOOOOOOODDDDD!!!!!
Chapter 263 - Unleashing The
Dark Lord’s Powers
"Meanwhile let's see what you can do now" floating in the mid-air,
she spoke in a challenging manner. She wanted to see the fiery
eyes and the smoke was just a display or have any powers hidden
within. Before he use his powers again, he willed the system to
show his current status,
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 3
Ignitia - LVL 3
Death Range - LVL 3

Eyes of Darkness (normal) - Can sense the cultivation level of
others
Eyes of Darkness (Lucifer) - Can sense the cultivation level of

others, Can see through illusions
Cloud of Darkness (Lucifer) - Weak-willed enemies will lose their

courage completely and surrender, Death Range will be 50%
more powerful, if activated in darkness, the host's cultivation level
will be boosted 4 levels up regardless of the stage barrier.
Wordless Spell Caster(Lucifer) - In full Lucifer form, the host just

has to think of the spell to cast it.
The Dark Lord
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation

3-Star Inventor
Heinberg - Warrior (loyalty level 18%)
The Silent Reaper Crew - Pirates (loyalty level 83%)
The Abyssal
The Crypt
The Silent Reaper
Familiars: Nightmare (Forest Dragon)
"Whoa, how did my skill level go up?" His heart almost skipped a
beat when he saw his status. The first thing he saw was his skill
levels. They were raised by one level without him paying badass
points to upgrade.
[The host should thank the system for converting the excess First
energy you absorbed from the Hydra egg and upgrading the skills]
The system sounded extremely boastful but underneath its

boastful voice, he sensed a hint of joy. He wondered why though.
"The eyes of darkness and cloud of darkness has Lucifer in

brackets-"
[You can only use them in your Lucifer persona] before even he
could finish his thoughts, the system answered, interrupting him.
[And yes, the system counts the entire crew of the Silent Reaper
as one entity]
Yet again, the system took the liberty to answer the question he
never asked but only thought.
[And no, until you name your hydra, it won't show up under
familiars]
"Are you trying to piss me off system?"
[hehehe]
The last thing he heard was the system chuckling before getting
kicked out of the system menu. After getting kicked out of the
system by the fourth time, he didn't feel as mad as he felt the first
time.
Besides, he was curious to use his powers once again. Michael

closed his eyes for a second, activating the cloud of darkness and
the eyes of darkness. Casting those spells felt easy as breathing.
Soon, Gaya saw the black smoke enveloping him. Through the
black smoke, she saw his eyes that were literally on fire, a dark
crimson red fire.
Looking into his eyes, her body slightly trembled in fear. The fear
was faint yet it was there. She shook her head to break the fear in
her heart.
"Is that all you got?"? she stretched her hands like she was
exhausted waiting for him to show his powers.
"I don't want to hurt your snakey ass, that's all"
"Yeah you wish, Golden Barrier" Gaya flicked her wrist as a faint
golden light enveloped her. The golden light might be faint but
Michael could sense an immense amount of power thanks to his
eyes of darkness. The spell she cast was very similar to his own
spell, Responsive Shield, which could now stop the attacks of
anyone under the Core Formation stage.
"Pretty awesome huh? This is one of the many Legendary spells I
possess"
"Interesting" Michael knew this must be a legendary spell after

sensing the power it radiated.
"This spell will grow stronger with my cultivation level. Currently,

no one under the Core Strengthening stage could break the
shield. Also, it will stun the attacker for a few seconds, giving me
time to cleave his or her head off"
"Let me give it a shot"
She saw the dark smoke and the fire in his eyes vanish into thin
air.
First, Michael wanted to test the strength of his powers in his

normal form before transforming into his Dark Lord Form, Lucifer.
"Lightning Dash"? He closed the distance between them in a blink

of an eye. Gaya was extremely surprised by his speed. Every time
he uses the Lightning Dash, she could see his figure but right at
this moment, she only saw a blur in the place where he was just a
second ago.
Just like Gaya, the hydra was also able to see only the after
image. When he got close enough to Gaya, she punched the
shield as strong as he could without using only his raw strength.
Boom!
The moment his fist connected with the shield, a loud booming
sound reverberated through the open air.
"Why are they fighting?"
"Captain!"
"Sea gods bless me"
"Whoa!"
The pirates who were watching them shouted when they saw
Michael flinging away from Gaya like a kite in the storm. His body
only came to a stop from fifty meters away from Gaya.
His right hand hurt like hell as he looked down to see bones
sticking out of his fist while blood oozed through the wounds.
Despite the APD injecting healing potion into his bloodstream, he
experienced excruciating pain in his right arm.
Yet on his face, one could not see an expression of someone

who's going through immense pain. On the contrary, his lips
curled upwards.
"Are you alright?!"
"Of course he's not you idiot, look at his arm"
The white head replied after Gaya shouted at Michael. The silver
head showed a look of concern in its eyes. Unlike these two, the
blackhead calmly watched Michael, noticing his arm recovering at
an inhuman speed.
Although she knew the backlash wouldn't do much harm to him,

looking at his arm bleed hurt her heart. Soon, she heaved a sigh
of relief inside after she noticed his arm getting back to its normal
shape.
"I'm not impressed!"? she shouted again to rile him up.
"I haven't even started yet, Death Range" the area around him
turned darker. He could feel his strength doubling up but he still
didn't take his full Lucifer form.
"Lightning Dash" yet again, he activated his speed spell to get

closer to Gaya. The pirates watching him from the ship only saw a
dark trail. Before they could blink an eye, he reached Gaya.
"Did you notice that? His speed almost doubled" the white head
whispered to the other two heads.
Boom!
Wasting no time, he took another shot at the golden barrier. This
time when his fist met the barrier, a couple of tiny cracks appeared
in the barrier where he punched. The backlash again sent Michael
flinging away but not as bad as before. He came to a stop after
twenty meters.
There was a deep shock in her eyes, noticing the cracks in the
shield. This was not supposed to happen, no one except a Core
Strengthening stage cultivator could damage the shield yet he
managed to do just that.
"Why am I not surprised? he's my better half for a reason" the

shock in her eyes gradually got replaced by pride and excitement.
Plus, she was with him long enough to know that there's nothing
impossible when it comes to him.
"Don't say you're impressed with that little show" Michael

snickered.
"What if we can do all that magicky shit?"
"The fuck we can, I still have no clue how our captain and the dark
queen using magic inside the void line"
"We are lucky to be his crew. Gibson said the captain is planning
to take over the continent, just imagine how much gold we earn
doing nothing if the captain managed to do that"
"Go captain!"
"HEY!!!"
The pirates began to cheer in excitement from the ship. Ignoring

their cheers, he closed his eyes to take his full Lucifer form AKA
the Dark Lord form. The black cloud enveloped him while his eyes
began to emit crimson red fire. His newfound skill let him cast
spells without uttering a word. Thanks to that skill, he just had to
think about Death Range as the area around him grew darker and
darker. The area around him was almost pitch black, even the
sparkling moonlight couldn't shine inside his Death Range.
To this moment, he had zero clues on how the hydra egg was able
to make him stronger and unlock his Dark Lord powers. He knew
eventually he would get all the answers from the system. Until
then, he was glad to unleash the powers within him because in
this world where the strong prey on the weak, growing stronger is
all that mattered to him.
Until now, he was like an ant compared to his enemies. That

would change from this moment as from now on, his enemies
would witness what the Dark Lord is capable of.
"Whoa"
Gaya was taken aback by surprise when he suddenly appeared

before her. She was waiting for him to cast the speed spell but
she heard no words escaping his mouth before he appeared in
front of her.
"Back away!" the blackhead shouted at Gaya, sensing the

upcoming danger. But it was too late as Michael's fist already
connected with the golden barrier.
Boom!
This time, the barrier shattered into millions of golden dots. He

stayed in the same spot except this time, the shock wave
produced by the clash sent Gaya flinging away. Due to the force,
she dropped the hydra in her hand before flying away
"Fuck!" the white head screamed but Michael quickly caught the
hydra in his hand.
Chapter 264 - Time To Do
Some Avenging
He caught the Hydra on his way to Gaya. She was throwing up

blood because of the backlash of the clash between Michael's fist
and the golden barrier. Fortunately, she had her APD filled with a
90% pure healing potion to heal her organs immediately.
Otherwise, she would have suffered more than just coughing up
blood.
"Impressed now?" Michael wrapped his arm around her shoulder

with a gentle smile on his face. He himself never expected his
power to reach the Core Strengthening stage in his complete
Lucifer form. Apparently, after activating the cloud of darkness and
the eyes of darkness, he could fight head to head with a Core
Strengthening stage warrior and even defeat them.
Even without taking his full Lucifer form, no one in the Core
Formation stage could inflict a wound on him let alone defeat him.
By breaking Gaya's golden barrier, he grasped the extent of his
current powers except for one thing. Gradually the fire in his eyes
and the dark cloud around him disappeared.
"When did you bastard reach the Core Strengthening stage?" she
said, spitting out the remaining blood in her mouth.
"I didn't. It's just my full Lucifer form temporarily boosting my

power to Core Strengthening stage"
After wiping off the blood on the corner of her lips, she gave him a
friendly punch in the gut.
"Give them to, you have enough op stuff as it is" she swooped the
hydra off of his hand.
"Don't you think we should name them," Michael asked. If they
didn't name the hydra, the system would keep bitch about it and
never accept the hydra as Michael's familiar.
"I'll come up with perfect names for these little fellas" she playfully
rubbed each of the hydra's heads. Except for the Silver head
which nudged her hand with love, the white and the blackhead
tried to chew her hand with their tiny little teeth.
"Quit chewing my fingers little fuckers" she chuckled. Just by

looking at the way she was looking at the hydra, he could tell that
she has taken quite a liking to the hydra.? He could imagine these
two fighting with Nightmare every single day after they return
home.
"Hey look over there"
As they were hovering in the air, the white said, raising its voice.
Michael removed his hands from Gaya's shoulder before noticing
three warships moving towards the direction of Ross's ship.
From the distance, it seemed they were moving in a triangle

formation. The ship moving in the front was slightly bigger than
the two behind it. The moonlight illuminated their white flags with
the symbol of two red swords in 'X shape. All three ships were
galleons fully fitted with powerful cannons to do some nasty
damage to any hostile ships.
"Are those pirates?" Considering she knew very little about pirates
in the southern continent, she didn't recognize ships by the flags.
His crew would have if they were floating higher in the sky with
them. The three ships were too far to get noticed by the normal
human eyes. Plus, the night made it extremely harder for
Michael's crew to spot the ships on the horizon.
"We should follow them," Gaya said what he just thought in his
mind. He wanted to see where the pirates were going in the
middle of the night. Somehow he had a feeling that they weren't
sightseeing.
"Before we do that" he began to descend from the sky towards the
Silent Reaper. He didn't want to step on the stinking ship until they
clean the heck out of it except now he had to warn them before
following the three ships. Otherwise, there might be a chance of
some other pirates ambushing the Silent Reaper while he's away.
As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't think his crew was
smart enough to survive an ambush even with a ship like the
Silent Reaper. They obviously didn't understand its full potential or
value, otherwise, they would have at least kept her clean enough
to be inhabited by normal human beings.
"Captain, that was awesome"
"You too lady captain"
"Ow, what in the hell is that beast?"
"Shhh"
They almost forgot the task in the hand in the excitement of

seeing Michael unleash his powers.
"Hmm, why am I not seeing a clean ship? I bet something's wrong

with my eyes"
The pirates looked at each other while scratching the back of their
heads like clueless chickens. Their silly faces reminded him of the
crew of Captain Barbosa in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
He could never get mad enough to break pirate bones.
"Gibson" he enhanced his voice through Arch energy so Gibson

cleaning the below decks could hear him.
After a few minutes he called Gibson, he ran to Michael's side with

a couple of pirates. Michael was happy to see them drenched in
sweat and covered in soapy bubbles.
"At Least some of you've been doing the cleaning" the pirates
down below, fortunately, didn't hear the noises produced by
Michael and Gaya testing his powers.
Gibson and the three behind him gawked at their fellow pirates
with confused looks on their faces. They stared at the upper deck
to see if they've done any works but everything is just as they
were.
"Follow me to the south side of the island" He ordered Gibson

before taking off from the ship once again. Gibson wanted to ask
why but Michael was already far away from a shout reach.
"You heard the captain, man the handle!"
**************************************
Michael and Gaya were keeping a safe distance from the three
ships. All three ships had a pirate on the crow's nest as a lookout.
Even though they were flying in the sky above them, there was a
chance of the lookout to spot them. First, he wanted to see what
the pirates are up to before he approach them.
From the sky, he could see thirty heavy cannons, two mortars, a
bunch of smaller cannons on swivel posts at various positions on
the top deck on each ship. Plus, each of them had thirty-five crew
members on the top deck and he could guess there would be at
least another thirty in the lower deck.
In total, he might face almost two hundred pirates as well as

ninety heavy cannons when or if they decide to pull a pretty stupid
move and attack him.
After following them for another fifteen minutes, he saw a familiar

shore, the shore he stepped on with Ross and his teammates.
Ross's crew were still waiting for him to return without a clue
about what happened to them.
Suddenly he saw the lookouts standing on the crow's nest

whistling. Soon, the lanterns lighting the ships were put out by the
pirates as they went dark.
"They're planning an ambush, aren't they?" the white head asked

as Gaya nodded. She looked at Michael to see what they should
do next.
"Let's go a little closer"
Since they put out the lights, he could move in closer without
getting detected by the pirates. Not that he was afraid of them, he
was just being careful as he always was. Michael silently moved
towards the ship leading the formation because if there was an
important figure leading the ambush, ninety percent of the time,
he or she would choose the bigger ship to be.
When he was directly above the ship, he looked down to see a

person wearing a huge maroon color hat manning the helm.
"My my" Gaya raised her brows looking at the person at the helm.
If not for the deep cleavage, she wouldn't have guessed that the
person is actually a woman. The pirate woman stood at nearly 5ft
8inches tall and she would at least weigh 100kgs. She seemed
like she could smother a man between her breasts to death.
"Stop" Michael halted moving forward when the woman looked up

at the sky.? The pirate woman had a round face with a softly
shaped jaw, a stubby nose, large ears, smooth cheeks, and big
thick lips. Her azure eyes were large, and she had thick eyebrows.
Her dark grey hair, lightly streaked with shades of brown, was
short, straight,? styled in decorative cornrows. She wore
excessive foundation to hide her blemishes, pinkish lipstick, and
pastel eyeliner. Even in the darkness, one could see the red
coating on her lips.? Other than the excessive makeup, she had a
muscular neck, wide shoulders, big chubby arms, a long torso
with very large breasts with a defined waist, wide hips, toned legs,
and average-sized feet.
She just wore simple clothes, a white full sleeve shirt rolled up to
her elbow with a black vest. Apart from the piercing on her left
eyebrow, a couple of gold chains decorated her neck.
What made Michael interested in this woman was not the fact she
might be the captain but there were no weapons on her body or
anywhere near her.
"Interesting" Michael mumbled. Although she had no weapons, his

instincts told him this woman is a dangerous person. Because
when she looked up, he saw her eyes, they were the eyes of a
killer. She was practically masking the cruelty in her heart from
showing up on her face with all the makeup.
"Captain Marina, that's the ship"
Michael saw a man walking towards the woman, pointing at

Ross's ship.
"Fun time" the woman slowly put a pipe in her mouth as the man
quickly lit a match to lit her pipe. The light illuminated the man's
face, revealing his identity to Michael.
"So he brought friends"
"Do you know him?" Gaya asked,
"He was the pirate captain who lost more than half of his crew to
me. Now it seems, he has returned to avenge them"
******************************
You know It would be nice if you guys and gals leave a comment
after reading the chapter. Your comments are what drives me to
write more!!!
Chapter 265 - Womano A
Mano
"Humph, some fucking pirate captain you are to lose your crew to
some snobby northern kid. They are practically naked after
crossing the void line"
Marina snickered, showing her disappointment in Packard

'Chameleon' Crain. His defeat brought great shame to all the other
pirate captains serving Pirate Lord Corey 'Witch' Drachen, one of
the three Pirates Lords.
The Pirate Lords controlled most of the southern sea. They

practically ruled the ocean as well as the many islands in the sea.
The three Pirate Lords had combined naval power higher than the
southern continent kingdoms, hence, the senate avoided crossing
them even though the pirates kept plundering many merchant
ships.
Each Pirate Lord had several pirate captains serving them. The
pirates who don't serve anyone such as the Silent Reaper were
called the rogues. The pirate captain serving a pirate lord was free
to plunder the rogues as they wished. If a pirate captain serving a
pirate lord attacked another pirate who served another pirate lord,
the pirate lords would investigate the attack until they found the
wrongdoer. The wrongdoer would then get the punishment called
the sinner's funeral. This was the only time one could see the
pirate lords appear together in their ships.
No one got the sinner's funeral in the last hundred years which
showed that the pirates could follow the rules unlike the
Southerners believe. One could even say that the pirates had a
miniature version of democracy within them.
Just like the sinner's funeral, no outsider has killed the pirate crew
of a pirate lord in many decades until Michael massacred them
mercilessly. Which was the reason Marina appeared to avenge
the crew under the orders of Pirate Lord Corey. In the hierarchy of
pirate captains, Maria stood at the top. She was one of the most
feared pirate captains of the Southern sea.
"Captain Marina, he was not normal. How could a normal human

being heal himself just like that?"
Pachard had been blabbering running his mouth about Michael's

healing ability to everyone on the witch island. The matter even
reached the ears of Corey herself. To see if Packard's been telling
the truth, Corey ordered Marina to capture Michael alive.
"Let's see if he can heal like you said when I'm done with him "
she crunched her knuckles with an evil smile on her face.
Something sparkled in her eyes.
"Is this gonna be another disappointment?" Marina asked herself.
They were sailing towards Ross's ship without an idea of Michael

following them from above.
"Remember our task at hand maggots, we want the one called

David alive. The rest of them could go to hell"
"Aye aye, captain" the muffled cries of Marina's pirates

reverberated the ship.
The pirates quickly moved towards their posts to start the

ambush. The three galleons began to circle Ross's ship, they
were going to flank the ship in a triangle shape.
"Don't kill them" Michael glanced at the two ships in the near
distance, telling Gaya to take care of them.
"You sure you don't want me to kill them? It's no fun"? she pouted
before flying towards the two ships. For a few moments, he just
kept hovering over Marina's ship before slowly descending from
the sky.
"Huh? What is that?" The pirate standing on the crow's nest
noticed a black figure moving towards them. He couldn't clearly
identify the object due to the darkness.
"A ghost?" the pirate's hands shivered as he slowly reached for

the lantern hanging on the wooden pole. He wanted to light the
lantern to see the object in light.
But before he could light the lantern, the object got too close to
the ship. Since the pirates firmly believe in superstitious things,
the first thing that came to his mind is the ghost.
"Ghost!" the pirate screamed until his throat hurt.? Immediately

Marina's gaze turned towards the crow's nest. The word ghost
made the other pirates shudder in fear.
"Intruder!"
When Michael landed on the deck, they could see that they
weren't dealing with a ghost but another human being.
"Are you looking for me?" they only heard his voice. The night's
darkness prevented them from clearly seeing his face.
But that changed when Michael conjured his green alchemy

flames in his hand. The green flames were bright enough to light
up the entire ship.
"It's him!" Packard pointed his finger at Michael, screaming

frantically because of the sudden fear he just experienced.
"How...how did he?"
"Fire"
"What kind of fire is that?"
"Where did he come from?"
Many questions were running through their heads after seeing him
suddenly appear on the deck before them. Marina left the helm
while a pirate in her ship lit a lantern to signal the other two ships
to stop.
"Well well well, I'll be honest. I have no idea how did you manage
to come here but I'd say this, you have some balls"
"Two actually" Marina saw no fear on his face. He leaned on the

wooden pole leisurely while the green flames somehow hovered
beside him lighting the ship jade green.
Even from standing ten meters away from him, she could feel the
heat being emitted by the orb of jade-green fire. Marina slowly
walked down the stairs adjusting her shirt.
The pirates slowly reached for their cutlasses before unsheathing

them. Michael still remained calm because no matter how many
cutlasses or crews they have, he could defeat them with a couple
of wind blasts.
He was curious about what Marina could do. The pirates looked
so afraid of her and Michael wanted to know why they are for a
woman without any weapons.
"I've been hearing some weird things about you kid. It seems
some of them might actually be true" Just like Marina saw no fear
on Michael's face, he too saw no fear on her face which surprised
Michael.
"I bet that armor of yours will fetch us a nice amount of gold. After
all, that's the least you can do for us for dragging me this far"
"Didn't he say I literally crushed his crew to death?" a hint of fear

emerged in Packard's eyes when Michael said that. He also
noticed some pirates clenching their teeth in anger. He figured
that there might be some relatives among the pirates he killed.
"You're not going to fight them, you're going to fight me" she
crunched her knuckles. He creased his brows because she acted
like she wanted him to fight him hand to hand.
She removed her hat, revealing her dark grey hair.

"Stand down maggots. This will be womano a mano"? this time,
Michael was stunned by her words. As far as he could tell, she's
either stupid or extremely confident in her fighting ability.
Either way, he decided to agree with the woman's bizarre

decision.
The pirates immediately lowered their weapons as an evil grin

appeared on Packard's face.
"What makes you think you can beat me?" Michael asked, smiling
at her.
Boom!
Instead of answering Michael, she just punched the sail pole

beside her. Her fist obliterated the wooden pole into blisters as the
entire ship trembled.
The sailcloth flew into the water, leaving the ship with one less
sail.
Yet again Michael was stunned by this woman. It was impossible

for a normal human being to possess such strength unless she's
not normal.
At this moment, his curiosity reached a new peak. He focused his

gaze on this woman but as expected, there wasn't a single trace
of Arch energy in her body.
"System, scan her body. I want to know how she managed to

destroy the pole with a single punch"
[Two thousand badass points required to scan her]
"Take it"
[It will take fifteen minutes]
"So I have fifteen minutes to play with her"

The pirates moved away to make a space in the middle of the
ship.
"He's dead"
"Here we go, it has been so long since we saw captain beat the
shit out of someone"
"I don't know man, everything about him rubs me in the wrong
way"
The pirates began to chit-chat while Michael walked towards the

center. The woman snapped her fingers as the pirates lit all the
lanterns they previously put out.
Michael's alchemy fires vanished into thin air, surprising many

pirates.
"What's going on there? I'm done with one ship"
"Get it done, I'm gonna play for a while"
"Who're you talking to?"
"You'll know soon. Now shall we start?"
Michael cracked his neck waiting for Marina to make her first
move. Standing on the opposite side, she moved one leg behind,
raising her fist like a boxer.
Whoosh!
The very next moment, she dashed at him with extreme speed.
He slightly moved his body, evading her fist. Although he evaded
her punch, her speed stunned him. For a big woman, she was
very agile and fast.
With a swift twist, she turned her body before throwing a punch at
him again. This time Michael didn't evade her punch but raised his
palm.
Boom!
The moment Michael's palm and her big fist clashed, it produced a
loud booming sound. The force of the clash sent both of them
sliding backward.
Michael's hand felt numb after stopping her punch. For a moment,
his brain thought he was being hit by a raging bull.
"You're still in one piece" she sounded surprised.
"That's all you got" Michael wanted to see the full extent of her
strength so he riled her up. If Southerners could not cultivate, how
was she this strong? That was the question running in his mind.
She dashed forward again but this time, she was rapidly throwing
punches and kicks at him. If it was before he learned the new
fighting technique from Gaya and trained himself like hell, Marina
might have landed some blows to him. Since that was not the
case anymore, he evaded and dodged every single punch and
kick of Marina. He felt like dancing with her while the other pirates
stared at them in utter shock. As time went by, their fighting area
expanded to the entire ship.
"AHHHHHHH!" she began to scream like an enraged beast as

Michael felt her strength growing exponentially.
"Good, let it all out"

Chapter 266 - A Descendent Of
The Order
Even after she went berserk, Marina was unable to hit him at least
once.
While dodging and evading her punches, the two of them reached
the ship's front corner. Seeing him cornered, she grinned,
"Let's end this little dance, shall we?"
Michael decided to end this little fight after successfully gauging

her strength.
"Death Range" He knew he couldn't defeat her with just his raw
strength. Hence, he cast the Death Range to enhance his
strength. The moment he used the spell, the entire ship grew
darker regardless of the lantern lights.
Marina's eyes went wide as she realized that he just used magic.
The overwhelming joy and shock prevented her muscles from
moving.
Boom!
Michael punched her right in the abdomen with enough force to

send her flying from one end of the ship to another. She literally
traveled in the air, breaking all the poles in the ship before hitting
the wall beside the captain's cabin door.
"Captain!"
"Captain Marina!"
The crew members and Packard screamed. Their bodies
shuddered in shock as they stared at Marina's body with wide
eyes.
"Dark...Dark...Lord" the words barely escaped her mouth. Despite

the blood flowing out of her mouth, she was smiling. Her eyes
contained a tint of delight.
The others might haven't heard the words she spoke but Michael
did. It completely took him by surprise. He was about to take a
step forward when he noticed something glowing on her chest.
[The system has finished scanning]
[The system has found a radioactive medallion on her chest. It

doesn't harm her body as a radioactive material would do on earth
but this medallion strengthens her body from the molecular level]
He didn't need help finding the medallion.it was glowing in bright

jade color on her chest. Locking his eyes on the medallion, he
activated the lightning dash to reach her in a blink of an eye.
"Captain!"
"Wind blast"
The pirates rushed at Michael when he reached Maria as they

thought he's going to kill her. They tried to protect Maria but the
wind blast blasted some of them into the water while the others to
every corner of the ship.
He squatted down before Marina to take a closer look at the

medallion.
The medallion on her neck was the size of a coin. There was no
etching or designs could be seen on the surface except for one
letter, L. First, he used it to spread the name of Lucifer by leaving
an L mark on the crime scenes, then he realized the order of the
death has been using the symbol way before he was even born as
the symbol was everywhere in the Abyssal and now, he saw the
same symbol once again on the medallion.
"Dark Lord...it's...you"
"Where did you get this?"
She tried to answer yet the pain in her abdomen prevented her
from speaking. He willed the system to give him a healing potion
from the system storage.
"Drink this" Michael poured the healing potion into her mouth, not
gently though as he needed answers quicker. Almost half of the
potion trickled out of her mouth. Considering the potion was 90%
pure, her pain began to dissipate in a few seconds. She started to
breathe as normal. Soon, she pulled herself up to kneel before
him.
Michael stood up, trying not to show the confusion in his heart on
his face.
"Order of the Death, Dark Lord. This medallion had been passed
onto us from our ancestors"
"Your ancestors served the order?" she still kept her head lower
without looking directly into his eyes.
"Yes, Dark Lord. We've been waiting for you to lead us. We never
stopped searching for you, if I hadn't found you, my kin would
have continued the search"
He was pretty confused about the sudden turn of events. The last
thing he expected was to find a descendent of someone who
served the Order of the Death, the same order that apparently
worshipped him as a god.
"Dark Lord, please take this. My father said this will prove our
loyalty to you"
She presented him with the medallion after snatching it from her
neck.
He took the medallion from her hand expecting some kind of

change in the coin but on the contrary, he never felt anything
except the coin glowed brighter in his hand. Michael willed the
system to create an invisible barrier around them for 1000 badass
points so none would hear their conversation.
"I, Maxine Kane, swear my loyalty to our god, the Dark Lord. From
this day onwards, I'm yours to command"
[Does the host wish to accept Maxine Kane as your subordinate?]
The system prompted him when he finished taking her oath.
"Yes"
He wanted to check her loyalty level. Although he never sensed

any treachery vibe from her, he still wanted to make sure this
wasn't a trap created by those pesky old guardians.
Subordinate: Maxine Kane
Cultivation Level: Arch Sensing Stage level 2 (Cannot cast spells

due to geological restrictions)
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
Trait: Warrior
"It is true"
There was no better proof than the system's loyalty meter to prove
Maxine's loyalty to him. Her loyalty also showed him that what she
said about her ancestors is also true. If he could, he really wanted
to meet those people who worshipped him as god and searched
for him for thousands of years. He wondered what made them
devote themselves to him.
"Serve me well Maxine" he placed his hands on her shoulders,

helping her stand up. Her eyes brimmed with joy as tears of joy
already began to flow out.? She looked at him as a devotee would
look like her god. He could tell that if he asked her to kill herself,
she would without a second thought.
The pirates on the other hand were confused as hell witnessing

their captain bending her knee to Michael. After getting blasted by
Michael, no one dared to utter a word and make a move. The
question of how he used magic made the pirates feel dizzy.
"How long have you been searching for me?"
"Ever since I was old enough to walk, Dark Lord. My father always
said that the Dark Lord will lead this world to a better age"
"Your father is correct. Where is he now?"
The smile on her face gradually faded away,
"He died of old age, Dark Lord"
He sighed inside. If the old man was still alive, he could have
answered some of his questions about the order and their secrets.
Still, Michael was glad that he found another loyal subordinate.
"Do you know anyone else from the order?"
If Maxine, a descendent of the order was alive and still loyal to

him, he wanted to see if there are more descendants like her.
"No, Dark Lord. My father said after the Supreme guardian

destroyed the order, only a few survived and escaped. According
to my father, those who escaped went dark"
"It was the right decision. Otherwise, the guardians would have
found them and finished what they started. However, if you're
here, we cannot say for sure there are no other descendants
alive. The only question is, do they know who they are?"
Even if he were to find them, he wouldn't force the descendants to

serve him if they were unwilling. After all, he wasn't a slave master
and those descendants weren't his slaves. However, if there was
a chance that those descendants were still searching for him like
Maxine, he had to find them.
He would rather have a few loyal subordinates than a bunch of
unloyal powerful people as his subordinates. Although Maxine
would not stand a chance against cultivators, he had the system
to change that.
If he couldn't make a southerner powerful enough to face a

cultivator, he wouldn't have come to the Southern continent as
there was no point in building an army that could be destroyed by
a couple of cultivators.
"I assume your father told you that you cannot serve two lords"
"You're the only one I serve, Dark Lord. I was using Pirate Lord
Corey's resources to locate you"
"Did you search for me in the other continents too?"
Yet again she shook her head,
"We believed that only the Dark Lord could break the cultivation
restriction and use magic inside the void line. My father always
said it'd be easier to find you here than in any other continent"
"Your father sounds like a great man" Michael genuinely praised

her father. If they were to search for him anywhere but here, it
would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. It was a
different story in the Southern Continent as her father believed, he
was the only one who could use and make others use Arch
energy inside the void line.
"I would like to meet Pirate Lord Corey"
"It'd be my honor to take you to Corey with me, Dark Lord. I just
hope we didn't damage the ship too much" she scratched the
back of her head with an embarrassed look on her face.
"It's okay, we'll use my ship" she looked around to see any new
ships,
"Gibson, you can come out" Michael talked with Gibson through
the earpiece. She was confused, wondering who he was talking
to. Soon, Maxine felt a tremble under her feet as the sea around
them rippled violently.
Whoosh!
Her eyes almost bulged out when a ship emerged from the sea
suddenly before their eyes. Compared to the Silent Reaper,
Maxine's ship looked tiny. The ship's look itself intimidated the
pirates. Michael slowly ascended to the air.
"Meet my ship the Silent Reaper, Maxine"

Chapter 267 - A Delicate
Balance
"And don't call me Dark Lord, this is not the right time to take my
mantle. Just call me Lord Lucifer" hovering in the mid-air, Michael
ordered Maxine.
"Yes, Lord Lucifer '' he didn't fly directly to the Silent Reaper but
stared at the shivering pirates on the deck. Packard's legs kept
trembling, all of his senses were overwhelmed by pure fear.
"Are they loyal to you or Corey?"
"I give you my word Lord Lucifer, they are loyal to me, no one
else" without a second thought, Maxine vouched for the pirates.
"Except him I presume" he glanced at Packard. As expected,

Maxine nodded because Packard was not a pirate serving her but
another pirate captain who served Corey.
"Kill him"
"As you wish, Lord Lucifer"
"No...no….Don't kill me...Don't"
Maxine's gaze sent a chill running through Packard's spine. He

started to shiver frantically while walking backward. He kept
walking until he tripped on a piece of wood.
"You should be proud to give your life to Lord Lucifer Packard.

Accept your death with dignity"
The pirates surrounded Packard, restricting him from retreating

any further.
Michael calmly watched the scene without interfering. He wanted
to compare Maxine with the native citizens of the Southern
Continent.
"Look, something's going over there"
"Who is that fatty?"
"Shhh, do you want the captain to get more pissed off at us?"
"Why isn't the captain making any moves? And where is the Dark
Queen?"
Michael's crew began to chit-chat looking down at Maxine's ship.

They were afraid of Michael noticing them as they still haven't
cleaned the ship yet. Still, they couldn't stop themselves from
watching the entertainment.
"I hope you shitheads are sightseeing after cleaning the ship
spotless" the Silent Reaper crew felt a chill when they suddenly
heard Dark Queen's voice coming from behind. They slowly
turned back to see her floating in the air above the captain's cabin.
"Heya worms, how's it going?" Shorty came out of the captain's

cabin with a bucket in his hand. He had no idea Gaya was floating
above his head,
"I have a great idea, we should keep the door open, submerge
into the sea and emerge again. Tada! captain's cabin cleaned"
Shorty laughed. The other pirates rolled their eyeballs up to signal
Shorty yet their efforts were in vain.
"Great fucking idea, remind me to drown you next time to make

you stink less"
"What the?" Shorty's eyes went wide as he slowly turned back to

see her floating in the air.
"Hee" he let out an embarrassed smile.
"NOOOOOOO!"
Boom!
Suddenly a screaming noise reverberated in the area followed by

a loud booming sound. Gaya moved forward while the pirates
turned back again.
"What happened here?" the white head asked, looking at the

broken poles as well as the broken wooden pieces lying on the
ship's deck before them. Along with the destroyed objects, they
noticed a headless body lying in a pool of blood.
"Who is she?' Gaya saw a chubby woman standing in front of the

headless body, wiping the blood off of her fist with her shirt.
Maxine's pirates were too focused on Packard's body as they
almost failed to notice Gaya floating beside Michael.
"A descendent of the order"
Gaya was genuinely surprised after hearing Michael's words. She

scanned the plump woman from top to bottom,
"Did she have anything to prove herself?"
Instead of explaining, he showed Gaya the medallion. With a

single glance at the coin, she recognized the symbol.
"Trust me, she's loyal"
"Why did she kill him?" the silver head looked at the headless
body with pity in its eyes. The other two heads however remained
indifferent.
"Because you should always kill your enemies, no mercy"
After killing Packard with a single punch, she turned back to see
another figure in black armor floating in the sky. She could tell the
person is a female but unlike Lucifer, Maxine was unable to see
her face as she wore a mask. Regardless of the mask, Maxine
could feel the woman's gaze on her. Maxine's instincts told her
that this person is just as powerful and dangerous as Lord Lucifer
himself.
Her father and his ancestors only told her about the Dark Lord but
not a single word about this woman.
"Tell your people to come to Gisel kingdom, we'll go there in my

ship"
Considering the damage Maxine's ship took from the initial battle
between her and Michael, he knew they can't keep up with the
Silent Reaper or the other two ships. Therefore, he ordered
Maxine to get aboard his ship.
"You heard Lord Lucifer, fix the ship and move your asses to
Gisel"
"Yes...yes captain!"
The next moment, Gaya flicked her wrist as Maxine felt her body
become lighter. She was taken aback by surprise looking at her
feet moving up from the ground.
"I'm flying," she mumbled. In a few seconds, she reached high

enough in the air where the pirates looked smaller. When she
landed on Michael's ship, Maxine saw the crew gawking at her
curiously, especially a short guy with a bucket.
"Captain, we just need a couple of more hours to clean your

cabin" Gibson came to his side drenched in water and soapy
bubbles. His white shirt turned brown thanks to the mess he
cleaned in lower decks.
"Lord Lucifer, is this THE Silent Reaper? the cursed ship?"
"Yes and not cursed anymore" yet again the Dark Lord made her
heart skip a beat. The Silent Reaper was a legend known only for
a few people. They all thought the curse was unbreakable yet
here she was standing on the Silent Reaper with the Dark Lord.
Her devotion towards the Dark Lord reached a new peak. She
only wished her father was here to meet the Dark Lord.
While they were on the deck, Michael saw Heinberg stepping out
of the lower deck. He made his way towards Michael.
"Good, you're here. Follow me"
Gaya, Heinberg, and Maxine followed him behind into the

captain's cabin while Shorty preyed that the captain doesn't get
mad at him for doing a half-assed job of cleaning the cabin.
When Michael entered the cabin, it wasn't as stinky as before and

the cabin looked somewhat cleaner. Ignoring the room's hygiene
for a moment, Michael walked towards the oak table in the center.
"Heinberg tell me about Gisel"
************************************
According to Heinberg, the kingdom of Gisel was a huge country

with a population of almost 25,000 including races other than
humans. Bordered between a marsh to the North, a wild sea to
the South, a mountain range to the East, and a marsh to the
West, the kingdom of Gisel was mainly living off wood-crafting,
weaponsmithing, and wine brewing.
Gisel itself was mainly covered in mountains and has a warm

climate, which has led to a freely spread population, despite the
number of people, which meant most of them lived in small
villages and islands.
The Kingdom's landscape was delicate; green, open fields,

sapphire lakes, and mellow rivers were just a sliver of the
magnificence Gisel has to offer, which was why the country is
cherished among foreigners.
Heinberg told them that the citizens of Gisel, mainly the nobles,
were selfish towards foreigners and tended to welcome them with
irritation. Apparently, they were thinking foreigners could inhibit
the country's well being.
Gisel had moderate laws and law enforcement, which was fairly
normal. The people were troubled due to the undead island and
they had been asking the senate to do something permanent.
Gisel's army contained 3,000 soldiers including cavalry armed
with bombs, shields, and swords. The infantry was also armed
with various types of bombs such as smoke bombs, flash bombs.
Other than the cavalry and infantry, Heinberg mentioned that the
kingdom has two elite units, archers and spartans. The archers
were equipped with various types of arrows as well as different
types of bows for different types of situations. This piqued Gaya's
curiosity. She wanted to see what kind of bow they were using.
The spartans on the other hand were highly trained killing

machines, according to Heinberg. The kingdom only had 250
spartans and they would only enter the battlefield as the last
resort.
The ranks were also filled with many other regiments, including
allied soldiers, as well as slave soldiers, including various
charging units, units of war animals, several defensive units, and
many medical units.
"What about the naval army? How many warships do they have?"
"10 warships"
"Only ten?" Michael was confused.
"Lord Lucifer, this is because of the agreement between the

senates and the pirate lords" seeing Michael's confused look,
Maxine explained,
"The agreement is a short one, to be honest. If a kingdom built

more than ten warships, the pirate lords view it as a sign of
provocation and sent their fleet to plunder their cities until the
kingdom submits"
"So you're saying the pirate lords can take over any kingdom with
its naval power?" Gaya asked,
"No, unless a kingdom gives a reason such as building more than

ten warships, the pirate lords don't interfere with a kingdom's
business. That's why the kingdoms in the Southern continent
leave the pirates alone so they will do the same in return. The
merchant ships and some poor bastards are just fish food to keep
the shark away from their borders. Besides, some kingdoms have
armies powerful enough to take on a pirate lord.No one likes war
so there wasn't one in many decades"
They all agreed with Maxine although Michael could tell the peace
between the kingdoms and the pirates was a delicate one.
"There will be one soon," Gaya shrugged, playing with the hydra
in her hand.
Chapter 268 - The King’s Offer
"Alright, the two of you should stay outside for the night" Only
Heinberg understood the meaning of his words considering he
spent some time in the guest room on the lower deck. Heinberg
saw nicer prisons than their guest room. He almost wished he
received a knockout drug to lose consciousness like Logan and
Jonah.
"Make yourself at home, Maxine"
"I'm home, Lord Lucifer '' her eyes welled up again. Even Gaya
who didn't have the system to show Maxine's loyalty level could
see the devotion in her eyes.
With Maxine, they took the first step in building a loyal army, a
powerful loyal army. After Maxine exited the room Michael looked
around at his empty room.. There were still some dust spots,
cobwebs, and dirt on the walls as well as the floor, especially on
the places where the book racks and statues were before.
"You know,"? Gaya slowly walked towards him speaking in a

husky voice,
"I wanted to show you something" She wrapped her hand around
his chest,
he could feel her hot breath near his ear.
"I have a bad feeling about this," the white head complained.
When Michael turned to face her, they were stuck between them.
Luckily for the hydra, Gaya put them on the table beside her
before wrapping her both arms around Michael's neck.
"Why don't we take your mask off?" he pulled Gaya closer by her
waist. His intentions were obvious at this point.
"Hmkm" she gently shook her head, while closing his lips with her
fingers.
"Come with me"
She wiggled herself out of his hold. Then she scooped off the
hydra from the table before walking towards the door as Michael
followed her behind.
When he opened the door, the first person standing outside was
Gibson with a couple of pirates behind him.
Maxine was lying on the ship's far end with the hat covering her
face. By the looks of it, she seemed deep in sleep.
"I want my room spotless when I come back" As he said, he took

off from the ship to the sky with Gaya.
"Looking at them fly gives me chills every time" Shorty looked up

at them disappearing into the clouds. Until the pirates met
Michael, they wished nothing but freedom from the curse. Now
after witnessing the cools they did, many including Shorty wanted
to become cultivators.
They would have asked them if it wasn't for Gibson. The old man
warned them that if they want to become cultivators, they should
first quit drinking like animals. He also said the captain will ask
you to quit drinking first before starting training them. For many
pirates, quitting drinking was a deal-breaker. But not for Shorty.
*****************************************
"Where are you taking me?" Michael broke his silence after flying
higher and higher into the sky.
"Be patient dear" she chuckled. Her focus was on flying higher.
She could see the clouds getting closer and closer. While leading
Michael to her destination, she failed to notice him slowing down.
"I like the view from here"

Michael's gaze was fixed on Gaya's body. The beautiful moon or
the sparkling stars didn't get his attention as much as she got. As
far as he was concerned, he would be happier staring at her
perfect hourglass structure than appreciating nature's beauty.
Since he was too deeply focused on her body, he failed to notice
the hydra climbing on her body to reach her shoulders.
"He's checking out your butt" Not only the white head betrayed
him but it also stuck its tongue out to tease him.
"What?!" Gaya immediately turned back to see his eyes were on

her instead of the beautiful night sky. When he first told her that
he's liking the view, she really thought he was appreciating the
night sky. Only now she realized that he was checking out her
instead of enjoying what nature has to offer.
"Hey don't blame me, it was you who chose to fly before me"? he
didn't act like he wasn't checking her out, instead, he just spoke
his mind. After all, they had both accepted each other as their
better halves.
Staring at each other like they were in a Mexican stand-off, they

flew past the clouds which spread across the blue sky like a
blanket of snow. The moment they flew through the snow like
clouds, the vibrant light of the moon drew both their gazes like a
magnet.
Michael's jaw almost dropped, looking at the view in front of him.

He felt like he was inside a painting. Millions of sparkling stars
decorated the bluish sky like gems. The moonlight shone
platinum-gold amid the starlight heaven.
The last couple of weeks were tense, especially to Michael. When

he first came to this world, his goal was to use the system to get
rich and powerful enough to enjoy his life to the fullest. Never in a
million years had he thought someone put him in this world to
save it. But he wasn't going to change into a complete good guy
on a savior drug. No matter what, he wouldn't change his plans of
ruling this world from the shadows, getting filthy rich, and living a
long long life enjoying everything this world has to offer. The
moonlight calmed his mind by making him forget everything for a
moment.
"Wow, this is" Even the hydra was at a loss of words in front of
mother nature's beauty.
"Come here" She looked divine in the moonlight. He just pulled

her closer before locking his lips with hers. She ran her fingers
through his shoulder-length hair, pulling him closer and closer.
Right at this moment, he didn't want anything else other than a
lover's embrace. He savored her lips as well as this moment as
much as he could.
"Don't mind us, we just close our eyes"
***********************************************
Meanwhile back on the Elon continent, six elderly figures were

seated around a round table. They looked like they were in their
late exiting or early seventies.
"Have the Guardians or the church found the reason for what
happened?" one of the elderly people who was a man asked the
others.
"They are still investigating. Apparently, only Elon and Ozer are
experiencing this issue"
"My contact in the Guardians said it's not permanent, that's good
news"
"The tournament is in three weeks and we have yet to find a way

to see someone's cultivation level" an old woman rubbed her
temples. The wrinkles on her forehead increased due to recent
complications.
"Well until now, you just focus on the Arch energy radiation
coming from someone to know their cultivation level. Who would
have known that something would mask the radiation suddenly?
Not only these old people who were responsible for organizing the
two championship tournaments but no one in the world knew that
it was Michael who started this mess. When the hostile Hydra
became mad, it let out a pulse that was hiding a cultivator's
energy radiation. In other words, the cultivators lost their ability to
perceive one's cultivation level just by looking at them. For anyone
living in the Southern Continent, they felt the pulse as an
earthquake but for Elon and Ozer, the pulse resulted in more than
an earthquake.
"The Guardians are working with the dwarven kingdom and the
elven kingdom to design a device that might solve this problem.
But since the competition is in three weeks, we might get just a
rushed product"
"At this point, anything would do"
"Let the Guardians and the Church handle it. If they can't, they
should ask the Skyhall. I heard the Guardians has someone
whose sister is the Skyhall's next holy maiden"
"Noah, Noah Winston. It's a pity that we can't let guardians

compete in the tournament" one of the old men said.
"He has the most potential to win the main tournament" an old
lady with golden hair spoke.
"What about the 5-star alchemist of River town?"
"You mean Ghost? You just answered your own question Anon.
He's an alchemist, not a fighter. This is a stage for big-time
warriors who have trained themselves in combat arts for years.
Honestly, i don't think he stands a chance"
"I agree with lovely Gilda here. There's a reason the alchemist
guild has a tournament of their own. They are not fighters, they
are just book worms "
"Enough of your predictions, let's talk about the prizes for each
championship" another old man stopped their conversation as the
old woman called Gilda said,
"About that," Gildra retrieved a parchment tied using a golden
ribbon from her space ring before sliding it towards the old man
who asked about the prizes.
The old man picked up the parchment, opening it carefully. The

others stared at him reading what's written on the parchment. His
old eyes started to get wide. Except for Gildra who had already
read the parchment, the others wondered what's on the
parchment that made the old man Morgan react this way,
"Well, what is it?"
The old man put the parchment on the table before him,
"King of Bradia wants to offer Bradford barony to the main

championship tournament winner"
Their eyes went wide in surprise. Not even once in the

tournament's history did they offer something such as a barony as
a final prize.
"Why in the hell would he do that?" the same old man who
commented about the alchemy guild asked,
"Well, there were rumors that Baron Totonk has gone mad after
his daughter's death. This parchment seems to prove the rumors
were indeed true. Why else would the King consider giving up the
barony to someone else?"
"Yeah, I heard about that, nasty business. I just wish the

guardians and the church finds that Lucifer before someone else
gets murdered"
"Even if the Baron went mad, what about his sons? The king can
make one of Totonk's sons the next baron"
"Something's smell fishy indeed, I" the old man who read the
parchment frowned. He was old enough to sense there's a
scheme hatchery in the motion here.
Has Arrived In Gisel I
Michael was standing on the helm deck, watching the sunrise at

the horizon. The sun bloomed on the horizon, golden petals
stretching ever outwards into the rich blue sky above the calm
sea. It was the brilliant flower of the sky that warms the days. It
was the invitation to a new day, that sunrise so ordinary yet
extraordinary. He changed into his usual black attire including a
black long coat, a black shirt top two buttons opened to show the
chest cut, black trousers, and black boots. He still wore the face
mask to hide his real face, he'd rather be safe than sorry.
The last night after spending an hour flying over the clouds, they
returned back to the ship to oversee the pirates cleaning the ship.
Even after almost 10 full hours of cleaning, the pirates were only
able to clean a small portion of the entire ship. He guessed it
would take at least three days to clean the ship to his liking.
Since he supplied all the needed items to do the cleaning, he

ordered them to clean the ship while he's spending his time in
Gisel. He trusted Maxine would teach them a lesson if his crew
tried to slack off.
After sailing on the peaceful sea for another hour, the sun
completely emerged from the horizon, lighting the land in the
distance.. The first thing that came to his view was a tall light
tower painted in white with red lines at the top and bottom.
The closer they got to the light tower, he could vaguely see the
buildings, ship docks as well as merchant ships approaching the
shore.
"Kingdom of Gisel," he said under his breath.

"That's the capital of Gisel, Lord Lucifer" Heinberg came dragging
the still unconscious bodies of Logan and Jonah.
"Crilta right?"
Michael remembered the city's name Heinberg mentioned earlier.
The city of Crilta was built in the shadow of a dormant volcano

located in the far north of Crilta. Through the ships docked at the
docks and the somewhat tall buildings, he could vaguely see this
dormant volcano in the distance. The volcano's upper parts
seemed to have been covered by snow which gave it a unique
charm masking the terror hiding within.
The city's elegance was matched by the backdrop of grand forests

which have helped shape the city into what it is today. Considering
the volcanic soil contained minerals and various nutrients needed
for pasture, the city thrived in farming, wine production and was
blessed with grand forests.
The riches the volcano brought were of great importance, but it

was also influential when it came to architectural designs as the
vast majority of buildings have been built with granite and
travertine. In addition to these stones, marble was considered the
ultimate epitome of beauty and power by Gisel as well as many
other kingdoms. Compared to Elon, the Southern continent
kingdoms made the main construction of brick and mortar and
lined them with marble slabs.
The black warship immediately received everyone's attention in

the dock area. Michael saw little children pointing their fingers at
the ship while their eyes sparkled in amazement. As the Silent
Reaper approached the docking area, Gaya came to his side
stretching her arms after her morning meditation. Like Michael,
she too started to wear full black clothes. She wore everything the
same as him except the small satchel hanging on her waist where
the Hydra is sleeping peacefully.
Because Michael lowered a pirate flag that had the skull and two
swords on it, a group of patrolling soldiers came to the docking
area. Michael was not a historian but he watched enough movies
to recognize the soldiers as legionaries with one single look. The
patrol unit contained twelve soldiers who held long pointy spears
in their hands. They wore red knee-length woolen tunics as well
as shin guards made out of leather. They didn't wear boots like the
soldiers Michael had seen ever since he came to this world but
they wore sandals.
Their torsos were vest shaped armor with round plates covering
their shoulders. Each soldier wore a helmet consisting of two flaps
to protect their cheeks. In addition, the helm curled a little bit to
protect the neck.
Only the leading soldier's helmet was adorned with red plumes
arranged in a crescent shape. Their thighs and arms were
unprotected though. In simple words, they looked exactly like the
legionary soldiers of ancient Rome.
Not only the soldiers, when Michael looked around the buildings,
they also looked exactly the same as the buildings he saw in
some Rome-related tv shows and movies. Most of the buildings
were two stories painted in white with light orange overlapping
roof tiles.
The unavailability of the ship flag raised suspicion among the

soldiers. The soldiers waited for them to leave the ship. Michael
turned back to look at Heinberg,
"You sure they won't ask a question?"
Michael would have put Jonah and Logan into a sack if it wasn't
for Heinberg who told him that he will deal with the soldiers. Until
he could get the senators under his control, he decided to keep a
low profile. His plan was to control the Gisel Kingdom through the
senators from the shadows.
However, that didnt mean he would not show his powers at all. On
the contrary, he would show his powers in a suitable place to get
the maximum amount of badass points.
As the ship came to a halt, Heinberg put a black bag on Jonah

and Logan's heads before following Michael and Gaya to the
docks. When Michael was walking down the plank, three types of
people came into his view. The majority of the three were
commoners who wore rather plain-looking clothes covering their
full bodies. They didn't wear any sparkling pieces of jewelry or any
kind of accessories to adorn themselves, only sweat of hard work
adorned them. These people were the majority in the docks area.
Most of them were unloading wooden boxes from a merchant ship
at the docks a bunch of meters away from the Silent Reaper.
What was inside the wooden boxes was not Michael's concern at
the moment.
The soldiers remained calm until they saw Heinberg dragging two
bodies that had their heads covered by black bags. Some of the
soldiers standing behind the leading soldiers tilted their spears
towards Michael as a sign of caution.
"Tell your men to move aside soldier, we are here for official
business," Michael noticed Heinberg retrieving a gold plated card
the size of a credit card from the inner pocket of his shirt.
This was the first time Michael saw the thing but apparently not
the soldier in the front. The moment he saw the card, the soldier's
body tensed. He immediately saluted at Heinberg while his eyes
showed a mix of fear and respect.
"Where is Senator Caius?"
"In his manor, Sir. Does the sir want us to escort you?" The soldier
almost raised his voice like he was in a cadet walking. After
Heinberg showed the gold card, the soldier didn't even take a
second look at the bodies.
"Lord Lucifer" Heinberg looked at Michael, wordlessly asking him

to speak further. Michael just nodded as Heinberg gave further
orders to the soldiers,
"No one goes to the ship without my say so"
"Yes Sir!"
"Tell them to leave him somewhere safe," Michael said, glancing
at Logan.
"Put him somewhere safe and leave him alone"
As per Michael's order, Heinberg moved Logan's body towards

the soldiers. The onlookers stared at the scene and the Silent
Reaper for a few moments before resuming what they were doing.
After all these working classes were paid for working, not for
gawking.
In front of Michael, there was a straight road paved in greystones

leading to the inner city. Either side of the roads had buildings and
occasional palm-like trees. Dragging Jonah's body would be a
pain and slow down their pace so Heinberg just lifted his body,
putting him on his shoulder.
As any typical city would have, he noticed smithery, a couple of

bakeries as well as ration stores along the way. In addition to
those stores, he was surprised to see many Alchemy ingredient
stores and agriculture supplies stores. Given that all the people in
the Southern continent required food, there was a higher demand
for agriculture supplies than all the other continents.
"Fresh organic eggs!"
"Fruits and vegetables for the cheapest price!"
"Come on lords and ladies, take a look at our produce"
It felt like a century since he heard the cries of farmers and

smelled the scent of a marketplace.
"How much are these?" While walking through the streets, he

forgot to turn back until he heard Gaya's voice. She was at a fruit
stall, smelling the reddish mangos on a bucker before a white-
bearded old man.
"Ten mangoes for three gold coins"
"Noway, two-"
"Here"
He almost twisted her ears for trying to bargain with the old farmer
for one gold coin. It was fortunate they could spend the gold coins
of Elon in the Southern Continent as both the continents shared
the same currency.
"Stop, let me choose" she interrupted the old farmer and started to
pick the mangoes herself.
"What did she say? Oh yeah, don't focus on the color, squeeze
the mango gently and smell the stem end for a fruity aroma"
The old man just stared at Gaya while she took each mango in
her hand, squeezing and smelling them.
"Yeah take your sweet time"
"I am taking it"
She completely ignored Michael who just rolled his eyes. Seeing
the both of them, the old farmer chuckled,
"Wives eh Sir"
Heinberg felt a chill crawling through his spine when he saw the
old man casually kidding the two most terrifying people in the
whole Southern Continent. He thought the old man was going to
die a horrible death but unlike what he expected, Heinberg saw
Lucifer just laugh with the Oldman while she elbowed Michael
gently smiling.
Has Arrived In Gisel II
"I'm really starting to regret giving you money" She had a basket
in her hand full of fruits, vegetables, and meat. In her shopping
spree, she forgot the one most important thing: she didn't know
how to cook. Because they were walking through the streets full of
people, she was unable to put everything in her space ring.
The further they walked into the inner city, the less crowded the
streets got. The paved street they were walking on opened up in a
three-way junction. In the center of the junction was a beautifully
built water fountain. The marble stone coupled with bright blue
sparkling water made the fountain truly a majestic structure. In
addition to the beautiful fountain, the buildings surrounding were
fancier than the buildings near the docks.
These buildings were built using marble stones rather than granite
which gave each building a unique charm. Most of the buildings
were three stories with green plants hanging from the roof as
decoration. Besides the buildings, the people roaming on the
streets were fancier too, especially the ladies.
They wore golden inlaid sleeveless tunics and some of them wore
colorful stolas.. Apart from the fancy sparkling dress, each of them
had gold and gem placed pieces of jewelry adore their ears as
earrings, neck as chains, and hands as bangles.
"I'm standing right here," Gaya said, gritting her teeth. Looking at
him gawking at all the ladies began to kindle her jealousy. There
were all kinds of hot women walking around the water fountain,
redheads, blondes, brunettes, and even some green-haired
ladies.
"Ouch!' only when he felt a sharp pain in his upper arm, his focus
on the women broke.
"Were you checking them out in front of me?"
"I'm not checking them out as you think, it reminds me of

something back at home" Since this place resembled the roman tv
shows he watched like Spartacus, he felt some nostalgia.
If it wasn't the truth, she would have seen it in his eyes and began
to growl about him lying to her. She was with him long enough to
see that he's really telling the truth.
"Plus, they're hot" he teased her to make her mad. Her facial
muscles twitched weirdly, making Michael chuckle. She tried to
bite him in the shoulder despite the people on the streets.
Fortunately, she had a heavy basket in her hand and he was quick
enough to restrain her by wrapping his hand around her shoulder.
He squeezed her with love mixed with childish playfulness.
Looking at them act this way really made Heinberg wonder what
kind of people they are. One moment, he was killing people within
a heartbeat, another moment, he was playing with his girlfriend
and laughing with old men to their jokes.
"Move it dog!"
A fancy-dressed woman's voice reverberated the area. Michael

noticed a man getting slapped by the woman.
"Slave" only took Michael a single glance at the man to recognize

the man as a slave. The man had an X shape burn scar on his left
chest. He wore nothing but a small piece of worn-out tunic only
covering his privates.
The woman kept beating the man with a stick like he was some
kind of animal. The scene gave him major nostalgia because he
spent years of his childhood working for arms dealers and drug
dealers as a drug mule along with the other kids in the orphanage.
They were slaves to those criminals which was the reason
Michael hated slavery to the core.
Although he knew he can't clean the slavery off of the earth, he
killed a fair share of slavers in the dark corners of the world. In this
world however, he could gain the power to completely wipe off
slavery.
"This is not the time" Gaya knew his hate towards the slavers.
Except for the existence of the system, he shared everything with
her as she did with him. Michael calmed himself with a couple of
deep breaths.
"Lead the way" He signaled Heinberg to lead the way as there

were two roads across the water fountain. Heinberg nodded
before taking the lead.
Michael silently followed him behind while carefully noticing

everything around him.
He saw more and more slaves along the way. They all shared the
same burn mark. He even saw some completely naked female
slaves. The nobles who owned them had no sympathy
whatsoever for the slaves else they would have at least given
them a piece of cloth to cover their privates.
"The slavery is worse than I thought" Gaya felt pity for the slaves.
There was no life in the slaves' eyes. They walked behind the
nobles like zombies. For the moment, Michael kept walking past
them without lifting a finger. After a few more minutes of following
Heinberg, an elegant mansion appeared in his view.
From the outside, this mansion looked magnificent. It had been

built with marble stones and had blue stone decorations. Small,
half-rounded windows added to the overall style of the mansion
and had been added to the house in a very asymmetric way.
The building was shaped like a T. The two extensions extended

into a covered patio reaching the end of that side of the house.
The second floor was smaller than the first, which created a
layered style of look in combination with the roof. This floor had a
very different style than the floor below.
The roof was flat and covered with brown wood shingles. Two
large chimneys sat at either side of the house. There were no
windows on the roof. The mansion itself was surrounded by a
gorgeous garden, including hanging grapevines, a couple of lion
statues that spit water through its mouth, a pond and many
different flowers.
Just like the legionary soldiers he saw at the docks, there were
many groups of soldiers patrolling the mansion's surroundings. On
top of the legionaries, he could see many soldiers who wore no
armor but only briefs and long red capes.? The long red cape,
golden boots, and shield with the symbol v made it pretty obvious
to Michael.
"Are those spartans?" still Michael asked just to clarify.
"Yes they are, Lord Lucifer"? Unlike the legionaries, the spartans
remained closer to the mansion entrance.
"What are you waiting for? Go ahead" Gaya ordered Heinberg.

The Spartans were an elite group of soldiers who only answered
to the senators. Therefore, Heinberg's gold card meant nothing to
the spartans.
Heinberg showed the gold card to the legionary soldiers while

walking towards the mansion as the soldiers saluted at him before
moving away from their path.
"Stop" however when they approached the front door, a spartan

warrior with dark brown hair and beard stopped them. The spartan
had a clear muscle definition. His face was covered by the helm
but Michael could see his brows frowning looking at the body on
Heinberg's shoulder. The spartan focused on the body as he didn't
even take a glance at Michael or Gaya.
"Who is it?" The spartan didn't address Jonah as a body. It was

obvious to Michael that the spartan soldier saw enough dead
bodies to differentiate a live one from a dead body.
Heinberg turned his gaze towards Michael, waiting for him to open
his mouth.
"It's Senator Caius's son, Jonah"
"Jonah?!" the spartan soldier let out a surprised shout.
"Why is he unconscious? No matter" the spartan soldier continued

before looking at Michael and Gaya from top to bottom.
"Spartans!" the spartan soldier shouted as a couple of more

spartans came out of the house.
"Search them before letting them in, I'll go see Senator Caius" the
spartan soldiers went inside as the other soldiers came to search
the trio. Michael let the spartan soldier search him without saying
anything. After all, both Michael and Gaya had no weapons on
them but they kept their weapons in the space ring.
Even though Gaya was a female, the spartan soldier never

crossed his line when searching for her. Michael nodded in
approval inside looking at their discipline.
"You can't bring this inside" the spartan soldier pointed at Gaya's
basket.
"And what's in that satchel?" She could leave the basket outside
but there was no way in hell she would show the hydra to the
outside world yet. She didn't even trust Maxine with the Hydra or
she would have left the little hydra in the ship.
"It's Senator Caius's package" Michael's words stopped the

spartan soldier from touching the satchel and probably ended up
dead in her hands.
After hearing what he just said, the spartan soldier gave them a
look of doubt but eventually decided not to search the satchel
because it's a crime to lay hands on packages such as those of
the senators. All the spartan soldiers knew about the secret
operations the senators do in the shadows therefore, the soldier
kept his hands off of the satchel.
"Follow me and don't make any sudden moves" the spartan

soldier warned them before leading them into the mansion.
"Humph, not a spartan in this county who could stop these two"
Heinberg thought to himself. The spartan always acted so high
and mighty because they were the strongest and the elite soldiers
a kingdom could offer. This made many spartans extremely
overbearing. Heinberg couldn't wait to see the two of them kick
some spartan asses and nor could Michael.
Chapter 271 - How To Make
Spartans Mad
While following the spartan soldier, he noticed several more

spartans guarding the mansion. Apart from the spartans, there
were many slave maids cleaning the floors, furniture as well as
walls. The mansion's interior was just as fancy as the outside. The
marble floors cleaned by the slaves were spotless, reflecting the
golden light produced by the miniature chandeliers on the ceiling.
The corridor gradually opened up to a spacious hallway where
Michael saw several paintings of a man in a toga hanging on the
walls. The man looked like a typical roman nobleman with a short
haircut.
A few slaves cleaning the floors took a peek at Michael but they
quickly turned their eyes at the floor before the spartans could
notice them.
"Clean it thoroughly lowlives, the rug is worth more than your filthy
lives' ' a legionary soldier shouted at the slaves cleaning the floor
near a maroon carpet.? The hall was decorated with a classic
roman sofa set with a gold inlaid tea table as a centerpiece.? The
dark brownish sofa set did not match with the white marble floor
per se but it gave a unique charm to the hall along with a huge
chandelier hanging directly above the tea table.
The spartan soldier threw a glance at Michael and Gaya expecting

them to be shocked by the grandness of the mansion yet what he
saw in their eyes was nothing but indifference.
Soon, the soldier led them towards the curved stairs on the far
end of the hall. Heinberg walked forward on the stairs carrying
Jonah on his shoulder. His heartbeat began to rise nearing the
Senator's room. To this moment, he had no idea what these two
were planning to do with Senator Caius.
After they climbed the stairs, they saw a majestic two-door with
golden doorknobs. The door was guarded by two spartan soldiers,
one was a normally built soldier while the other looked huge,
almost double the size of Logan. The soldier wore full golden
metal armor from toe to head, there wasn't a single place in his
body that wasn't covered by metal. He was at least seven and a
half feet tall with the same size spear in his hand.
"He's the Giant, Senator Caius's personal guard"
"Wait inside, Senator Caius will meet you in a few moments" the
spartan standing beside the Giant opened up the door.
"You heard him, don't do anything stupid while you're inside"
No one accompanied the trio inside the room. As far as the

spartans concerned, who would be stupid enough to steal
something when the Giant standing right outside the door. If they
were caught stealing or anything that could harm Senator Caius,
the Giant would rip their bodies apart. Even the spartans were
afraid of the Giant.
The room they stepped in was large yet looked cozy with thick
carpet, a large oak table with two comfy chairs on the front for the
guests while white throne-like sofa for the Senator. There were no
windows though which was logical considering no one could
assassinate the senate from a distance through the windows.
The walls were full of more paintings except this time, they weren't
the paintings of the Senator but abstract paintings.
"So much money wasted" Michael sighed looking at the paintings.

He could tell the senator was a fanatic for paintings by looking at
the room. Back on earth, there were rich people who would spend
millions of dollars on paintings. Michael never understood these
people and now he knew the senator was one of them.
The table was empty without any documents or pacers on it. The
golden light radiated by the chandelier lightened up the room, He
wondered what's powering up the chandeliers.
"Take the bag off" Michael ordered Heinberg as he removed the

black cloth from Jonah's head.
"Are you gonna wake him up?" As Gaya asked, Michael lifted
Jonah with one hand from Herinberg's shoulder and put him on
the chair in front of the table.
After putting JOnah on the chair, Michael's gaze turned towards

the Senator's chair. The chair was made of some kind of glossy
redwood with gold plates etched on top rails and stiles. The seat
and arms were covered in dark maroon cushions to provide extra
comfort.
Heinberg saw Michael walking towards the Senator's seat instead

of sitting on one of the guest chairs. His heart pounded against his
chest with each step he took towards the chair. Gaya followed him
behind before hopping onto the table beside the chair.
The spartans outside the door still didn't notice anything

happening inside.
Standing just beside the chair, Michael willed the system to equip
the Lucifer armor without the mask and hood. In a blink of an eye,
Heinberg saw Lucifer put his armor on. He shivered at the sight of
the black armor.
The sight of them in their armors told him the horror of what was
about to happen. Heeinbegr instincts screamed at him. His eyes
were locked at the entranceway, expecting the Giant to step in
any second. If it was before, Heinberg would have been afraid of
the Giant but now, Lucifer and the girl freaked him out more than
the Giant. He witnessed how easily Lucifer killed Ross and
everyone. After witnessing what a magic spell could do, he really
didn't think even the Giant could stand a chance against Lucifer.
"Good, I was kinda getting bored. '' Gaya closed her eyes for a
second before transforming herself into Dark Queen. Unlike
Michael, she put on the black mask and the hood, making herself
mysterious and eerie.
Michael finally seated himself on the senator's chair, casually

putting his legs on the table. He tilted the chair backward which
caused creaking noises.
"Unacceptable!" Just as Michael expected, the noises drew the

spartans' attention. The moment the two spartans entered the
room, the spartan soldier standing beside the Giant shouted at
Michael. The Giant however remained silent but Heinberg could
feel the cold murderous aura coming from the Giant.
"Grrrrrrr!"
The Giant uttered no words but growled menacingly. Heinberg's

body automatically moved towards Michael's side away from the
spartans. He knew the safest place for him was by Lucifer's side.
However, he prayed to the gods that he won't become collateral
damage in the battle between the spartans and Lucifer.
"It's rude to keep the guests waiting, my dear spartans" since he

didn't use a voice modulator, he sounded like himself. But what he
did and said made the spartans' blood boil in anger. Soon, several
more spartans came running after hearing their fellow spartan's
initial shout.
At the moment, twelve angry spartans stood at the entrance

aiming their spears at Michael and Gaya. As usual, Heinberg saw
no distress on his face.
"GRRRRRR!" the Giant's growl got louder as he took a step

towards Michael. Each of his steps made the room tremble.
"What's going on here?" The Giant halted his steps when they all
heard a sudden voice. The spartans moved aside as Michael saw
the old man in the paintings standing at the entrance with the
spartan soldier they met before.
"What in the hell?" the spartan soldier reacted the same as the
others.
"Senator Caius" Heinberg called out to the Senator to draw his
attention.
"I don't know who you are but you just made a big mistake"
However, Senator Caius was still looking at Michael. Although the

senator looked calm, Michael could see the killing intent in his
eyes. If gaze could kill one, he would have died by now. The
senator walked towards him while the spartans surrounded the
room, waiting for the senator to give the killing order.
The senator stopped by the Giant's side. He glanced at the Giant,

wordlessly telling him to wait for his order.
"H, I have some questions for you. But before you answer them,
you better explain to these two the crimes they committed against
the kingdom" Senator Caius could see that they have probably
returned from the undead island completing the task but what
Michael did was a crime against him.
To this moment, Caius didn't see Jonah's face because he was

facing Jonah's back, not his face front.
"He doesn't take orders from you anymore, Caius" Michael calmly
said.
"GRRRRR!" the giant growled more after hearing Michael address

Caius by his name. Addressing a Senator by his name before
others was a crime and considered insolence against the kingdom
itself. Therefore, the Spartans became enraged.
"Why don't you take a seat beside your son?" Michael pointed at
Jonah as Caius's eyes went wide in shock. He slowly moved
towards Jonah before looking at his face. Instead of acting happy
to see his son, Senator Caius creased his frowns while scanning
the room for someone.
"How did he? Where is Ross?" Finally the senator asked for Ross.
"Did you really think they would survive on that island the second
time?"
Michael's words stunned the senator. For the first time, the anger
in his old eyes faded away while a hint of panic emerged in his
eyes.
"I offered him the chance to live. All he had to do was swear his
loyalty to me"
"You? You killed him?" the senator gritted his teeth,
"I don't believe it, you couldn't have killed Ross in a million years.
He's a spartan captain" the spartan soldier yelled at Michael. To
the spartans, Michael was just a youngster in fancy armor. They
couldn't even imagine him killing Ross, a highly decorated
spartan.
"oh, he was a spartan?" This was a piece of new news to Michael.
"That doesn't matter now. Let's get onto business, shall we?"
Chapter 272 - Staring Death In
The Eyes
The spartans were waiting for the Senator's orders to kill him. The
way he's sitting legs up on the table, the way he spoke made the
spartan blood boil in anger.
"If you may" Michael looked at Gaya as she flicked her wrist. The
very next moment, the door slammed shut.
"How?" the senator's mind went black seeing the door shut itself.
The spartans looked bewildered about what just happened. They
had no idea what he was about to do to them if the Senator
refused to accept his offer.
Initially, Michael wanted to silently make the Senator his puppet

but after witnessing how the nobles treat the slaves, he wanted to
show the senator a glimpse of hell so he would do everything
Michael says with no questions asked.
"From now on, you're gonna do everything I tell you to"
"Senator Caius, can we kill him now?"
"GRRRRR!" The Giant growled as usual while the spartans

basically trembled to kill Michael.. Yet, Senator Caius hesitated to
give the order because he wanted the artifact he ordered
Heinberg to get. Most of all, he didn't want the Spartans to know
about the off-the-books operation.
But it was too late for him to send the spartans out as Gaya
already put a barrier around the room when she shut the door.
The barrier would prevent the Spartans from leaving along with
any sound.
"As you can see, my spartans are very eager to kill you. You and I
both know what's keeping me from giving the order" The senator
retrieved his calm composure. He didn't know what sort of
technique they pulled to close the door but with his spartans and
the Giant, he felt invincible. As far as Caius was concerned, their
lives were in his hands.
"What do you think is in that bag? You can tell him H" Michael
didn't worry about confirming Caius the existence of the artifact. If
Michael's guess was right, Caius would either doubt the truth or
try to get his hands on the satchel. The moment H nodded,
Caius's body shuddered.
"But it's mine now"
"GRRRR!"
"I'm gonna give you one last chance kid, give me the artifact and
beg for my mercy, I might tell Giant to go easy on you two"
"Giant that Giant this, what's the big deal? You think he can
protect you from me"
Finally Caius snickered, having enough with Michael.
"Giant"? The Giant took a step forward as the Spartans took a

step back. They had all seen what the Giant would do to Caius's
targets.
"Ignitia" He aimed his index finger at the Giant's head as a thick

golden lightning bolt went straight through the Giant's metal
helmet like a hot knife through butter. For a few moments, no one
uttered a single word, they were speechless.
Thud!
It took the Giant's body a few seconds to hit the ground. Soon the
Giant was lying in his own pool of blood beside Senator Caius.
"Protect the Senator!"

Only the spartan soldier Michael met first regained his senses. He
immediately shouted at the other spartans realizing the danger
Caius was in. Caius however stood still in shock. His brain went
blank seeing magic for the first time in his life.
"Wind Blast" before the spartan soldier could come to the

senator's side from where he was standing, Michael cast another
spell, blasting the spartans as well as the senator into the wall.
"Spartans, gladiators, giants no one can protect you from me if I

want you dead" Michael slowly stood up from his chair. The
spartans were strong but the wind blast was stronger. The force of
them hitting the stone wall almost knocked them out.
Senator Caius wiggled on the ground, trying to get up. Almost all
the spartans on their knees while trying to get a good grip of their
spears to attack Michael and defend the Senator.
Gaya walked along with him before kicking one of the spartan
soldiers in the gut. She didn't stop with one but kicked every
spartan soldier. If she was a southerner, they would have dodged
or evaded her kick. Since she used Arch energy to speed her
movements, they could do nothing.
In a couple of moments, all the spartan soldiers were coughing up

blood with broken ribs. Only Caius was lying on the ground
unharmed by Gaya.
"Get up" Michael lifted the senator by his neck,
"Do you need another glimpse? I think you do" he held Caius in
one hand while pointing his index finger at the spartan soldier they
met first.
"Ignitia" The lightning bolt fired from Michael's fingertip took

another life in a blink of an eye. The blood splattered on Caius's
toga painting the white toga red.
"Basta-"
"Ignitia"
The spartan soldier who just opened his mouth to curse Michael
received a bolt of lightning through his head.
"Argghhh" the other spartans growled in a mix of anger and

shock. They wanted to stop him from killing more people. Their
instincts and training told them to save Caius first before figuring
out how he is using magic inside the void line.
"By sending your son to the undead island, you issued a death
warrant on him. What's that tell you about you?" Michael's grip
around Caius's throat tightened. The old man's face started to turn
pale,
"That you're not a good man, in other words, you're a bad man"?
After he said that, he threw the senator to the other end of the
room.
Thud!
"Senator!"
The senator hit the wall pretty hard before falling to the ground.
His neatly ironed toga now looked messy with a few stains of
blood.
"Stay still" when the spartans tried to stand up, Gaya began to
kick them once again. This time harder than before.
Michael first went to the chair beside Jonah before dragging the
senator by his neck.
"Let's start the conversation again" Michael put the senator on the
chair beside Jonah who was still in an unconscious state. He then
hopped onto the table, putting his legs on the senator's chair's
arms.
"Normally I would have killed you slowly and painfully" tiny bolts of
lightning danced around Michael's fingers. He moved his hand
closer to the senator's face so he could hear the sound of electric
bolts.
"Who...who are you?"
"I'm the man who's gonna rule this continent" Michael pulled
Caius's right arm,
"L"
"ARRRRGGGGG!"
Michael began to write his name one letter at a time on Caius's

arm using the lightning bolt. His skin began to burn as Caius
screamed in agony.
"U"
"Senator!"
"Arrggghhhh!"
Because of the barrier Gaya put around, not a single sound

escaped the room. Watching Lucifer torture Caius sent a chill
running through Heinberg's spine. He had seen the senator and
the spartans torture and kill people before but he never imagined
someone would do the same to them.
"Karma is a bitch, Senator," Heinberg sighed inside. After

tattooing the letter 'F' of his name, the senator's eyes rolled inside
the socket. He was losing his consciousness yet Michael injected
a small amount of healing potion into Caius's bloodstream to keep
him awake. It was not enough to heal the burn wounds, it was just
enough to keep him from losing consciousness.
"Say my name"? For the first time since he came to Caius's

house,Heinberg saw his face turn serius. Standing on the
side,seeing him like this terrified the heck out of Heinberg and he
could imagine how terrified the Senator would be. Senator's body
shivering was a pretty good sign of the fear in his heart.
"Say...My...Name" The intensity of the lightning bolts increased

while the room began to turn darker and darker.Caius looked up
growling in pain to see Lucifer's eyes glowing in crimson red color.
"Lucifer"
The moment the senator said his name, his eyes fired up as dark
smoke enveloped his body,completing Michael's Dark Lord form.
WIth a swift kick, Michael turned Senator's chair to face the
spartans.
"I'm gonna make you a one time offer" while speaking to Caius, he
pointed at a spartan.The lightning bolt brushed past Caius's ear
and ended the spartan's life in a second.
"From now on" Yet again, he sent another lightning bolt killing
another one.
"You work for me"
Heinberg saw another spartan soldier lose his life.Their eyes were
still open with full of fear and shock.
"Or you and everyone you care for"? this time Michael raised both
of hand as several lightning bolts shot from his hands killed all the
spartans in the room. When the lightning bolts disappeared, the
spartan bodies permeated smoke and burned skin smell. The
sight made Caius's blood run cold.
"Will die" Michael finished his sentence after he turned Caius's

chair to look him in the eyes.
"Their deaths were quick. Betray me or even think about it, you
will beg for death"
While the senator was scared shitless, Michael willed the system
to place a teleportation rune on the table so he could teleport in
and out of the room wherever he wanted discreetly.
"Clean the mess.Our Senator here will offer a generous amount of

gold to the spartans' families who unfortunately lost their lives
saving the senator's life from a group of assassins"
************************************
Hi guys,
I've been playing the heck out of battlefield 2042 open beta for the
last two days so that was why I couldn't update the chapters.
Sorry!! Your favourite author does deserve a day or two off
Chapter 273 - Rebels Of Grey
Mountain
"Was that really necessary?" While flying above the city, Gaya
asked Michael.
"Was what?"
"Killing the spartans. I thought we were just gonna beat the hell
out of them" Michael stopped flying for a moment to answer Gaya.
"First, the Spartans would have told others that Caius is working
for me. Second, killing all of them was the best way to scare and
make Caius our bitch.Third, anyone who protects scumbags like
Caius with their lives doesn't deserve to live"
Michael never knew the spartans like Heinberg. When he killed

them, he only listened to his gut feeling which said the spartans
were anything but innocent.
"What's the plan now?" She wasn't going to argue with him after
noticing the cold intent in his eyes. Ever since he said he saw a
glimpse of the future, she noticed many changes in him. He had
become more cold-blooded.. To be honest, she wasn't worried
about his newfound changes. On the contrary, she was glad
because there was no way a soft-hearted person could achieve
their goals.
"We'll take a day off first. Then, we'll kidnap all the senators and
make them our bitches'' She saw him smile coldly. Leaving
Heinberg in Crilta, they continued to fly in a random direction.
After flying for an hour, they found a glossy grass field on the top
of a small mountain cliff. The sun was many hours away from
setting down yet their limit of Arch energy usage time made them
rest for the day.
"I want this world to stay like this" standing atop the cliff, he looked
at the majestic view before him. As far as his eyes could see, the
land was covered with green forests, grasslands, zig zaggy rivers,
lakes and a chain of mountains, yet only a small portion of this
vast mother nature contained man-made buildings. Although he
was not into saving nature back on earth, compared to earth, this
world was heaven. It was because these people coexisted with
nature instead of destroying it. At first, he didn't value nature's
beauty too much but after seeing the future world where there
wasn't a single tree or clean water source, he wanted to preserve
this world as it is. If that meant fewer technologies, he was ready
to sacrifice technology for nature. This was purely a decision
made of selfishness as he would rather rule a beautiful fantasy
world than a technologically advanced polluted planet.
They sat down on the grass field, feeling the gentle coldness of
the dew. Gaya rested her head on his shoulder as he on her head.
The hydra wiggled out of the satchel onto Gaya's lap.
"It will be more beautiful if we have someone to play with" the

silver head sounded a little gloomy,
"You do have someone to play with little fella, a big scaly dumb
dragon"
Hearing her words, even the white head looked surprised and
even delighted for a second.
"Think of him like your big brother," said Michael.
"Where is he now?" the silver head asked with a bit of excitement

hidden within its voice.
"He is at home. Don't worry, we'll go there soon" His purpose of

visiting the Southern Continent was almost finished. The only
thing he had to do was get all the senators in line so he could rule
Gisel from the shadows.
"Let's just say we control every kingdom in this world, what then?"
"If you're asking me will I rule this world as an emperor? No, too
many risks, too many responsibilities, too much exposure. I prefer
living my immortal life without any of those"
"What if I want to be the Queen or the Empress?" she lifted her

head from his shoulder, looking directly into his eyes. In his eyes,
she seemed serious yet funny at the same time.
For a few seconds, he couldn't find a suitable answer for her. He

just stared at her pretty eyes,
"If you really want that throne, I'll not stop you but don't expect me
to play king"
"You will be a king after you marry me, it's destiny" she pinched
his cheek playfully.
"Who said I'm gonna marry you?" her smile completely

disappeared from her face.
The rosy color of her face became redder while her eyes slightly
welled up looking at the earnest expression on his face.
"I'm just messing with you" seeing her eyes watering up, he
cupped her rosy cheeks playfully.
"You fucker!" she lunged at him with all her strength and rage.
"Whoa," the hydra jumped away to avoid being crushed under

them as Michael and Gaya rolled on the ground. She kept
drumming his chest for the prank he played. However, Michael's
chest was like a steel plate, no matter how hard she hit, he didn't
feel any pain. For him, it was great fun teasing her after a long day
of work.
"You heartless son of a bitch! I will teach you a fucking lesson"
"Is that so?" Michael grabbed her both hands while she tried to
wiggle out of his grab. She was on top of him which put a foxy
smile on Michael's face.
She was too angry to notice this smile as she continued to
struggle.
"Stop you two!"
"There's something going on"
The Whitehead and Silver head slid towards them. At the

moment, the Hydra's wings and legs hadn't completely grown yet
so they moved like a snake.
While she was struggling, Michael turned his head to see the
Hydra,
"Don't you hear the commotion?" the blackhead asked,
"The shoutings, the screams?"
Michael released Gaya's hands before wrapping his hands around

her waist and stood up. He then hugged her from behind, looking
at the Hydra on the ground.
"I don't hear anything"
"Release…me"
"Stop it snake" he placed a kiss on her neck and cheeks from

behind to stop her wiggle. As he expected, she stopped moving
as she let out a quick bark of laughter.
"Where did you say the noise was coming from?"
"We didn't," the white head said
"That way" the silver head turned its head further towards the
forest.
Finally, Michael let go of Gaya as she seemed to have calmed

down.
"Are we going or not?" the white head craned its head, wordlessly
telling Gaya to pick them up.
After flying around the kingdom, they only had one hour left of
their arch energy usage. Yet, the Hydra's curiosity made them fly
towards the direction pointed by the Hydra.
They were flying above the lush green mountains until they saw a
city surrounded by tall walls on the horizon. Unlike Crilta, this city
was smaller and surrounded by city walls. Compared to the capital
city itself, this city was far more defensible. Instead of landing and
paying the guards as they would in any city, they flew directly into
the city hiding among the clouds.
When they got closer to the city, they noticed the presence of
soldiers was far higher than Crilta. From the sky, they could see
numerous legionary soldiers, as well as spartans, patrolling in and
outside the city walls.
The buildings and the architectural style were the same as Crilta
though. Soon, they quickly descended from the sky onto a dark
alley.
"Mommy look gods!" a boy standing on the balcony they landed

shouted.
Michael just winked at the boy before walking out of the dark alley
into the crowded streets.
The people largely consisted of women and men in fancy clothes

were running toward something. There were not many slaves on
the streets. Michael saw only a few slaves, they were completely
naked and had various burn marks on their bodies. Ignoring the
slaves as he was unable to do anything for them at the moment,
Michael followed the crowd.
"This is what will happen if any of these strays tries to escape their
masters" when they came to stop, Michael saw a stage built with
three male naked slaves hanging. Their eyes were bulged out as
their tongues were sticking out. In addition, there were deep cut
wounds all over their bodies. Many noble ladies had their hands
on their mouths looking at the gruesome sight. Yet, they remained
there listening to the six feet tall muscular man on the stage. He
wore a golden toga and had a long bloody sword in his hand.
Obviously, the blood on the sword was the slaves' and he
indicated as much as pain he could to the slaves before hanging
them. Michael wondered why.
"No slave can rebel against their masters in any senate ruled
kingdom, not in my watch. Soon, I will do the same to those rebels
hiding in the grey mountains" the sudden talk about rebels piqued
both Michael and Gaya's curiosity.
"Those dogs of gladiators are not a match for our spartans. When
the right time comes, I will personally march into grey mountains
and bring the traitors' heads and that day shall be set in stone as
an example!"
"Hail General Herius!"
The nobles cheered in joy and pride while a few of the slaves
stared at him with burning anger in their eyes. Michale noticed
this. Unlike the slaves in Crila, these slaves seemed to have been
wanting to be free men.
"It seems we have a gladiator army waiting for us" standing

among the cheering crowd, Michael thought to himself before
deciding to follow Herius.
*****************************
Sorry guys,
I was so focused on doing things I don't love and missed doing

what I love the most. It took me a while to find the strength
needed to follow my passion instead of doing what others ask of
me.
I quit my internship and decided to become a full-time writer. So

good news, expect 2-3 chapters a day from November. And I
hope you guys stick with me and continue to support my work.
Chapter 274 - One Cannot
Avoid A Cliche Fight
The streets were filled with soldiers and nobles. Either side of the
streets had various shops such as utensil shops, markets, meat
shops as well as small restaurants. Despite the crowd walking in
front of him, his eyes were fixed on Herius who was accompanied
by twenty spartans and twenty-five legionary soldiers. It'd be
impossible to assassinate Herius unless the assassin is Michael
who could use Arch energy.
However, it was not Michael's plan to assassinate Herius.
"Let's just take him already" Gaya started to lose her patience
after following Herius for almost half an hour. The gentle warmth
of the morning sun now transformed into the scorching sun. The
noble ladies were frantically waving their fans to cool themselves.
He felt pity for the ladies who had to wear corsets and thick
clothes.
"Where the fuck is he going?" She craned her neck slightly to see
Herius's party. Soon she got to know the answer for her question
when she saw a four-story building with two seven feet lion
statues standing outside.
Unlike the rest of the buildings, the one Herius was walking
towards was built using decorated glasses and some kind of
redwood. The beams were made of wood while the walls,
windows, and doors were made of glass. After Herius entered the
building through the front door, Michael and Gaya reached the two
lion statues.
Even among the nobles, only those who had spartans as
bodyguards entered the building.
"What's this building? An inn?"
"I don't think so," Michael noticed the nobles showing some kind
of card to the legionary soldiers standing by the door before
entering the building.
"We should do the usual. Rent a room in a tavern nearby, watch

his every moment using Spyders and then decide what to do with
him next"
"I'm hungry" the white head's voice came out from Gaya's satchel.
Seeing the sun was roasting them and there was no way of
getting into the building without revealing their power, Michael
decided to go with Gaya's plan.
Under the shade of the buildings, they strolled on the street

looking for a tavern nearby. Nearly twenty meters away from the
building Herius entered, they found a lively tavern called the lost
castle.
From the outside, the tavern looked somewhat grand, peaceful,

and cheerful. Marble stones and pillars made up most of the
building's outer structure. It was difficult to see through the small,
curtained windows, but the inviting music from within can be felt
outside. The music had a medieval vibe to it which was very
pleasant to listen to.
"Move your ass human, something smells really nice in there"

Gaya gave a light pat on the satchel hoping to shut up the white
head before walking towards the door. She too felt hungry after all
the walking and flying.
As they entered the tavern through the hard wooden door, they
were welcomed by laughing voices and the smile of a waitress.
The bartender was a bald middle-aged man. For a moment, a
small smile appeared on his face but after scanning both of them
from top to bottom, that smile disappeared from his face.
Nonetheless, the tavern was as lovely inside as it was on the
outside. Rounded, stone beams supported the upper floor and the
light fixtures attached to them. The walls were decorated with
mounted animal heads, hides, and small animals. It was clear the
owner is an avid hunter and the smells coming from the kitchen
indicated that the animals don't go to waste.
The tavern was packed. Commoners and lesser nobles seemed

to be the primary clientele here. Several long tables were
occupied by spartan soldiers. The other, smaller tables were also
occupied by legionary soldiers who seem to be enjoying their time
by harassing girls in rather ragged plain clothes. When Michael
and Gaya stepped into the tavern, in addition to some legionary
soldiers, a few toga-wearing golden-haired youngsters turned their
heads towards them. Ignoring their gazes, Michael walked
towards an enmity table in the far end of the tavern.
"It's cool here" the sun's heat could not be felt in the tavern, not
even a bit. Michael looked surprisingly around the room to find
how they were cooling the inside.
"Sheela!" Despite the bartender's hostility towards outsiders, he

shouted at one of the waitresses to go to Michael's table.
"Oh quit whining Pablo, Sheela is serving us" a legionary soldier

on the other end of the tavern from Michael's table replied the
bartender, raising his voice.
If it was Noah, he would have jumped the gun to fight the

legionary soldiers for harassing a waitress. Michael was different,
he remained calm but he had a feeling that a fight was ahead
because just like the bartender, some of the legionary soldiers too
stared at Michael and Gaya with hostile looks on their faces.
"What's crawled into their asses?" Gaya noticed these hostile

gazes on them and she did not like them. If only she wasn't
hungry, she would have beat the crap out of them. For now,
answering her cravings was her first priority. Sheela, a brown-
haired girl who wore a tattered brown top and greyish skirt. The
girl was a commoner that meant she had a better life than the
slaves Michael saw. Yet in the tavern filled with legionary soldiers,
lesser nobles, and few spartans, a commoner like her was the
lowest kind.
When Michael thought about it, the situation in the Southern

Continent wasn't much different than Elon except in Elon, there
were only two kinds, cultivators and those who stuck at Arch
sensing or Foundation stage all their lives who were called
commoners by the cultivators. In the southern Continent, there
were three kinds, Nobles, Commoners, and Slaves.
In a rich city filled with nobles and lesser nobles such as this, the
nobles practically treated comments like their slaves, it was the
girls who got the worse. It'd be a miracle if they lived through a
month without being harassed or forced upon by a noble. Not that
it was okay but atleast most of the cultivators would leave their
victims with enough gold coins to live comfortably. In the Southern
continent though, the nobles were far more heartless than those
cultivators.
"Honey, why don't you serve yourself to us?"
The other waitresses were nowhere to be found while Sheela was

being harassed by some noble youngsters.
"Can we kill them already?" The white had enough of waiting.

Since it inherited Gaya's personality, it hated waiting for food.
"Fuck them up!"
"What the?" Gaya was stunned after hearing the white head's
shout.
The youngsters who were harassing Sheela stopped what they

were doing as almost everyone in the tavern looked at Gaya and
Michael.
"Well I wanted to avoid a cliche restaurant fight but here we are"

Michael shook his head disappointedly.
[hehehe, looks like you're about to have a cliche fight]

The system laughed inside his head.
"At Least I don't have to use Arch energy to beat these guys"
"Did you say fuck them up, bloody foreigners?" a legionary soldier
slowly stood up from his table, menacingly looking at both Michael
and Gaya. The noble youngster finally let go of Sheela as their
focus turned on Gaya, a much more beautiful girl than Sheela.
"I had a long fucking day and im fucking hungry, so I strongly

suggest you assholes reconsider what you're about to do" Gaya
removed the satchel as she put it on the table. Everyone including
the few spartans was completely surprised by her words but soon
their surprise became anger. They couldn't tolerate an outsider
and a girl disrespects their fellow soldiers.
"You better get on the ground, begging for forgiveness bitch" the
legionary soldier gritted his teeth,
"You got insurance for this place?" Michael asked the bartender,
"Why do you care? It's your bitch friend who needs one" the
bartender's answer surprised Michael and at the same time,
angered him a bit. He didn't know how they found out that they
were foreigners or why the bartender was hostile towards the
outsiders.
"Wrong answer" Michael slowly moved his hand back behind the
chair, releasing Spyders onto the ground. Since they might take
longer than they actually planned, he didn't want Herius out of his
sight. Therefore, he released the Spyders so they could get inside
the building and monitor him.
"Apologize for your words or we will have to arrest you" a spartan

soldier stepped forward.
"Arrest me? You'd be lucky to lift a fucking finger when im done

with you" finally Gaya stood up, cracking her wrist.
"Let me take a shot, soldier" suddenly the youngster who was

harassing Sheela stepped forward with a wicked smile plastered
on his face.
"Oh fuck this" Gaya lost her patience as she picked up the candle
holder on their table before throwing it towards the youngster. The
candle holder's round base hit the youngster's face with enough
force to make him stumble backward and fall. Her movements
were so quick as the legionary soldiers standing beside the
youngster had no time to react at all.
"Arrest her" the spartan soldier seemed calm despite her actions.
However, the legionary soldiers and the youngster's three noble
friends got extremely mad. Their bodies shivered in anger.
"Lock the fucking door, I don't want them running away" the
legionary soldier ordered the others.
"You're gonna regret that" Finally Michael himself stood up. At the
moment, none of the soldiers or spartans knew who they were
messing with.
Chapter 275 - Grey Mountains
And The Rebel Within
Rebellion
Somewhere else in the Southern Continent, one could see vast

chains of complex mountains. Each mountain in the chain was tall
to the point that they almost touched the clouds. People called this
chain of mountains, the grey mountains because at night, the
trees blanketing the mountains glimmered a silver light. The
scholars of the Southern continent studied the trees and their
leaves, coming to the conclusion that the leaves had a property
that absorbs moonlight and produces a vapor that radiates in
silver color. In addition to the silver light, the vapor produced by
leaves had a cooling effect. The scholars and blacksmiths of the
Southern continent were able to create a device that absorbs this
vapor, store it within and release it slowly to cool down a room or
a hall depending on the device's size.
The grey mountains spread vast as the mountains surrounded

three kingdoms. Each of the three kingdoms was ruled by a king
instead of a senate. Among the seven kingdoms in the continent,
only these three kingdoms were ruled by kings. Over the years,
the senates tried to overthrow a king's regime, intending to
replace the kings with the senate by conducting many clandestine
operations yet the senates failed because the alliance between
the three kings was too strong. Considering the three kingdoms
were surrounded by grey mountains, it'd be near impossible for
other senate-ruled kingdoms to prevail in a war against these
kingdoms.
In addition to being a natural wall for the three kingdoms, the

mountains provided the kingdoms with grey leaves which were
one of the major economic pillars for these kingdoms. No matter
how hard the senate tried to grow the grey leaves trees, they
simply could not succeed as the grey leaves trees were exclusive
to the grey mountains..
If one tried to harm the grey mountain forests, they would not only
face the wrath of the three kingdoms but also the wrath of the
Elven empire in the Awor Continent because the forest was
worshipped by elves all over the world. This was another layer of
protection the three kingdoms got from the grey mountains.
No bandit camp or any threat could prevail in the grey mountains,

at least that was what the rest of the world thought. In the forest of
Qiven kingdom's part of the grey mountains, a campsite
containing numerous tents could be seen under the thick canopy.
But the campsite was not inhabited by bandits, it was inhabited by

someone else. The campsite was surrounded by a makeshift wall
made of wooden poles with a pointy end. Inside this wall, there
were numerous sturdy men doing chores such as tending to the
horses, chopping logs, fixing tents, and sharpening their weapons.
Apart from these sturdy men, one could also see several women
of various ages from young to old.
Despite their gender, all of them had many scars on their bodies
including burn wounds. Every one of them in the camp was a
slave. Many of them joined the gladiator rebellion three years ago
before settling down in the grey mountains. The rebellion was led
by the gladiator named Doctorus, the same man who trained Titus
and Optimus, Aria's brothers.
Three years ago, the gladiator rebellion started in Ludus Gallion in

the Miral kingdom. Soon it became a slave rebellion as many
slaves began to rebel against their masters, fighting for their
freedom.
The rebellion sparked the dormant fire within the slaves to yearn
for freedom. If the rebellion created a spark within the slaves, it
created a forest fire within the nobles. The nobles viewed this
rebellion as nothing but treason. Many nobles living in the senate-
ruled kingdoms began to treat the slaves even worse than before
after the rebellion, some of them even executed the slaves to
make an example out of them.
In addition to the atrocities against the slaves, many

luduses(schools of gladiators) increased security and enforced
strict rules to keep their gladiators from rebelling.
Regardless of everything, still many gladiators killed their masters

and joined the rebellion. Of course among those who rebelled,
many died before even crossing the kingdom's border, and those
who survived suffered various injuries in the hands of legionary
and spartan soldiers.
At the moment, inside a tent on the northern side of the camp,

Tiberius was staring at the dagger in his hand. His hands were
frantically shaking. Holding the dagger in his right hand, he
touched the deep cut back of his neck. The wound was running
from the neck to the middle of his back. Although he survived this
deadly cut, it affected the muscle movements of his arms. He
could not even hold his daggers tightly. If he did, his arms would
silver uncontrollably. The dagger reflected a square-jawed man's
face covered in wavy hair.
Each passing day, his strength diminished little by little. He could

tell that soon, he would not be able to fight at all.
"Tiberius"
Tiberius quickly put the dagger away when he heard someone

calling him. Although most of his fellow gladiators noticed his
illness, they didn't say anything.
The man who came to Tiberius's tent was another gladiator called
Marcus.
"What is it Marcus?" Tiberius asked in a thick British accent.
"It's time"
"Time for another bloody meeting" Tiberius made his irritation

obvious but still, followed behind Marcus to Doctorus's tent which
was located in the camp's center.
"Afternoon Marcus"
"Hiya Marcus'
"Greetings Marcus"
Almost all of the people they met on the way to Doctorus's camp
greeted Marcus with a smile but avoided eye contact with
Tiberius. It was because ever since they settled here three years
ago, Tiberius always had disagreements with Doctorus and many
other gladiators.
Plus, Tiberius was short-tempered and the most feared gladiator

among them. Unlike Doctorus who preferred to take a subtle
approach with the senates and the nobles, Tiberius wanted to
strike them down before the nobles could do the same to them.
As far as Tiberius was concerned, he wanted a more aggressive

leader to lead them. If not for the injury he suffered two and half
years ago when they attacked a Ludus in Gisal, he would have
fought for the leadership. Nonetheless after all these two years,
besides the injury, he also realized that he's not suited for
leadership. That was why he's trying to push Doctorus to be more
aggressive.
Although Tiberius didn't like the way Doctorus does things, he

respected the man. After all, Doctorus trained him and all the
other gladiators in Ludus Gallion.
He followed Marcus, ignoring all the pleasantries for a few

moments before reaching the biggest tent of their campsite. The
tent was large enough to hold a big round table they used for
meetings and Doctorus's belongings which were not many. Other
than being Doctorus's room, the tent also served as an armory.
When Tiberius entered the tent, there were six male gladiators
including Doctorus and two female gladiators were standing
around the table.
"I just received a piece of news from Gisal. Herius has hanged
three more people who tried to escape the kingdom"
In this camp, many avoided using the word slave. They were
fighting against slavery and stopping using the word was their first
step towards abolishing slavery.
"Fucking shithead" Tiberius punched the table in anger. He

wanted to rip? Herius throat off
"He's been hunting the boor bastards ever since we started this
rebellion. Were those people gladiators or slaves?" Tiberius was
one of the few people who's still using the word slave. After seeing
what they did to Titus and Optimus, he hated being a slave
himself yet unlike Doctorus, he didn't believe that a simple thing
like stopping using the word slave was enough to abolish slavery.
"Cleaners and maids" Doctorus answered,
"Let me guess, that bastard tortured them before hanging them"

Tiberius did not look at any of them but Doctorus. Despite the
respect he had for Doctorus, Tiberius felt his anger erupting within
towards Doctorus.
Doctours remained silent while everyone took his silence as a

yes.
Coupled with the frustration of his worsening condition, this piece

of news flamed the fan of Tiberius's anger.
"What did I tell you, Doctorus? Leaving Herius alive was a stupid
decision, we should have killed him when we had the chance" he
tightened his fist as his hand began to shiver.
Although the gladiators standing around the table didn't agree with
Tiberius on almost anything, this time was different.
"You were there with me, Tiberius. It was killing Herius or saving
those girls. Even if I had to do it again, I would still do the same"
"Then what the fuck are we doing right here? We don't have to
anyone now, we must kill that fucker before he tortures and hangs
more people. Give me five men and I will bring that bastard head"
"You can't Tiberius" Doctorus immediately rejected Tiberius's

request.
"You're not the same Tiberius you were once and im not gonna
send you on a suicide mission knowing that you'll die"
"What did you say?" The situation immediately tensed up as

Tiberius walked forward towards Doctorus with intent to fight. He
couldn't control his anger after being insulted by Doctours like this
in front of the others. Among everyone in the Ludus Gallion, only
Titus and Optimus could fight and win him. Since they were not
here, he would have been the best gladiator in this camp if not for
his condition.
"Stop Tiberius"
Marcus and some of the gladiators moved in front of Tiberius,

trying to stop him.
"Get out of my way" Tiberius punched Marcus in the jaw. The

punch should have knocked down Marcus, instead, it did not even
move Marcus's head.
"That's it," Marcus said before throwing a punch at Tiberius. If he

was at his peak, he would have evaded Marcus's punch but his
condition slowed his movements. Doctorus shook his head
disappointedly after seeing Tiberius getting knocked down by
Marcus. He couldn't help but feel pity for Tiberius.
*******************************
A few minutes after sending men carrying unconscious Tiberius,

the meeting resumed. Doctorus stared at the map of Gisel with a
dagger in his hand,
"Tiberius was right, we must stop Herius before he harms more

people" As he said, he plunged the dagger into the table through
the map of Gisel.
Right at this moment, none of the gladiators knew that Herius was
begging for his life to the Dark Lord.
Chapter 276 - Change Is The
Only Constant
In a blink of an eye, three days passed since they visited

Lanercost where they saw Herius hang the slaves. The last three
days were not very exciting for Gaya except when she beat the
hell out of legionary soldiers, spartans, and the noble youngsters
in the tavern.
"Your Highness, he's here" while Gaya was talking to Michael

through the earbud, she saw Heinberg approach her slowly. The
sun had already set on the horizon leaving the darkness to
envelop the kingdom. The only light source in the room was the
burning candles on the table before Gaya.
The door gradually creaked open to reveal Senator Caius. The

Senator's eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the darkness.
Soon, he saw Gaya sitting on his chair behind the table. He
couldn't find Lucifer when he looked around. The image of him
killing his spartan soldiers was etched into his mind. Ever since
that day, he has been having trouble sleeping.
"What do you know about Senator Viridius?" She didn't even ask
him to sit down, she just directly asked the question. For a few
moments, the Senator stared at her in fear, his face was pale
while his legs slightly shivered.
Noticing his behavior, Gaya sighed.
"Look, as long as you serve us loyally and help us get what we

want, we're not gonna hurt you. Plus, you'll get everything you've
dreamt of and more. Now, sit down"? she gestured at the Senator
to sit down as he took a few seconds of time before sliding the
chair towards him and seating himself.
"Back to my question, tell me about Senator Viridius?"
"Senator Viridius is the head of the military. He was a spartan

captain until he was elected by the people"
"Hmm, what's his connection with Herius?" Gaya noticed the

surprised look in his eyes when she asked him about Herius.
"General Herius?"
"Yes"
"General Herius is Senator Viridius's soon-to-be son-in-law. He

came to Gisal to make sure his weddings preparations are going
well"
This time Gaya was surprised because when Michael interrogated

him, he said he came to Gisal to investigate the slave rebellion
and watch the gladiator fight in the arena.
"Funny, Herius said he came to investigate the slave rebellion and

have fun watching the gladiators fight"
"The gladiator fight is a part of their wedding ceremony. The slave

rebellion, it was more of his hobby. It's his..." his voice trailed off
because of the sudden realization he had.
"His what? Hobby, pleasure?" Senator Caius couldn't see the

snicker behind her mask. He knew she was right because he too
heard rumors about Herius, disturbing rumors. If anyone else,
Senator Caius would have kept his mouth shut. However, to her or
Lucifer, he would rather tell everything he knew than keep his
mouth shut when being asked a question.
"Both. I heard rumors about General Herius buying slaves"
"And the slaves are never to be seen after that" Gaya finished
Caius's sentence.
"Is it true that Viridius leading the operation to catch the rebels? "
Caius frowned, recalling the conversation he had with Viridius
several weeks ago when they met at a gala.
"When we met, he said he has someone else taking the charge"
"That someone else was Herius and Viridius is running the thing
behind the curtains" by looking at Caius's expression, she could
tell Caius was telling the truth.
"Anyways, we have a golden opportunity for you Caius"
*************************************
In the middle of the night, Michael appeared inside Caius's room

where Gaya was still waiting for him. In addition to Gaya, Maxine
was standing behind Gaya's chair like a good bodyguard. Those
who were in the order of death were extremely loyal to the Dark
Lord despite the fact that the Dark Lord didn't even exist in their
timeline. They worshiped the Dark Lord as their god. Those who
escaped the guardians still worshipped him in secret and passed
their beliefs to their descendants. They did their best to make sure
their descendants would find the Dark lord eventually and serve
him as they would have. Luckily for Michael, Maxine was just as
loyal as her ancestors who served the order.
Therefore when Michael told Maxine that Gaya will be his wife,
Maxine's loyalty towards Gaya skyrocketed because if Dark Lord
is her god, the woman he marries would become her goddess.
Heinberg went to take care of his part of the plan which is to make
sure all the senators show up to enjoy the gladiator fight. Lot was
riding on the upcoming gladiator fight where the entire fate of
Gisel would change.
"Lord Lucifer"? Maxine went to her knees almost immediately

when she saw him appear in the room out of the thin air.
"You can stand up and tell me you've done what I asked" Michael
waved his hand as the replica of his skull and bones throne in the
Abyssal appeared before him. He sat facing Gaya on the
Senator's chair,
"It's done, Lord Lucifer"
"Good" As he said, Michael turned his eyes towards the corner of

the room where there was nothing, only darkness. However, there
was something in the darkness, a living person.
Maxine noticed his look as she walked towards the dark corner to
retrieve the package.
"Come on darkling" Michael saw Maxine dragging out a man from

the dark corner.
"Time to wake up"
Plap!
Maxine slapped the man to wake him up. Soon, the man's body
began to wiggle as he woke up.
"Hmmmmmm" Nonetheless the man could utter a word because

there was a cloth wrapped around his mouth preventing him from
screaming.
This man was none other than General Herius himself. The
building Herius entered was a local guard garrison. It was
protected on the ground level as well as kept archers to prevent
anyone from entering the building from above. But the archers
never expected to meet someone who could fly in the sky and rain
arrows on them.
It was as simple as walking through the front door after killing the
archers. After entering the building, everything happened so fast
as Michael and Gaya killed Herius's guards, interrogated Herius
for a while before leaving the garrison with Herius.
"Lord Lucifer, you want me to take it off?" she pointed at the

mouth wrapping around Herius's mouth.
"No need for now"
"What did you find?" Gaya suddenly asked,

"A potential recruit," Michael said, resting his head on his fist.
Regardless of the upcoming important thing, he looked extremely
calm
"Aren't we gonna recruit the whole camp?"
"We are but this one, he's something more. He could be

something more" Michael had a smile on his face. After seeing
that gladiator he had a feeling that this gladiator could be his god
of war.
"Lucifer, we need a reality check before moving forward with our

plan. There's a possibility that the gladiators wouldn't want to fight
for us. The same goes for your potential recruit"
"Not for him. He's ill, wanting to relive his glory days, and looking
for a better leader. If we can't recruit him, we can't recruit anyone"
he then looked at Herius as a cold smile emerged on his face,
"Also he's desperate to put an end to Herius's reign "
"And we're gonna gift this pig to him"
"Hmmmmmmmm" Herius wiggled frantically while trying to scream

yet nothing but muffled cries escaped his mouth.
"Knock him out" After hearing Gaya's order, Maxine knocked

Herius out with a swift punch to the side of his face.
"Lord Lucifer, how long will it take for the gladiators to reach the
arena and set up what they planned?"
"According to Herius, they're traveling to Morin and then coming to

Gisal in a merchant ship, hiding in crates. They would reach Gisal
in four days"
"And Senator Viridius will be waiting for them with hundred

Spartan soldiers. They are walking into a perfect trap" said Gaya.
"Maxine, you'll be assigned to Caius's personal maid. Stay by his

side and make sure everything goes according to the plan"
"I assume we are going back to the camp" Gaya stood up with
Michael. He had already left a teleportation rune so he could
teleport back and forth. Considering this was nighttime, many in
the camp were asleep which made walking into the campsite less
noticeable.
********************************
Midnight came as perfect black, the true companion of every good

night. The dark night was supposed to bring calmness to the soul
yet to Tiberius, the calmness, the cricket noises, as well as the
cold breeze, only kindled the anger flame within him.
"Arghh '' Tiberius tried to vent his anger out on a tree by punching
it as hard as he could. Because of his condition, no matter how
hard he tried to punch the tree, his weak muscles didn't give him
the power he needed.
He then took out the dagger from the waist, trying to slash the tree
but he barely scraped the tree. Although he couldn't clearly see
the mark on the tree, he was able to see how shallow the cut was
by feeling the bark.
"Damn you!"
Pulch!
Tiberius couldn't control his anger anymore as he slashed his left

arm with the dagger. The dagger was extremely sharp as it made
a deeper cut in his arm than it did to the tree. The blood gushed
out of the cut. His anger overcame the pain,
"Having it rough huh" suddenly Tiberius heard a voice coming

from the woods. He looked around to see nothing but darkness.
He was standing here outside the campsite, this place was
supposed to be empty.
"Come out" with a wounded arm, he shouted at the darkness.
"I came bearing a gift for you, Tiberius" Tiberius saw a pair of red
glows slowly approaching him from the darkness.
Chapter 277 - A Secret
Admirer
Tiberius ignored the blood gushing out of the wound in his hand.
His eyes were fixed on the red glows approaching him slowly from
the woods.
Gradually Tiberius could make out a figure of a human with the

help of little moonlight coming through the thick canopy above.
"Hello, Tiberius" A small orb of light appeared in between them to

light the surroundings. Tiberius was stunned by the light as he had
never seen a floating orb of light in his life before. The pair of red
glows disappeared after the light appeared.
Soon Tiberius saw another figure walking out of the darkness

dragging a man whose head was covered in black cloth.? Both of
the figures wore black skull masks to cover their faces.
"Your gift" before Tiberius could do or say anything, the second

figure standing behind the tall figure kicked the man as he slid
towards Tiberius.
Tiberius cautiously looked between the figure wiggling at his feet

and the two figures standing a couple of meters in front of him. He
had so many questions running through his mind
Pushing those questions to the corners of his mind, he slowly

placed his hand on the black cloth to remove it. His blood flowed
to the person's black cloth, drenching it,
"Go on" Michael knew about Tiberius's condition so he patiently

waited for him to take off the cloth from Herius's head.
Tiberius grabbed the cloth, removing it to see a bloodied swollen
face. Despite the face being bruised, bloodied, and swollen to the
point that it's hard to recognize him, Tiberius was able to identify
him. His body began to shiver the moment he saw the face. It was
not because of his condition, it was because of the overwhelming
anger burning inside him.
Two years ago, it was Herius who stabbed Tiberius in the back,
causing his muscles to lose strength with time. Besides, although
Tiberius was not best friends with Titus and Optimus, he
respected them as gladiators. Titus and Optimus both fought
Tiberius before their 50th battle that was supposed to earn them
their freedom. Tiberius accepted the defeat like a champion
because he was a soldier before becoming a gladiator, hence he
valued honor. What they did to Optimus and Titus was not
honorable. It was that day Tiberius realized that there's no honor
among nobles and there's no difference between a gladiator and a
slave. When he was a gladiator, he was drowned in women, glory,
adrenalin rush, and attention. They kept him from realizing the
state he was in, a slave, just like everyone else. In addition to
Herius, he was angry with himself for being so damn stupid.
"Herius"
"Hrrhhhggghh" Herius frantically struggled to escape but his

hands and legs were tied with ropes, making it easy for Tiberius to
have his revenge.
Tiberius kicked Herius in the gut before getting on top of him with
his dagger raised high. Looking at the dagger with eyes full of
horror, Herius began to struggle more and more frantically. He
could see the killing intent in Tiberius's eyes and tell what's about
to happen.
"Arghhh" Tiberius let out a mad cry before going berserk on

Herius. He slashed Herius as Herius's muffled cries began to
sound wilder and wilder.
The blood gushed out of Herius with each cut. Michael saw
nothing but mad anger within Tiberius's eyes. Tiberius's condition
made each cut shallower than he intended. Therefore, Herius was
put through the torture that slowly took his life. Tiberius saw
Herius's light of life gradually dimming in his eyes. Nonetheless,
Tiberius's speed of slashing him didn't even slow a bit.
Michael and Gaya patiently waited for Tiberius to finish without

batting an eye. As far as they were concerned, Herius deserved
nothing less. After all, Herius tortured and killed hundreds of
slaves for fun and pleasure.
After inflicting hundreds of cuts on Herius, Tiberius was bathed in

blood.
"I thought I'll feel better," Tiberius said after spitting the blood that
went into his mouth when slashing Herius.
"Who are you two freaks?" Tiberius turned his gaze towards
Michael and Gaya
"We are building an army and we want you in it"
"Humph" Tiberius snickered, "you may have not noticed but I'm
done being someone's bitch a long time ago"
"You aren't one now?" Michael questioned him, aiming to kindle

Tiberius's anger more.
"I'm not going to stand here and give you a golden speech.
Instead, I'll give you an option, an option to regain everything
you're desperate for"
"You...don't...know me" Tiberius gritted his teeth,
"I know enough to know you're losing strength in your limbs"

Tiberius was surprised as Michael continued,
"You want to fight but you know you can't anymore. Soon, you'll be
of use to no one here and die dreaming of your golden days"
"Well freak, I appreciate your gift, I really do but unless you have a
miracle drug hiding in that armor of yours, you're wasting your
time"
Michael heard Gaya gritting her teeth. It was obvious she wanted
to beat the hell out of Tiberius for calling him a freak.
"Calm down" he whispered,
"There is if you accept my offer"
For a few seconds, Tiberius's eyes went wide in shock. A small

glimmer of excitement and hope emerged in his eyes but it
disappeared soon. Michael expected this reaction from him.
According to Heinberg, there wasn't a cure for Tiberius's condition,
at least not one in the Southern Continent. Since the healing
potions had trace amounts of Arch energy within them and any
Arch energy would be absorbed by the dormant Hydra in the
Southern continent, the healing potion would be useless to
Tiberius unless the healing potion brewed by Michael with a few
adjustments from the system.
"This is gonna sting" Before Tiberius could react, he felt a sting in

his neck.
"Fuck" he quickly slapped the neck where he felt a sting like

swatting a mosquito to feel a needle sticking out of his neck.
"How do you feel?"
Tiberius clenched his fist. Playfully pinched Xanali's cheekA short

snort of laughter escaped his mouth in utter surprise and joy. He
could feel the strength returning to his arms.
"This is just a tip of what I can do Tiberius. If you want to kill more
sons of bitches like Herius and live your dreams, this is your
chance" Tiberius looked at Michael in a new light.
"Time to make a decision Tiberius"
Tiberius was more surprised to hear a voice of a girl from the

masked figure.
"What you just gave me, is it permanent?"

"When I'm sure you're loyal to me, I'll give you the permanent
cure. But know this, im not forcing you and one of my goals is to
eradicate slavery, so you won't be a slave like you were before.
What I'm giving you is a choice, ``Are you willing to be my
soldier?"
"Well fuck it" the feeling of his strength returning was too much to
let go of. He wanted the feeling to last forever. Besides, these
figures brought Herius like he was nothing when Doctorus couldn't
even get near the guy without being spotted by the spartans.
"If you can give me this and assholes like him to kill, I do whatever
you want"
******************************
"Peyton" Back at Peyton manor, Xanali entered the room carrying

a stack of parchments. Peyton was sitting on a white couch
looking at the starry sky through the glass windows.
"Have they caught him?" Peyton didn't even turn back to look at
Xanali. She was drowned in the beauty of the star-filled sky.
"Not yet and it's not him, it's her" what she said got Peyton's
attention,
"A woman? How did you know?"
Xanali flicked her wrist as a vial with a few long strands of black
hair in it,
"Our scholars found that these hairs we found on one of the L

marks belong to a woman" Xanali handed over the vial to Peyton,
"Why is a woman drawing L marks in various cities and villages?"

Xanali sat beside Peyton,
"It's either she's an ardent fan of Lucifer or she has been leaving
the marks in the hope of contacting Lucifer" Peyton has been
scouring the continent to find Lucifer before he kills more people.
She was becoming obsessed with him. In five days, the time limit
Lucifer offered is coming to an end. The nobles were already in a
panic because it was them who did the worst crimes and had
reason to be afraid of him.
"What I don't know is, how is she able to escape our men who are
supposed to be on guard?"
"She's skilled enough to do that which makes catching her difficult

but we're getting closer. In a way, this is an opportunity" Xanali
smiled,
"Opportunity?"
"Yes. If we know about Lucifer, whatever she's doing might have

already gotten his attention or will soon. We get her, track her,
wait for him to show up and we nail both of these criminal scums
once and for all. Or..." her smile grew wider,
"Or we leave our own marks. Lucifer will see them as calling cards
and she might see them as a reply from Lucifer. Either way, we'll
catch one or both"
Peyton nodded approvingly, "Get it done, I want this fiasco to end

before the tournament begins. And by the way, has Noah returned
from his little trip?" Peyton pinched Xanali's cheek in a playful
manner as Xanali began to blush,
"He's still at the Rainbow islands"

Chapter 278 - Noah, The
Supreme Guardian And Laila
Alden
Right at the moment, Noah was standing on the edge of Angel's

peak, staring at the fishing village on the island.
"Stay focused Noah, I can sense the Dark Lord's presence here.
It's faint but it's there" One would not see anyone else standing
beside Noah. Yet, someone talked to him. Only Noah could hear
the voice. He looked at his ring finger to see the rusty metal ring
glowing.
"We've been searching for this Dark Lord for two months teacher. I
think it's time for us to go home"
"We will, after finding the source of this mysterious power I've
been sensing"
If Michael was to hear the voice, he would have recognized it as

none other than the Supreme Guardian himself. Michael met him
when he was inside the Treacherous ocean.? The supreme
guardian's soul living inside Noah's ring had no way of connecting
with the soul fragment Michael met. Because of that, the supreme
guardian didn't have any memory of meeting the Dark Lord.
However, the supreme guardian possessed the ability to sense

powerful energy radiation coming from any part of the world. This
ability helped Noah find unique treasures of all kinds that helped
him cultivate extremely faster than most people in the world.
"We should ask the mistress of this island about this power
directly.I have a feeling that she needs the witcher stone to deal
with this energy you've been sensing lately " Noah touched the
chest pocket to make sure the stone is still there. He traveled to
the hidden dwarven village to get this stone. Even the Supreme
Guardian didn't know anything about the stone's use.
Nonetheless, he told Noah that this stone holds powerful magic.
"Tread carefully Noah. The island mistress mustn't know about our
true intentions as she might have already been tainted by the
Dark Lord"
"Teacher there are people in this world who can't be tainted no

matter what. I believe Lady Alden is one of them" Noah had met
the wielder of Angel veena before when he visited the Ozer
Continent. Although she seemed cold and distant, Noah could tell
she's a nice person. It had been almost a year since he last saw
her.
"Noah" A gentle voice called him from behind as he turned back to

see Johana walking towards him carrying her veena.
"Miss Johana, when can I meet Lady Alden?" Despite the fact the
two disciples prevented him from entering the cave, he wasn't
mad at them as he knew they were doing what their master asked
them to.
"Mistress would like to see you now, follow me" Noah was
genuinely surprised by her words. Finally, he could meet her after
waiting for a week.
The sooner he finds out the source of the power his teacher has
been sensing the better.
"Wonderful" Noah smiled at Johana before following her into the

cave. Glowing colorful crystals illuminated the cave beautifully. It
didn't look like a cave but a lavish hall in Noah's eyes. Except for
the calming water flowing sound coming from somewhere inside
the cave, he could hear nothing.
The deeper Noah followed her into the cave, the thicker the Arch
energy he felt. After silently walking behind Johana for a few long
moments, he saw a stage erupted higher from the ground at the
end of the cave. On top of the stage sat Lailah with her eyes
closed and Angel's veena on her lap. Noah was mesmerized by
her angelic beauty. Her beauty and grace even surpassed Alicia.
Nerita was cleaning her veena sitting beside Lailah. Because of

the recent anomaly, Noah couldn't see any of their current
cultivation levels. Nonetheless, he could guess either of the
disciples could win a fight against him easily.
Suddenly Lailah opened her eyes as she sensed the witcher

stone residing inside Noah's pocket. Noah felt the witcher stone
vibrate. Her beautifully cold eyes scanned him from top to
bottom.although they met before, he saw her looking at him like
they're just seeing each other.
For a second, Lailah thought she saw Ghost, the man who defiled
her by spirit walking with her soul. Ever since that day, she was
not what she used to be. Now she had responsibility, a
responsibility that changed her life forever.
"Lady Alden" Noah approached the stage calmly with a gentle

smile on her face.
Lailah felt her anger erupt inside as Noah reminded her of Ghost.
"Name your price for the stone" Since Noah reminded of Ghost,
she was extra cold towards Noah.
"No price Lady Alden. Take this as my thanks to you for helping
me in Ozer"
"I sense a powerful energy radiation near her, Noah" Noah heard
his teacher's voice sound inside his head. The ring had a magical
effect that connected both Noah and the Supreme Guardian
telepathically. Hence, they could communicate using either words
or telepathically, just like Michael and the system.
"You need to get closer to her"
"It's not gonna be easy, teacher," Noah thought,

"Take this" Lailah flicked her wrist as a rather plain-looking
talisman appeared in her hand. Like a bolt of lightning, the
talisman flew to Noah,
"The talisman can be activated three times. Each time you

activate it, the talisman will protect you for five minutes from any
spells cast by anyone on or under the Soul Refining stage"
standing beside Noah, Johana explained the use of the talisman
to Noah. He was taken aback by surprise. This sounded like a
Legendary talisman yet she gave it to him like it was nothing. With
this talisman, one could challenge a Soul Refiner and live to tell
the tale or sell it on any auction house and live the rest of the life
like a king.
"Now the stone please," Johana asked, placing the talisman in

Noah's right hand,
Her voice sounded like ordering rather than asking. Noah needed
to think quickly before they threw him out of the cave.
"The witcher stone must transferred ownership. Master Crach

transferred ownership to me and if Lady Alden wants to use the
stone, I need to transfer ownership to her" Noah lied, hoping none
of them could call it a bluff. Considering the dwarves or even his
teacher didn't know anything about the stone, he gambled that
they would be as clueless as everyone else.
Lailah stared at Noah with perplexed eyes.
"You can do whatever you want from where you are" After what
happened with Michael, Lailah never let a man get close to her.
Since Noah was somewhat reminded of Ghost, she wanted out of
her cave as soon as possible.
"Forgive me Lady Lailah but it cannot be done from here" Noah

sighed a heave of relief inside seeing that she didn't see through
his lies.
"Make her believe Noah, make her believe" His teacher's voice
sounded again inside his head.
"If anyone who isn't the owner touches the stone, it would crumble
into dust"
Lailah clenched her wrist as she drew a long breath.
"I need that stone for my child" Lailah thought. Her heartbeat
started to rise higher and higher.
"Come"
Johana nodded after hearing Lailah. The two disciples had no

idea what happened inside the treacherous ocean or what she's
been hiding from them. Apart from Lailah, only her teacher knew
about her secret and he was the one who told her about the
witcher stone.
"I cannot keep this facade for longer, teacher" Noah hid the
unease in his heart from showing on his face.
"You don't have to. The moment you get close enough, I can find
the source. I have a feeling that this source might give us some
answers on how to defeat the Dark Lord"
There were no steps to reach the top of the stage. When Noah
was about to leap, Johana grabbed his hand before leaping onto
the stage. Lailah remained still as before but Noah noticed her
hands slightly shiver as he walked towards her.
"Little bit closer," the supreme guardian said. Both Noah's and
Lailah's hearts pounded against their chest. Noah was anxious
about lying to one of the most powerful entities in the continent
while Lailah was anxious about starting the ritual that would keep
her child alive until she finds a way to deal with Ghost.
"You can now start the transfer" Noah nodded as he sat on the
ground half a meter away from her, facing her directly. Both of
them avoided looking into each other's eyes. Lailah had a
traumatizing experience with a man before so she felt extremely
uncomfortable sitting in front of Noah.
Noah slowly took the witcher stone from his pocket. The stone
looked like a ruby, radiating a faint red light from within. He placed
the stone on the ground between them.
"Close your eyes" Noah waited for Lailah to close her eyes. She
seemed reluctant at first but she ultimately closed her eyes after a
while.
"Teacher" Noah urged his teacher to hurry. The two disciples were
watching them so he needed to finish his drama as quickly as
possible before they started to doubt him.
"The energy source, it's inside her"
*****************************************
Sorry guys,
I was so focused on doing things I don't love and missed doing

what I love the most. It took me a while to find the strength
needed to follow my passion instead of doing what others ask of
me.
I quit my internship and decided to become a full-time writer. So

good news, expect 2-3 chapters a day from November. And I
hope you guys stick with me and continue to support my work.
Note: No, this is not going to be yet another mc has a child with
another woman,takes her into harem or do stupid things for his
child..In fact,this is not a typical child as you may think.Wait till you
hear the full story before going berserk on me
Chapter 279 - Web Of
Schemes I
Having no idea of what's happening in the Rainbow Islands,

Michael was lying on Gaya's lap in the captain's cabin as she ran
her fingers through his hair. The Hydra was peacefully sleeping on
his chest after a hearty meal.
The Captain's cabin now looked completely different than before.

His crew scrubbed every inch of the cabin spotless before placing
the new sofas, chairs, beds, and beautiful candle stands made of
pure silver around the room. Not only the captain's cabin but the
entire ship was scrubbed spotless. They placed the rum barrels in
the storage room rather than keeping them wherever they
pleased. Still, Michael needed to buy them new beds, repair the
cannons and the hull as well as buy them new weapons. He was
planning to do them before leaving back to Elon. In addition to the
time limit he gave to the scumbags, the championship
tournaments were about to start in five days.
Thanks to his runic teleportation function, he could travel between

the two continents instantly rather than spending months traveling.
"I've been wanting to ask you something," Michael asked.
"What is it?"
"You know when I said I'm going to reveal myself at the arena, I'm
reconsidering it"? At first, Michael wanted to reveal his Lucifer
persona to the world. The fact that he could use Arch energy
would have made him earn a load of badass points without a
doubt. However, after giving it a deep thought, he started to have
second thoughts.
"I assume you have a good reason for having second thoughts''
She didn't look surprised. On the contrary, she seemed like she
was expecting this.
"If we were to reveal ourselves, we might become the number one

target of the whole world. If they waged war on Gisel to capture
us, we cannot fight them all with the little time we have to use the
Arch Energy. Besides, we don't have an army as we planned yet"
"And Gisal would automatically become the target of others and

everyone will know that Caius is our man" As Michael paused,
Gaya went on.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" She spoke his mind yet he
wondered why she didn't advise him against revealing themselves
before.
"Because I trust you. I learned that no matter what you do, you
always have a reason behind it"
[Not to mention you will end up getting your ass kicked if you
reveal yourself too soon]
Suddenly he heard the system mock him inside his mind. He was
surprised to the point he entered the system interface to talk to the
system.
"Well well well look who's showing up to the party"
[Don't worry. I'll talk when I want to stop you from doing reckless
things. Revealing your power to the Southerners for an instance]
"And here I'm thinking you want me to show off, earn badass
points, and spend buying something from the store"
[You're no good to me dead host. Revealing yourself at the arena

would put a target on you, a target every godlike existence in this
world would hunt you down]
"Why didn't you say so before?"

The system became more and more intelligent and less and less
robotic after he upgraded the system to version 3. Michael had a
feeling that it would become more talkative. Also, the system now
mostly addressed itself using the word I and Me instead of 'The
system'.
[I was looking to know your decision. Face it host, you were an

assassin who had one simple job, kill people. Now you're on a
path to conquer this world and rule it from the shadows. It's not
your domain, you'll make mistakes. Besides, ruling the world from
the shadows is more badass than becoming an emperor. Upgrade
me so I can be more help]
"There it is. For a moment, I thought you genuinely want to help

me, not rob me" Michael laughed as the system went silent. He
exited the system's interface after a few moments.
"So let's change our plan. Instead of showing up to burn those

fuckers, we'll let the rebels finish their job safely. Then we'll make
sure they reach our ship unseen and get the hell out of Gisal ''
Gaya suggested a new plan. Initially, they planned to personally
go to the arena, kill Viridius's men and save the rebels. Now the
plan had changed. Michael decided to let Tiberius, Heinberg, and
Maxine deal with Viridius's men.
"Has Heinberg placed the Spyders around the arena yet?"

Michael asked Gaya. It was Heinberg's task to survey the arena
and place the Spyders around as well as below the arena so
Michael could watch everything happening at the arena without
being there. According to Herius, the rebels were planning to
place explosives beneath the arena where the explosives would
do maximum damage.
"Yeah, the Spyders are in the place. But he couldn't find where
Viridius was staying. His daughter's wedding is in two days yet
that asshole is playing hide and seek"
"He's definitely planning something. Tell him to keep searching. I

want all the senators on the same stage or our plan won't work"?
Michael looked serious. Getting all the senators in one place was
a crucial part of his master plan to conquer Gisal. If everything
went according to his plan, the kingdom of Gisal would be his
when returns to Elon.
*********************************************
Meanwhile, in the sewers of Lanercost, a group of men wearing

dark robes and hoods was walking through the muddy water. Four
of the men were carrying a large crate while two men walked
forward, carrying torches to light their path. Their faces could not
be seen through the dark hoods they were wearing. Regardless of
their robes, one could tell that these men had sturdy muscular
bodies looking at their broad shoulders and big biceps.
"Are we near Doctorus?" One of the men carrying the crate asked.
They were the chosen gladiators who came to Lanercost to
destroy the arena along with slave traders, nobles as well as
lanistas.
"Yes,"? Doctorus said with his thick accent.
"This place stinks to high heaven" the gladiators twitched their

noses because of the overwhelming stink coming from the
drainage water running on the ground. In addition to the stink, the
rats stared at them from the dark corners with their glowing eyes.
Most of them would be glad not to hear the rats squeak as they
move forward.
"If I'm right, we're very close to the arena" Mark, the gladiator who
knocked down Tiberius said while carrying the torch. The arena
above them resembled the colosseum on earth. It could hold at
least 45,000 spectators. Where people sat in the arena was
determined by the senate. The best seats were reserved for the
Senators. Behind them were the nobles, scholars, and ranking
army officers respectively. A bit higher up sat the ordinary citizens
and the soldiers. Since Viridius didn't want peasants to attend the
wedding ceremony, he raised the ticket price to enter the arena by
several folds. Although none of the commoners could afford to
buy the ticket, it was not a big deal for the nobles. Hence, Viridius
earned a hefty sum in ticket sales while preventing the
commoners from attending the wedding, two birds in one stone.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything but I wonder why didn't the
senators put a single guard in this place?" Another gladiator who
was carrying the crate asked in a husky voice.
"Because the nobles or the senators don't know about the

passage running under the arena. The scholars lost the blueprints
and the maps in a fire several decades ago" Mark explained,
"When I was a little child, the soldiers managed to close many

entrances to the sewage system but not all of them. My
grandfather was one of the few people who knew about these
passages" Doctorus said.
"Then you knew about this passage all these years. So why didn't
you try to escape?"
All the gladiators looked at Doctorus after that question.
"Perhaps I didn't want to escape or perhaps I liked kicking your

sorry asses"
"Look at that, Doctorus is being funny" the other gladiators

laughed, forgetting the pressure of this mission for a few
moments. Although everyone knew that this is a suicide mission,
none of them admitted out loudly. After detonating the explosives,
they knew they would die in the blast along with the senators and
the nobles above them.
They were doing this to light the fire of freedom in all the slaves,
including the gladiators. If everything went according to their plan,
this day would be a huge blow to all the senators who encourage
slavery.
After a few minutes of walking, the narrow sewage tunnel

expanded in front of them. They were standing at the entrance of
a huge space. In the light of the torches, they could see numerous
beams in front of them supporting the arena above them. The
gladiators were directly under the arena.
Doctours could see several entrances with doors made of rusty

iron bars. They led to the various places in the arena as if they
wanted to get to the spectators' area, they could use the ladders
to climb up. But Doctorus really doubted that the ladders would be
still there in one piece after all these years without maintenance.
"Let's get to work gladiators"

Schemes II
On the day of the wedding ceremony, Viridius was staring at

Gisel's map. There were no chandeliers to light the room or any
fancy sofas suited for a senator's room. He was not in his room in
his manor though. The walls had only one thing hanging, the map.
There were no pictures of him, no expensive paintings, nothing. It
was Viridius, the map and his throne could be seen in the room.
The room was Viridius's fantasy. The five feet chair he was sitting
on, he made it himself. He decorated the entire chair with gems,
etched the chair's arms with gold and diamonds. He saw the chair
as his throne instead of a chair. One could simply sell the chair for
millions.
The room was located in Crilta, beneath one of the houses in the
noble district. For years, he was planning to take over Gisal from
here.
"I'm the ruler of Gisel," Viridius said as a smile in between happy

and evil appeared on his face. He had been repeating these
words for nearly twenty years. After speaking these words, he
stood up before walking towards the map. He framed the map
with gold frames and high-quality glass. The glass reflected a
wrinkly old man in his early eighties. He covered his bald head
with a few stripes of white hair. Coupled with his hunched back,
lack of three front teeth, and convex nose, he looked like an evil
grandpa from a children's storybook.
While staring at the map, he took a drinking pouch made of

leather. His hands shivered due to old age while lifting the pouch
towards his mouth. After he finished drinking from the pouch, his
wrinkles slowly began to disappear, returning the glow to his skin
once again. In a few moments, he transformed from a wrinkly old
man in his eighty to a less wrinkly old man in his early seventies.
A small trickle of red liquid flowed down from the corner of his lips.
It wasn't wine though, it was blood, human blood. Of course,
Viridius had his own team of scholars to experiment and come up
with potions to reduce his age as well as many other nefarious
things. No one except him knew that some of the underground
labs that experiment on slaves and cultivators belonged to
Viridius. In fact, there was one lab in Pen town that belonged to
Viridius where some scholars experimented on Aria's brothers.
Creak!
Suddenly the door behind Viridius creaked open. He turned back

with a grin to see his daughter in a wedding dress walking towards
him. Even in the dim light illuminated from the candles lit on the
room's corner, the white wedding dress sparkled like stars in the
midnight sky. Tiny gems, diamonds, and grains of gold decorated
the dress just like his throne.
A girl with an oval-shaped face smiled at Viridius. The thin veil

covering her face failed to cover her purple-colored lips or the
dark eyeliners.
"The bride wants her groom papa" the girl pouted yet her tone
wasn't of a worried bride. Instead, she sounded amused.
"The Gisal will soon be your groom pool, baby girl"
The girl walked slowly towards Viridius. She then faked a frown,
"Too bad, I really liked Herius" she put her arms around Viridius,
joining him to stare at the map.
"Too bad he's dead. But don't worry, I'm planning the biggest
fireworks this kingdom has ever seen as a token of apology for
killing your groom"? Viridius gently patted her hand on his
shoulder.
"Speaking of killing, here's your refill" the girl put her hands inside
her corset to pull out a leather pouch just like the one in Viridius's
hand. Rather than handing it over to him, she opened up the cap
before placing it into her father's mouth. She slowly fed him the
blood. She was one of the scholars who's running the
experiments. Only a few people knew about her experiment and
talent.
It took her years of experiments on slaves and rogue cultivators to

find the formula to brew the potion. Nonetheless, she knew the
formula is far from perfect. Currently, the potion would temporarily
make the drinker younger. However, it had the side effect of
fastening the aging process. Hence, Viridius looked like he was in
his eighties when he was actually fifty years old.
"I want Caius alive papa. I heard he found something, it could be

the piece I'm missing to perfect this formula" A glimmer of delight
emerged in Viridius's old eyes. He turned to look at his daughter,
"You can play with him. I'll arrange for him to be taken to one of
your labs discreetly" As Viridius was talking with his daughter, he
felt the communication stone in one of his robe pockets vibrate.
Feeling the vibrations, the girl put her hands on his pocket to
retrieve the stone for her father. The bluestone shone as it
vibrated. She gently held it in her hand for her father to speak.
"Lord Viridius" a voice came from the stone,
"Speak"
"It's done," the person from the other side spoke.
"Meet me at the usual place tomorrow. The payment will be there"

Viridius said.
"It's nice doing business with you, Senator" The stone soon lost its
glimmer, indicating that the communication had ended.
"Send the cleanup crew" After she put the stone back into his
pocket, Viridius calmly ordered his daughter.
"No loose ends, hehehe" She chuckled evilly. She was just as
cruel and ruthless as her father. In her life, there were only two
important things, her father and her drive to find a cure for death.
Only a few Southern continent-born people were able to cultivate
after settling in the cultivation continents. Yet, none of them could
live past the Body Refining Stage. Knowing the statistics, she
decided to change their body from within to adapt to cultivating.
She had experimented on hundreds of lives to imbue arch energy

in a cultivator's blood without losing the energy after crossing the
void line.
*********************
"I can make you cultivate Shorty but you have to quit drinking.
Think you can do that?" Instead of sleeping on the bed in his
room, Michael was outside with the crew. He was looking at the
sun rising on the horizon while talking with Shorty and Gibson.
"Come on Cap'n. I want to do all the cool stuff you do" Michael
never thought Shorty would come to him, pleading to make him a
cultivator. The idea of Shorty being a cultivator amused Michael.
Michael did not completely cut him off.
"I bet you do. But as I said, first go without drinking for a month
and I'll think about it"? the other pirates were laughing at Shorty.
They found the thought of Shorty casting spells the funniest thing
they had ever imagined. Shorty heard the sound of them laughing
yet he seemed adamant about becoming a cultivator which
surprised Michael. At first, he thought Shorty wasn't serious but
that thought began to change.
" Cap'n if I do that, will you make me a cultivator?" Shorty tucked

Michael's sleeves. Michael looked down at Shorty. For the first
time, he saw a serious look on Shorty's face.
"Quit nagging Lord Lucifer you idiot" Gibson tried to interfere yet
his shout didn't even make Shorty bat an eye. Michael raised his
hand as Gibson quickly shut his mouth.
"Alright, I'll give you a chance. Go without booze for a month and
I'll make you a cultivator"
"Really? You promise?" Shorty's face brightened up like someone

lit a candle inside his head while his eyes sparkled with
excitement.
"What the hell? You got my word" Michael sighed as he promised

Shorty. He was going to make all of his men cultivators anyway.
"And its Lord, Lord Lucifer, Shorty" they turned back to see Gaya
walking towards them. She didn't wear any skull masks to hide the
frown on her face.
Noticing the frown, Michael knew something serious came up.
"Gibson, get the crew ready and set the course for Gisal"
"Yes, Lord Lucifer"
"Aye aye Cap'n, Lord...Lord Lucifer"
Gibson addressed Michael as Lord Lucifer while Shorty

addressed him as Cap'n. No matter how hard Shorty tried, he
couldn't address Michael as Lord Lucifer. Still, Shorty was trying
and Michael could tell he would learn soon.
"What is it?" Michael climbed down the stairs to enter his room
with Gaya.
"I have good news and bad news. The good news, Heinberg, and
Tiberius found where they might have gone " Gaya rubbed her
temples as she spoke.
"And the bad?"
"They might have brought their own explosives to blow the shit
up" Michael realized why she had the frown. Heinberg already
planted the explosives he bought from the system around the
place where the senators would sit. The explosives were planted
carefully to blow up the senators but not all of them. If the
gladiators brought their own explosives hoping to blow up the
arena, the power of the explosion would be doubled, killing every
single senator, including Caius. In addition to that, if the
explosives the gladiators brought were powerful, the blast could
kill Tiberius, Heinberg, and Maxine along with all the nobles.
Michael knew killing nobles might look like cleaning up the city but
it would cripple the economy. The nobles were the backbone of
the kingdom's economy so killing them was equal to crippling the
kingdom. If Michael were to destroy Gisal, he would have let the
gladiators blow up the nobles.. Since his plan was to use Gisal as
his first step to conquer this world and earn gold coins, he had to
stop them.
Schemes III
"Where is Heinberg and Tiberius now?" Michael asked. His voice

was serious yet he remained calm. There was no expression
except calmness on his face.
"Here" Gaya pointed at the far south side of Gisal where the city
border meets the ocean.
"It's where the sewage opens and I'm not coming in" She firmly
said. The last thing she would do was rummage through their
sewage.
"I'm not planning to take you with me. You make sure the senators
are in their places as we are planned. If I didn't give you the signal
by the time, save Caius and Maxine from the explosion first. And if
you can, I can't believe im saying this. Save the nobles"? Michael
let out a peal of tired laughter. The nobles were indeed important
but not as important as Caius or Maxine.
Of course, he planned to subdue the gladiators before they could

blow up the arena using their own explosives. Nonetheless, he
always liked to have multiple plans.
"Go, Heinberg and Tiberius will meet you at the entrance"
Michael nodded,
"And try not to stink more when you return," She laughed.
"I'll bring a bucket of sewage water for you to bath"
"Eww, go fuck yourself you gross bastard" Before she could throw
something at him, a bright light enveloped him. In a blink of an
eye, he disappeared from the room.
***********************
Michael appeared in a dark alley behind a three-story building.

The alley was located near the docks. He marked this place when
he was staying in the city. Instead of walking towards the place
where Heinberg and Tiberius were waiting for him, Michael cast
the lightning dash to take off from the ground. In a few seconds,
he was in the air above everyone and everything else.
He could see the ships coming in and out of the docks. The sun
was halfway above the horizon. The sparkling blue ocean had
golden light decorating it as a gem on a crown. Calming ocean
wind brushed past Michael while his raven black hair fluttered in
the wind, making his hair look messier and messier.
Michael willed the system to equip his Lucifer armor with a mask.
In a flash, he completely transformed himself into Lucifer except
for the black cloud and the red eyes.
Meanwhile, at the sewage entrance, Heinberg and Tiberius were

waiting for Michael. The sewage entrance was a large circular
hole with a few iron bars. Most of the iron bars were corroded
leaving plenty of space for someone to enter the sewage. The
entrance was located under a bridge which gave enough
darkness for the two of them to avoid detection by soldiers.
"So how long have you been working for them?" Tiberius asked,
leaning on the brick wall. Heinberg was watching around to see if
anyone's coming when he heard Tiberius's question.
"Couple of weeks"? Tiberius arched his brows as he was

surprised.
"For a guy who has been doing this for a couple of weeks, you
seem pretty loyal to them"
"Fear" Instead of giving Tiberius a long answer, Heinberg uttered

only a word.
"Fear? Well, if I saw someone fly like a bird and use magic inside
the void line, it'd freak me out too" Tiberius shrugged.
"You've only seen a glimpse of what they can do Tiberius"
Tiberius wasn't interested in what they had done. He was more

interested in what they could do to this god-forsaken continent.
"Do you think they could do what the rebels are trying to do?"
"I don't think, I know. They will change the fate of this continent for
better or worse"
"Whoa!" as they were speaking, Tiberius saw a dark figure

suddenly land before the sewage entrance. He recognized the
armor yet this was the first time Tiberius saw Michael with his skull
mask on.
"Let's go find your friends" Without wasting a second, Michael

leaped from the ground to enter the sewage tunnel. Like an
obedient servant, Heineberg climbed up the sewage entrance
following Michael. Tiberius entered lastly.
"grhhh"
Heineberg thought the stink outside was overwhelming but

compared to the inside, the outside stink was nothing. He had to
cover his nose while following Michael.
When Michael entered the dark forest with Gaya, he was

poisoned with fear toxin. This lesson taught Michael to design his
mask to filter toxins, poisons, and any particles that could harm
him. With the inventor trait, his knowledge in Alchemy, and a few
parts from the system, he was able to build a mini filtration device
inside his mask. Fortunately, the mask filtered most of the stink
but not completely.
The further they walked into the tunnel, the less they saw what's in
front of them. There was no torcher or holes in the ceiling for the
sunlight to come through. Hence, Michael had to conjure an orb of
light to lighten the path.
The red orb of light soon made everything clear for Tiberius and
Heinberg. While moving forward, Michael was searching for
footprints yet he couldn't see one because the sewage water
cleared any footpaths or evidence of the gladiators who walked
the path before.
After walking for a few minutes, Michael finally saw a crumbled

wall. The brick wall had a hole large enough for a few men to walk
side by side.
"They used some kind of explosion to blow this hole" Heinberg

told Michael.
"A mini version of it anyways. We are still below the streets if the
explosion wasn't a small one, the soldiers would have felt the
shake and come to check"
"That means there's someone with knowledge in explosions was

with them" Tiberius seemed like he has just realized something,
"That son of a bitch Mark. Before he was a gladiator, he worked

as a bodyguard for a scholar who specialized in explosives. He
bragged about this when he was drunk"
Thinking about Mark made Tiberius's blood boil in anger. Ever

since his limbs started to shake due to the wound he suffered in
the hands of Herius, Mark tried to undermine him every chance he
got. After Titus, Optimus and Tiberius, Mark wiggled himself onto
Doctorus's side. Tiberius always felt a bad vibe from Mark.
"We have to stop them from blowing shit up if you want your plan
to work" Michael let in Tiberius with his plan because he wanted
everyone to be up to speed for the plan to work.
Michael pointed his finger towards the hole as the orb of light flew
into the hole, lighting the path. Michael could see there are
numerous paths branching out at the end of the tunnel.
"Shit" Tiberius cursed.

Michael was prepared for this, that was why he brought some
friends. Tiberius and Heinberg expected Michael to enter the hole
searching for the gladiators. However, instead of stepping into the
hole, Michael willed the system as several tiny drones appeared in
front of him.
The drones produced a faint humming sound as they moved into

the hole. Neither of them had ever seen such things before in their
lives. They just stared at the drones disappearing into the
darkness with their mouths slightly open. Michael closed his eyes
for a second when the drones reached the junction where there
were seven branching out tunnels ahead of the drones. He had a
total of fourteen drones. He sent two drones in each tunnel. The
drones traveled extremely fast. Controlling all of them at once took
a toll on his brain as he began to feel a slight headache.
Ignoring the headache, he completely focused on controlling the

drones. Each tunnel was long, dark, and inhibited by nothing but
rats and spiders. The drones flew cutting through the spiderwebs
like a hot knife through butter.
Michael abruptly opened his eyes when he saw a dead body

through the drone he sent into the fifth tunnel.
"Follow me" Michael stopped controlling a few drones to free his

mind. He then walked into the tunnel towards the fifth tunnel
where he found the dead body.
"Did you find something?" After seeing Michael choose this

particular tunnel from the seven tunnels, Tiberius wondered why.
"Yes, a dead body"
Tiberius felt a chill running through his spine. Despite his

disagreements with the gladiators, he respected all the gladiators
and people who had the guts to rebel against their masters.
Furthermore, he knew the gladiators who came here to blow up
the arena would be the core group including Doctorus. He
wouldn't call the core group his friends yet the thought of one of
them might be dead created a bad feeling in his gut.
After a few minutes of walking, the three of them began to vaguely
see the dead body in the distance. The orb of light illuminated the
body as well as the bloodstains on the wall.
Michael looked around for any booby traps left by the killer. They
couldn't see the face but only the stab wound on the back as the
face was facing the ground. The dead one was tall, numerous
paths are branchingat least six feet five inches. He had a
muscular body with old burn marks on his body. In addition to the
scars, under the orb of light, Michael could see that the man was
black.
"No no no no, it can't be" Tiberius rushed at the body splashing

sewage water all around him. He immediately knelt beside the
body ignoring the sewage water before turning the body,
"Doctorus"
Chapter 282 - Defusing The
Bombs
Michael didn't say anything but he was indeed surprised. He

heard Tiberius talk about Doctorus when he asked him about the
slave rebellion. The man trained some of the best gladiators in the
Southern Continent including Titus and Optimus. It was a pity to
find this man dead. Michael planned to recruit him and make him
train his own personal army of gladiators.
"Come on wake up old man!" Tiberius shook Doctorus's body

frantically.
"Do something!"
"He's dead Tiberius, someone stabbed him in the back" Michael

pointed out the stab wound in the back.
"We might catch whoever did this when we meet the other
gladiators. Let's hope they're alive" Tiberius just realized that
whoever killed Doctorus might have gone to kill the rest of them.
Still, Tiberius couldn't believe a single man could have killed
Doctorus. As far as he knew, it would take ten gladiators to even
wound Doctorus let alone kill him.
In anger and shock, Tiberius failed to see the simple yet most
correct conclusion. The drone hovering above them flew further
into the tunnel, searching for the gladiators while Tiberius stood up
carrying Doctorus's body in his arms.
"I'll not leave him in this stinking hell"
"We'll give him a proper burial," Michael said before following the
drone's path. Finding Doctorus dead made Michael speed up
things. He drove the drone as fast as the drone could fly. It was
obvious to Michael that someone among the gladiators was a
traitor.
"Lord Lucifer" as they were walking, Heinberg called Michael.
"Speak"
"Isn't it dangerous for us to walk into a place that's filled with

explosives? Whoever killed him might have booby-trapped it to
explode"
Tiberius was too drowned in anger and grief to listen to Heinberg.

He just walked behind them carrying Doctorus's body. All of his
moments with Doctorus flashed across his eyes.
"He was dead for at least three hours. That's plenty of time to set
off the explosives if he wanted to. And if I'm right, he won't be
there with the gladiators"
"Why do you say that?" Tiberius asked. Speaking of the killer

brought Tiberius back from his flashbacks. He wanted to rip the
throat off of the one who killed Doctorus. Tiberius promised
himself and Doctorus that he would avenge him.
"He was stabbed in the back which means Doctorus trusted this
person to turn his back and drop his guard. The traitor stabbed
him in the back, killed him, and it's highly unlikely that he returned
to the gladiators. If he had, they would have definitely asked
where Doctorus is and come searching for him-" Michael abruptly
stopped talking when he found the gladiators. They were gathered
at a spacious hall where he could see several pillars going into the
ceiling.
"Six gladiators ahead" Michael fastened his steps. Eventually,

after walking for fifteen minutes, they saw the tunnel open up to a
spacious hall. Several torches were lit around the hall to reveal
the long pillars as well as a few sacks.
"Someone's coming"
"Who else would be coming other than Doctorus?"

"What was he doing out there?"
"Give the man a break, this is our last day"
"What's that sound?"
The gladiators began to murmur hearing the footsteps. Despite

the drone flying above them and its very silent, the gladiators still
heard the faint humming sound it produced. Only because the
drone was flying from one dark spot to another managed to evade
their eyes.
"Guys" the gladiators looked closer at the tunnel to see the orb of
light. Soon, they became agitated seeing Michael walking out of
the darkness. His full armor and the skull freaked them out. Yet,
they were quick enough to draw their swords out.
"Stand down!" Tiberius' shout reverberated the hall.
"I heard that voice before"
"It's Tiberius"
The six remaining gladiators saw Tiberius walk out of the

darkness. For a moment, the gladiators couldn't recognize
Tiberius. It was because Tiberius wore a new plate armor with his
long hair tied into a ponytail. Michael asked Heinberg to buy
ready-made armor from a forge in Crilta for Tiberius. It was a
temporary measure until he returned to Elon, made Jack his
blacksmith, and crafted custom-made armor for all of his
subordinates.
"Tiberius!" All the gladiators' faces lit up seeing Tiberius but within
a snap of time, their smiles disappeared from their faces.
"Who did this?" Tiberius was not in the mood for a happy reunion.
His eyes were blood red. He was basically shivering in anger.
Michael and Heinberg could feel the killing intent radiating from
Tiberius.
Michael stared at the gladiators one by one. There were six
gladiators in front of them. All of them were between six feet and
six feet five inches tall with muscular bodies. The commonality
between all of them was the burn marks and the scars on their
bodies.
"what...Doctorus" the gladiators mumbled in shock. Their

weapons were raised halfway looking at Tiberius.
"Deal with them, I'll take care of the explosives"? Michael saw the
white clay attached to each pillar. Sensing the heat coming from
the clay through his eyes of darkness, he recognized them as the
explosives set by Mark.
"Is Mark here?" While walking towards the first pillar a couple of
meters in front of Michael,? he asked the gladiators.
The gladiators couldn't care less about the explosives after seeing
Doctorus's body. They all knelt beside his body overwhelmed with
grief.
"Where is he?" Tiberius put Doctorus's body on the ground,

looking around for Mark yet he couldn't see him.
"He was with Doctorus, do you think....?" one of the gladiators

asked Tiberius. They knew Tiberius well enough to know that
Tiberius wouldn't harm his mentor. Hence, they never doubted
Tiberius of killing Doctorus but Mark was another story. Despite
Mark's effort to get onto Doctorus's side replacing Tiberius, most
of the gladiators didn't trust him as they trusted Tiberius. Of
course many disliked Tiberius due to his quick temper, arguments
he had with Doctorus, and cold demeanor, yet they didn't make
Tiberius any less trustworthy.
"He was stabbed in the back"
"Mark wanted to see the sunrise one last time. We don't know why
but after a few minutes he left, Doctorus went looking for him"
Tiberius's killing intent skyrocketed hearing the gladiators. It
became more and more evident that Doctorus was killed by Mark.
He only didn't know why Mark killed him.
"We need to find that son of a bitch" Tiberius took his gaze away
from Doctorus's face to Michael who was staring at the clay mold
sticking on a pillar.
"I'll rip that bastard to shreds"
"He's mine"
"Fuck blowing up the arena, we need to kill that snake"
'The gladiators were riled up. They passed the grieving stage to
reach the stage where they felt nothing but the pure rage of a
gladiator.
"I have an idea who knows where he is," Michael said.
The white clay sticking on the pillar before him seemed nothing
special in the naked eyes. At first, Michael thought he would want
to ask the System's help to diffuse but he was wrong. The white
clay was a chemical compound which meant it related to alchemy.
Combined with his knowledge of alchemy and inventor traits, he
began to sense how the explosives were made of and how to
diffuse them.
With eyes of darkness's help, he could see the inside of the clay.
Unlike most of the bombs on earth, there were neither wires nor
circuits in the clay. Inside the white clay was a word separated
through the center by a liquid. Either side of the liquid was filled
with chemical compounds that would create a reaction when
coming to contact with each other. The liquid was the substance
that prevented the compounds from getting mixed. The white clay
covering the orb absorbed this liquid little by little, hence working
as a timer.
"System, i need a syringe filled with coconut oil"
[50 badass points. Do you wish to buy it?]
"Yes"
The liquid just needed to be nonreactive to either of the
substances in the orb. Compared to the liquid already inside the
orb, coconut oil was a much better option.
In a flash, two syringes appeared in Michael's hand. One was

filled with coconut oil whereas the other was empty. Michael gently
sent the needle of the syringe filled with coconut oil into the line
where the liquid was. He pressed the syringe head as the liquid
line began to get filled with oil. After refilling the liquid line, Michael
sent the needle of the empty syringe through the clay towards one
of the substances before gently squeezing the substance into the
empty syringe.
It took Michael a couple of seconds to completely remove the

substance from the orb. After he took out the chemical compound,
there was no substance for the other one to react with. Thus, the
explosive was reduced to nothing but slightly hot clay.
"You're coming with me" Michael pulled out the clay from the pillar
before storing it in his space ring. He wanted to study the
explosive further to make some changes to it so he could use
them in the future instead of buying explosives from the system as
he did.
*********************************
I split the chapters into two to make them interesting and less
draggy. Also, the southern continent arc is coming to end with a
bang!!
Chapter 283 - From Now On,
Gisel Is Mine I
Morning arrived as a mother's gentle hand, inviting the dreams of

the night to enter the day. The sun painted the horizon with golden
light. The songs of the early birds sounded better than any music.
It could calm anyone's soul. Waking up to the view of the sun
rising on the horizon and the calm sea always soothed Caius's
mind. Today was different, today he was looking at hundreds of
nobles gathered around him. Instead of hearing the chirping of the
early birds, he heard only the cheers of people who were excited
to witness the wedding ceremony of Fabia, the only daughter of
Senator Viridius.
The arena could simply hold 45,000 people. Because the

ceremony was meant for only the richest and the powerful, out of
45,000 seats, only 350 were filled including the senators. Many
nobles from the nearby kingdoms attended the ceremony with
their relatives. They were more interested in watching gladiators
fight to the death rather than Fabia's wedding.
On the elevated stage built for the senators, eight lavish chairs
were arranged in the front line while numerous less fancy chairs
occupied the space behind the first line. Among the seven chairs
in the front, six were for the senators, one for the bride, and one
for the groom. The rest of the chairs were for the Senators' family
members. Caius was the first senator to come as he wanted to
seat himself on the chair where Lucifer told him to. If everything
went according to the plan, this day would change his life forever.
Caius walked towards the fourth chair from the right. Standing in
front of the seat, he ran his finger on the top rail until he felt a
bump in the cushion covering the rail.
"Don't worry Senator, Lord Lucifer, and the Dark Queen will
protect you" Maxine entered through the doorway carrying a silver
tray with wine cups on top of it. She was assigned as a personal
maid so she had to do these chores to make it look real. The
worst part of the job was not serving Caius but having to wear the
ridiculous maid uniform. At Least she got permission for Lord
Lucifer to wear a large hat that helped her hide her
embarrassment.
"The others are on their way. So look normal"
Caius drew a long breath preparing himself for the big day. As she
said, he needed to look normal or the other senators might get
suspicious. Although the senators would look friendly to the
public, they all hated each other due to the power struggle
between them. They wouldn't raise a finger if there isn't a political
benefit for them. The mere thought of getting rid of all of the
senators made Caius's blood boil in excitement. Following Lucifer
seemed a very good move at this moment.
"Senator Caius" Caius was just about to reach his hand out to pick
a wine glass from Maxine's tray when he heard a familiar voice
calling out his name.
Maxine turned her head to see a tall man with long brown hair
walking towards them with two spartan soldiers. He was thin as a
stick. With his wide grin and bony face, he really looked creepy in
her eyes.
"Senator Quintis" Caius smiled but anyone could tell the smile
was fake as a unicorn.
"Looks like you two has beaten me to it"
Maxine saw another man walking behind Quintis. Unlike Quintis,

he was rather short and chubby.No spartan soldiers or relatives
could be seen accompanying this man. He came walking alone.
"Senator Kaeso" Yet again the three senators exchanged fake

smiles.
"Where is that Giant of yours Senator?" Quintis asked Caius. He
completely ignored Maxine. She could see the contempt in his
eyes when he looked at her.
"Won't he obstruct the view of the wonderful fights?" Caius said

with a small grin on his face,
"He certainly will," Senator Kaeso said letting out a short burst of
laughter
"What did I miss?" The three senators saw senator Sellic

approaching them with his two wives, three children, and two fully
armor-plated soldiers. He was neither too short nor too tall. His
golden hair was short just like one of his wives. The second wife
was a redhead with a beautiful hourglass structure.? The senator
and the golden-haired woman seemed like they were in their late
forties but the red-haired woman looked much younger. One
would guess that she was in her late twenties.
The three children stayed beside the golden-haired woman. Two

of them were young boys in their late teens while the girl seemed
a couple of years younger than them.
"Look who's here, Senator Arruns' ' Senator Kaeso welcomed the
senator's family with a grin. Maxine noticed the genuine smile on
Kaeso's face. His smile seemed genuine because Senator Arruns
and Kaeso were planning to tie the two families with a marriage
between Kaeso's daughters and Arruns's sons.
Just like any other continent in this world, marriages were

proposed with ulterior motives. They were kind of deals and cared
less about the groom and bride's feelings. Even the Winston
family arranged a marriage between Noah and Alicia to
strengthen their family. Plus, in this world, a man was allowed to
marry as many times as he wants. Hence, most of the cultivators
and noblemen had a harem of wives. It was extremely rare to see
someone like Michael who hated the idea of having a harem of
wives. With his reputation and talent, he could have as many
beautiful wives as he wants. In addition to his hate towards the
harem, Gaya would murder anyone if one wanted to share him
with her.
"So I see I'm the only one who brought the family," Senator Arruns
laughed. The red-haired woman remained expressionless while
the others shook hands with the senators before taking their
seats.
"Where is Senator Viridius? He can't be late to his own daughter's

wedding" Senator Quintis looked at the doorway expecting
Viridius.
"Speaking of weddings, where are the bride and groom? And is

Senator Marcus coming to the ceremony?" Senator Kaeso asked
the senators,
"I won't be surprised if he didn't show up considering what

happened at the gala,"? Senator Arruns said as the senators
except Caius nodded their heads. What Senator Arruns said
would have been true if Caius didn't receive any orders from
Lucifer. It was Caius's responsibility to bring all the senators to the
stage. Senator Caius had to owe Senator Marcus a favor to get
him to the marriage. Since these Senators wouldn't survive to see
the next day, Caius was happy to oblige to Marcus's demands.
"What the hell are you waiting for? Move your flabby ass and go
bring refreshments for everyone" Senator Quintis raised his voice
at Maxine.
"Yes my lord, forgive me" Maxine quickly lowered her head hiding
her anger from showing on her face. She didn't want to disappoint
Lord Lucifer because of Quintis's remarks.
"Take a seat gentleman" Caius gestured at the senators to sit. He

didn't budge an inch away from the chair he was supposed to sit
on.
"Are you alright Senator Caius?" The golden-haired woman

noticed the few sweat drops appearing on Caius's forehead. Caius
knew she is more observant than the rest of them. Still, he was
surprised by her question.
"Why wouldn't I be? It's not like my daughter's wedding" Caius

brushed off her question with a joke.
"Quickly fix your daughter's marriage, Senator Caius. I have some
excellent matches for your daughter"
"I bet you do"
The woman chuckled as Maxine returned carrying two silver trays

with several wine glasses on top of them. While she was serving
them, everyone in the arena heard a loud rumbling noise. They
looked up to see the airship slowly floating towards them in the
sky.
This wasn't the first time Maxine saw an airship. The design of the
ship was very similar to the blimps on earth. Instead of helium, the
scholars used Odril gas. It was produced by heating Odril ore in
extreme heat.
The blimp cast a huge shadow on the arena as it was almost 150
feet long, 60 feet high, and 50 feet wide. Despite its enormous
size, the blimp could only hold 20 people including two pilots and
three crew members. However, there were airships in the
Southern continent that could hold more people and fit with
weapons for air combat.
"Senator Viridius is really showing off" Senator Kaeso snickered.

The blimp continued to move at a snail pace before coming to a
halt at the top of the arena.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Right at this moment, loud bell sounds could be heard. Realizing

the wedding ceremony had begun, the nobles became silent. On
the fighting ground, a woman wearing a red dress walked towards
the center. Her dress was extremely revealing, everyone could
see her plump rosy thighs as well as her navel and cleavage. The
fighting ground wasn't paved with stone but filled with sand so the
gladiators also had to fight the scorching hot sand on their feet.
The woman however wore a heel to prevent the hot sand from
hurting her feet. She fiddled with her brown hair while waving her
hand at the nobles around her.? Her smooth silky skin, oval face,
and hourglass structure made the youngsters stare at her without
taking their eyes away. She certainly enjoyed this attention, that
was why she chose to host gladiator fights despite the blood and
gore the fights accompanied.
"Let's give a loud applause for the bride and our senator of
defense, Senator Viridius" the nobles cheered, clapping as loud
as they could.
Soon, the senators sitting on the stage turned their heads back to
see Senator Viridus walking towards them with his daughter by his
side. Several spartan soldiers walked behind them as protection
yet all the senators' focus was on the beautiful bride. Her white
dress sparkled with gems and gold dust, making the bride look
like an angel.
"Lord Lucifer, everyone's here" behind the spartan soldiers,

Maxine noticed a tanned skin man with no hair on his head
walking towards them. He was the last Senator they were looking
for, Senator Marcus. With his arrival, the first phase of Lucifer's
plan was over successfully.
"Lord Lucifer, they are all here"

Gisel Is Mine II
Senator Viridius led his daughter to their chairs which were

located right next to Caius. In the power hierarchy of senators,
Caius stood at the top with his head of senate position while
Viridius stood only next to him with his position of senator of
defense. They both held two of the most important ministries of a
kingdom, Finance, and Military. The voting for electing senators
was one of the important events in any senate ruled kingdom.
Only noblemen had the right to vote. The number of senators in a
kingdom varied from kingdom to kingdom. In Gisal, there were six
senators. Hence, in Gisel, the first six candidates with the most
votes would become senators. Among them who got the most
votes would become the head. The Head of the senate had the
power to choose a ministry for himself and assign ministries for
the other senators.
Caius chose the Finance ministry because compared to the rest of

the ministries, he could swindle more money in the Finance
ministry. Defense ministry was the most stressful and problematic
one, therefore, he assigned it to his potential head of senate
candidate, Viridius. Over the years, Caius saw how Viridius is
becoming older and older. He rejoiced inside because if Viridius
were to die, there wouldn't be any competition for the head
position in the future.
"Pity," Caius said to himself looking at Fabia in her wedding dress.

He felt bad for the girl to die on the most important day of her life,
her wedding.
"First of all, let's congratulate Miss Fabia who is about to become

Lady Fabia Herius" The girl on the ground had a metal cube on
her palm that amplified her voice loud enough to reach everyone
in the arena.
The nobles whistled and clapped as Fabia kept waving her hand
at them.
"Fabia" Viridius gestured at Fabia to seat herself before sitting

beside Caius. While everyone's focus was on the bride and
Viridius, Marcus took his seat without causing a ruckus. He sat on
the last chair from the right beside Senator Quintis.
"I don't see the groom, Senator Viridius" Caius leaned towards
Viridius,
"He's taking care of something for me, he'll be here soon" Viridius
whispered. Viridius placed a trio of elite killers among Herius's
security detail to kill him and the other spartans. Since Herius
didn't make it to the wedding or his spies didn't see Herius coming
out of the barracks, he thought the trio managed to do their job.
WHat both Viridius and Caius didn't know was Michael and Gaya
killed all of the security detail including the three killers placed by
Viridius and kidnapped Herius. The trio might be the best killers
gold coins could buy yet in front of Michael and Gaya, they were
as weak as babies. At that time, Gaya didn't even notice there
were three elite killers among them.
"He better be, it's his wedding after all" Caius was concerned
about Herius. He didn't want Herius to escape and use what's
about to happen as a trump card in his campaign if Herius chose
to run for senate.
"Settle down my lords, my ladies. It's time to kickstart the

celebration"
"Whoooooo!"
"Yeah!"
"Release the beasts!"
"Fight"
"Fight"
"Fight"
The nobles began to scream in excitement. Even the noble ladies

stood up from their seats, the thrill of seeing gladiators fighting to
death made their blood boil. The nobles became addicted to
gladiator fights, it was their only entertainment. The nobles' lust for
blood made them invest a large sum of their wealth in luduses.
Even the small Ludus had twenty highly trained gladiators. This
was one of the reasons why slavery flourished in the Southern
Continent. The nobles encouraged the senate to go to war with
nearby kingdoms so the loser's citizens would become slaves.
From these slaves, strong males could be purchased to become
gladiators by various luduses. Almost all the nobles and the rich
would attend the yearly gala where they would bid for slaves who
had the qualities to become a gladiator.
The girl on the ground grinned happily hearing their chant. She
then stared at her left and right side. Both sides had eight feet iron
gates. There were totally six-iron gates around the fighting
ground. During big tournaments where six gladiators fight to the
death, each Ludus would send one gladiator through one gate.
They wanted the gladiators to meet each other only on the fighting
ground.
As seconds passed by, the wind became hotter and hotter above
the sand. The wind also revealed the skeletons of various animals
such as bison, giant lizards, and lions buried halfway in the sand.
One could even see human remains in the sand. The remains
served as ornaments for the fighting ground. Some nobles even
paid a hefty sum for the dead bodies of gladiators. They
preserved various parts of the body, keeping them on a display.
"We have two proud luduses today with us to light up the

ceremony. Give your warm welcome for Ludus Tulles Bantius
Fuscus Of Yetopia and Ludus Drusus Vesuvius Arbutus of Lidora"
The moment the girl announced the names, the whole crowd went
wild. They were two of the most prominent Luduses in the entire
continent.
"Whoa, did I hear her right? Ludus Tulles and Ludus Drusus"
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god"
"Please let me see Lion Head!"
"Now I see why the ticket was priced this much"
"This is gonna be awesome!"
"Are they taking bets?"
"Do you think Ludus Tulles will let out the Lion Head to fight
today?"
"Let's hope they will"
The onlookers began to chit-chat amongst themselves. The girl

uttered no words, letting the hype build-up before revealing the
fighters. Even from where she was standing, she could hear the
nobles dying to see Lion Head, one of the most decorated
gladiators on the Continent.
"Senator Viridius, you really went all-in with the ceremony huh?"
Senator Arruns looked very surprised. Without his control, he had
a large grin plastered across his face. To say the least, Senator
Arruns was excited to see the gladiators who belonged to the
most prominent luduses fight to the death for their entertainment.
Fabia, the bride, could barely hold her excitement. To her, the
gladiators were an excellent specimen for experiments. After her
failures with Titus and Optimus, she was looking for new
specimens. If her father's plan went without a hitch, she would
have some of the best gladiators to play within her lab.
"Don't get too excited Senator, this is just a glimpse of what I've in
store for you today" Viridius smirked.
"We cannot wait to see" Senator Quintis laughed without having a

clue about Viridius's real intention. While the Senators were
staring at the women on the ground to announce the fighters'
names, Viridius retrieved the pocket watch from his toga pocket to
check the time.
Maxine noticed Viridius's checking the time. She knew he was

checking the time to leave the stage when it's time for the
explosion. As he was looking forward to the explosion, there
would be one, just not at the time he was expecting.
"I won't take any more of your time, my lords, my ladies. Let's
open the gates for Sextus, the eye gouger from Ludus Tulles" the
east side iron gate slowly opened as all the eyes fell on the
gateway to see the gladiator striding through the gateway.
The gladiator wore nothing but leather boxers with metal bracers
and leather boots. He stood 6feet 4 inches tall. Except for the abs,
he had clear muscle definition everywhere else. The half skull he
wore as a hat on his head freaked out some of the people. As he
was striding towards the center, he kept licking his bronze mace.
"The sweet scent of woman's flesh" Taking his tongue off of his
mace, Sextus licked his own lips staring at the announcer girl. She
tried her hardest not to show the discomfort on her face.
"And from Ludus Drusus, I welcome Lars, the lightning Whip" the
west side gate slowly creaked open, getting all the attention.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Gradually, they all saw a tall figure walking through the gateway,
making cracking sounds along the way. Lars was not as muscular
as Sextus, he had a lean body.? Instead of a sword or any typical
weapon made of metal, he had a long barbed whip in his hand.
Hence the nickname lightning whip.
As he was walking towards the center, he kept attacking the

ground with his whip. Each time he swung his whip, it produced a
high pitch cracking noise.
"Hmm, I thought there'll be more audience," Lars said
disappointedly looking around the nobles.
"It's good for you. Because less crowd means less

embarrassment for you when I gouge out those pretty eyes of
yours" Sextus taunted Lars. He raised his voice loud enough for
the metal box on the girl's palm to amplify his voice. The nobles
became excited hearing Sextus. The more blood and gore, the
better for the nobles.
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
The nobles began to chant again as the announcer girl took a step
back before the two gladiators started to fight.
"I won't take any more of your time, gentleman. The battle will
begin after the bell sound" palm
It took the girl a couple of minutes to reach the end of the fighting
ground. Reaching the end, she opened up the wooden door that
revealed stairs to the upper levels where she could see the fight
from an elevated position.
The two gladiators didn't dare to start fighting before the bell
sound. It was prohibited. In the best-case scenario, they would be
starved for a week, and in the worst case, they would receive a
minimum of two hundred whip attacks, starvation for at least two
weeks, and battle beasts. For gladiators like them, fighting the
beasts with starving stomachs was equal to a death sentence.
Therefore, they patiently waited for the bell to ring.
"Human, are you ready to blow this thing up?" At that moment,
Gaya was watching the two gladiators from the sky. She wore a
white dress to blend in with the clouds in case someone looked at
the sky.
"When you're ready" an evil grin emerged on her face after
hearing Michael.
Gisel Is Mine III
Lars and Sextus were standing on the fighting ground's center

with a few meters distance between them. The nobles could feel
the hot air radiating from the sand in the fighting ground. Coupled
with their excitement, they began to sweat more than the
gladiators themselves.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Finally, the three bell sounds reverberated the arena. The moment
the bell sound appeared, the nobles screamed as loud as they
could.
Crack!
Lars immediately whipped his whip at Sextus before leaping back.

The whip was effective in long-ranged combat, hence Lars leaped
back to create a distance between them. Sextus barely dodged
the barbed whip, it scraped the skin off of his shoulder. Getting his
skin peeled off was extremely painful yet Sextus didn't let the pain
slow down his movements.
The blood splattered on the hot sand, producing a faint 'shhh'

sound. Lars kept whipping the barbed whip at Sextus trying to
stop Sextus from getting close. Just like his nickname, Lars's whip
was lightning speed.
"Arghhh" Sextus screamed, not in agony but in anger. The agility

of Lars and his quickness of attacking him made Sextus madder
and madder. From the battle started, Lars had the upper hand. He
was agile, quick, and kept attacking Sextus with deadly accuracy.
The nobles were on the edge of their seats.
"Whoa Lars is really good"
"No shit, look at Sextus. All messed up"
"Why is it that brute not getting close?"
"He's trying but that scrawny one is not letting him"
"I never thought a whip could be this effective and dangerous"
The onlookers had different opinions about the fight. Most of them
however favored Lars. They were right as even Gaya whose
hovering in the sky favored Lars to win the fight if the two
gladiators continued to fight. Every one of them could see Sextus
slowing down due to the wounds he suffered.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
A group of noble youngsters began to chant. One could see the

blood lust on their faces. Their chant riled up Lars as he began to
attack Sextus more violently and frantically.
The cracking sound of the whip became louder and louder.

Sextus's body was painted with his own blood. His flesh and blood
splattered across the hot sand. Since he blocked the whip with his
hands, they suffered the most. One could even see the vague
outline of the bloodied bone in his hand as the barbed whip
peeled off the skin from his hands.
"ARGHH!" Sextus screamed once again but instead of dodging or

blocking the whip, he let the barbed whip wrap around his rib
cage.
Lars was stunned to see Sextus from his guard. Soon he realized
why he did that as Sextus grabbed the barbed whip tightly. The
barbs on the whip penetrated Sextus's palm as blood oozed out of
his hand. Nonetheless, Sextus didn't let go of the whip. He held on
to it as tight as he could.
"Shit" Lars tried to pull the whip away from Sextus yet he simply
couldn't. Everyone misjudged Sextus's ability to endure pain. Just
when they thought Sextus couldn't win against Lars, he used his
wit to overcome Lars's agility.
Inch by inch, Sextus moved towards Lars while holding onto the
whip. He gritted his teeth in pain as his eyes turned bloodshot.
Even his brown skin became paler due to the blood loss.
"How is he doing that?"
"This is awesome"
"Look at all that blood"
"Lars is doomed"
The nobles loved the blood and gore, unlike Gaya or Maxine.
Gaya had no love for the human race yet she hated seeing two
humans fight to the death for the sake of the nobles'
entertainment. In the other continents, cultivators often held
competitions like this. However, those cultivators didn't fight for
others' entertainment, rather they fought for rare resources,
treasures, and gold coins. Plus, almost all those competitions had
the option of surrendering. If one decided to surrender, there were
no consequences except they would not get the said prize.
"Human, are you sure we can't blow these assholes to hell?"

Gaya creased her brows in disgust looking at the nobles.
"Enough playing around, I'm out and Maxine is ready. Blow them
up" She heard Michael's voice in her head.
Meanwhile, Sextus had successfully come closer to Lars. He was

just a meter away from Lars who began to slightly shiver in fear.
"Pretty pretty eyes" Despite the pain, Sextus licked his lips with an
evil grin on his face. His blood-covered teeth made his grin even
eviler.
"Fuck-" Lars cursed realizing he would die a horrible death if he

kept holding onto the whip. Therefore, he tried to let go.
"Where are you going?"
Sextus quickly grabbed Lars by his neck before Lars could step
away from him.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Yet again nobles began to shout. This time it was Sextus who riled
up because of the shout. Sextus let go of the whip before
grabbing Lars by his neck using both of his bloodied hands.
"Let...go" Lars wiggled frantically to escape Sextus's hold. Soon,

Lars felt his feet getting higher and higher from the ground. Lifting
Lars by his neck, Sextus quickly moved forward to lick Lars's
cheek. He took his time licking Lars's face. Many noblewomen
frowned as it was pretty disgusting to see Sextus licking Lars's
face. Nonetheless, many nobles enjoyed this kind of freaky stuff.
"Who wants to see some EYES!?" Sextus shouted loudly. His

voice reverberated the arena.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
This time, almost all the nobles except the senators stood up from
their seats in excitement. They threw their hands up, screaming at
Sextus.
Boom!
Just when Sextus was about to gouge Lars's eyes out, the
elevated stage where the senators were enjoying the fight
exploded, producing an ear-piercing loud booming sound. A small
mushroom cloud of fire appeared above the stage where they
were sitting. The blast wave was so powerful that it even knocked
down Lars and Sextus. The arena shook as pieces of marble
stones crumbled down from the arena's walls. To the sound of the
explosion came the terrible echo as if it were the anguished cry of
God.
"AH!"
"Oh my god!"
Few nobles were quick to react as they began to scream.
Whee!
Whee!
Whee!
Immediately someone activated the fire alarm that produced loud

crying noises. Gladiators, Spartans as well as legionary soldiers
came rushing through the gates and doorways to save the
senators. In addition to fire that burned with red hot flames, the
dust cloud enveloped the nearby area of the stage. It prevented
the nobles from seeing what's happening inside the flames.
**********************************
Inside the bomb site, Caius was lying on the ground sideways. His
vision blurred while he could not hear anything but a high pitch
whistling sound. He could vaguely see a few figures lying in front
of him. He couldn't make out the identities. In addition to the
smoke and flame, he could see pieces of flesh and bones. Feeling
the dizziness overcoming his senses, he tried not to close his
eyes.
"Ah"
Caius felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He let out a sharp cry. In a
few seconds, his brain realized the sensation of a hand on his
shoulder. He tried to turn his head yet the injuries prevented him
from doing so.
"Take him to the doorway and make sure they find him first" Caius
could barely hear the words.
"Swallow this" the next second, Caius felt a figure pushing a pill
into his mouth. Although his vision was blurred, he could see the
face of Maxine.
The moment the pill touched his tongue, he felt a cool sensation
all over his body. The pain started to become less while his vision
slowly cleared up.
Gaya stood among the wreckage searching for any survivors

except Caius. After she had given the healing pill, Maxine dragged
Caius towards the doorway. The two of them made sure the
doorway was clear so the spartans could find Caius quickly.
Although the smoke hindered her eyesight, she could see no

bodies moving. The explosion was more powerful than she initially
expected. There were no intact dead bodies as she saw several
limbs and body chunks lying around. At first, she thought she
would feel pity for these people but after seeing how they enjoyed
the gladiator fight, she felt nothing.
"Save the senators!"
"Move move move!"
While she was looking around for survivors although it was highly
unlikely someone would have survived the blast, she heard
people rushing towards the wreckage.
"Dark Queen, it's done" Maxine came to her side. Despite the
bruises and cuts made by the wooden splinters on her face,
Maxine grinned. Her face was bright like she had completed
something important.
"Is there any chance of Viridius to survive the explosion?" Gaya

heard Michael's voice sound in her head. She looked around
before locking her gaze on a charcoaled body that had no legs
attached.
"Nope"
"Shame. Now get out of there before anyone sees you two. Wait
for me in the Reaper"
With a final look around the wreckage, Gaya put her hand on
Maxine's shoulder.. Using the smoke as a cover, she took off from
the ground in lightning-fast before disappearing into the clouds.
Leave The Southern Continent
Onshore breezes climbed the mountain slopes until the air

became cool enough to condense its vapor to rain. A lone banyan
tree stood atop the mountain casting its dark shadows on the
muddy ground. The rain reacted with the earth creating the scent
of ground. Under the banyan tree stood several figures. One of
those figures was Michael. The city of Crilta could be seen in the
distance. His eyes were fixed on the smoke reaching the sky from
the arena.
"It's done," Michael said, turning back to see the fresh grave of
Doctorus. The gladiators gather around the grave with their heads
lowered. They paid their last respect to Doctorus in silence.
Michael walked to the grave, kneeling on one knee in front of the

grave. Regardless that he knew nothing about the man, he
respected him because he deserved it. He started this rebellion
against the nobles, he fought for freedom and died a free man.
Michael paid his respect by grabbing a handful of soil and pouring
it again onto the grave. It was a gesture of respect, also a sign of
forgiveness for what he was about to do.
The gladiators including Tiberius stared at him as Michael stood

up. They all noticed the smoke except they were not in the mood
to rejoice. The loss of Doctorus was too overwhelming for them.
They were ready to sacrifice themselves yet they never imagined
Doctorus would be murdered by one of them.
"You know why he left you at the camp instead of taking you with
us?" one of the gladiators asked. The sound of thunder rumbling,
as well as the flashes of lightning, accompanied them along with
Tiberius's silence.
"He wanted you to lead the rebellion after him" the gladiator
finished his thought. Tiberius just let out a hollow laugh,
"Crazy bastard. Always managed to find things that I cannot agree

with"? Tiberius took his gaze away from the grave to the dark
cloud-filled sky. He closed his eyes, letting rain droplets wash over
his face.
"I'm no leader. I never was and never will be. What we need is a
leader who could do the impossible"? Tiberius gave a long and
hard thought about this. Although he only knew Lucifer for a short
amount of time, he saw what Lucifer is capable of. For instance,
he just killed every senator except one with no casualties on his
side where Doctorus's plan included them getting blown to pieces
with the senators.
"You know before I met you, I met Doctorus" Tiberius's brows

arched up while the four gladiators looked at him bewildered.
"I made the same offer as I did to you. Follow me and I'll help you
cleanse this continent. He was a warrior to the core, there was no
fear in his eyes"
The gladiators couldn't help smiling,
"He said looking into my eyes, he would rather die a free man
than become a slave once again"
"Sounds like him" Tiberius smiled. The fact Lucifer went to

Doctorus before coming to him didn't surprise him the least. If he
was in Lucifer's shoes, he would have done the same. After all,
Doctorus was a far better warrior and a man than him.
"I respected his wish but it's a pity that he put his trust in the
wrong man. Now it's time for you four to make the choice for
yourselves and the entire rebellion" Before they could give it a
thought, Michael activated the runic teleportation to teleport back
to his ship. The sudden flash of light made the gladiators close
their eyes. When they opened them, they were standing on a ship.
There was nothing but the ocean surrounding them. In the
distance, they could see the familiar docks where they initially
landed with Doctorus.
"What just-"
"Uwak!"
"Uwak!"
Since this was their first teleportation experience, they

immediately felt everything inside their stomach making a return
trip towards their mouth. They rushed towards the ship's edge to
throw up in the ocean. Tiberius tried to fight the vomiting sensation
yet after a few seconds, he too ran towards the edge.
Michael or the crew members were nowhere to be found on the

upper deck. He wanted the gladiators to discuss in private. A few
minutes passed by before they finally moved their heads away
from the ocean. Including Tiberius, they drew a few deep breaths.
"How did he-"
"No idea" Tiberius answered before even the gladiator could finish
his question.
"But that's another reason we should follow him," Tiberius said

looking at the four of them. They seemed reluctant. While they
were staring at Tiberius to continue, he retrieved a small pouch
and a parchment from the side pocket of his black breeches.
Tiberius tossed the parchment at one gladiator while the pouch at

another gladiator. Most of the gladiators were soldiers before
becoming a gladiator so they had basic training in reading and
writing.
"Whoo" the gladiator who opened the pouch raised his brows as
his mouth opened wide.
"Is this for real?" The same startled expression could be seen on
the gladiator's face who just read the parchment.
"It is and what's in the pouch is only 10 percent of what he's
paying me"
The gladiators were dumbstruck because they could tell that there
were at least 100 gold coins in the pouch. Even a Spartan soldier
wouldn't receive hundred gold coins per month let alone a
gladiator. Also, it wasn't hundred gold coins but thousand gold
coins per month according to Tiberius. They certainly couldn't
believe him.
"I know it's hard to believe but this is real. Fuck that money for a
moment, im not asking you to trust him, im asking you to trust me.
He dont fucking need us, if we want to avenge Doctorus and
make his dream come true, we need him" Tiberius paused for a
moment before continuing,
"Look, you saw what he's capable of. He just killed the senators of
Gisal without a single casualty while you dumbasses went on with
a suicide plan"
The gladiators had a mix of emotions emerging on their faces.

They were shocked to hear that Lucifer killed the senators without
a loss while feeling slightly ashamed of their suicide plan.
"Don't make the same mistake Doctorus made. We need him.

He's gonna change this place with or without us. I've already
made my decision to follow him, it's time you made yours. I'll give
you ten minutes to decide" As he said, he turned back to walk
towards the captain's cabin where Tiberius hoped to meet
Michael.
After taking a few steps, he stopped, "and keep the gold for old
times sake"
*********************************
Michael was currently sitting on his throne behind the oak table as
Gaya rested on the sofa comfortably. On the table, the map of the
Southern continent could be seen. A jade dagger was striking into
the map where Gisal is located. The dagger was an indicator that
Gisal is in his control. Behind the skull mask, he was smiling. He
left a Spyder with the gladiators, through the spyder, he could
hear everything they were talking from his throne.? Recruiting
Tiberius proved to be a good move as what he said to the
gladiators made them change their minds. Of course, they
wouldn't completely trust him. It was expected of them. He didn't
want them to trust him, he wanted them to trust Tiberius.
"Thank you Doctorus' ' He thanked Doctorus in his mind for giving
him an army. Everything he told the gladiators about him meeting
Doctorus and offering him a deal was nothing but lies. He had
neither met nor talked with Doctorus. He just used Doctorus's
death to his advantage. His lies put a seed of doubt in the
gladiators' minds. They would have certainly wondered whether
Doctorus would be alive if he decided to follow Lucifer.
Because of his lies, it was highly likely that the gladiators would
choose to follow him wanting to avoid the mistake of Doctorus.
Knock!
Knock!
"Come"? the door opened after Michael's word. Tiberius entered

the cabin door.
"What have they decided?" Like he heard nothing, Michael asked

Tiberius.
"Unless they have shit for the brain, they will agree to follow you"
"Good. Maxine will arrange passage for your people to reach

Gisal from the grey mountains safely. At the time they reach Gisal,
Caius would have announced that he's abolishing slavery in Gisal.
If you want, you can wait till he announces it and bring your
people in small groups"
Tiberius was speechless. The rebels had to pay in blood to keep

the nobles at bay and run the rebellion yet in a couple of days,
Lucifer managed to do what they couldn't do for three years. He
knew Lucifer's plan, even so seeing it getting executed without a
problem stunned him completely. He only wished Doctorus should
have been here to see the rebellion finally moving forward
towards the goal.
"Can we really trust Caius? He's noble to the core, what if he

changes his mind?"
"We'll kill him" Gaya waved him off casually.
"I made sure he doesn't do such a thing. You focus on getting your
people settled on. Caius will give you a piece of land and
resources to build a village. After he reforms the senate to my
liking, the village will receive further support to become much
more. I gave them the freedom they were fighting for, from now
on, their fate is in their hand"
With conquering Gisal, he finished everything he intended to in

the Southern continent for the time being. He knew the Hydra
would become a god-like existence in the future beside
Nightmare. In addition to the gladiator army, he had an undead
army waiting for him outside the pyramid, his second base of
operation. The whole undead island had become his domain.
Soon after Caius forms a new senate, he would get a small
fortune of gold coins regularly as another revenue for his future
wars.
"It's time to go home," Michael said to himself.

Chapter 287 - The Demon
Butler I
"What should I wear?" Michael was rummaging through the

system store to find new clothes to wear. Currently, he was
wearing his Lucifer armor. When he returns to Elon, he knew he
should wear new clothes instead of the usual blade or Neo
costume. How could a badass wear the same clothes every day?
Instead of choosing a movie costume, Michael wanted to wear

something suitable to this world, medieval-style clothing. With his
buffed body, no matter what he wore, it would make him extremely
good-looking. Plus, unlike before, he now sported a stubble beard
to further his handsomeness. Before he departed to Elon, he only
needed to cut his hair short as his raven black hair had grown
past the shoulder length.
In front of his eyes, there were varieties of clothes such as tunics,

shirts, braies,? metal chains, long coats, and long sleeves.
"Show me all the long coats"
[Only black ones right?]
"Of course"
The system filtered the long coats using Michael's parameters.

Soon, numerous black coats appeared before him. There were
regular trench coats, trench coats with fur collars, double-breasted
trench coats, and a few other variations of long coats. After a few
minutes of pondering, he ended up picking a black trench coat
with no fur collars. The coat almost reached his feet. It had a mix
of medieval and modern vibe to it.
[Do you want shirts and trousers to go along with the coat? Shit, I
sound like a salesgirl in a clothing store] The system murmured as
Michael chuckled.
"Nah, give me a turtleneck, trousers, and suede boots. Make them

all black"
[Aren't you forgetting something? The dual sword sheath]
"Let me first get two new swords to my liking" Michael's two

swords were degraded, losing most of their sharpness. Because
Michael knew nothing about Jack's death, he was still planning to
make Jack a blacksmith and forge two new swords.
[Everything will cost you 6000 badass points. Do you wish to buy
them all and store them in the system storage?]
"I'll them all"
[Do you wish to buy the same set of clothing for Gaya? It'll cost
you additional 1000 badass points to remodel the clothing to fit
her]
"She already has enough doubts, getting new clothes out of

nowhere is an unnecessary risk. For now, I'll take her to the best
clothing store in Elon"
After everything they went through, Michael wanted to take a long

break to clear his mind. Going on a date with her seemed like a
good idea to him.
He worried less about the championship tournaments because he

was extremely confident in his ability to win the tournament.
Although he was at the Core Formation level 5, the First energy
he absorbed from the Hydra egg upgraded his skills to the point
his real strength reached level 9 of the Core Formation Stage.
To this moment, he was in the dark regarding the kills of

Nightmare. It was because he was inside the void line when
Nightmare killed all the bandits that he never received experience
points. In addition to Nightmare, he also never received the
experience of Aria's kills.
Eventually, Michael exited the system. He was still sitting on his

throne. He was not alone, in front of him stood Gibson, Maxine,
Tiberius, Heinberg, and Gaya remained by his side.
"I have tasks for each of you to finish while we're away" as he
said, he turned his gaze towards Gibson.
"You said the seas out here are plagued with rogue pirates. I want
you to hunt them down, offer them the choice to join our ranks. If
they refused, kill them all but try not to damage their ship too
much" His plan was to become a pirate lord. To become one,?
one ship was not enough. He needed a fleet of ships. Rather than
building or buying new ships and crews for a new fleet, he
planned to make the rogue pirates join his ranks by force.
"Use this to repair the reaper and resupply the cannons" Michale
pointed at the small chest on the corner of the table. It contained a
chunk of wealth he obtained from Lars's ship when he first
reached the Southern Continent.
"As you wish, Lord Lucifer" Gibson showed no hesitation in his

face. The Silent Reaper was a Legendary Ship that overpowers
most of the pirate ships in a one-on-one battle. To give a fair fight
to the Reaper, it would take several man o wars or the pirate lords'
ships.
Next, Michael looked at Maxine,
"Travel to the grey mountains with Tiberius. Make sure his people
reach Gisal safely"
"Consider it done Lord Lucifer"? she bowed her head as Michael

turned his gaze at Heinberg. Gaya just brought Heinberg from
Gisal with the help of a teleportation scroll. His previous task was
to monitor Caius while he was in the infirmary getting treated for
the wounds he suffered in the explosion.
It was highly likely that the nearby kingdom might try to use the
Gisal's temporary crisis to their own advantage by sending
assassins after Caius.
"I need you to conduct a background check on everyone in

Caius's list for the senate. Put a file on every single one. After
that, find the gladiator named Mark" the mere mention of the
name 'Mark' made Tiberius's veins pop out in fury. He didn't need
any proof to know that it was Mark who killed Doctorus. Initially, he
wanted to hunt down Mark himself but he was talked out of the
plan by Lucifer. He needed to be at the Grey mountains more than
on the hunt to Mark.
Michael felt proud looking at his subordinates. When he first came

to this world, he had nothing. Almost a year later, he managed to
put a strong foundation to dominate this entire world in the future.
He could imagine the people in this room becoming his generals,
powerful generals. His enemies would have to face them before
even coming to meet Gaya and him. They would be like the top-
level bosses.
"And put these in your ear"? Michael flicked his wrist as tiny
earbuds appeared on the table. The earbuds slowly began to float
towards each of them except Heinberg as he already had an
earbud to communicate with Gaya and Michael.
"Always keep them in your ear. Who knows, one day it might save
your lives" Gaya snickers evilly to mess with them. All of them
knew she has a weird sense of humor.
"You can all go"
************************************
Eventually, after everyone left the room, only Gaya, Michael and
Hydra remained in the room. He stood in front of a mirror with a
hair clipper that was powered by Arch energy. He spent almost an
hour in front of the mirror, cutting his hair to perfection. This was
the first time he cut his hair since he came to this world.
"Ow, I like your long hair," she pouted while sitting on the sofa.
The Hydra was still asleep after a hearty meal. Currently, two tiny
wings were sticking out of its back. The wings indicated that the
hydra would be able to fly in the future. He couldn't help
wondering how big the Hydra would grow.
"I like changing my looks often. Don't you wanna try new looks?"?
while clipping his long hair, he asked her.
"Perfection doesn't need alteration" there was an immense

amount of pride could be seen on her face. He knew she was
right. She was perfect in every way. Among all the women he saw,
only Lailah could match Gaya in terms of beauty. Thinking about
Lailah, he wondered what she's doing. He wished not to see her
again in his life even though he knew the odds for that are low.
"What about your mouth? It's far from being perfect" Michael
teased her expecting her to get mad. Making her mad was one of
his hobbies.
"Fuck yourself human" she was used to getting teased by

Michael. Her lack of anger made teasing a bit dull. In a few
minutes, he shortened his hair and shaped his beard to perfection.
"How am I looking?" Michael asked. She stared at him from top to

bottom before leaving the sofa to come to him. She put the Hydra
on the table. To Michael's surprise, she locked her lips with his
while running her fingers through Michael's hair. They savored
each other lips for several minutes before parting from each other,
"Shall we go home?" She asked, licking her lips with an alluring

smile on her face.
"Yes, we shall" the both of them yet again put the masks on to
hide their faces. After she gently took the hydra from the table,
Michael closed his eyes, willing the system to activate the runic
teleportation. The warm feeling of teleportation rays enveloped
them. Either of them couldn't wait to return to the sect. After four
months, Michael could open the restaurant. He hoped the winter
had passed. More than everything, Michael wanted to unlock the
demon soul from the stone. Before departing to the Southern
Continent, the system said that the stone needs at least two
months to stabilize before opening it.
It had been two months since he came to the Southern Continent,

hence Michael knew it's time to let out the demon and take
another powerful subordinate. After several seconds, Michael
opened his eyes to see the familiar dark walls, sofa, and large
bed.. Finally, he had returned to the Abyssal.
Chapter 288 - The Demon
Butler II
His room in the Abyssal looked the same as left it before going to
the Southern Continent. He could feel the Arch energy in the
surrounding air. Compared to the air in the Southern continent, the
air here felt thicker and clean. If he hadn't gone to the Southern
continent, he wouldn't have felt the difference.
"Oh baby I missed you so much!" Gaya leaped onto the bed. She
landed back first on the bed while keeping the Hydra closer to her
chest. Her ample chest cushioned the force produced by the bed's
spring from hurting the tiny Hydra.
"Ahhhaaaw" Each head of the Hydra opened its eyes, yawning. It

only took the hydra a couple of seconds to feel the change in the
surroundings.
"Where are we?" the white head and the silver head curiously
looked around the room. The blackhead however closed its eyes
to sense the Arch energy in the air.
Just as they were scanning their surroundings, the Hydra began

to glow from within. On the left side of the hydra was white, the
middle was silver while the right side was black to match the
colors of the three heads. At that moment, all of its body gradually
turned golden.
"The fuck is happening to them?" Gaya quickly sat up from the

bed when she saw the Hydra glowing. She swooped the hydra
into her hand to feel its body getting warmer and warmer.
"They are reaching the Foundation stage" Michael could see the
Arch energy fluctuations around the Hydra. The ripple of energy
was violent, meaning that the Hydra would soon reach the
Foundation stage from its current stage.
"No, they aren't"? Gaya frowned because she couldn't see any
energy fluctuations around the Hydra.
"Can't you see the energy fluctuations around them?" Michael

walked towards the bed. He then sat beside Gaya looking at the
Hydra.
"I see no shit" she looked closer yet saw nothing. Usually one
could see the arch energy fluctuations around them. That was
how they sensed someone's cultivation level. When the grown
hydra screamed, it messed up the arch energy radiation all over
the world. Because of that, one no longer had the ability to sense
another's cultivation level.
"Weird, come with me" Michael stroked his chin. He began to

doubt whether it's because of the Demon Soul in the pocket
dimension attached to his room. Before departing to the Southern
Continent, he placed the Demon stone in the pocket dimension.
Therefore, he stood up walking towards it. All the three heads had
their eyes closed. She gently picked up the hydra in her hand as
she followed Michael behind.
Reaching the black door, Michael placed his hand. He felt his
hand slightly getting warmer. With a clicking noise, the door slowly
opened to reveal the inside. He still had a hard time believing the
scenery before him was another dimension. The beautiful water
wall flowed from the miniature hill's top forming a small lake that
glistened in the sunlight peeking through the mountain cracks.
Above the small pond, the Demon stone was hovering. The closer
he walked towards it, the louder he heard the humming sound
coming from the stone.
[The Demon stone has stabilized. You can release the soul within
the stone]
Because of the eyes of darkness, he could see the overwhelming

energy around the stone. It wasn't just Arch energy, the stone was
radiating Celestial and First energy.
"Can you see the energy fluctuations around the stone?"
"No" she shook her head.
"Hmm" Thinking why she couldn't see the energy around the
stone, he moved closer to the stone. He reached his hand out at
the stone standing on the lake's edge.? The chilling water washed
over his feet as the stone slowly hovered towards him.
"Careful" she clenched his arm tightly for a moment.
"Stay behind me" Michael asked. Finally, she let go of his hand.
While the stone was hovering just an arm's reach away from him,
she moved behind him.
"Time for another subordinate" Michael was excited to release the

demon soul. With a flick of his wrist, he willed the stone to move
closer. An invisible force kept pushing Michael's hand away yet it
couldn't stop him completely. Gritting his teeth, Michael used all of
his strength to break this invisible barrier. His arm muscles flexed
up while a web of veins emerged to upper skin.
SHHHHHHHHHHH!
With a final push, Michael grabbed the stone. The moment he

touched the stone, it produced a sound like pouring water onto a
hot pan. His mind went blank completely as in a few seconds, he
was floating in an empty space.
As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing. It was just a red
empty space.
"System" He called out the system, hoping to get some answers

from it.
However before he could hear the system, a bright light appeared

in front of him out of nowhere. The bright light began to rotate
faster and faster. In a few seconds, it grew brighter to the point
Michael tried to close his eyes. The light was bright as a small
sun.
[The Demon Soul has been released. You have to pay the system
40,000 badass points to subdue and make the demon your
subordinate]
At first, whenever the system named a high price, he would

become mad or atleast annoyed. However, he learned that the
higher the system's price for something, the more valuable and
powerful it would be. The sheer amount of 40,000 badass points
made his blood boil.
Despite his blood-boiling excitement, he had a question in his

mind.
"Didn't I pay you 15,000 badass points to bring back the Demon to
life?"
Just as he said, he paid the system 15,000 badass points at the

annual auction when he first bought the stone. He wondered why
the system suddenly asked for another 40,000 badass points.
[15,000 badass points to bring the demon soul back to life from a
long slumber. This 40,000 badass points for making the demon
100% loyal to you. Try to imagine what would happen if you wake
a demon that's not loyal to you. Also...]
"What now?" when he heard the system drag its voice, he realized
it's gonna ask for more badass points. He sighed inside. Currently,
he had 70,000 badass points to spend. Initially, he planned to buy
some new legendary level spells or upgrade the existing ones
before the tournament.? Now it seemed like he just had to go
without any new spells.
[If you throw me another 6000 points, the system can shape the
demon soul to your liking. Of course, the demon will be in its
ethereal form. To make the demon take a physical form, you need
to either upgrade the system and buy a body for the demon or find
a suitable host in this world]
"Ethereal for huh? Will it affect the demon's power?" Although

Michael didn't have any idea about a demon or its powers, he first
needed to make sure whether the ethereal form affects the demon
in any way before spending 46,000 points.
[It doesn't affect the demon's power until it reaches the Soul
Refining stage. After the Soul Refining stage, if you don't give the
demon a physical body, its cultivation progress will stop. Also, the
demon will be several times powerful when it's in a physical form]
"Don't tell me the demon will be at the Arch sensing stage after I
spend 46,000 points? Explain how the demon levels up. Also, I
have another question, since the hydra and the demon are
extraterrestrial species, why are they using this world's cultivation
level and energy native to this world instead of harnessing other
more powerful energies? As I recall, you said the Arch energy is
the least powerful energy in the universe"
[No, The Demon will be at Core Formation level because the

demon has lost its power with time, ending up at Core Formation
level. The answer to your next question is survival. To survive in
this world, no matter the origin of the species, they need to adapt
to this world. Hence, their souls will use what's abundant in this
world, that is Arch Energy. The higher they go in the cultivation
ladder, their souls and bodies could harness more powerful
energies]
"How long the demon soul is in the slumber state?"
[The system level is currently too low to give you an exact time]
"Just low ball it"
[At least for two million years]
Michael was stunned beyond words. Even after losing its power
gradually for two million years, the demon would be woken at the
Core Formation stage. He couldn't even imagine how powerful it
was before entering the slumber state.
"Alright, take the 46,000 points. I have something special in mind

for my demon"
[Just imagine how the demon should look like and the system will
take care of the rest]
In a blink of an eye, the badass points amount dropped from

70,000 to 24,000. The very next moment, the empty red space
faded away as he was standing at the lake's edge. He quickly
closed his eyes, imagining how the demon should look like. He
already had an image in his mind, a butler. He was imagining a
black suit-wearing butler in his late teens or early thirties.. Despite
the butler's ethereal form, he wanted the butler to look like a male
with blue eyes, shoulder-length black hair, not completely but
somewhat resembling the butler character in black butler.
Chapter 289 - The Tournament
Season Has Begun
Three days before Michael returned to Elon continent from the

Southern continent. It was the same day Noah met Laila to give
the witcher stone.
"Lady Alden, you can open your eyes. The witcher stone is yours"
Noah ended his drama after the Supreme guardian located the
energy source.
Laila looked at the red ruby on her palm. She could feel the
immense power radiating from within. It was not Arch energy, it
was pure Celestial energy. According to her mentor, there were
only three witcher stones in the world.
She closed her palm as a bright light appeared from her space
ring enveloped the stone. The stone then disappeared along with
the light.
"There's no way of finding what's inside her body, at least not yet"
The supreme guardian talked to Noah telepathically.
"Do you think we should ask her for something that could help
Andrew win the tournament?" Noah thought.
"No harm in asking, who knows she might have something"
Andrews was Noah's cousin who was saved by Michael. Although

Noah and Andrews were cousins, they were more like brothers
than cousins. Noah would do anything for his cousin. In all the
years Noah knew Andres, he never asked for Noah's help until
two weeks ago.
"You can take the talisman and leave" Lailah coldly said.
"Ah Lady Laden, can I ask something else?" Initially, Noah
planned to brew a secret potion that would have helped him if he
didn't see Ghost's name on the tournament competitors list.
Among all his peers, only Ghost seemed to have the ability to beat
him. Although Noah hated the fact that he's pretty selfish, Ghost
did save his family. If not for him, Noah would have lost his
mother, sister, and Andrews.
Still, he needed to help Andrews defeat Ghost and everyone

stands in the way to win the main championship tournament.
Peyton was betting on Celina and Alex to win the tournament but
deep down, Noah knew it was Ghost who had the most chance to
win it.
"What?"
"I want something that temporarily makes a body strengthening

cultivator a Core Formation stage cultivator in return for the
witcher stone"
Nerita and Johana stared at Lailah's face. The way she looked at
Noah was cold yet she didn't say no to his request right out of the
bat. His request might have been impossible to others but she did
know a musical note that would transfer some of her power to the
target. If she used the note targeting whoever Noah wanted to
reach the Core formation stage, he or she would temporarily
become one. The only downside was she needed to be in close
proximity to the target.
"I assume you're asking for someone else," Laila asked.
Noah was not going to hide the truth. The tournament committee
only approved the use of the healing potion. Using anything else
to gain an advantage over the competitors was considered a
violation and the violator would be punished severely.
"Andrews, my cousin. He must win the Elon championship

tournament"
"You're asking the mistress to help your cousin cheat?!" Nerita lost
her cool. Her hands tightly grabbed the veena. She seemed like
she would start to attack Noah any second. Noah wasn't afraid of
them. He was sure that Lailah wouldn't let her disciples attack the
man who just delivered something extremely rare and valuable to
her.
Lailah raised her hand as Nerital quickly shut her mouth.
"Is that what you really want?"
Noah sighed when he heard Lailah's question. In truth, Andrews

wasn't a warrior but a runemaster. Unlike him, Andrews had no
combat training or experience. If Andrews wanted just to compete,
Noah might have let him as it would help him get some battle
experience. However, Andrews asked Noah to help him win the
tournament. Noah tried his best to talk him out of the idea until he
heard Andrews's reason behind his decision to compete and win
the tournament.
"Love makes one do crazy things, Lady Alden. Andrews always

had my back ever since we were little, it's time for me to return the
favor. It's okay if you don't want to help me-"
"I'm not helping you, I'm just settling a debt. Go tell your cousin to
be prepared, he'll be at Core Formation when the competition
starts" She interrupted Noah before he could finish his thought.
Noah was stunned for a couple of seconds. There was no concern
in her eyes about the tournament committee.
"Thank you, Lady Alden"
**************************************
Three days before Noah ventured searching for the witcher stone,
he was roaming the garden with his mother at Pen town.? Alicia
was on the other side of the garden with Sabrina. She was
training Sabrina for the championship tournament for those under
the Core Formation level.
The golden babaroo followed Samuel the butler into the kitchen to
snack on the food. Therefore, Noah was alone with his mother.
"Where's dad?" Noah asked Diana.
"He went to the Sunrise sect to buy potions for our soldiers"
Noah frowned, "what happened to the potions in our warehouse?"
All the potions in their warehouse were brewed by Noah himself.

The Winston family handed out the potions for free. If anyone
needed a healing potion in Pen town, they could ask in any one of
Winston's family warehouses. Noah disliked the idea of selling
potions such as healing potions for money, unlike Michael.
"They are gone two weeks ago. You were nowhere to be found to
brew more so your dad decided to buy some in case of
emergency" Diana said with a gentle smile. She hid her lie behind
the smile. On contrary to what she said there were still a few
crates of healing potions in their warehouses but the reason for
Ethan's visit was he wanted to see whether Ghost has come out
of seclusion yet. Ever since Ethan heard about Jack's murder, he
put secret guards around the sect to make sure no one will hurt
Ghost, his son.
It was Ethan's way of showing his love for Ghost. Diana was
unable to stop him from visiting the sect as Ethan blamed himself
for everything that happened to Diana and Ghost. Noah couldnt
see through his mother's lies because she had never lied to him
before in his life. Besides, what she said made sense to him.
Occasionally Diana stopped to tend to the flower plants on the

side of the path they were walking. While she was tending to one
of the roses, a maid came running to Diana.
"Lady Diana, the dress you ordered has arrived" The maid took
deep breaths after running to Diana.
Hearing the maid, Noah was surprised. He looked at his mother

with his brows arched up,
"Mother, you ordered a new dress"
Ever since Noah was little, he never saw his mother order new
dresses or care for things such as jewelry, fancy clothes, unlike
other noble ladies. She rarely visited clothing stores, they had to
force her to make her come with them. Yet, right at the moment,
her face lightened up hearing the maid.
"I can't go to the tournaments looking dull" She dusted the mud on
her hand before walking towards the maid.
"Really? What have you done to my mother-woman?" Noah

chuckled as Diana twisted his ear for making fun of her. She was
in a good mood.
"Does Sabi know you're going to the tournament?" Noah thought

the reason for his mother's sudden interest in new clothes was
Sabrina. Since it was Sabrina's first major tournament, Noah was
thinking Diana bought new clothes for the occasion. Although
Diana was happy to see her daughter compete in the tournament,
she was more excited to see her son. She was thankful to the
guardian guild for preventing the guardians from competing. She
knew she couldn't even imagine her two sons fighting each other.
"It's a surprise. Your father and aunts are also coming to see the
tournament" Other than Ethan, only Emelda, her elder sister knew
about Ghost's identity. Just like her, Emelda was also extremely
excited to see her nephew in action. Not only Emelda, but even
Sabrina was looking forward to seeing Ghost again.
"You're coming with us Noah" Diana firmly said.
"You know I like to spend time with you guys so yes, I'm coming,"?
Noah said as he saw Samuel walking towards him from the
manor.
"Young Master, Young Master Andres is waiting for you at the

apple tree"
"Huh? Did he say why?"

"No Young Master but Young Master Andres seemed odd and
also, there's a person with him" Noah frowned hearing Samuel.
"A person you say"
"That person was wearing a hood and cloak, Young Master.

Young Master Andrews said not to ask the person's identity and
wanted to meet you immediately"
"The person with him, is he at the east side garden also?" Diana
creased her brows. Her smile gradually disappeared from her
face.
"Yes, Lady Alden. Young Master Andrews must have a good

reason to bring him there"
The tree was in the east side garden. No one except the core
members of their family was allowed to enter the east side
garden. Noah couldn't help wondering why Andrews brought a
stranger to the garden without telling anyone else.
"Go" yet if Andrews was asking for Noah, she knew it must be
something important. Therefore, she didn't keep Noah with her as
she sent him to meet Andrews. Her instincts told her that Andrews
is in some kind of trouble but she trusted Noah to deal with
whatever trouble Andrews was in.
After bowing his head towards his mother, Noah made his way to
the apple tree.
Chapter 290 - The Princess
Will Be Married To The
Tournament Winner
Andrews was standing under the apple tree overlooking the small
pond. The lake was at the garden's center with countless herbs,
trees, and flower plants surrounding it. The air was pungent with
the fragrance of jasmine. The lake was no natural basin filled with
meltwater, but a luxury addition to the garden built by Ethan's
grandfather. The lake was filled with colorful fishes such as the
Japanese Koi Carp and goldfish.? They were huge and
numerous, each about as long as an adult arm. He gazed across
the wind-ruffed surface to the lily pads in bloom, their white or
magenta petals catching the breeze. He inhaled slowly. Peace.
His little piece of heaven in the Winston family manor. While an
unsettling look in his eyes, he gently grabbed an apple above him.
Under the sunrise, the apples glowed rosier than they do in the
day's shine. The branches spread out as if so proud of the bounty
they brought and sweetness given within each one. It was a party
of colors, a perfect marriage of reds and greens, in blushes of
baby pinks and dappled hues of chaos and order. It was a beauty
that sprung from simple seeds blessed with mud and rain.
On normal days, this tree and the scenery around him used to
calm his mind. He learned most of his runes sitting under the
apple tree. However, at this moment, even the tree or the scenery
couldn't even slightly calm his nerves. The hooded person was
standing beside him staring at the beautiful glistening lake. The
person was about Andres's shoulder height.
"Andrews" the hooded person spoke with a sweet feminine voice.

Contrary to what Samuel was thinking, the hooded person was
not a he but a she. The girl concealed all her feminine features
with the oversized hood and cloak.
"What are we gonna do?" the girl asked. Her voice overflowed
with worry and concern. Andrews gently patted her hand on his
shoulder. He tried to hide his anxiety with a smile.
"One thing for sure, you cannot disobey your father. My family has
enough problems as it is. We can't add another one to the list.
Let's hope Noah can help us" said Andrews.
Because there were no guards inside the garden, the girl rested
her head on Andrews's shoulder after he spoke. While they were
drowned in their own train of thoughts, Noah entered the garden
through the Archway. They failed to hear his footsteps as they
were too concerned about the upcoming championship
tournament.
A sliver of surprise could be seen in Noah's eyes when he saw the

two of them. It was evident that the other person was a she as
they both looked like couples in a park. Noah never thought
Andrews had a girlfriend. He couldn't help wondering why
Andrews chose not to tell him or anyone in the family.
"Andrews" Hearing Noah's voice, Andrews's body jerked as the

girl immediately lifted her head from his shoulder. They turned
back to see Noah looking at them with a frown on his face.
"Noah" Andrews swallowed a mouth full of saliva. Gradually sweat

drops started to form on his forehead thinking how he's gonna ask
Noah's help.
"Who is that?" Noah asked as the girl lifted her hood to show
herself.? The moment Noah saw her face, he was stunned. For a
few seconds, Noah was speechless.
"Princess Katherine '' the girl in front of him was the princess of
Kingdom Bradia. Noah's stomach churned seeing the princess in
their garden with no royal guards around her.
The girl had a long face, a small nose, and small lips. Her hazel
eyes were narrow with thin eyebrows. The golden silky hair was
fluttering in the wind. There were no flaws in her beauty. Every
inch of her body was perfect like it was sculpted by the gods
themselves.
"Guardian Noah" The princess curtsied showing her respect

towards Noah.
If this was any other day and different circumstances, Noah would
have shown proper etiquette by kissing her hand.
"Princess, what are you doing here? Where are the Royal
guards?" Noah asked, looking around once again.
"They are in love" Noah suddenly heard his teacher's voice in his
head. The Supreme guardian chuckled.
"Noah, I don't know how to tell you..." Andrews's voice trailed off
as he couldn't get himself to finish his sentence. He knew just by
being here with no royal guards, Katherine has endangered
herself. If the king found out that she left the castle with no one
knowing to meet her secret lover, not only the princess but also
the Winston family would be punished.
"We are in love" Katherine bluntly said. Her voice was clear with
no hesitation.
"Does aunt know about this Andrews?" after a few moments of

silence, Noah asked. Andrews slowly shook his head as Noah
looked at Katherine.
"I assume the king also have no idea about any of this"
She remained silent, "thought so" Noah sighed.
"Just hear us out Noah" Andrews knew he had to tell Noah

everything before he asked his help. With a long sigh, Noah
nodded. He knew he had to hear Andrews out before making up
his mind about what to do with the situation. Besides, he
wondered why Andrews chose this moment to reveal his love. If
Andrews was in love with the princess, he could have asked his
father and asked the king of her hand. Instead of doing that, they
decided to meet in secret.
For another fifteen to twenty minutes, both of them explained from

where they met first to how they ended up here. Apparently, they
had met at the annual rune master's gathering and this was not
the princess's first time leaving the castle without her guards. She
attended the gathering in disguise. According to both of them, it
was love at first sight. Noah wasn't surprised by that because
Andrews was a talented runemaster as well as good-looking. It
was understandable that the princess fell in love with him.
After their initial meeting, they used to meet often without both
families noticing. While Andrews was infected with star pox, she
went to Ozer searching for a cure.
Noah was really moved when she said she would have taken her
own life if Andrews had died. She said she would rather die than
marry another man in her life.? When Noah asked why didn't
Andrews ask his father to go to Bredia and ask for her hand, Noah
received a surprising answer. Although the Winston family was
prestigious enough to ask the princess for her hand in marriage,
King Bredia was adamant about marrying the princess to a warrior
who could protect his daughter. The princess said that her aunt,
King Bredia's little sister was assassinated by the Grim Reapers in
front of her husband who happened to be a runemaster. King
Bredia blamed his brother-in-law for his sister's assassination. In
King Bredia's eyes, it was because he was weak and had no
combat skill that he failed to save his wife. Since that day, the king
promised himself that he would never marry his daughter to a
runemaster or anyone without the skills to fight and save his
daughter if her life was in danger.
"So you're telling me the King has planned to marry you to the
winner of the main championship tournament?"
Now Noah realized why they revealed themselves as lovers to

him. Noah hated to admit it but he knew there's no way in hell that
Andrews could win the tournament for Body Strengthening
cultivators let alone the tournament of the Core Formation
cultivators. Even Noah hadn't reached the Core Formation stage
yet. He was still at Body Strengthening stage level 10 and it would
take him another couple of weeks of cultivation to reach the Core
Formation stage.
"My father is willing to offer the Bradford barony to the winner so

the winner would become a baron before marrying me"
"Court politics" Andrews sighed.
"Andrews must win this tournament, Master Noah. My father will

give my hand to the winner the same day they announce the
winner. I'd brother die than give my hand to another man, not in
this life" As she said, she flicked her wrist. A small vial of green
liquid appeared in her hand. Noah could smell the pungent smell
coming from the vial.
"Poison" Noah recognized the liquid with a single glance.
"If Andrews dont win this, I will drink this and die" tears started to
roll out of her beautiful eyes.
"And I will follow you to the afterlife, Kathy"
Yet again, Noah was stunned by their words. He couldn't even

imagine his loving aunt losing her son. The loss of Andrews would
devastate the family and Noah would never let anything happen to
his family. Andrews was like a brother to him so how could he let
him die?
A sliver of resolve emerged in Noah's eyes.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this but the tournament has been
postponed a week from the set date. The committee will
announce the news at the end of this week. This gives us exactly
two weeks to come up with a plan"
"Postponed, why?" Andrews asked. Although this did not solve

their problem, seeing Noah agree to help them gave Andrews
some strength.
"The scholars are still working on the device to determine one's
cultivation level"
"It must be god's blessing that the tournament has postponed"

Katherin wiped off the tears as a sliver of smile filled with hope
emerged on her face.
"Master Noah-"
"Please, call me Noah princess. We are gonna be family" Noah

placed his hand on Andrews's shoulder. This was his way of
showing his support. Noah's smile filled both of them with
confidence and hope.
"Noah, this might help us" With another flick of her wrist, a
parchment appeared in her hand.. Noah noticed the symbol of
veena on the mark.
Chapter 291 - Azazel
Sebastian
Gaya's brows arched up in shock. White and black smoke was

coming out of the demon stone gradually forming a human form.
She always imagined a demon being eight to ten feet tall with
muscle mountains for the body as well as two horns sticking out of
its head. However, the figure in front of her seemed human-like.
Moreover, the figure looked like a butler wearing a black coat,
white shirt, silver vest, and black tie.
In her eyes, he was nowhere close to as handsome as Michael

yet she knew if the ethereal form was a human in physical form,
he would get many suitors including princesses.
She was positive that it's the human who's responsible for the
demon's current appearance. The demon butler's ethereal form
slowly became brighter and brighter. Both Michael and the demon
butler's eyes were closed. She waited for them to open their eyes.
While she was waiting for them, the Hydra started to grow in size.
It felt like she was holding a hot plate in her hand as the hydra.
Still, she never let go of the Hydra.
[Do you wish to accept the demon as your subordinate?]
"What do you think you damn system?"
The system remained silent waiting for his obvious answer.
"Yes I do" he sighed in his mind. He was too excited to meet his
demon butler so he chose not to bicker with the system.? The
thought of having a demon for Butler made his blood boil in
excitement. He never felt this excited since he first realized he has
a system and he's in a fantasy world.
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a demon subordinate!]
[The demon subordinate has reached 100% loyalty]
[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the bloodthirsty ability of

Demon subordinate]
[The demon subordinate can absorb the blood essence of a living

being to temporarily enhance its strength. The more powerful the
blood essence, the stronger the demon would grow]
[Due to the Demon's ethereal form, it's completely immune to any

physical attacks]
[You can bind the demon to yourself and one of your bases of
operations]
[No one except half immortal beings could see the demon unless
the host wishes to reveal the demon]
[Warning! Although the demon is completely loyal to the host, it

has its own personality]
[The system suggest you buy the book of butlers and basic
knowledge of this world for the demon to learn the ways of this
world]
[Does the host wish to buy the two books for 3000 badass
points?]
His field of view was filled with blue notifications and warnings. He
took time to go through every single one of them before buying
the two books as the system suggested.
The personality warning don't worry Michael, in fact, he was glad

to see his butler was not a mindless drone. He wanted all of his
subordinates to act on their own for his greater good.
Subordinate: Demon Butler
Cultivation Level: Core Formation level 8

Race: Demon
Status: Healthy (In Ethereal Form)
Trait: Butler (Unique)
"System, list all the skills of the demon. I want to see the cool stuff
he could do"
Another interface appeared before them. One by one the demon

butler's skills were listed in front of them in golden letters.
Skills :
Phantom Touch
Bind Area teleportation
Blood Thirsty
Imitator
Phantom Form
Mind Dominator
[Phantom Touch is the ability of the demon to materialize for a

moment inside a physical being]
[The demon butler can bend the space around it to teleport near
the host and the bound area]
[The Demon can absorb blood essence to temporarily grow

stronger]
[The Demon can imitate the host's spells and skills. The imitated
skills and spells will not be as powerful as the host's arsenal]
[The Demon can choose to hide from naked eyes. Only the host
and a chosen subordinate could see the Demon when its using
the Phanton form]
[The Demon's voice could dominate weak-willed enemies' bodies]
The system explained each skill one by one.
"Can these skills be upgraded?"
[Yes. The skills can be upgraded through badass points and

reaching higher stages in cultivation]
"Cool" Michael was ready to meet his butler but he had one last
thing to do.
"Buy the two books and bind him to me and the Abyssal"
[Warning!]
Suddenly his field of view turned black as the warning beeps

screamed in his mind.
[Binding the Demon to you will reveal everything about you to the
demon including your previous life]
"What?!" Michael was thoroughly upset to hear this.
[Cool down host. The demon is 100% loyal and the rules for the
subordinates apply to it. Hence, the demon cannot harm you or
betray you in anyways]
"If he knows everything, does that include you?"
[No. The demon will not know the existence of the system]
Michael's mind was filled with questions. Trusting the demon with
his previous life didn't seem like a good idea to him. He wanted
that life to be hidden from anyone except Gaya. Only because he
was planning to marry Gaya, he revealed his previous life to her.
Still, he didn't completely divulge everything that happened on
earth.
[Think of the demon as the Alfred to your Batman. Even if you
wanted to, you cannot go back to earth or anyone in the universe
no matter how powerful they were. So there's no harm in letting
the demon know. Trust me host, I got your back]
Somehow the system sounded trustworthy to Michael. Despite its

tendency to rob him of his badass points, the system did have his
back always. His gut feeling told him to listen to the system.
Sooner or later, someone would definitely connect the dots
between Ghost and Lucifer, Michael knew this. So letting the
demon know about his two personas wasn't a world-ending
problem to him.
Revealing his life on earth seemed like a bad idea still the system
assured him that the demon would not be able to betray him in
anyways.
"What if I don't bind the demon to me?"
[Then there's a possibility of losing the demon's loyalty slowly and

if the loyalty level dropped under a certain point, the system will
be forced to neutralize the demon]
The system sounded cold. After spending almost 60,000 badass

points, Michael would never let the demon die in vain. With a
heavy sigh, he finally decided to bind the demon.
"Go ahead, bind the demon to me and the Abyssal" Michale felt a
tingling sensation within him like something was getting
embedded into his soul itself.
The sensation lingered for another couple of minutes before

fading away.
[Now you're all set]
His field of view got clear of notifications and warnings as he

slowly opened his eyes to see a black-haired man in butler's
uniform kneeling in front of him. The butler looked exactly as he
imagined.
"Tell me what's going on here? Is he really a demon?" her eyes
sparkled with excitement regardless of her doubts. She was used
to the miracles performed by him. In her mind, this was another
miracle from him.
[oh, I forgot to mention, the demon will have no recollection of its

memory before entering into the slumber state. So he's like a
newborn child, take good care of him]
The system expected him to get mad. However, Michael just

laughed in his mind.
"That's good" He was glad that the demon has no recollection of

its past. This way, the demon would focus on serving Michael
rather than trying to finish whatever business it had before
entering into the deep slumber.
[What the?]
The system sounded surprising. Michael did not continue to argue

with him as he was busy admiring his demon butler. He was
perfect, neck-length hair that looked shiny and straight, a body
type that was neither too bulky with muscles nor thin, blue eyes
that filled with loyalty towards Michael, neatly ironed clothes that
looked crisp. In simple words, he was a perfect butler. No one in
this world would recognize him as a demon in a million years.
"Should I address you as Lord Lucifer or Master Ghost, my lord?"

His voice didn't disappoint Michael. The voice was crisp, rough,
mesmerizing, and gravely calm.
"How did he-"
"He had to know everything about me, that's the price I had to pay
for waking him"
"I'm not questioning you but can we really trust him? He's a
demon for god sake" She quickly whispered in his ears.
"You can trust me with your life, Lady Gaya" the butler turned his
sharp gaze towards Gaya. Michael never thought the butler would
also know her identity. It seemed like binding let the demon know
almost everything Michael knew.
"Whoa, this is fucked up" she stared at Michael as he signaled the

butler to stand up. Although the butler was in an ethereal form, it
was really hard to notice the lack of physical body.
"The question is how do we call you?" Michael asked. The three

of them stood in silence for a few moments. She was in shock due
to everything that happened while Michael was deep in thinking of
a new name for his butler.
At the moment, except for the sound of the waterfall hitting the
ground, there was no sound.
"Azazel"
"Sebastian"
Michael and Gaya said at the exact same time. The name Azazel
was Michael's while the latter was hers. The demon gawked at
both of them with a calm smile. He kept his etiquette like a
professional butler.
"What the hell? I name you Azazel Sebastian.. You'll be called

Azazel when we're in this form and Sebastian when I'm Ghost and
she's Aelia. Until we found you a suitable physical body, avoid
revealing yourself to the world"
Chapter 292 - Returning To
The Sect
"You can call me Lord Lucifer here"
"Dark Queen would do"
The both of them said to their new butler.
"We can discuss about him later. Now tell me why can't I sense
their magical fluctuations?"? Gaya asked, gently brushing her
hands over the hydra's warm body. The hydra remained eyes
closed.
"I think it's his presence that stopping me from sensing the energy
around them"
"I dont think so" Michael didn't think what she said was true.
"Oh they're waking up" Just as Michael was about to ask the
system, Gaya saw the heads slowly opening their eyes. They had
grown double in size. It was like they had grown from the size of a
week-old puppy to a month-old puppy. Now the wings looked
more noticeable than before.
"Shit I feel good"
"Me too," the silver head said after the white head. The blackhead
tried to sense the changes in their body in silence.
"Come on, let's see we can fly" In their excitement, the hydra
failed to notice the demon butler as well as the gazes of Michael
and Gaya. The Hydra tried to flap its wings, hoping to take off from
Gaya's hand.
"Aren't they cute?!" seeing them bouncing on her hand, Gaya's
eyes sparkled. She immediately squeezed the hydra against her
chest showing them with kisses.
"Lord Lucifer, do you have any orders for me?" Azazel asked.
"Are you familiar with the Abyssal's layouts?"
"Since I'm bound to the Abyssal, I know this place like the back of
my hand. I can feel Dular and Aria in their rooms"
"Let's go meet them shall we?" Michael made his way towards the
door.
"I'll bite your face off woman!" the white head cursed Gaya. In
Gaya's eyes, they looked cuter when they are mad. Therefore,
she continued to caress them before following Michael.
Although the ethereal form of the butler let him hover above the
ground, he actually moved like he was walking.
"Lord Lucifer, I should take the liberty of cleaning this place. I

might need to borrow a few undeads from Dular"? Azazel asked
Michael after noticing the dust-covered walls and floor. By
imagining him as a butler as well as making him learn the book of
butler, Michael had turned the demon into a professional butler.
"I think you broke our demon. Why is he looking and talking like a
butler?"
"Don't you want a demon for your butler? I do" Michael said while
walking towards Aria's room which was the armory before he
turned it into a room to accommodate Aria and her brothers.
"I hope you'll come to love your life Azazel," Michael said.
"Serving you is what I love Lord Lucifer. Being your butler is the
greatest gift a demon like me could get"
"I like him," Gaya nodded approvingly.

"Seems like you have a lot to do here demon," the white head
said looking at the walls.
"I'll transform the Abyssal in a few days, Lady..." his voice trailed
off as Michael halted his steps for a moment to look at Azazel,
"How may I address the three of them Dark Queen, Lord Lucifer?
As far as I know, you haven't named them yet"
"She's Ayag, he's Sarba and the black is Cain. Together, they
shall be called VEDORA!" she raised her hand high beaming with
pride and excitement. She made the scene as theatrical as
possible with her voice and movements
"You just spelled your name backward and named her and spelled
Abras backward and named him didn't you?"
"The names sound cool, that's all it matters" she gave a thumbs
up to him.
The white head rolled its eyes yet did not disagree with its name
Ayag. The silver head who got the name Sarba had sparkles in its
eyes. As usual, the blackhead remained unemotional.
Since the names did sound cool, Michael accepted the names.
The moment he accepted the names in his mind, a bell sound
ringed in his mind.
[Congratulations for getting a new familiar, Vedora the three-

headed hydra]
Ignoring to look at the familiar tab for the time being, Michael
came to Aria's room doorsteps. The door was closed but they
could hear sobbing sounds coming from inside.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Michael knocked on the door thrice as the sobbing sound quickly
stopped.
"Who's there?"
"Who do you think?" Gaya opened the door to see Aria sitting
beside the large bed where her brothers were resting. There were
tubes attached to Michael's healing potions running into their
bodies. The twins slightly looked better than they were before as
the scars caused by various experiments had almost disappeared
from their bodies. Their hair and skin had more shininess
indicating their physical recovery.
"Lord Lucifer, Dark Queen" Aria quickly stood up from the bed
before kneeling down before them on one knee.
"Rise" Michael gestured to her to stand up. He then walked

towards Titus and Optimus.
"Their bodies and souls are healing faster than I expected" Except
for fewer scars on their bodies, he saw no difference yet he lied to
make Aria feel better. He planned to heal the twins using the
badass points but unfortunately, he had to spend most of his
points on Azazel. Compared to the twins, waking Azazel seemed
more important than the twins.
"What does that mean, Lord Lucifer?" Aria wiped off the tears from
her face. Her hands and legs shivered looking at Azazel. Just his
ethereal form freaked her out a little so she avoided direct eye
contact with him.
"They are recovering Aria. You might see them waking up sooner
than you expect but it'll take time to regrow their limbs"
"Really?" finally her lips slightly curved upwards revealing a

relaxed smile.
"Now, have you finished the task I gave you?"
It had been almost five months since he met Mathias, the Broad
River sect leader. He ordered Ella to get as many students and
teachers as she can and join the Sunrise Sect. Aria's task was to
assassinate Mathias as Michael knew he would stand in his plan.
"I did what you asked, Lord Lucifer" Aria flicked her wrist as an
empty vial appeared in her hand. Since Aria was a Body Refining
stage cultivator and Mathias was at the Core Formation stage,
Michael gave a powerful poison brewed by him to Aria to kill
Mathias.? He didn't say whether to poison Mathias's food or cut
him with a blade smeared with the poison because he wanted Aria
to think for herself.
"Good. Practice your combat skills using the Netherels. Since your
body is adapting to the conditions here, you won't turn into an
undead if they bite you"
"But it will hurt like hell, so avoid getting bitten" Gaya gave a piece
of advice to Aria. After seeing how they treated slaves in the
Southern continent, Gaya had a soft spot for Aria.
"Yes, Lord Lucifer" She was afraid of the undead. One could see
the fear in her eyes. Yet she obeyed his orders regardless of her
fears because she herself wanted to get tough. After all, she
promised herself that she will never let anyone hurt her family
ever again.
After giving Aria her next task, Michael left the room. While
walking through the corridors towards Dular's room,? Gaya turned
her gaze at Azazel to see him open and close his mouth like he
had something to ask but not sure whether he should.
"Do you have something to say Azazel?" Gaya asked,
"I prefer you speak your mind Azazel" Michael didn't stop or turn
back but said while walking.
"As you wish, Lord Lucifer. I do have something to ask"
"What do you have in mind?" Michael asked.
"I know you had a good reason to lie to Aria, can you enlighten me
on the why?"
Michael was surprised to see Azazel noticing his lie. He never
thought Azazel could detect his lie without even seeing his face as
he had the mask on his face to cover his micro-expressions.
"Sometimes, a lie can do more good than the truth" Azazel

repeated his words in his mind. Eventually, they reached the
doorsteps of Dular. There was no sobbing sound coming from the
room but the growling sounds of the Netherels.
*************************************
After a few hours, Michael and Gaya reached the Abyssal, there
were several people surrounding a bed. The house's interior and
the furniture had the difference of black and white. The house
looked ancient with several holes, long cracks in the walls, and
worn-out pantries and wooden racks. However, the sofa,
cushions, the tea table in the center of the hall, and the bed
looked majestic. The house belonged to none other than Michael
and Gaya. It was their sect house. Since Gaya ordered them not
to touch anything until she returns from seclusion, the workers
didn't renovate the house.
No one would enter Ghost's house except Raylene, little Cindy,

and Nightmare. The first two would get inside the house to keep it
from getting dust-covered. Nightmare usually rested with Claire as
he was not used to sleeping alone.
However, at the moment, several people were inside Michael's

bedroom itself.
"Please Cindy, just a little" Raylene was sitting on Michael's bed

with a tiny bowl of soup in her hand. Cindy was lying on the bed
covering up to her neck with Michael's blanket. The little girl was
shivering. Her usual playful child smile was nowhere to be found.
"I want big brother and sister Aelia right now!" Cindy tried to raise
her voice yet only a whisper came out of her mouth. Raylene
turned her head helplessly looking at Claire.
"I don't want the bad man to hurt me like he did to brother Jack"
Raylene's eyes began to water up. Ever since Claire found out
Jack's body in his own pool of blood, the little girl was severely
traumatized. Not even Nightmare could calm her as the girl was
asking for Ghost and Aelia. Raylene tried to take the girl home but
she refused to leave Ghost's home.
"Look, if you drink this soup, I will bring Ghost and Aelia here"
Claire sat beside Reylen gently brushing Cindy's forehead.
"You said the same thing yesterday," Cindy sobbed while tightly
holding onto the blanket.
"Sect Leader Claire" suddenly a male disciple rushed into the

home. He was taking heavy deep breaths in exhaustion.
"Brother Ghost...Brother Ghost and Sister Aelia has come out of

the seclusion"
*******************
Another Chapter will be up today. Stay tuned!!

Chapter 293 - Rampage
Raylene and Claire immediately stood up from the bed as the bed
was on fire after hearing the disciple. The disciples standing in the
room with Claire heaved a heavy sigh of relief, beaming in joy.
"Where are they?" Claire asked. She felt like an immense amount
of pressure was being lifted off her shoulder.
"They are at the foothills and coming here" Instead of flying here,
it was Michael's idea to land at the foothills and take a stroll. He
wanted to see how the sect has changed since he left.
"Go wake up Nightmare, he's at my house with the baby"
"Yes, Sect Leader!" The disciple left the room in a hurry to wake
up Nightmare who is sleeping with Cindy's brother. Despite his big
scally terrorizing body, Nightmare was pretty gentle with the baby.
No one in the world would have believed that Nightmare, a dragon
loved babysitting.
"Brother!"? Cindy jumped off the bed full of energy. Before they
could stop her, she leaped out of the bed, running towards the
outside.
The others couldn't do anything but follow behind the little girl.
Hearing that Ghost had returned, Cindy ran outside showing no
signs of fever or exhaustion.
When Claire reached outside, she saw disciples rushing towards

their dormitory in fear. Only a few daredevils remained outside of
Ghost's house to see his and Aelia's reaction to Jack's death.
"Where are they?!" Cindy shouted at one of the disciples waiting

for Michael. She kept bouncing from the ground to see the
distance.
It took everyone a few minutes before vaguely noticing two figures
in black slowly walking towards them.
"Look brother Ghost is back!"
"Is that really him?"
"Wow he looks different"
"Of Course it's brother Ghost. Who do you think walking beside
him?"
"That's sister Aelia you've been telling us about"
"Sister Aelia gonna lose it"
"Just let Sect Leader Claire break the news"
The disciples began to chit-chat. Some seemed excited while

some seemed terrified. Those who recently joined the sect from
various towns had never seen GHost before. Therefore, they
waited for the famous Ghost of River town with their own eyes.
"Sect Leader Claire, Lady Raylene '' Claire turned back to see
Daniel and Ricky rushing towards them carrying a basket full of
wild mushrooms for Raylene's soup.
"We heard Master Ghost is back," Daniel said. One could see a
sliver of fear in his eyes. Ricky on the other hand looked pale as a
white paper.
Both of them were more afraid of Aelia than Ghost because they
knew Master Ghost is a level-headed calm person while Aelia is
the exact opposite of him.
Besides, all of them knew Jack was Aelia's handyman who

followed her behind like a puppy dog. Among all the disciples,
only Jack had the guts to talk to her and even ask her for favors. It
was not a secret to the disciples that Jack worshipped Ghost and
Aelia as his siblings.
*******************************
At that moment, Michael and Gaya were walking towards the
home with the biggest frowns on their face. Along the way, they
noticed several guards of the Winston family and adventurers
patrolling the path to the sect. They expected a line of noble
carriages from the foothills to their home to buy potions and pills
yet they saw no carriages or a single person other than a disciple
of the sect or a guard of the Winston family.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Michael thought to himself.
"Brother!" Suddenly he heard a high pitch shout of Cindy as he

saw the little girl running towards him as fast as she could. Her
cute face put a wide smile on Michael's face. Almost twenty
meters away from Claire, Raylene, the disciples, and his house,
he was welcomed by Cindy. The little girl leaped from the ground,
throwing herself to Michael. His haircut, new clothes, or buffed-up
physique was not enough to give the little girl a hard time
recognizing Michael.
"Hey there butterball" Michael caught the little girl in the mid-air
safely. He felt her wrap around his neck getting tighter and tighter.
"You're back"? as she said, she removed her one hand to hug
Gaya.
"I missed you too, tiny human, '' Gaya giggled. She moved closer
so the little girl could hug both of them at the same time. Cindy
didn't stop with the hug as she tried to climb on Michael's chest
using her tiny feet.
"Whooooo you're back. Don't let the bad man hurt me" she
sobbed, hugging him tightly.
"I think she's crying," Gaya said.
Michael was confused. Her sobbing didn't seem like a cry of joy.
The little girl kept trying to climb on Michael when she pulled her
apart from him by lifting her by the arms. Cindy's face was pale,
there was no redness or baby fat in her face. She lost weight as
Michael could see her collar bones and feel her ribs on his hands.
Moreover, black circles could be seen under her eyes because of
her lack of sleep.
Her transformation, what she just said about a badman and the
reactions of the people around them made him realize that
something bad has happened. He expected them to welcome him
with joy and cheers yet he only saw fear and anxiety on their
faces.
"Where's Nightmare?" Although he made sure absolutely no harm

could come to Nightmare, seeing their reactions made him
automatically think of Nightmare.
"Don't leave me again" In his arms, Cindy cried. Michael hugged

her as Cindy buried her head on his chest.
"I know something's very wrong here or you wouldn't have closed
the Majestic. Where is that little shit? He better have a valid
reason like dying to make me stop from what I'm planning to do to
him"
Ricky and Daniel were responsible for the restaurant in River town
while it was Jack's responsibility to keep the Majestic up and
running without problems while they were away. Hence, Gaya
looked for Jack having zero clues about his demise.
"Brother Jack...whooo….whooo" Tears began to roll out of Cindy's

eyes.
Gaya saw everyone avoiding direct eye contact with her when she
mentioned Jack. Her eyes slowly turned cold as she walked
towards Claire.
She then grabbed Claire's shoulder,
"Where...is...Jack?"
"Teacher" While Gaya was asking Claire, Michael saw Olivia

running towards him from the direction of the herbal garden. Olivia
too had no smile on her face.
"Spit it out!" Claire felt her surrounding air turning colder. With
tears filling up her eyes, Claire finally opened her mouth,
"He's dead. Jack's dead, Aelia"
The entire surrounding became deadly silent. No one dared to

utter or make a sound. Michael's mind got filled with questions
when he heard Claire.
"Dead?" Gaya asked. The veins in her eyes popped, turning her
eyes red. Her entire body shivered in anger.
"The bad man killed him," Cindy blurted out.
"He was murdered? Who?" Gaya asked Claire.
Everyone's gaze was locked on Gaya. Michael didn't show his

inner emotions as Gaya but he was feeling the anger boiling
inside him after knowing that Jack was murdered.
"We don't know," Claire shook her head. Finally, Gaya let go of her
shoulder.
"He was murdered and you don't know who" she repeated the
sentence again and again as she walked towards their house.
"Lord Lucifer, I suggest we take a few steps back. '' Michael heard
Azazel's voice. He was standing right beside him yet no one could
see the butler because of his phantom form skill.
Everyone felt the killing intent radiating from Gaya skyrocketing.
"You don't know!'' Suddenly she shouted, throwing her fist at the
house.
Boom!'
The wall exploded into smithereens as the entire house shook.

The front wall of their house completely collapsed. In a few
moments, countless cracks formed in the ground beneath the
house as well as on the other walls.
"HE WAS KILLED AND YOU DON'T KNOW!" Her shout almost
busted their eardrums.
"Lightning Dash '' Michael immediately covered Cindy with his

coat before activating Lightning Dash. He pushed the spell to its
maximum potential to save Raylene, Claire, Ricky, and Daniel
from getting hurt by the debris.
Gaya went mad as she kept punching the house until it completely
collapsed to the ground. A mushroom cloud of dust enveloped
them. Only her mad screams could be heard in the area.
"Aelia!"
"Stop!"
Claire and the disciples screamed.
"Take them away!"
Thanks to Michael most of them survived Gaya's rampage with

little to no wounds while some of them had their heads opened
due to the debris, hitting them. He was like Flash rescuing
civilians from evil supervillains.
Michael was glad there was no other building in the area for her to
go, breaking them all. She disappeared from his sight into the dust
storm.
Michael yelled at Claire before handing Cindy over to Raylene.

Claire and the disciples did not linger around to get hit by debris.
They ran away taking the injured with them.
"AHHHH!" Michale heard her mad shout coming from the ruins. It
was obvious she completely lost control of her anger. Unlike
Michael, she wasn't trained to control her emotions and anger.
Michael wanted to stop her before she harm others and herself.
Cracks of lightning surrounded him as he was about to rush into

the ruins of his house when he saw a red ball dashing into the
ruins from the skies.
"Nightmare?"
Chapter 294 - Who Killed
Jack?
Michael activated the lightning dash to rush into the ruins.
"Wind blast" while running into the dust cloud surrounding the
ruins, he raised his hands sending several blasts of wind to clear
the rubble and the dust.
The powerful wind blasts cleared the dust in a few seconds

revealing Nightmare and Gaya. For a moment, Michael couldn't
recognize the dragon. When he left for the Southern Continent,
Nightmare was the size of his hand. Now it stood almost 3 meters
tall and 10meters long. He was not as big as smog but not small
either. Nightmare's crimson red scales glistened under the
sunlight. Nightmare was holding down Gaya against the ground,
he held onto her hands preventing her from destroying and
attacking him in rage.
"Ghosty" when Nightmare saw Michael walk out of the dust, his
vertical pupils became rounded. Even Nightmare's voice became
rough and gritty, suitable for a majestic dragon.
"GET OFF ME!'' The momentary distraction was enough for Gaya
to fight against Nightmare's hold. She gritted her teeth, slowly
lifting Nightmare's hands. Both Michael and Nightmare were
stunned to see her strength. Even Michael did not know she had
the raw strength to lift a dragon against gravity.
Her hands slowly began to show purple scales while she began to
grow in size. In addition to the scales and growth in size,
Nightmare noticed her eyes transforming into those of a cobra.
Michael rushed into her side before she fully lost control of the
innate ability that keeps her in human form.? Visible to the naked
eyes, she was becoming more and more like a snake. The
purples scale had covered up to her neck while below her waist
transformed into one long snake body.
"Shit, system I need a powerful sleeping potion ASAP"
"1000 badass points"
"Quick"
"I cannot hold her much longer, Ghosty" Nightmare growled as

Michael came to Gaya's side.
"You idiot" Michael cursed her before forcing the potion down her
throat. She frantically wiggled, spitting the potion on both
Michael's and Nightmare's faces. Still, she couldn't overpower a
dragon and Michael.
"Let….go" FInally a few seconds after Michael forced the potion

down into her mouth, she started to lose consciousness. Her body
gradually shrank back to her normal human form.
"Sigh, I wish we had reunited under different circumstances

Ghosty" Nightmare lowered himself to rest his head on Michael's
shoulder. Michael wrapped his arm around Nightmare's neck,
gently patting his warm body.
"Me too buddy, me too"
To Michael's surprise, Nightmare shrank himself to the size of a

three-month-old German Shepherd. With a leap, he landed on
Michael's shoulder.
Then he began to shower Michael with wet kisses.
"Was that your original size?"
Nightmare shook his head, "this is my original size. I can

temporarily get bigger to enhance my strength. It's one of my
innate talents I got after metamorphosis"
Michael nodded, picking Gaya from the ground.
"Show me where he was killed," He asked Nightmare. Before

doing anything, Michael wanted to see where Jack was killed. He
didn't think he could find the killer by just looking at the place but
still, he wanted to see it.
"Follow me" Nightmare flapped his wings to ascend to the sky.

With a couple of flaps, he was high in the sky. Carrying Gaya in
his hand, Michael took off from the ground. He stopped for a
moment in the sky to look back at the ruins. Even though the
house was shabby, it was his home. He couldn't help feeling a bit
sad to see it crumble into pieces. In addition to the house, Jack's
face also flashed across his eyes. Jack was innocent in Michael's
mind. If Jack was Lucifer's blacksmith and killed by his enemies,
Michael would have understood the reasoning behind his death.
However, Jack never did no such thing as helping him kill people.
Not even before flying for five minutes, Nightmare started to

descend towards the forest near his house. Black lines appeared
on Michael's forehead. He was thinking Jack was killed
somewhere far from his house which would have indicated his
murder wasn't connected to Lucifer.
"He was killed near our home?" Michael asked while flying
through the thick canopy.
"What was Jack doing here?" He asked another question,
"Collecting mushrooms and fruits for Raylene" Michael halted his

steps. He remembered that collecting mushrooms and fruits were
usually done by Cindy as she loved to help her mother. In addition
to the forest being so close to Michael's home, there was always
Jack or a disciple accompanying Cindy. Even Gaya would
sometimes tag along with the little girl if she wanted to hunt in the
forest.
"Was Cindy with Jack that day?"
The sight of his previous life flashed across his eyes. Everyone in
his orphanage was killed because of Spectre's order so Michael
had seen little children he cared about dying. That was the day he
lost his calmness and went rampage, killing every single one of
his assassin colleagues including his girlfriend and Spectre.'
The thought of Cindy might have been killed along with Jack
made his blood boil. He loved Cindy because the little girl loved
him unconditionally. Unlike Maisy who was a spoiled brat in his
eyes, Cindy was such a sweet caring girl who wanted nothing
from him. Not only Michael, but every single person in the sect
also cherished her.
"She...she was the one who found his body," Nightmare said,
swallowing a mouthful of saliva. He was not an exception to those
who adore Cindy. Hence, Nightmare avoided thinking about
scenarios that could have harmed Cindy.
Nightmare stopped walking when he reached a large oak tree.
"This is the place"
Michael gently placed Gaya under another tree before walking to

Nightmare's side.
"System, I need Red Mint, Urchin Vein, Pegasus Hoof, Ent Bark,
Leeching Buxus," He thought in his mind as the system showed
him the price of 800 badass points before him.
Nightmare saw the green Alchemy flames appear above his hand,
"There's no perfect crime Nightmare. We can find traces of

evidence if we have the right tool, in this case, a potion"
Michael threw the various ingredients into the green fire. He then
made a few hand signs in one hand while holding the fire in the
other. As usual, pearl-like essence began to form above the green
fire before finally coming together to make a liquid orb.
Without sending the potion into a vial, Michael waved his hand as
the liquid splashed on the tree and the ground around the tree.
The ground absorbed the liquid in a few seconds. Gradually
before their eyes, the ground's color changed from muddy brown
to fluorescent blue.
"Is that-"
"Blood," Michael said as he squatted down to see any patterns on

the ground. He hoped Jack would have left some clues about his
killer. Although it was highly unlikely, he still hoped for a clue.
While Michael was studying the ground for clues, Nightmare

noticed Gaya's body moving.
"She's waking up" In the split second Nightmare turned his head,
Michael ruffled the ground to remove the clue from their eyes.
"GG" Michael saw two distinct marks on the ground. He knew

Jack probably had written the two letters before dying. There were
not many things that related to the letters 'GG' except Guardian
Guild.
"Where...am… I?" She mumbled, slowly opening her eyes.
Both Michael and Nightmare remained silent without answering

her question. They wanted for her to completely wake up from her
sleepiness.
Gaya's vision slowly cleared up to reveal the tree around her. The
lack of sunlight coming through the canopy made seeing
everything around her clearly difficult.
"You dumb snake, you destroyed our home and revealed your
identity to everyone in the sect"
Instead of answering Nightmare, she turned her gaze towards

Michael.
"Do you know who killed him?" She asked coldly. Although she
seemed not as furious as before, he could still see the murderous
intent in her eyes.
"No"
What she did made Michael mad at her. She single-handedly
endangered herself and him. If she was to fully reveal herself as
Naga, it wouldn't be long before Xanali finds out about her true
identity. At that time, she would be killed or imprisoned along with
him.
If she began to act crazy every time someone close to them was
murdered, his enemies would use this to their own advantage.
Keeping a calm head was always important to stay ahead of their
enemies.
Until he was sure that she wouldn't lose her mind again like that,
he decided not to tell about the Guardian Guild. If she tried to
attack a guardian on a rampage, the guild would destroy her and
his sect. Compared to the Guardian Guild, they were like weak
ants.
They still had a long way to go before starting to challenge or

mess with the Guardian Guild. His full focus was on becoming
strong without making powerful enemies.
"Then find who murdered him. I will kill him and everyone knows
about Jack's murder. No, I won't kill him right away, I will flay him
alive, piece by piece. I will make him experience hell"
She looked crazy and ominous with that evil grin on her face.
"You want to keep your secrets fine. But I want you to find the
person who killed him"
If anyone could find who killed Jack, Gaya knew it's Ghost.
Chapter 295 - Switching Gears
"Trust me I will find whoever did this but I won't tell you anything
related to his murder until then" Michael blatantly said to her face.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" She never expected this
answer from Michael.
"Do I look like I'm kidding? What you did was stupid. You lost
control of yourself, endangering you us and everyone around"
Nightmare agreed with Michael with a nod.
"So you expect me to stand there like a stone. I'm sorry I wasn't
trained to be as heartless as you were"
"Calm down, both of you" Nightmare tried to diffuse the situation

before it escalated further.
"Shut up lizard. I'm talking to him"
She quickly shut Nightmare before continuing to argue with

Michael.
"I get that I might have lost control of my emotions but you look
you don't even care. Jack treated you like his own brother and he
was your kind for god sake"
Michael remained in silence uttering no words. He let her pour out

everything in her heart. As she said, he was trained to control his
emotions.
After hearing her words he could tell that she had mistaken his
calmness for lack of emotions. Although he was trained to control
his emotions, it didn't mean he didn't feel anything. He just chose
not to show it outside or let the emotions cloud his judgment.
"Would you do something or be as calm as now if something
happened to me?"
It was evident that her anger slowly turned towards Michael. She
expected him to find the person who killed Jack without a delay,
yet hearing that he had no intention to let her know anything
regarding the investigation until he finds the scumbag responsible
made her blood boil in anger. Moreover, she felt like he didn't trust
her after everything they went through together.
"So you'll only trust me as long as I behave to your liking?"
She stopped talking, expecting him to say something.
"By acting the way you did, what did you gain? Did you find out
who killed Jack?" Michael simply asked two questions instead of
explaining himself.
She kept opening and closing her mouth without an answer to

give,
"You asked if I would be as calm as now if something happened to

you. The answer is yes because if I start to lose my mind, anger
and other emotions will cloud my judgment. Don't mistake my
calmness for lack of emotions. I just don't show my emotions the
way you did. And I'm not even gonna explain myself about trusting
you. I trust you with my life, that's all you gonna get from me? "
Gaya's eyes began to water up hearing his last words.
"I thought you would know this after everything we went through"
After speaking these words, Michael took off from the forest
leaving Nightmare and Gaya behind.
He wanted some time alone to process everything that just

happened. Her words hurt him, even though he hadn't realized it
yet.
"Are you happy now, snake?"
Puffs of smoke came out of Nightmare's nostrils.

"How could you even ask him whether he trusts you or not? Has
he done anything without including you? Jack would have never
wanted this"
Tears began to roll out of her eyes as Nightmare continued,
"Even now he chose not to tell you anything because he wants to

protect you. Hear my words snake, you won't find someone who
trusts and loves you as Ghost, not in this lifetime, not ever"
She broke down to the ground, crying. Michael's words, Jack's

death and Nightmare's words pierced her heart. She couldn't hold
back the tears anymore.
Seeing her break down to tears stunned Nightmare. He had never

seen her like this. It was not his intention to make her cry. He
slowly walked towards her before wrapping his wing around her
shoulder.
"You know how it feels to have a family that treats you as their
enemy?" Gaya asked Nightmare sobbing. The moments she
spent with Xanali, her mother, and her father flashed across
Gaya's eyes. Her stepmother or even her real father never treated
her like they treated Xanali. They loved Xanali while always
viewing Gaya as a stranger.
"I know how it feels to be abandoned," Nightmare said. He still

clearly remember the time his mother threw him out of the nest
and running from the humans who wanted to capture him for
pleasure. Until he drew his last breath, he would never forget the
first time he saw Ghost. In his eyes, Nightmare only showed love
and excitement. Somehow Nightmare felt safer with him.
"I always yearned for a family that loves me. This sect, you,
Ghost, and everyone loves me unconditionally. You guys are my
family," She looked at Nightmare with her teary eyes.
"But I wasn't here to protect my family. I had nightmares of

someone calling for my help, I didn't take it seriously. If I returned
then-" her throat tightened in sadness.
"It's not your fault. Do not blame yourself. Just trust Ghost, he will
find whoever did this. When we get our hands on that filth, I'll help
you show him the hell" Nightmare chuckled to make her feel good.
He shook her shoulders playfully. Despite their constant bickering
and fights and the hate between the Naga race and the Dragon
race, Nightmare loved Gaya and so was she. He couldn't care
less about the hate between the two races. As far as he was
concerned, she was family to him.
"Blame yourself for destroying our home. Thanks to you, we're

homeless now"? Nightmare teased her. He didn't let go of her as
he kept her under his wings.
"It was a shabby house anyways" finally Gaya whipped off the
tears from her face. A small smile emerged on her face.
"Now let's go find Ghosty. And try not to act like a bitch this time"
"Shut you scaly fuck"
"There's the snake I know and love"
Gaya punched Nightmare in the neck as he gave a head butt to

her face. After that, they ascended to the sky searching for Ghost.
************************************
The serrated mountains loomed in the distance. Gaya and

Nightmare made their way towards them searching for Michael.
The trees blanketed the mountains decorating the mountains in
jade green. The heaven-touching apex of the mountain was
drenched in brilliant light. All across their line of sight, the tips of
the mountain range stuck up like a row of thorns.
Atop the tallest mountain top, Michael was standing alone. His
black coat was fluttering in the wind backward. From the mountain
top, he could see the entire sect and the River town on the
horizon.
He had never come to this place before but he regretted that

seeing the calmness it gave to his soul and mind. Looking at the
sky, he saw Nightmare and Gaya flying towards him.
The demon butler was standing behind him uttering no words. He

let Michael enjoy peace and calmness.
After a couple of minutes, they landed behind Michael.
"Human" Michael heard Gaya's voice. She sounded meek, gentle,

and apologizing.
He kept gazing at the view before him as Nightmare and Gaya

slowly made their way towards him.
"I'm sorry" she hugged him from behind, burying her head on his
back.
"It's that-"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me" Michael interrupted her,
"You spoke your mind"
His distant words began to hurt her,
"You're right, I'm not gonna explain myself to you. I love you and I
trust you with my life too, that's all you're gonna get from me" She
hugged him as tight as she could.
For a few minutes, they just stood there without moving until
Michael turned back,
"I promise I won't lose my mind again," Gaya said, looking him
directly in the eyes.
"No, you won't" Michael caringly embraced her. After seeing her
teary eyes, he couldn't be mad at her anymore. He loved her so
much that he couldn't see her cry.
"I will make sure no one hurts the people we care about
anymore," Michael said before gently kissing the top of her head.
Eventually, Nightmare couldn't stay back; he came to join the hug.
He grew big enough to wrap both of them in his wings. He then
wiggled his head in between Michael and Gaya.
"I missed this so much" Nightmare purred.
"What are you gonna do?" Gaya asked,
"We're going to make our sect stronger than any other sect in this
entire continent and it's time this continent has seen a 6-star
Alchemist"
An unwavering resolution appeared in Michael's eyes. With the

system's help, no matter the cost, he planned to become a 6-star
myth-level Alchemist. At that time, he would find an existence
equal or stronger than the Guardian Guild to associate himself.
It was time he played the offensive instead of defensive. Since

they decided to mess with the people he cares about without
thinking about any consequences, he would make them regret
crossing his path.
"Let's start kicking asses by winning the upcoming championship

tournaments" Nightmare reminded them about the tournaments.
"Oh shit, I almost forgot about that. It's tomorrow isn't it?" Gaya
took her head back from his chest,
"Nope, they postponed it by a week"
"Why?"
Nightmare just realized something as he looked at both of them,
"You don't know, do you?"

Chapter 296 - The Alchemist
Guild Invitation
"Holy fuck.That was why I couldn't see any Arch energy radiation"
Gaya's jaw slightly dropped hearing Nightmare explain that the
cultivators lost the ability to sense someone else's cultivation level
as they were used to.
Nightmare noticed Gaya and Michael keep looking at each other

with their brows arched up.
"Don't tell me that you two were somehow involved" Nightmare

sighed. It didn't really surprise him. Gaya was staring at Michael
like a thief caught in the act.
"You could say that" Michael grinned,
"You're smiling" Nightmare tilted his head in confusion. As far as

he knew, there was nothing good that could come out of the
current world situation.
Ever since Hydra's scream messed up Arch energy waves in the

world, crimes of the rogue cultivators had been increased. The
hydra's scream worked like an EMP that short-circuited the energy
radiation of the world, producing many known and unknown
issues.
Most defense arrays relied on sensing the Arch energy radiations

coming from a cultivator, since the Hydra's scream changed the
way the radiation coming from someone's body, the arrays were
rendered useless. Hence, the rogue cultivators capitalized on this
opportunity to thieve, murder, and commit heinous crimes around
the continent.
The ability to hide the arch energy radiation was what made Aria
such a valuable asset to Michael. But now, practically everyone
had her ability.
"Before we tell you what happened in the Southern Continent, I

have a few things to take care of. Let's return to the sect. And
thanks to you, we're homeless now" Michael flicked her on the
forehead,
"That's what I said, hehehe" Nightmare laughed as she rolled her

eyes,
"You two are not gonna let this one go, are you?"
"Nope" Nightmare shook his head before taking off to the sky
along with Michael and Gaya.
*******************************************
Flying for a couple of minutes from the hilltop was enough to

reach the ruins of their home. Michael slowly descended from the
sky to see several disciples cleaning up the ruins. The disciples
were shifting through the rubbles to salvage something, yet all
they could manage to salvage were big pieces of the sofa,
Michael's bed, and the board of Majestic.
"Brother Ghost"
The disciples welcomed Michael with fear-mixed smiles. They

avoided eye contact with Gaya. After seeing what she did, they
were freaked out.
"Why are you guys doing this? Get the adventurers or the
constructions workers for this job"
To make the sect the strongest, almost all the disciples needed to
be better than the disciples of the other sects. By better, Michael
meant, powerful, disciplined, smart, hardworking, and humble
unlike those pricks like Alex or Celina.
"But brother Ghost, it would cost us," a female disciple who was in
the sect from its downfall said, scratching her head.
"The dwarf is gonna ask for a good chunk of coins anyways, so

leave all the hard work to him and his people. He won't give a
discount because you cleaned this mess"
"That makes sense knowing Master Fovar" The disciples agreed

with Ghost.
"Now go cultivate" Michael waved off the disciples before making

his way towards Claire's manor. Adjacent to Claire's manor was
Raylene's home. It was not as big or fancy as CLaire's manor
because it was just a temporary residence for Raylene. Michael
planned to build her a manor suitable for a 5-star chef.
Several disciples were standing in the mini garden before Claire's

manor. When they saw the three of them approaching them, they
made way for them.
"Brother Ghost"
"Sister Aelia"
"Nightmare"
The disciples greeted them respectfully. Michael nodded with a

smile, giving some of them a pat on the shoulder on his way
inside. The disciples who received the pat from Michael became
electrified. Because they were new to the sect, they only heard
about Ghost through the senior disciples' stories. He was a local
legend. They kinda expected him to be like the celebrity disciples
like Alex, Celina or Victoria who wouldn't even look at the ordinary
disciples like them yet not only Michael smiled at them, he even
patted some of them on the shoulder. It was a simple gesture from
Michael's side but for the disciples, it was a big thing.
"Wow he looks so different in close"
"Did you see that? He smiled at me!"

"He patted me on the shoulder!"
"The seniors were right about him, he's so friendly"
"He has a dragon"
"What do you think his current cultivation level would be?"
"And how strong is the dragon and Sister Aelia?"
The disciples began to chatter among themselves looking at

Michael walking into the manor. The smell of this world's paint was
sweet, kinda like roses. Even after completing the construction
work a month ago, the smell still lingered in the air. The corridors
were rather empty with no vases, paintings on the walls, or
chandeliers to light the house. Only when he reached the hall, he
could see a few crude sofa sets as well as a chandelier decorating
the hall.
The sofa sets were made of bamboo as a large tea table made of
redwood occupied the space before the sofas at the center. Claire
and Elder Reiner were discussing something with serious faces.
He saw Cindy sitting on the sofa beside Claire. Cindy wrapped her
hands around Claire's hand. When Cindy noticed Michael, her
face brightened up like someone lit a candle in her head but when
she saw Gaya, the little girl hid her face behind Claire's hand in
fear.
Realizing that she made Cindy afraid of her, Gaya really regretted
her actions. Cindy kept gawking at Gaya hiding behind CLaire's
hand.
"Ghost"
"Elder Reiner, you look good" Every time he saw Elder Reiner, he
reminded Michael of Gandalf the white with his long white beard
and white robes. If he had a staff in his hand, he would be exactly
like Gandalf.
"You look different. What happened to your hair?" Elder Reiner

laughed. The situation somehow turned less solemn.
"Come here" To Michael's surprise, Elder Reiner stood up to give
him a hug.
"Welcome back, young man"
Meanwhile, Gaya went to sit beside Clair, right next to Cindy. She
grabbed Cindy's head, slowly turning it towards her.
"What? Are you afraid of me now?" Even the grown ups were
terrified when Gaya lost control of her anger. Therefore, it was
understandable when Cindy felt the same way as the others.
Michael and Elder Reiner sat on the sofa silently looking at them.
Nightmare quickly shrunk himself so he could rest on Michael's
lap comfortably.
"A little" Cindy said meekly.
"I'm sorry that I made you afraid Cindy. But didn't I say I don't like
scared little girls?"
"I'm not scared" her voice sounded like a scared cat.
"But you're scared of me" She asked, lifting Cindy from the sofa
by arms. Claire couldn't help smiling seeing how Cindy was in
Gaya's arms like a puppy.
"Look at you, avoiding eye contact. I won't speak to you again if

you're afraid of me"
"No" she quickly shook her head after getting threatened by Gaya.
"Are you scared of me?" she asked again,
"Please promise you won't stop talking to me" Cindy pleaded with
teary eyes. Cindy loved Gaya and Michael too much as she
couldn't even imagine either of them staying mad at her.
"Promise me you won't be scared anymore and will be a strong

girl"
"I promise"
"I can't hear you"
"I promise!" Cindy raised her voice. Gaya smiled, embracing the
little girl. Cindy hugged her back before giving a loving kiss on
Gaya's cheek. Claire ruffled Cindy's head as Elder Reiner laughed
in joy.
"Teacher, you're here" Suddenly he heard Olivia's voice as he

turned back to see her rushing towards them with a letter in her
hand.
"So have you done trying to kill us? Thanks to you, teacher is now
homeless" Olivia didn't seem afraid of Gaya but mad at her.
Instead of handing over the letter to Michael, she yelled at Gaya
with her hand on her waist.
Nightmare immediately burst into laughter.
"For god's sake, this is the third time I heard he's homeless thanks
to me"? Gaya smacked her forehead,
"You can stay in the guestroom," Claire said but Michael shook his
head,
"Thank you Sect Leader but I'm planning to go to River town, so

I'll stay in the restaurant. I'll also send Daniel or Ricky to bring
Fovar here to build a new home and Majestic"
In addition to his trip to the river town, Michael didn't want to stay
with Claire because it might create some unwanted rumors that
might affect her future when it comes to marriage.
"Take a seat Olivia" Claire didn't force Michael as she just nodded
at him. She then turned her gaze towards Olivia. In Michael's
eyes, Claire seemed different than the girl he first met. The way
she was sitting, her posture, the way she talked, everything
changed. Like a proper leader, she sat leaning back while keeping
one leg on top of the other. They were the signs of a person with a
strong heart and mind. He was glad to see that the Sect Leader
isn't a scared little girl anymore, she had grown into a proper
leader as he expected.
Olivia sat beside Michael, keeping some distance between them
"What's in your hand?"? Michael asked.
"It's from the Alchemist Guild" her eyes sparkled in excitement,
"The letter came for you last week, I think it's THE invitation"
Her hands shivered while handing over the letter to Michael. The
seal was still in place. On top of the letter, Michael saw the green
veins coiled around the letter A written in beautiful calligraphy. The
crest was etched on the letter in gold showing the grandiose of the
guild.
Under their gazes, Michael broke the seal to open the letter. After
a few seconds, they saw Michael snicker,
"Humph, the galls" Michael threw the letter on the table as Olivia's
eyes went wide in shock. In her eyes, the Alchemy Guild was the
highest existence among the Alchemists. Many would die to
receive a letter from the Alchemy Guild yet he threw the letter like
it was garbage.
"They want me to compete in the upcoming Grand Alchemists

competition"
After hearing Michael's words, they understood the reason behind

his reaction.
"Compete? They should invite you to judge. Asking a 5-star

Alchemist to compete with amateurs is an insult" Elder Reiner
raised his brows.
"So you're not gonna go?" Olivia asked,
"I'm going to attend.. Not to compete, but to show those idiots the
difference between me and them. It's time they learned who's the
real number one"
Chapter 297 - The Six Star
Alchemist
"Why did they do that?" Olivia mumbled under her breath. Just
like Elder Reiner said, it was an insult to ask the second-best
Alchemist in the continent to compete in the tournament instead of
asking to judge it.
Compared to Ghost, she knew most of the alchemists are

amateurs including herself. She was nowhere near his level yet
she was considered one of the talented alchemists.
"I'd say we call all our allies to dinner and reveal your talents there
before revealing to the Alchemist Guild. That way you have
backing if things went wrong" Claire suggested. It was surprising
that Michael was thinking exactly the same thing.
When he first showed his talents to Claire and the elders, they
were declining and Michael was just an unknown kid. However,
everything had changed. The Sun Rise sect wasn't declining
anymore, they were becoming stronger and stronger each day
with new disciples joining and more disciples reaching higher
cultivation stages. Besides, no one in their right mind would mess
with Ghost or the sect because of Claire's grandfather, a Soul
Refining stage cultivator.
"I'll ask Raylene to prepare the food," Claire said,
"I make sure our guests have plenty to drink" Elder Reiner went
outside to order wine leaving the rest of them behind.
"Since everyone's taking the initiative, I'll go hunt. You can't have
dinner without meat right? Now go play with your brother" Gaya
put Cindy on the ground.
"What are you gonna do brother? Can I stay with you" Cindy
came to Michael,
"I have a few things to take care of. We'll play later" Michael
ruffled Cindy's head with a smile. After everyone left the hallway,
only Michael, Olivia, and Claire remained,
"Teacher, what did you mean by the real number one?" Olivia
didn't know Michael could reach 90% purity every time without
slipping a single percentage.
"Everyone including Gabriel claims he's the number one

Alchemist in the Elon Continent. What's his purity level?" Michael
asked Olvia, leaning back on the sofa.
"84% is the highest he could reach" Olivia adjusted her glasses,
"84% not bad, but it's not this" he willed the system to give him the
90% healing potion he brewed for his personal use. Olivia was
confused for a moment trying to make sense out of his words. In a
blink of an eye, she saw a vial with sparkling blue potion appear in
Michael's hand. Her eyes immediately went wide as they seemed
like they were about to pop out.
The sweet fragrance being radiated by the potion filled the hall.
"This….this….is" words barely escaped Olivia's mouth.
Eighty-four percent pure potion was the highest she had ever
seen. It was the better potion in her mind, even compared to her
teacher's. However, the potion in Michael's hand was far more
superior to everything she had seen. She could feel the pure arch
energy pulsating from the vial.
"90% pure healing potion" Michael finished her sentence. She

looked at Claire subconsciously to see her not as surprised as she
was. Claire received a batch of these potions from Michael in case
of emergencies and for her own personal use.
"Teacher...did you..."
"What do you think?" Michael kept giving answers before she
could finish off her questions. She was stuttering in shock.
Michael placed the potion beside Olivia to take a few moments

with the potion. To expand his Alchemy empire, he needed Olivia's
father's expertise. Her father was Reginald Palmer, the vice
president of one of the most influential merchant guilds, the
Rainshade. With Nathen's Bradley family providing security
services, if he could get Olivia's father on board, he would be able
to start distributing his potions all over the continent.
"I'll leave you two to your Alchemy business" Claire giggled

looking at Olivia's dumbstruck face.
"Ugh Sect Leader, do you know where Ricky and Daniel are?"
"They'd be at the herbal garden"
"Thanks" She gave a slight nod at Michael before leaving the hall.
"I didn't want to reveal my true abilities for obvious reasons but it's
time to show what I can really do to this continent"
After taking in the shock for a couple of minutes, Olivia finally

talked without stuttering,
"Teacher, this means you're on the verge of becoming a legend

and a 6-star Alchemist. No one has seen a 6-star Alchemist since
the Fifth Supreme Guardian, Andreas McLeod" The mere mention
of the name kindled a bad feeling in Michael's gut. The man
eradicated the Order of Death and anyone who worshipped the
Dark Lord. The last time Michael met a sliver of soul left behind by
Andreas was when he ventured into the Treacherous Ocean.
Michael never knew the Supreme Guardian was a 6-star
Alchemist until now.
"I thought 6-star Alchemists were myths" When he first asked

Gaya about 6-star Alchemists, she said they were myths.
"Many people do say that. They are not to be blamed because it

has been roughly three thousand years since the world has seen
the Supreme Guardian. I read some notes about the Supreme
Guardian, according to those notes, he was able to achieve 98%
purity"
"Hmm" Michael entered the system interface,
"System, remind me what are the requirements to become a 6-

star Alchemist?"
[70,000 badass points to buy and learn the superior book of

Alchemy. Primordial fire and Ancient Elven rune of fire mastery]
The system listed the requirements. He never even heard of them

before.
"How much would it cost me if I bought everything from you?"
[That would be a great choice. I can give you all of them for only
800,000 badass points] the system sounded extremely excited. It
really thought Michael would choose to buy them from the store
instead of wasting his time and effort scouring this planet for the
required items.
"It seems I have to wait a little longer," Michael sighed. Reaching

800,000 points would take him at least two-three years
considering he avoids making unnecessary enemies. Moreover,
he couldn't help thinking about searching for the items rather than
buying them from the store. Of course, it would take time or even
become an impossible task yet he wanted to see whether he
could find the items first before buying from the system.
[Good luck finding the Primordial fires]
The system threw him out of the interface. He saw Olvia staring at
him with wide eyes. She was still in shock thinking that she's
studying under the number one Alchemist in the entire continent
who might become the first 6-star Alchemist in three thousand
years.
"Meet me at Raylene's home in two hours and keep this a secret

between us" Michael stood up.
"Of course. Teacher, can I ask you something?" looking at the way
she was holding the potion, he knew what she's gonna ask.
"Yeah, you can keep it. Compare the potions to this and try to find
the biggest differences between them. That's your next
assignment"
"Thank you teacher!" she almost shouted in excitement. She ran

like a bunny from the hall to study the potion.
**************************************
Leaving Claire's manor, he reached the herbal garden in a minute

using the Lightning Dash spell. The use of the spell earned him
almost three thousand badass points from the disciples.
When he reached the herbal garden, he saw dozens of disciples

working the field, studying and tending to the herbs. The herbal
garden was surrounded by a fence and a three-meter-wide
foundation dig for the glass dome. He looked down into the dig to
see a green net above the ground. The net was there as a safety
precaution in case someone fell into the hole, especially Cindy or
her friends.
Looking at the green fields blanketed the ground like a jade

blanket, the colorful exotic flowers dancing in the wind, the
glistening fruits hanging from six feet tall trees, the sprouts craning
their heads from the ground as well as the saplings made him feel
proud.
The air he inhaled was mixed with sweet and medicinal fragrance
permeated from the herbs. He even saw several colorful flocks of
birds that he had never seen in his life. Some of the birds were
standing on the tree branches while some scoured through the
ground for insects to eat. They were nature's pest killers so the
disciples let them do whatever they want without chasing them
away. Besides, the sounds of the birds made the garden feel
lively.
"Brother Ghost!"
"He's here"
"Don't mind me, continue your work," Michael said before the
disciples start gathering around him like ants around sugar. He
then searched for the garden to locate his two henchmen.
His eyes automatically stopped at the place where he saw neatly

stacked crates. Ricky was counting the crates while Daniel was
writing something onto his notebook. Even after Gaya almost
killed them along with the disciples when she destroyed Michael's
home, the two henchmen didn't use it as an excuse to avoid
working. They came straight to the garden to check the herb
stocks. The two of them were the busiest people in the sect. In the
morning, they would be at River town, supervising the cleaning
and miscellaneous works to be done in the restaurant. In the
afternoon, they had to make sure the disciples harvest the right
amount of herbs from the garden as some herbs needed to be
harvested and kept away from the sunshine as long as possible to
increase the medicinal quality.
After finishing their work at the herbal garden, they would spend
the rest of their day cultivating. Gaya made it mandatory for them
to cultivate, she even allocated potions and pills for them to speed
up their cultivation.
From the system storage, Michael took a white paper and quill to
write down everything he needed before inviting his allies to the
dinner. Lucifer had his fun. Now was time for Ghost to strengthen
his alliances, start his Alchemy empire and finally, make steps
towards destroying the Guardian Guild once and for all.
Chapter 298 - Preparations
Before The Big Dinner
"No peeking lizard" At the moment, inside one of the rooms in

Raylene's home, Gaya was carrying Nightmare in her arms while
closing his eyes using one hand.
"I'm not peeking" Nightmare lied as he tried to peek through the

gap between her fingers yet he couldn't see anything.
"Where's the food bitch?" Nightmare suddenly heard a childish

voice.
"Whoa, what is that? Is that what you call a dragon? looks small
than I expected"
Nightmare continued to hear the childish voice. It somehow

sounded more like Gaya, only childish.
"You ruined a good surprise little shit" He heard Gaya cursing

back,
"Who is that?" Nightmare pushed down Gaya's palm with his

hands to see a creature with three heads staring at him on the
table. Vedora and Nightmare entered into a staring contest as
they looked at each other without even moving their heads an
inch.
Gaya slowly put Nightmare on the ground. Nightmare started to

circle the table cautiously before slowly moving forward towards
the hydra.
"I'm Sarba, I guess you're our brother" Nightmare was stunned

again to see the silver head talk in the voice of a male child.
Besides, the silver head sounded exactly opposite to the white
head who reminded Gaya of him.
He then turned his gaze towards the blackhead, expecting it to

speak. However, unlike the silver and the white head, the
blackhead remained silent.
"Enough circling you overgrown lizard, go fetch me something to

eat"
Ignoring Ayag, Nightmare approached the hydra step by step.
Creak!
Suddenly the door creaked open as Nightmare almost plummeted

with the table in shock. It was Michael who entered the room. He
saw Gaya having a laugh with Nightmare and the Hydra.
"Come here" she pulled him closer wrapping her arm around his.
Both of them stood in the room's coroner watching the Hydra and
Nightmare. The scene reminded Michael of dogs meeting their cat
sibling for the first time. Only Nightmare was the dog and the cat
sibling was the Hydra here.
"Hey stop" Ayag growled seeing Nightmare sniffing them. Ayag

kept hitting Nightmare on the face with her head.
"Who are they?" Nightmare gently picked them up from the with
his hand.
"Drop us or I'll chew your hand off" Ayag tried to wiggle herself out
by chewing his hand. But Nightmare barely felt anything.
"That little shit is Ayag, the nice one in the middle is Sarba and the
silent blacky is Cain. Together, we call them Vedora. Do you like
them?"? Gaya asked after introducing them to Nightmare.
Nightmare once again stared at them from top to bottom. Then, to

everyone's surprise, his vertical pupils became rounded as he
hugged them grinning.
"I love them, they are so cute"

"Eww, stop! '' Ayag started to shout when Nightmare began to
shower them with wet kisses. Gaya couldn't stop herself from
scoping them off the floor before giving them a warm embrace.
She hugged Michael with one hand while hugging the Hydra and
Nightmare with another. They looked like a perfectly happy family.
Placing a gentle kiss on Gaya's head, Michael willed the system to
activate the runic teleportation.
**************************************
In a blink of an eye, they appeared in Michael's room in the

Abyssal. When they looked at the room, they were startled. The
room was spotlessly clean. The bed was made neatly like in high-
end hotels. There was not a speck of single dust or broken piece
of Spyder on his work table. Even the mirrors he placed on the
wall to survey the kingdom were cleaned spotless.
"Welcome Lord Lucifer, Lady Gaya, Master Sarba, Miss Ayag,

Master Cain"
Nightmare was yet again startled by the stranger. He bared his

teeth threateningly at the Demon butler.
"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Master Nightmare"
"Huh? I never met you before. What are you?" Nightmare was
taken back by surprise.
"He's a demon Nightmare. Just like Vedora, he came from another

world. The three of you should go have a talk" Michael waved
them off and went to his work table.
Gaya saw stacks of crates appear around the table. The room
was lit in green after Michael conjured his Alchemy flames.
"Do you need any help?" She came to his side,
"I can manage, you go cultivate. We need to be in our best shape

before the tournament starts"
"Alright" Gaya jumped on the bed to cultivate. The Fusion stage
bone still had some energy left in it for her to absorb. She flicked
her wrist as the femur bone appeared in her hand.
While she was cultivating, Michael began to brew potions and

concoct pills for the Majestic. He continued to make pills and
potions without a rest. Only Azazel accompanied him as Vedora
and Nightmare fell asleep while Gaya was still cultivating.
"Lord Lucifer, can I bring you anything to eat or drink? I saw bell
berries in the forest"
"This is the eighth time you asked this Azazel. I'm not hungry, the
arch energy keeps the body replenished"
He took the last herb from a crate. Although Michael was not
hungry, he wanted to eat something or drink a mug full of coffee to
chase away the sleepiness. He had been making potions and pills
for the last fourteen hours without a break. It took a toll on his
body as he was exhausted both mentally and physically.
"But as your faithful butler, it's my duty to keep you in your best
shape Lord Lucifer. If I only has a physical body, I would have
made you something myself"
"Why don't you try to make the undeads make me something?"
"Absolutely not Lord Lucifer. I won't let those filthy vile creatures
defile your food. Making them clean your room and the Abyssal is
the highest peak of my tolerance of them"
"Keep an eye on Dular and his experiments. We can't let the

Guardians sniff out this place"? He ordered Dular. Finally, Michael
stretched his muscles yet he didn't stand up. Azazel saw him
close his eyes.? Azazel thought he had fallen asleep but after five
minutes, he opened his eyes again.? A black card appeared on
the table when he opened his eyes. The card was metallic black, it
looked simple yet elegant. On the card's center, one could see a
skull embossed. A dragon similar to Nightmare coiled around the
skull while the letter 'G' could be seen behind the skull and the
dragon.
"What do you think?" Michael asked Azazel.
Azazel moved a bit closer to Michael to see the card clearly.
"It's beautiful, Lord Lucifer. I assume this is the card you're going
to give to your allies as Ghost"
"Yep," Michael nodded. He picked up the card from the table,

savoring the design.? It cost him 50 badass points to design the
card. To get 100 cards, he had to spend 4998 badass points. The
two points were discounted by the system.
"What do you see?"
Keeping the card in his hand, he asked Azazel,
"The skull is obviously related to your name, Ghost as the skull

often represents the dead and ghosts in this world. The dragon is
Master Nightmare. As for the G behind the skull, the others might
think it represents your name but I think it represents Lady Gaya."
"You're right" Michael expected nothing less from his demon

butler. As he said, the skull represented him, the dragon
represented Nightmare and the letter G represented Gaya. Except
for the people in this room, no one could tell that the G represents
Gaya. For others, the letter G was the first letter of Ghost.
************************************************
"Here's everything you asked" Long after the sun had risen from
the horizon, Gaya entered their room in Abyssal. Michael was still
sitting before his work table, brewing potions and connecting pills.
She had never seen him overworking himself like this. He always
used to take breaks or train with her but for the last two days, he
never even moved away from his work table.
After looking into the space ring Ricky gave it to her, she could tell
he's going to be busier than now.
"I also brought something for you to eat" A mug of hot coffee, fried
rice and a large piece of strawberry cake appeared on the table.
The sweet smell of the coffee made him take a deep breath. His
mouth automatically began water seeing the delicious food on the
table. Raylene's food always had the tendency to make him feel
hungry even when he was not.
"Where's Nightmare and Vedora?" Michael looked around the

room before asking,
"They are playing in the dark forest. Do you know Vedora is

immune to the fear toxin in the forest?" as she said, she took a
bite from the cake.
"It might be because of Vedora's origin. Remind me to check what

else Vedora is immune to later" Michael started to eat his food
before she finished off like the cake.
More than anything, he wanted the coffee to keep him awake.
"I sent the invitations to all our allies including Kane Family elders
and Olivia's father. Let's see whether they accept our invitation to
come to the sect"
"They will," Michael said. He did not doubt that. If they didn't
capitalize on an opportunity when they see one, they wouldn't be
where they are.
After finishing his food, he took a long sip of coffee. He

immediately felt refreshed. While drinking, he retrieved everything
inside the space ring Ricky gave to Gaya.
"You want anything else?" She asked,
"Just make sure the security has no holes"
"I've already hired the strongest adventure groups from the guild.
I'm now going to interview them"
"Good. Before you go, how many Spyders do you think we need
to monitor the entire kingdom of Bredia?"
***********************************
Finished with the fillers needed for this arc. From the next chapter
onwards, we can finally dive into the good stuff!!!!
Chapter 299 - Majestic Empire
I
The next day after Gaya gave the food to Michael, she came to
his room to inform him about the dinner preparations. As she
expected, he was still sitting in front of the worktable building
Spyders. The table was filled with tiny Spyders, some of them
were crawling on the table like they were alive.
"Everything's ready for dinner tonight" She came to his side.
"Good, I'm finished here" Michael waved his hand as all the
thousand Spyders on the table disappeared into the space ring in
his hand.
He then tossed the space ring to Gaya,
"How fast can you fly?"
************************************
Under a sky of perfect midnight velvet, under stars so brilliant they

drew the eyes heaven bound. The night was a special kind of
blackness, the kind that wants only to hold the stars and help
them to shine all the brighter. It was a warm black that hugged
Michael no matter what, and within its safety, he could feel his
own soul all the more clearly, that innocent inborn spark.
Whether it was because he was born to be a Dark Lord, he felt

stronger and safer in the dark. He was looking at the starry sky
from the mountain peak. Despite the light produced by the half-
moon and the millions of stars, he was barely visible with his full
black attire.
A few minutes passed by in peace. Only the silent night
accompanied him until he saw a couple of pegasus flying towards
the sect. He took a few steps to drop down from the mountain
peak. He felt the wind gushing against him, the gravity pulled him
down faster and faster before he activated the Lightning Dash to
fly. In a blink of an eye, he turned himself into a bolt of lightning to
reach the sect.
The dinner table was set in Claire's manor. Michael landed before
the manor to see Ricky and Daniel waiting to welcome the guests.
They wore gold-embroidered grey coat suits. The coat suit was
not of the modern age but of the medieval era.
"Master Ghost" they bowed with absolute respect towards

Michael,
"Guests are arriving. Be on your guard"
"Yes...Yes Master Ghost" Ricky stuttered. This was the first time
he had been to a dinner like this. For a commoner like him, it was
always difficult to interact with nobles. Daniel was able to hide his
anxiousness, unlike Ricky who was shivering from top to bottom.
"Relax. You just need to greet them and show them the way to the
hall"
Michael patted Ricky on the shoulder to give him some

confidence.
"It's just we are commoners-"
"That doesn't matter anymore. You work for me, that means you're
on equal foot with most of the nobles. Now, be on your guard and
do what you were told"? With a final pat to Ricky's back, Michael
climbed the stairs to enter the manor.
"And Ricky, Daniel" just a few steps away from the front door,
Michael turned back to call them,
"Try not to embarrass me and yourselves" As he said, he entered

the manor disappearing from their view.
When Michael entered the manor, he was overwhelmed by the
aroma emanating from the air. The aroma was so strong that he
could basically taste the air. Following the aroma, he came to the
hall where there was a large round table full of food. Mushroom
soup, bitter greens with tomatoes the size of peas, rare roast beef
slices as thin as paper, noodles in a green sauce, cheese that
melts on your tongue served with sweet blue grapes. The
disciples dressed in white tunics move wordlessly to and from the
table, keeping the platters and glasses full. The centerpiece of the
table was a honey-glazed pit-roasted forest boar. The golden-
brown meat glistened under the chandelier light.
"Brother Ghost" the disciples who were working as the servers

today greeted Michael.
"Continue your work, I'll? be right back"
Michael made his way towards Claire's room to meet her and
Gaya. Meanwhile, the disciples finished decorating the dinner
table with delicious foods cooked by Raylene.
****************************************
Nathen was flying behind his uncle Lord Malan on the pegasus in
silence. A trio of guards followed them behind. Under the
darkness of the night, one couldn't see the five of them without
using a spell. It was surprising for Nathen to see how quickly his
uncle postponed or canceled everything he had to do to attend the
dinner hosted by Ghost. As the family head of the Bradley Family,
Lord Malan barely had time to cultivate yet he made time for
Ghost. Unlike his uncle, he didn't come to meet Ghost but his
teacher Olivia. He wanted to ask a few questions regarding the
upcoming Alchemists tournament.
"They really turned the sect around," Lord Malan said in surprise,
looking at the buildings on the ground. Normally the buildings in
this continent would be lighted using torches, only wealthy families
and sects could afford to light their buildings using the
chandeliers. Lord Malan didn't expect the Sunrise sect to be using
chandeliers to light almost fifty to sixty buildings. In addition, the
buildings themselves looked sumptuous with their unique
architecture.
For a moment, Nathen was unable to guess where they should

land. Looking around the area, they found a majestic building with
water fountains, a large garden, and several lamps decorating it.
The manor was brightly lit from all the corners as it looked like it
was painted with gold and silver.
When they descended, Nathen saw two noblemen waiting at the

entrance.
Their group approached the two noblemen,
"Welcome to the Sunrise Sect Lord Malan, the head of House

Bradley and Lord Nathen" they were slightly surprised to see the
two noblemen greeting them by bowing their heads. The nobles
wouldn't bow their heads towards the other noble, Lord Malan was
confused. By looking at the gold embroidered dress they were
wearing, they looked like nobles.
"Please follow me this way, honored guests" Nathen saw the

young one gesturing at them to follow him. Nathen could see the
youngster was nervous yet he tried his best not to show it outside.
With a nod, Lord Malan started to follow Ricky behind. The

moment they stepped into the manor, all of them were
overwhelmed by the aroma in the air. It immediately made their
mouths water and their stomachs growl.
"Hey kid, is this the magic of the 5-star chef I'm smelling?" Lord
Malan asked Ricky while taking deeper breaths.
"Yes, Lord Malan. Every single dish has been cooked by Lady
Raylene herself"
Taking another twenty or so steps, they finally reached the hall

where several people were sitting around the dinner table filled
with colorful delicious food.
Nathen saw his teacher Olivia sitting next to a middle-aged man
with a brown goatee. His brown hair had patches of white hair
above the ears.
Other than Olivia and the man, Nathen saw a woman in her mid-
thirties occupying the chair next to the Sunrise sect leader Claire.
She was not as beautiful as Olvia or Claire yet she had a certain
charm to her. Especially her skin that almost glistened, he had
never seen such smooth silky skin.
When his eyes fell on the three old men enjoying their wines with
broad smiles on their faces, Nathen was stunned speechless
because they were the elders of House Kane, one of the most
powerful families in Royal Land.
"Enjoy the dinner, honored guests" bowing his head, Ricky left the
hall as Lord Malan walked towards the table with Nathen before
signaling the guards to stay outside.
"Lord Malan, the new family head of Bradley" Elder Walter

welcomed Malan with a wide grin.
"What took you so long?" Elder Martin asked while taking a long
sip from his wine glass.
Elder Edison acknowledged Malan by giving a slight nod before

continuing to enjoy the appetizers, Chili Lime River Shrimp Cups.
"Nice to see you again Elder Walter, Elder Martin, Elder Edison"
Malan greeted each of the elders with the utmost respect.
Compared to the humongous existence like House Kane, House
Bradley was nothing. Sitting on the same table with them equally
could already be viewed as an honor and an opportunity.
"Teacher" Nathen took a seat beside Olivia. He was the last to sit
before they saw Ghost and Gaya walking towards them from the
room on the other side of the hall.
Everyone except Claire had a look of surprise on their faces.

Ghost looked very different from the last time they saw him. Other
than his choice of black dress, everything about him was
changed. In simple words, he looked like a different person.
"I'm honored to welcome you all to this dinner ladies and

gentlemen"
He said, raising a glass of wine towards them as the girl beside

him took the empty chair.
"We're sorry about disciple Jack, Ghost. We heard he was your

friend" Elder Walter said. Michael wasn't surprised as he knew
they might be keeping a tab on him and the sect. He would have
done the same if he was in their shoes.
"Me too, Elder Walter. First of all, I would like to thank you for
accepting my invitation and attending this dinner on such short
notice despite your busy schedules" Michael said. Putting the
wine glass back on the table, he flicked his wrist as small
rectangular wooden boxes appeared before each of them except
Claire and Gaya.
"I'm good at many things but giving speeches was not one of
them. So, I'll get straight to the point without wasting your time.
Ladies and gentlemen, please open the boxes in front of you "
As he said, he went straight to the point avoiding unnecessary

pleasantries. With his talents and what he was about to reveal, he
didn't have to woo them with pleasantries.
The man sitting next to Olivia was the first to open the box. The
moment he lifted the box's top, his face was brightened by the
light coming from inside the box.
His eyes opened as wide as humanly possible. One by one, they

all opened the boxes to have the same startled look on their
faces.
"90% pure potion" the man next to Olivia uttered the

words,completely shocking everyone in the hall.
Chapter 300 - Majestic Empire
II
All of their minds went blank for a moment in shock. Except for
Elder Walter Kane who saw a 92% pure potion in a ruin a few
decades ago during his time on the Ozer Continent, no one had
seen a potion with more than 85% purity.
Elder Edison gently picked up the glistening blue potion and the
blood-red pill gently from the box. His hands slightly shivered
holding the two.
"Where did you get these?" Elder Edison asked. Everyone's gaze
now fell on Michael expecting his answer.
"Made by yours truly" Michael let out a slight grin. He looked

extremely proud, to some of their eyes, he even seemed arrogant.
"Do you like demonstration Elders?" Although he asked, he didn't

give time to answer as he already conjured the Alchemy flames.
Under their widened gazes, Michael threw the herbs into the fire.
No one moved their eyes from Michael or even blinked an eye.
Nathen had seen him concoct pills or brew potions without using a
cauldron as all the other alchemists. No matter how many times
he had seen it, his way of making pills and potions still made him
speechless.


…
The notification sounds rang continuously in his mind. He received
more points than he initially expected. In a couple of minutes, a
blue glistening potion resembling the one in the box floated above
his hand. Every single one of them could tell that the two potions
are the same, 90% pure.
The sudden rude awakening made them lose their appetite.

Nathen wanted to reach Ghost's level in the future. He knew
reaching 80% purity would take him years of hard work. Yet after
seeing Ghost was able to reach 90% purity, reaching his level
seemed impossible.
"Since when can you make pills and potions with 90% purity?"
Elder Walter asked. A shaky smile started to emerge on his face
as the surprise sank in his mind.
"Since I turned 19" Michael paused for a moment before

continuing,
"My mentor used to make me go into the god forsaken dungeons

finding ancient techniques and books. He never wanted me to
hide my talents but when I left my mentor's care, I learned that
showing heaven-defying talent without the power to protect
oneself is a recipe for disaster. So I pretended to be number two"
Except for Gaya, no one knew he was lying through his teeth. By
lying he had a mentor, he established a powerful figure behind
him in their mind. This would make getting the Family Kane's
protection easier as they would try to get his mentor's connection
to strengthen their family. Besides, saying he had a mentor would
be more logical than saying I have a system.
"Now I think it's time to reveal my talents to the world. Since I

consider all of you as my friends, I wanted to show you this first"?
Everyone knew he has something of them to ask. Nonetheless, it
felt good to be considered important, especially to the Elders of
Kane family.
" Let's be practical, great talent comes with great danger.

Revealing myself as the number one will put me in various
dangers, no one likes to be bested by a youngster like me,
especially those in the Alchemy Guild"
"And you want our protection" Elder Edison didn't beat around the
bush. He just directly asked Michael.
"More like getting into a mutually beneficial relationship"
"Mutually what?" Elder Edison didn't clearly get the meaning of

Michael's words.
"You help me and I help you" Elder Martin broke it down into
simple words for Elder Edison.
"I have to be honest kid. Your talent is really astounding but as

you said, revealing your talents to the outside world makes you a
target of many powerful entities. Helping you might get us into
more trouble than it's worth" Elder Edison's words surprised most
of them. However, Michael remained calm with his usual smile on
his face,
"Since you're being direct with me, I'd be too Elder Edison. You
may be right, helping me might actually put those who protect me
in danger. But"
Michael took the blue potion from the table, holding it in his hand
to let everyone see the vial.
"Dangers often come with opportunities and there are many

families out there that would kill to capitalize on those
opportunities. I bet I can become a court Alchemist of any of the
four kingdoms, even better, all of them"
The way Michael calmly talked as well as his words reminded

them that he's not desperate for their help. Rather, he was the one
allowing them to help him.
"And when's the last time you met a 5-star alchemist who takes
nothing but ancient artifacts and treasures to even consider
making something for you?" Gaya asked, looking at the elders.
They had to agree with her. There were only a handful of 5-star
Alchemists in the continent, they would all take either an ancient
artifact or extremely valuable treasures as the payment for making
pills or potions for them, not gold coins.
"So you're not planning to give your services for treasures or

artifacts like the rest of the 5-star Alchemists?" the man next to
Olivia asked. A well-hidden interest could be seen in his eyes.
"That brings me to why I invited Lord Malan of House Bradley and

you, Lord Reginald, the vice president of Rainshade Merchant
guild" Michael introduced Olivia's father in case someone didn't
know his identity.
By noticing the way Nathen's looking at Reginald, it was obvious

this was the first time he met Olivia's father.
Like Lucifer had Maxine, Gibson, Tiberius, Heinberg as the core

group, the people sitting at the dinner table were the core group of
Ghost except for Nathen. In the future, they would need to work
together so they needed to get acquainted.
"I'm planning to expand the Majestic and I'd like your help to do
that. Lord Malan is already on board to take care of the security"
"Of course, my dad will help you, teacher. You have my word.
Dad, say something" Olivia elbowed Reginald as the man
revealed an embarrassed smile.
"I have to discuss with the president but I can assure you that he
will get on board. We just need to iron out some financial matters-"
"Since you're my teacher who charges not a single coin for

teaching me, my dad will get you the best deal possible. Won't
you dad?" Olivia glared at her father, giving him a death stare.
Unlike the others, Elder Walter didn't control his laughter,
"It seems you don't call the shots Reginald, hehehe "
Reginald sighed.
"We can talk about this in detail later, Lord Reginald. And Elders"?
Michael turned his gaze towards the three elders,
"The card I gave you is a sign of our friendship. It will give you
direct access to me and my services are free of charge, no
questions asked. Take this as gratitude for offering your protection
for the sect. I have one last announcement to make. As you
probably know, Raylene, my friend, is a 5-star chef. We are
opening a restaurant in River town next week. I'd be honored if
you all came to the opening with your families. Now, please enjoy
the dinner. My men outside will take you to me if you want to
meet? me later"
Michael raised the wine glass one more time before leaving the
dinner table. He wanted them to enjoy the dinner while making up
their minds about helping him, especially the elders of House
Kane. They were the biggest pieces of pawns in his game. Earlier
when they agreed to offer their protection, they didn't stand to
make enemies out of the alchemists of Guild. This time, it was
different, people like Gabriel might be pissed when Michael
reveals himself as the number one. As far as he knew, the
Alchemist Guild was unlikely to go to war with a powerful
existence like House Kane.
An official alliance would have to come from people above the

elders in the family hierarchy. This dinner was just a way to get the
elders to make those people agree to the alliance.
********************************************
Michael and Gaya stood before a window in an empty room. They

were enjoying the view of the starry sky in peace when they heard
someone knocking on the door.
"Come in," Michael said.
Soon the door creaked open to reveal Ricky who was leading
Reginald to him.
"Master Ghost, Elder Walter asked me to give you this" Ricky

handed over a sealed letter with the House Kane crest on before
leaving the room.
"Lord Reginald" Michael Shook Reginald's hand,
"Miss Aelia" After Ghost, Reginald shook Gaya's hand.
"I assume you're here to talk about the financial matters"
Reginald nodded.
"How many potions and pills can you give us a month Master
Ghost?"
"You're more suited to answer that question than me, Lord

Reginald"
"Assuming you want to target the entire continent, I'd say 600
potions a month would be best" Both Michael and Gaya were
surprised to hear him. They expected the number to be much
higher than 600.
Looking at their surprised faces, Regional smiled.
"Since you're giving your knowledge to my daughter without

charging, I'll return the favor by letting you in on a trade secret.
Always keep the demand higher than the product availability.
People need to search everywhere to get their hands on your pills
and potions MAster Ghost. If they could get them easily, demand
would eventually dry out and price would go down"
Michael couldn't help wondering how his products could lose

demand yet he avoided arguing with Reginald because he was
the merchant who knew about business more than him.
Therefore, he decided to let Reginald do what he does best.
"Alright, we take your advice. Now, shall we discuss the price and
your cut?" with a wave of her hand, she placed two sofas on the
room for them to sit.
*************************************************
I need to take this moment and thank every single one of you who
reads my story and supports me. Reaching 300 chapters wouldn't
have been possible without you guys and gals. Im truly out of
words to show my gratitude. The only way to show my gratitude is
by giving you more quality chapters. I've been constantly working
on improving the quality of the already published chapters and
doing my best to pump out chapters with minimum errors.
Thank you again.
Yours Truly.
Chapter 301 - Ambushing
Ghost
"So 20% is the lowest you can go?" Gaya asked.
"If it was up to me completely I would not even take a cut

considering what you're doing to Olivia. However, the merchant
guild rules are pretty strict, I have to convince those old muckers
to invoke the golden opportunity rule to get you this 20%. I have to
call in every favor"
"20% will do then" Michael knew Reginald was doing his best. The
man did not seem like swindling Michael but genuinely trying to
get him the best deal possible.
"20% for you, 10% for House Bradley. You said you can sell a
potion or pill for the price of an average of 80,000. Hmm, 600 into
80,000 is 48million. Minusing the cuts, 14.4 million. We'll get 33.6
million"
Michael was really surprised to see her mathematical skills. She

was like a human calculator. She didn't even blink doing the
calculations.
"Since our income will surpass 10million, we need to pay the

bloody taxes. What's the going tax rate of the kingdoms?"
It took Reginald a couple of seconds to answer as he was stunned

by the girl's skills in numbers. Only girls coming from royal families
or prominent noble families received such high education. This
meant, the girl obviously either a lady of a powerful noble family or
a princess. According to Olivia, they knew nothing about both of
their origins. Reginald however now narrowed down into two
possible options for Aelia's origins.
"5% in Bredia, 8% in Kethen, 10% in Royal land, 7 in Dradel and
10 in Thusia"
"Fuck" Gaya punched the sofa's arm,
"We need to give 40%?!"
"Relax, there might be some ways to reduce or even get a waiver

from tax from the kings' ' Michael patted her on the shoulder to
calm her down.
"It's impossible Master Ghost" Michael turned to see Reginald

shaking his head,
"The royal families alone won't fix the tax rate, they discuss with
the noble families and agree on a tax rate together. To change the
tax rate, all of them had to be on board. They won't make an
exception for you because if they did, there might be several other
important figures who would start to ask for tax reduction. This will
complicate things, so no matter the situation, they won't change
the tax rate for a single person. It's either tax rate increases or
decreases for the kingdom as a whole. Trust me, it's better to pay
the taxes. Besides, tax evasion is a serious crime in the eyes of
the Guardian Guild"
Michael sighed inside. The bloody Guardian guild was in every

step of his path to greatness. Although 40% of his income was a
huge chunk, he knew it was better to pay the tax as Reginald
suggested.
"40% tax 30% cuts, that means we'll get only 14.4million. If we
take into the maintenance of our herbal garden, we'll roughly get
14.2 million a month"
"That's more than many noble families make a month Master

Ghost. The Rainshade will take care of paying the taxes and
everything. You just need to sign an? agreement and give us a
payment method to put the gold each month"
Gaya nodded before turning her head to look at Michael,

"It's time we get a paycube from the Grand spire bank"
Michael let Gaya handle the negotiations while he opened the

letter given to him by the Kane family Elders.
"Come to Kane Family compound in Royal land before the

championship tournament begins" Michael read the words written
on the letter in his mind.
It was obvious that the Kane family needs him to do something for
them before they agree to offer their protection. He kinda
expected this. After all, there was no such thing as freebies in this
world.
***************************************
"The lights are out, get ready" There were three figures hiding in
the forest surrounding Claire's manor. Due to the darkness, one
could not see them except for several glistening stones in their
hands. The stones were in a perfect diamond shape, radiating a
faint navy blue light.
"They have a dragon and a Soul Refiner. We don't need to wake

either of them. Everything must be in place before the young
master arrives"
The figures were talking in husky voices as they continued to hide

the stones in the bushes, under the tree roos, and on top of the
branches. They continued to place several stones deeper into the
forest while keeping an eye on Claire's manor.
"It's done, we just need to lure him out somehow. Remember we

only need him"
"The sound sucking array in place"
"Good. The Young Master said he'd be asleep after dinner. We

need to do something to wake him up and come to us"
"What kind of cultivator sleeps every day like a commoner?"
"Apparently he is"
"How do we wake him up without the others?"
"Shh, something's moving"
The three figures suddenly went silent as they heard a rustling

sound coming from the forest.
"Have you three idiots done everything I ordered you to?"
Regardless of the Cat's eye potion they drank, they could barely
see what's in front of them. Yet, they immediately recognized the
person as their young master after hearing the voice.
"Yes, young master. We were just thinking about how to wake him
up and make him come to us"
"That's beyond the limit of your brains," the young master said.
The three servants waited for him to see how their young master
was going to wake Ghost up. Instead of doing what they were
expecting, the young master walked towards a tree. He placed his
hand on the tree as a symbol of a tortoise appeared on the tree. It
glowed in gold color for a few seconds before fading away into the
tree.
He continued to place the runes in a large circle. Each time he

placed a rune on the tree, it glowed brighter and brighter. The
glow of the runes helped the servants see their young master
clearly. He wore dark brown armor made of what looked like a
magical beast skin. One of the servants who saw the armor had a
look of utter shock on his face.
"Young...Young Master...is that the Blackwing Saurus armor?"
"Hmm, surprisingly you're correct. Get thousand gold in my name"

the young master's words made the servant's heart jump out in
joy. This was why they worshipped him no matter how many times
he cursed or beat the crap out of them. End of the day, the young
master always took care of them.
"Young master look" suddenly another servant pointed at Claire's

manor. Thanks to the cat's eye potion, they could see a figure
walking out of the house.
"Well well well, the prey has come outside" Unlike the servants,
the young master drank a high-quality Cat's eye potion. He
couldn't help smiling thinking that he was stalking the person who
brewed the potion in the first place, Ghost.
"Are the recording stones well hidden?"
"Yes young master"
"Good, I want to record his every single move. Now get out of
here" the servants quickly ran away from the place leaving the
young master alone.
After seeing his servants retreat to a safe distance, he flicked his

wrist as a longbow appeared in his hand.
The young master raised the bow as an arrow made of sparkling

silver energy materialized out of thin air. Taking a long breath to
steady his aim, he released the arrow.
Whoosh!
The arrow pierced through the air at extreme speed. Just when
the arrow was about to hit its target, the young master saw Ghost
catch the arrow in the mid-air. The arrow shattered in his hand.
"Take the bait" the young master grinned, seeing Ghost look in the
direction where the arrow came from.
As the young master calculated when he studied Ghost, he used

the speed spell. It took him only a couple of seconds before
hearing the cracking noise of the lightning bolts.
The young master's bow disappeared from his hand. He remained

calmly expecting his target to arrive. Suddenly, the runes he
previously placed glowed brighter and brighter, producing a faint
whistling sound.
Following the glowing runes, a faint dome of blue energy

appeared around in a five-meter radius. Inside the dome, the
lightning bolts disappeared to reveal his target, Ghost. The light
produced by the golden rune revealed one to another. The young
master was covered from head to toe with body-fitting black wing
Saurus armor and a thick mask covering his face. Only his eyes
remained uncovered.
On the other side, Ghost stood there without a shred of fear or

confusion in his eyes. He was calm despite the sudden ambush.
His reaction somewhat confused the young master.
"Do you have a reason for trying to kill me?" Ghost asked,
"Trying to kill you? Nah Nah Nah. I just want to become a better,
stronger fighter. And you're gonna help me"
"How am I gonna do that?"
"By fighting me, how else?" the young master leaped at Ghost like
a panther. Sharp silver claws began to grow from his fingers while
the adrenaline-filled his body, making him excited.
"Where do you clowns come from?" The young master saw Ghost
shake his head. Despite being called a clown, the young master
remained calm. He was trained to control his emotions during a
battle. Therefore, Ghost's technique of making his opponents mad
wouldn't work on him.
"Ghost, meet your exorcist" as the words escaped the young

master's mouth, the battle between them finally started.
Chapter 302 - Did He Just
Defeat Ghost?
As the young master expected, two swords materialized in his

hand from his space ring. The swords didn't look like they were
forged by a star-level blacksmith. Rather, the sword looked plain
and simple.
The young master evaded all of Ghost's slashes easily. He was

able to calculate each and every single move of Ghost. While
evading a slash that aimed at his chest, the young master landed
a kick on Ghost's chest, pushing him backward. With swift
movements, the young master jumped back to create some
distance between them.
"I'm disappointed Ghost" the young master disappointingly shook

his head. He could see the lightning bolts crackling around
Ghost's body yet whenever he tried to use his speed spell, the
rune the young master placed on the trees stopped Ghost.
"It seems you're just overrated," The young master said. For the
first time since he met Ghost, he saw a flicker of anger emerge in
Ghost's eyes. When Ghost leaped at him, the young master
flicked his wrist as two rounded shields appeared in his hands.
Cling!
Cling!
Cling!
The two shields deflected Ghost's sword slashes. The clash

between the sword and the shield produced sparks of fire. Both of
them moved at an extreme speed as a normal human being would
be able to see nothing but a blur.
Ghost's swords couldn't even inflict a single cut on the young
master's body through the two shields. The young master noticed
Ghost's movements becoming more and more frantic.
There was no finesse or techniques in his swordsmanship, just

mad slash, and dashes.
"I'll give you a handicap, let's see if you can hit me then" the
young master snickered before throwing away the two shields on
the ground. The very next moment he threw the shields down,
Ghost's swords slashed his shoulder. However, the young master
never even felt a sting as the Blackwing Saurus armor completely
protected him from suffering any damage.
Ghost stopped attacking to take a few steps back,
"Blackwing Saurus armor, interesting"
The young master tapped his chest. Since he wore a mask, Ghost
couldn't see the snicker on his face.
"Don't tell me you're gonna blame the armor for your lack of
skills?" His disappointment in Ghost turned into anger. He
expected Ghost to at least put up a decent fight yet Ghost was
hardly a challenge for him.
"It seems like you can only beat little girls" the young master
waved his hand as the two shields flew back to his hands. Unlike
before, a symbol that looked like wings started to glow on the
shields' surface.
Giving Ghost no more time, the young master threw the two
shields as they soared through the sky.
Plop!
Plop!
One shield hit Ghost in the face while the other bashed him in the
chest. He was pushed back several steps behind after reciting the
hit. Blood trickled down from the corner of Ghost's mouth.
After hitting Ghost, the shields didn't fall to the ground but flew
right back into the young master's hands like a boomerang. He
continued to throw the shield, hitting Ghost again and again.
"Come cast your defense spell" The young master shouted at

Ghost to see his defense spell. He studied all of Ghost's arsenal
to come up with counterattacks. He used the shields to make
Ghost's sword attacks useless while placing the tortoise rune
circle to prevent him from using his speed spell. He didn't need to
use any runes for Ghost's lightning attacks as his Blackwing
Saurus armor would protect him from any kind of attacks of
anyone under Soul Refining stage 1.
The only spell the young master was yet to see was Ghost's
defense spell.
Ghost looked exhausted while wiping off the blood from his face.
Soon, the young master realized the reason behind why he isn't
using the defense spell.
After hitting Ghost with the shield for almost the 80th time, the
young master stopped for a moment.
"Let me guess, your defense spell will only protect you from the
Body Strengthening stage cultivators or below. Not a good
defensive spell, is it?"
The young master chuckled. Regardless fighting with Ghost was a

disappointment, at least he got to improve his rune mastery as
well as write off a competitor who stood in his way to win the
championship.
"You should stick only to Alchemy from now on, Ghost. Atleast,
you're somewhat good at it compared to your fighting skills. I now
know you pulled some kind of trick to win Heaven's gate
competition" While Ghost was taking heavy breaths, the young
master put one shield back into his space ring.
"Honestly I dont give a damn about Heaven's gate competition, so

I won't poke into it too much. But the championship tournaments, I
do give a damn, so heed my warning. If you dare step on the ring,
I won't be as merciful as now" as the last word escaped his
mouth, the young master threw the shield with enough force that
sent Ghost flying back. The young turned back, slowly ascending
to the air. The shield flew right back to him as he flew into the
clouds without even turning back to see Ghost.
In his mind, Ghost was not a worthy competitor to him, he was just
another overrated prodigy in Elon. He was not even worried about
the recording stones he asked his servants to hide around the
battle area. As far as he was concerned, he wasted his time
studying Ghost. He knew that he would have defeated Ghost even
if he didn't come up with countermeasures for Ghost's spells.
******************************************
"The fuck was that?! Why didn't you kill him?" Although Michael
didn't need any assistance, Gaya still came to help him up. She
was shivering in anger.
Before even Michael could activate the APD, she tore a long cloth
piece from her coat to wipe the blood off from his face.
"Did you do what I asked?" Michael asked. The scratches on his

face quickly healed after the APD injected the healing potion into
his body.
"Please tell me we're gonna go kill him and his family" despite his
wounds being healed completely, she still gently rubbed his face
with the cloth.
The love and care in her eyes really moved Michael. He forgot
about the ambush for a moment to enjoy the tender care.
"Do you think he's the one who killed Jack?" she asked,
"No. This guy gets off by defeating someone at his level or

stronger. If he met Jack, he wouldn't even acknowledge Jack as
this clown is too arrogant to notice people like Jack"
"That doesn't mean we should let him live. If you hadn't stopped
me, I would have ripped that bastard into pieces"
Because of the eyes of darkness, Michael was able to see the
young master's cultivation level. The young master was 5 levels
below him, Core Formation stage level 3. Considering his rune
mastery, anyone on the same level or a level or two would have a
hard time defeating the young master. The young master was
prepared to battle Ghost, hence he placed the right runes and
came up with suitable strategies to restrict Michael's spells and
attacks. If Michael wanted to kill him, he could have simply let
Gaya put an arrow through his eyes as they weren't protected by
the Blackwing Saurus armor.
"Relax, I just wanted to see what a runemaster could do in a real

battle. Anyone who could afford a Blackwing Saurus and Rare
Shields must have a powerful backing. If I didn't stop you, you
would have killed him and ended up making a powerful enemy but
that doesn't mean he gets off the hook easily" a devilish grin
emerged on Michael's face.
"What are we gonna do?" Gaya became excited to get revenge on

the young master.
"You'll see"
*******************************************
The next morning was a cloudy one.? The clouds diffused the
daylight to a soft gentle sweetness; even when flying under the
clouds, Michael could feel cozy under his clothes. The sunlight
moved much like the ocean, showing the blue amid the whitish
dove-grey, a medley of silvers that ripple outwards to adorn the
sky.
He could have used the runic teleportation to reach the Royal

land. However, he wanted to spend more time with Nightmare,
Vedora, and Gaya. Therefore, he decided to fly for a day before
activating the runic teleportation.
"What are you munching on?" Ayag craned her neck to see what's
in Gaya's hand. Currently, Vedora relaxed in Michael's inside coat
pocket while Nightmare leisurely rested on Michael's right
shoulder.
"No...ing" she looked like a chipmunk with her cheeks bloated due
to the biscuits inside her mouth. She was afraid the three of them
would steal the cookies so she ate them as fast as she could.
"Don't lie to me bitch, give us half of your hoard" Ayag threatened

Gaya. If it wasn't for the other two heads remaining calm inside
Michael's pocket, the white head would have jumped outside to
steal Gaya's cookies.
"One day, I'm gonna roast you and sell you as a delicacy in our
restaurant"
"Come on, give them a cookie" Nightmare said as Gaya rolled her
eyes,
"I did give them, like, two dozen cookies. Don't fall for their tiny
body, they will eat you whole if they were allowed to, especially
that white little shit"
Nightmare's eyes opened wide in surprise,
"Humph only two dozen, not two hundred" Ayag snickered.
They continued to bicker along the way while Nightmare and

Michael chose not to interfere between them..? After flying for
almost half a day, Michael activated the runic teleportation to
reach the Royal land.
Chapter 303 - House Of Kane
When the sun disappeared into the horizon, Michael appeared in

the alley behind the 'Old Ship Tavern'. As usual, the tavern was
buzzing with the crowd. Michael and Gaya put on dark hoods to
cover their faces while Nightmare shrunk himself to hide within
Michael's coat pocket.
If this was any other day, Michael wouldn't have hidden his identity
but strolled around the kingdom with Nightmare on his shoulder to
spread his legend as well as earn badass points. However, the
letter left by the Kane family elders gave off a sense of secrecy.
Showing himself to the public wouldn't be a good idea if the Kane
family wants anonymity with what they planned to ask of him.
The city seemed busier in the evening than in the morning. Gaya
led him through the large lane going towards the north side of the
city. Both sides of the lane had lines of lamps lighting the lane.
The street and the shops were filled with people. Occasional
street food vendors called out to anyone who looks in their ways.
"Look at that" while walking through the crowd, Gaya pointed at a

light lamp. The light lamp had a poster stuck on it. He noticed
several posters on the walls, on the lamps, and even on billboards
above some buildings.
Michael recognized the faces on the posters. Most of them had

Alex Fisher's face while the rest of the most contained Celina's
and Adam Kane's faces.
"5 gold coins for Master Alex Fisher figurine"
"You want to dress like Miss Celina? This is the place for you
ladies!"
"Get your Kane shirts to show your support for Master Adam
Kane!"
"Jason Myers fan's club is this way!"
"We have Miss Sabrina's sword props!"
The further he walked, the more he saw the merchants selling all
kinds of stuff.
"You know, I heard our faces are everywhere in the river town,"
Gaya said in a husky voice. Michael noticed a few disciples of the
Sunrise sect running around in late hours. Before now, he thought
they were dealing with their personal stuff. It seemed like the
disciples and the river town people were planning something to
surprise them when he visited River town to open his restaurant.
The people of River town worshiped him for several reasons.

First, he protected the town from the Netherels. Second, the
majestic created lots of traffic as many nobles and people traveled
through the river town to get to the sect. This gave a new life to
River town's boat services and small shops. Third, everyone
called Michael Ghost of River town, the name carried weight. The
bandits stopped harassing the merchants and the people coming
to River town assuming that the river town is protected by Ghost.
Nightmare's recent cleaning of bandits strengthened the thought
even further.
If Royal land was the domain of powerful houses such as House

Kane and House Fisher, the river town was his domain. The entire
town planned to show their support for Ghost and Aelia.
Considering Michael didn't get the chance to visit the river town
since he came to the sect from the southern continent, he never
saw the preparations for the tournament.
While taking a look at the tournament celebrations, they came

before a large junction where they saw several lanes branching
out from the junction's center. At the start of each lane, a
signboard was placed with only a crest etched on it. Michael
looked at each signboard for the Kane House crest. With the help
of the light lamps, Michael was able to locate the signboard before
walking the lane to reach House Kane manor.
Unlike the street he came from, the lane was void of people. Only
beautiful crimson red pine trees stood like guards on either side of
the lane.
"Aren't they supposed to have some guards patrol around here?"

Nightmare whispered from inside his coat pocket. He was right as
Michael too searched the area for guards yet he couldn't even see
a single guard.
"You won't find guards because they have hundreds of runes

placed along this lane to alert the manor the moment someone
steps foot here. The Kane manor probably is watching us" Just as
she said, Michael began to notice several life signs around them
through his Environmental scanning map. Some of them were
flying way above the clouds while some of them blended with the
foliage.
Eventually, after walking for almost ten minutes on the lone road,
the lane opened up to reveal a huge land with a grand castle
standing majestically in the distance.
When Gaya said Kane mano, he expected to see a manor, not a

frickin castle. Five thin, square towers surrounded the castle in
almost a perfect circle. Around this incredible castle were
connected by giant, chunky walls made of white stone. Stylish
windows were scattered thinly around the walls in fairly
symmetrical patterns, along with symmetric holes for archers and
artillery.
A huge gate with heavy wooden doors, a regular bridge, and large
crenelations offered a warm haven within these cold, isolated
lands, but it was not the only way in when one knew the castle's
secret passages.
Lush fields of crops surrounded the castle walls, providing the

inhabitants with food all year round. This castle looked well
preserved, but without knowing its history, it was impossible to tell
if it's a newly built castle or a well-kept one.
The castle looked majestic under the light of the moon. Not only
Michale but also Nightmare peeked his head out of Michael's coat
to enjoy the castle's beauty.
"Stop gawking you two. Compared to my castle, this is like a poor

hut" As Gaya rolled her eyes, a bright light dashed towards them
like a shooting star. The light gradually slowed down to reveal
Elder Walter's smiling face.
"Welcome to Kane Manor kids"
"More like a castle" Michael let out a burst of laughter. The Elder
laughed with him proudly before leading Ghost into the castle. The
three of them took off to the sky instead of walking. Michael could
see the castle's ground from the sky more clearly. As any typical
beautiful castle, the Kane manor had a front lawn, spacious
backyard fountains, barracks, herbal garden, and various other
ornaments to decorate the castle even more. They slowly
descended through a door on the roof to land on the throne hall.
Huge braziers half enclosing each of the six ivory columns light up
the entire throne hall and paint the hall a range of yellows and
oranges. The illustrations of a kingdom in the sky on the slanted
ceiling dance in the flickering light while statues look down upon
the mosaic floor of this majestic hall.
If the castle was impressive, the throne hall made Michael

speechless.
The vermilion rug splits the entire room in half and was matched
by the thinner ones on either side of the hall while pennant
banners with gilded ridges the walls. Between each banner sat a
small altar full of candles, many of which have been lit and in turn
illuminated the artistic depictions of late heroes below them. Huge
windows were concealed by draperies colored the same vermilion
as the banners. The curtains had been adorned with fine patterns
and intricate embroidery.
At the far end of the hall, a grandiose throne of obsidian remained

in front of a giant painting of the kingdom and was adjoined by six
equally lavish seats for the higher officials of the Kane family. The
throne was covered in gilded illustrations, fixing on each of the
wide armrests is a carved petal. The light pillows were a dark
vermilion, these too had been adorned with adorned quilting.
Those waiting to meet the Kane Family elders could do so on the

abundance of luxurious and comfortable maple benches, all of
which were facing the throne in a V-shape. Those of higher
standing could instead take seats in the luxuriant balustrades
overlooking the hall.
Elder Walter led Michael and Gaya towards the luxurious seats
nearest to the throne.
"Wait here Ghost" Elder Walter gestured to Michael to take a seat

before clapping his hands. Soon, two young maids came running
to Michael's side.
"Take care of them" Elder Walter said to the maids before leaving
the throne hall.
"I'll take hot water with a drop of lemon please," Michael told the
maids. They looked surprised as they expected him to order
expensive wines or delicacies,
"Same for me too"
"Right away young master, young miss" the two maids rushed
back into the kitchen leaving Michael and Gaya alone in the
throne hall.
"Interesting choice of drinks" suddenly Michael heard a powerful

voice reverberate in the throne hall. They looked up to see a
figure coming down through the roof door they came through
earlier.
Standing 6' 4" tall, this white-skinned man had an intimidating feel
about him. He had a round face, a flat nose, angled lips, and his
brown eyes were heavy-lidded.
His light chestnut brown hair, dip-dyed almost the full length with
shades of turquoise, was shoulder-length, fine, and was usually
braided, and he has a handlebar mustache.
His muscular body looked as if it was sculpted from a ceramic

stone. A dark tattoo of the house Kane family crest could be seen
on his neck. His fine clothes were mostly earth-colored and loose
and flowing.
"A Fusion stage level 1 cultivator" Michael was able to see his
cultivation level. This was another shock he received since he
came to the Kane manor.. Now Michael really wondered what a
powerful man like him had to ask from him.
Chapter 304 - Assassination
Contract
Contrary to Michael's expectation, the man didn't sit on the throne

but took the lavish chair beside the throne.
"Lord Ashton" the maids who came carrying a tray with Michael's
lemon added hot water, they immediately bowed towards the man
when they saw him.
"Leave" Lord Ashton flicked his wrist as the two glasses flew right
into the hands of Gaya and Michael.
Even when facing a Fusion stage cultivator, Michael didn't show

any signs of worry on his face. He remained calm, pretending that
he didn't know the man's cultivation level.
"You're too young to be the number one Alchemist of Elon and

Ozer"
"Both a blessing and a curse, Lord Ashton. But I'm planning to

extract only the blessing, " Michael said slowly, taking a sip from
the glass.
"How are you gonna do that? By getting the Kane family's

backing?"
"That's the plan, Lord Ashton" Michael slightly smiled,
"Hahaha, I like you kid. I've seen many talented youngsters

getting themselves killed because they run around making
enemies out of powerful people left and right. Even recently I
heard someone piss off Aragoth, good thing that kid had the
backing of Guardians. What was his name?" Ashton rubbed his
handlebar mustache trying to remember the name.
"Noah" Gaya reminded Ashton as the light of realization appeared
on Ashton's face.
"Yeah that's him. You two are friends with him?" Ashton's face
turned serious.
"Hell no, we dont touch him with a ten-foot pole" Gaya frantically
shook her head.
"Good for you. If you were anything like that Noah, you wouldn't
be here. Speaking of which, do you know why you're here?"
Ashton looked at the both of them for a few moments,
"You got one thing correct. This world is a bad bad place,
especially for a kid with your talents. You're a cub and you want a
grown-up lion to protect you. The question is how far will you go to
get the lion's protection?" Ashton's lips curved upwards revealing
a fox-like smile. Michael was glad that Ashton finally came to the
point.
"What do you want me to do Lord Ashton?"
"Kill Alex Fisher"
What Ashton just said truly surprised both of them.
"How do you want him to die?" Gaya's eyes and mouth opened
wide. She was startled to see how quickly Michael agreed to kill
Alex who is a prodigy of House Fisher.
Ashton grinned, "just like that. You're not gonna even ask why?"
He had seen many youngsters over the years but there was
something different about the youngster before him. Behind the
young man's calm smiling face, Ashton could see the cold killer.
There was no hesitation in his eyes.
"I only need your word that Kane Family will back me up after I kill
Alex Fisher, Lord Ashton"
"Kill him during the tournament in front of everyone and Adam will
announce you're his best man at his wedding. That will make you
practically family. You have my word"
"And that's good enough for me Lord Ashton" Michael nodded,
"Great, my people will make sure you and Alex get to fight. You
make sure he dies' ' Elder Ashton closed his eyes, mumbling
something under his breath for a moment as a blue smoke
surrounded him. In a blink of an eye, the smoke faded into thin air
along with Ashton.
After spending some time alone in the throne hall, Michael was
just about to stand up to leave the hall when he saw Elder Walter
hastying towards them.
"Did you agree to it?"
"Agree to what?"
"Agree to kill Alex" Elder Walter seemed like he just heard from
someone that Elder Ashton asked him to kill Alex Fisher. Michael
just made sure that Elder Walter didn't hear anything about killing
Alex Fisher from him first.
"Elder Ashton just informed us about the plan. This is big" Elder
Walter was pale in shock. Michael should have been the one to
get startled yet it was Elder Walter who was terrified of Ashton's
plan.
"He wants you to know the importance of this task" Elder Walter
handed over a space ring to Michael. He looked into the space
ring to see stacks of gold coins, almost 50million in gold coins.
"Let's walk and talk" Michael handed over the space ring to Gaya.
Just like him, she was also stunned by what's inside.
"You know about House Oswen?" while walking out of the throne
hall, Elder Walter asked Michael.
"Yeah met a couple of them back on Kethen, at the annual

auction"
Gaya controlled her urge to laugh thinking about the time she
roasted the House Oswen elders when they tried to buy the
demon soul stone.
"FOr more than a hundred years, both House Kane was trying to
establish an alliance with House Oswen through marriage. But we
were unable to due to various reasons until now. Our house head
wants Adam to marry Ariana of House Oswen. If this marriage
happened, House Kane and House Oswen will be lifelong allies,
we'll be stronger than all the other houses in Royal Land"
"I assume things are not going in your way," Gaya asked the Elder
as he sighed,
"No. There are rumors that House Fisher is making moves to

marry Alex to Ariana"
Gaya knew by rumors he meant House Kane's informants in

House Fisher.
"I thought he was gonna marry Celina"
"He is. That little bastard trying to knock down two birds with one
stone"
Michael often forgot that marrying more than one girl is normal in
this world.
Alex would probably be planning to marry Celina for love and

Ariana for political reasons.
"If he were to marry Ariana, everything we planned to get would

become House Fisher's. That's where you come in" they walked
out of the throne hall. The three of them started at the golden
paddy fields under the glistening moonlight.
"You think you can survive the tournament until you match up with
Alex? The tournament is a warzone. Every noble family and
powerful person uses it to take a shot at their competitor. Killing
young talents is one of the efficient ways to cripple a noble house
in the long run"
Michael didn't answer Walter quickly. He would rather let his
actions speak than explain his abilities to the Elder.
"Is Adam participating in the tournament?"? Gaya asked while

Michael was remaining silent.
"No. Like I said, killing young talents is one of the efficient ways to
cripple a noble house in the long run. If we're planning to get rid of
Alex, they might be planning to do the same to Adam. They won't
anticipate you to kill Alex"
"It will be done, Elder Walter"
Although Michael agreed to kill Alex, he didn't completely trust

them enough to leave the castle without assurance. If they tried to
screw them by not backing him up after killing Alex, the entire
kingdom would see Elder Ashton's conversation with him. The
moment he stepped onto the castle, he let out his Spyders to
record everything for insurance.
It was a risk to let the Spyders spy on a Fusion stage cultivator,

yet Michael took the risk for his safety. If House Kane was to enter
into an alliance with House Oswen, not only the two families but
also Michael would benefit from their alliance. The stronger the
Kane family, the less he needed to worry about someone messing
with him.
"Wait here" Elder Walter walked back into the castle.
"Fuck 50 million coins, these guys really want Alex dead. I have a
feeling this tournament is going to be one hell of a ride" she
elbowed him in the hand playfully. Both of them were confident in
their ability to win the competition. Gaya would participate in the
championship tournaments for Body Strengthening stage
cultivators with Michael's help to hide her cultivation from the
committee while Michael planned to kick as in the main
championship tournament for the Core Formation cultivators.
"Lord Lucifer" suddenly Michael heard Azazel's voice in his head,
"What is it?" Michael asked telepathically.

"There's figure running around River town, painting your logo on
the walls"
Michael let Azazel monitor the Spyder camera he put all around
the kingdom so if something interesting happens like this, he
would know as soon as possible.
"Keep an eye on him. We're on our way"
Gaya knew something was up looking at his face.
"Something's up?"
"Yes," Michael nodded. He looked around to locate Elder Walter.

Luckily for them, they saw Elder Walter walking out of the castle.
"Take this gift"
They were handing out space rings as candies. It really showed

their wealth. Since Michael was in a hurry, he didn't look into the
space ring as he put it into the system storage to check out later.
"Well Elder, it's time for us to leave. We have much to prepare"
"Yes. I'll keep you no longer"
Michael took a few steps forward before he heard the Elder call
him again. He turned back to see Elder Walter,
"And Ghost, if you get into the good side of Elder Ashton, you'll
get more than the backing of House Kane. Remember that"
Anyone with a brain would not dare to get into the bad side of a
Fusion Stage cultivator. If it wasn't for the system, Michael would
have been killed by Laila inside the Treacherous ocean.
At this moment, Michael had no idea he's going to meet Laila

sooner than he wanted to. After parting ways with Elder Walter,
they flew for an hour to put a good distance between them and the
Kane family manor.
************************************
"Lord Lucifer, Dark Queen" Azazel greeted them with a bow when
they appeared in the room before him. Gaya put the sleeping
Nightmare and Vedora gently on the bed before covering them
with the bedsheet.
Shen then came to join back with Michael to watch the mirrors.
"There he is," Azazel pointed his ethereal fingers at one of the

mirrors. In the mirror, they saw a figure draped in full black robes
running frantically through the dark alleys in the river town,
painting the letter 'L' on the walls.
In addition to most of the people in River town being commoners,

this was the middle of the night, so there was not a single person
to catch the black-clothed figure.
"Who are you?" Michael couldn't help asking the question.. But he
planned to know the answer in a few moments.
Chapter 305 - Planning To
Subdue Another Major Power
Michael and Gaya both transformed themselves into their other

personas.
"Take care of them" Gaya ordered Azazel before disappearing

from the room along with Michael.
The next moment, they appeared in a dark alley behind some

houses.
Unlike Royal land, the river town didn't have lamp posts to brightly
light the streets. Only the rich cities could afford Vedrite stones
lamps. The small towns like river towns used torches instead of
lamps.
"He should be somewhere near," Gaya said while Michael willed

the system to give him the drones. Soon, five drones materialized
above their heads. He sent the drones in all directions. After
deploying the drones, both of them ascended to the sky. Although
the roofs and buildings prevented them from clearly seeing the
dark alleys, one of the drones picked a figure painting the wall.
The figure gawked around to see if anyone's watching him.
The figure also looked at the sky vigilantly yet the darkness
covered the drone. Since Michael kept a safe distance between
the figure and the drone, the faint motor sound didn't reach the
figure's ears.
"Found him" Michael grabbed Gaya's hands before activating the

lightning dash towards the figure's direction. The figure was
halfway done painting the letter 'L' when Michael appeared
directly above him. The bow of Legolas appeared in Gaya's
hands. She knocked an arrow dipped with Michael's paralyzing
poison.
Noticing the figure's cultivation level, Michael sighed in relief as

the figure was at Core Formation stage level 3. Compared to
Michael, the figure was 5 levels below him, 6 levels below Gaya.
In addition to the Fusion stage bone, the 40% boost given to Gaya
by the system increased her cultivation speed by several times.
Even without any boost, she had a monstrous cultivation speed,
with Michael's boost, she became a heaven-defying talent. With
her speed, she would never fall back from Michael's cultivation
speed.
Whoosh!
The arrow soared through the air as a bullet fired from a gun. The
figure barely had time to react before the arrow nailed his leg to
the ground.
"Ah!"
The figure squealed in pain. The voice however, was not of a

man's but a woman's. The paralyzing poison immediately spread
through the woman's body, making even lifting her pinky
impossible. Michael landed before the figure. She was covered in
full black clothes from top to bottom.
"It's a woman" Gaya's brows arched up behind her mask.
"Let's have a chat in the forest nearby. I heard the forest at this
time is particularly creepy and dark, just like we like it" Gaya
chuckled evilly. Without wasting any more time, Michael paid the
required badass points to teleport the three of them to the forest
surrounding the river town.
The possibility of this figure might belong to the Guardians

prevented him from taking her back to his secret lair. He was
prepared to do any means necessary to extract the reason why
she is painting his symbol all around the kingdom. It was
extremely risky as the church and the guardians were scouring
the kingdom as they speak, to find Lucifer.
************************************
The forest surrounding the river town was huge, misty, and
verdant. Its canopy was contested by maple, larch, and holly; still,
plenty of moonlight passed through their crowns for a hodgepodge
of sprouts to burst from the soft, rich soils below.
Coiling branches hung from the occasional tree, and a mishmash

of flowers, which grew in abundance, enhanced the otherwise
green forest floor. A variety of wild sounds, most of which were
birds and vermin, filled the air and formed a chaotic orchestra with
the sounds of several woodpeckers in the distance.
The moment Michael appeared with the figure and Gaya, he took
out a bunch of Spyders from his space ring. The Spyders crawled
through the forest ground towards the figure. Just imagining
creepy spiders crawling into her clothes made Gaya grimace.
Gaya slowly squatted beside the woman who was lying on the
ground motionlessly. Conjuring an orb of fire for light, Michael
patiently waited to see the woman's face.
The moment Gaya pulled off the cloak covering the figure's face,
both Michael and Gaya were stunned.
"Sadie" the girl behind the mask was none other than the girl
Michael first made love to in this world, Sadie Kaplan of
SilverMoon. Thanks to the mask they were wearing, Sadie
couldn't see their reactions. If Michael had an expression of
shock, Gaya had a mixture of shock and anger. In this whole
world, she hated four-woman the most, her stepmom, Xanali,
Sadie, and finally Lailah. Her reason for hating the last two was
that both of them slept with Michael. Of course, she knew Michael
was forced to spirit walk with Lailah yet she hated Lailah for
putting Michael in danger. Although Michael slept with Sadie way
before she confessed her feelings for him, she still hated Sadie.
"Let's kill this bitch and be done with it" She unsheathed her
dagger, placing it on Sadie's throat.
"I want to hear Sadie Kaplan's reasons for summoning us"

Michael also squatted beside Sadie. With a flick of his wrist, he
took two potions from the system storage, healing potion, and the
antidote for the paralyzing poison.
Without letting Saide see the potion, he poured the potion into her
wound. Then he injected the antidote into her left arm. Gradually
Sadie began to move her limbs.
"Lu...Lu...Luci...Lucifer" Gaya tried to calm her anger. After what

happened last time when she lost control, she was working on
anger management.
Sadie picked herself up with difficulty. The usual playful smile or

the glistening of her skin was nowhere to be found. Compared to
the last time Michael saw her, she had lost several pounds to the
point Michael could see her neck and collar bones. Her eyes lost
their shine, they looked dull like she was crying continuously for
several days.
Michael really started to wonder what pushed Sadie to this state.
"I...want to...trade...my soul" Sadie stammered. Her voice had a

mixture of overwhelming sadness, anger, and fear.
"Trade your soul? For what?"
The concept of devil in this world didn't vary too much from the
concept of devil in the earth. For instance, people in both worlds
believed the devil would take a soul in return for one's desire.
"For my sisters" her eyes watered up. She went to her knees,
begging Michael with her hands clenched against her chest.
"What happened to your sisters?" Michael asked.
While tears were flowing down from her eyes, Sadie retrieved a
stack of posters from her space ring. She reached out to give the
posters to Michael.
Gaya took the posters from her hand carefully. She could see a
painting of a beautiful girl with her basic details like name, age,
cultivation level, address, and last known location. Gaya flipped
the poster stack to see another girl with all those details. Each
poster had a face and detail of a young girl.
Gaya handed over the posters to Michael as he did the same,

going through all the posters one by one. It seemed all the girls
were missing. There were at least fifty posters in the stack.
"They are all missing. It's my fault...all of them...gone...my fault..."

She fell belly flat to the ground. Her cry of sorrow seemed
legitimate. Seeing her cry like this made even Gaya feel pity for
her.
Since Michael knew the Guardians acted as the major law

organization, he asked the obvious question first although he
knew the answer.
"If they are all missing, why didn't you go to the Guardians?"
"And why isn't your SilverMoon looking into this?" asked Gaya.
"The Guardians humph" the sorrow in Sadie's eyes transformed

into a fit of volcanic anger. Her eyes became eye-shot in a blink of
an eye.
"Tell us the full story," Michael asked. Although this was not a
situation he should be happy for, his mind quickly formulated a
plan to increase his power using this unfortunate situation. If he
could somehow find the missing girls, he would be able to get
Sadie to his side. In the future when Sadie became the
SilverMoon sect head, she would work for him. Thus, the
SilverMoon would become another major power under him.
While tears gushed out of the eyes like a flood out of the
floodgates, she began to tell them the story of these missing girls.
*********************************
Sadie's story was simple yet Michael could sense a tragedy in her
story. The short version of the story was the SilverMoon used to
send girls to noble parties, galas, and rich people gatherings to
accompany rich, noblemen. Since the girls were extremely
beautiful and trained to sway the men, many noblemen desired for
these girls to be their partners even for one night. The SilverMoon
girls would make these men happy while getting crucial
information from them. Knowledge was power and SilverMoon
thrived on gathering knowledge.
Noblemen asked, they SilverMoon sent girls, they came back with
the information. That was the cycle until recently when something
began to change. The girls Sadie sent began to go missing. Since
it was not unlikely for SilverMoon girls to run away, at first, Sadie
thought they ran away. Soon afterward, more and more girls
began to go missing, including little girls who didn't even come of
age. Of course, the SilverMoon never sent little girls to the
noblemen yet they began to go missing while going to another city
or traveling with their senior sisters.
Michael dealt with human trafficking back on earth and this looked
like one.
As for Michael's question about going to Guardians, the answer

was she went to Guardians, filed a complaint, and never heard
from them again.No matter how many times she dropped by at the
guild, they just gave her some half-assed answers. The sect was
worse, according to Sadie, these girls just ran away. The sect was
too busy with other things to go search for the girls.
Out of desperation and guilt, she began to look for the person who
said he came to punish the evildoers, Lucifer. Considering she
investigated a few murders of Lucifer at the beginning, she knew
about his signature. So she painted the symbol all around the
kingdom to get his attention.
Playing hero was not Michael's intention. If Sadie was not in the
line to become the next head of SilverMoon, he would have
dropped the posters in the hands of Noah as he loved to be the
good samaritan. Noah was competent so Michael knew he would
have eventually found these girls.. However, Sadie was in line to
be the next head, which made Michael take this task into his own
hands.
Chapter 306 - Opening Of
Ghost’s Restaurant I
After Sadie finished her story, Michael and Gaya walked several
meters away from her.
"If she's telling the truth, we can make her our subordinate and
control the SilverMoon in the future," Michael told her.
"What if she's lying? What if this is a plot to catch us?"
"Then kill her and send her body to whoever put her up to this
task"
He didn't feel like Sadie was lying. Nonetheless, if there's a tiny

chance that Sadie was trying to play him, he would kill her in a
heartbeat because he would go to any lengths to remain safe.
"Will you help me?" When they returned, Sadie pleaded with
them.
"System, scan her for any threats or tracking spells"
Sadie saw Lucifer reaching his hand out towards her as warm
bright light enveloped her for a couple of moments. At first, she
thought he was taking her soul or something, yet even after the
light disappeared, she felt nothing different in her mind or body
except for the Spyders crawling out from her clothes.
[The scan completed. You have nothing to worry about]
Only after the system confirmed that she had nothing that could
be used to track him or Abyssal, Michael made his next move.
"I can find the girls but the price isn't your soul, the price is your
undying loyalty"
Regardless of Gaya's hate towards Sadie, she was mature

enough to see the big picture. She also understood what
happened between Ghost and Sadie was no one's fault but hers.
If she confessed her feelings earlier to him, he wouldn't have slept
with Sadie in the first place.
As a girl, Gaya saw the hesitation in her eyes. To be honest, she

was surprised. Sadie was ready to sell her soul in a heartbeat yet
she hesitated to sell her body.
"What? You want me to-"
"No sexual things involved as you might presume"? When she

hesitated, Gaya interrupted her.
"Horrible things happen to innocent people every day, Sadie.

You're feeling what you're feeling because it happened to the
people you care about. I'm not an angel who comes when you call
and hold your hands through your problems. I'm Lucifer, when I
come, the problem disappears. But there's a price for calling me,
in your case, the price is your loyalty. Become a part of my army,
with me standing behind you, you can make sure nothing like this
ever happen again"
"She will swear her loyalty to us, Lucifer. She probably has
realized we are a better justice system than the Guardian Guild. In
their eyes, SilverMoon girls are just glorified harlots, no one will
give a shit about them if they went missing or ended up dead"
Gaya said, folding her arms.
"Are you willing to be my subordinate Sadie Kaplan and change

how the world works or remain as what you're now, a scared little
girl no one will listen to?"
"I'm willing to do whatever it takes, Lucifer"
"Lord, Lord Lucifer" Gaya reminded Sadie.

[Does the host wish to accept Maxine Kane as your subordinate?]
"Yes"
Subordinate: Sadie Kaplan
Cultivation Level: Core Formation Stage level 3
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
The loyalty level was understandable. He hadn't saved her sisters

yet so she had no reason to be loyal to him. At Least the system
accepted her as his subordinate.
"Good"
Sadie saw the two of them walking towards her. She tried to stand
up but before she could move her body, the space around her
distorted, making her close her eyes.
*********************************
When Sadie opened her eyes, she was standing on what seemed
to be a throne hall. Great braziers half enclosing each of the eight
onyx columns lighted up every part of the throne hall, covering the
hall in dancing shadows and a dark radiance. The relatively
modest chandeliers were hanging from the slanted ceiling dance
in the flickering light while paintings of Lucifer looked down upon
the black floor of this extravagant hall.
A dark grey rug ran down from the throne and split to encircle the
entire hall while swallowtail banners with embellished needlework
drooped from the walls. Between each banner sits a small altar
full of candles, many of which have been lit, in turn illuminating the
throne.
A throne of skull and bones sat at the end of the rug above an
elevated stage. Beside the skull and bones throne, there was
another identical throne but it was smaller in size compared to the
other.
Azazel transformed the throne hall completely with the help of

Netherels.
While Sadie, staring at the throne hall flabbergasted, both Michael

and Gaya seated themselves on their thrones.
"We should send our minions scouring the kingdom to find those
girls"
Gaya suggested.
"I have a lead" Sadie swallowed her fear to speak to them.

Michael saw Sadie holding a parchment in her hand,
"Azazel" Sadie heard Lucifer call the name looking beside her.
The very next moment, the parchment in her hands was pulled by
an invisible force. The parchment floated towards Lucifer. When
the parchment reached his hand, she saw a figure materialize in
front of Lucifer and the Dark Queen.
The ethereal figure looked like a butler. She had never seen
ethereal figures before, she only heard of them in the books.
Michael read the parchment with Gaya. He then took his gaze
away from the parchment to look at her,
"Minister Magnus," Michael asked, expecting her to explain how

she came to the conclusion that Minister Magnus had something
to do with the girls' disappearance.
"Shiho, the first girl who went missing, attended Magnus's party
before her disappearance. Hanako went missing after going to
Magnus's cousin's annual gala. Most of the girls went missing
after attending some kind of party organized by someone related
to Magnus. He's the common factor in all of this" Sadie clenched
her fist as her nails started to penetrate her soft palm.
"Did you make any kind of move on Magnus to see if he really has
something to do with the girls?"
Hearing Gaya, Sadie shook her head.
"He was recently promoted to take care of the military. He's using
this as an excuse to avoid meeting people. That scumbag is
pretending that he has a threat to his life. I couldn't get into or get
him out of his manor"
"That shouldn't be a problem. No matter how protected he is, he

wouldn't sleep with his guards around"
Since he needed to live stream killing criminals to boost his

legend and earn badass points, he guessed he could start with
Magnus. Gaya noticed Sadie open and close her mouth like she
has something to say,
"What is it? spit it out"
"Rumor is he's coming to the opening of Ghost's restaurant"
Michael's brows arched up behind his mask. He just asked Ricky

and Daniel to distribute the opening posters around the kingdom
yet Sadie knew who's coming to the opening. This was why the
SilverMoon sect was so successful as they were basically a spy
organization. With the right guidance and tools, Michael could turn
the sect into a super-spy organization. Coupled with his Spyders
spread around the kingdom, he could really see his shadow
society thriving in the future.
"There are a couple of roads he could take to reach the river town.
The good thing is they are all coming through forests of the
Sunrise sect" Gaya said as Michael took an earbud from his
system storage.
With a flick of his wrist, he sent the earbud flying towards Sadie.
"Put this in your ear. Magnus will be delivered to you here"
"Meanwhile don't do anything stupid. If whoever took the girls

became suspicious, they might kill them all if they hadn't yet"
Although Sadie knew the possibility of her sisters being dead,
hearing Dark Queen say this stirred the bad feeling in her gut. Her
eyes yet again watered up.
"Aria" after a few minutes he called the name, Sadie saw a petite
brown-haired girl walking through the door at the throne hall's east
side.
She knelt before Lucifer on one knee,
"Coordinate with Azazel and Sadie and search the docks and
borders to locate anything suspicious"
"Yes Lord Lucifer" Aria said confidently as Michael looked at

Azazel,
"Tell Dular to release a few Netherels to the Royal land, that

should keep the Church and the Guardians busy for some time"
"As you wish, Lord Lucifer" Azazel bowed.
After giving them their orders, he sent them away except Sadie.
"From now on, keep away from the Guardians. They are not what
they appeared to be"
********************************************
Above those tangerine mountains and sparkling long river, kissed

to their heady blush by the sun, were clouds that moved in shoals.
And so the sky was equal parts blue and a chorus of greys,
streaked with silvers and golds.
People of River town were coming out of their homes one by one
with sleepy faces. It was still early morning, so the chirping of
birds overpowered the sounds of people.
Michael and Gaya were standing inside their newly built

restaurant, enjoying its beauty inch by inch. Although the
restaurant didn't exactly look like the Ristorante La Sponda, it was
beautiful in its own way. The river view outside the glass window
added extra charm to the place.
"Lord Fovar has really outdone himself, Master Ghost" Gloria's
eyes were full of excitement for the opening. She would have
never thought her life would completely change the moment she
met Ghost when he first arrived at River town and stayed in Lucky
Cat tavern.
She was not a mere waitress anymore, she was the manager of
the most beautiful restaurant in the whole of Bradford or even in
the kingdom. A few months ago if anyone said she would earn a
thousand gold a month as salary, she would have told them they
are crazy but it became a reality thanks to Ghost.
In a couple of months, she bought a new land to build a new

home for her family, sent her siblings to the Sunrise sect, and
saved gold coins for her marriage. Many of her friends were
jealous of her for working for Ghost.
"If he hadn't, I would have hanged that little bastard by his beard,"
Gaya said, making Gloria giggle.
"In three days, we have several nobles and powerful people

attending the opening. I want everything to be perfect"
"I won't let you down, Master Ghost" Gloria's voice contained a
sliver of fear but it was overshadowed by her confidence.
"Good"
"We really need to come up with the name Ghost"

Chapter 307 - Opening Of
Ghost’s Restaurant II
In the early morning, golden light dribbled over the land like syrup
on oatmeal. The leaves shimmered like a mirror flecked mosaic
and the morning dew sparkled on the jade green grass. Michael
was standing on the tallest mountain peak of the Sunrise sect. He
enjoyed the moment of peace and calm before the big day.
"How do I look?" He heard Gaya's voice coming from behind.

Without even turning back, he could sense her delight in her heart
through her voice.
Yesterday he realized why most men hesitate to go to clothing

stores with women. He at least went to twelve clothing stores in
Royal land. She spent hours in each store. It took him less than
an hour to buy four sets of clothes while she took an entire day to
get two. Before yesterday. Gaya never focused on menial things
such as fancy clothes. However, yesterday she went all in. More
than she liked shopping, she liked to chill out with Michael without
worrying about their plans.
For the first time since he came to this world, Michael wore a cloth
set that didnt come from the system store. His long-sleeved,
leather jacket covered him to just below his waist and was almost
completely buttoned up at the left side. The sleeves of his jacket
were a loose fit, reaching down to well below his hands, they were
decorated with a single thread lining at the sleeve ends.
The jacket had a deep, rectangular neckline which revealed part

of the grey elegant shirt worn below it and was worn with a wide
rope belt, which was held together by a big belt buckle. The rope
belt was almost entirely a functional addition.
His pants were simple, a comfortable fit, reaching down to his hide
boots. The boots were made from a rare hide, but otherwise a
common design. Except for the shirt, everything was black.
His sculpted muscles made him extra handsome in the clothes.
"Hellooo" She called again to get his attention. What happened

yesterday kept bugging him. After she called him again, he finally
turned back to be startled by her beauty.
Her fancy dress flowed from top to bottom and had a draped
neckline, which lightly revealed the modest dress worn below it.
The exquisite, tightly tied fabric of her dress covers her stomach
where the continuous flow was broken up by a light leather belt
worn quite high around her waist.
Below the leather belt, the dress opened up to the left, revealing
the dress below. The front of the top dress was shorter at the front
and curved outwards, the back continued to flow a short length
behind her, ending in a narrow rectangle.
Her sleeves were longer than her arms and a comfortable fit, their
flow was broken up above the elbow where they change color and
where they're divided by dark, elegant bands, these were the
same fabric and color used to outline the bottom and neckline of
the dress. Just like Michael, she too chose to wear black.
Although the dress was beautiful, it was the girl who is wearing
the dress that elevated the beautiful dress to artistic.his occupied
mind was completely blanked by her angelic beauty. He could see
her real face as she didn't wear the mask to put on Aelia's face.
Looking at her, he couldn't help wondering if the gods personally
sculpted this beauty before sending her to this world. There were
no fitting adjectives to describe her beauty in his mind.
She squinted at him with one eye playfully.
"It's natural to be speechless" she proudly said as Michael gently

smiled, forgetting what was on his mind for a moment.
"You look beautiful" Michael walked towards her before pulling her
closer to him by her waist.
"Scars are cool, human" she gently headbutted him.
"We'll talk about that later. Now let's go open our restaurant" Both
of them slowly ascended to the sky.
**************************************
The entire river town was in a festive mood. The streets were filled
with people in colorful dresses, carrying name boards saying
Ghost, Aelia, and Sunrise sect. The morning light didn't stop them
from painting the sky with colorful fireworks. Children sitting on the
shoulders of their father wore black dresses to look like Ghost.
When Michael arrived at river town, he saw lines of noble

carriages coming towards the restaurant.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The fireworks exploded in the sky above the restaurant. In

addition to carriages, numerous pegasus were flying from all
directions towards the restaurant. The restaurant building was
currently covered in a giant red cloth.
"Look over there!"
"HEYYYYYYY!"
"GHOST!"
"AELIA!"
"RIVER TOWN!"
"GHOST GHOST GHOST!"

The moment they descended to the point the people noticed, the
cheers erupted like a bubbling volcano. The people cheered as
loud as they could.


The notifications sounded just as loud as these people, almost

giving him a headache. In a couple of minutes, he earned more
than 20,000 badass points. The adventurers who were hired to
keep the crowd in control were having trouble keeping the people
in line. It has been three months since the people of the river town
saw him, in three months' time, the river town's economy and
status were elevated significantly.
The scene reminded Michael of all the red carpet events. In fact,
his last assassination back on earth had celebrities and fans who
behaved just like the river town's people. On earth, he remained in
the shadows, in this world, he was standing right in the spotlight.
The restaurant was built on elevated land so the diners could

have a better view of the river. The elevated land was designed in
the shape of a heptagon with a staircase on two opposite sides.
Right at the moment, the river town people were on one side while
the nobles were using the other to enter the restaurant.
"Ghost Ghost Ghost!" among the crowd, a boy was screaming

Michael's name. The little kid wore the miniature version of a neo
costume to cosplay as him. He was standing relatively close to the
front line
Before climbing the stairs, Michael reached to grab the kid. His
father was stunned but didn't stop Michael from taking the kid.
"How are you, little buddy?"

The kid was speechless as Michael retrieved a quill from his
space ring.
"I want to be like you when I grow up," the kid said,
"Work hard, cause less trouble for your parents and you will be
just like me," Michael said, signing his name on the kind's shirt in
white considering the kid's clothes were black. After handing over
the kid back to his father, Michael and Gaya continued to talk to
some of the people before climbing the stairs to the restaurant.
"Wind Blast" Michael sent a gentle gush of wind blast to calm the
people. The sudden wind produced a howling sound, instantly
silencing the people.
"People of River town" Michael began to speak. His voice was

amplitude by Arch energy to sound loud so the entire river town
could hear him.
"It's been almost a year since I came to River town. Although it's a
short amount of time, I have nothing but great memories here.
That was why I decided to open my first business in River town.
This is a starting point of river town's glory as 20% of my
restaurant's earnings will be used to develop river town"
The cheers erupted the moment they heard Michael donating

twenty percent of the earnings to their town.
"The Sunrise sect will build new roads, bring more job
opportunities through new business, cultivating the lands around
the town so all the ingredients needed to run the restaurant will be
cultivated and bought from river town"
The cheers kept erupting nonstop. The people became extremely

excited and happy. Some of them even shed tears in
overwhelming joy.
"I can list what we are planning for the river town all day. But
actions speak louder than words, so let the action begin. People
welcome to The Majestic Hades" As he said, Michael turned back,
pointing his finger at the clothes. A bolt of lightning shot from his
fingertip to light red clothes in the fire. He specially bought this
cloth from the system store. The bright red flames burned as it
looked like the building had a crown made of flames. The flames
only lasted for a few moments before fading into nothingness,
showing the name board and the restaurant building.
The name 'The Majestic Hades' was etched on the building's top
with golden letters. Finally, after six months of building and
preparing for the launch, they opened up the restaurant.
"Also my dear people of the river town, you don't need to treat me
like a celebrity. I don't want any fan clubs or this kind of parade for
me every time I visit the town. Focus on your life, work hard, take
care of the people around you. That will make me proud. Now
carry on with your lives"
As much as Michael loved to be the badass in the spotlight, he

didn't want to be swarmed with crazy fans everywhere he goes.
That would affect his productivity. Remaining in shadows would
not work in his favor in this world because it wouldn't earn him as
many badass points as he actually needs. However, becoming too
famous at this point in his life wasn't his plan either. Expanding his
power too quickly would draw out the attention of unnecessary
foes. He had to make every single move with utmost caution to
remain safe until he reached the point that no one could harm
him.
************************************
Special shoutout to the wonderful people in my discord server for

helping me in naming the restaurant!!!
Chapter 308 - Michael’s First
Interview
"You're gonna get bored of these things sooner or later, Ghost,"

Elder Martin said, enjoying his baked silk fish. A 5-star chef could
improve the taste of any food or drink, even alcohol by 100%. In
addition, food and drink made by them improved cultivation speed
by 30% for the next week. Some dishes were even able to
improve physical strength, defense, and concentration/focus by
5% for the next 24 hours. Of course, these were only some of the
benefits in the long list. Effects or benefits varied from dish to dish.
"I assure you, Elder Martin. I won't get bored. What's the point of
living for hundred years if we don't enjoy everything this world has
to offer"
"I agree with Master Ghost," Lord Malan who was sitting on the
other side of Michael's table said. Currently, several men and
women were occupying Michael's long glass table. There was
Elder Martin from the Kane family, Lord Malan of Bradley, the
elders of Sunrise sect except for Elder Sandra who apparently
hates gatherings, Reginald, Claire, Gaya, Olivia, and lastly, Ella
the new branch leader of Sunrise sect in Broad River previously
known as Broad River sect in Kingdom Kethen.
She was eternally grateful for healing her burned skin and making
her good and beautiful again.
"I'd choose this over dealing with inner family bitching" Lord Malan
rolled his eyes thinking about everything he had to deal with since
becoming the family head.
"Welcome to the club, Lord Malan" Ella chuckled.

"You know we're here to help anytime you want, Ella" Claire said,
taking a sip from her wine glass.
"Miss Aelia, here's your Seared moon boar" As they were

speaking, a young waitress came carrying a smoking delicious
dish. The entire restaurant was full and there were countless
nobles waiting in line to get into the restaurant. The restaurant had
fifty tables in different sizes. Almost a hundred people could
comfortably dine here. Regardless of the crowd, the waiters and
waitresses trained by Gloria were doing a great job. All the twenty
waiters and waitresses moved in perfect rhythm to keep the tables
filled and diners happy. Gloria was training them for three months.
Michael was thinking about raising Gloria's wage because of her
talent. He never expected this kind of talent in managing a
restaurant and training people from a girl who worked as a
waitress in a small tavern.
Cooking hundreds of dishes back to back didn't slow down

Raylene even for a bit. With the tools, machines, and the help of a
few sous chefs, Raylene kept pumping out delicious food as fast
as the nobles finishing their meals, which was fast, extremely fast.
"How's preparing for the tournament going Ghost? Has anyone

else besides you two competing from your sect?"
"Sect Leader Claire" Even Ghost didnt know the answer to that
question. He looked at Claire as did everyone else.
"They are growing stronger fast but they are not ready yet. So,
these two have to win the tournaments in their respective
championship" Claire raised her cup towards Michael and Gaya.
"No biggie" Gaya shrugged.
"Can we bet on you two winning?" Lord Malan asked with a wide
grin on his face.
"I can't stop you if you want. I know I'm betting on ourselves"
Although he said like he was joking, they could sense the
confidence in his voice.
In their eyes, Gaya didn't even look like she gives a damn about
the tournament.
"Where's Nightmare by the way?"
Lord Malan asked, looking around the restaurant. He thought the

dragon would follow Ghost anywhere he goes.
"Master Ghost" Suddenly Ricky came running to Michael. Those

at the table saw Ricky whisper something into Ghost's ears.
"What is it?" Claire asked,
"Apparently a newswoman from something called Royal times is

asking to meet me"
Only Elder Martin remained calm continuing to enjoy the food, the
others, however, raised their brows realizing Ghost has no idea
what a Royal Time is. Gaya didn't even bother to look at Michael
as she knew he had no clue because she never told him anything
about Royal times or the other newspapers in the continent.
"You seriously don't know anything about Royal times?" Lord

Malan asked as Michael shook his head.
"They are one of the leading newspapers in the Continent. If you

want to get famous overnight, they can get it done" Lord Malan
said with a serious face.
"It's better you stay on their good side. There's a saying among
big families, the newspapers are spells that do more damage than
any spells" After seeing Elder Malan offering him a piece of
advice, Michael nodded, deciding to meet this newspaperwoman.
"I think you made it into the Elon prodigy rankings," everyone
agreed with Ella with a nod. Michael didn't need any explanations
on the rankings because it was pretty obvious. When he was an
assassin, the dark world always used to bribe journalists to cover
their tracks. The dark world manipulated everything in the
newspaper related to them. That was how they remained hidden
for centuries. Therefore, Michael had little to no trust in these so-
called newspapers to print the truth or the rankings precisely. He
guessed there are noble families that have already paid the
newspaper to get the prodigies of their family a higher ranking.
"Alright, that's my cue" Gaya stood up from the table with her
plate.
"Where are you going?" Michael asked,
"Trust me, it's better I stay away from these bitches. I have a bad
tendency to break their noses. See ya ladies and gentlemen" she
waved at the guests before running back into the kitchen.
"Shall we?" Claire gestured at Ella to leave the table but Michael
stopped them,
"No need for you guys to leave, she's gonna interview me, not
you. Let me take care of this" Michael wanted the
newspaperwoman to see him with the people at this table,
especially Elder Martin from Kane Family. If she were to write he
has a good relationship with the Kane family, it would pave the
way for new opportunities with other noble families as well as
keep the rogue and hostile cultivators away from him.
"Ricky, bring her to me" Michael wiped off the corners of his mouth
with the white cloth.
"Winnie" Michael called out to the waiter who served his table.
The guy was still flabbergasted at the fact Michael remembered
his name from the start he met him. The other prodigies wouldn't
even acknowledge the existence of waiters like Winnie yet
Michael treated each and every worker with the respect they
deserve.
"Does Master Ghost need anything else?"
"Glass of grape juice is enough for me, what about you ladies and
gentlemen?"
"Bring that menu of yours kid" Elder Martin didn't hold back filling
his belly. Since everything was so delicious, everyone started to
order food yet again while Michael was waiting for the
newswoman.
A few minutes after Ricky left the table, he bought a woman

wearing a large hat to Michael. Standing 5' 2" tall, this dark-
skinned woman had a charismatic feel about her. She had a
triangular face, a straight nose, small lips, and her dark brown
eyes were heavy-lidded.
Her black hair, dyed completely peach, was short, shiny. She wore
an obvious foundation, glittery lipstick, natural-colored blush,
complimentary eyeliner, and artistic eyeshadow.
"Take a seat, Miss"
"Nadia, Nadia Hall from the Royal Times" Michael stood up,
shaking her hand then sat back. When she noticed the faces at
the table, she was slightly surprised, especially when she met
Elder Martin devouring the chicken.
"Winnie"
"Oh no no no Master Ghost. I'm filled" she said with a smile that
was neither too friendly nor too cold.
"As you wish" Michael did not force her as he waved off Winnie,
letting him take care of the other tables.
"Thank you for agreeing to me on such short notice, Master

Ghost. Do you know why I'm here?" She spoke in a thick British
accent. The fact this world has accents similar to those on earth
surprised Michael.
"No sorry. I don't quite follow the newspapers"
"So no. Let me enlighten you then. As you may or may not know,
the Royal times have been watching the young talents very
closely. We wanted to do a piece of the new rising start of Elon,
you. What better time than now, a week before the big
tournament. I know you have guests to take care of, so shall we
start the interview, Master Ghost?" She placed a parchment and a
quill on the table. She then closed her eyes, casting a spell on the
parchment and the quill. The quill started to write itself.
"Let's start with your name Ghost. Is there a reason behind your
rather uncommon name?"
Michael relaxedly took a short sip from the grape juice.
"People called me Ghost for some reason when I was little. It

stuck with me ever since"
"People? What about your parents, Master Ghost?"
Only after this question, Elder Martin raised his head to look at
Michael. Everyone was interested in knowing the answer,
"I don't have any. I'm an orphan"
Many people who heard Michael's answer were surprised. They

never imagined an orphan reaching the stage where Ghost is.
Hiding her surprise, Nadia moved on to her next question.
"It's difficult to make a name for oneself in the world of cultivation

with a family backing you. So how did you reach this point without
any family support?"
"Hard work" He simply said. On earth or on this world, Michael

worked his ass off. He might have a system, but he needed to
work mentally and physically to get to this point. Without hard
work, no one could use the system to its full potential.
"Hard work? That's it?"
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, Miss Hall. I
had to pay in blood and sweat to get everything in my life"
Chapter 309 - Scars Of Past
The nobles were having double fun. On one side, they were
enjoying the delicious meal of their life. On the other hand, they
were watching the interview live.
"How do you explain your talent for Alchemy? Do you think you
were born with it?"
"I was fortunate to have a mentor. We used to go to all kinds of

dungeons and ruins searching for ancient scripts and long-lost
methods. The good all days"
Nadia's eyes sparkled when she heard about Michael's mentor.

She immediately asked a follow-up question,
"Can you please tell us about your mentor? All our readers would
be interested in the person who mentored the youngest 5-star
Alchemist in the continent"
"I can't talk much about him as he values privacy more than
anything. But I can tell you this, he's scary and much much more
talented than any Alchemist I know" Michael's answer was vague
yet it had the right amount of mystery to let the others keep
guessing. It would also stop people from wondering how he
became a 5-star Alchemist to some extent.
"Speaking of privacy, we don't know anything about your life

before you came to the river town? Where did you grow up
actually?" She asked another question that many were wondering.
Even Claire looked interested in knowing the answer to this
question.
"Where didn't I grow up would be the fitting question" Michael

smiled, taking a sip of grape juice.
"If you want to know the answer to the question where was I
before coming to river town, the answer is Awor"
Many raised their brows in surprise. They never expected him to

come from the most powerful continent in the world. The other
three continents couldn't even be compared to Awor as they were
the richest, largest powerful continents. The main reason for
Awor's prosperity was that Awor had several races living together.
Although there were struggles between the races such as the
enmity between dwarves and elves, they didn't go to war with
each other to prove who's the superior ones. Instead, they
developed their own kingdoms and empires to be the number one,
this altogether lifted the status of the entire continent.
"Wow. You're far away from home"
"Home? No. Home is where I am. River town and the sect is my
home now" Claire gently smiled as Nadia's quill wrote every single
word that came from his mouth onto the parchment.
"What made you come to the river town, Master Ghost?"
"The weather, that was my reason" chuckled Michael. As an

experienced newswoman, she knew when someone's brushing off
the question. Usually, she would focus on that particular question
until she got something juicy but she was experienced enough to
know that Ghost is not going to explain his reason for coming to
the river town.
"Master Ghost, we know you like to keep it yourself and focus on"
Nadia paused for a moment searching for the right word,
"Accumulating power and money while trying to avoid making

enemies" she slowly moved on to the serious topics of her
interview. She obviously did her research on Michael.
"But what made a guy like you massacre an entire sect overnight
including the sect leader? You actually tied the sect leader on a
pole and burned him alive. Roasted him alive like a turkey that's
what the people were saying"
Claire noticed his smile slightly changing into a cold one,
"Miss Nadia, you obviously did your research. So please tell? me

this, do you know what the blood and bone sect did?" Michael
asked Nadia. The people only knew Ghost massacred the Blood
and Bone sect overnight but most of them didn't know why he did
that in the first place.
"I think it's because they killed the people in Rosewood village"
Michael put down the glass in his hand, his smile completely
disappeared from his face.
"You said I massacred the sect and the sect killed the people in
Rosewood village" he emphasized the words massacred and
killed,
"What the sect did was a massacre. What I did was justice. The
least we cultivators could do to the commoners is let them be" the
waiter and waitresses who heard Michael had their respect
towards him lifted to another level.
"Let's talk about Heaven's gate competition Master Ghost. You're

the first person to reach the hundredth step, how did you do it?"
"It wasn't very difficult" He could feel all the eyes on him, looking
at him with both shock and surprise.
"Speaking of heaven's gate, there are rumors you and Miss Celina
have some bad blood between you two. What's your comment on
that?"
"No comment. I don't respond to rumors"
Nadia seemed disappointed yet it didn't stop her from coming up

with a follow-up question.
"We have on good authority that she personally came to

interrogate you with the truth extractor pill that was concocted by
Pill King Gabriel himself"
"I think what she did was out of grief. I was in the Nether Realm
when her cousin was killed and everyone knows there's no way of
coming out of the Nether realm until the portal opens. It was a
desperate attempt to catch the killer. I'm not blaming her for doing
that" He sounded truthful. However, Michael was planning to settle
the score between them at the tournament once and for all.
"On the topic of tournaments, who do you think has the most
chance of winning them?"
"My girlfriend Aelia will win the championship for the Body
Strengthening stage and I will win the other '' Michael said
casually. For some nobles, he sounded arrogant. For some
others, he sounded confident.
As far as Michael was concerned, if he couldn't even win the

tournament with the system's help, there was no way in hell he
could conquer this world. At the same time, he didn't think it would
be easy to win as he was accumulating badass points to buy new
spells and upgrade the existing ones.
"Wow, you sound pretty confident," Nadia giggled. What he said

was a good piece that would stir the heat between the youngsters
who were competing. The more hype her newspaper created for
the tournament, the more the tournament committee would pay
them.
"If your parents were to read this, what would you say to them?"
He was slightly stunned by her question. He never expected her
to come back to the topic of his parents.
"Is it really necessary to ask him about these things?" Claire

intervened. She didn't like Nadia poking into the bad memories.
"It's okay Sect Leader Claire," Michael said before Nadia could
answer Claire.
"First of all, I don't have any parents. The moment they chose to
throw me away like a piece of trash they never wanted, they
cease to exist in my world. I used to watch children play with their
parents, you know how their mothers loved them, the fathers
protected them. I envied them when I was little" Although Michael
and Abras were two different persons, the pain of being an orphan
was the same for both of them. He knew he was Abras, so he
wanted Abras's parents to know what he's feeling.
"When I was seven, I still remember that day vividly. I stole a

piece of bread as I didn't eat anything for three days. The baker,
who was a heartless son of a bitch caught me and gave me this"
Michael slightly pulled his shirt away to reveal the burn mark near
his collar bone
"He punished me for stealing by burning me with a flaming

charcoal piece. I cried until I had no tears left in me. There was no
one there for me to" Michael felt a lump in his throat while Claire's
eyes already started to well up.
"There was no one there for me to ease my pain, no matter how

loud I cried, or how long I cried. I fainted crying, when I woke up, I
was still there, on the side of a pavement, drenching in rain. I
never asked for any of this, if they never wanted me, they
shouldn't have brought me into this world" His voice turned cold, a
glint of murderous intent emerged in his eyes.
"If they were to read this, I have only four words for them. Stay
away from me"
"That's it, the interview's over" Gaya came to Michael's table to

break the interview. Her eyes were bloodshot red due to anger
and sadness.
"Please excuse us, ladies and gentleman. '' Michael left the dining
hall quietly. Thankfully Gaya didn't cause a scene.Nadia was lucky
that she didn't get her nose broken by Gaya.
********************************************
Two days after Michael's interview with Nadia, Diana was sitting
on a bench in her garden. The newspaper she was holding was
drenched in her tears. No one could be seen in the garden except
Diana. She sent all the guards and servants away. Because she
had to leave Kethen to get something important, she couldn't go to
the river town for the restaurant opening.
So when she heard he gave an interview, she paid thousands of

gold coins to get the first printed edition as she couldn't wait to
read her son's interview.
She wasn't crying her eyes out because he told his parents to stay
away. she cried, thinking about the pain he went through when he
was little.
She could feel his hate towards her and Ethan through his words.
She never wanted any of this to happen to him. Her heart bled
reading his story.. If she could, she would want to go to him, tell
him everything, and beg for his forgiveness.
Chapter 310 - Harriet Hunt
The greyish clouds filled the sky, preventing the sunlight from
coming through like border guards. The foliage slowly danced with
the howling wind. The gloomy sky warned the ground about the
upcoming heavy rain through drizzles. While the drizzles were
slowly transforming into a heavy downpour, Ethan came to the
garden where he saw his beloved wife sitting on the bench
holding the newspaper.
He was holding the same newspaper as his wife. In her sorrow,

Diana didn't even notice Ethan sitting beside her.
"First edition eh?" Ethan tried to open with a joke.
"It's not your fault, Diana" Ethan wrapped his arm around Diana's
shoulder.
"I lost him because I was weak. Wasn't that my fault?"
"You weren't weak, the sky hall was too powerful. You know that,
everybody knows that. You had no choice. If anyone to be
blamed, it's Skyhall"
"Our son stole bread because he was hungry" she completely

broke into tears after speaking those words. Diana couldn't even
imagine what he went through. The overwhelming sadness made
her heart bleed. As a man, Ethan wouldn't cry like Diana yet even
his eyes teared up when he read that.
"We'll get through this Diana, like always, together. I promise you,
we will reunite with our son" He wiped off the tears from Diana's
face while lifting her face to look her in the eyes
"You can now cultivate without Skyhall knowing. No matter how

long it'll take, we must reach the immortal stage. Then we'll have a
lifetime making up to our son"
Ethan had full confidence in Diana reaching the Immortal stage

because she was the number one prodigy of the entire world. It
only took her a month of cultivation to go from the Core Formation
stage to the Core Strengthening stage. Her monstrous cultivation
speed was what drew the attention of Skyhall in the first place.
She was meant to be the Holy Maiden.
Even to this day, the name Harriet Hunt would shake the Awor
Continent. Before he heard everything that happened with Sky
Hall, he thought only he and Diana's two sisters knew that Harriet
Hunt is Diana. Ethan had to fake the three sisters' death to leave
Awor continent. If anyone knew she's still alive, it would be only a
matter of days before the royal family as well as the Hunt family
storm into Elon to take her away.
As far as Diana was concerned, her talent was more of a curse

than a blessing. She lost too much because of her talent. To the
outside world, Diana was happy for her childrens' talent except
she was more worried about them than feeling happy for them.
She didn't want her children to suffer the same fate she does
because of their talent.
Diana never regretted leaving everything behind in Awor. If she

hadn't left her family, her two sisters would have been married off
to some wealthy old men while she would have ended up as the
Holy Maiden. Diana's parents viewed the three of them as
trophies instead of as their daughters. They wanted to use them to
increase the Hunt family's influence and power.
Because of her decision to leave Awor with her sisters, they were
blessed with peace and a happy family. She never imagined the
price for leaving her life on Awor behind would be her son.
"One day he will understand everything Dian" the heavy downpour

came with a thunderclap. Flashes of lightning flashed across their
eyes. With the climate, Diana's mood also changed.
"Sky Hall" The veins in her eyes began to pop up, making her
eyes redder and redder.
"You know Ethan, I was trying to run away from being Harriet
Hunt" she stood up from the bench,
"I can't run away from who I am" for a second when the lightning
flashed, Ethan could swear he saw Harriet Hunt, the raven beauty
of Awor. In his mind, her golden hair transformed into raven black
while two swords appeared in her hands.
Raven black hair, two swords, black dress from top to bottom, that
was the Harriet the entire Awor continent was afraid of. If Ethan
had seen Ghost, he would have been startled to see the
similarities between Harriet and Ghost.
"I'm gonna make every single one of them who hurt my son pay. I
am Hunt, Harriet Hunt and I have a score to settle"
***********************************************
Meanwhile back on the Abyssal, Michael was standing in front of

a giant mirror. He was in his grey sweatpants staring at his naker
upper body in the mirror.
Various degrees of burn wounds, bullet wounds, and scars riddled

his body. Three days ago when he woke up, the scars he had
when he was on earth as well as new scars magically appeared
on his body. The system asked him to upgrade it if he wanted to
know how and why the scars appeared.
Those scars brought some bad memories. Moreover, Michael

wondered why these scars suddenly appeared. He didn't know the
Ghost soul piece and Abras soul piece are slowly merging
together into one as they were when he was born in this world.
With the soul pieces merging, they brought the scars back. This
change was visible to his eyes. What wasn't visible is that his
mind and heart becoming one entity instead of two which were
Ghost and Abras.
Until now, he thought he and Abras were two different people. The
truth was however, they were the same. Only because of Sky Hall,
his soul was split into two, one piece ended up on earth and grew
up to be Ghost while the other grew up to be Abras. Fate had
brought the two pieces together once again.
As he was staring at his body with mixed emotions, Gaya was

whistling her favorite music while counting the gold coins they got
from the restaurant. Nightmare was helping her by counting the
stacks with her. Vedora just stood on Gaya's shoulder, supervising
the two of them.
"Hey, do you want to know the total collection or keep staring at

your own body?" Michael put on his T-shirt before jumping into the
bed with Gaya.
"Hit me with it"
"Good, you're back" She pinched his cheek playfully
"Well, we earned a whopping amount of 1.2million in three days.

Because of your fucking generosity, we need to give 20% of the
earning to the sect so they could develop the river town. That
would leave us with 960,000 gold coins"
"What about the cost of buying the ingredients and paying the
wages?" He wiggled himself from the pillow to Gaya's lap. She
didn't mind as she would sometimes rest on his lap and he would
do the same.
"I'm coming to that. Approximately we're spending 60,000 on both

of them per month, so it's no biggie"
"No biggie? You know how many people we could feed or help
with 60,000 gold coins" Nightmare rolled his eyes
"Quit whining you big lizard. We're swimming in millions of gold.

Compared to that, 60,000 is like a drop" Ayag retorted.
"You're a bad influence on the little girl" Michael twisted Gaya's

ear looking at Ayag.
"Who are you calling a little girl? I'll fuck you up" Ayag bore her
teeth after being called a little girl by Michael.
"She's a bad apple, I know that" Gaya chuckled instead of
defending Ayag to make the little hydra even more furious.
"Hehehe bad apple" Sarba, the silver head, chuckled with the rest
of them as Ayag began to hit him in the head.
"Jokes aside, we need to cut the cost of buying the ingredients.

When are they gonna start cultivating the fertile lands around the
river town? If we could produce what we need in the river town, it'll
save us the gold coins of buying them from the other towns and
kingdoms while improving the economy of the river town" Michael
asked. He let Gaya and Claire handle these kinds of things as
they had more knowledge and experience compared to him.
"Old man Reiner will take care of cultivating the lands so we could
start producing veggies and stuff. We can improve the fishery by
getting the fishermen new boats, building new docks. That still
leaves us with exotic meat and seafood. There's no way we can
get them in the river town. Reginald said he will introduce some of
the contacts we could use to get these things for a cheaper price.
I'm thinking about letting Raylene and Gloria handle the
negotiation. After all, Gloria is the manager and Raylene should
come out of her shell"
"I agree with that. Raylene is still too timid" Nightmare agreed with
Gaya's plan.
"You're right, let them handle it"
"It's settled then" Gaya laid back on the bed with Michael. She
rested her head on his hand as Nightmare and Vedora curled
between them.
"I was talking to Raylene the other day, she said there are a lot of
things to be done before the marriage"
"Oooh, I'm listening" Michael winked at her,
"Kids here you perverted bastard" she quickly tried to cover

Nightmare and Vedora's ears but she neither had enough hands
nor time to cover their ears before they heard and realized the
hidden meaning behind Michael's words.
"Lord Lucifer" their playtime was interrupted suddenly by Aria.

They heard her voice in their ears through the earbud.
"Go ahead Aria. Did you find anything?"
"Lord Lucifer, Dark Queen, I'm at the harbormaster's office. The

container I told you about, belongs to the Guardian guild. They are
going to load the container into a ship"
"Do you think the girls are inside?" Gaya asked.
"I'm not sure but something's precious inside as the container is

guarded by men in full plate armor. By the looks of them, they
must be very powerful. Plus, they are doing constant routine
checks, timed guard changes"
"Do you know where the container is going?"
"No Dark queen, no mention about where it is going in the

manifest"
"Don't engage them, we are coming" Michael jumped off from the
bed with Gaya. In a blink of an eye, they both transformed into
Lucifer and Dark Queen.
"Let's go hunt"
*****************************************
Check out the discord if you want to see Diana/Harriet Hunt!!!!
https://discord.gg/yMCZbVNbpC? (If you cant copy this, type the

link)
Formations With New Skill
At the edge of the cloud, there was a brilliant white patch, like a
turning page catching the sun. The rest was dove grey with a
subtle hint of purple, just enough to announce the coming sunset.
The coastline welcomed sea and sky, the bluest of brothers,
together with a covenant of everlasting beauty. Along with nature's
evening sky and coastline, the man-made harbor formed a scene
that looked like a painting. The ships of all sizes floated on the
water, taking the rest they deserve before starting their journey.
This was not a military harbor so there weren't any warships like a
brigade or man of war. The biggest ship that could be seen on the
harbor was a merchant ship with four cannons on the top deck.?
The crane with a huge wheel attached to it kept producing
creaking noises. One could see almost half of the Royal land from
the crane's top.
When the last of the sunlight faded away from the place, two
figures appeared on top of the crane. Their black capes fluttered
in the wind. The light coming from the half-moon vaguely showed
their bodies.
"That's the ship" Gaya pointed at a lone ship silently floating on

the water far from the rest of the ships. It was a merchant ship but
didn't have any cannons. From the outside look, the ship looked
no different than a typical merchant ship used to transport goods
from one port to another except Michael could see ten Core
Formation level 8 warriors on board disguised as crew members.
"Where are the armored guys Aria was talking about?" Gaya
asked.
"Maybe in the below decks"
"We need to know their exact locations before doing anything

human. They are not some weaklings we could waltz in and kill"
"It's time for a new skill," Michael thought as he entered the

system with a specific skill in his mind.
"System, I need you to take whatever points you need and get me
the X-ray vision. Remember, I need to see what's inside the ship
and container so don't get me a level one skill and ask me to
upgrade until I have no points left"
[Jeez, I get it. I know the right thing to give you and I'll integrate it
with eyes of darkness for 2000 badass points. So the total of
buying Xray vision, upgrading it to max level, and integrating it
with eyes of darkness would cost you 8000 badass points ]
"Get it done"
He felt the familiar acute pain in his mind for a few moments. The
moment the pain disappeared, he could feel another skill.
Activating it was just as easy as breathing to him.
When he willed his mind to activate the X-ray vision, the view in
front of him turned dark blue. Soon, he started to see yellow and
red shapes moving around. This was not just an X-ray vision, this
was a thermal vision. He willed his mind again to change his
vision as his vision changed into another, the night vision.
He had a smile behind his mask as he changed his vision to X-ray

vision. He could now see in three types of visions. In addition to
three types of vision, he could zoom in. How cool was that?
"They are in the back, below decks. The girls are there too"
"Wait a minute. How do you know?"
[oh I forgot to mention one thing, host] When he turned to look at

Gaya, he couldn't help grinning thinking about something.
However, the system read his mind and decided to crash his
mental party
[You cannot see people naked using your visions, hehehe] the
system let out a burst of evil laughter. It kinda sounded like a
cartoon supervillain.
"You really are a god in the making. Can't you give some of your
powers to me?"
She trusted Michael enough to not poke into his secret that he
obviously couldn't share with her. Although she was proud and
happy for him, she also felt a bit jealous.
"I'm sharing. How do you think your cultivation speed is

skyrocketing?"
"Stop joking around. I'm awesome, that's the reason for my

cultivation speed" she proudly exclaimed. Michael wrapped his
hand around Gaya with utmost care and love. From the moment
he met her to this moment, everything seemed like a dream to
him. He cherished every moment he spent with her.
"Let's stay like this for a little longer" she rested her head on
Michael's shoulder. They were just about to engage in a battle yet
the wind, the scenery, the quietness brought them closer.
"You know if this conquering the world doesn't work, we could just
leave this world and run off to some other worlds together"
"You said it yourself, I'm a god in the making. When was the last
time you heard a god fail?"
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
While they were embracing each other, a bell ringing sound came
from the harbor. Soon afterward, the ship with the Core Formation
warriors slowly started to move. They didn't jump down from the
crane to reach the ship. They just waited for the ship to sail far
away from the harbor so no one would be able to call for
reinforcement from the land.
Until now, Michael never directly messed with the Guardians.
"What the fuck are these guardians doing with SilverMoon girls? I
know they are a shady bunch unlike many humans think but this is
too much"
"We can't say for sure the entire guild has a hand on the
kidnappings. Maybe a few corrupted guardians are the ones
responsible for this" The guardians were Michael's main foe yet
he couldnt believe the entire guild would involve in human
trafficking. A few corrupted guardians using their guild's power to
do this shady thing seemed more likely.
"Even if we hand the scumbags responsible for this on a silver

platter, the guardians wouldn't do shit to them. They'll just tell us
they would take care of the matter in-house. Best case, the
scumbags will be stripped of their guardian title. At worst, they will
get a slap on the wrist "
"Typical" Michael snickered inside. The Guardian Guild wasn't too

different from a government in some countries where politicians
rarely got punished for their crimes.
If the guardians hadn't branded him as their foe who must be

killed by any means necessary, Michael would have left them
alone. Since that wasn't the case, he needed to root out the guild
before they found out about his true identity and kill him.
"Come on, we should follow them at a safe distance"? Michael

slowly started to ascend to the sky with Gaya. He didn't cast the
lightning dash to speed up his pace. They just followed the ship
keeping a safe distance from the ship. Due to their black armors, it
was impossible to see them in the night without casting any spells.
"Wait" while Michael was flying above the ship, he noticed several
defensive arrays on the upper deck thanks to the eyes of
darkness.
When he was in the treacherous ocean, he had to pop in a bunch
of perception pills and depend on the system to break the illusion
formations. But now, he could easily find the source points to
break the formations.
Although he found the source points, destroying from where he

was would reveal his location as well as alert the guards. That's
where Gaya came in. He quickly bought a laser pointer from the
system for 100 badass points.
"What?"
"Can you shoot that exact point from here?"
"Can I? Humph" she sneered as the bow of Legolas painted in

black materialized in her hand. She knocked an arrow, feeling the
wind's direction before releasing it. The arrow soared through the
arrow-like a bullet.? The moment the arrow hit the place pointed
by the laser, Michael saw the defensive formation fade away. The
guards were oblivious to the formation's disappearance.
"That's how you break a formation, find the source point, destroy
it" Michael explained the reason why he asked to shoot that place.
"How many formations are remaining?" She nodded before

asking.
"One on the rudder stage, one on the crow's nest"
"Use the ice arrows"
The first formation was located on the ship's far back so firing an
arrow did not alert the guards. However, there was a guard
steering the rudder and another one would soon come to take the
crow's nest so he or she could watch over the skies and the sea
around. If they found the arrows, they would alert the guards
which might make killing them difficult. Stealth seemed to be the
best option to kill the warriors, especially the two Core
Strengthening stage cultivators. Who knows what kind of spells
they possess? Therefore, Michael wanted to kill them as
discreetly as possible.
Because of his Alchemy trait, he created a new type of liquid.
Mixing the liquid with water made the ice arrows immune to the
fraction produced when flying through the air. Hence, the ice
arrows won't dissolve in the air before hitting the target. However,
after hitting the target, the liquid mixed water's molecular structure
would be changed due to the collision force, resulting in
immediate evaporation. The only downside of using the ice arrows
as they weren't strong enough to penetrate a human body.
That downside didn't matter when it came to destroying source

points.
Gaya quickly fired an arrow to the formation source point on the

crow's nest before flying to the rudder stage where they saw a
Core Formation warrior steering the rudder while whistling
carefree. Currently, there were five Core Formation guards
roaming on the upper deck on top of the guard at the rudder. One
of them reached the crow's nest with a quick swift jump.
Boom!
Boom!
The sound of thunderclaps could be heard coming from a

distance. In addition to streaks of lightning, he saw a tornado
forming in the distance.
"We should use that storm as a distraction to kill them all," She
said what's on Michael's mind.. With a nod, Michael moved away
from the ship instead of taking a risk of firing the ice arrow to the
formation source point on the rudder stage.
Chapter 312 - Stealth Kills
"This is why I hate the oceans!"
"Bloody hell mate"
"Let the others know we are running into a storm"
"Secure the cargo, I don't want anything to happen to the cargo"
The Core Formation guards on the upper deck talked to each

other while staring at the brewing storm on the horizon. Among
the six guards on the upper deck, two were standing on the ship's
front, one was standing on the crow's nest, one on each side of
the ship tending the sail masts, the sixth one was the guy steering
the rudder. Luckily they were all staring at the storm as none kept
an eye on the rudder steering guard.
Unfortunately, the source point of the formation on the rudder

stage was beside the rudder steering guard. Even if she fired an
ice arrow, the noise would alert the guard.
"Full Lucifer mode" the moment he ordered the system, his eyes
began to shine in crimson red while the cloud of darkness, a cloud
of black smoke enveloped Michael around.
"That's the point. Wait for my signal before firing"
Michael cast the Lightning Dash spell right when a lightning flash
appeared to reach the guard. Just a second before reaching the
guard, he also cast the Death Range making the rudder stage
completely dark.
"Huh?" The guard was startled by the sudden darkness around

him. But before he could do anything, Michael grabbed him from
behind, taking off to the sky immediately.
Crack!
Michael snapped the guard's neck mid-way in the air. Breaking a

neck was not as simple as they show in movies. It required
technique, strength, and training. He had everything. The strength
enhancement he got from Death range made breaking the guard's
neck as easy as breaking an egg.

stage, level 8 Cultivator. The reward is 210,000 Experience points
The moment he killed the guard, Gaya fired the ice arrow,
breaking the last defensive formation.
"Take care of the two in the front, I'll take the other two" Gaya
nodded as she flew towards the ship's front from the back. The
guards' focus was on the storm so they didn't notice Gaya above
them through the dark night. Plus, they were carefree because of
the defensive formations as they depended on the formations to
alert them if there was an intruder on the ship.
Michael was hovering directly above his two targets while Gaya
stayed a few meters away from her targets so she could kill the
two of them as quickly as possible.
"Go"
The moment Michael gave the signal, she fired two arrows within
a second. Each of them pierced the head of its target. On the
other hand, Michael landed right between his targets before
sending two lightning bolts from each hand at each target. Just
like Gaya's arrows, Michael's lightning bolts also pierced its
target's head. The guards didn't even have a moment to react.






"Hey!"
Whoosh!
Zzhhhhh!
The arrow and the bolt of lightning hit the guard standing on the
crow nest before he could even close his mouth.

[The system has stockpiled the excess experience points for the
host to breakthrough later]
He almost forgot about the points needed to break through to the

Core Strengthening stage. Hearing the system notification in his
mind put a grin on his face.
Since he reached the Core Formation stage 10, his overall power
increased significantly than before. Therefore, killing the two Core
Strengthening stage cultivators would be much easier.
"Wait a sec," Michael said to Gaya when she landed on the deck.
Under her gaze, he cast the lightning dash to reach one of the
guards he just killed. He quickly picked up the body, tossing it into
the ocean. As he disposed of the body, he didn't dare to steal their
space rings for safety precautions.
She continued to watch him throw the bodies one by one into the
raging ocean. The howling sound created by the storm became
louder and louder. Since there was no one at the rudder steering
the ship away from the tornado, the ship was getting pulled in like
iron towards a magnet. The raging sea violently hit the ship,
shaking it to the point both Michael and Gaya had a hard time
standing still.
"We need to finish this before that finishes everything" Gaya

pointed at the giant tornado swirling in the distance.
"Don't fret it" Michael calmly said before opening up the latch
beneath him to go down to the lower decks where they were
keeping the girls.
Through the creaky stairs, Michael and Gaya reached the lower
decks. The howling sound of the wind became silent after closing
the hatch. They were welcomed by a dark corridor with a couple
of lanterns hanging on the wall to give just barely enough light to
see what's in front of them.
Using the X-ray vision, Michael located the remaining guards in

the lower deck. The two Core Formation guards seemed to be
playing a card game in one of the rooms ten meters away from
Michael. The two Core Strengthening stage cultivators were sitting
in a meditative position in front of the girls. The girls seemed to be
in a wooden container. All the girls were tied but some of them
were trying to move. The others however remained still.
Michale and Gaya slowly sneaked towards the Core Formation

guards.
"Go kill the Core Strengthening guards, I'll handle these two," said
Gaya.
He knew she could kill them without a problem yet he needed to

do one little thing before leaving her.
Michael squatted on the floor, looking at the space between the
door and the floor. He then willed the system to give him the fear
toxin vials in the storage. As he poured down the fear toxin, it
evaporated into the room through the space.
"With this amount of fear toxin, it won't freak them out as usual but
it will mess with their mind"
"Be careful" After nodding, Gaya whispered.
Giving a little nod, Michael left Gaya to reach the room where the
girls and the last two guards are. The wooden door to the room
was shut closed. From the other side, Michael could sense the
Arch energy circulation. The two guards were obviously cultivating
despite the shakiness of the ship. They were oblivious to the fact
the ship is heading towards a storm.
Michael scanned the room for any formations. Luckily he found no

formations. Just like before, Michael squatted down to send fear
toxin into the room through the space between the door and the
floor. He was careful not to make any sound. In a few seconds, he
poured four vials of fear toxin into the room. If there were no girls
inside, he would have poured four more to completely mess with
the guards' minds. Since that was not the case, he had to be
careful with the amount of fear toxin he should pour or the girls
would die inhaling the toxin.
After pouring enough fear toxin, he slowly turned the doorknob to

open. The door creaked open to reveal two bald men in their early
forties cultivating in front of a wooden cargo container. The
moment Michael closed the door behind, the two cultivators
abruptly opened their eyes.
"So much for stealth," he thought.
The old door creaked more than Michael wanted. Hence, the
creaking sound made the cultivators open their eyes.
"Who are you?" one of the bald men asked as they stood up.
"Lucifer"? the other one quickly recognized Michael.

The two of them suddenly shook their heads as the fear toxin
started to take effect. Their pupils began to dilate. Although the
fear toxin would make them hallucinate and kindle the darkest fear
in their hearts, it wouldn't last long. The stronger the cultivator, the
less the fear toxin's effect on them. That was why Michael couldn't
go kill all the stronger cultivators using the fear toxin.
"Death Range"? Michael immediately cast the Death Range spell

as the fear toxin's effect would fade away in a couple of minutes
max.
The room was completely darkened by the spell.
"Lightning Dash"? while they were stunned by the fear toxin and
the Death Range spell, he used the Lightning dash to close the
gap between them.
Pulch!
Pulch!
"Ah"
Michael stabbed the both of them in their throats with needles

dosed in his paralyzing poison.? The paralyzing poison prevented
the cultivators from casting spells.
The two guards stumbled backward. Michael didn't stop as he

used the Lightning dash yet again. This time, he stabbed them
with a dagger repeatedly.? Since they were Core Strengthening
cultivators, he needed to use all of his strength to send the dagger
into their bodies.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
The blood kept splashing on Michael's suit of armor every time he

stabbed them. He focused on their throats because throats were
soft as well as stabbing them in the throat would stop them from
casting spells.
It took Michael twenty stabs to make them fall down. In addition to

paralyzing poison and fear toxin, Michael needed to cast Death
Range as well as use the maximum speed of Lightning dash to
make the two Core Strengthening stage cultivators fall down.
Even after getting stabbed twenty times in the throat and chest,
they were still alive.


Chapter 313 - Upgrading Spree
I
The ocean breathed, her surface rising and falling with rhythmic
ease. The waves became her pulse that day, the echo of the souls
she kept safe in her cradle of brine. Unlike the ocean he just left,
the ocean in front of Michael was calm. The ocean breeze
wrapped around him as the warmest of soft towels. The wind had
become the orchestral conductor of the sea, sending waves into
their crescendos' all through the ballad that was the night. All
about us was the perfume of the salty water and the fine spray
that came as boldly as any viola flurry. It was as if the life of one's
had entered the water and the energy was so great that this great
pulse came upward to form a steady rhythm.? The sea is infinite
blue in infinite weather patterns, yet in all this, she is the prettiest
color Michael ever saw.
On the calm, the silent reaper floated like it was dancing with the
ocean in a beautiful rhythm. The thrones which were previously
placed in the captain's cabin were moved to the upper deck as
Michael and Gaya rested on their thrones staring at the crew and
the thing that was covered in greyish cloth. No one knew what's
behind the cloth, they could only guess that whatever behind the
cloth was at least six feet tall.
Since Heinberg had been working with Senator Caius to reform

the senate and Tiberius was helping his people settle down in
Gisal, Michael only brought Maxine to the ship to witness what he
was about to do. In addition to Maxine, Sadie stood beside
Maxine. Her eyes were red, her face was pale and tears kept
trickling out of her eyes.
Except for Gibson who stood behind Michael's throne, the crew
members gathered around them keeping a distance. Among
them, Shorty was shivering, not due to the coldness of the night
but because of alcohol withdrawal. The cloudless sky let the
abundance of moonlight that brighten the ship with its glimmering
blue light.
Michael rested his head on his fist, reliving the battle he just
fought in his mind.? By reliving the battle, he gained more
knowledge about his weaknesses as well as strengths.
System version 3.0
Host: Michael
Experience Points: 400000/400000 (1,300,000 points remaining to

be consumed)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 3
Ignitia - LVL 3
Death Range - LVL 3

others


The Dark Lord
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
X-Ray Vision (Also integrated with Eyes of Darkness)
3-Star Inventor
Maxine - Warrior (loyalty level 98%)
Tiberius - Warrior (loyalty level 45%)
Sadie (loyalty level 30%)
The Abyssal
The Crypt
The Silent Reaper
Vedora (Three Headed Hydra)
After willing the system to show his status, he just stared at the
status for a few moments.
"System, show me how powerful my spells are. It's becoming hard

to perceive who can or cannot be killed with my spells"
[Reforming the status window will cost the host 1000 badass
points]
"Take it"
[Reforming the status window]
[Showing host the spells with more information]

Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast (LVL 3) -? [It's pretty self-explanatory. You can blast

people and mess with Celestial Energy flow]
Michael sighed seeing the system's information about the Wind

Blast. It was right though, he had no confusion or questions about
the Wind blast. The more he used the spell, the more control he
achieved over the air element. In the beginning, he could only
send a couple of blasts of wind from one hand. Now he could
send several wind blasts from both of his hands. In addition, he
could reshape the blasts into crescent-shaped wind blades.
Although the crescent blades were not powerful enough to cut a
person in half, it was powerful enough to leave a nasty cut,
especially if he attacked anyone below the Body Strengthening
stage.
Responsive Shield (LVL 4) - Absorb any spell attacks from anyone

on or below the stage Body Strengthening stage.
Environment Scanning (LVL 30 - The spell would detect hostiles

and friendlies in a 20m radius.
Ignitia (LVL 3) - The spell can kill anyone on or below Core

Formation level 3 ignoring the defensive spells belonging to the
class Rare or below. The spell's power would be decreased by
50%, 75%? by defensive spells belonging to the class Epic and
Legendary respectively.
** After casting Death Range, Ignitia can kill anyone on or below

Core Formation level 6 ignoring the defensive spells belonging to
the class Rare or below **
Lightning Dash (LVL 3) - Anyone on or under the Body

Strengthening stage wouldn't be able to spot the host but bolts of
lightning. Cultivators below Core Formation 4 could make out the
host's figure in a blurry vision. To the eyes of cultivators above
Core Formation 4, the host will move 30% faster.
**After casting Death Range, Anyone on or under the Core

Formation level 6 stage wouldn't be able to spot the host but bolts
of lightning**
Energy Devouver (LVL 1) - Specific types of Arch energy could be

absorbed and transformed into Experience points. (System level
is too low to give more information)
Death Range (LVL 3) - The host's power will rise by 30%.

others



A while after pondering, Michael decided to upgrade a few of the

existing ones before buying new spells.
"Okay, I think I should first upgrade the Responsive Shield"
[Level 5 Responsive Shield will be able to absorb any spell

attacks from anyone on or below the stage Core Formation level
2]
"Cost?"
[10,000 badass points for upgrading it to level 5. 15,000 badass

points for upgrading it to level 6 which would? absorb any spell
attacks from anyone at or below the stage Core Formation level 4]
"I'm confused, do I have to spend 25,000 to upgrade it to level 6?

Or I can give you 15,000 points to jump from level 4 to level 6?"
[Yeah you wish. You need to spend 10,000 badass points to

upgrade the spell from level 4 to level 5 and 15,000 points to
upgrade it from level 5 to level 6]
[The system recommends the host upgrade the spell instead of

being stingy with points. You have no other defense spells in your
arsenal and who knows how many freaks would compete in the
tournament]
The system was right. He couldn't be cocky or half-prepared,

especially when he knew that prodigies from all over the Elon
continent would come to the tournament. If he didn't upgrade the
spell to at least level 6, any Core Formation prodigy with Epic or
Legendary spell could easily kill him.
"Upgrade the spell"
[Good decision]
The system appreciated Michael's decision. The next moment the

number of badass points decreased from 125,000 to 100,000.
"Next one should be Lightning Dash"
[In Level 4, Anyone at or under the Core Formation stage level 5

wouldn't be able to spot the host but bolts of lightning. Cultivators
from Core Formation level 6 to level 8 could make out the host's
figure in a blurry vision. To the eyes of cultivators above Core
Formation 8, the host will move 40% faster]
[Upgrading it to level 4 would cost the host 20,000 badass points]
"Upgrade it," Michael said without any hesitation. After upgrading,

the Responsive shield could protect him from anyone at or below
Core Formation level 4. When dealing with anyone above this
level, he could use Lightning Dash that would give him enough
speed to escape from their offensive spell and kill them using his
swords or spells.
"Next spell, Ignitia"
[In Level 4 - Ignitia can kill anyone at or below Core Formation

level 5 ignoring the defensive spells belonging to the class Rare or
below. The spell's power would be decreased by 40%, 70%? by
defensive spells belonging to the class Epic and Legendary
respectively]
[The upgrade will cost you 30,000 badass points]
"I need to ask, what about people above Core Formation level 6?"
[There's no direct answer whether you could kill them with one
lightning bolt or many. It depends on the target's defensive spell.
Basically, if you're attacking anyone above Core Formation level 6
who did not cast any defensive spell, Ignitia can wound them
severely or even take their life if you aim for the vital parts.
However, if they cast any defensive spells, you won't be able to kill
them with one shot]
"So what's the point in leveling up when I can just upgrade the
spells using badass points?"
[You can't upgrade the spells if you are not strong enough. Don't
forget that your cultivation stage will affect the power of your
spells. The more you level up, the more powerful your spells
would become]
"Alright, upgrade Ignitia to level 4"
As he was leveling up and upgrading the spells, he realized one

thing, everything had become much more complicated than
before. Moving forward, he knew he must be cautious and plan
everything as he did on earth.
**************************
Discord link : https://discord.gg/2db5uub4yE
I have posted the character image of Harriet Hunt with her theme
music. Come check it out!!
Chapter 314 - Upgrading Spree
II
After upgrading the spells, he had 50,000 badass points

remaining. However, he was not finished upgrading his spells.
"System, I need you to tell me how much would it cost me to

upgrade the runic teleportation so I can teleport people who are
not my subordinates without buying teleportation scrolls every
single time?"
Every time he teleported someone who's not his subordinate, it

cost him from 4000 badass points to 10000 points depending on
the teleportation destination and number of people he had to
teleport. If he could teleport people by any other means, he
wouldn't have to carry the container to the Silent Reaper.
[huh why do you want to do that?]
Michael sensed a slight panic in its voice. The system was happily
selling him teleportation scrolls. Hearing him want to change his
methods frightened the system as it wouldn't get many badass
points as it did before.
"Can you or can you not?"
Michael very well knew the reason for the system's panic.
[Of Course the system can. But unlike the teleportation scrolls, the
runic teleportation will be able to only teleport three people who
are not the host's subordinates at once. It would cost you 45,000
badass points. The system recommends you to keep buying
teleportation scrolls as they are more time-efficient and take less
toll on your body]
"Oh you recommend?" Michael chuckled,
"No need, just upgrade the runic teleportation"
[You do know that you can't use runic teleportation while you're in
a battle right?]
"I know system. I'm not gonna keep buying your teleportation
scrolls unless I absolutely have to"
[So be it] The system sounded mad. Soon his badass points
decreased to 5000 points, ending his upgrade spree. He wanted
to upgrade Wind blast if he had enough points. Since it wasn't the
case, he decided to upgrade the spell later. Although he didn't
upgrade the spell, leveling up gave the spell enough power boost
to knock out a group of weak cultivators in a few seconds.
System version 3.0
Host: Michael

be consumed)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 3
Ignitia - LVL 4

Death Range - LVL 3

others



The Dark Lord
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
3-Star Inventor
The Abyssal
The Crypt
The Silent Reaper
After taking a second look at his status window, he was satisfied.

He exited the system to see everyone staring at him. His eyes
were fixed on Shorty who was shivering due to the alcohol
withdrawal. Shorty's determination to become a cultivator
surprised him. At first, he thought Shorty was asking him to
become a cultivator for fun but his determination told Michael that
fun wasn't the only thing Shorty is looking for.
Sadie was still sobbing. Her anger was overshadowed by guilt and
grief. Turning his gaze back to Shorty, Michael began to speak.
He was still in his full Lucifer form so his voice wasn't humane, it
sounded unearthly.
"Gibson, tell me how many types of people there are in this

world?" Michael asked Gibson who was standing behind the
throne.
"Two kinds? Good and Bad?" Gibson said with uncertainty.
"Do you know the difference between them?"? Michael asked,
"Good people are good, bad people are bad?" Yet again, Gibson
sounded uncertain. None of them had a clue why Michael was
asking these questions including Gaya.
"That's a textbook answer Gibson. In real life, the answer is much

different than that" Michael stood up from his throne,
"Good people think if they don't hurt others, they don't get hurt.
They try to live by a code of honor or the word of god or anything
that lets them sleep at night peacefully. They don't realize they are
just prey for the bad ones." As he was speaking, he walked to
Sadie,
"Even if they do realize it, they can't do what's necessary to

protect themselves and people they care about. The code they
live by, it's a prison that hurts them forever.? If they end up in a
mess, they just expect someone else to save them. The funny
thing is, they expect that someone else will clean up their mess
without crossing their code. If he or she did, the good ones brand
them as evil, dark ones, etcetera etcetera"
Michael made his way towards the cloth wrapped thing,
"Let me show you the difference between a good person and a

bad one" he took off the cloth after speaking to reveal the two
bloodied Core Strengthening cultivators. They were tied up to
separate poles. The cloth wrapped around their mouths prevented
them from screaming or making a sound.
"These two pathetic worms helped someone kidnap forty young

girls, witnessed the girls suffer unspeakable things, and finally,
they tried to smuggle the girls somewhere. Probably whoever
asked them to kidnap the girls planned to sell them as slaves for a
price"
Tears broke out of Sadie's eyes as Michael went on,
"Twenty girls died in that container and the rest of them have been
scared for the rest of their lives. Now those girls were good girls
who just obeyed an order of their superior" Michael put his hand
on one of the cultivators' shoulders. He started to apply pressure
as the shoulder bone began to crack.
"Hmmmmmmmm" the cultivator's scream of agony was muffled by

the cloth. The cracking sound of the bone gave a chilling to the
pirates.
"Sadie here is also a good girl. She tried her absolute best to find
those girls and she even went to such a height to summon me"
He flicked his wrist as a dagger materialized in Michael's hand. He

ran the dagger slowly on the cultivator's body. The dagger was so
sharp it kept making shallow cuts on the cultivator's body
wherever Michael ran the dagger.
"She thinks she did everything she could to save those girls. But
what about doing something to punish the person responsible for
this? Sadie, can you do what's necessary to find the person who
is responsible, from these two"? Michael asked.
Everyone turned their gazes towards Sadie. Since they didn't see
the ravaged status of the girls in the container, they didn't feel any
anger or sadness but were just curious to see what Michael was
going to ask her to do.
She slowly walked towards the two cultivators. Her body shivered
in anger as her eyes turned redder and redder. When she came
closer, Michael placed the dagger in Sadie's hands.
"Make them tell you who ordered the kidnapping and where they
were transporting the girls. You know what to do"
Michael stepped aside. He folded his arms, waiting patiently for

Sadie to start the interrogation although he knew what's about to
happen.
"Just cut them open, slowly, of course. We don't want them to die,
at least not yet" Gaya said sitting on her throne.
"Hmmmmm" the cultivators mumbled.
"I forgot to tell you, you are on the Southern continent. So no use
in trying to cast spells" A glimmer of shock emerged in their eyes.
Soon the glimmer of shock turned into utter helplessness. No
matter how hard the cultivators struggled against the pole or the
rope that tied them, they couldn't escape.
"Come on Sadie, what are you waiting for?" Michael asked as

Sadie slowly moved the dagger in her hands towards the
cultivators. Her hands were shaking.
"Who...who ordered you to..." Sadie stuttered. She placed the

dagger in the cultivator's body yet she couldn't cut his flesh.
Torturing people was not her strong suit. Even though she was
overwhelmingly angry at the two of them, she couldnt get herself
to torture them.
"What's the hesitation Sadie? Do you think the guys who ravaged
those girls showed any hesitation?" Michael calmly asked before
removing the cloth from one cultivator's mouth.
"You're dead! you're all DEAD!" The moment Michael removed the
cloth, the cultivator screamed.
"You stupid bitch!" he spat on Sadie's face. Since Michael gave

them enough healing potions, their wounds were all healed up.
"They kept screaming for your help until we knocked the teeth off
their beautiful mouths"
Looking at his evil grin, even some of the pirates wanted to grab
the dagger from Sadie's hands and start cutting him into pieces.
"When they find you all, we do much worse to your wives,

daughters, mothers! And you bitch, they are planning something
real nice for you"
He said looking at Sadie with menacing eyes.

Chapter 315 - Good People
Won’t Do What’s Necessary
The two cultivators almost shed their fear after hearing they are in
the Southern continent because they knew they wouldn't be able
to escape. Hence, instead of begging for their lives, they
antagonized everyone.
"Let me help you get started" Michael grabbed Sadie's hand from
behind. He moved the dagger towards the cultivator's chest.
"Argg" the cultivator grumbled as Michael slowly applied pressure

to the dagger. The dagger gradually penetrated the skin around
the cultivator's left nipples.
Michael felt Sadie trying to move the dagger back,
"I….I...Can't" finally Michael let go of her hand. Sadie stumbled

backward away from the cultivator before dropping the dagger on
the ground. No matter how angry she was, she couldnt torture
them. She did not have it in her.
"Stupid bitch" the cultivator cursed in pain.
Everything happened as Michael expected. With a gentle stomp to

the ground, the dagger flew right back into his hand. He then
turned back to look at his crew,
"You see, even when the scumbags who hurt her and the people
she cared about are standing right in front of her, she can't do
what's necessary. Because she's a good person. Being a good
person is not the way to go sometimes. Sometimes, you need to
be bad, you need to be evil to get what you want, to get it done
what must be done" as he said, he threw the dagger to Maxine.
"Show them how it's done"
"With pleasure, Lord Lucifer" Maxine grinned evilly. Seeing the

menacing look on her face, the cultivators felt a chill running
through their spines.
"Another bitch!" he cursed to hide the fear in his heart.
Maxine just smiled as she got closer to him. She started from
where Sadie left off.
"Who gave the order to kidnap those girls?" she asked with a
smile.
"Go fu ARGH!" Maxine made a quick cut circling his nipple as the
cultivator experienced a hellish pain. There was no Arch energy to
ease his pain. She ripped off his nipple. Many of the pirates felt a
tingling sensation witnessing the scene.
"You have many parts I could cut, including your favorite one" she
tapped the bloodied dagger on his crotch. By the look in her eyes,
the cultivator could tell she's not playing around.
"I'm not gonna ask you again. I'll just keep cutting you piece by
piece until you give me an answer" she moved the dagger to the
right side. A line of blood trail appeared from left to right.
"ARRGGGHHHH!"
Just like before, she made a cut around his other nipple.
"This is gonna get only worse for you" Michael reminded the
cultivator while walking towards the other cultivator who was not
getting tortured by Maxine.
"Don't forget about our guest here Maxine"
"Hmmmmmm" the cultivator's cries were muffled by the cloth.
No one felt a shed of pity for the two cultivators, especially not the
ones who saw the condition of the girls. Back on earth, Michael
witnessed gory scenes while dealing with human traffickers but
compared to what the SilverMoon girls went through, the girls on
earth had it easy.
"I'm getting bored here. How about we spice things up?" Gaya
stood up from her throne. While she was walking towards Maxine,
a ball of hot red flame appeared above her hand.
"What do you have in mind, Dark Queen?" Maxine asked as Gaya

turned back to look at Gibson,
"It's a bit chilly here. Go bring me the oil barrel, we're gonna have
a bonfire"
"Yes Dark Queen" Gibson was one of the few people who saw the
girls. After seeing those girls, he wanted everyone who had a
hand in this nefarious human trafficking to suffer. He limped off to
the below deck to bring the oil barrel, taking a few crew members.
"You're all gonna pay. The Guardian Guild will hunt you down!" the
cultivator screamed. Beneath his mad cry, there was a hint of fear.
"You don't get it, do you?" Michael grabbed the cultivator by his
neck,
"They are not hunting me, I'm hunting them"
The images of the ravaged girls flashed across Michael's eyes as

his hold around the cultivator's neck tightened. The cultivator's
eyes started to bulge
"The oil is here Dark Queen"
Hearing Gibson's voice, Michael let go of the neck. The cultivator

breathed heavily as the redness slowly appeared back on his
face.
"Ah ah huh"
"Pour the oil on them," Gaya ordered Gibson.
"As you wish, Dark Queen" there was no hesitation in Gibson's

voice. As far as he was concerned, no amount of torture is
enough for the two cultivators.
One of the pirates handed Gibson a bucket to pour the oil on the
two. Michael patiently waited for Gibson to finish pouring the oil.
He was glad to see this side of Gibson as Michael would rather
have a few ruthless subordinates than a hundred soft-hearted
ones.
Sadie watched Gibson pouring the oil on the two cultivators

without uttering a single word. Before actually meeting the two,
she wanted to make them suffer. However, when she was given
the opportunity, she simply couldn't.
The smell of strong crude oil permeated the air.
"Whoever answers the question first lives and get to leave this
ship alive and the other burns slowly"
A glimmer of hope appeared in the cultivators' eyes.? Before

escaping her home kingdom, she orchestrated many tortures in
the dungeons beneath her castle. She would torture the criminals
who enjoyed torturing others. Of course, Xanali and her mother
strictly prohibited torture in prisons but that didnt stop Gaya from
doing it secretly. Because of her prior experience, she could tell
who would break and who would die before giving out the needed
information. The two cultivators in front of her looked like the latter
type.
Hence, she decided to give them hope of escaping as it would

mostly work with their type. There was a strong possibility for the
two cultivators to lie yet she wouldn't have come this far if she
couldn't detect a lie.
"Let's begin" Gaya snapped as the ball of fire above her hand split
into two. The two orbs of fire gradually floated towards the two
cultivators. Maxine removed the cloth from the other cultivator's
mouth so he could speak up.
"Shit" the cultivator who was antagonizing everyone cursed under

his breath.
"I won't tell you shit!" the cultivator shouted but the other one who
didnt get tortured by Maxine had mixed emotions written on his
face.
"Tik tok assholes, tik tok" Gaya snickered as the fireball got closer
and closer to them.
"Will you really let me go if I tell you everything I know?"
"Shut up Carl!" the one who got tortured shouted at the other one.
Carl however, didn't even look at him as all of Carl's focus was on
the approaching fireball.
"You have my word, Carl. Tell us everything and we will let you go"
Michael reassured Carl.
Carl felt the warmth of the fire. He knew it's only a matter of
seconds before he burns alive. Getting burnt to death was not
worth any amount of gold coins.
"It's Minister Magnus!"? Since Sadie also doubted he's the one
behind all this, Michael and Gaya knew Carl is telling them the
truth.
"We have a winner here boys" Gaya clapped as the fireball

approaching Carl disappeared while the other one lighted the oil.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" the scream of the cultivator reverberated in the

sea. He kept twitching as the fire completely enveloped him. The
fire burnt the ropes that tied him to the pole. He tried to roll on the
ground except it was too late.
"Look at how he's enjoying his firebath Carl" Gaya chuckled evilly,
"We can give you the same experience if you don't tell us
everything, I mean everything you know" Carl's face was
completely pale. He saw his colleagues charred remaining on the
ground, radiating smoke. Just thinking about it made Carl's hair
stand up straight.
"Maxine, bring Carl to our room"

Maxine nodded before dragging Carl behind Gaya towards the
captain's cabin. Michael on the other hand walked towards Sadie.
She was still looking pale as her body kept shaking.
"If you don't come out of your shell, more people you care about
will get hurt. Think about it while you bury your fallen sisters" As
he walked past Sadie, Gibson came to him.
"Lord Lucifer, what about the rest of them?"
Sadie turned back. She didn't know what to do with the girls.
"They should go to Tiberius's land. After everything that happened

to them, they need to be with people they can relate to.
Coordinate with Heinberg and see to it personally"
Considering Tiberius's people were slaves who endure the abuse

of their masters for years and overcame the trauma, Michael
thought it would be better if the girls went there instead of Elon.
Sending them back to Elon would only make everything worse for
them.
"Lord...Lord Lucifer" Sadie stuttered as Michael stopped walking.
"Can I say my goodbyes to them?"
"You were responsible for them. So they will blame you and your
sect for everything. You can watch the girls settling down from a
distance" After speaking these words, Michael entered the
captain's cabin.
"Lord Lucifer is right Miss. Those poor girls have suffered enough.
You meeting them will bring back memories they must forget"
Gibson gently patted Sadie's shoulder to console her. Sadie broke
down into tears. Deep down she knew they were right.
"They are going to a much better place, Miss. That place and the
people living there will help them overcome their trauma"
****************************************
I wrote an elaborate sick gory torture scene but I learned that it
might get flagged as the novel is for the general audience.. So I
cut them down. Hope you still enjoy the chapter and let me know
your thoughts
Chapter 316 - Capturing The
Dark Lord
A pointy ears woman was standing in front of a plain glass

window. She stared at the ocean beneath her. The clouds slowly
brushed past the window.
"He's there Alpha Guardian" Another pointy ears woman walked

into the room. The woman put her cloak on her head before
turning back.
"So the Kethen kid was right" the Alpha guardian had a surprised
look on her face. She then walked towards the door with royal
grace. After leaving her room, the alpha guardian saw several
huge telescopes with golden runs glowing on them. Her team of
guardians was looking through the telescope to keep the target in
their sight. All of them were standing under an arch-shaped glass
ceiling. The hall slowly moved through the clouds. One could see
several runes in various shapes flickering on the glass ceiling. The
bright moonlight acted as their chandelier, giving its radiant blue to
light up the hall.
"Are the rune archers ready?" the alpha guardian asked her
assistant.
"They are in place, Alpha Guardian" the alpha guardian looked

through the glass to see several figures dressed in white to blend
with the clouds floating in the air with huge crossbows in their
hands. Her gaze then locked on the ship floating on the horizon.
"Alpha Guardian" another one entered the room. The figure

quickly knelt in front of the alpha guardian before taking off the
cloak.
"Is your team ready, Guardian Peyton?"
"We are waiting for your order, Alpha Guardian"
"Lead them well, Guardian Peyton"
Peyton's brows arched up in surprise. She was lost for words after
hearing the Alpha Guardian.
"I cannot cross the void line as it might wake up something that
shouldn't be woken up. So I'll trust you to lead the team"
The Alpha Guardian's tone sounded like an order. In front of her,

Peyton was meek as a house cat.
"You won't regret this, Alpha Guardian" Peyton never looked so

proud and confident in her life before. She now had the power of
the entire hunter guardians behind her.
Just as Peyton was about to leave, the Alpha Guardian called her.
"Peyton, we don't take prisoners" her words were cold, filled with
murderous intent. Peyton nodded obediently before leaving the
hall.
"Tiriana" after Peyton left the hall, the Alpha Guardian called her
second in command.
"Alpha Guardian"
"Shadow them and protect the Kethen kid. He's not ready yet"
"As you wish Alpha Guardian. But why send him in at all if this is
not safe for him?"
For the rest of the guardian guild, Tiriana was Alpha Guardian's
second in command but in reality, they were best friends. Hence,
only Tiriana had the guts to question the Alpha Guardian.
"Because Peyton is not a leader, he is" Before Tiriana could as

another question, the Alpha Guardian answered her question as
she had read Tiriana's mind
"Peyton is expendable like all of us Tiri but not him"
*****************************************
"So shall we leave? I need a good night's sleep before the

tournament" Gaya was lying on the bed as Michael was modifying
the APD to be undetectable during the tournament.
"Instead of sleeping, you should cultivate. Do not underestimate

your opponents, snake"
"Have some faith, jerk. It's not like I'm going to lose to a bunch of
Body Strengthening kids" she sent a bolt of arch energy to hit him
on the shoulder with a flick.
"I'm not talking about the run of the mill cultivators. I'm talking
about the prodigies"
"Speaking about prodigies" Gaya turned sideways on the bed to

look at him,
"You are not as mad as I thought about human trafficking. You're

awfully calm"
"What would you want me to do? Loose my screws and go

berserk on Minister Magnus. You of all people know there are
thousands of people who get hurt every day. We can't stop them
all or it's not our focus right now" Michael finally fixed the APD
with the help of the system. He put the APD back around his wrist.
"What happened to those girls was indeed a tragedy but every

tragedy comes with an opportunity. I just utilized it. If we were to
go with the plan of recruiting Sadie before, she would have
contacted the Guardian guild in a split second. But now" Michael
just grinned.
"You're cold as fuck and that's why I love you" she jumped up from
the bed towards him. Wrapping her hands around his neck from
behind, she gently landed a soft kiss on his cheek.
Boom!
"What the?" just as she was about to reach for his lips, the entire
shoo violently shook. She would have thrown off to the wall if it
wasn't for her hands around his neck.
Michael's face immediately turned serious as he detected several

hostels approaching the ship from all directions. They appeared
so suddenly.
"We are under attack!"
Boom!
Boom!
The ship shook again as the booming sound continued to

reverberate. Soon, the wall behind Michael's throne was
obliterated into millions of wooden splinters by a five-meter-long
purple arrow.
"Lightning Dash" he immediately cast the lightning dash, sensing

another arrow soaring towards them.
"Argh"
"Human!"
Michael growled as Gaya saw an arrowhead striking out from

Micahel's chest. The arrow would have pierced her if he didn't
shield her with his body.
Pulch!
"Grrr!"
Before the APD could completely heal the wound, another arrow
pierced him from behind.
"Go put all our crew in the container and tell Gibson to submerge!"
Ignoring the pain, Michael quickly ordered Gaya. He could sense

some powerful figures approaching them.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The sound of cannon fires appeared again. The ship was getting
destroyed in all directions. He could see the smoke and flames
coming through the hole behind him. His focus was not on saving
the ship but saving Gaya and the crew.
"You're coming with us!"
"Lightning Dash" As Gaya shook her head, Michael dashed away

yet he was too late as another arrow pierced his shoulder. His
blood splattered on Gaya's face. She began to shiver.
"We have no time to argue GO!" Activating the death range,

Michael stomped the floor as they dropped from their cabin to the
below deck.
They were knee-high in water. The huge holes in the hull let the
seawater rush inside the ship. He could see the ship would sink in
a few hours if this attack continued.
"GO!" Pushing away Gaya, he raised his arms at her. A strong

gust of wind immediately sent her flying away from him. Since
Maxine left with Sadie to meet with Tiberius, the task of saving the
crew fell on Gaya's shoulder.
Michael leaped back to the cabin through the hole again. Instead
of using Lightning Dash which might reveal his identity as Ghost,
he flew out of the room.
The moment he stepped out of the cabin, he was welcomed by

numerous airships hovering above them. Each of them resembled
a man of war with a huge air balloon attached on top to make
them fly.
Michael pulled out the three arrows sticking out of his chest one
by one. He stored them in his space ring before moving towards
the door to the below deck. He tried to remain calm despite being
surrounded by several warships in all directions.
He ripped off a wooden piece from the wall. Then, he shoved it

across the door to prevent anyone from the other side from
opening.
The ship then began to vibrate as the captain's cabin slowly

moved downwards. Michael relaxed a bit realizing the submerging
still works. He calmly walked towards the captain's cabin, looking
at people wearing silver armor dropping from the warships above
him using ropes.
"Guardians"
Everything around him moved in slow motion. The sight of his ship
getting bombarded to death gave him a mixed emotion of sadness
and anger. He couldn't help wondering how the guardians
managed to locate him. It seemed like someone outsmarted him
or left a piece of evidence behind somewhere that led them to
him.
As he was walking to his room, he noticed golden arrows soaring

through the cloud. They didn't hit him but landed on the deck in a
formation. The formation soon created a translucent blue dome
around the ship.
Whoosh!
In a couple of moments, the entire Silent Reaper submerged into

the water.
"Human! Human, are you there?!" Gaya's voice sounded in his

head. Her voice was filled with dread and panic.
"Take all of them to the crypt. Don't come back under any
circumstance"
"No! You can't leave me" her voice stuttered,

"I'm not. Just do what I said. I'll put airbags in your space ring, use
them to breathe underwater. Unless you want me dead, do not
come looking for me"? Michael cut the connection between them
immediately. He didn't have time to argue with Gaya.
Entering the system store, he quickly bought airbags for the crew
to breathe inside the container.
[The host cannot use runic teleportation while in a battle]
The system reminded him. Although he did not forget about this,
he just tried his luck.
His room immediately flooded with seawater. He sat on his throne

waiting for the ship to emerge so he could welcome the guardians
personally.As he was sitting on his throne, the cloud of darkness
slowly faded away. He felt something blocking him from using
Arch energy. The sensation was similar to what he felt during the
fight with the young master. The young master used a rune
formation to prevent Ghost from using the Lightning dash. This felt
similar but stronger.
*************************************
After the ship emerged from the water, in addition to hearing

several footsteps, he also sensed the warships circling the Silent
Reaper in a diamond formation.
His X-ray vision enabled him to see through the wall. He could
see at least fifty Core Strengthening stage cultivators with
crossbows, spears, and swords surrounding the cabin. Among
those, there were a few weak ones. Instead of the Core
Strengthening warriors, it was these weak ones that kept walking
towards his cabin. He just placed an orb on the table, waiting for
them to come in.
Boom!
The front door exploded into bits as four figures walked into the
room through the cloud of dust. Michael recognized four figures
immediately. They were Peyton, Xanali, Alicia, and finally Noah
Winston.
"Lucifer," Peyton said as the Core Strengthening warriors in silver

armor flooded the room, surrounding Michael.
"Your game ends here"

Chapter 317 - I Am THE DARK
LORD
"Took you long enough," Michael said, lazily sitting on the throne.
"System, can you disable the formation around me?" he asked the
system in his mind. He sensed a dome of pressure around him
that prevented him from using Arch energy. Although it would be
hard to kill all of them, if the system could disable the formation,
he could use the runic teleportation to leave the ship.
"Did you really think if you're inside the void line, we, the
guardians cannot catch you?" Peyton snickered.
"You have no idea how we caught you, do you?"
Michael wanted to ask them about it somehow yet Peyton's ego

was so big that she herself started to explain without even Michael
asking.
"There's a saying in Elon you know" Peyton started to walk around

Michael with her hands behind. Her ample chest was puffed up as
she felt so proud of herself.
"Guardians can go to places that even the air couldn't"
[Disabling the formation would cost the host 14,000 badass

points. Currently, the host lacks the required points. Do you want
to take a loan from the system for a measly 30% interest?]
Despite the pickle of a situation he was in, the system had the
galls to joke around.
"Yes, do it"
[Oh? Alright then] the system sounded surprised. The system
thought Michael would activate the banker function to convert the
gold coins into badass points instead of taking a loan. As far as
Michael was concerned, earning the required 1.4 million gold
coins was harder than earning 18,000 badass points to settle the
debt.
[Disabling formation has begun...]
[600 seconds remaining...]
[599 seconds remaining...]
A grin appeared on his face behind the mask.
"You were too busy playing the good guy to notice a guardian
hiding in the container with the SilverMoon girls. Gina" Peyton
clapped as a girl in ravaged clothes entered the room. She had an
oval face smeared with mud, blood, and oil. It was hard to
differentiate mud from her brown hair. Michael looked directly into
her hazel eyes before taking his eyes away from her.
Michael saw this girl among the SilverMoon girls. Unlike Peyton
was thinking, he did anticipate a spy. That was why he kept the
girls alone in a separate room, not letting any of his crew except a
few. He realized that Gibson failed to count the girls before
sending them to Tiberius. Good thing that he always kept his crew
away from the girls as Gina probably had not seen their faces.
Without seeing their faces, the chances of capturing them in the

Southern continent were zero to none. It seemed that Gina used
the darkness of the room to escape Gibson's eyes. She was
probably hiding in the room, communicating with the guardians
until now.
"So you know what happened to those girls and who was
responsible?" Michael asked Peyton but directed his gaze at
Noah.
"He will be punished for his crimes, just like you," Peyton calmly
said.
"Will? Let me guess, you're still investigating" Michael snickered.
He couldnt believe the incompetence of the guardians.
"You don't have to worry about that Lucifer or should I call you the
Dark Lord?"? Peyton stopped walking to stare him in the eyes.
"We will catch him, just like we caught you. Justice will prevail"
Xanali coldly spoke instead of Peyton.
"Hahaha" they were slightly stunned by the sudden laughter

escaping Michael's mouth.
"Cut your bullshit, Naga"? Xanali clenched her fist as her mouth
kept opening and closing in shock. She was quite speechless.
Among the people in the room, only Peyton knew about her race.
She kept her Naga origin as a well-hidden secret. She couldn't
figure out how he saw through her transformation.
"You never caught me. You're here because of him" Michael

looked at Noah. If anyone could find him in this room, he knew it
would be Noah.
Noah's calmness spoke louder than Peyton's ego-filled words.
"I can tell that you were planning this for months. You might feel
proud deep down huh Noah?"? Michael completely ignored
Peyton and Xanali as he looked at Noah.
"I am feeling proud. Catching an evil bastard like you always

makes me proud and happy" Noah walked towards Michael from
the corner of the room. He flicked his wrist as a throne made of
pure gold appeared before the table, directly opposite to Michael.
Everything around them slowed down, including the time itself.

For a moment, Xanali saw a bright light radiating from Noah while
pitch-black darkness radiating from Lucifer.
"You just used the girls who were raped, tortured, and killed to
catch me. If I'm evil, what do you think makes you? Have you ever
tried to catch Minister Magnus? Or you want more dead bodies as
evidence before catching him?"
"Don't worry, after dealing with you. I'm going straight to Minister
Magnus. He will pay for what he did, just like you"
"What about his partners? Do you know the containers they were
using to smuggle girls had the symbol of guardians, not just the
one Gina was in?"
Michael's question stunned Noah. Unlike Michael who lived two

lives, Noah was still naive compared to him.
"The Guardian Guild is not how it used to be, Andreas" the

moment Michael uttered the name, Noah's eyes went wide.
Subconsciously he touched his ring. The very next moment, a
faint whistling sound reverberated the room. A sudden pressure
enveloped the room.
Thop!
Thop!
Thop!
One by one, the Core Strengthening warriors around Michael

started to fall down. In a few moments, only Michael remained
conscious as even Noah's eyes were shut closed. Soon, an
ethereal figure appeared beside Noah. The figure was a man in
his early forties. He had shoulder-length white hair, stubble beard,
broad shoulders as well as a mark of the rising sun right between
his eyes.
"We finally meet Dark Lord"
"Supreme Guardian Andreas McLeod," Michael said. When he

was on the treacherous island, the sliver of soul left behind
Andreas talked about his successor. It was just a guess that Noah
would be the successor. He always doubted that something weird
going on with Noah yet Michael never expected he had a ring with
an OP grandpa in it. Moreover, the Supreme Guardian actually
revealed himself to Michael instead of doing the opposite. It was a
stupid move to reveal his successor to Michael, at least Michael
thought that way.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[The host cannot kill Noah!]
[The target has a powerful mark on him. At the current system

level, the system cannot protect the host from dying if you killed
Noah!]
The moment Michael thought about ending Noah's life here and
now, the system began to scream in his mind. His eyesight was
filled with red flashes of warnings.
"I was searching for you for more than three thousand years Dark
Lord"
"You shouldn't go searching for death, Andreas"
"Humph" with a snicker, the ethereal form of Andreas faded into

Noah's body. The very next moment, the ethereal form
disappeared, Noah opened his eyes. However, his pupils were not
black but shone in bright white. His white robes glimmered like
they were made of white gold. Even Noah's black hair slowly
changed white. It wouldn't take a genius to see that Andreas just
took over Noah's body.
"I'm not the one who searched for death, Dark Lord. The moment
you chose to go against the Guardian Guild, you signed your
death warrant. I'm glad we stopped you before you could start a
war"
Michael slightly leaned forward but the Supreme Guardian flicked

his wrist as numerous spikes made of Celestial energy
materialized around Michael, ready to skew his body.
"Don't even think about it. This ends now" Michael could feel any
one of these spikes could end his life if Andreas wished.
"You were right about one thing though. The guardians are indeed
becoming idiots, they still haven't unmasked you yet. I want to see
if you're really the devil or a traitor of the human race" an ethereal
hand moved towards Michael's mask,
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" The hand stopped for a second,
"System, connect the video feed of Noah's home to the orb before
me"
Teleporting away from the room was one of his plans, it was plan
A. However, at this moment, he chose to go with plan B. The
moment he saw Noah, he plotted this plan in his mind.
[With pleasure]
Andreas noticed the orb on the table between them suddenly

glowed. Soon, the glass orb started to show him a familiar place,
Noah's home.? The bright glow in Noah's eyes flickered.
"I made your entire guild piss their pants before even I came to
this world. I'm THE DARK LORD '' the moment the words dark
lord escaped his mouth, he willed the system to activate the cloud
of darkness and the eyes of darkness, showing his complete
Lucifer form to the supreme guardian.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of" His crimson red eyes
moved away from Noah to Gina who was lying on the ground
unconsciously. The supreme guardian turned his neck to see
Gina. Michael controlled the Spyders in the room to move to Gina.
He controlled the Spyders telepathically to inject her with their
poison.
A few seconds after, at first, her body twitched. Then the supreme
guardian saw a white form coming out of her mouth as her body
started to twitch violently. The form quickly turned white to red
while her eyes rolled back.


....
Chapter 318 - Good Bye
"Look at that, they are having a family dinner" Michael evilly

chuckled looking at the orb before him. Noah's eyes flickered,
indicating Noah trying to take back his body.
"By destroying the ship, you guardians made it personal. So what

if I take something you love Noah? For example, your little sister"
Michael slowly, just very slowly moved his finger to snap.
"Stop," Andreas said as his shout shook the entire room.
"Get this through your thick skull Andreas, you cannot stop me. I
will warn you only once, back off or everyone you care about will
die. You guardians say I'm bad, trust me, I'm the worst"
As he said, Michael snapped, willing the system to teleport him

back to Abyssal. Michael wanted to confront him more but he
could feel the dizziness overcoming his senses due to the blood
loss. Considering Andreas was a 6-star Alchemist, Michael didn't
dare to use APD. The Supreme Guardian would have recognized
the healing potion, connecting the dots between Ghost and
Lucifer.
The tight armor kept the blood loss minimal yet after a time, he
had to leave the ship. It was also one of the reasons Michael left
the ship without beating the crap out of the guardians when they
were unconscious. After Noah's body was overtaken by Andreas,
his power skyrocketed from Core Formation stage two to Fusion
Stage level 10. He knew he would not stand a chance fighting the
Supreme guardian with his current status.
Fortunately, he had Spyders in Noah's home to blackmail the

Supreme Guardian. Else, Andreas wouldn't have let him leave
without a fight.
With a last glance at his Silent Reaper sinking into the sea,
Michael teleported to the Abyssal. His heartfelt heavy seeing his
ship sink.
******************************************
"Human!"
The moment Michael appeared in the darkroom, he heard the

panic-stricken voice of Gaya. Azazel quickly waved his hand as
the room immediately lightened up to reveal blood-soaked armor.
Gaya's eyes watered up as she pulled off Michael's skull mask.

His face was pale, blood trickled down from his nostrils.
Everything hurt. Their head hurt, their chest hurt, their feet hurt. A
sharp pain struck their chest from deep within him. He paused for
a moment, taking a deep breath. Perhaps if he could shift his
focus away from the pain to Gaya's face, it'd be easier to manage.
He took a deep breath and shifted their focus, determined to

swallow the pain and keep going. Activating the APD, he
struggled onwards, only to stumble on Gaya.
"Ghost!" she caught him as Nightmare wrapped his wings around

him to steady Michael. Tears were rolling out of the dragon's eyes.
Vedora walked away from Michael's bed to give him space to lie
down.
A sharp pain struck his chest from deep within. One hand
wrapped around Gaya's shoulder while the other clasped his
chest in agony. The pain subsided at times, only to flare up again
and with seemingly increased intensity. It'd probably take a simple
and obvious decision to either give up or keep going at this point,
but that decision just didn't seem to come.
It became harder and harder to swallow the pain, to ignore the

sensations and the voices telling him to stop. On any other day,
he would have used a healing potion to heal himself, but not
today. The arrow pieces inside his body stopped the healing
potion from healing him.
"My lady, quickly remove his armor" Azazel instructed Gaya.
Nightmare helped Michael lie down on the bed. Soon, the white
mattress turned red in his blood.
"Why aren't you using the healing potion!?" She ripped off
Michael's armor to see two wounds on his chest and one in his
shoulder. She poured the healing potion into the wounds after
taking a potion from her space ring.
"You...need...to(cough)" Michael tried to inform her about the

arrow pieces inside his body yet when he tried to talk, he started
to cough up blood.
If it wasn't for the APD injecting him with a healing potion, he

would have lost consciousness completely.
Seeing the blood coming out of his mouth, her mind went blank.
"There's something preventing the healing potion from healing

him" Since Nightmare could see the energy flow with his eyes, he
noticed the energy coming from the healing potion getting sucked
by something inside Michael.
"Then you need to cut him open and get it out," Sarba said as the
other two heads nodded.
"Yes(cough)" Michael coughed before clenching her hand tightly.
"What?! No no i... can't"
"You have to, my lady. The rest of us don't have hands like you"
"He's a dying bitch, do as we say" Ayag jumped between Michael

and Gaya to shout at Gaya. Nightmare saw a dagger materialize
in Michael's hand.
He picked up the dagger before handing it over to Gaya.
"What if...what if he died?" Gaya sobbed. She never felt her body
shiver like this before. Her brain completely stopped working as
the fear of losing Michael hit her to the core.
"He will if you do nothing" Cain, the blackhead said, breaking his
silence.
Michael quickly paid the system to light up the places in his body
where the arrow pieces were stuck. Gaya was not a doctor to
operate the arrow pieces out. Therefore, he helped her by lighting
up the arrow pieces' locations in his body.
"What's happening?" She was stunned to see the skin near the
wounds radiating a golden light from within.
"The arrow pieces" with the help of the golden light, she saw the
pieces stuck inside him.
As she was moving her shaking hands towards the wounds,

Michael's eyes started to close.
"Lord Nightmare, keep pouring the healing potion into his mouth"
Azazel flicked his wrist as the healing potions Michael kept on his
workbench flew directly into Nightmare's hands.
Quickly the three heads of Vedora pulled out the corks of the
healing potions.
"Please...please don't leave me," Gaya cried. The lump in her

throat prevented her from speaking loudly. Gently she placed the
dagger on the wound to cut.
She could feel the energy pulses coming from the broken arrow
pieces. In a blink of an eye, she felt all kinds of emotions like
sadness, grief, anger, and resentment.
"Please hurry my lady" Azazel rushed her. She wiped off the tears
from her face. Finally, she overcame her emotions realizing the
dire situation. Her hands stopped shaking as she made the first
cut.
Immediately blood splashed out from the wound. The piece of the
rune on the arrow pulsated energy that kept gushing out Michael's
blood.
"There it is," Nightmare noticed a broken three-inch arrow piece in
the wound. It was glowing dimly.
"Argh"
"What is that?" Ayag noticed a silver tool appear in Michael's hand

again. It looked like scissors in Gaya's eyes. The cut was only an
inch wide. Therefore, if she tried to pull out the arrow piece by
hand, it would do more damage. When she saw the tool, she
knew how to use it.
"Don't...cry…(cough)" Michael opened his eyes with great

difficulty. He couldn't even move a muscle in his body.
"I'll be...fine" finally Michael let out these words with a gentle smile
before closing his eyes.
"I won't let you die" Gaya pulled out the broken arrow piece
straight away without wasting any time.
The moment the broken arrow piece exited Michael's body, the
healing potion took effect. They saw the wound rapidly closing. It
did not even leave a scar. Seeing the wound close up gave her
the strength to move to the next wound.
************************************
Almost half an hour later, Nightmare sighed a sigh of relief. All the
wounds in Michael's body completely healed up. He was
peacefully sleeping on the bed. With the help of Azazel, they
changed the bloodied sheets and Michael's clothes.
Everything in the room had been changed except for Gaya. She
was staring at Michael with a bloodied face and hands. No one
could tell what she was thinking. She just stared at Michael in
silence.
"I'll go something for you to eat," Nightmare said hovering in front

of her.
"Yes," she nodded as Nightmare left the room to go collect some
fruits in the dark forest.
"Go make sure this place is secure" Gaya ordered Azazel who
was standing behind her. Her eyes were fixed on Michael.
"As you wish, my lady" after Azazel disappeared, she looked

around the room. After seeing no one in the room, she made her
way towards Michael's workbench.
There was a hint of resolution could be seen in her eyes like never
before. She sat on the chair, taking out a parchment and a quill.
Tears flowed onto the parchment while she was writing. Almost
after ten minutes, she closed the parchment. Michael was
oblivious to what's happening around him as he was peacefully
sleeping. He did not even notice Gaya placing a parchment
beside him with the earpiece he gave her.
"Goodbye human" she gently kissed him on the forehead.

Everything they went through flashed across Gaya's eyes. What
she decided to do wasn't easy. Her heart bled just to think about
her decision. For almost a year, she had never left his side. Even
when he was in the Nether Realm or treacherous ocean, they kept
in touch through the earpiece, It never felt like they were apart.
Her smile on the face contained an immense amount of sadness..

After kissing him again on the forehead, she left the room.
Chapter 319 - I Will Love You
Till The End Of Time
"Arrghh fuck" Michael growled, slowly opening his eyes. He had

completely lost of time. Everything around him was dark. He
instinctively turned his head to see if Gaya was lying beside him
as usual. Except, when he turned aside, a parchment rolled out
from his chest.
"Gaya" he called out for her looking around the room. He received
no response. At first, he thought she went outside. However, he
felt a strange void in his heart. He picked up the parchment,
"Azazel" before opening the parchment, he called out for his

butler.
In a few mere moments, the demon butler appeared before

Michael.
"Turn the lights on"
With a wave of his hand, the demon butler lit the room.
Michael opened the parchment to read. Azazel noticed Michael

creasing his brows. A hint of shock and sadness emerged in his
eyes.
Dear Human,
It's funny that after everything we went through, I never knew your
real name. I think even if I know your name, I might continue to
call you human because you were the first person who actually
helped when I needed help the most. I can still remember the day
I met you vividly. This past year is the happiest time of my life. If I
were to die today, I'd happily greet death as the happiest girl in
this world. You are the best thing that happened to me
When you were bleeding on the bed, I couldn't do anything. That

feeling was worse than death. If I was only faster, stronger, I could
have helped you. These words kept repeating in my mind. I don't
think I can ever go through something like that again. I'd rather die
than hurt you but I must do this for both our sakes. I hope you
understand how difficult it is for me to make this decision to leave
your side. I'm going somewhere that I should have gone a long
time ago human. I will come back to you stronger or dead, either
way, I will come back to you. Please don't come searching for me
unless you want me dead.? I didn't have the courage to say this to
your eyes. That's why I'm leaving you with this letter. I hope you
find it in your heart to forgive me. Look after Nightmare and
Vedora for me.
I love you and I will love you till the end of time.
Gaya Ashton ( I hope the gods bless me to change Ashton to your

name human)
Michael felt a lump in his throat after reading the letter. When he
finished reading the last word, a drop of tears rolled out of his
eyes without his control.
"My lord" Azazel called out as he had no idea what's on the letter
or what made Michael act this way. Her words hurt him more than
the arrows did.
"System"
[The system's level is too low to track her location without the
earpiece host. Besides, there are some places in this world that
trying to track her down would backfire and kill her]
His heartbeat slowly raised to the point the veins in his eyes
popped, making his eyes redder and redder. It became extremely
hard to control his anger towards the guardians. If it wasn't for
them, she wouldn't have left him. At this moment, he felt weak and
helpless. He couldn't even imagine losing her, especially when he
was planning to propose to her.
He slowly walked towards the monitoring mirrors on the wall. One

of the mirrors had no footage as it reflected Michael's body.
Boom!
Michael punched the mirror as it exploded into thousands of tiny

pieces. His punch formed a fist-shaped hole in the wall. He did not
use any spell or skill, just punched the wall with pure anger. blood
trickled out of the cuts and scratches on his fist.
"My lord" Azazel immediately waved his hand as a healing potion

flew from the worktable to heal his wound.
"What's that sound?" Nightmare flew into the room to see Michael
standing in front of a broken mirror. He noticed the bloodied
parchment in Ghost's hand.
"Ghosty you're awake, what happened?"
Michael threw the parchment to Nightmare as he caught it with his

hands in the mid-air. Nightmare opened the parchment that had
dots of Michael's blood-soaked in to read while hovering in the air.
"What the hell? Sigh" Nightmare sighed. He noticed something

was wrong after Gaya finished taking out the broken arrow pieces.
She was awfully silent after Michael had been healed. Nightmare
never thought she would actually decide to leave them.
"Ghosty" Nightmare threw the parchment on the bed before flying

to Michael's side. He put his hand on Michael's shoulder to
console him.
"Why did she leave?" Michael turned his gaze to look at

Nightmare.
"She had to Ghosty" Nightmare's answer surprised Michael.
"She was powerless to do anything when you were in trouble, she

was powerless to save you when you were bleeding on the bed,
moments away from dying. Just imagine yourself in her shoes,
imagine what she went through. Wouldn't you go searching for
something that will make you stronger so you won't feel
powerless? I'm not saying leaving us was the right choice, I'm
saying I don't blame her. And you shouldn't do"
Michael clenched his fist again,
"I don't blame anyone but the Guardians" as he said, he walked

towards the workbench. He clenched the table tightly,
"Until now, I just wanted the Guardians out of my way. Moving

forward, I'll destroy everything Andreas built, piece by piece.
When I'm done with the Guardians, they won't be anything left"
[New Goal added!]
The moment he took a resolution to destroy the guild once and for
all, he heard a system notification in his mind.
"Where has she gone?" His anger towards guardians quickly

faded away when his eyes landed on the room's corner where his
robes were hanging on the wall.
His black robes brought back a sweet memory from a few days
ago in front of his eyes.
*************************************
(few days ago)
"Morning" Michael slowly opened his eyes. He held the bed

sheets tightly as he curled under the thick quilt. When his sleepy
vision cleared, he saw Gaya sitting beside him.
Instead of greeting him with some snarky comments, she was fully
focused on the task at hand. She wasn't even blinking as her
tongue stuck out above her cherry upper lip, almost brushing the
tip of her nose.
The moment he saw what's in her hand, his sleepiness instantly

disappeared.
"Hey what the hell are you doing to my clothes?" He threw the
quilt aside to stand up.
"What does it look like?" she said without taking her eyes from
Michael's long black trench coat.
"Im putting on embroidery. It's gonna look so cool when I'm done"
Michael craned his neck to see his trench coat. There was an
unknown shape that looked like a baby of a circle and a square.
"What is that? A kidney or something? Wait that looks like a circle

with a stick in it"
Only then she took her gaze away from his trench coat. She
turned her murderous gaze at him,
"It's a 'G' you blind asshole"
"Hahahaha, G? Who taught you embodiment?" Michael burst into

laughter, making her madder and madder. She would look
extremely cute when she's mad. He couldn't help pinching her soft
cheeks while wrapping her with his arms. There was the hug of
gentle arms that still gives the space to breathe; then there was
the hug of strong arms that tells everything, your body, brain, and
soul that they are with you. She loved both, the duvets and the
human shields, each had their time. The way he hugged her at the
moment was a hybrid of both hugs. His embrace was strong yet
gentle, filled with love and care. She was unable to stay mad at
him under his passionate hug.
"G for Ghost or Gaya?"
"Just like in our cards, G for Ghost for others but it really stands
for Gaya. This way" she lifted his trench coat to show him her
rather unique looking 'G'
"I'll always be closer to your heart"
"I prefer the real thing" his hug tightened as he smooched her
cheek before landing a soft kiss on her soft, rosy cheek.
"Did you put this embroidery on your clothes?" she bit her tongue,
slowly wiggling herself out of his embrace.
She went to the edge of the bed. He saw a foxy smile emerge on
her face,
"I didn't want to spoil my clothes. '' She quickly started to run after
saying these words.
"I knew it, stop!"
Their laughter reverberated the walls of the Abyssal. Their

happiness lit up this dark place.
*******************************************
Michael put on his clothes to leave Abyssal. This place never felt
like home without Gaya around. He gently tapped the embodiment
on his chest, reminiscing the moments with her in his mind.
"In the letter, she said take care of me and Vedroa but I saw
Vedora with her when she was flying away," Nightmare said,
"You saw her leave?" Michael frowned,
"Yeah, I thought she's going to the sect"
"At Least someone's with her" Michael sighed in relax,
"I trust her, she will come back to me" Finally Nightmare saw his
usual smile appear on his face. Nightmare was really afraid of
Michael going on a rampage or going into a self-destruct mood.
But after seeing his smile, he felt like an immense amount of
pressure was being lifted off of his shoulder.
"Come on, we have a tournament to win"

Chapter 320 - Three Days To
The Championship
Tournament
"Keep monitoring Azazel, especially that house"
"I will contact you the moment if I find something amiss, Lord
Lucifer" Azazel bowed his head.
"Where are Aria and Dular?"
"They are both cultivating in their rooms, Lord Lucifer. Do you wish
to see them?"
Michael shook his head, "No need. Nightmare, let's go"
He willed the system to activate the runic teleportation. In a few

seconds, the space before them twisted as they felt the familiar
sensation of being teleported.
***************************
"I never get used to this feeling. '' Nightmare shook his head to
calm down his nerves. After being teleported, he felt like he was
about to throw up. Fortunately, he learned to control this nasty
sensation.
Since Gaya destroyed their home, Michael had to leave a rune on

a large oak tree near the construction site where his home used to
be. There was no one working at the construction site as it
seemed like early morning. The usual golden rays of sun on the
horizon were nowhere to be seen. It was a chilly cloudy morning.
On this cloudy morning, there were growing patches of blue, the
sort of hue that was soft and bright at the same time. Though
beneath the sheet of cloud was a gray that deepens to steel, the
leading edge is a brilliant white, as if it were the pages of a new
book ready for any curious eye. So, on this day that could bring
rain or sunshine, he hoped for heavy rain because rain plus hot
coffee always calmed his soul.
In the sky, the clouds were arranged as neatly as child's toys,

scattered over blue, content to drift where they fell. The morning
sun had the potential to bring a day as hot as yesterday, but those
wonderful puffs of white radiated it back out into space. The air
was cooler, the colors less vivid and all without a drop of rain.
Nightmare shrunk his size just enough to comfortably sit on

Michael's shoulder like a bird. He wrapped his tail around
Michael's neck for extra hold as well as comfort. Walking out of
the forest, he made his way to Claire's home.
"Good Morning brother Ghost"
"Good Morning Nightmare"
Michael's home was located near a green lush forest at the far
end of the sect. It was rather a solitary place just like Michael's
preference. Plus, it was built on a small hill so he had to walk the
stairs to reach Claire's mansion. While climbing down the hill, he
met several disciples in black uniform who greeted them with the
utmost respect in their eyes. Besides the disciples, the hill, the
surrounding areas, and the staircase were filled with flag poles.
They hadn't hoisted the flags yet but it seemed like the disciples
were planning a huge celebration before the tournament.
"Good morning" Michael greeted them back with a small smile. He

could see they were looking around him for Gaya as she was
always used to being near him.
"Brother Ghost, we are betting on you to win"
"The whole sect will be there, make us proud Brother Ghost"

The disciples were extremely excited. They were brimming with
smiles. Michael just nodded to their requests along the way to
Claire's mansion.
After reaching the most populated area of their sect where the
most buildings were, in addition to a long line of carriages hooked
to two to four horses, he saw several fancy carriages with pegasi
in front.
"One….two….three" He saw Ricky in the distance counting the

carriages one by one. He had parchment and a quill in his hand
as he marked something on the parchment every time he counted
a carriage.
"Young Master Ghost"
"Young Master Ghost"
"Look it's a dragon"
"Such a majestic creature"
"Greetings Young Master Ghost"
Along the way to Ricky, Michael was greeted by several men of

various ages. They were the owners or the drivers of the
carriages. They all bowed their heads slightly to show their
respect to the youngest 5-star alchemist of Elon.
"Oh Master Ghost, welcome back" Ricky stopped counting the

carriages to greet Michael.
"What's going on here?" Michael asked,
"Sect Leader Claire hired these carriages for the disciples and the
elders, Master Ghost. We are all coming to witness you and sister
Aelia kick ass and take the championships" as Ricky speaks with
excitement, his eyes searched behind Michael to locate Gaya.
"Is everyone coming to Royal land?"

"You betcha Master Ghost. Oh," Ricky seemed like he had a
sudden realization,
"Lord Christopher is staying behind I think"
"Where is Daniel?"
"With Lady Raylene, today they are starting to cultivate the lands
near river town" Ricky's eyes sparkled in delight as he was born in
River town. If the river town was getting developed into a buzzling
city, his family would have an even better life. With the salary he
was getting from Ghost, Ricky's family had already become one of
the wealthiest families in the river town.
Ricky was not a selfish person. Hence, he wanted the entire river
town to become a rich city.
"Carry on" Michael gave a pat on his back before resuming his
journey to Claire's manor.
"See you later Nightmare"
"You too Ricky"
Nightmare waved his hand while lying on Michael's shoulder. The

duo continued to get greetings from the carriages drivers and
owners. When Michael came to Claire's manor, he saw several
youngsters in rather raggedy clothes waiting in line before Claire's
manor.
"Hey look, it's GHost!"
"Shhh, don't let him hear you"
"Yeah call him brother Ghost like the others"
It didn't take a genius to see they were waiting to join the sect.
They were pretty nervous.
"Welcome to the Sunrise sect, my fellow brothers and sisters"

A few words from Michael made them shudder in shock. Soon,
their nervousness transformed into unending delight. Their eyes
sparkled.
Although he knew Claire was interviewing them, he wanted these

poor kids to relax as Claire never rejected anyone. If Michael was
not a genius in Alchemy, he would have urged them to come up
with a screening process to filter the youngsters according to their
talent. Since was a genius, he could provide them with potions
and pills to make any mediocre youngster a genius.
At the moment, the sect needed numbers the most if they were to
become the best and the biggest in Elon. Moreover, they never
expected a famous legend like him to actually talk to them instead
of ignoring them. Most of their families spent fearing the nobles
while developing an inferiority complex. Therefore, when he talked
to them, many couldn't believe what was happening as their minds
went blank.
"We'll talk later. Again, welcome to the Sunrise? sect"
Michael patted a few youngsters who were standing in front of

their shoulders. He then walked into Claire's manor, leaving the
youngsters flabbergasted with his presence.


...
Just interacting with the newbies provided him with almost 3000
badass points. He didn't talk to them for badass points, he did
because that felt right at the moment.
Entering Claire's manor, he made his way to the hall where he

saw Elder Sandra and Elder Reiner conducting the interview.
Elder Sandra nodded when she saw him while Elder Reiner
waved at him with a wide grin on his face. The young girl who was
being interviewed kept staring at him with her mouth wide open. In
her eyes, he was the most handsome guy she had ever seen.
"Sect Leader Claire is in the west study room"
"Thank you Elder '' Michael didn't linger around to raise the young
girl's heartbeat.
"Go straight and take the next right" Nightmare guided Michael to
the study room. This mansion of Claire had a total of eight rooms
not including the two rooms for the indoor garden.
Nightmare spent most of his time with Claire when he was not
with Michael. Therefore, he knew the house like the back of his
hand. Through the brightly lit corridor, he reached the study room
to be welcomed by a rather odd-looking room. In his mind after
hearing the word study room, he imagined the room to have dull-
looking paint, several book racks filled with books, scrolls as well
as large tables. At that moment, he felt like he entered the Barbie
world. The walls were painted with a subtle pink paint, that was
neither too bright nor too dull. There was a single bed on the
corner with two-four feet flower vases on each side. In the center
of the room, he saw a round table. Even the book racks were
painted in pinkish color. Several books were neatly stacked on top
of each other on the table. Claire was reading a book while Olivia
was writing something on a parchment.
"Teacher" Olivia was the first to notice Michael standing in the

doorway.
"Is this a study room or a girls' room?" Michael dragged a chair

before sitting backward on the chair. Seeing Claire, Nightmare
bounced off from his shoulder to Claire's shoulder. He nudged his
head against Claire's cheek, giving her wet kisses.
"Hiya little guy" Claire stopped reading the book to play with
Nightmare.
"Ask Claire. She was the one sleeping here instead of her room"?
Olivia giggled.
"Where is your other half teacher?" in her jolly mood, Olivia asked.
She pretended like she's searching around Michael.
"She's gone" the joyful smile on Olivia's face instantly disappeared

after hearing him.
"Not gone gone, she went to take care of something important to

her"
"Without you?" Claire frowned. Claire knew the bond between the
two of them. They were like joined in the hips, inseparable. Even
when Aelia was not with him, she would always talk about him
and the fun they had together. Claire couldn't even remember the
last time Aelia talked about something that didn't involve Ghost.
Just a few days ago, Aelia even asked questions related to

engagement to her and Raylene. Suddenly hearing her leaving
Michael stunned Claire.
Claire couldn't care less if Aelia was unable to compete in the

tournament, she just didn't want the two of them to break their
wonderful relationship.
Chapter 321 - Two Days To The
Championship Tournament
"Is everything alright between you two?" Claire asked. He could

see the worry in her eyes. A year ago, he was the number one
assassin in the world, he had no one to worry about him. Although
this world put him through various life-threatening rides on a daily
basis, it also gave him people like Claire who genuinely cared
about him.
"Yeah" Claire knew Michael enough to see the sorrow behind his
calm eyes.
"If you want to talk about anything, we are here for you Ghost"
"What are you talking about? Teacher looks fine to me" seeing the
worried look on Claire's face, Olivia questioned her. In her eyes,
there was nothing amiss with Ghost.
"Have you ever been in love Olivia?"
Claire's question Ocaught Olivia off guard. She folded her arms,
creasing her brows.
"No. Why do you ask?"
"When you're in love, your eyes speak just as loud as your mouth.
It's a language you might not learn in your life hehehe" Claire
giggled.
"Hey!" Olivia pouted. She threw a quill at Claire but Nightmare

caught the quill with his mouth before it could hit Claire. The two
girls almost forgot their status and started to play like little girls.
"See, I have a little guardian angel here" Claire kissed Nightmare
on his forehead.
"Sec Leader Claire, when are you guys leaving the sect?"
Michael's question put a stop to their childish play. Claire quickly

regained her sect leader composure,
"In the evening. We'll travel to Sarton by carriages and from there,
we'll take the ships to Royal land. It's an easier, safer and far
shorter journey than traveling by road"
"Cool. So Olivia, how're your studies going on?" He dragged the

chair towards their study table.
"I finished the work you gave me teacher" with a flick of her wrist,
she filled the large table with parchments.
Since Michael needed to take his mind off Guardians and Gaya,
he decided to spend the time until they leave for Royal with Olivia.
"Let's stop theory stuff and move onto the practicals. Take out
your cauldron out" her face immediately lit up like someone lit a
candle in her head.
In a blink of an eye, a dark violet cauldron appeared on the table.

On its surface, several silver runes could be seen. In addition to
the runes, there were etchings of various shapes such as flowers,
plants, Olivia's name as well as a lion's head.
"Teacher, would I be able to make pills and potions like you? I

mean without the cauldron"
If Olivia asked the same question a few months ago when she
started to learn from him, he would have really laughed it off.
However, after all this time studying under him, he noticed the
jump in her talent. At first, she was only able to make pills and
potions with 50% purity. Now she could touch the 57% purity
mark. Although he became a 5-star Alchemist in a few moments,
after making almost thousands of pills and potions, he knew how
hard it is to get the 7% leap in a short amount of time.
However, this was not the time for her to learn his technique. First,
she needed to become his subordinate who has more than 95%
loyalty. Only then, Michael would think about teaching her how to
control the Alchemy flames like him.
"That's too dangerous. A simple mistake and you'll be served rare"
"Hahaha" Claire couldn't help chuckling.
Olivia stuck her tongue out at Claire but she didn't argue with
Michael. She understood him completely.
"Whoa, before you guys play with fire, I'll take my books and leave
this place" Claire quickly collected her books,
"I don't want to be well done" Claire winked at Olivia as she rolled
her eyes,
"That's terrible"
After Claire left the study room with Nightmare, Michael began to
teach Olivia how to use the cauldron to its maximum potential.
********************************
As the oat field encountered a peach sky, the evening had come
in stately fashion, with all the grace of a breeze in repose. In that
welcome amber glow the time of slower thoughts had arrived,
those moments when with open eyes, Michael's mind became as
a perfect empty horizon, seeing, yet content to sit. He felt the
soothing breeze birthed by the surrounding foliage, became
absorbed in the music of crickets, letting the gentle energy of
nature wash in.
He watched the disciples getting in the carriages from the

mountain peak, his usual place to meditate. His black trench coat
fluttered in the wind while his turtle neck gave him a unique
charm. Unlike before, he wore the dual sword sheath on his back.
At the moment, it was empty.
He willed the system to retrieve the space ring given to him at the
House Kane.
"It's time for you two to come out" The space ring let out a faint
whistling sound before two beautifully forged swords appeared in
Michael's hand.
The two swords had a blade of a gray color, with a pattern made
of swirls and triangles engraved on it. The blade itself was
engraved. A line of text 'Ghost' was engraved on the blades,
which only added to the elegance of this weapon, as well as its
cost. Each blade had a small, straight cross-guard, just large
enough to make sure his fingers were safe and the blade would
remain firmly in your hands. The cross-guard had an intricate skull
on each side, he knew the cost of this weapon must have been
high.
In addition to the cross guard, a fairly small pommel was engraved

with the symbol of its owner, again, a skull.
The two swords belonged to the Rare weapon class which meant
they could have three runes.At the moment, there were no runes
on the sword but if Michael wanted, he could find a rune master to
place runes on the swords. The system level was too low to place
runes on the swords via the system.
Swing!
Swing!
Michael tossed the sword in the air as they both dramatically flew
down straight into his sheathes.
[That was cool]
Even the system was impressive. He reached sword mastery to

the point the swords felt like they were part of him.
"I know" With a swift leap, he jumped off from the cliff.In the mid
air, he activated the lightning dash to fly towards the sect. Within a
few blinks of an eye, he came to the pathway where the carriages
were waiting to depart. The disciples were entering the carriages
one by one without causing a ruckus. Many among the disciples
painted their faces to resemble a skull while many female
disciples had the letter 'G' written on their faces using a black dye.
The moment they saw Michael land at the pathway's start, they
started to cheer,screaming his name out loud.
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"




...
Michael was overwhelmed by their support.It was as he was a

famous sportsman who entered the arena filled with his die hard
fans.
"Cast a spell!" someone among the disciples had the courage to

shout out for a spell.
"Cast a spell!"
"Cast a spell!"
Soon they all started to demand in unison.

"What the heck, Ignitia" Michael raised his two hands clasping
towards the sky. With an electric noise, the golden cracks of
lightning danced around his entire arm before shooting to the sky
as a thick bolt of lightning. The light produced by the lightning bolt
brightened up the pathway.It was like a beacon, screaming
Michael's location.
The badass points rained as he almost earned yet another 6000

points by just casting a spell. It was cool to show off but he didn't
want to waste his energy before the tournament. Therefore, with a
swift jump he leaped into the air. Ricky was waiting for Michael
near the last carriage in the line. His carriage was hooked to four
horses.As Michael preferred Ricky chose the fanciest and the
most comfortable carriage in Bradford. It cost him extra 60 gold
coins to paint it in black.
"Master Ghost, shall we go?" Ricky asked. Even Ricky painted his
face to resemble a skull so he could show his support to Ghost.
Ricky would have painted an 'A' for Aelia on his forehead if Claire
didn't announce that Aelia is not participating in the tournament for
personal reasons.
"Where's Nightmare?"
"Oh he's traveling with Sect Leader Claire, Olivia and little Cindy"
"Cool"
Michael didn't mind Nightmare travel with them. He loved the

silence anyways.
Michael opened up the carriage to see red cushion seats with a

small graceful round table in the middle for Michael to dine on. An
elegant cup and soccer set was on the table with a pot full of
coffee made by Raylene herself. Coupled with the carriage's
lavender scent and the coffee fragrance, the carriage put a smile
on his face.
"Do you like it, Master Ghost?" Ricky was slightly nervous but
when Michael nodded with a smile, he felt relieved.
"Let's go"
Chapter 322 - Unwanted
Guests
The forest they were traveling through was gigantic, thick, and
thriving. Its canopy was reigned by crab apple, ash, and
rhododendron, enough light shimmered through their crowns for a
medley of herbs to take advantage of the rich grounds below.
Curling creepers suspended from many trees, and a potpourri of
flowers, which blossomed brightly, adorned the otherwise amber
terrain. A clamor of wild noises, most of which were fleeing
animals, filled the air and drowned out the occasional sounds of
birds of prey gliding in the air.
Inside the carriages, Michael was calmly sipping his coffee.
"Where are you snake?" He missed Gaya so much as he was

checking the seat beside him for her. The scenery outside would
have been even more beautiful if she was with him.
"So Master Ghost, since Miss Aelia is not competing, who do you
think would win the championship for the Body Strengthening
stage?" Ricky asked from the driver's seat.
"Well, I don't know many prodigies in the Body Strengthening

stage except for Evan, Victoria and Sabrina"
"If you have to bet on one of them, who would be your choice
Master Ghost?"
"Definitely not that bitch Victoria"
"Hahaha, bad blood huh Master Ghost" Ricky laughed. It felt like it
was yesterday Michael spartan kicked Victoria off the stage.
Within a year of time, he had gone from a lowly Foundation stage
cultivator to Core Formation stage warrior. If it wasn't for the
tournament's rule for not letting anyone above the Core Formation
stage participate, he would have a breakthrough to the Core
Strengthening stage. Compared to the badass points he could
earn fighting the tournament, reaching the next stage wasn't just
as important for the time being.
"Master Ghost, I heard the princess and the king of Bredia coming
to watch the tournament" Michael could feel the excitement in his
heart through his voice.
"Princess huh?"
To be honest, even Michael felt a little curious to see a princess in

real life. It was hard to believe Gaya is a princess as she was the
last person one would expect to be a princess. She was a rather
unique girl compared to many in this world. She would do
whatever she likes, speak whatever she wants and more than
anything, she helped him instead of being a trouble magnet.
"Have you ever met a princess before Master Ghost?"
"Kind of" Michael couldn't help imagining Gaya in a pink Barbie

princess dress with a star wand in her eyes. He chuckled inside.
"I haven't. Is it true that princesses eat gold shavings to enrich

their hair and their hair is worth a ton of coins? Are there any
princesses without golden hair?" Ricky barraged Michael with
questions that sounded ridiculous yet Michael enjoyed their little
chat until something showed up in his Environmental scanning
map.
"I'm pretty sure there are princesses with a hair color other than
golden, Ricky"
"Will their hair go for a ton of coins?"
"Do you have a hair fetish or something?" Ricky scratched the

back of his hand with an embarrassed look on his face. They
continued to ride through the dark forest.
He gazed at the starry sky through the windows. The bright
friends of the moon and their pattern that seems so fixed yet ever-
changing, distant lights to call his heart, to remind him of the
conversation he had with Gaya.
********************************
"Aaawn, why are you up?" Michael yawned, opening his eyes to
see Gaya staring at the night sky. They were camping out on the
mountain peak as they felt like sleeping under the sky.
"I was wondering how many stars are there" she was sitting on
the ground while her hands wrapped around her knees.
"Are you really asking me that in the middle of the night? Just
come here"? Michael pulled her down by her waist with one
swoop.
"You know if we ever leave each other's side for some reason, we
can look at the moon and know that the other is looking at the
same moon"
"Well well well, look who's being romantic" Michael showered her
with kisses all over her face. She enjoyed kissing every inch of her
velvety soft face. He nibbled her ear while tickling her by running
his hair gently through the side of her chest. It took extreme
control not to do anything spicy. He respected her wish not to
engage in anything other than kissing until marriage.
"Hey that…tickles…hehehe…stop…." she wiggled to escape his

hold. She tried to retaliate by trying to tickle him back yet he
simply overpowered her. Soon, their playful laughter reverberated
the lonely mountain peak.
*******************************************
"Master Ghost, what do you think?"
In his moment of walking through the memory lane, he completely

ignored Ricky's questions.
"What did you ask again?"
"Three guardians said that Mark was their brother. Mark said he
had no brothers. Who was lying?"
"Who asked?" Michael asked while still keeping an eye on the

figures in the Environmental scanning map. They were following
the carriages for some time. The question in his mind was
whether they were particularly following him or not.
"Cindy. I don't know where she is getting these questions from.

She keeps coming up with questions none of us can answer. I
really wonder if there is an answer to each question"
"There is" Michael retrieved a drone from the system storage

while Ricky was busy trying to figure out an answer to Cindy's
question. The drone flew through the window disappearing into
the dark forest.
"Really? Come on tell me Master Ghost, it's time for payback"

Ricky devilishly laughed. However, Michael did not tell him the
answer as Ricky was expecting.
"Master Ghost, what are you doing?" Ricky turned back to see
Michael opening the carriage door through the small hole before
him and Michael.
"Just some sightseeing. Don't stop, I'll be back soon" Michael flew
out of the carriage in the direction of the figures following him.
**************************************
"I'm getting bored, let's start killing them all" a feminine voice could
be heard from the dark forest. The voice was filled with murderous
intent.
"Control your blood lust reaper. We must not alert the target, not
until we cut his throat" another murderous voice sounded. This
time, it was a male voice.
"Dibs on the ladies" Another voice filled with lust spoke.

The three figures blended perfectly with the forest. The black
clothes they were wearing helped them merge with the darkness.
They flew neither too fast nor slow but just enough pace to follow
the carriages without alerting any of the sect members. If one
looked closer into their eyes, a din glow could be seen in their
eyes. The figures took the cat potion to enable their eyes to see in
darkness.
"If you're calling dibs on the ladies, I call dibs on the target. I heard
he's quite the eye-catcher"
"Oh not that again. You take too long and scream loud enough to
wake the entire city" one of the male voices complained.
"It's a moan you idiot"
"No, it's not"
"Silence you two" Everyone stopped talking. Soon, they started to

hear rustling sounds coming from ahead of them. They stopped
flying immediately.
"I bet it's a wild cat or something," the female figure said,
"Magical beast perhaps"
"There are no magical beasts in this part of the forest"
The rustling sound became louder and louder. They frantically

looked around them to locate the source of the sound. It sounded
like it's coming from all directions at the same time. But suddenly
the rustling sound stopped.
"Diddle…Diddle" the figures heard a voice as they all looked in the

direction of the voice coming to see their target walking towards
them. To their shock, their target had a smile on his face.
"Ghost" the female figure unsheathed her daggers from her waist.
She then slowly licked the dagger like it was a candy bar.
"We are so little"

A couple of pop sounds came out from Michael's neck when he
cracked his neck.
"Isn't this face to face better than following me from a distance?"

Because of the wolf masks they were wearing, Michael couldn't
see the surprised look on their faces.
"You guys aren't bad. It's just im better, in fact, I'm the best at what
you do"
His words immediately kindled the killing intent hidden within the
figures. They gradually formed a triangle around Michael. The two
male figures stood before Micahel while the female stood behind
him.
"Now I see why someone put a half a million contract on your

head. You have the knack to piss of wrong people"? one of the
male figures spoke,
"Half a million you say, not bad. Is there by any chance you three
know the name of the person who put a contract on my head?"
"I'm gonna enjoy every second of killing you" Michael heard the
woman's voice coming from behind. She was moaning.
"No idea who put the contract huh?" Michael sighed. It was
disappointing but not unexpected. They were just tools sent by the
Grim Reapers guild to kill him, the assassins wouldn't know the
one who gave the task to the guild. Only the higher-ups of the
guild would know that information. Unfortunately, Michael had no
chance of getting that information as the Grim Reapers were a
powerful guild operating in shadows, just like the dark underworld
he worked back on earth.
"First you reapers destroyed a shipment of mind, now coming to

kill me. I'm really starting to get pissed"
"Humph, what are you gonna do? Kill us? You don't even stand a
chance"
*******************************
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chapters.
Any criticism,
Feel free to bash me in the comments

Chapter 323 - The Grim
Reapers Again
"You picked a night time to kill me, good choice" Michael slowly
walked forwards with his hands behind. The Grim Reapers were
in no rush to kill him. It seemed like they wanted to kill him slowly,
especially the woman behind Michael.
"Reduced visibility, darkness will help you blend and your spells
would draw less attention" Michael listed some of the pros of
choosing nighttime to assassinate someone in this forest.
"But" Michael stopped walking for a moment,
"you guys made a mistake"
"And what is that?" the woman asked. She started to breathe

more and more heavily.
For a few moments, Michael didn't answer. He just let the silence
envelop the place.
"You failed to study whether? your advantage would also be your

target's"
The Cat's eye potion would enable the drinkers to see in the night
yet it wouldn't be like natural vision. Hence, the three assassins
failed to notice the changes in the surroundings. As far as they
were concerned, the night couldn't get any darker. But it did when
Michael cast the Death Range.
"Alright, I cant huh ow oh…oh…my god. Can't wait any longer"

suddenly her moans echoed through the forest out loud. She
directly lunged at Michael.
"Love shackles" in the mid-air, she cast a spell as pink giant
shackles materialized in the sky above Michael.
"Frost Rage"
"Illusion Lava" Michael's surroundings suddenly changed. The

dark forest transformed into a fiery hot lava. He felt like he had
been teleported into a boiling volcano.
In addition to the illusions, several humanoid creatures made of

frosty ice appeared around him in a five-meter radius. If they
weren't only at Core Strengthening stage level 2, Michael wouldn't
have decided to face them head-on.
"Lightning Dash" He dashed away before the shackles could land

on him.
Just while he was dashing away, he pinpointed the illusionary

formation's source point. The source was on the ground, under
the dried-out leaves beside the Grim Reaper who cast the spell.
"Ignitia" the lightning bolt hit the source point with deadly
accuracy. Immediately his surroundings transformed back to
normal.
"Ah" when the formation got destroyed, it backlashed as a burst of

Arch energy stunned the spell caster. The Grim Reaper was
momentarily stunned.
"Watch out!" the Grin Reaper who cast a spell to create frost
creatures shouted.
"Ignitia" Michael quickly dashed behind the grim reaper. Without

wasting a second of time, he sent a bolt of lightning through the
grim reaper's heart. Because he was a core Strengthening stage
cultivator, it did not one-shot him. Michael wasn't expecting the
lightning bolt to kill him with one shot. That was why he
immediately stabbed the cultivator? through the wound created by
the lightning bolt
Pulch!
"Wolf!" the male grim reaper shouted when he saw Michael's
sword sticking out of his colleague's chest. Michael twisted the
sword, ending his life.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Strengthening

"That's so hot!"
The female reaper however did not seem to care about her
colleague's demise. She just knelt on the ground, moaning loudly.
"Woman, you're a fucking freak" Michael drew back his sword. He

was glad that her climax slowed her down from casting another
spell.
"Kill him!" The frosty figures moved slowly but they were able to
reach Michael since he stopped moving to kill the Grim Reaper.
"Ring of Fire"
What was better to fight a bunch of humanoid creatures made of

ice than flaming hot fire.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The ring of fire sent two pulse blasts around Michael, burning
everything it passed through. The ice figures did not completely
evaporate but their legs melted down. Another two pulses of the
fire melted their upper body before they could reach Michael.
"Lightning Dash"
"Ice Drag-"
Boom!
Michael dashed at the grim reaper to end his life before he could
cast another spell. The grim reaper was just about to finish his
spell when he saw Michael lunge at him. His lightning-fast reflexes
kicked in as he immediately retrieved a smoke bomb from his
space ring and dropped it into the ground. The smoke bomb
exploded, creating a fog of smoke around the grim reaper.
It was a neat tactic that might have worked if Michael didn't have
his X-ray vision and Environmental scanning.
"Ignitia, Ignitia, Ignitia" The grim reaper didn't not stop moving as
he kept running to escape the lightning bolts. The assassin had no
time to cast a spell. He was expecting help from his colleague but
she was shaking on the ground.
"Sucker" Michael chuckled inside. The male grim reaper thought

Michael was attacking him to kill while the female cultivator was
having a great time thinking that her target was busy with her
colleague.
Michael suddenly changed his target as he dashed at the female

cultivator. While she was quivering on the ground, he tried to cut
her neck. Unfortunately, she was quick enough to evade a fatal
bow yet the sword did cut her shoulder.
Slash!
"Aaaw, you wanna play" the female reaper slowly stood up from
the ground. Her legs were still shaking while her eyes radiated
intense pleasure.
"Two vs one, you're dead" the male grim reaper sighed in relief
seeing his colleague finally entering the battle. He picked up a
strange smell but he didnt focus too much on the smell as he
thought it's coming from the forest.
"Tsk tsk tsk. You clowns should have gotten a job in a circus
instead of an assassin guild"
"Now that's hurtful" finally the female reaper's voice showed some
murderous intent instead of freaky moaning intent.
"Four…three" the two cultivators were confused when they heard
Michael start counting.
"two…one"
"Im gonna…(cough) aaH, what's happening" just after taking a

few steps towards Michael, the female reaper started to cough.
Behind the masks, their faces slowly turned pale. Their bodies
shivered, not in pleasure, their bodies shivered in fear. The female
grim reaper couldn't feel her muscles. It was because Michael
smeared paralyzing poison on his swords. He really aimed for her
throat to kill her instantly but as usual, he wanted to have a
backup plan if she evaded his attack. His backup plan worked.
The fear toxin finally showed its effect. The grim reapers' deepest
fears took hold of their minds. Michael clapped his hands together
towards the female grim reaper. Golden lightning cracks danced
around Michael's hands. The sound of electricity crackles became
louder and louder while the light radiated by the lightning cracks
was so bright that it looked like someone put a light in the middle
of them.
Boom!
Michael used half of his Arch energy to power up the lightning

bolt. The thick bolt of lightning soared through the air. When the
lightning bolt met its target, it didnt go through her but destroyed
half of her body. She stood there bloodied, half of her body was
gone, blood splashed from her body while skin slowly peeled off of
her. Even the bones were charred as they were visible to the
naked eyes.
She clung to her life but she was not in shape to fight. Finally, she
fell to the ground. What happened to her didn't horrify the other
reaper as he had seen gory things like this in the past. But what
terrified him more other than the fear toxin in his body was the fact
that his colleagues were murdered by Core Formation stage
warrior. They planned everything perfectly yet nothing went
according to the plan from the beginning. To this moment, they
had no idea how he found them, how he was this strong and fast,
what was the sudden fear they felt.
"Chameleon attack!" while the female reaper was twitching in the
ground, the other one screamed looking into the dark forest
behind Michael. Any moment from now, the grim reaper expects
their fourth member also known as their plan b jump out of the
darkness to plunge a dagger into their target's chest from behind.
" His name was Chameleon huh?"
The Grim reaper's heart skipped a beat, "was?" he mumbled. IT

was taking everything in him to fight off the sudden fear in his
heart. Hence, he hoped Chameleon would kill Michael, ending
their battle.
"I killed him"
The moment Michael completed his diddle diddle, Chameleon lost

his life due to blood loss. When Michael first noticed he was being
followed, he saw not three but four hostels in his Environmental
scanning map. The fourth one however did not travel with the
three of them, he traveled alone, keeping his distance from the
trio. Since he was alone, Michael took care of him first by stealth
killing him. The Chameleon was completely caught off guard.
Michael quickly stabbed his throat a couple of times to silence him
first, then he broke Chameleon's neck using his full strength which
was boosted by Death range.
The Grim Reaper saw a bloodied lizard mask appear in Ghost's

hand. Although it was bloody, he was sure that the mask belonged
to the chameleon. Michael threw the bloody mask near the bloody
corpse of the female grim reaper.
"Ignitia"
Michael knew the lightning bolt would hit its target without a
problem because the grim reaper's courage to fight was broken,
the fear toxin was still affecting his mind, and the sight of his three
dead colleagues ripped off any fighting spirit he had left in his
heart. Even if the Grim Reaper tried to escape Michael could take
his full Lucifer form which would boost his power to Core
Strengthening stage level 4 and kill him.
"Ah"
"Ignitia, lightning dash" he fired another bolt of lightning after the

first one hit. The very next moment, he activated the lightning
dash to close the distance between them. The grim reaper's
instincts made him conjure another defensive spell but the
distance was too short and Michael was too fast. He closed the
gap between them before plunging his sword straight into the grim
reaper's throat.


*****************************************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 324 - Who Put A
Contact On Michael’s Head?
"Whoa" Ricky felt a sudden bump while driving the carriage. He

heard the carriage door opening. Turning his head, he saw Ghost
entering the carriage.
"Master Ghost, how's your sightseeing?"
Ricky was not a genius but he was not stupid either. It was
obvious to him that Ghost went to take care of something
important. As for what, Ricky didn't want to know. However, Ricky
smelled a sweet scent that was neither too strong nor too light, it
was just enough for Ricky to take a deep breath and smile.
Besides when Ricky turned back to look at Ghost, in the light
produced by the small orb of light inside the carriage, Ghost
seemed refreshed, as he had just taken a bath.
Michael willed the system to equip his nightdress which was gray
sweatpants and a black tank top.
"It was pleasant until I had to kill a few rats"? Michael laid down on
the cushion. After spending almost all of his Arch energy, he was
pretty tired.
"Wake me up when we reach Sarton"? Michael closed his eyes.
"Yes, Master Ghost"
**************************************
The curtains inside the carriage added an orange glow to the

morning light, every morning a perfect sunrise. It somehow
reminded Michael of the times he slept in a beach hut, watching
the ocean emerge under the golden shimmer. For a moment his
mind conjured the rhythmic waves, soft on the sandy shore, and
felt his heartbeat at the same slow pace. He breathed in deeply. A
new day has begun. He reached his hand out to the fabric,
noticing how up close the light pours through every open space
between fibers, no different from how it once came through the
beach-hut walls, illuminating like brilliant fireflies each dawn. The
material was warm beneath his fingers, and when the sun flooded
the carriage, painting the colors anew, he felt a little of those
golden rays soak into his skin.
"Good morning snakey" After greeting her instinctively, he slowly

opened his eyes, realizing she's not with him. The beautiful
morning never seemed beautiful without her. Letting out a sigh, he
stood up. After stretching his arms out, he put on a black shirt on
top of his blacktop before getting out of the carriage.
In his sect home, he would hear the chirping of birds in the

morning. At this moment, he heard no birds sound but constant
chatter of people, as well as horses galloping.
He opened up the carriage door to be welcomed by the city by the

lake, Sarton. Cast on the highest point of Merula lake, Sarton was
a city of foreign trade. This city wasn't built by a lake by accident,
as it had hidden secrets, which were of great importance to the
people of Sarton and its success.
The city itself looked sublime. With its yew wood rooftops, ceramic
tile walls, and breathtaking waterfall, Sarton had a mystical
atmosphere.
The main attraction was the giant statue of a Viking looking man
in the center of the city, which was built 1000 years ago and
designed by the dwarves.
Sarton had a booming economy, which was mainly supported by

trade, mining, and leatherworking. Their biggest strengths were a
strong defense and gorgeous leatherworking. However, Sarton
lacked people skilled in farming.
Despite its strengths and weaknesses, Sarton was most likely

headed towards a horrible future under the leadership of Baron
Adwell. But this was yet to be seen.
Instead of his usual black shoes, he just wore a pair of black

slippers. Therefore, when he stepped outside, he felt the hot sand
between his toes.
As far as he could see, there was nothing but people and

carriages. More and More carriages were approaching where he
was. No one noticed Michael as he walked around the carriage to
locate the people of his sect.
What stood in front of him was a beautiful lake.
The water was movie-star blue – the kind of blue their eyes are. In
it, the wisps of clouds were reflected just as well as the steep
sides of the glacial valley, all greens and grays. Again the greens
of the hills as well as the buildings, the grownups were boarding
ships while youngsters and children were playing on the shore as
if in the most impossible of paintings, the artist painting with colors
he thought would fade in time but never did. The lake was the
finest of mirrors, never showing exactly what was above, but
converting it to an image so beautifully smudged and broken. The
weeping willow, the clouds above, all become a Monet, all free for
the looking.
If he focused on the children, he could get various designs for a

castle. Their sand castles looked way better than some real
castles in this world. One of those children was Cindy. She was
building a tall majestic castle with a couple of female disciples.
Even among the ocean of people standing between the two of
them, Cindy noticed Michael.
"Brother" her eyes widened in joy as Michael gestured to Cindy to

stay where she was. Michael quickly navigated through the crowd
to reach Cindy. Since he was not in his usual attire and the people
were busy with boarding ships, they failed to notice? Michael.
"Here she is" As usual, the little girl threw herself up at him like a
puppy who hasn't seen its owner for quite some time.? Every
single time, the girl welcomed Michael like this. The love she had
for Michael in her heart was boundless. Gaya, Michael both loved
Cindy and her brother just as Cindy loved them.
"Brother Ghost, you're awake. Ricky just went to see your room
on the ship"
"He was talking about waking you up"
"It's okay," Michael said to the girls. He knew Ricky might be too
busy making sure everything's according to Michael's
preference.Since Daniel was with Raylene at River town, most of
the tasks related to sect fell on Ricky's shoulder.
"I think you guys had enough fun, take your friends and go to your
ships" Michael saw what the human traffickers did to those
SilverMoon girls. In this crowd, no one recognized a well-known
person like Michael, how could anyone notice if a few girls like
them went missing. Therefore, Michael ordered them to board the
ships as soon as possible. This place seemed like a great hunting
ground for kidnappers.
"Alright, let's go" the girls didn't dare to stay any longer after
hearing Michael. They left to find their friends. Michael noticed
hundreds of ships floating on the lake, waiting for the people to
board.
"When will sister Aelia come back? I miss her" Cindy purred.
"Me too" Michael pinched Cindy's cheek. She had grown up a

couple of inches. The baby fat in her face slowly disappeared.
Plus, she had reached Foundation stage level 7.
Cindy turned his head gently before landing a soft kiss on his
cheek.
"Ouch, you have to shave brother" Cindy rubbed her lips as his
stubble beard pricked her soft lips.
"Is that so?" Michael rubbed his cheek against the little girl's
cheek playfully. She wiggled, giggling in his arm.
While he was playing with Cindy, he felt someone tickling his shirt.
He looked down to see a boy who seemed like eleven or twelve
years old looking at him. The boy wore rather raggedy clothes
with a flat cap on his head.
"This is for you" the boy handed out a piece of paper to Michael.
"What is it?" Cindy looked at the boy, then she looked at Michael.
Michael took the paper from the boy's hand to read what was
written on it,
"If you want to know who put a contract on your head, come to
Mary's flowers" after reading the words, he looked down to ask
the boy who gave the note but the boy had already disappeared
into the crowd.
"Do you know where sect leader Claire is Cindy?"
"Yes, they are over there" Michael made his way through the
crowd in the direction Cindy pointed.
"Behave yourselves' ' After a few minutes of walking, Michael

finally saw Claire and Olivia overseeing the disciples boarding the
ships.
"Teacher, look Brother Ghost '' one of the disciples pointed his
hand at Michael as the two ladies turned back.? Both of them
couldn't help but raise their brows. Through his black tank top,
they could see his perfect chiseled chest. The shirt's hands
seemed like they were about to tear due to his biceps size. His
usual attire used to hide his muscles unlike what he was wearing
at the moment, it was simple yet even a simple dress like this
made him look striking.
"Good morning Sect Leader Claire, Olivia"
"How did you sleep last night?" Olivia asked,
"Like a baby. Cindy stay with them" Michael put down Cindy,
"I have something to take care of, you guys go ahead. I'll join you
later"
"Can someone else take care of it for you teacher? You need to
take as much rest as you can before the tournament"
"Yeah what she said" Claire agreed with Olivia.
"It won't take too long. Don't worry" Michael quickly turned back,
leaving the place. He wanted to know who put the contract on his
head more than rest.
If the Grim Reapers were anything like the dark underworld on

earth, they would send more assassins after him.The next time,
the assassins would be stronger than the four he killed. To put a
stop to this, Michael needed to kill the one who put the contract on
his head in the first place, at least he hoped it would stop the
reapers.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,
Discord link: https://discord.gg/yMCZbVNbpC

Chapter 325 - Track Down
Gaya
(Somewhere else in Ozer continent)
Xanali was standing alone in an empty room where there was

nothing but a large table in the center. She had a deep frown on
her face. The reason for her frown was the stuff on the table. A
weak-hearted one would be freaked out to see the broken
skeletons of Nagas. Under the waist, the skeleton had the bone
structure of a snake, above the waist looked similar to humans
except their heads resembled a skeleton of a cobra's head.
The bones were muddy, partially decomposed. She didn't need

anyone to tell her how they die, she could see a deep cut in their
hyoid bones.
"These are your men" a tall figure walked out from the dark
corner. He looked human but he was not, his upper body
resembled a tiger, including his face. Standing almost seven-foot-
tall with a muscular build and a tiger face, he would terrify people
who haven't been familiar with beast-men. Even among the beast
men, people with predator genes such as golden lion, white tiger,
black panther, brown bear were extremely rare.
"sceech!"
A loud scream of an eagle could be heard in the room. Xanali

looked up at the black eagle staring back at her from his shoulder.
"Your men were killed by a cold killer," the tiger beast man said,
"Jakobe, what do you mean a cold killer?" Xanali asked. She

wondered how Jakobe could tell if the killer was cold or not by
looking at the partially decomposed skeletons.
"The cuts, there was no hesitation. Clean, deep cuts. The killer? is
either a trained killer or a murderous psychopath who killed more
than fifty people or both"
"Any signs of Gaya?" Xanali asked. After hearing KAkobe

describe the killer, a tinge of worry emerged in her heart. It was
true that Xanali ordered her men to cripple Gaya's cultivation but
she wasn't as heartless as Gaya thought. Xanali had to cripple her
cultivation because Gaya murdered hundreds of prisons as well
as bribed almost half of the king's court.
Xanali really wanted her step-sister to reflect on the bad things

she had done in her life. Xanali hoped crippling her cultivation and
throwing her in prison would rehabilitate Gaya, make her a better
person.
"Her tracks disappear at the River town's border. It seems like

someone from the river town helped your stepsister" Jakobe
spoke with a thick accent Michael would have recognized as
African.
"Can you track her down?"
"Humph, can I? I will track her down. I just want something that
has the scent of her and an answer" Jakobe snickered. He gently
rubbed the eagle's neck. His animalistic grin made him look even
more terrifying.
"Answer to what?"
Jakobe finally stepped out of the darkness, completely revealing

his golden fur-filled upper body that looked exactly like a Bengal
tiger except for the hat on his head.
"Do you want your stepsister dead or alive?"
**************************************
After giving Jakobe what he needed to find Gaya, Xanali came

back to Peyton's manor. Xanali saw her friend resting her head on
the hand which she only did when she was either pissed off or
worried or both.
"Peyton, what happened?" She sat beside Peyton.
"Nothing," Peyton waved her off.
But behind her glasses, Xanali could see a sliver of anger.
"Don't give me that missy, something happened with the Alpha

guardian?"
Before she went to meet with Jakobe, Xanali left Peyton at one of
the guardian guild safe houses where the alpha guardian was
waiting for Peyton. Apparently, Peyton had some questions
regarding how the alpha guardian handled the Lucifer situation.
Although the alpha guardian put Peyton in charge of the

operation, Xanali knew who led the guardian to victory, Noah.
Ever since Peyton chose Noah after Ghost rejected the offer,
Noah had been climbing the ladderway faster than anyone ever
did. In a short amount of time, he was promoted from being a
trainee guardian to a guardian who had the privilege to train with
the Alpha Guardian of Hunters, Isarrel.
Many guardians would die to even meet an Alpha guardian yet

Noah received the privilege of training with one.
"It went fine," Peyton said. She was trying to calm her anger in
silence.
"Come on Peyton, you owe me an explanation"
"Explanation? You want an explanation?!"
Finally, Xanali's pestering broke the dam that kept Peyton's anger
in control.
"You want an explanation why the guardians failed to apprehend

Lucifer? You want an explanation why the Alpha guardian is not
sending her entire fleet searching for Lucifer? You want an
explanation why they were thinking about promoting Noah to
Guardian captain instead of me?!" she punched the table so hard
that it obliterated into bits and pieces.
"Well I don't know, why don't you go ask your boyfriend?!"
Xanali was completely taken aback by surprise and shock. She

had never seen Peyton lose her patience like this.
"Peyton"
Peyton realized what she had done when she looked at the
horrified expression on her friend's face. Plus, the mahogany table
that was reduced to nothing but a pile of splinters helped her
realize what she did.
"Im sorry Xanali"
Xanali understood that Peyton wanted to be alone for some time.

However, Peyton never left her side when she needed a friend to
talk to. Most of the guardians didn't like Nagas. To Xanali's luck, a
bunch of racist humans were the ones who hired Xanali's batch of
guardians. At first, they rejected Xanali just because she was not
a human. It was Peyton who fought them and cashed in all her
favors to recruit Xanali, just because Peyton valued Xanali's
talents more than anything.
In Peyton's rage, she let out the matter of promotion. Xanali knew
Peyton was working hard to get that promotion. It was the reason
she took the risk of starting operation new dawn which was to
catch Lucifer and she did. Although Noah also deserved to be
promoted, Xanali knew it wasn't fair if Peyton got passed on that
promotion because of Noah. Xanali was stuck in a dilemma, one
side was her best friend, on the other side, the man who stole her
heart. It was impossible for her to pick either of them over another.
"It wasn't my fault they couldn't catch Lucifer. Let me tell you
something Xanali, something happened, I don't know what but
something happened. You were there, did you remember anything
before the blackout?"
"No"
After Michael teleported, the Silent Reaper sunk into the bottom of
the sea. They remembered waking up on the Alpha guardian's
warship. Before Peyton lost her consciousness, she could swear
she felt immense pressure coming from Noah. Plus, she saw
something change in Noah, she couldn't put her fingers in what
but something changed.
She told the Alpha guardian about this yet she just brushed it off
instead of investigating. Peyton tried to convince the Alpha
guardian to continue the search for Lucifer. However, the Alpha
guardian didn't seem like she's going to let anyone look for the
Dark Lord.
"Why aren't we hitting the kingdoms searching for the Dark Lord?
Are they waiting for him to become stronger?" Peyton asked,
"At Least they should have retrieved that evil ship from the sea to
find any clues. You know they have to do a closed casket funeral
for Gina, she was" Peyton couldn't finish off her sentence. She
blamed herself for Gina's death. If it wasn't for Peyton to pluck her
out of the trainees to put up with the SilverMoon girls, she wouldn't
have ended up in the Dark Lord's ship.
Because of her, Gina was murdered by Lucifer brutally yet the

Alpha guardian refused to continue the search for Lucifer.
"It's like the Alpha guardian want to nurture Noah more than
catching Lucifer who murdered one of our own"
"Are you questioning the Alpha guardian Peyton?"
Peyton walked towards the window. For a few moments, she just
started at the pond outside in silence,
"I dont know"
Xanali's heart skipped a beat. In all those years she knew Peyton,
she had never seen her question the decision made by the Alpha
guardian. Peyton basically worshiped the Alpha guardian as she
even had a picture of the Alpha guardian in her room.
"What if we take some time off, Peyton? Go see the championship
tournaments. It'll take your mind off from all these works" Just like
Peyton, Xanali too needed a break, especially after knowing her
sister might be with a killer.
Since no guardians were allowed to participate in the tournament,

she wasn't going to the tournament but now it seemed like a good
thing as it might relax both of their minds.
"Whatever" Peyton just shrugged. She wasn't interested in

tournaments like many people. If they asked her, she would let the
youngsters get survival training for three months instead of the
tournament. Besides, her mind was not in the mood for
tournaments. However, she knew Xanali was right, she needed to
take her mind off from the Guardian business for at least a couple
of days.
"So that's a yes. Wonderful, I'll go take care of free things before
we leave" Xanali clapped her hands together in joy.
After Xanali left the room, Peyton was staring at the distant sky.
She could feel her belief in the Guardian Guild had been shaken.
"How could they think Noah is better than me? I recruited him, not
the other way around" she talked to herself. Without even she
herself knew, the fire of anger towards Noah had been lit in her
heart at this exact moment.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 326 - Lord Information
Just like any cities he had been to, Sarton also looked medieval-
ish.
Since Sarton's main income was trading, the gray stone road was
filled with merchant carriages. Michael walked alongside the road
through the crowd.
The air smelled different, like a perfume mixed with the lake air.
"Apples only 3 gold coins"
"We have the freshest seafood, just caught!"
"Royal times, who killed Minister Bagru? An investigative piece

inside"
"Ships to Royal land can be hired here, we have nice discounts!"
From either side of the road, vendors called out for people.
Several street urchins were standing up on a stack of crates and
waving the royal times newspaper at the crowd. Michael came in
front of a seafood stall where he saw blue color lobsters, tiny
crabs, and fishes laid on baskets. They all looked fresh, even
smelled good.
"Excuse"
The vendor who was sprinkling waiter onto the fishes greeted
Michael with a wide grin,
"Can you tell me where Mary's flower shop is?"
The vendor's smile dimmed out, realizing Michael was not here to
buy.
The vendor was disappointed yet he didn't dare to show his
disappointment through any words. Although Michael was wearing
normal clothes, the vendor could tell he was a cultivator. Over the
years, he had seen people getting killed by the cultivators for
simple reasons. Therefore, when Michael asked for direction, he
just gave it to him.
"Go straight and take a left"
"Thank you" Michael nodded with a smile before leaving. Among

all the stalls he picked up the seafood vendor subconsciously.
When he was traveling with Gaya, she always dragged him to the
stalls that sell food or anything related to food.
It took him a few seconds to realize why he chose the seafood

stall. Remembering the times he had to drag her away from the
food stalls by force, he smiled. He walked in the direction the
vendor showed him, the air started to smell different. He could
taste the sweetness in the air, the smell of roses was
overwhelming. The moment he turned left towards a small alley,
he located Mary's flowers. He didn't even need to read the name
board, the fresh colorful flowers in front of the shop were enough.
MAry's flower was not a street stall, it was a glass building that
looked elegant both outside and inside. The building was almost
3meter away from the pavement, the three-meter space between
the pavement and the shop was crammed with flower vases. They
had barely enough space to walk to the glass door without grazing
the flowers. In addition to the flowers from the earth such as blood
red roses, pink lotuses, blue dahlias as well as golden orchids,
there were several flowers that solely belong to this world. For
instance, one of the vases had dark gray three petal flowers.
His mind was not however in the mood to enjoy their beauty. He
wanted to know who put the contract on his head so he could put
an end to this threat.
"Welcome to Mary's flower, young lord" the door opened with a

ding sound as Michael was welcomed by a young girl in her early
teens. She was neither too tall nor too short. With perfect petite
structure, she put her brown hair into a bun. A blue lily was
sticking out of her bun.
"Send him in"? As Michael was walking towards the counter, a

voice sounded out of nowhere.
"This way, young lord" the girl's smile disappeared from her face,
she now looked rather stoic.
She left the counter. Michael followed her to one of the glass
racks filled with rose bouquets. Sliding the glass door, the girl
pulled the bouquet in the center.
Crack!
Just a few seconds after the girl pulled the bouquet, he heard a
cracking sound. Then, the glass rack before him movies slightly
towards the right, leaving just enough space for one to fit in.
Through the space, Michael was able to see a table and a chair in
the chandelier light.
"Lord Information is waiting for you inside" the girl gestured at

Michael to step forward. Without wasting a time, Michael entered
the room behind the glass rack through the space.
Crack!
He heard another cracking sound as the secret door made of

glass racks slowly closed behind. Michael took each step forward
with caution.
"Lord Ghost" a figure greeted them sitting behind the mahogany

table. Silver, shoulder-length hair hung over a full, charming face.
Hollow brown eyes set concealed within their sockets, watched
Michael from top to bottom with a hint of surprise, probably due to
Michael's normal attire.
The glimmering smooth shiny skin perfectly complemented his

almost perfect jaw structure. Michael couldn't help staring at the
man's pointy ears.
"An Elf" This was the first time Michael had seen an elf in real life.
The elf looked exactly as the movies portrayed them except for
the sweet scent they radiated.
There was something wonderful about him, perhaps it was his

friendly demeanor or perhaps the beautiful smile on the elf's face.
Nonetheless, Michael didn't feel any vibe of hostility from Lord
Information
Obviously, just like Michael, the elf didn't want the others to know
his real name, hence he called himself Lord Information.
"Take a seat" Lord Information lifted his arm slightly towards the
chair as Michael seated himself. The elf's gesture was neither too
polite nor too rude. The elf was writing something on a parchment.
"You sent this?" Michael placed the piece of paper the boy gave
him on the table,
"Words are mine" Lord Information leaned back on his chair,

finally closing the parchment he was writing on. His brown eyes
stared at Michael,
"What's it gonna cost?"
The Elf's name was a dead giveaway of what he sells. Knowledge

was wealth and the elf was dealing in information. So he knew the
information he wanted wouldn't be free.
"Lord Ghost, you probably know the business I'm in. It's safe to
say nothing happens in this continent without me knowing. A
piece of information that seems irrelevant to someone might be
relevant to another one. With the right circumstance, one will pay
anything for the information I provide"
He emphasized the word anything. What he said was true though.

Nothing was more valuable to him than his own life. Michael was
willing to pay any price.
"Take you for example. What you know is someone put a contract
on your head for half a million gold coins. Since you're here, that
means you killed the four Core Strengthening stage reapers sent
after you by the guild"
Michael was genuinely surprised. Not only the Elf knew about
their cultivation stage, but he also knew how many Reapers were
sent after him.
"Unfortunately for you, next time, stronger reapers will come after
you. If they can't kill you, more will come. The Grim Reapers will
keep sending reapers after you until you're dead in the ground"
As Michael feared, the Grim Reapers would send reapers after

him until he died. Even with the system, defeating anyone above
the Core Strengthening stage was impossible. The only viable
option seemed to be running away. However, he had too much
going on here for him to drop everything and run.
The Elf let out a fox-like smile, "Unless you kill the one who put
the contract on your head.No paymaster, no contract"
"And you have that information"
"That's why you're here. Under normal circumstances, the price

will be five times the bounty on your head" the elf tapped the table
in a rhythm.
"I'm afraid this is not one. The price for this information aren't gold
coins, the price is a favor from you"
"Favor?" Michael was surprised yet he also sighed.
"I knew this won't be that easy," he said to himself. IF he had to

pay 2.5million gold coins, he could have easily paid to buy the
information. However, the elf seemed to have a different idea in
his mind.
"One of my elite clients has provided the information you need.

Rest assured, it's completely accurate. The one provided this
information isn't interested in gold coins"
"They want me to do them a favor, no questions asked I presume"

Lord Information nodded,
"If it's within my power, I'll give what they want"
"Wonderful. It's yours but knows this Lord Ghost, your word is
your bone. If you backed out from your word…" Before giving the
information, the elf dragged his words out instead of finishing his
sentence. The elf wanted to let Ghost know the consequences of
going back on his word.
"I didn't survive till now backing out of my words, Lord Information"
Michael wouldn't dare to back out of his words as Lord Information

just had to pay the Grim Reapers a visit to end his life. Right from
the beginning, Michael's intention was to become strong without
making many powerful enemies. Michael would rather have Lord
Information as a valuable ally at his side than as an enemy. An elf
with dark secrets to sell could become the backbone of Lucifer's
rule.
Finally, the elf slid a piece of white paper towards Michael. He

slowly leaned forward to pick the paper. The moment his eyes fell
on the piece of paper, everything started to make sense. To this
moment, he was planning various ways to kill the one who put the
contract on his head. He knew someone who could pay half a
million gold coins wouldn't be easy to kill whenever he wanted.
Michael was thinking about dealing with this problem as Lucifer.
However, fate decided to end the problem as Ghost.
Michael read the words written on the piece of paper. The one
who was willing to pay half a million to kill Ghost.
"Alex Fisher"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 327 - Ruthless Reaper
The light had long gone but there was no mistaking where they
were. Through the moonless night came the rhythmic pounding of
the waves as always the salty air moved gently over their skin,
wrapping them around as the warmest of soft towels.
The sailing ship was fashioned from ancient oak, with masts that
stood as tall. Instead of its once green foliage, it was adorned by
sails of white to dove gray. To see the rich timbers, strong browns
close to black, brought a sense of peace inside, perhaps akin to
that given by a meadow. Yet for the next few hours, the fragrance
would not be of wildflowers but of the open sea, ever-changing,
ever constant, ever in motion beneath the clouds who sail above.
On the edge of the ship, Michael was enjoying the view with Cindy
by his side. Since he heard fishing calms one's mind and soul, he
bought fishing rods from Sarton after leaving Mary's flowers.
"Oh come on brother Ghost, when will you catch something?"
Cindy rested her head under Michael's arm. She tried to use his
shoulder as a pillow but she was too short. Michael held the
fishing rod in one hand while wrapping his other arm around Cindy
so she wouldn't fall down. His shirt was enough for Cindy to cover
herself to keep warm.
"Patience Cindy. Many good things will come in your life if you
know how to be patient"
"You don't know how to fish, do you?"
"Nope"
Cindy giggled. Michael had been waiting to catch a fish for hours.
Catching a fish wasn't his goal, if it was he could simply brew a
bait that would attract fishes from miles. His goal was to calm his
mind and soul. Recent events had shaken his calm mind,
especially Gaya leaving him. There was an eerie feeling deep
down in his heart like she was in some kind of danger. His mind
was telling him to let her do this alone while his heart was telling
him to help her. He always went with his mind instead of his heart.
"Hey, you two" Olivia's voice sounded from behind. She bent her
waist, leaning on the edge beside Cindy.
"So Cindy, your brother managed to catch something?"
"Patience Sister Olivia. Many good things will come in your life if
you know how to be patient"? Condy said with a serious voice. For
a second, Olivia was stunned.
"Look at that, words of wisdom from a little lady" Olivia ruffled

Cindy's head before giving a loving kiss to her on the cheek.
"Whoa!" Suddenly Michael felt his bait being bitten by something.
"You caught it, brother caught a fish! YeY!" Michael had to tighten
his grip around Cindy to keep her from falling down in excitement.
"Hold her Olivia" Michael let Olivia hold Cindy for a while as he
started to slowly reel the fish in.
"I wonder what kind of fish it'll be. Oh my god, please be orange
tuna"
Just like Cindy, Olivia also started to bounce up and down

clapping her hands in excitement.
"Let us go pick up a bucket" Wiggling in Olivia's arms, Cindy

shouted excitedly. The scene caused many of the crew and
disciples to come to watch Michael. Fortunately, it was not a big
crowd as many of them went to sleep in their quarters below deck.
"Who likes campfire fish boys?!" Michael stood up on the ledge,
"What's going on? Why aren't you people sleeping?" Claire

walked out from the below deck to see a little commotion on the
upper deck. She saw Ghost was standing on the edge, eagerly
reeling the fishing rod.
"Why aren't you in your bed?" Claire put her hands on her waist,
shouting at Michael like a mad mother.
"For god's sake, you have a tournament in thirteen hours" the

others made way for Claire. She came frowning but when she saw
how hard Michael was trying to reel the rod, she was stunned. Of
course, she knew he wasn't using any Arch energy
"That might be a big fish. Let me help you" with a swift jump, she
comfortably landed on the edge beside Michael.
"So nice of you to join the fun, Sect Leader Claire"
"You know what, this is nice" she joined in by holding the fishing
rod with Michael.
"Where's Nightmare? I haven't seen him since morning"
"He said he's seasick and going for a fly"
"Can dragons even get seasickness?" Michael questioned,
"Beats me"
Michael could contact Nightmare through his earpiece but he

wanted Nightmare to have some alone time. Just like Michael,
Nightmare also missed Gaya. Life was boring for him without
Gaya to fight.
"Let's take this bastard home"? Michael had enough with the fish.
After Claire nodded, they used their full strength to pull the fishing
rod up against the fighting fish.
The moment the fish came out of the ocean, Claire's smile faded
away into oblivion. Many of the people staring at the fish also had
the same shocked expressions on their faces.
"It's a black tuna"

A giant 3 meter, tuna fish that was charcoal black wiggling
frantically at the end of the line. There wasn't a single inch on its
body that wasn't black.
For Michael, he had no idea what made Claire so startled. She

wasn't even blinking anymore.
"This is bad luck"
The moment these words escaped Claire's mouth, Olivia's scream

reverberated the ship. The Arch energy rushed into his veins as
he pulled off the fish with one single lift. Since the shipbuilder
decided it's a good idea to build the captain's cabin on the center
of the upper deck, Claire couldn't see what's happening on the
other end of the cabin.
"TEACHER!"
"Lightning Dash"
Bolts of golden lightning covered him before he disappeared

leaving a trail of golden light. Everyone ran in the direction of
Olivia's scream.
************************************
"Brrr…brother" Michael's steps came to a halt as he saw a dark

hooded figure holding a silver dagger against Cindy's throat. The
figure and Cindy were standing on the edge of the ship while
Olivia was lying on the ground with blood trickling down from her
mouth corner.
Cindy was shivering in fear yet there wasn't a single tear that
came out of her eyes. The little girl promised Gaya that she won't
cry anymore, she was holding that promise despite the cold
dagger on her throat.
"Reaper" Michael clenched his fist. The reaper in front of him was
one level stronger than the four reapers he killed a few days ago,
Core Strengthening stage level 3. The Reaper was ruthless
enough to use a little girl to finish his assassination.
The figure was even wearing robes that resembled a reaper. If the
figure only had a scythe, he would look exactly the same as a
reaper.
"Teacher…teacher, he came out of nowhere" Olivia stuttered while

picking herself up from the floor. Her mind still couldn't
comprehend what just happened. One moment she was carrying
COndu to pick up a bucket for Michael's fish. Then she felt a
sharp pain in the back of her head, the next moment,
she was lying on the ground and the stranger was holding a
dagger against Cindy's throat.
"Don't" Michael said as the reaper moved his other arm to his
back to retrieve another silver dagger. The reaper threw the
dagger at Michael that landed a couple of inches in front of
Michael's feet.
"If you don't want me to paint the floor with this piglet's blood, pick
that up"
"Cindy!" Claire came running to the scene to see the reaper

standing behind Cindy with a dagger on her throat. Her mind went
blank in overwhelming fury.
"Stand down Claire" Michael raised his hand,
"Oh my god, Cindy!"
"Who is that?'
"Brother Ghost do something"
"Who is he and how did he get here?"
Everyone was stunned. Except for a few disciples, everyone

stayed away from Michael. Keeping his anger inside, Michael
picked the dagger from the floor as the reaper said.
"Brother"
"It's nothing Cindy, don't worry"

The dagger was so sharp that a single gentle cut could end
Cindy's life.
Even if he transformed into Lucifer, the reaper could kill Cindy

before he could kill the reaper.
However, it was not like Michael did not have any plan. After
Jack's death, Michael made sure everyone he cared about would
be safe in the face of danger.
Cindy suddenly felt something crawling on her chest. She tried not
to wiggle as something slowly crawled up towards her neck. She
stared straight into Michael's eyes.
"You know what to do" after Michael picked up the dagger, the
reaper said in a gritty voice.
"What is he talking about teacher? Who is he?" Olivia shivered.
"You have ten seconds," the reaper said. He gently ruffled Cindy's
head, making it hard for Michael to control his anger.
"Ghosty, I can cause a distraction"? All of a sudden, Michael's

earpiece got activated in his ear as he heard Nightmare's voice.
Looking at the sky behind the reaper, Michael activated his
thermal vision to see Nightmare hovering above the clouds, ready
to cause a distraction.
"I'll DO IT IN FIVE SECONDS!" Michael emphasized the words to

let Nightmare know exactly when to cause a distraction. Michael
just needed the reaper to be distracted for a couple of seconds.
He could use those few precious seconds to save Cindy, activate
the death range, punch the reaper in the throat; he wouldn't be
able to cast a spell and kill him. In addition to the throat punch, he
would make the Spyder that's currently crawling on Cindy's
shoulder towards the reaper inject the paralyzing poison into the
reaper's bloodstream. The paralyzing poison was strong enough
to paralyze the reaper for five to ten seconds.
However, everything had to work perfectly without a hitch.

Otherwise, the reaper would kill Cindy in front of their eyes.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 328 - A Wrong Day To
Be Drunk
"No one has ever suffered, as you will '' Michael mumbled under
his breath. Although he never showed what he's feeling inside on
his face, he was burning with anger.
"Hurry up, I don't have all day" the reaper growled.
"Ghost" the word barely escaped through the gritted teeth of

Claire. Anger turned her rosy skin into somewhat red.
"One…two…three" The reaper started to count as Michael

gradually moved the dagger towards his neck.
"Teacher"
"Ghost!"
Olivia and Claire were startled. They trusted Michael to handle the
situation yet what he was doing stirred up their fear. The disciples
desperately wanted to help however they could but they saw no
way of helping Ghost.
The reaper moved the dagger an inch closer to Cindy's throat.

Cindy's legs turned to jelly, feeling the cold dagger against her
throat. Every second Cindy spent fearing for her life made Michael
want to torture the reaper more.
"Four…five"
"Now!" The moment Michael shouted, a stream of fire out of

nowhere hit the deck beside the reaper. The fire momentarily
distracted him,
"Lightning Dash" Michael immediately cast the spell to save Cindy.
Michael was not the only one waiting for a distraction. Claire
raised her hand as thorns protruded out of the floor beneath the
reaper to coil around his limbs.
"Thorns of hell"
The thorns created by Claire's spell weren't strong enough to

immobilize the reaper forever but it was strong enough to keep the
reaper from slitting Cindy's throat until Michael reached her.
Michael pushed himself to the limit. When he reached the reaper,

Michael pushed Cindy away from the dagger in one hand while
clenching the dagger in the other.
"Cindy"
The moment Cindy was free of the reaper's hold, Olivia leaped at
Cindy, picked her up, and then dashed away as quickly as she
could. IF it was normal fire, the reaper would have cut Cindy's
throat but it was not. A dragon's breath burned hotter than
anything. The hot blast created when the fire stream hit the deck
boiled the reaper's skin as he didn't have any defense spells cast
on him. Moreover, his hands went numb after feeling a sting on
his palm.
Kachak!
Michael chopped at the reaper's throat.
"Arggh (cough) (cough)" the reaper clenched his throat in agony.

While he was coughing, Michael sent a few blasts of wind to the
fire around them.
"Wind blast"? the blasts quickly put out the fire, making the ship
dark again.
In addition to the fire, the people staring at the scene terrified were
also sent flying away by the wind blasts including Claire and
Olivia.
"Death Range" Michael's strength skyrocketed after he cast the
death range.
"Now we dance"
Kachak!
Kachak!
Michael landed a couple of more chops on the reaper's throat. His

hyoid bones were already dislocated by Michael's chops. Unless
the reaper could jump to the Fusion stage and cast spells
mentally, he was weak as a chicken to Michael.
"Cindy, are you alright? You poor thing, here drink this" On the
other hand, Olivia embraced Cindy tightly, afraid of letting Cindy
out of her reach. Cindy was still shivering when she swallowed the
healing potion.
"Teacher" Olivia looked up to see Michael lifting the intruder by his

neck. Due to the darkness, she couldn't see his face. However,
she could feel the cold killing intent radiating from Ghost.
"Everybody back off!"
Seeing the disciples who were sleeping in the below decks

running to the scene, Claire shouted at them. She did not want the
disciples to be caught in the crosshairs.
"Brother" Cindy reached out her hands to Michael.
"No sweetheart, let's get away from them" Olivia rushed away to
safety carrying Cindy in her arms.
Boom!
While she was running away, she felt a blast of force hitting her
from behind. The force almost knocked her down. Regaining her
balance, she looked over her shoulder to see Michael slamming
the intruder onto the mainsail pole.
"We need to hand him over to the guardians" CLaire rushed over
to Michael before the situation escalated further.
"He dies" the disciples felt a chill hearing Michael's cold words.
When Claire got closer, she could smell the blood and booze from
the intruder. The booze smell was so overwhelming that it made
her twitch her nose.
Michael couldn't care less about the reaper's drunk status. It was
obvious the reaper made a stupid move to come here without an
actual plan because he was drunk. The booze slowed down the
reaper's reflexes and dimmed out his ability to fight back.
Boom!
The entire ship shook when Michael slammed the reaper against
the main pole.
"Son of a b-" Michael ripped off the reaper's plain wooden mask of
his face. Behind the mask, an old wrinkly face stared back at
Michael. His eyes were gray, no facial hair, not even eyebrows
could be seen on his face.
"Arrghhh" Claire saw Michael put his hand straight into the old
man's mouth.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the old man frantically shook his body as he

was being electrocuted. Claire was unable to make up her mind
whether to help the old man or not.
Some of the daredevil disciples quickly lit the torches on the deck
to see what Michael was doing to the old man in clear light. The
torches radiated a bright orange light, revealing everything to
them. They saw Ghost standing in front of an old man with his arm
inside the old man's mouth.
The man kept wiggling to escape, his gray eyes almost turned red
in agony.
All of a sudden Michael pulled his arm out of his mouth as blood
splattered on the ground.
"Is that?"
"Im gonna puke Arrhh!"
"Oh my god!"
"Argggggg!"
When they saw Michael's hand which was dripping the old man's
blood, their faces turned green. Some of them immediately threw
up on the spot while many female disciples screeched like
banshees. It was all because of what they saw in Michael's hand,
the old man's bloodied tongue.
"Hrrrggghhhh" the old man's muffled cry of agony sent chills

running through their spines. CLaire was nauseated while Olivia
quickly closed Cindy's eyes but she knew it was too late. Olivia felt
Cindy's body start to shiver.
Michael however didn't stop there.
"I'm starting to get creative. Can you guess what I'm about to do
next?" Michael let go of the reaper's neck as he fell down to the
floor. The old man wiggled like a fish out of the water in
excruciating pain.
"Teacher stop!"
"Ghost listen"
Olivia and Claire came running to Michael, hoping to bring back

Ghost from his rampage.
"Oh I forgot you got no tongue" Michael devilishly chuckled before

grabbing the reaper by his collar.? All of the reaper's effort to
wiggle himself out of Michael's grab turned futile. Michael dragged
him from the main pole on the ship's center towards the captain's
cabin.
The old man left a trail of blood pouring out of his mouth. Claire
was running behind Michael to make him stop. Olivia on the other
hand kept Cindy's eyes closed. She herself started to fear Ghost
like this. The always calm smiling youngster was nowhere to be
found. Instead, she was looking at a cold-blooded monster.
The disciples were staring at Michael, their faces were pale as

white paper.
"Where the hell is Nightmare?" Claire looked up the sky searching

for Nightmare but he was nowhere to be found.
"Hrggghhhh"
When they reached the captain's cabin, Michael slammed the

reaper against the wooden wall. His body fell down, he tried to
crawl away from Michael.
"Stop!" Claire screamed but it was too late as Michael stomped

the reaper's on the knee.
"HRRRHHHHHH!" Michael's stomp shattered the reaper's knee

cap. There were pieces of broken bones sticking out of his leg.
Without saying anything Michael turned back, walking towards the
cabin door.
While Ghost was in the captain's cabin doing god's knows what,
Claire approached the bloody reaper. She squatted beside him
before taking a healing potion out of her space ring. Unlike
Michael, Claire wanted the intruder to be handed over to the
guardians so they could find out why he was on their ship in the
first place. If Ghost killed him, there was no way of finding out the
answer. As a sect leader, she wanted to know whether he was
targeting only Ghost or plotting to harm the entire sect.
"Who is he Claire?" Olivia came running. She asked Claire in a

husky voice.
"I don't know, where is Cindy?"
"Safe, with the disciples" Olivia's eyes were fixed at the cabin's
door.
"What's he gonna do?"

"Torture" Olivia's heard Michael's voice. The door to the cabin
opened once again to reveal Michael. He walked out of the room
carrying a roll of rope.
"Hrrggghhhhhhh" the reaper's eyes opened so wide as it looked

like they were about to pop out of the sockets.
"Ghost stop"
"Teacher"
The two ladies tried to stop him but at the same time, their feet
walked backward in subconscious fear.
"Look at you, completely healed up" Michael grinned, not the kind
one or his usual one, it was radiating murderous intent.
"Let's fix that up" Michael lifted the reaper by his neck once again
to beat the crap out of him. While holding the reaper in the air in
one hand, Michaels started to punch repeatedly in the chest
region, breaking his ribs one by one.
"Teacher stop!" she grabbed Michael's hand.
Olivia couldnt keep watching Michael torture the old man. If he

had killed the old man, Olivia would have understood but torturing
him like this seemed wrong to her.
"Wind blast" Michael blasted away Olivia when she tried to stop
him with a blast of wind.
"No one, I mean no one can lessen the pain im about to inflict on
you"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 329 - Reaping The
Reapers
"OLIVIA!" Claire shouted when she saw Olivia was sent flying
away. Michael did not even linger around to see Olivia fall down.
He started to drag the reaper away from the captain's cabin to the
mainsail pole.
Boom!
Halfway to the mainsail pole, he threw the reaper as the reaper

slammed against the pole. The pole swayed, creating a creaking
noise. The reaper struggled to stand up. He knew he was going to
die but he didn't want to go down without a fight. It took great
strength to retrieve the silver dagger from his waist.
"Ssshhhhggggssss" the reaper growled. Without the tongue, no

one could make a sense out of his growl. As he walked towards
the reaper, Michael's sword materialized in his hand from the
system storage. He only took out one sword because one was
more than enough for what's on his mind.
The reaper barely stood straight holding the dagger at Michael.
"Stand down idiot"
"He's dead"
"What's his cultivation level?"
"Definitely not higher than brother Ghost"
The onlookers began to murmur among themselves. For some, it

was quite entertaining and for some, the old man is getting what
he deserves for trying to harm Cindy.
Michael did not focus on anything except hurting the reaper in
front of him. When he was just a meter away from the old man,
the old reaper slashed the dagger.
ting!
With a simple flick of his sword, Michael sent the dagger flying
away from the old man's hand.
Pulch!
Michael didn't stop with one slash, he slashed his sword again.
This time, he aimed at the old man's wrist. Michael's sword cut the
old man's wrist like a hot knife through butter.
"Hrrrrgggggggg!"
As blood was gushing out of the place where his wrist was a
moment ago, the old reaper screamed in agony. Each pulse
pumped out more blood out of the wound. While the reaper was
squirming in pain, Michael slashed yet again, cutting his other
wrist.
"HRRRGGGGGG!"
The old man's face became paler and paler due to blood loss.
After squirming for a few seconds, he fell down again to the
ground. The blood formed a circle around him as he laid in his
own pool of blood. Even some of those disciples who initially
wanted the old man to die felt a little pity for him because the
Sunrise sect taught their disciples kindness and compassion.
"Get up" Michael wasn't finished, he lifted the reaper by his blood-
drenched collar.
Boom!
Michael slammed him yet another time before he used the rope
he got from the captain's cabin to tie him against the mainsail
pole. Michael deliberately tied the rope with the rope that was
used to hoist the flag.
"Brother stop!"
Just when Michael was about to hoist the reaper like a flag to
make him die slowly, Cindy's shout reverberated the ship.
"Cindy, close your eyes!" Claire and Olivia came running to Cindy.
Olivia tried to close Cindy's eyes but the little girl swatted her
hands away.
For the first time since Michael started to torture the reaper, he
took his gaze away from the reaper.
"Brother you can't do this to a fellow human being" Everyone was

surprised to see Cindy talk with a serious face for the first time
since they knew her.
"Human being? He's not one" Michael pulled down the rope as the
reaper's body moved higher.
"Neither are you brother if you keep doing this"
"Cindy" Claire's heart skipped a beat when the little girl talked
back. She tried to shush her yet Cindy didn't back off.
"We should be kind, merciful, and caring" the words that came out
of her mouth didn't seem to belong to a little girl.
"Cindy go to your room, you're still too little"
"No"
"No"
Both Cindy and Michael said no at the same time.
"People like him always mistake kindness for weakness Cindy.

Show him kindness and he will show you the dagger. And you're
right" Michael paused for a second, looking at the reaper and
Cindy,
"I'm not human when someone pisses me off " Michael pulled
down the rope with enough force that catapulted the reaper's body
to the top of the mainsail pole.
"Diddle diddle"
The flag of the sunrise sect now had a bloody body hanging in
front.
"We are so little"
"Br…br…" she stuttered in shock, seeing the bloody body. The

rope tied around the reaper's body got tighter as his eyes started
to bulge out. In addition to his eyes bulging out, the blood oozed
down onto Michael, bathing him in blood. He looked like a demon
in everyone's eyes for a second.
"Kill or be killed Cindy, you'll realize this when you grow up and
learn how this world works," Michael said,
"Teacher, you're sick," Olivia said to herself. Perhaps, everyone on

the ship had the same thought appear in their minds.
******************************************
(Somewhere else in the Elon continent, a few hours ago)
The clouds were the kind of gray that would make any quarry rock
proud as if they were so pleased to echo the ground. All the gray,
all that swirling water in the sky, condensation was bound to
happen sooner rather than later. Above these gray clouds was a
desolate quarry. As far as one's eyes could see, there wasn't a
single tree or any plant for that matter that could be found except
for boulders and a group of angry reapers wearing nothing but
black robes. Each of the reapers looked exactly like the reaper
that attacked Michaels's ship.
The reapers were rushing from all directions towards a woman

who was sitting on a pile of dead bodies. She was calmly
watching the reapers while sharpening her swords by rubbing
them together. Her long black hair fluttered in the wind, revealing
the drops of blood on her alluring face.
From her long coat to the fingerless glow to the boots she wore,
everything was black as the darkest night. The pile of bodies she
was sitting on contained at least thirty dead reapers. All of them
were Core Strengthening stage level 6 cultivators. Yet none of
them could stand a chance against her.
Even when there were twenty more reapers rushing towards her
with their weapons raised, there wasn't the slightest fear in her
eyes.
"Twinkle twinkle little star" she flicked her wrists as the blood on
the swords splattered onto the ground, revealing the black blades
of her swords.
Her voice was gentle, yet at the same time, it was filled with a
murderous aura.
"How I wonder what you are" a thin layer of gold energy

enveloped her body as she gracefully stood up to walk towards
the live reapers.
"Up above the world so high"
As she was walking, a crimson red fire started to coil around her
swords like snakes. Soon, the fire enveloped her whole body. The
fire burnt so hot that even the pebbles on the ground turned into
charcoal.
The reaper came to a halt when they felt the air getting hotter and
hotter. They had no idea how strong the woman before them was.
The only thing they knew was that she cut thirty reapers in a
couple of minutes like vegetables. They didn't even know who the
hell was this woman, the reapers were minding their business as
they were flying to kill Ghost. But all of a sudden, she appeared
out of nowhere, ambushed them, and killed their colleagues
except for one. She let one alive so he could bring backup.
"Like a diamond in the SKY!" the moment she said the last word
of the rhyme, she leaped so high into the sky. She then swirled
her swords as the fire formed a circle above her head.
"DIE!"
She pointed the two swords at the reapers. The circle of fire
transformed into a chakra before soaring through the sky towards
the reapers.
"Turtle shell!"
"Snow Prison!"
"Earth Shield!"
The reapers immediately cast defensive shields around them.

However, none of their shields were protected from the fire. It
melted through their shield to reduce them into nothing but ashes.
"Pathetic weaklings" The woman snickered,
With a single spell, she took out half of the reapers. Those who
survived were blasted by the shock wave.
"RUN!" after seeing how reality she killed the reapers, the rest of
them lost the nerve to fight her.
"Hellfire circle" hovering above the reapers, she waved her hand.
The very next moment, the crimson red fire turned ominous dark
purple. The stream of purple fire shot out from both of her swords,
forming a cage around the reapers who tried to run away.
The Grim Reapers who were feared by everyone were stuck in

the cage of fire, waiting to be killed like insects. She slowly
descended from the sky, the selling of the fire cage opened up to
let her obediently.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
She gracefully sliced and diced the reapers who were unfortunate
to be closer to her. Each of her sword slashes cleaved a head
clean off a shoulder.
After killing another four, she didn't even move. She just waved
her sword, creating a crescent-shaped wind blade with her
swords. More blood splashed across the ground, painting the gray
ground red. The cage was her killing ring and the reapers were
nothing but mere cattle that were waiting to be butchered.
"Why…who…are you…lady?"
The last remaining reaper tried to crawl away from her. His half of
the body was burnt by the purple flame. Before he died, he
wanted to know who killed him and why. She kicked him in the gut
before squatting down beside him,
"Tell your friends you guys picked up a wrong contract" the

woman ran her sword through the reaper's neck. The reaper
slightly sighed inside thinking that she might let him live.
"Don't bother, I'll tell them myself"? the reaper's heart skipped a
beat but soon, his heart was penetrated by her sword, ending his
life instantly.
She looked around the dead reapers for a few seconds.
"I need to find the one who put the contract on my son and end
this"
She tossed the swords into the air before turning back to leave.
As she was walking away, the swords fell straight into her sheath
on her back.
Snap!
While walking away,she snapped her fingers as the purple flame

cage exploded creating a small mushroom cloud. She walked
away from the explosion like in the movies.
The reapers never thought they would be massacred by a woman.
They had no idea that it was Harriet Hunt who hunted them down.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 330 - Gaya’s
Adventure
The road that led to and from Meblin village in Kethen was
unrecognizable as nature had begun reclaiming the now unused
area. Gardens once looked after and trimmed to perfection were
now rough and overgrown, returning back to their chaotic natural
state.
Most doors were either completely gone or mere remnants of

rotten wood and rusty metal. The open doorways looked eerie as
only darkness showed within. Paint crumbled off of the walls and
was slowly replaced by vines that crawled their way towards the
rooftops.
Meblin, once nothing more than a simple, quiet town, was now a
ghost town in the truest sense. The air which was once filled with
the many sounds of a growing community had grown eerily quiet.
The silence was only broken up by the occasional animal sound
and gust of wind. The once tranquil peace of mind people found in
the park was now found by wild animals enjoying the sunshine
and tall grasses. With nothing and nobody to bother them, they
had grown into a huge community of their own.
One could go anywhere in town they wanted, walk into any home,
and visit any previously private part of town, assuming it hadn't
been destroyed by nature already. But not all was lost. In a way
the legacy of this town lived on through the animals that lived here
now, the spirit was still alive albeit in a different manner.
Strolling through this ghost town, Gaya entered a longhouse. The

house was dark but the orb of light hovering in her hand helped
her navigate through the corridor which she could clearly feel was
leading downwards. The corridor was pretty dark, and after having
walked for fifteen minutes in silence, a steel door appeared in
front of them.
"What is this place?" Standing on Gaya's shoulder, Ayag asked.
Vedora felt surprised. They never expected a hidden place like

this within a ruined house in a ghost town.
"There's a portal behind this steel room" Gaya placed her hand on
the dust-covered steel door,
"Portal to the fire realm?" Ayag asked. After leaving the dark
forest, Gaya only told them that she's going to a realm called the
fire realm except she didn't tell them how or why.
"That's right."
She waved her hand, unleashed a beam of light onto the steel
door. A click immediately sounded out from the door. It looked like
it hadn't been opened for quite a long time, or perhaps it had only
been opened a few times, which is why it produced such a rusty
sound when opening.
Behind the steel door was a spacious secret chamber, and it was
sealed on all sides. Right in the middle of the secret chamber
there was an illusory portal. It was floating endlessly like water
while emitting bright lights.
"How do you know about this portal?" Ayag asked,
"This place looks ancient yet this portal doesn't look old at all"
Sarba looked curiously at the portal.
"There are secret portals all over this world made by cults before
the guardians wiped them out. Now that I think about it, the order
of death might be one of those cults" she cautiously walked
towards the portal,
"Whoever built this was really skillful with formations, the portal is
different from all other kinds of portals and formations, and it's
related to the dimensional forces. Without advanced knowledge
about runes, no one would be able to build this. Definitely, the
work of a six-star Runemaster" Gaya said with a calm voice.
"So are you gonna tell us your plan here?"
Gaya sighed inside. Instead of stepping into the portal, she

decided to let Vedora know her plan. Otherwise, she knew they
would keep asking the same question until she answered them.
However, she had no time to briefly explain her plan. Therefore,
she only gave them an outline of her plan.
"Here's the gist. We go to this realm, find something called the

Satanic Key, enter the Blood cave using the key, find the five-
headed ancient serpent kill it, and absorb its soul"? She made it
sound easy but she knew it would take everything in her to survive
inside the fire realm let alone defeating the ancient serpent.
However, she was resolute in getting this done. If she could
absorb the ancient serpent, her body and soul would go through
metamorphosis, just like Nightmare, only her metamorphosis
would catapult her cultivation level to multiple stages higher
"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna get our asses kicked soon?"
"I told you not to come" Gaya shrugged,
"Shut up and activate the portal. This place freaks me out" Ayag
complained as Gaya rolled her eyes. She told Vedora not to come
with her yet Ayag insisted on coming with her. In fact, Ayag gave
Gaya only two choices, it was either bring them along or they
would tell Michael about her departure. Since Gaya didn't want
Michael to come with her as she didn't want to endanger his life,
she brought Vedora with her.
"Fine"
With a flip of her palm, she retrieved a golden-colored token from

his storage ring. It was about the size of a palm, and it looked to fit
right into the slot located at the center of the portal.
She took a step forward, gently placing the token into the portal.
An instant later, the portal produced a buzzing sound, then it
started functioning.
Swoosh swoosh…
Followed by the activation of the portal, a wild wind swept across

the entire secret chamber. Celestial energy was leaking out from
the portal, making it difficult for them to breathe.
Buzz…
Not long after that, a pitch-black tunnel appeared right in the

middle of the portal. Freezing winds immediately violently blew out
from it. It was so cold that it felt like it was coming from eternal
darkness, it sent a shiver down the spines of all who heard it.
Even the usually calm Cain's expression changed upon sensing

this. Gaya, however, was standing right in front of the storm with
an indifferent expression. Ayag stuck her tongue out and felt
excited as well. Just like Gaya, Ayag did not fear danger, she
became excited upon encountering danger. Both loved thrilling
adventures, they liked the feeling of excitement.
"Let's go."
Gaya leaped forward, disappearing into the tunnel.
Click!
Right as Gaya disappeared, the tunnel instantly closed. The portal

had also stopped functioning. The golden token popped out from
the slot before turning into nothing but ashes.
Swoosh… swoosh…
The freezing wild wind never seemed to stop.
"Whooohoooooooooo!" Ayag screamed excitedly, putting her

tongue outside.
"Hold onto ussssssss" Sarba on the other hand screamed into

Gaya's ears. He wanted Gaya to hold them in her hands rather
than letting them stay on her shoulders
"This is aaaaaaaaaawsome" Ayag kept screaming. She did not
worry about getting thrown into the spacial tunnel. After hearing
Sarba's scream, she lifted Vedora from her shoulder to hold them
tight in her hand. Only then Sarba heaved a sigh of relief.
Gaya was moving along the flow, there were whirlwinds

everywhere, and the tunnel looked variegated. The whirlwinds
kept blowing into the tunnel, causing her face to hurt.
The more they traveled, the more the tunnel seemed shaky and
unstable, as if it was going to collapse at any time.
"Quit screaming shithead, the portal isn't stable. We better be

careful. I don't want to drift off from the tunnel because of your
screams" Gaya flicked Ayag on the head,
"What will happen if we drift off from this tunnel?" Sarba politely
asked. Behind his polite words, Gaya could sense fear.
"Nothing good. Best case scenario, we'll end up Outerspace,

drifting forever. Worst case, our bodies would explode into a
bloody mist"
Sarba felt even more depressed after hearing her words. He

looked around and found out there were black holes everywhere.
Also, from time to time, a massive dimensional typhoon would
appear in their sights.
Blackhole was a place where coldness and darkness blended

together. It was tough to find a dimensional node within. Even
immortals wouldn't dare to treat a black hole carelessly. The
dimensional typhoon within the black holes was the deadliest
existence. It was just a dreadful monster that would cause
anything that gets dragged into it to perish.
Within the teleportation tunnel, Cain was admiring the breath-

taking dimensional turbulence around him while listening to Ayag
and Sarba chit-chat. He noticed Gaya often looked over her
shoulder. He could tell she was looking for Ghost. Although she
didn't talk about how she's feeling, her eyes betrayed her,
revealing the sorrow within her heart to the outside.
After staying for a full day in the tunnel for an entire day, the duo
finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
"We're almost there."
Seeing this, Gaya informed Vedora
"I wonder what the flame realm looks like"
Ayag was so excited that she jumped up from Gaya's hand. The
light at the end of the tunnel became brighter, and soon after,
Gaya arrived at the end of the tunnel. Everyone held their breath
as they were getting ready to enter the Fire Realm.
Right now, within the Fire Realm, someplace within an abyss.
It was a foggy place, and everything here looked gray. The abyss
was a completely desolated area, and rocks were everywhere. A
monster with a body fully covered with purplish scales was
roaming around in this area.
This monster was over five meters tall, its whole body was fuming
with frightening red mist. It only had one eye, which was
positioned vertically right in the middle top of its face. It also only
had one nostril and one huge mouth below the eye. The eye,
nose, mouth were all lined up in a straight line, giving it a really
fearsome savage look.
The monster was roaming around, its eyeball was rolling around
in full alert as if it was searching for something.
Bang!
Suddenly a loud banging sound could be heard from the skies

above. It was as loud as a fierce thunder strike. A hole in the sky
appeared as a figure shouted out from it. The monster was
startled by the sound. It raised its head to look in the direction. In
an instant, Gaya fell straight onto its head.
Plop!
Everything happened so fast that this monster didn't even have
time to react. Gaya carried a massive amount of force when she
hit the monster's head. The monster cried out horribly while rolling
on the floor.
Roar!
The monster was furious. After rolling on the floor in pain, it

immediately stood up on the ground to look at the being that
caused the pain,
"You are one ugly son of a bitch" Gaya's bow materialized in her
hand.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 331 - The Fire Realm
"What is that thing?" Vedora stared at the beast from top to

bottom in wonder. They searched through the knowledge they
inherited from Gaya and Michael to find something or anything
about the beast.
Bang!
While they were focusing on finding about the beast, Gaya

released a golden arrow aiming at the beast's head. The moment
the arrow met the beast's head, blood splashed everywhere, the
monster's head exploded into a mess.
Gaya felt a bit of pity for the monster. A moment ago, it was
minding its own business. Fate played a game in the monster's life
by opening the portal right above its head. Otherwise, she
wouldn't have landed on the beast, making it mad
"Do you think it's edible?"
"What is wrong with you?" Gaya felt a sudden feeling of nausea

hit her core when Ayag asked. She flicked Ayag on the head
couple of times,
"Ouch bitch that hurts"
Aya cursed Gaya while trying to bite her finger.
Cain ignored their bickering, "A Body Refining stage beast. I can
sense its cultivation stage, so that means the hydra's scream
didn't affect this realm"
"Are we in a different world?" Sarba asked. Finally, Gaya stopped

fighting with Ayag to answer Sarba,
"No, this is one of the many realms between our world and the
space outside. Some realms are above the world while some
realms are inside our world" After explaining, she started to walk
away from the dead bodies as it might attract various other beasts
to their location.
"Why does this damn abyss feel so ghastly? Gray fog everywhere.
I hope this fog can't hurt us"
Gaya's expression became serious, she looked around as well.
"Did you come here before?" Sarba asked,
"No, but I learned what's little out there about this place"
"Humph, never pegged you for a learning type" Ayag snickered,
The other two heads expected a snarky comeback from Gaya yet
she kept walking without uttering a word.
"Alright, this place looks boring as it is and now you decided to go

into silence mode" Ayag moved her head towards Gaya's thumb
to chew it.
She wanted to bring Gaya back from her deep train of thoughts.
"Aw," Gaya suddenly felt a sharp pain in her thumb. She looked
down to see Ayag chewing her thumb viciously.
"What's on your mind?" Sarba asked before gently knocking away

Ayag from Gaya's thumb.
"Isn't it obvious, she's thinking about Ghost," Ayag said.
"You should have brought him with us"
"No Cain, he has enough problems as it is. I want to do this alone.

If he was with me, he'd be worrying about my safety more than
getting what I need here. I need to prove it to myself that I'm
worthy of him"
Vedora understood Gaya's feeling. They unanimously decided not
to ponder into her feelings too much.IF she was focusing on her
feelings, her fighting intent would be lessened, they didn't want
that to happen.
Gaya learned about this place yet she did not expect it to be such
a nefarious environment.
"Look another one" Ayag noticed another beast looking exactly

the same as the one Gaya killed roaming around the land almost
a hundred meters in front of them.
Gaya wanted to go past the beast without killing it but even from
hundred meters away, the beast found them. It turned its one eye
staring at them as puffs of smoke came out of its nostril.
"What is this monster? There's something different about these

beasts"
As Sarba was letting the others know what was in his mind, Gaya
fired an arrow lightning fast. The arrow soared through the air.
Boom!
Just like before, when the arrow hit the beast, its head exploded.
"The energy coming from it was not Arch energy, it's different"
Getting closer to the dead body, Gaya carefully examined the

monster.
Indeed she had learned about these beasts called the fire
demons, but she had never seen them with her own eyes until
now
"I think the energy coming from them is some kind of First energy.
Human talked about various energies other than Arch and
Celestial. Since this is not celestial, it must be First energy, at
least a variant of it"
She paused for a second before going on,

"According to the legends, these fire demons have a really strong
body and incredible muscles, and its most powerful weapon is its
vertical eye which can unleash a powerful light that can cause
damage directly to one's soul. These beasts only exist in ancient
realms like this one. We need to be careful here, I don't think there
are only Body Refining beasts here"
Gaya sighed inwardly.
The ancient scripts she had read about ancient realms told her
that the Fire Realm had suddenly appeared three thousand years
ago. It was the same time the Guardians completed a ritual that
made the gods lock the Dark Lord's seed in a universe with no
magical energy, a void universe.
"Since we're so close to this beast, we should get the monster

core" Gaya put her hand inside the bloody mess on the ground.
She searched for a few moments before grabbing the monster
core of the beast. Vedora saw her pull a hand-sized black orb
from the bloody mess. She quickly put the core inside her space
ring.
"You're right! I, the master dog, have a copper head and iron
bones! Even if the ancestor of this Fire Demon was here, it
wouldn't be able to withstand a single head slam from this master
dog!"
"I can sense strong energy radiation from this thing. I wonder if
you can absorb this energy?" asked Cain as Gaya shook her
head,
"I can't but I bet my freaky human can" speaking about Michael
put a smile on her face.
Not all beasts contained monster cores but if a monster core

contained Arch energy, any individual being from any race could
absorb the energy. Nevertheless, monster cores that contained
anything other than Arch energy or Celestial energy couldn't be
absorbed by a being as they contained too much impure energy.?
Absorbing it by force would seriously impact the person's
cultivation, and it could even make them enter a state of coma.
Usually, monster cores above the Body Strengthening stage were
extremely rare because any beast that reached Core Formation
would choose to live in places hidden from the hunters. Most of
the time, these beasts would form a pack to keep themselves safe
from hunters and get rare herbs that let them cultivate faster.
After putting the monster core in her space ring, she shot out a
ball of flames and burned the body to ashes.
Roar!
Right at this moment, a loud roar sounded out from somewhere

not far away from where they stood. It sounded deep, and a little
hoarse, which made it extremely terrifying. They immediately
turned around to look in the direction. In an instant, they saw a
monster which was glowing brightly appearing not far away from
them, it was slowly walking towards them.
Although she burned the body, it was too late as the monster was
attracted by the smell of blood long before she burned the body.
"What kind of monster is this?"
Vedora was startled. The monster wasn't tall, it was just a little bit
taller than an average human. The body didn't look very muscular
either, but it gave them an overbearing impression. This monster
had a transparent body that looked like a crystal, also it didn't
have any facial figures. No nose, no ears, and no mouth. Right in
the middle of its face, there was a crystal eye, which kept staring
at Gaya.
"GRRRRRR!"
The monster roared out once again. It didn't have a mouth, but it
could still roar loudly. The roar sounded like it came from its body,
it was enough to send shivers down most people's spines. If any
ordinary girl saw this strange monster, she would definitely be
scared to the point she screamed as loud as she could.
But Gaya didn't move at all. Since the Hydra's scream didn't affect
this realm, she could easily find out the cultivation level of this
monster; it was only a Core Formation level 1. Although it was
considered pretty strong, it couldn't pose any threat to her. Unlike
the two beasts she killed before, the beast approaching her
looked nothing like the two beasts. This beast was transparent like
a crystal and had only one eye, no other facial features.
" Lucky us, another ugly thing came to greet us" Ayag rolled her
eyes.
"I once read a book called 'Ancient Beings'. It recorded all sorts of
monsters and beings. By the look of this beast, it must be Glass
Wraith"
"You seemed to have read an awful lot of books for an orphan"

Ayag frowned. Not only Ayag but also Sarba and Cain felt
surprised by her knowledge about this world. They even saw
Ghost ask her for information and he was a freak of nature who
could do anything in their minds.
In the short amount of time they followed Gaya, it felt like there
was nothing that she didn't know.
"If I told you I am a princess, would you believe me?" Gaya looked
at Vedora with a small smile on her face.
"You? A princess? Hahaha" Ayag burst into laughter after hearing

Gaya.
"Stop playing around and kill that beast"
Roar!
The Glasswraith roared out once again. Somewhat Cain had a

feeling that the beast wasn't surprised to see the human in front of
it. To Cain, it seemed like Gaya didn't tell them the whole story
about this place.
The Glasswraith carried an extreme killing intention as it quickly

sprinted towards her.
"Since this ugly fucker is tired of living, we should send him to
hell"
Ayag was laughing out loudly in excitement as Gaya nocked a fire

arrow on her bowstring, preparing to shoot the moment the beast
come into her target area.
**************************************
One more chapter about Gaya's adventure and we can finally start
the tournament.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 332 - The Nefarious
Ancient Beings
Boom!
The moment the Glass Wraith came close enough for her to kill it,
she released the arrow from her bow. The fire arrow left a trail of
blaze of fire in the air staring from Gaya's bow to the beast's
location. The arrow hit its target creating an explosion.
She infused the arrow with her cultivation power to obliterate the
Glass Wraith. The Beast's body shattered instantly because of the
impact, it turned into pieces of crystals and scarred across the
place.
"humph, so weak!"
Ayag was laughing out loudly seeing how easily the arrow killed
the beast. However, before she could finish having a laugh, her
eyes went wide in shock. The three heads could see the broken
crystal pieces assembling back to normal in an instant, making the
Glass Wraith whole again.
Roar!
"Here's a lesson for you Ayag, never laugh too soon" Unlike
Vedora, Gaya knew this would happen. To kill a Glass Wraith, one
had to exhaust all the energy in its soul which meant she had to
kill the beast again and again until it could not resurrect again.
The Glass Wraith was extremely angry. It roared out in fury as it

dashed towards Vedora once again. This Glass Wraith was a rare
and unique life form, it didn't possess any kind of innate ability to
cast spells, it only relied on its body's strength. It could rip
anything apart. Besides, the bright light that shot out from its body
could cause devastating damage. Anyone who got hit by it would
either die or suffer severe injuries.
"What are you waiting for? Kill it!"
Vedora felt somewhat depressed, even humiliated when the Glass

Wraith resurrected.
In a blink of an eye, Gaya fired another fire arrow at the beast.

Just like before, the shattered Glass Wraith was restored back to
its original shape, which looked and felt exactly like it did before.
"What the fuck?"
Ayag's fury ignited. She felt like she herself was fighting the Glass
Wraith.
"Calm down, we need to kill the Glass Wraith again and again
until it has no energy left in its soul to resurrect itself" As she said,
she fired another arrow before the GLass Wraith could leap
towards her.
Yet again it shattered into crystal pieces before assembling its

whole body again.
"What an abnormal monster.? Only we had this ability" Ayag's

eyes sparkled,
"Who would be able to kill us?" Ayag wondered.
"Stop daydreaming" After all the time they spent with Gaya, Ayag
was used to getting flicked on the head. So when Gaya flicked her
this time, she just ignored instead of bickering.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Gaya fired a fire arrow one after another shattering the Glass
Wraith again and again. After being killed several times, the Glass
Wraith's energy in the monster core reached a critical point.
Realizing the threat of imminent death, the beast immediately
turned around, fleeing with extreme speed.
Since it was a Core Formation level beast, it possessed basic

intelligence, hence, it finally understood how powerful its opponent
was. If it continued fighting, it would get itself killed here.
"It's running away, ha we got that bastard"
It didn't take a genius to figure out why the Glass Wraith was
running away. Because its resurrection caused some slight
humiliation to Ayag, she wanted nothing more than seeing the
Glass Wraith shatter into pieces and not getting resurrected again.
Gaya was not in a hurry to kill the Glass Wraith. She let it run for a
few more seconds before firing the arrow. The blazing arrow
soared through the air aiming at the Glass Wraith's back. Just as
before, the arrow made the body explode but this time, the
shattered pieces stayed as it is.
Buzz…
Followed by a buzzing sound, the broken crystal pieces which

were shattered around the place formed into a fist-sized crystal
ball that floated in the middle of the air.
"Is that the Glass Wraith's monster core?"
"This is something good," Vedora noticed a curious look emerging

on Gaya's face.
Gaya had quick hands. In an instant, she grabbed the crystal ball
with her hand, then she said, "wow, this contains pure Arch
energy and even a sliver of Celestial energy within"
"Didn't you say the monster cores of the beasts here contain
impure energies? What makes this one different?" Ayag asked.
"No one can absorb the monster cores found in the beasts here
without purifying them first, but this one is different. According to
Ancient Beings, the Glass Wraith is born from nature after having
absorbed pure Arch energy. As I said before, not only does this
core contain huge amounts of pure Arch energy, it also contains a
sliver of Celestial energy which means any cultivator can absorb it
directly"
"So are you gonna absorb the energies?"
Gaya shook her head, "it'd do little to no good to me. Because the
core is from a Core Formation level 2 beast, I'm way stronger than
the beast. No use in absorbing anything that's not stronger than
you. However"
"If we can bring it out from here, we can sell it for a fortune" She
grinned, tossing the crystal a couple of times in the air and
catching the core.
"Cores like this can be only found in places like this. Out there, it's
extremely hard to get a core from a beast above Body
Strengthening stage"
"So that's why there are so many people who are risking their
lives in places such Nether Realm" Sarba had a look of realization
on his face as Cain opened his mouth,
"Plus, they also get battle experience"
"Alright, I'm sure there are a lot of Glass Wraith's here, oh boy,
we're gonna be rich!"? A bright smile appeared on Ayag's face.
Although Gaya knew she could make a small fortune auctioning
the cores, getting the crystal cores was no easy task.
"Only idiots venture into ancient places looking to make money.

Let's imagine If someone bumps into a Glass Wraith which is at
the same level as he or she, they are fucked. Even if they were
one level higher than the beast, they'll be still fucked. Instead of
one getting the beast's core, it will get the flesh and blood of an
idiot"
Gaya was not here to make money, if it was, she could have
stayed with Ghost and made millions through the Majestic and
Hades. Her goal was to find the five-headed serpent.? Absorbing
its soul would start her metamorphosis.
According to Nagaland's history, only Gaya's mother managed to

slain one and absorb its soul. It was the reason for her mother's
terrifying power but the power came at a cost. During the fight,
Gaya's mother was wounded by the five-headed serpent, its
poison slowly spread through her body, reducing her life little by
little. If only her mother knew Ghost before, he could have saved
her.
"Look at the bright side, we are not idiots who are looking to make
money but since we are here, it doesn't hurt to make a fortune,"
Ayag said with a grin on her face.
"Alright, let's resume our journey. I suppose this place is only the
outer perimeter, so let's move out from this abyss and start going
towards the depths of the realm. It's better if we could bump into
some edible thing. I'm starving"
"Me too" Sarba agreed with Ayag as Gaya continued to walk

towards the realm's center.
She leaped forwards, starting to fly in a straight line away from the
abyss. In front of them, there was a grayish desolated area with
rocks scarred all over the place. There were also some thick
woods, and some strange plants growing within.
After flying for almost fifteen minutes, Ayag's eyes lit up,
"Hey are you sensing what I'm sensing?"
"Yes. I can also sense the same energy I sensed in the Glass
Wraith" Sarba said
"This is nothing to be excited about. Foul monsters are

everywhere and we need to be extra careful"
Cain tried to remind them that the Fire Demon and the Glass
Wraith were just some appetizers, the real dangers of the realm
might be ahead of them.
"Shut up Cain, you're worse than this one" Ayag hit Sarba with her
head,
"No matter what kind of beasts come, they will flee getting their
asses kicked. Hey Gaya, just be ready with your bow" Ayag
became narcissistic again.
Caw~
Just as Ayag finished showing her narcissistic grin, a huge object

suddenly got in their way. It was a monstrous three-headed raven.
The raven was almost 5 meters tall while fully covered with black
feathers.
Coupled with its three heads and humongous size, it could easily
scare someone with its looks alone.
"You just had to open your mouth," Cain sighed.
Swoosh…
Gaya saw a black fog kept rising from the Black raven's body. It
was neither dark nor ominous as the smoke that would envelop
Ghost when he's in his full Dark Lord persona. Before Gaya could
back away from the raven's path, it locked on his gaze at them.
The pair of evil eyes stared at Gaya and Vedora, it had decided
them to be its prey.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this one? We've only been here
for a short time, and we have already bumped into three ugliest
things in the world!"
Ayag gritted her teeth in anger. She wasn't scared of the raven at
all. Although it was stronger than the fire demon and the Glass
Wraith they previously fought, it was still a Core Formation level 4
beast. She knew the raven was not a match for Gaya.
However, what pissed her off was that this raven had appeared
right after she boasted.. This gave the other two heads a reason
to mock her when the time came.
Chapter 333 - The
Championship Tournaments
The Royal Land had never been busier than today. There were
only joyful faces as they headed toward the arena for the greatest
tournament for warriors in Elon, music filled the air as the people
felt chock full of adrenaline-pumping happiness. The vibrancy of
the event, the energy of the dancing dragons, the fireworks that
made an artistic canvas of the early morning sky, was looked
forward to by all. The people flowed like rivers, never stopping for
obstacles but swirling around them.
On those wide avenues of Royal land with wilted trees, their

leaves curled and blackened in the gentle morning heat, the
buildings towered on each side. The crowd had a life of its own,
their vibrant clothes shone in the morning light and the people
moved like enchanting shoals of fish. There was chatter between
sellers and buyers, old friends catching up, new friends making.
It's busy for sure, but the hustle and bustle brought life to this city
one wouldn't want to be without.
Among the crowd of people, half of them had their faces painted
in various colors. They showed support for their star by this
gesture. Even the little kids comfortably sitting on their fathers'
shoulders had their faces painted.
Life might be hard for some but today, there wasn't a face that did
not show a wide grin.
Excitement, adrenaline, fans, and a perfectly manicured turf, were

all things that came to Ethan's mind when he entered the arena
through the VIP entrance. The Ataxia was one of the most
impressive arenas he has ever been to. If anyone visited this
arena for the first time,? they would be overwhelmed by the size,
and beauty of its massive structure. The majestic arena stood
almost 600 feet high and could seat 130,000 roaring fans.
The first thing Ethan noticed when entering the stadium was the
ocean of crowd, he thought it would be more suitable to call them
fans as there were so many of them, wearing the various colors of
clothes, painted faces, and carrying boards that had their heartfelt
message written on them. For people like Ethan, it was just a
board but for the die-hard fans, they were like bridges that
connected them with their stars. They waved the boards up in the
air, hoping their stars would take notice.
The entire arena filled with people was so beautiful, it was like a
painting painted by the happiest painter in the world. There was
excitement and anticipation in the air as the thousands of fans
started singing, and chanting for the sects and the stars they
support. The noise kept getting louder and louder as other fans
arrived and joined in. There were thousands of fans, cramming
their way into every available seat. The seats for anyone except
VIPs were made of cold, hardwood, and painted white and yellow,
the two colors that represented the Royal land. Although the
wooden seats were not really comfortable to sit on as they were
built so close together so one had to squeeze into them, the
excitement in their hearts overshadowed the discomfort felt by
their bodies.
The arena had loads of smells. Ethan could smell the gentle
morning breeze. The aromas from different foods were so strong
he could actually taste them in his mouth. There was also a smell
of freshly brewed ale that had been spilled time and time again.
The sunlight reflecting on the gigantic mirrors set all around the
arena was blinding, it shone down on the field, the crowd and
made everything look so bright and dazzling. In addition to the
mirror, there were lights set on massive metallic structures, which
held them high above the arena; they could be seen from miles as
they lit up the night sky. Below the set of lights on the west side of
the arena was a scoreboard. It was magnificently lit up, at the
moment, the scoreboard was empty, void of names.
After looking at the accommodation for the normal people, he was
glad he was able to buy VIP tickets. The VIP accommodations
were located on the east side of the arena, closer to the battle
area, built on an elevated stage to give them a clear view of the
fights. Moreover, their seats were not wooden chairs, they were
recliner cushions. On top of better seating and view, the VIP
balcony also had Ruby Cuisine stalls set up so the VIPs could get
better and tastier foods and merchant stalls that sell opera
glasses for children and for those who have problems with their
eyesight.
Ethan was carrying buckets of snacks which include honey

popcorns, roasted chicken legs, fruit juices, and some other
snacks he had never even heard of before to his neck. Yet he was
being pushed by his wife who had nothing in her hands. The only
thing Ethan took pleasure in was, every man in his family had the
same fate as him.
"Walk faster Ethan, you have glue stuck up your feet or

something"
"For crying out loud, I'm a lord of this family and carrying all these
things like a servant."
"Well, you were the one who said it's a waste of money to buy
tickets for the servants" Diana retorted with a chuckle.
Ever since she made the promise she won't cry anymore after
reading the interview of Ghost, she had become the joyous
person she used to be.
"If I knew you people would spend that money on these snacks, I
would have bought tickets for everyone. At Least, I would have
been spared from being a mule" Ethan rolled his eyes while
navigating through the seats.
"Stop bickering you two, these are our seats" Emelda reminded
both Diana and Ethan. She first let the kids take their seats while
supervising the men to their seats.
In the Winston family, after Ethan's parents and Diana, Emelda
held the highest authority. All the family members looked up to her
leadership when Ethan was stuck, she was a natural-born leader.
Among the three hunt sisters, Diana was the rebel, Natalia was
the silent child and Emelda was the opposite of both of them. She
was a disciplined, outspoken child.
More than anything in the world, she loved her sisters. That was
the reason that even after running away from Awor Continent, she
refused to get married as she had seen marriages tear apart a
family. She never wanted to be put in a situation where she had to
choose between her family and her sisters. To this day, Emelda
never regretted her decision not to get married, everyone in the
Winston family loved and adored Emelda. The children loved just
as much as they loved their mothers or even more.
"Mariam, don't fight with your brother"
"Bernie, you take that seat over there"
"Uncle Fedor, don't you dare stick that gum under that chair"
She was the last person to take her seat after scolding, diffusing
fights, and disciplining everyone. The entire Winston family was
here except for Rowena, Natalia, and her husband who refused to
see their son getting beaten.
"What would we do without you?" Diana squeezed Emelda's hand

when she took her seat beside Diana.
"You guys will be like headless chickens without me" Emelda

chuckled while playfully pinching Diana's cheeks.
Suddenly Emelda's smile became a frown,
"You look different Dian"
Diana hoped she wouldn't notice the difference even though she
deep down knew Emalda would. Diana shared everything with her
two sisters however, this time, she wasn't going to. No one must
know about her leaving the house to kill the reapers. Michael met
only four reapers but in reality, more than fifty reapers had picked
up the contract for his head. It was Diana who kept the reapers
from swarming Michael.
Of course, she knew she couldn't keep track of every single one of
them. That was why she shadowed Ghost from a distance. Even
when Michael killed the four reapers in a forest and killed a reaper
on his way to Royal land, she was always there for him in case
something went wrong. Seeing her son battle people ahead of his
cultivation stage reminded herself of her. She was proud, but at
the same time, she was also worried.
"You know I'm just excited to see him again"
Emelda knew by him, Dian meant Ghost. Diana hid her secret life
by telling Emelda the truth instead of a lie.
"I hope Andrews dont get on the stage with him," Emelda sighed.
They spoke in whispers so the others couldn't hear them, not that
anyone could in the cheers of the fans.
"Where are they anyway?" Emelda looked around to locate Noah

and his group.
"With Maisy's family I think," Diana said,
"Maisy's family here?!" Emelda grinned with excitement. Ever

since she met the cute little girl, she wanted to meet her family.
"Do you know Maisy hates him?" Suddenly Ethan came into the
conversation. He emphasized the word him. The two ladies turned
their heads at the same time to look at Ethan.
"Now that you said it, I did notice the little girl frown when
something comes up about him"
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Just as Ethan was about to tell them what happened inside the
Nether Realm, three loud bell sounds reverberated the arena.
Immediately the crowd went silent.
"Welcome to the Championship tournaments" A cheerful male

voice sounded after the bell sounds. With this, the tournament has
finally started.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 334 - The Format Of
Championship Tournaments
Soon after the voice sounded, from inside the perfectly manicured
grass field, a navy blue tubular-shaped structure made of energy
emerged. Three people were sitting inside the structure. From the
onlookers' point of view, it looked like a giant pill with three people
sitting inside before a large table.
On the left sat a red-haired man in his early forties, he was neither
too thin nor bulky. His cheerful smile showed his playful character.
On the right side was another man who seemed to be in his early
sixties. On the contrary to the red-haired man, this white-haired
man had a solemn look on his slightly wrinkled face. Stuck
between the two was a young girl in her mid-teens. She had dull
orange eyes and her elbow-length, curly, pink hair was neatly
braided. The commentator pill was etched with runes that
amplified their voice throughout the arena.
"First of all the championship tournament committee likes to

convey our deepest apologies for the postponement" the red-
haired man spoke in an apologetic tone.
"It's not as if we went on a trip, they all know about the void day.
The committee needed to come up with some way to determine
the competitors' cultivation level" the white-haired man said
without hiding his over the head arrogance.
"Gentleman, I think we first need to introduce ourselves, don't you

think?" the girl let out a playful giggle before talking.
"Ladies and gentle, we are your commentators, for both

tournaments, Im Ishihara Minako"
"I am James Hall, two times Royal times best commentator award
winner," the cheery red-haired man said with a laugh. Everyone
could sense the pride behind his laugh.
"I am Darius Russell, former swordmaster of Aragoth"
The audience began to gasp when they heard the man. No one
reacted the same way as they did for Russell as they did for
James because the position of Swordmaster of Aragoth
outclassed the best commentator award by miles. Moreover,
anyone who got the Swordmaster title held a highly esteemed
position in society as even the kings would show them respect.
Hence the reason for Darius's pride.
"Now that we introduced ourselves, let's bring the battle stage

up"? Darius clapped his hands together. After the runes amplified
the clapping sound to the entire arena, everyone heard a loud
cracking noise emerging from inside the grass field.
Many people stood up to look at the grass field. They saw the
grass field split open in the middle. The two halves of the grass
fields slowly retracted sideways as a spacious circular stage
emerged from within. In a couple of minutes, the lush green grass
field was nowhere to be seen and replaced by a grayish round
stage. The stage could easily hold seventy to eighty people
without each of them feeling crowded.
"Before we move forward, let us explain the format of the

competitions," Ishihara said in a playful voice,
"You ladies and gentlemen may already know, We have two

championship tournaments. One for Body Strengthening stage
cultivators and one for Core Formation stage cultivators. Both
tournaments have the same format, Sword Master Darius" James
looked at Darius to explain the format as the swordmaster began
to talk in his serious voice.
"The tournaments have 6 rounds, the last three being quarter-

final, semi-final, and grand finale respectively. 100 participants will
start the tournament and fight in the first round. The second round
will have 40 people" Darius said,
"You know what that means ladies and gentle, bye-bye for 60
youngsters after the first round" Hall chuckled as Darius
continued,
"Out of 40, only 20 will go to the third round. At the end of the third
round, the judges will eliminate 10 participants based on points
and votes" Darius paused for a moment to let Hall speak,
"Due to complications during the last couple of tournaments, the

tournament committee decided not to disclose any information
about the judges. The judges will be anonymous so don't try to
find them, or worse, bribe them"
Everyone in the arena knew his words were directed to the

powerful noble families. They were the ones who would try to
bribe the judges to get the youngsters of their family closer to the
championship titles. In the past, the tournament committee had to
spend millions of gold coins to ensure the safety of the judges as
well as the integrity of the tournaments. Some noble families had
even tried to kill the judges who refused to take bribes from them.
"I'm sure nothing terrible will happen this year. Darius, please
continue" Ishihara said,
"10 youngsters will enter the quarter-final. It'll be 5 versus 5.

Among the 5 winners, one will be eliminated according to the
points given by the judges"
"And worry not, although it'll be the end of one's journey, he or she
will receive valuable treasures as a prize for reaching or surviving
hehehe" Yet again, Hall finished his words with a chuckle
"Semi-final will let only the best two enter the grand final"? Darius
finished explaining the format. The people let the information sink
into their heads for a few moments before Ishihara broke the
silence with her sweet melodic voice,
"Now it's time to go over the rules. James" she turned her gaze
towards James,
"As the name itself suggest, the participants for the Body
Strengthening stage tournament must be at the Body
Strengthening stage while Core Formation stage participants must
be at the Core Formation stage" James Hall explained as Darius
continued,
"Anyone between the age of 10-23? can participate in the Body

Strengthening stage tournament. Participants for the Core
Formation stage tournament must be below the age of 30. we
have arrays placed on the stage to determine one's age, if you're
older than 30 and think you can participate with the help of a spell
or potion, I recommend you not to unless you really want to end
up like a cooked turkey"
"Hahaha," A small portion of the onlookers laughed like he was

kidding but the rest of them knew he was serious, deadly serious.
"We'll not bore you with the rules for each round, it'll be more
interesting to go over them before the starting of each round"
Boom!
After James spoke, another loud booming sound reverberated the

arena. The onlookers looked up at the sky to see several white-
robed figures in pairs descending to the stage. Each pair was
carrying a six feet mirror with a golden border. The closer the pairs
got to the stage, the more the people could see the glowing runes
on the mirrors. Unlike the runes, none of them were able to see
the gears, nuts, and bolts behind the mirror.
In a couple of minutes, the white-robed people brought six mirrors

onto the stage. They gently placed the mirrors on the stage as the
people tried to figure out the purpose of the mirrors,
"Participants for the Body Strengthening stage please come to the

stage and follow the instructions given by the coordinators' ' While
the participants were getting ready to hop onto the stage, each
pair of coordinators flicked their wrist as a 12 feet tall pillar beside
the mirrors. The pillar was made of 10 black rocks. Each rock was
separated by a thick silver lining that glowed in the light.
The onlookers immediately became excited to see the young
celebrities make their entrance.
"Can you give us a rundown on how this mirror works Darius? I

heard you were in the team that built these wonderful devices that
gauge someone's cultivation level" Everyone looked at Darius
after hearing James.
"I doubt the people will be interested in knowing how the Bias law
works with Mirateen runes to produce a Fusion effect"
"It seems like we have to settle for the short version" James
chuckled
"When a participant places his hand on the mirror, the runes will
extract a sliver of Arch energy from their body. The mechanism
behind the mirror will work with the runes to analyze the sliver of
Arch energy and light up the pillar beside the mirror"
"As we can all see, each pillar has 10 separated rocks. I assume
each of the rocks will represent a level of one's cultivation stage"
Ishihara asked,
"Yes, the level goes from bottom to the top. For instance, if a Body
Strengthening stage level 3 cultivator placed his hand on the
mirror, the third rock from the bottom would glow in green. The
beauty of this device is, it will not only show one's level but also
show how pure the Arch energy in his or her body"
After Darius explained, many people gasped in startlement.
"The purer your Arch energy is, the more powerful you are. If two
cultivators on the same cultivation stage and level fought with the
same spells, the victor will be decided by the Arch energy purity"
James Hall explained for the comments who had little knowledge
about Arch energy purity. The cultivators knew the importance of
keeping their Arch energy pure as that was why nobles would go
crazy for potions and pills that cleanse their bodies to make the
Arch energy in their body pure. Michael was making a fortune
selling Revitalizing pills that cleanse a cultivator's body.
The purity of the Arch energy was the one that separates a normal
cultivator from a prodigy. This was also the reason many
cultivators avoid eating meat in restaurants and prefer to keep
their bodies satiated with only Arch energy instead of food.
"The brightness of the glow will determine one's arch energy

purity" Darius finished explaining how the mirror worked as
Ishihara asked a question,
"What would happen if someone above the Body Strengthening

stage touched the mirror?"
"Instead of the pillar, the mirror will let out a bright red glow and
the one touched the mirror will be detained for processing. Believe
me, you don't want to violate the rules set by the committee"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 335 - Rain Of Badass
Points I
After all the mirrors were set on the stage, the people heard yet
another loud booming sound. Following the sound, the east side
door on the ground level opened as several youngsters in armors
started to walk out of the door.
Each of them wore a different type and color of armor. The

commonality between all of them was their posture. Their chests
were puffed up, head held high with grins radiating pride and ego.
The crowd, their cheering, and the atmosphere of the arena
kindled the pride of even those who were usually modest.
"There he is, Evan Clarke"
"Morning Star"
"Morning Star"
"Morning Star"
"Morning Star"
"Morning Star"
"Morning Star"
The fans of Evan Clarke and the MorningStar sect began to roar
when they saw Evan Clark. Of course, there were disciples from
other sects who were better than Evan in all ways. However, they
were from the Ozer Continent and the arena was filled with people
from Elon. The majority of the people knew little about the
prodigies of Ozer. Hence, it was the stars of Elon who received a
big thunderous welcome from the crowd.
After Evan, another celebrity disciple walked out of the door,
making many onlookers gasp for air.
"Victoria Parker!" The crowd erupted when Victoria in her silver

armor made her entrance. Her charming beauty captivated the
audience, even those who hated Golden Valley couldn't help
drooling.
Evan waved his hand at his fans, making them roar even louder.
Victoria on the other hand didn't even look at the crowd as she
made her way to the stairs leading to the stage.
"Where is Sabi?" Sitting on the VIP balcony, Ethan searched the

group of youngsters on the field to find his daughter.
Sabrina was one of the few disciples who were competing in the
tournament from a sect located in the Ozer Continent. Unlike the
Elon continent, most of the Ozer was plunged into chaos due to
the ongoing war.
The sects in Ozer were siding with their allied kingdoms and
sending disciples to the battlefield so they could get real battle
experience as well as repel the kingdom's enemies.
At this point in time, Michael was oblivious to the fact he's

connected to the ongoing war. Although Sabrina wanted to win the
tournament, the biggest reason for her to compete was Ghost.
After Ghost saved her and her family, she had become somewhat
of an admirer of Ghost. She wanted to learn more about the man
who saved her and her mother in a single day.
Every time she wanted to meet him, he was either in seclusion or

somewhere else no one had any idea about.
She didn't know what but something made her feel closer to Ghost
even though she knew little about him.
"Whoa is that Sabrina Winston?!"
"Shut up, it can't be"

"Look there. It's her, Noah Winston's little sister"
"If she's here, then the Holy Trident Academy is too"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
The people of Kethen, especially those from Pen Town roared as

their cheers for Sabrina shook the arena. The sheer support for
Sabrina startled even the Winston family.
"Our little girl has grown" A tear of joy and pride rolled out of
Emelda's eyes. They all felt proud of Sabrina.
"It seems like we have a great competition ahead Darius" James

Hall said,
"I think so too. I want to see what these youngsters can do with
swords"
Since Darius was a Swordmaster, he was more interested in

seeing the youngsters' sword mastery.
"So many young talents. I wish I was there with them" Ishihara
said
"Alright participants, please go to the stage in an orderly manner

and follow the instructions given by the coordinators," James said
as the youngsters stopped waving at their fans to reach the stage.
Many rushed to the stage excitedly. Some even landed on the

stage directly with a leap instead of climbing the stairs.
"Victoria Parker seems to be the first person to touch the mirror,

let's see what happens" As Ishihara commented, Victoria
gracefully walked towards the mirror. Everyone else stood there
watching her.
"Please place your hand on the mirror, Miss" the man standing
beside the mirror instructed. Victoria wasn't worried about the
device like many others. The onlookers came to the edge of their
seats to see the device working. A few seconds after Victoria
placed her right palm on the mirror, the mirror slightly trembled.
Under their gazes, the bottom rock of the pillar glowed in green for
a second before the second one started to glow. One by one the
rocks let out a bright green glow until the glow reached the eighth
rock from the bottom.
"Body Strengthening stage level 8," the coordinator beside the

mirror said.
"Whoa, she's so young"
"A real prodigy, she was a Body Refining stage cultivator just a
year ago"
"Look how brighter the rocks are glowing, her arch energy purity
must be next level shit"
"The Golden Valley must be proud to have such a talented

youngster among them. What do you think Darius?" James Hall
asked. His voice didn't hide his surprise.
"Her Arch energy seems to be purer than many cultivators we

tested. But purity isn't everything when it comes to real battle and
this tournament will be a test for her " Darius expressed his
opinion as Evan walked towards another mirror.
"Please place your hand on the mirror, Master," the coordinator

said calmly, showing no emotion on his face or voice.
Just as before, a few seconds after Evan placed his hand on the
mirror, the mirror slightly trembled. Soon afterward, the pillars lit
up to the eighth rock just like Victoria's. The brightness was also
just the same as Victoria's, it indicated that the two of them were
at the same level.
"Yet another Body Strengthening stage level 8"
"Evan Clarke of MorningStar, it seems we have two cultivators

with no advantages over another" Ishihara said,
"It will boil down to the arsenal of spells they have and I doubt
Golden Valley or MorningStay would bring them here with some
run of the mills spells"
Evan and Victoria proudly stood aside watching the rest of them
getting tested by the mirrors. One by one the youngsters placed
their hands on the mirror. Except for a few, many hadn't reached
Body Strengthening stage level 8. The majority of them were
between level 4 to level 6. Those who crossed level 8 didn't get
the same reaction from the audience as Evan and Victoria did
because of their purity. None of them were able to make the rocks
glow as bright as Victoria and Evan.
After seeing almost fifty youngsters trying to beat Evan and

Victoria, all the eyes fell on Sabrina.
"Finally" Ethan leaned forward to see his daughter climb the stairs
to the stage. The entire arena became silent, they all watched
Sabrina like Hawkes.
"Please place your hand on the mirror, Miss" Sabrina placed her
hand gently on the mirror after nodding at the coordinator. The
moment her hand touched the mirror, it trembled more than it
trembled when Victoria or Evan touched. In a blink of an eye, the
pillar lit up like a Christmas tree all the way to the 7th stone.
Although she did not reach the 8th stone as Victoria or Even, the
brightness the stones let out was three times more than them.
"Body Strengthening stage level 7" the coordinator confirmed.
"That's the brightest glow I've seen today" James Hall raised his
brows,
"She's the youngest to get into the Holy Trident Academy for a
reason" Ishihara's words caused murmurs among the fans.
"The pillar is an indicator she has a bright future ahead of her ''
Even Darius who couldn't be easily amazed was startled.
"The Winston family is really blessed to have such monstrous

prodigies as their heirs" Ethan could see James Hall looking at
them,
"I bet Miss Sabrina's parents are really proud"
For a few moments, the commentators sounded like fans of

Sabrina. Victoria had black lines on her forehead seeing Sabrina
taking away her spotlight.
"We are"
Diana turned her head to see Emelda staring at the stage with
tears flowing out of her eyes. Not even Diana shed tears of pride
and joy but Emalda did.
"We are proud of you Sabrina!"
The people of Pen town began to chant in unison. Their

thunderous cheers did not slow down until a few youngsters
finished testing their cultivation level.
An hour passed by in a blink of an eye.
"We'll take a short break before testing the Core Formation

participants" the trio of commentators left their pill to take a break
while the participants remained on the stage to socialize. Many
wanted to establish a friendship with Sabrina but she quickly left
the stage to join her family.
*****************************************
Meanwhile, in Sarton, Michael was waiting in Lord Information's
room patiently.? He kept gently brushing Nightmare's head as the
dragon enjoyed the rub with his eyes closed.? Michael watched
the door beside the book rack, expecting the elf to walk out of
there with what he asked.
"Here you go, Lord Ghost"? As he was expecting, Lord

Information came out of the door carrying a thick book.
"You happen to have a book containing information about the

recent events"
When Michael asked Lord Information for information regarding

everything that's happening in this world, he thought the elf would
sell him a bunch of parchments. He never expected a 6inch thick
book,
"You'd be surprised to know how many people want to know the

current happenings" Lord Information slid the book towards
Michael,
"As you asked, it has everything, including insider information,

rumors, and juicy tidbits that you might find useful"
With a nod, Michael flicked his wrist as a space ring appeared on

the table,
"100,000 gold coins. It's a pleasure doing business with you"

Michael shook the elf's hand before turning to leave,
"Lord Ghost" Michael turned back hearing Lord Information's

voice,
"The thing I asked, it might happen soon after the tournament

ends" Lord Information seemed rather serious,
"Im looking forward to it,"
*******************************


chapters.
Any criticism,

Points II
Although the commentators announced a short break, only a few

left their seats. As each minute passed by, Ethan couldn't sit still.
He was biting his nails when Emelda called him out,
"Ethan, are you alright? You seem shaky"
Diana squeezed Ethan's hand to calm him down. Unlike her, this
was his first time meeting his son.
"Do you see him anywhere?" He asked, leaning closer to Diana's

ear.
"No"
"What do you mean no? You said he will come" Ethan almost
shook her by her shoulder in lack of patience,
"No one said otherwise, you just need to be a little more patient
Ethan" Diana calmed him down. He nodded but kept searching for
the people of the Sunrise sect. It didn't even take him more than
two minutes before he saw an entire pavilion of people wearing
black clothes on the opposite side of where the VIP balcony was
located. Since the arena was built in a circular shape, one could
see almost everyone in the arena.
Ethan would have noticed them earlier if it wasn't for Claire's

orders not to cause a ruckus until they start the Core Formation
tournament to the people of river town and sunrise sect. Because
of her orders, they remained, not causing any commotion.
An entire pavilion containing at least 1500 seats was filled with

ardent worshippers of the Ghost and Sunrise sect. An entire town
was here to show their support to Ghost, no one had the support
like Ghost had.
"AH!" suddenly Emelda shouted as everyone sitting near her

turned their gazes at Emelda to see a golden monkey bouncing
on her head,
"Norvin, you almost gave me a heart attack" Emelda grabbed

Norvin off her head to see the monkey grinning in the joy of
pranking her.
"Get away from her you damn monkey" Diana saw Alicia walking
towards them with Maisy.
"Fergus, move your butt over there" Emelda chased away a ten
years old kid who was chugging his juice box back to his
parents.? Alicia sat beside Emelda as Norvin leisurely laid on
Emelda's lap.
"Where's Noah and Andrews?" Diana looked at the way Alicia

came to find Noah and Andrews yet she didn't see them. Maisy
didn't look for empty seats as she hopped onto Diana's lap. The
little girl was so cute as Diana wrapped her hands around the little
teddy bear to cuddle.
"Andrews is down there"
By looking at the worried look on Alicia's face, they sighed. It

seemed like Andrews wasn't backing down from competing in the
tournament.
"Has he reached the Core Formation stage?" Emelda whispered

as Ethan leaned closer in his seat,
"Yes," Alicia said,
"Is he alright? If the committee has found something amiss with

his cultivation stage, we are toast" Ethan worried about Andrews.
The last time he met Andrews, he was still at Body Strengthening
stage level 3. Even Noah just reached the Core Formation stage
and Noah was a freak of nature.
"Noah took care of everything Uncle. Andrews is at the Core
Formation stage now, he will suffer no side effects as you may
think except for headache and feebleness for a couple of weeks"
"How did he do it?"
"I'll explain everything later Aunty" Alicia interjected Emelda's

question. She didn't want to explain everything to them while
people were watching them.
What Noah and she did was cheat. Although Noah wasn't happy
about this, he had to do it for the sake of his cousin.
"Is your brother with Andrews?" Diana asked,
"The correct question would be will he fight Andrews if push

comes to shove?"
Everyone was thinking about it but it was Norvin who spoke out
loud.
"It's gonna be a good show as your brother doesn't like to lose

and Andrews can't lose"
Alicia had no answer to give. She knew about her brother's

character. As far as she could guess, there was no chance he
would lose to Andrews intentionally. However, Noah made sure
Andrews had a high chance to win the tournament by striking a
deal with a Fusion Stage cultivator, Laila Alden.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
As they were whispering, three loud bell sounds reverberated the

arena. The muttering of the crowd was silenced down by the bells.
Soon, those who went to answer nature's call came rushing to
their seats.
"The break's over ladies and gentleman" Ishihara chuckled in her
melodious voice,
"Now it's time for the Core Formation stage participants to wow
us"
"Finally!"
"Yes!"
"Whoooohoooooo!"
Almost the entire arena erupted, letting out their thunderous

cheers. Compared to the Body Strengthening stage tournament,
the Core Formation tournament was the one everyone's more
hyped out for.
It was because there were many mini-tournaments and

competitions for Body Strengthening stage cultivators but this was
one of the very few tournaments there are for Core Formation
stage cultivators.
Celebrity disciples like Celina or Alex rarely appeared in public

events. Not these two but most of the Core Formation disciples
tend to stay within their sect or in seclusion.
The crowd constantly looked up towards the skies and the field
down eagerly to see the celebrity disciples.
As they were waiting eagerly, time slowly flowed by. Just as the
sun had reached the middle of the sky, from the distant horizon,
the clasp of thunder suddenly rumbled forth.
Just as the sound of wind rang out, everyone looked up in the

direction the sound came. Cultivators like Ethan could feel that all
Arch Energy surrounding the arena was now slowly gravitating
towards that direction.
In the sky, they saw a bright blue flash streaking through the skies
like a shooting star, descending from the heavens. The streak of
blue light tore through the sky like it was a piece of cloth. The
streak of light was at least twenty times brighter and bigger than
the bolts of golden lightning produced by the Lightning Dash spell.
When that blue flash appeared on the edges of the horizon,

everyone in the arena stared at it dumbstruck. Many people were
amazed by the display.
"That's a flashy entrance. I wonder who that might be?" The

commentators were no different than the onlookers. They too
looked at the sky with wide eyes.
Under the numerous curious gazes, the blue flash broke through
the skies at a ferocious speed. As the flash approached, the
crowd was shocked to discover that the blue flash was actually a
giant sword made purely out of Arch energy.
The sword flew at the speed of a jet, leaving a trail of blue light.
The closer the sword got to the arena, the louder the people heard
the whistling sound the sword produced.
While the giant sword was slowing down, the crowd's gazes
immediately fell on the figure standing atop the sword. Clothed in
silver armor matching his hair with his hands behind his back. His
shiny silver long hair drifted in the wind, he appeared to be
extremely calm and relaxed. A look that subdued many of the
competitors.
The set of armor he was wearing attracted the gazes like a

magnet. The armor was forged using a glimmering silver metal.
The smith who forged the armor used gold to adorn the borders.
The shoulder plates were pointy, quite narrow, and large. They
were decorated with a star-shaped, thick, metal ornament piece.
The upper arms were protected by rounded, half-covering

rerebraces which sat loosely under the shoulder plates. The lower
arms were covered by vambraces which have several masterfully
crafted metal sheets, shaped like dragon scales on the outer
sides.
The breastplate was made from many layers of smaller metal
pieces, mimicking the scales of a dragon. The armor covered him
from neck to feet, protecting every inch of his body.
Atop the sword, the youngster slightly tilted his head down as his
calm gaze swept over the arena below. He then withdrew his
gaze, because there was nothing worthy of his attention in that
place.
"Big brother Alex Fisher has arrived!"
Suddenly the fans of MorningStar cried out in joy, excitement, and

pride-filled their eyes,
"If I'm right, conjuring a sword that size would require an extreme
level of mastery in controlling Arch energy,"
"The level of mastery even the Soul Refining stage cultivators

lack" Darius said to James Hall.
Alicia's eyes stared unblinkingly at Alex Fisher, who stood atop the
sword while looking down at the arena. From the latter's gaze, she
could see how little Alex thought of people below, or perhaps, it
might be a type of disregard.
As annoyed as she was, she knew with his strength, he did seem
to possess the right to look down on people.
Based on Alex's composure alone, many could not help but admit
that he was indeed a rarely seen prodigy.
"What do you think of Alex's cultivation level guys?" Ishihara

asked while Alex was floating in the sky,
"Definitely higher than level 5" James Hall answered,
"My guess would be level 8" Darius shocked the crowd with his
answer. Reaching Core Formation level 8 at the age of 28 was a
humongous feat among humans.
"You always liked to make a flashy appearance, don't you Alex?"

While the crowd was in awe of Alex, a burst of hearty thunder-like
voice suddenly rumbled from the horizon. The crowd watched as
a golden ray streaked across the skies, radiating a powerful aura.
The golden light broke through the skies, causing the Arch energy
to surge, as it finally came to float in the horizon, transforming into
a huge golden spear that was a dozen meters long. Atop the
spear stood a figure in gold armor with blonde long hair that
draped over his shoulders. A domineering aura soared into the
skies as if it was a unique wild spear that towered over the land.
The youngster wore extravagant golden armor. The shoulders
were fairly oval, quite short and small in size, decorated with a
metal dragon wing on each side, curved to the sides.
The upper arms were protected by squared, half-covering

rerebraces which sit quite well under the shoulder plates. The
lower arms were covered by vambraces which have a row of
hook-like barbs attached to each outer side.
The chest plate was made from one large piece of metal but
crafted to mimic the appearance of muscles. The golden armor
looked sturdier than the armor Alex was wearing.
The crowd stared at the figure in gold standing atop the golden
spear, as envious looks were revealed on many of their faces but
none of them seemed to recognize the person as they did with
Alex.
"Who is that?"
"He seems just as powerful as Alex Fisher"
"I don't know, I have never seen him before"
"Let's wait for the commentators,im sure they will know who he is"
The crowd was thrown into confusion as the sound of people

murmuring among themselves grew louder and louder.
"Aren't you gonna wave at your brother Alicia?" Norvin asked,

looking at the youngster in the golden armor.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Points III
"That's your brother Peter?" Ethan raised his brows, he was

surprised. After engaging Alicia to Noah, the Winston family had
met everyone in the Stone family except Alicia's mysterious elder
brother. None of the Winston's met Peter except Noah until now.
Standing 6' 1" tall, Peter had smooth fair skin. If Alex was calm,
Peter radiated an aura of confidence around him. A particularly
notable feature was his perfect jawline. Coupled with his hazel
eyes, sharp eyebrows, and clean-shaven look, he looked
stunning. His medium-length golden hair danced in the wind,
raising many young girls' heartbeats.
"I never thought you would come here Peter" Unlike the people in
the arena, Alex knew who he was. In fact, Peter was one of the
few youngsters Alex respected and looked forward to battle.
"What can I say, boredom always gets the better of me" Peter
shrugged,
"Pretty good spear you have, is that an Epic weapon?"
Upon hearing these words, many of them gasped in shock. They

already knew that weapons, armors, and spells were divided into
five categories,
Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Alex's armor

belonged to the Rare class while Peter's spear belonged to the
Epic class. Even the three big sects had only a few Epic class
weapons. Alex heard rumors but seeing a rogue cultivator like
Peter having an Epic class weapon surprised him.
"Your brother has an Epic weapon" Ethan bitterly laughed in his
heart.
He couldn't help thinking about Ghost. He doubted his son had

ever gotten a chance to touch an Epic weapon. Although he
supported Andrews, deep down Ethan wanted his son to win the
tournament. What they did to Ghost was unforgivable yet Ethan
would do anything to win back Ghost's love. Since Noah was
born, Ethan provided Noah the best while his other son grew up
enduring hardships a child like him shouldn't have. Before Diana
dropped the news about his other son on him, Ethan used to
sleep. Nowadays, the nightmares kept him awake. Therefore, he
was cultivating with full focus to get stronger. He lost his son once
because of Skyhall but he would never let that happen again.
"We both know the class of the weapon doesn't matter" Peter
calmly said.
"It's the wielder of the weapon who does"
Just as Peter's words faded, yet another soft chuckle slowly

sounded out from the horizon. Soon after a flash of bright green
light swept over from the horizon. In a blink of an eye, a trail of
green light streaked across the sky.
When the green light filled the skies, the crowd swiftly cast their
gazes over, only to find a majestic eagle which was dozens of
meters large, it flapped its wings as it floated in the skies. An
extremely formidable aura swept forth from within the eagle.
A youngster wearing leather armor unlike Alex and Peter lightly

smiled as he stood atop the eagle. His face was bewitchingly
handsome, such that in terms of looks, even Peter was inferior.
He held a deep blue fan in his hand, as he slowly fanned himself
while giving off a graceful aura of nobility.
"Who is he?"
"The third son of Oswen Family"

After hearing Alicia's words, Ethan once again silently nodded his
head.
According to the rumors, House Kane and House Fisher were

trying to forge an alliance with House Oswen through marriage.
Ethan's sources were saying House Fisher is closer to sealing the
deal by marrying one of the heirs of Oswen to Alex. If the alliance
went through, House FIsher would become the strongest family in
Royal land. Coupled with Celina's family, House Fisher was on the
path of domination.
"That's a yellow beak King eagle" James Hall was stunned to see
such a majestic creature. Not only him, but most of the people
were also. Yellow Beak Eagles were almost as rare as dragons.
"Andrews's chance of winning getting less and less"
Alicia rolled her eyes, after seeing what Lailah could do, she really
doubted anyone had the chance to defeat Andrews, not her
brother, not anyone.
Every single spell in Andrews's arsenal was enhanced by Lailai's

Angel's veena which meant Andrews had the attack power of a
Fusion Stage cultivator. Alicia could feel Lailah is somewhere in
the arena, she didn't know where but she could feel her presence.
"Paul, to think that a busy guy like you would also join in the fun
here, heh, you've even bought your Oswen's pride, the yellow
beak king eagle," Alex as he shot a glance at Paul.
"I can spare a day or two. I'm pretty sure the marriage works won't
come to a halt without me" Paul waved the deep blue fan in his
hand and smiled slightly.
Alex had a sly grin while Peter seemed to care less about the
marriage between the two families. While these three were
floating in the air, many Core Formation participants made their
way towards the stage.
"Let's get this over with," Peter said, looking down on the stage to
see the stage was getting crowded.
"You go ahead, I still need to wait for one more person." Alex
casually smiled and said.
"Ah your girlfriend? Where is she?"
"Sorry I'm late"
As Paul's voice faded, a gentle voice suddenly sounded out

across the skies. That voice had a certain charm to it.
Immediately, an intoxicated look appeared in the eyes of several
people below.
"Such a beautiful girl!"
Many youths' minds were likewise momentarily dazed when the

spirited voice sounded out, however, they quickly regained their
senses, as amazement filled their eyes. Hastily lifting his head,
Ethan saw a golden light sweep across the skies from a distance
away before finally transforming into swirling chakra
Atop the golden chakra, was a wonderfully curved figure. Her

brown hair glimmered reflecting the sunlight as the red cap she
wore fluted in the wind. She wore armor that made her look both
formidable and sexy at the same time. Although her armor wasn't
revealing, there were still some places such as the neck, a small
portion of her shoulders left out by the armor, showing her smooth
silky skin.
She slowly floated towards Alex standing atop the chakra before
landing a gentle kiss on his cheek. Many became envious of Alex,
they wanted to be him at this moment. He had everything many
people yearned for, money, talent, a perfect angelic beauty as his
girlfriend. Even those who hate Alex couldn't help being jealous of
his life. With his arm wrapped around Celina's slim waist, he
moved towards the stage.
"It's gonna be worth the wait to see these monstrous youngsters

fight to prove who is the best among them" James Hall laughed
with excitement.
"Just like before, follow the instructions given by the coordinators
and you're good to go" Darius informed the Core Formation stage
youngsters.
Anyone of the participants could have touched the mirror while

Alex's group descended to the stage yet they waited for the four of
them.
"Ladies first" Alex gestured at Celina to touch the mirror standing

a meter in front of the mirror. Every pair of eyes in the arena
stared at them without blinking. Even the commenters went silent
as they found no words to speak due to the excitement building in
their heart.
With a graceful move, Celina placed her hand on the mirror. The
moment her hand touched the mirror, the mirror trembled more
than it ever trembled before. Half of the pillar lit up like a
Christmas tree, the green glow the pillar radiated lit up half the
stage. It was so much brighter than Victoria's or even Sabrina's.
"Core Formation stage level 5, amazing"? Ishihara let out a squeal

of amazement before even the coordinators could confirm Celina's
cultivation level.
"Reaching level 5 of the Core Formation stage at the age of 26 is

nothing but a world wowing achievement" James Hall announced
as the crowd was thrown into chaos. Several gasping sounds
could be heard in the arena as they stared at Celina with widened
eyes.
While they were in a state of shock, Alex placed his palm on the
mirror, immediately lighting up the pillar up to 7th stone.? Even
Alicia was stunned by Alex's cultivation level and the bright glow
the stones radiated.
"Core Formation stage level 7, this is freaking me out guys"

James Hall connected,
"It seems like we have prodigies that could go to head to head

with prodigies of Awor" Darius sounded proud,
"Truth to be told guys, I've never seen anyone reach the level
there two youngsters reach until they were way past 30," Ishihara
said,
"That's why I said this tournament is something special. Let's see

what this youngster could do" James Hall talked looking at Peter
walking towards the mirror.
Alicia leaned forward to witness her brother's cultivation level. She

was pretty, he's at the level of Alex despite her brother always
liked to keep everything to himself. More than anything, he loved
the privacy. Because of his habit, he even avoided attending her
engagement.
The moment Peter's hand touched the mirror, the pillar lit up to the
6th stone, and never seen before, half of the 7th stone glowed
dimly. Up to the 6th stone though, the pillar shone just as brighter
as when Alex touched the mirror.
"Whoa Alicia, your brother is a prodigy too?" Emelda's brows

arched up,
Everyone kinda expected Alex to amaze them but they never

even heard about Peter before. Hence when Peter showed his
cultivation power through the pillar, it stirred more commotion than
before.
Alex knew although Peter fell one level lower than him, the armor
and the spear in Peter's hand would make up for the difference.
After Celina, Alex and Peter, the other participants waited for Paul.
Like the others before Paul too stunned the audience with his
Core Formation stage level 6 cultivation level.
"Do you see him anywhere?" Ethan started to lose his patience as
he asked, whispering in Diana's ear.
"No but he will come, just be patient for a little longer" Diana
began to fear something might have happened to him. The threat
of reapers was still lingering above Ghost's head like a dark cloud
after all.
One by one the Core Formation participants prove their cultivation
level to the people. None of the participants touched the mirror
after the initial four impressed the crowd as the first four did.
"Is this gonna demotivate the other participants? I mean after the
first four, no one has crossed Core Formation level 4. Can it affect
the mindset of the participants in any way?"
"Well, it shouldn't. The tournament is designed to give all

participants at the Body Strengthening stage and Core Formation
stage a fair chance despite the level differences"
"Another Core Formation level 3" Ishihara announced as Darius

continued,
"The first two rounds test someone's combat skills, the

participants are prohibited to use Arch energy. So even if you are
a level 10 warrior, if you solely depend on your spells and not on
your combat skills, you will be eliminated"
**********************************
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Christmas is a season of enjoying the simple things that make life

beautiful. May you have great memories that will permanently
touch your heart. I wish you so much joy during this season and
all through to the New Year
Michael will make his appearance in the next chapter. These

chapters are longer than what I usually write because I didnt want
you to spend your time and coins reading chapters with no MC.
But it will be worth the wait trust me
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Points IV
An hour and a half passed by in a blink of an eye. Even though

nothing interesting happened, the audience was on the edge of
their seats looking at the participants touch the mirrors one by
one. Some of them betted whether or not someone would cross
Alex's cultivation level. Among one of those who touched the
mirror was Andrews. He didn't draw much attention to himself as
he was only at the Core Formation level 2. Many tried to establish
a friendship with Andrews because of his family status yet
Andrews politely ignored them with a smile before joining Sabrina
who was standing on the grass field with the rest of the Body
Strengthening participants. They were watching what's happening
on the stage via the large mirror attached to high poles around the
arena.
Except for the pavilion where the Sunrise sect disciples and the
river town people were sitting, the others poured their excitement
out by waving the boards that had their favorite participant's name
on, screaming chants, and clapping their hands, producing
thunderous sounds.
Ethan was shaking his legs, looking at the sky as well as the
pavilion of the Sunrise sect.
"Uncle, are you alright?" Seeing Ethan's act differently than usual,
Alicia asked,
"Yeah, I'm fine, are you alright?" Ethan quickly avoided her gaze,
answering Alicia's question with a question.
"The last participant is walking towards the mirror, let's see if he

could surpass either of the first four"
Diana's body jerked after hearing Ishihara, she turned her gaze
towards the horizon as she started to pray for her son to appear.
"Core Formation level 3. Don't be discouraged participants, as

Darius said, the tournament is designed to give everyone a fair
chance"
"Being on that stage proves your talent and value. Now let's move
onto inviting the special guests" As Ishihara said, she flicked her
wrist as a thunderous clap reverberated through the arena. It
immediately silenced all the ruckus,
The grass field behind the commentators' pills once again split
open as a lavish stage draped in red silk clothes emerged from
the ground. The stage had several ornated cushion seats that
would make the seats of VIPs pale in comparison.
Soon after the stage emerged from the ground, several figures
along with two golden chariots appeared on the horizon. The
pegasi attached to the chariots flapped their wings majestically.
Among the figures surrounding the chariots, half of them wore full
plate metal armor while the rest of them wore muddy brown
leather armor with long staffs in their hands. The metal armor the
figures wore was milky white with delicate designs etched onto it.
"Let us give our warm welcome to His Majesty, King of Bredia,

Crawford Bredia the third"
"And Her Royal Highness, Princess of Bredia, Katherine Bredia"

As Ishihara and James Hall announced respectively, the chariot
came to a halt adjacent to the stage. The people stared at the two
figures gracefully stepping on the stage from the chariot.
King Crawford was neither too tall nor short, he was a medium-
built middle-aged man with a black goatee that had patches of
white hair. His hair was cropped to neck length, perhaps it was his
age, or perhaps it was the pressure of ruling a kingdom, streaks of
white hair sticking out of his raven black hair. He wore a well-
embellished red tunic with goldwork thread as a basic dress. On
top of it was a surcoat that depicted the emblem of the Bredia
family.? His dress was made with the finest silk, fur, and other
expensive materials such as animal furs. In his hand, he held a
scepter that was decorated with precious shiny gems and
diamonds. It was decorated just as the king's crown was. The
sword hanging on his waist gave off a warrior feeling about the
king.
The princess also wore a red skirt made of finest silk and fur.
From neck to toe, the dress was ornate with pearls, specks of
gold, and tiny gems. Her golden hair was draped with a diamond
chair. She wasn't as beautiful as Celina, Alicia, or Sabrina by any
means but she had a grace that the above three did not have. Of
course, coupled with her grace, she would make any man yearn
for her attention, even for a single glance from her.
"Hail King Bredia!"
"Hail Princess!"
"Long live the King!"
"Long live the Princess"
Since life in Bredia wasn't dreadful, the people, especially the

commoners didn't mind showing their support for the king and
princess by cheering for them. Both the Princess and the King
gracefully waved their hands at the crows as the cheers became
louder than before. The thunderous response put a slight smile on
the King's face.
Following the King's chariot, the other one also came to a halt
adjacent to the stage. One after another, three figures stepped
onto the stage from the chariot. One of them was a blue-haired
youngster in his teens, he had a feminine feel to him due to his
gait and the makeup he wore. His robes glimmered while the
designs of flames made him look like he's on fire.
"It's an honor to welcome the representative of Kingdom Thusia,

Lord Calvin Howard, the second cousin of His Majesty, King of
Thusia, Maxim Barnes"? Calvin waved his hand at the people with
a giggle.
After Calvin, a middle-aged man in his early forties wearing lavish
bright orange robes that were adorned with glistening gems and
diamonds.
"The tournament committee thank you, Your Grace, Duke of

Flamefair of Kingdom Kethen, Avon Gilkes for representing
Kingdom Kethen on the behalf of His Majesty, King of Kethen,
Porter Forbes" Duke Avon was a red-haired man in his early
forties. The scar running across his left left eye to upper lip gave
him a villainous look.Instead of wearing an eye patch to cover his
left eye, he chose to show his white eye. With his red hair flutter in
the wind, he just nodded at the commentators before standing
beside Calvin.
"What's that bastard doing here?" Ethan clenched his fist, almost
punching the seat's handle. For the last six months, the duchy of
Pentown and the duchy of Flamefair were at war. It has caused
them thousands of lives. Duke Marvin of Pen town was prepared
for peace talks except Duke Avon was adamant about continuing
the war. As the duke was standing here, there were soldiers dying
at the border.
The third and the last figure that stepped onto the stage was a
muscular macho man with a handlebar mustache. Despite his
simple robes and tousled hair, he had a swagger that none of
them in the arena had. Evan Ethan paled in manliness compared
to the man.
"It's an honor to welcome you, Lord Ashton Kane of Kane Family"

when addressing Ashton, Darius sounded so humble as he never
did before.
"It's really an honor to have you with us, Lord Ashton. Only on
days like this, we can see a Fusion Stage cultivator with our eyes,
it's truly a blessing" James didn't sound like he was just saying
these words to butter up Ashton but really seemed to be talking
from his heart. His reaction was expected because seeing a
Fusion Stage cultivator was once in a lifetime opportunity for most
of the cultivators unless they were at the Fusion Stage
themselves.
"The pleasure is all mine" Ashton's voice was amplified by his
Celestial Energy as it sounded clearer and louder than the voice
of the commentators. The voice swept over the entire arena like a
tsunami wave, giving them goosebumps.
Except for Alex and Peter, all the youngsters looked at Ashton
with eyes full of admiration. After shaking each other's hands, the
guests took their seats.
"Shall we start the first round for the Body Strengthening stage
participants?" The crowd yet again let out thunderous shouts of
excitement except the fans of Ghost.
"Look over there!" suddenly the entire pavilion jumped up from

their seats pointing at the horizon. Their shouts overshadowed the
others' cheers as everyone in the arena looked at the horizon.
With a flick of his wrist, Ashton changed the scenery of the stage
showing on the mirrors hung around the arena to broadcast the
battles happening on the stage.
The moment Ashton changed the broadcast, the people saw a

majestic crimson red dragon flying towards the arena. On top of
the arena, they saw a young man leisurely lying down, legs
crossed at knees. He had one hand behind his head while holding
a book in front of him in the other.
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
Never like before, an entire pavilion shouted the name 'Ghost' in

unison. It was the loudest cheer no one until now received, not
Alex, not Celina, and not even the king of Bredia himself. Every
other disciple had their sect brothers and sisters as their fans,
they were just fans. but only Michael had the sect and an entire
town as worshippers. The atmosphere of the arena made
everyone feel goosebumps over their bodies.
None of the people in the arena blinked their eyes as they stared
at the mirror and the dragon approaching the arena. His entrance
was not as flashy as Alex, Celina, or Peter but coupled with the
thunderous response he got from the sunrise sect, river town, and
the coolness of his posture
turned his entrance into a badass one.
When the dragon reached the sky directly above the stage filled
with Core Formation participants, instead of descending, it flapped
its wings before flying straight up. Michael slowly slid down due to
the gravity and in a few moments, he was dropping down. His
black coat fluttered wildly in the air while Michael calmly closed
the book in his hand in the mid-air before putting it into his space
ring.
The people were staring at his fall with their mouths wide open.
He was still falling when Michael retrieved his two swords from the
system storage. Everyone expected him to sheath his sword in
the mid-air but to their surprise, he threw the sword into the sky
above him.
His falling speed increased with each passing second as he

soared down the air like a black meteor.? People moved their
heads down seeing him getting closer and closer to the stage.
The participants occupying the center of the stage quickly moved
away to make way for him to land. In a few blinks of an eye,
Michael landed on the stage like superman.
Inside Michael's head, the sound of badass point notification kept

rigging like crazy as he willed the system to mute the sound. It
was raining badass points. He stood up giving a little shake to
correct his long coat.
Swoosh!
Swoosh!
Just as he stood up, the two swords he threw in the air flew
straight down leaving a trail of sparks in their way. Many gasped in
shock when they saw the two swords going straight into the
sheathes on Michael's back. It was unbelievable in their eyes.
Even those who weren't a fan of Ghost couldn't help cheering. At
the moment, almost 80% of the people in the arena were letting
out thunderous cheers and the remaining were too stunned to
open their mouths.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 339 - Everyone’s A
Badass Until Michael Comes
Under the thunderous cheers of his fans, Michael made his way
towards a mirror. The commentators remained speechless letting
the crowd cheer as loud as they could. They didn't need to
introduce him, the fans did that task for them.
Coincidently Alex and Celina were standing beside the mirror

while Peter was a few meters ahead of the mirror Michael was
walking towards. Peter had an indifferent look on his face. Michael
ignored the gazes on him.
"Honestly I never expected to see a 5-star Alchemist here," James

Hall said after being silent for some time,
"Yeah, the Alchemists I know are pretty focused on the upcoming?

Alchemy championship and none of them are here to participate
in a tournament for warriors," Ishihara said while Michael was
walking towards the mirror. The cheers were still going thunderous
yet the commentators' voices reached everyones' ears with the
help of special runes crystal clear.
Despite being late, Michael wasn't in a rush to get his cultivation

tested. Thanks to the Spyder on Cindy's neck, he had seen
everything and was ready to rock the arena.
Standing a meter away from the mirror, Michael saw Celina coldly
looking at him. Alex seemed surprised but he hid his expression
well putting an indifferent look on his face like Peter.
"I will make you pay"
Before Michael could touch the mirror, Celina coldly said. Only
those standing near them heard her voice only to be startled by
her threat.
They stared at Michael with wide eyes wondering what he did to

deserve Celina's threat.
"Are you sure?" Michael snickered as he put his hand on the

mirror. The moment he put his hand on the mirror, the entire arena
stopped cheering, the excitement prevented them from uttering a
word.
Ssssshhhhhhh!
Unlike never before, the mirror Michael touched violently

trembled. Those who stood closer to the mirror even heard the
mirror producing a faint whistling noise.
The coordinates immediately grabbed the mirror by its both sides

to keep it still as the entire pillar beside the mirror lit up like a
Christmas tree. There wasn't a single spot that didn't glow in the
pillar, from top to bottom, the pillar radiated bright sparkling green
light.
"Oh my god!"
"It can't be!"
"Level 10"
Several gasps could be heard in the arena. In the VIP area, Ethan
stared at Michael without even batting an eye. He felt a cocktail of
emotions surging from deep within, joy, sorrow, pride, self-blame,
and shame.
"That is my son," Ethan mumbled under his breath. The teensy bit
doubt he had about Ghost not being his son was wiped away from
his mind when he saw him. Ghost looked exactly like Diana when
she was Harriet Hunt. The black dress, two black swords, the
swag, the attitude, everything about Ghost reminded him of
Harriet Hunt.
"Core Formation level 10, guys are you seeing this?!" Ishihara
almost shouted in shock,
No one remained calm or indifferent looking at the glowing pillar.

The badass points were rapidly increasing, crossing 300,000
points.
Ashton's lips curved upwards as he knew the odds of Alex getting

killed by Michael's hands just increased out of bonds. The King on
the other hand slightly leaned forward, focusing all his attention on
Ghost.
"If my guess is right, he can break through to the Core

Strengthening stage anytime he wants" Darius's words sent a
wave of shock to everyone's minds. Reaching Core Formation
level 7 at the age of 27 was a humongous thing in their minds.
Hence, they couldn't even believe what they were looking at.
"How old is he?" James Hall's eyes opened as wide as they

possibly could. His eyes looked like they were about to jump out
of the sockets.
Whoosh!
As James Hall's question made everyone wonder about Michael's

age, Nightmare came straight down soaring through the sky.
Nightmare shrunk his size before letting out his dragon breath up
in the sky. Everyone became agitated seeing the dragon breathe
as the soldiers on the king's stage immediately stepped forward to
protect the king.
Soon, Nightmare's dragon flame formed the number 21 in the sky.
"Do you think the dragon is answering my question?" James Hall

asked,
"I think so, let's ask his sect leader herself" Ishihara moved her
gaze from the flaming 21 from the sky to Claire who was joyfully
clapping her hands. No one would believe Claire but she really
thought Ghost would be stronger than Alex or any other prodigies
in the arena because she knew him more than anyone here
knows him. In her mind, he was the number one, not Alex, nor
Celina.
The disciples turned their gazes at CLaire after hearing Ishihara's

question. Every pair of eyes fell on Claire, expecting her answer.
"Yes, he is" Claire amplified her voice with Arch energy to sound
louder and clearer.? With a flap of his wings, Nightmare soared
towards Claire, shrinking his size more and more.
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
The people of river town and the disciples shouted as loud as they
could. When Michael saluted at the pavilion with two fingers, the
crowd went crazy. His alluring smile broadcasted on the mirror
captivated hundreds of young hearts.
Standing on the field down the stage, Sabrina was clapping to

show her support. She never thought she would be amazed like
this by someone who isn't her sibling. Contrary to Sabrina's
expression, Andrews lost all the glow on his face. His heart
skipped a beat as he started to sweat. Although he had a Fusion
stage cultivator helping him win the tournament, he couldn't help
being afraid of Ghost. Even Noah advised him to be careful if he
had to fight Ghost head to head.
"He's really good" in one of the VIP pavilions, Peyton and Xanali
were looking at the stage. Peyton didn't like Ghost very much as
he was the first one to reject an invitation to join Guardian Guild
yet even she praised him.
"Reaching Core Formation level 10 at the age of 21, this should

be written on history" Ishihara praised,
"I could only think of two persons who managed to reach this level
at the age of 21, one is a prodigy of Awor continent, Harriet Hunt ''
the name sent a chill running through Emelda's spine. The name
Harriet Hunt had brought them enough pain, she never wanted to
hear the name again. Being Harriet Hunt had caused Diana a
lifetime of pain, Emelda knew this better than anyone. Moreover,
the name brought back the memories Emelda wanted to forget
completely. The images of what happened 21 years ago flashed
across her eyes. Diana thought she knew what happened but in
reality, only Emelda knew what really happened all those years
ago.
She was afraid of telling Diana because she didn't want Diana to
feel betrayed by her own sister.
"And the other is Lailah Alden, the wielder of Angel's veena '' just
like the name Harriet Hunt depraved the delight from Emelda's
heart, the name Lailah Alden messed with Michael's joy in his
heart. Every time Michael thought about Lailah, the possibility of
him having a spirit child with her and her intention of killing him
flashed across his mind.
"These are all great kids, talented prodigies. But he has the best
chance of entering the Fusion stage at the age of 40" Darius said
to his fellow commentators. Michael liked the refreshment of the
commentators flattering him.
It helped him earn more badass points. He hoped their voice

would be muted during battle though. The pillar slowly lost its glow
after Michael took back his hand.
Finally, the coordinators could let go of the mirror as it stopped

trembling. Michael looked at Alex and Celina with a smile on his
face. No one saw the meaning of his smile or the real intention
behind it. Only Alex could feel the murderous glow in his eyes.
Until this moment, Alex wasn't afraid of Ghost. However, after
seeing his power and the murderous glim in his eyes, he started
to feel afraid deep inside.
He turned back to move away from the mirror. While he was

walking away, his eyes met with Peter. For a brief moment, Peter
saw a smile on Michael's face that sent a chill through his spine
for no reason. It felt like Ghost knew his secret that he's been
hiding from everyone else.
"I think that's the last of the Core Formation participants guys,"
Ishihara said,
"Let's have a short break before starting the first round of Body
Strengthening stage championship" James Hall informed,
"Meanwhile the Core Formation participants can join your sects or

families and enjoy the show"
After Darius spoke the words, the three commentators stood up

and left their pill. With a swift jump, Michael leaped into the sky,
slowly flying towards the pavilion Claire was sitting on. Since he
had almost 400,000 badass points, he decided to upgrade his
spells before the battle began.
Most of the Core Formation participants were rushing to their

mentors to form a plan against Ghost, including Paul. Up until
Michael showed his cultivation level, the biggest threat for anyone
winning the championship was Alex and Celina. Then they added
Paul and Peter to that list. However, they all paled in comparison
after Michael came into the picture.
The biggest threat to every single one of them was Ghost.
Meanwhile, on the stage, King of Bredia leaned closer to Lord

Ashton
"Lord Ashton, what do you think of Ghost? Do you think he will win
this tournament?"? the king asked in a husky voice,
Lord Ashton knew everything about the King's plan to marry the
princess to the winner although the king himself planned to keep it
a secret until the end. However, Lord Ashton pretended like he
don't know anything about the king's plan,
"Unless they participants gang up on him during the first two

rounds and eliminate Ghost, he will win the championship without
breaking a sweat"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 340 - Gaya’s True
Form
Time flew differently in the fire realm than in the rest of the world.
Gaya lost track of time while moving towards the Fire Realm's
center. She grew tired of killing the fire demons and beasts
roaming in the realm, especially the three-headed black crows.
The Three-Headed Crows were abundant in the Fire Realm. They

had very powerful combat strength and abilities that few people
could guard against. A level 2 Core Formation Three-Headed
Crow was more than enough to fight a level 6 Core Formation
human warrior. However, since its opponent was Gaya, it couldn't
exercise all the advantages it had. Usually, they would use their
speed to hunt their prey. In Gaya's case, her arrows were faster
than the crow. The only thing that stopped her from massacring
every beast and crow in her path was that she had only a finite
number of arrows.
Hence she fought some while fleeing from many though she could
have easily killed them all. She didn't forget to get the cores after
killing them as she wanted to give them to Michael.
Caw…
"Look another one"
Noticing another three headed crow chasing them from behind,

Ayag warned Gaya. At first, when she brought Vedora with her,
she thought they might become a hindrance but she was proven
wrong. They were great companions, best lookouts, more than
anything, they cared about her, just like Michael or Nightmare. Of
course, each of the three had their own way of showing their
affection but Gaya knew deep down they loved her.
"Let's move our asses before it brings more of its ugly friends"
Gaya fastened her pace,
"Kill it, it's calling its friends!" Ayag shouted loudly,
"Yes you have to kill it" Cain did not shout, he was calm as usual.
Caw…
The crow shouted out loudly again.
"Fuck this" Gaya halted her steps as the bow materialized in her
hand. In a blink of an eye, she fired an arrow from her bow that
soared through the air and pierced the crow's heart. Unlike before,
she didn't linger around for the crow to hit the ground so she could
collect the core. She immediately fled the place because she
knew the crow's group wouldn't be very far.
A flock of Three-Headed Crows was really frightening. They were

incredibly fast, and they were extremely difficult to kill. Gaya could
fight one or two but if the flock of 8 or 9 came, her life would really
be in danger.
They had no idea how many Three-Headed Crows lived in this

area. The entire woods was probably their territory. Also, these
Three-Headed Crows were actually calling for their mates. If all of
a sudden more than a hundred, or even a thousand Three-
Headed Crows would storm in, she would have a hard time
dealing with the situation.
Besides, she still had no clue about how dangerous Fire Realm
truly was. If there was even Core Strengthening stage level 8 or 9
Three Headed Crow among the herd, there was no chance of her
defeating that thing. Therefore, the best strategy right now was to
run away from here.
After she had fled a small distance from the scene, they heard
some distant cries coming out. All of a sudden, the skies above
were filled with Three Headed Crows. All of them flapped their
wings and started crazily chasing Gaya. The leading Three-
Headed Crow had a gigantic body and was at least 15 meters tall,
and its cultivation base was as Gaya feared, Core Strengthening
stage level 2.
"Oh my god!"
Ayag exclaimed, "So many Crows, good thing we ran away"
"Save your breath and increase your speed! These Crows really
live in a group, I think there are more of them." Cain warned Gaya.
Gaya pushed all the Arch energy to her legs to run as fast as she
could. Instead of flying, she used the woods as her cover. Even
then, the Crow seemed to have sensed Gaya's presence.
"Why do I feel like he's chasing us?" Ayag asked.
"I don't think he will chase us forever. As long as the group stays
behind we'll be fine."
She learned to be calm from Michael. Just like him, she wanted to
take any tense situation calmly without overreacting. The last time
she lost control of her anger, it almost drove her to the point she
fought Ghost.
Ayag kept cursing as she was staring at the crow from Gaya's
shoulder. Ayag felt shameful to run away from an ugly crow like
that. Compared to Cain or Sarba, she took more pride in being a
Hydra, an otherworldly being. Unlike the Core Formation crows,
the Core Strengthening stage crow was incredibly fast, and it was
only because they left the area sooner they were able to run away
from the crow.
The Three-Headed Crow kept chasing while letting out furious

roars. Its eyes were fierce, and it kept spitting black poisonous
mist from its mouth which took the shape of a sword and pierced
towards Gaya. However, the canopy above Gaya blocked the
swords.
"Hmph! Keep pissing me off, once we are far away from your ugly
friends, I'm gonna rip you apart" Gaya gritted her teeth.
"You want to kill it?"

Ayag was surprised. She had never seen Gaya battle a Core
Strengthening stage beast before. Unlike Nightmare or Ghost,
Vedora only had little idea about her combat prowess.
"Yeah the power gap between a Core Formation stage and Core
Strengthening stage is huge but that doesn't mean Core
Formation warrior can't beat the latter ever. With good plan and
strategy, we can kill this damn crow"
She had a meticulous mind when it comes to battle because of

her years of adventuring and battle experience. Even when she
was in the middle of a fight, she could easily get hold of her and
his enemy's advantages and disadvantages and come out with a
plan to win the fight. Just like Michael, she never fought a battle
where she is uncertain about the outcome.
Caw!
The Three-Headed Crow kept letting out furious roars. It was

furious as it kept attacking from behind. The powerful energy
coming from his body had scared off a lot of nearby Glass Wraiths
and fire demons.
As for the group of Three-Headed Crows, they were ditched far

behind, and couldn't be seen anymore.
"I don't think he will stop chasing us unless we kill him," Sarba
said.
"Just let it come, we'll show him that he just made the biggest
mistake of his ugly life" A grin emerged on Ayag's face.
Fire Realm was a really huge place. They ran another 100 miles,
yet they were still in the same desolated area.
Gaya estimated that the huge group of Three Headed Crows

wouldn't catch up anytime soon, or they might have even stopped
pursuing. So, she stopped and stood firmly. As long as the Core
Strengthening stage crow was far away from the Three-Headed
Crows' territory, she felt safe.
The Three Headed Crow became startled upon seeing that the
human had stopped fleeing. In its mind, a human should have
kept running for their lives, it was really abnormal for her to
suddenly stop, as it meant death.
Caw!
Nonetheless, the Crow didn't care so much. It dived down through

the canopy towards Gaya to kill her with a single stab with its
beak.
"You three, stay here" Gaya gently picked up Vedora from her
shoulder to put them high on a branch.
"Hey you have an attack plan?" Sarba asked as the crow got
closer and closer.
"I have a plan" Gaya turned back putting her bow back inside her
space ring. She looked up at the falling leaves and broken
branches,
"Attack"
She unleashed her energy as countless golden specks of light

enveloped her body completely, causing the air to tremble and
ripples to spread across the scene. The bright light made Vedora
close its eyes for a brief moment. When they opened their eyes,
there was a gigantic 8 feet tall 10ft long snake standing in front of
them where they saw Gaya a moment ago. The snake was
covered in shiny dark purple scales. It was Gaya's real form, the
Naga form that resembled a cobra.
"Poison cloud!" Gaya hissed, a voice remained the same despite

her transformation. A thick jade green mist of poison came
rushing out of her mouth. In a few seconds, the green cloud of
smoke enveloped the woods before Gaya.
Boom!
Finally, the crow landed just a few meters away from Gaya.
However' its eyes went wide in shock seeing her full form. Due to
the branches hitting the crow's eyes while it was flying through the
canopy, it didn't see her transform or release poisonous clouds.
The poison had already gone into the crow's body when it inhaled
the air.
Caw!
Caw!
The crow tried to call its friends but all that came out of its mouth
was rough coughs. Gaya immediately slithered towards the crow.
Although Gaya was fast, the crow still managed to react to her
moves despite the poison spreading in its body.
However, it was not the open sky for the crow to fly around freely.
The canopy and the thick woods restricted its movements but for
Gaya, the surroundings were an advantage compared to the crow.
"Look out!" Ayag couldn't help shouting when the crow tried to
attack Gaya's eyes using its claws.
Boom!
Suddenly a powerful blast of sonic wave hit the crow. It wasn't

powerful enough to knock down the crow but it was powerful
enough to blast every single feather the black crow had. In a blink
of an eye, the crow turned into a featherless rosy bird. Gaya was
stunned yet she avoided turning back at Vedora.
Caw!
The crow was pissed off as it let out an eardrum tearing shout.
"Poison flame"
Before it could shout again, Gaya spat a stream of dark-green

flame through her mouth. The fire shot straight into the crow's
eyes as Gaya's fangs grew larger.
In the speed of lightning flash, she bit the crow in the skin just
above its wings. Since the crow didn't have any feathers, her
fangs penetrated the crow's skin without any resistance.
"I guess I have some awesome powers" As the light in the crow
was slowly dimming out, Ayag said to her two brothers excitedly.
******************************
Michael chapter next
Michael chapter - M
Gaya Chapter - G
And Do you guys and gals want me to release? M G M G M G

(one Michael chapter then Gaya then Michael)
or M M M M M G G G G G
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 341 - Scars Of The
Past
Michael landed on the pavilion where the river town people and
disciples were cheering excitedly for him. In the front two seats,
he saw Claire and the Elders were clapping with bright smiles on
their faces. Even the usually calm and composed Elder Sandra
was greeting him with a wide grin.
"Brother Ghost!"
"You are at level 10?!"
"Brother Ghost, you're so awesome!"
"The other sects are gonna be so pissed hahahaha"
The disciples were too excited, not a single disciple remained in

their seats. All of them were jumping up and down waving the
name boards with Ghost's name on it in the air.
"Brother come here come here" Cindy called him, sitting on

Claire's lap. On Claire's right side, the elders remained seated
while on her left, there was an empty seat reserved for Nightmare.
Next to Nightmare's seat sat Olivia, Ricky, and several disciples
who were in the sect longer than anyone else, the seniors.
Seeing Michael approaching, Nightmare flapped his wing to

launch himself in the air.
"Let me get that Master Ghost" Ricky quickly came to him and
removed Michael's dual sword sheath so Michael could
comfortably rest on the chair until the first round for Core
Formation warriors starts.
"Thank You Ricky," Michael said after giving his swords to Ricky.
He then made his way to the seat.
"Teacher, are you even a human?" When Micheal sat, Olivia

asked.
Instead of answering, he just gave her a smile.
"What took you so long?" Claire's voice was mixed with giggles
and concern.
"I came here as soon as I wanted to. Did I miss anything

interesting?"
"It depends on what you call an interesting teacher" Olivia looked

at the stage where the guests were sitting on an elevated stage
on the field. Michael immediately recognized Lord Ashton. Both
Michael and Ashton locked their eyes, without uttering a word,
each of them just nodded, wordlessly reminding them about their
agreement.
"Who are they?" Except for Asthon Michael didn't recognize the
others.
"That's His Majesty King Bredia and Her Royal Highness Princess
Katherine," Olivia said in a low voice looking at the king and the
princess.
Then she turned her gaze at the red haired man,
"Sitting right to the king is His Grace Duke of Flamefair, Avon"
Michael took a long look at the man. He was on Lucifer's hit list
because of the slave mines. After seeing the state of Aria's two
brothers, he wanted to know what kind of experiments they were
doing in the slave mines. Unfortunately, the place was too
dangerous for Michael to infiltrate at that time and he had too
many things on his plate. If a normal being suffered what Aria's
brothers suffered, they would have died but something kept them
alive, Michael was curious to find out more about it.
It wouldn't take a genius to figure out Duke Avon has a hand in the
slave mine operations. Michael wasn't looking to play good
samaritan by cleaning up the slave mines but had a gut feeling
that the slave mines might give him something useful.
"That man with a mustache is Lord Ashton, he's an Elder of the

Kane family. A frickin Fusion stage cultivator" He could feel the
shock in her heart through her voice.
"Oh?" Michael pretended to be surprised,
"Who is that blue hair?" Michael quickly asked before Olivia went
into details about Ashton because she seemed like she had a lot
to talk about Ashton and Fusion stage.
"Lord Calvin, he's here representing Kingdom Thusia" the moment

Michael heard the word Thusia, he gritted his teeth. A sudden
explosion of anger erupted in his heart like a boiling volcano. The
flashes of the sanctuary burning, Abras's life, the smiles of the
elders, the good memories, the betrayal of the princess,
everything flashed across his eyes.
For the first time in a long time, Michael sweated because of

anger. He had a difficult time controlling his anger. Since the soul
piece of Abras's had merged more with Michael's part, the pain he
experienced was so intense. In his mind, he didn't feel like
someone else was betrayed but himself.
"Teacher, are you alright?" Olivia noticed Michael sweating and

shivering,
"Brother"
"Ghost"
Cindy and Claire turned their concerned gazes at Michael,
"Yeah, it's just I'm feeling hot" Michael wiped the sweat off of his
forehead with his hand,
"Do you need something teacher?"

"No" Michael's voice turned cold as it sent a chill running through
Olvia's spine. Claire and Nightmare who was sitting on Claire's lap
with Cindy could literally feel a sudden coldness around them.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Michael's train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by the loud

bell sounds. He took the gaze away from Calvin to see a
translucent red chakra rotating above the battle stage. Since the
coordinators had already taken the pillars and mirrors, the stage
was empty.
"This year, the two tournaments will be conducted parallel instead

of one after another. That means, after finishing one round of the
Body Strengthening stage tournament, the round for Core
Formation will start, so on and so forth" James Hall's voice
reverberated through the arena.
"The first round of the Body Strengthening stage will now begin.
The competitors please step onto the stage"
Michael saw youngsters in various armors jump onto the stage

one by one and group by group. It took only a few more minutes
before the stage got crowded with youngsters. Following the
youngsters, a couple of coordinators arrived on the stage,
"Please stay still" the coordinators' voice too had the same volume
as the commentators so everything heard them loud and clear.
No one dared to act otherwise after hearing the coordinators'

instructions. They remained still as the chakra above them started
to glow brighter and brighter before several orbs of red, green,
yellow, and blue flew down from the chakra to the participants.
The four colors of orbs of lights landed on each participants' body.

In a blink of an eye, a thin layer of light enveloped the participants'
bodies. Some of them had a blue layer, some of them had green,
the rest of them had yellow and red.
"If you are wondering or counting still, there are 25 participants

covered in each color. Those who have the same color layer
would battle to be qualified for the next round" Ishihara explained,
"The rules of the first round are simple, you just need to eliminate
the other participants by knocking them out or throwing them out
of the battle stage. The last remaining 10 will be qualified for the
next round. Each elimination will earn you a point that will be used
in the later rounds to rank you and save you from elimination"
Darius explained the rules to the participants as well as the
audience. Those who attend the championship tournaments were
familiar with the rules yet the commentators would explain the
rules for people like Michael who never witnessed a tournament
before.
"And when the round begins, your Arch energy will be blocked by
the chakra above you, making you temporarily lose your
cultivation power. As mentioned before, this round is designed to
test your combat prowess without Arch energy. You are also
prohibited to take any kind of potions or pills during the battle.
Taking alchemy drugs will result in disqualification and banned
from participating in any tournaments that will take place in Elon in
your future" Darius's words immediately caused a commotion
among the participants as well as the crowd.
Michael frowned after listening to Darius. He was expecting him to

talk about the armor the participants were wearing yet Darius
didn't seem to have anything to talk about armors. He tried to
sound like the committee wants the tournament to be fair but there
was nothing fair about battling a participant covered in
unbreakable armor like Alex.
Those who couldn't afford to wear armor such as Alex's or Peter's

were clearly at disadvantage. Of course, Michael was not planning
to raise his voice against this unfairness. As far as he was
concerned, being born poor wasn't one's fault but living and dying
as one is.
Michael could have easily bought or hired a dwarf to forge him an
armor but he chose not to because he had APD that could inject
him with healing potions, strength enhancers, and the system.
Wearing armor like Alex's would certainly restrict his both hand-to-
hand combat and sword skills.
"Now it's time for us to decide which group should battle first and
who is better to decide this other than His Majesty" Ishihara let out
a sweet laugh as an orb of white light appeared from the chakra
before floating towards the king.
"Your Majesty please place your hand on the orb, choosing a color
among red, blue, green, and yellow"
Under the gazes of thousands of people, the king gracefully

placed his hand on the floating orb before him. In a few blinks of
an eye, the white orb radiated bright blue light.
"Blue team it is, the rest of the participants please return to your
places and return to the stage when it's your turn" Among the
participants who remained on the stage, Michael spotted three
familiar faces. They were Evan, Victoria, and Sabrina.
After realizing three celebrity disciples were going to fight each

other, Michael got slightly interested in watching the battle. The
remaining 25 disciples prepared themselves to fight. Some of
them formed small groups of three quickly after murmuring among
themselves while Sabrina, Victoria, Evan who had the utmost
confidence in their abilities remained alone without forming any
sort of alliance with the others.
"The battle will begin after the three bells. Prepare yourselves
people, you're in for a ride"
*******************************
After seeing the overwhelming response to my last question about

the release order, I have decided to go with MMGGMMGG format
so the battles will not be interrupted and make you go crazy on
the author.
The following tournament chapters will be focused on Michael and
filled with action you've been waiting for.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 342 - One Vs Twenty
Four
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Sabrina!"
"Evan"
"Evan"
"Evan"
"Evan"
"Victoria"
"Victoria"
"Victoria"
The over-excited fans of the celebrity disciples were screaming till

their throats hurt. Michael's pavilion was silent. He was sitting on
his seat calmly reading the book he bought from Lord
Information.? For merely fifty badass points, he changed the look
of the book and the content inside. IF others looked over Michael's
shoulder, they could read about the intricacy of building a
business empire.
Taking his eyes away from the book, Michael looked at the stage
to see fifteen people remaining. All of them were heavily
breathing, even Sabrina who seemed like having an easy time
had sweat drops on her forehead.
Evan was bleeding in the corners of his mouth while Victoria had
a small cut on her forearm.
"It's getting interesting, isn't it? Who's gonna be the last remaining
10" Ishihara asked,
"Among those remaining on the stage, Sabrina is holding the

higher number of elimination by throwing the participants off the
stage. She had eliminated 4"
Michael listened to James Hall comment,
"Evan stands next to her after eliminating 3 participants by

knockouts and Victoria holds the record of two elimination by
knockout and one by throwing off the stage"
"Look out!"
Suddenly everyone's gaze turned at Evan when he shouted. The

runes and the arrays placed on the battle stage really drew
Michael's attention. They amplified the voices of participants to
make the crowd hear what they were talking about while battling.
On the stage, participants could hear the crowd cheering but not
the commentators talking.
Michael saw Evan shouting at Victoria as a bulky muscular

mountain running towards Victoria like a crazed rhino. Michael
could hear the loud thud noise as he was running towards
Victoria. Somewhat thinking about Victoria gonna get thrashed put
a smile on Michael's face.
However, when the man was just about to spear Victoria, Evan
threw himself in the path, pushing Victoria away from the man's
path.
Boom!
When the man clashed with Evan, their collision produced a loud
booming sound.
"Whoa, that's outta hurt,"? James Hall said,
"Evan!" Victoria lost her composure when she saw Evan getting
knocked down by the bulky man. The other participants quickly
turned their focus on Evan, it was an amateur move that was
capitalized by Sabrina. She suddenly pounced at a nearby
participant. When he felt a gush of wind, it was too late as Sabrina
threw him out of the stage with a powerful punch to his chest.
On the other hand, Michael saw Victoria throw herself at the

muscular man with enough force to make him stumble down.
While the coordinators came to check whether Evan was knocked
out or not, Victoria was punching the muscular man sitting on top
of him.
"Knockout"
The coordinators gestured at the crowd after seeing Evan's

unconscious body.
"Idiot" Michael sighed before putting his focus on the book again.
*******************************************
After three hours of the Body Strengthening stage first round and
a break, they finally began the first round for the Core Formation
participants.
"Core Formation participants please come to the stage" Michael

heard Darius's voice.
"Good luck brother Ghost!"
"Kick their ass Ghost" Elder Reiner shouted excitedly.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
Under the showering cheers of the pavilion, Michael flew out of

there towards the stage. Just like Michael, Alex and Celina too
received thunderous cheers. After all, they both belonged to
MorningStar, one of the biggest sects in Elon.
The sun has already fallen into the horizon yet the lights above
them kept the arena as bright as a day. As Michael reached the
stage, he saw thousands of eyes landing on him. There were
several unknown faces that stood beside him, keeping their
distance from him for some reason. No one dared to form an
alliance or even talk to him. For them, he was one of the biggest
threats that stood in the way of winning the tournament.
Michael couldn't care less about what they thought. As far as he

was concerned, he was going to win this thing.
"Ghost" suddenly while the participants were gathering on the

stage, Michael heard someone calling his name. Michael looked
in the direction of the voice to see Andrews walking towards him.
Despite Andrew's worried dull face, Michael immediately
recognized him and greeted him with a smile.
"Andrews Winston"? Michael firmly shook Andrew's hand
"I never expected to see you here. The last time I saw you, you
were still at Boyd Strengthening stage level 1 and on the verge of
dying"
"Thank you for saving me Ghost, I just wished I got the chance to
thank you under different circumstances," Michael noticed
Andrews's eyes moved towards the princess. Everyone looked at
the princess but there was something different in the way
Andrews looked at her. Then Andrews stood there beside Michael
watching the fans in front of them.
"I need to win this, Ghost" Andrews's voice sounded so serious,

"Then you shouldn't hold back anything Andrews" Michael turned
his head to look at Andrews,
"Because I won't" Andrews couldn't help feeling a chill running

through his spine.
"Hold still everyone" As Michael turned his gaze away from

Andrews's the coordinators instructed them to hold still. Since they
were on the stage, Michael couldn't hear what the commentators
were talking about.
Ethan, Emelda, and Diana felt their heartache seeing Ghost and
Andrews preparing to fight each other. Although it might be
inevitable, they still didn't want the two of them to end up in the
same group and fight each other.
Emelda closed her eyes, praying to the gods to put Michael and
Andrews in different groups.
Michael looked up at the chakra to see it rotate faster and faster

before sending light orbs down. The very next moment, Michael
felt a warm sensation as he looked at his hand to see a red
translucent layer covering it.
The participants soon looked at the stage where the king was
sitting. Just like during the Body Strengthening stage round 1,
they saw a white orb traveling towards the stage but this time, it
flew straight to Ashton.
It was Ashton's end of the deal to make Michael and Alex fight
each other as Michael had no control over the chakra to make it
possible. Hence, Ashton had to do something to put Alex with
Michael.
In a blink of an eye, the white orb of light turned red when Ashton
touched the orb. Michael cracked his neck, preparing himself for
the round. He looked around and saw Andrews had a blue light,
Alex and Celina had a yellow light while Peter and Paul had green
light layers on them.
"Well this is disappointing" Michael sighed inside. If a celebrity
disciple ended up in the same group as him, he could have beat
the hell out of them to earn even more badass points.
But when he looked at the red layered participants, he noticed all

of them looking at him.
"The green, yellow and blue layered participants can now leave
the stage and enjoy the battle until your turn comes" Michael
heard Ishihara's voice as the other participants started to leave
the stage.
"Good luck Ghost" Andrews was well mannered enough to utter

these words before leaving. Michael was walking to the center of
the stage when he heard a cold female voice coming from behind,
"You will pay for everything"
Michael didn't even need to turn back to recognize the person, it

was a very familiar voice. Still, Micahel turned back with a cold
smile to see Celina and Alex looking at him,
"Oh, I am planning to" Michael knew what he said would have

reached everyone's ears but he didn't care because today, Alex
will die.
Michael didn't feel any pity for killing Jane and he would certainly
not feel any pity killing Alex. It seemed like fate wanted Michael to
take away Celina's loved ones one by one.
"No weapons, only hand-to-hand combat" the coordinators

reminded them before taking off into the sky. They floated several
meters above in the sky watching over the participants on the
stage.
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
The fans of Michael kept cheering as loud as they could. Their
thunderous cheers reverberated the arena. For a moment,
Michael closed his eyes, mentally blocking all the noises to put full
focus on the battle before him.? He felt a warm sensation running
from his head to toe. He knew it was the runes scanning him for
any potions or runes on his body to enhance his traits like strength
or speed. The system made sure the APD wouldn't be detected by
any scans.
Waiting for the coordinators' signal to begin the battle, the

participants surrounded Michael forming a circle around Michael.
In the VIP pavilion, Ethan leaned closer seeing Ghost getting

surrounded by the participants.
"It is not fair," He said,
"It makes sense for them to eliminate the highest threat first"
Norvin, the golden babaroo said while eating an apple casually.
"One vs twenty-four huh?" Then everyone heard Michael's calm

voice.
Ethan didn't see a tiny bit of fear or worry on his face. On the
contrary, Ghost remained in the center with a calm smile.
"Guys and gals, we can either do this the easy way or the hard
way," Michael said looking at the youngsters before him.
"You are in no position to say that Ghost, humph" a fully plated

armor-wearing participant snickered. He even covered his head
with a metal helmet that looked like the helmet of thor.
Ignoring the youngster's words,? Michael said,
"The easy way you 24 can fight among yourselves and eliminate
fifteen people yourselves"
Ethan's eyes went wide hearing the words coming out of Ghost's
mouth. If Ethan didn't know Ghost was his son, he would have
said Ghost is the most arrogant guy he had ever seen.
"I don't know if he's being serious or kidding," James Hall said,
"You might be a genius but at this moment, you're just like the rest
of us" the youngster in armor took several steps towards Michael
as the others followed him. Little by little, the circle of people was
getting closer to Michael.
"You clowns really think taking away my cultivation would make

me you, hahaha" Michael burst into cold laughter,
"Get him" Michael's words instantly made them snap as pouring

petrol into a fire. They all rushed towards Michael in all
directions.? The first one to reach Michael was the armored
youngster who trash talked him. He threw his fist aiming at
Michael's face to knock him out with a single punch. However,
Michael evaded the punch while grabbing another youngster by
his leather shirt. In lightning-fast movements, Michael tore the
leather shirt and sent him away into the crowd with a swift kick.
His training with Gaya and the fighting technique gave him
inhumane speed even without the arch energy.
The armored youngster never expected Michael to move that fast.

Before the guy could react, Michael tied his arms around his back
using the leather shirt he had just torn off.
No matter how much metal armor he wore, with his hands tied
behind his back, the youngster paused no threat to Michael. When
the crowd came too close, Michael grabbed the armored
youngster by his neck and used him as a center pole, kicking the
crowd in a circle like in the matrix movie.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Through To The Core
Strengthening Stage
Everyone was stunned to see Michael fighting twenty-four

participants at the same time. Since they decided to gang up on
him, Michael didn't feel bad about using APD to lessen the pain
and heal any internal wounds.
After using the armored youngster as a pole for a couple of

minutes, Michael lifted him up, deciding to use the youngster as a
weapon. He swung the armored youngster in a circle, pushing the
participants off balance.
"It's time for some elimination" finally Michael got some distance
from the participants. He said to himself, wiping off the blood from
the corner of his mouth. Of course, he received several blows
from the youngster. After all, twenty-four adrenaline-rushed
youngsters ganged upon him from all directions.
Several youngsters tried to pick themselves up from the ground

while some remained, thinking whether to use this moment to
eliminate unsuspecting participants or not.
Either way, Michael had some time as he walked towards the

armored youngster who was lying on the ground trying to rip off
the leather shirt that tied his arms.
"Arrghhh, you bastard!" seeing Michael walking towards him, the

armored youngster frantically wiggled to get himself out of the
bind.
"Next time, pick the easy way"

Like the youngster was weighing nothing, Michael easily lifted him
by the gap between the youngster's chin and chest.
Puch!
"Argh"
Puch!
Puch!
Puch!
Puch!
Puch!
Diana felt her sister squeezing her hand looking at Ghost brutally
beating the armor-wearing youngster. The big screens
broadcasted the bloodied face of the younger and the blood
oozing out of the youngster's face. His face turned into a bloody
pulp of mess. Emelda couldn't get herself to look at the big
screens. Even Ethan was shocked by the brutality Ghost was
exhibiting. He never expected to be so brutal. Unlike Diana, he
never saw his son go on a bloodthirsty rampage. What stunned
Ethan more was the expressionless face of Ghost. He didn't even
flinch when beating the life out of the youngster.
"Coordinators please hurry before he kills that poor boy" James

Hall reminded the coordinators who were floating above the battle
stage.
The participants who were witnessing Michael's brutality felt a chill

running through their spines. For a moment, they just remained
still waiting for the coordinators to stop Ghost.
Thud!
However before the coordinators could come to him, Michael

threw the half-dead body of the youngster into a trio of participants
who were watching the scene standing near the stage's edge.
Thanks to Michael's hellish weight training with Gaya every
evening, he had enough strength to throw the body with enough
force to send the trio of unlucky participants staring at the scene.
"Such force, there's four elimination including a possible KO by

death," Ishihara said,
Ethan saw Ghost's bloodied face revealing a devilish smile. Some

of the girls on the stage took several steps back in fear as the
other participants decided it's better to fight others and eliminate
them quickly before Ghost gets his hands on them and beats
them to death.
"Let's dance, '' Michael snickered. He wanted to instill fear in

everyone who is about to fight him in the tournament. By the looks
of the youngsters in front of him, he had done a good job. But
unlucky for others, this was just the beginning of Michael's
brutality.
***********************************************
Gaya and Vedora finally left the woods after killing the Three-
Headed crow. Due to the thick forest and Gaya's speed, they
didn't bump into any more fire demons or beasts such as Glass
Wraiths and Three-Headed Crows. After the surprising show of
power, Ayag and the other two heads fell asleep. They were
peacefully sleeping in Gaya's side bag while she was running
through the forest. After an hour of nonstop running, she
eventually found herself in a chilling and quiet valley. The hills on
either side were decadent with green foliage and new-sprung
buds. The place was silent, not the calming one but an eerie one.
The white fog covering the valley added an extra layer of
creepiness to the valley.
"Aaaaaw, where are we?" Ayag asked, yawning and craning her
head out of Gaya's bag.
"Whoa, this place gives me creeps. There are probably some fire
demons or something hiding here" Sarba said.
"We are still at the edge of Fire Realm, the deeper we go, the
more dangers we face" Gaya explained as Sarba nodded his
head in agreement.
After having spent some time here, Vedora understood how

dangerous this place was. Since their arrival, they had bumped
into three strange creatures; the Fire Demon, the GlassWraith,
and the Three-Headed Black Crow. They might even bump into
weirder and rarer creatures soon. But, no matter how incredible
the demons and devils were, Vedora wouldn't feel shocked
anymore.
This was Fire Realm. To any human cultivator, this place was just
a deadly hell. It was a place of brutality, life-threatening scenarios,
darkness, bloodshed, and slaughter, and in order to keep one's
life here, the person could only rely on his own strength. Without
incredible strength, the place could kill the person at any time.
Gaya looked at the sky to see the dark clouds filling the sky.
"It'll be dark soon, we need to find a safe place to stay the night"
Gaya walked forward while looking around the hills to find a cave.
"So are you gonna talk about this awesome one's awesome
powers or not?" Ayag's voice was filled with pride and superiority.
"We will after we find a cave and I breakthrough to the Core

Strengthening stage" Sarba's eyes went wide in surprise hearing
Gaya. Compare to Ayag, Sarba knew more about cultivation and
this world because while Ayag sleeps, Sarba would stay awake
reading books or talking to Nightmare.
He didn't know how much Cain knew because Cain was not a
very talkative being like Ayag.
The Fusion stage cultivator's femur Michael brought from the

Nether realm still had some energy left. Gaya planned to absorb it
completely to break through to the Core Strengthening stage. Until
coming here, she wanted to wait, strengthening her foundation
before breaking through. However, her situation changed. She
had to break through if she wanted to survive this place. Coupled
with her battle experience, Michael's arrows, and her Core
Strengthening stage cultivation, she could easily kill any Core
Strengthening stage beasts under level 4. To kill anything between
level 4 and level 7 would require a plan and strategy but it
wouldn't be impossible. Although she wouldn't be able to kill
anything above level 7, she would be able to escape with a few
minor wounds.
"Damn it! Where do you have to steal my thunder?" Ayag bite

Gaya's forearm,
"We'll talk about your newfound powers, I promise"
Gaya promised with a serious expression.
"There" Suddenly Sarba raised his voice as Gaya looked up in the

hill to her right side to see a cave. Gaya made her way to the cave
with a few leaps using her Arch energy.
Standing at the mouth of the cave, Gaya conjured an orb of fire to

light the cave. The cave was neither too deep nor wide. Although
the ground seemed wet and the roof had a purplish moth
covering, the cave was clean and didn't seem to have anything
living in it. Still, Gaya closed her eyes, spreading her perception
around the cave just to make sure nothing was inside.
"It's safe," Gaya said to Vedora before walking into the cave.
"Jade shield" after entering the cave, she turned back, casting a
spell. Soon, a translucent shield covered the entrance.
"Unless it's a Core Strengthening stage beast, nothing can come

in. I'll wake up in seven hours" Gaya placed the side bag with
Vedora in it aside her before retrieving the Fusion stage femur
from her space ring. The bone still had its glimmer but not as
bright as when Michael gave her the first time.
"Don't fight with your brothers" Gaya flicked Ayag in the head
before closing her eyes.
"Wait till I fully comprehend my powers" Aya growled as Sarba
chuckled.
******************************
After almost five hours, Gaya had leisurely absorbed 90% of the
remaining energy in the femur, her energy had increased by a lot
and she was on the verge of breaking through to the Core
Strengthening stage. Because of the energy fluctuations around
her, some unwanted guests started to come towards the cave.
Roar!
Load roars came from not far away. The thundering roars
sounded out throughout the entire valley. After a few long
moments, two massive creatures appeared not far away from the
cave, they were two gigantic panthers. Each of them had a bot
between 12 to 15 meters tall, which made them look like a small
hill. Their looks and the Arch energy they radiated would frighten
most people within a snap of time
Both panthers looked identical, gray stone fragments could be

seen all over their bodies. On top of their heads, there was a long
stone horn that glowed dimly. The eyes of these panthers were
the same color as their stone, but they carried a fierce look.
"Fuck, something's coming in our direction"
Ayag cursed out silently. Vedora had no idea about the Twin
Greystone panthers, beasts like these were rare to the outside
world. This was not the case in ancient places like Fire Realm.
Twin demon beasts like Greystone panthers were incredibly

vicious, their minds were linked, and once they entered a fight,
they could achieve absolute perfect teamwork. The perfect team
was not something that should be taken lightly because with their
teamwork, the Greystone panthers could hunt down bigger,
meaner, and more powerful beasts than them.
Roar!
Despite the darkness, the panthers were able to see the cave in
the hills.
As soon as their eyes fell on the cave, they immediately started to

walk towards the cave while roaring fiercely.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 344 - Shocking Reveal
Vedora felt the ground trembling as they heard the roars

becoming louder and louder. The purplish moths covering the
ceiling crumbled down on them with each roar.
"Dang it, how could we possibly kill whatever that's coming here?"
Sarba blurted out,
"We need to wake her up" despite their situation Cain still
sounded calm, just like Michael.
"No, the only way we can survive this place is if she breaks
through to the Core Strengthening stage. We must stall that thing
and give her the time she needs" Ayag flapped their tiny wings to
land before Gaya.
"How are we gonna do that? Talk that thing to death?" Sarba

snapped,
"Idiot, I have powers and if I do, you two meatheads must have
some powers too"
Her words indeed made sense to Sarba and Cain still it seemed
like a bad time to rely on their unfound powers. Even if they could
find out about their powers, there was no guarantee they, a Body
Refining stage level 2 beast could survive a battle with anyone
above Body Strengthening stage.
"The shield is still up, let's hope whatever's coming towards us is

not a Core Strengthening beast," Sarba said,
"Man, I miss Ghost. If he was here, we could have just stood on

his shoulder and enjoyed him beating the hell out of everything"
"It was her stupid decision in emotion to eave him and you
dragged us with her instead of convincing her not to leave him"
Cain grunted after hearing Ayag. From the very beginning, he was
against the idea of Gaya leaving Michael and venturing into such
a dangerous place. Unfortunately, Sarba leaned with Ayag-so two
out of three votes made Vedora accompany Gaya. There was
nothing Cain could do.
Ayag headbutted Cain hearing his disagreement. But in the next

second, Ayag's eyes lit up, and she blinked with a cunning look in
her eyes,
"Look, in case it's a Core Strengthening stage beast, we don't

need to kill it"
"We can't" Sarba interjected only to get a vicious headbutt from

Ayag,
"We just need to stall the beast until this half snake wakes up from
her cultivation"
Ayag looked at both Cain and Sarba for their approval,
"Since getting out of here without Gaya is impossible and you

won't let us wake her up, it seems we have no other choice but
hope your plan would work. What do you think Cain?" Sarba
asked Cain,
"We can stall the beast alright. If what Nightmare said was true,
the Core Strengthening beast would possess the intellectual
prowess of humans. And the sight of us, a new species would
make the beast curious and reevaluate or form up a new plan to
deal with us. It might take time to gauge our strengths and
weaknesses. If I saw a new species in front of me, that's what I
would do"
Cain's words somehow reassured both Ayag and Sarba. With his
approval, Ayag closed her eyes, trying to figure out how she
managed to let out the sonic cry.
After having inherited Michael's personality and observing Gaya
and Ghost for so long, Cain had learned a lot of crafty actions,
and he had gained a lot of combat experience.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
As the seconds passed by, the ground trembled more and more
violently. They were getting drenched in purplish moths, it was
raining moths inside the cave. However, the moth was the last of
Vedora's problems.
"If you have any powers, now will be a great time to reveal it Cain"
Sarba shivered hearing the roars getting louder and louder. He
could tell whatever that's coming to them is closer than they like it
to be.
"Hey, it can still be a Core Formation beast and Gaya's barrier can
save us" Sarba tried to calm himself by being optimistic. His smile
was not the brightest as he still had intense fear hiding behind his
smile.
"They" Cain muttered,
"What?"
"It's not one, it's two. Two beasts" Just as Cain uttered these
words, Sarba looked through the translucent shield Gaya cast to
see two huge yet majestic panthers made out of gray stones
standing at the entrance.
Considering Vedora's small stature, the panthers noticed her first

before they noticed the tiny beast standing before the human.
Both the panthers bore their teeth, which caused Sarba to feel a
tingling sensation in his spine.
"Dazer, look there" Surprising Vedora, one panther talked in

human tongue. The voice sounded so rough and animalistic as
one would imagine.
Soon the panthers both closed their mouths while their slit vertical
pupils that shone in silver in the darkness became rounded. The
murderous look in their eyes got replaced by curiosity.
"We are screwed" Sarba grunted, noticing the panthers' cultivation

level, both of them were at Core Strengthening stage level 3,? one
level above the Three headed crow Gaya fought. But unlike
before, the Panthers weren't in a disadvantageous position. In
fact, the Panthers had the advantage of fighting in a closed space
such as the cave.
"What is that? I have never seen such a beast before" the other
panther gracefully took a step forward. Looking at the shield, one
panther just raised its front paw, slowly putting its paw through the
shield like it was testing the shield's power. When the panther's
paw touched the shield, it produced a ripple through the shield.
"Humph," the panther snickered after making sure the shield

couldn't stop or hurt them. Step by step, the panthers entered the
cave through the shield.
"GET OUT!" Ayag's eyes abruptly opened as she let out a

powerful cry. A more powerful blast of a sonic wave shot out of her
mouth and soared towards the panthers. The entire cave shook
violently as the panthers got pushed back several steps
backward.
Although Vedora was just on the Body Refining stage level 2, the
sonic cry had the power of a spell cast by a Body Strengthening
stage level 7. The panthers' eyes went wide except their eyes
brimmed with more curiosity and bloodthirstiness.
"Neror, this must be some heavenly beast"
"And it must be delicious to eat"
The panthers talked to each other,

"We cannot waste a drop of blood of this beast and we must do it
before that human breakthrough to the Core Strengthening stage.
I can feel she's just an hour away from breaking through"
"Then we kill the beast and devour the human before she breaks
through"
"So much for your theory Cain" Ayag growled,
"Im not the idiot shouted and kindled their curiosity" Cain
snapped,
"Eat these two, I'm? all bones and no flesh"
The panthers evilly grinned hearing the silver head in the middle
trying to plead.
"I think we should go with Cain's plan of waking her up" Ayag
swallowed a mouth full of saliva. An overwhelming threat to her
life shadowed her pride and haughtiness.
Just as the panthers were only a couple of meters away from

Vedora, an emerald green orb shot into the cave from
somewhere. The panthers were startled as they almost jumped
back in shock.
Boom!
Before Vedora could see the orb completely, it exploded creating

a muffled booming sound. Soon afterward, a green smoke filled
the cave. Vedora immediately tried to close their nostrils with their
small wings.
"It burns!"
"ARGGGG!"
Unlike Vedora, the panthers growled. Their voices were filled with
terror and pain. Soon, they fell onto the ground, rolling frantically
like they were on fire.
By now, Vedora realized the green smoke didn't pose a threat to
them since they felt nothing. As the Panthers were rolling on the
ground, a golden bolt of lightning hit the panthers from outside the
cave.
"Ghost!"
Vedora's eyes went wide as they sparkled in excitement. They

couldn't help but let out a long heave of sigh. However, Cain
noticed something different with the lightning bolt, he looked at the
panther which got hit by the lightning bolt to see a sword sticking
out of the panther's gut.
"Swords of justice" a calm yet magnetic voice sounded in the

cave. Vedora looked at the cave entrance to see a human in pure
white robes making his way towards them with a glistening white
sword in each hand.
For a moment, Vedora thought it was Ghost because the images

of Ghost flashed across their eyes when they saw the youngster.
Except for the color choice of his dress, this youngster possessed
the same swag and grace of Ghost. In simple words, he looked
just as dashing and stunning as Ghost in Vedora's eyes.
Vedora saw the youngster raise his swords at the panthers before
swinging them in the air. In a snap of time, several energy swords
resembling the swords in his hand appeared above the panthers.
The youngster winked at Vedora as the swords hanging above the

panthers fell straight into the ground while skewering the
panthers. The panthers frantically wiggled in pain, blood gushing
out of their bodies. Still, no matter how hard they squirmed, they
couldn't cast a spell or escape the wrath of the swords.
Vedora was completely stunned seeing the youngster's prowess,

they never expected a Core Formation level 4 youngster to kill not
one but two Core Strengthening stage level 3 beats with such
ease.
Cain could guess it was that green smoke that affected the
panthers somehow making them vulnerable to the spell he cast.?
Under Vedora's shocked gazes, the youngster went closer to the
panthers before ending their suffering once and for all by stabbing
the panthers through their hearts using his swords. Then he
squatted down to pull out the cores from the panthers' chest.
Whoooosh!
Just after a few seconds, the youngster pulled out the cores, a
strong gust of wind swirled inside the cave forming a small
tornado around Gaya. An eye hurting bright light enveloped her
body.
The light covered her body for a few more minutes before fading
away.
"She did it, I" Ayag shouted excitedly. Gaya then abruptly opened
her eyes and her sharp gaze fell on the youngster standing before
her.
"Noah Winston"
Vedora saw the youngster letting out a calm smile,
"Aelia or should I call you Gaya Ashton?"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 345 - The Bond
Between Siblings
"System, upgrade all the spells to max levels" Michael just sat
there beside Claire while looking at his status window. He had
500,000 badass points that were waiting to be spent.
[Wonderful. Of course, the system cant upgrade the existing spells

and skills to max level]
"Not max max, just upgrade them as much as you can with the
points I have"
He wouldn't have chosen to upgrade the spells and skills if he

didnt hear the MorningStar and Golden valley is prioritizing to
eliminate him from the tournament. With his current self, fighting
several disciples who were above the Core Formation level 5
without using his full Lucifer form was not a fight he could win.
Instead of strategizing to deal with each and every celebrity

disciple like Alex or Celina, Michael decided to go with the
ultimate plan- power triumphing over everything.
[Upgrading the spells and skills to the max level would make the
tournament boring and easy Host. You'd be invincible among Core
Formation stage warriors]
"That's a bad thing, how?"
[Just saying. Now what spells and skills do you want me to

upgrade first?]
"Responsive shield, Ignitia, Lightning dash. Upgrade them in the

same order"
[Wonderful. You'll be temporarily thrown out of the system's
interface and feel a tingling pain in your brain]
"What?" Michael was stunned to hear the system. However before

he could ask why, the system interface disappeared from his eyes.
"Another elimination for Alex and Celina" when he exited the

system, Michael heard? James Hall's excited voice. He looked
around to see the disciples of MorningStar screaming as loud as
they could to cheer Alex and Celina. On the stage, Alex and
Celina moved in perfect rhythm like they were dancing. Every time
they got closer to an unlucky participant, either Celina knocked
out the participant with a single punch to the side of the jaw or
Alex threw out the participant like the participant was a sack of
cotton.
"They are really making the round one look easy," Ishihara said,
In the big mirror, Michael saw Alex look in his direction for a
moment before spartan kicked one participant off the stage.
"Argh" abruptly a muffled cry escaped Michael's mouth when he

suddenly felt an excruciating pain in his head.
"Son of a b-" he almost cursed the system out loud. The damn
system told him he would feel a tingling pain but what he felt was
not tingling. It felt like someone stabbing his brain with a rusty nail.
"Brother, did you say something?" Cindy asked with a concerned

look on her face,
"No, argh" yet again, he grunted. This time, Claire turned her
head,
"Excuse me" Before he could blurt out another cry of pain,

Michael stood up and left his seat.
"Fuck you system" On his way to the hall below the arena where
some disciples and mentors were strategizing away from the eyes
of the people, he cursed the system.
He climbed down the stairs fighting the pain with all his might.
Many disciples from the small sects greeted him but he
completely ignored them.
He hoped the strategizing hall would have less crowd than these
stairs.
Fortunately, he had APD to inject him with healing potions that

somewhat lessened the pain. Soon, he started to sweat like he
was locked into an oven.
Navigating through the labyrinth of corridors, Michael finally

entered a spacious hall with several groups of disciples in various
armors and uniforms. They all looked extremely tense. Michael
looked around the hall for a few moments before his eyes fell on a
small lion's head which spit water through its mouth. Above the
little lion head, they had a mirror hanging on. Now that he looked
around, he saw several structures like these. He guessed that the
nervous participants could wash their faces and freshen up a little
before walking to the battle stage.
"Is that Ghost?"
"Yeah, it is. What's he doing here?"
"Stay away from him. Did you see what he did to that guy?"
"I never thought a gentle-looking guy like him would be so cruel"
"Shhh, he's gonna hear us"
Although Michael didn't notice her among the disciples, Sabrina

noticed him. She wanted to kick those who were bad-mouthing
him. Unlike most of the disciples here, Ghost earned everything
through his hard work, Sabrina admired that about Ghost.
Moreover, She felt immense gratitude towards Ghost for saving
not only her but also her mother and Andrews.
"Arggh, fuck how long is this upgrading gonna take?" Michael

gripped the edge of the sink so tightly as lines of cracks started to
appear in the pearl white sink.
Letting go of the sink, Michael took a handful of clear water to
wash the sweat off of his face. He kept splashing water onto his
face until he saw a familiar face in the mirror standing behind him.
"Miss Sabrina '' Michael turned back with water running from his
face onto his black turtleneck.
"Here" Before Michael could get the towel from his space ring,
Sabrina reached out her handkerchief to him.
"Thank you" Michael was in too much pain to argue with Sabrina
over a handkerchief. The male disciples who were dying to get
Sabrina's attention ever since they got here became so jealous of
Michael.
Not only did she voluntarily go to talk to him but also gave him her
handkerchief so he could wipe his face with it.
"I want to ask you something if you don't mind" Sabrina opened
and closed her mouth several times before finally speaking these
words,
"Shoot" Michael felt somewhat better after washing his face. The
pain in his brain slowly started to ease. Michael took out a leather
drinking pouch from his space ring. While Sabrina was forming
her words, he took a long sip from the pouch. He then leaned on
the wall behind him.
"I know Aelia is not competing in the tournament but if she did, do
you think I still have the chance to win the championship?"
Michael was genuinely surprised by her questions. Moreover, she
seemed like she was looking for his approval or something.
Michael was not the only one who was surprised. Her friends
seemed stunned. Sabrina was kind of a girl who was independent,
strong and someone would even say arrogant. However, right at
this moment, she seemed so obedient and meek in front of Ghost.
They had never seen her act like this before.
"First of all, you don't need others to tell you the odds. Second,
Aelia is my girlfriend, so my judgment will be biased. Third, you're
good, you even have the chance to win this thing but if Aelia was
here, that championship would have belonged to her"
Many raised their brows hearing Michael's words. Some even

expected Sabrina to get mad except her face split into a wide grin,
"Thank you for being honest with me"
"Anytime Miss Sabrina" Michael took another sip of water,
"And please call me Sabi"
Michael didn't say anything but handed over the handkerchief

back to her before leaving the hall. She stared at Michael's figure
disappearing around the corner. Just a few moments, after
Michael left the hall, Andrews came to her side.
"What did you ask him?" Andrews was afraid she discussed
something related to him.
"I asked him the same question I asked Noah,? do you think I still
have the chance to win the championship if Aelia competed in the
tournament with me?"
"Oh" Andrews felt stunned and relieved at the same time,
"Noah said I will win the tournament no matter who is in the

tournament, I knew he was lying so I won't feel discouraged"
"Yeah, he's your brother, he's supposed to motivate you" Andrews

said to see Sabrina reveal a gentle smile,
"What did Ghost say?"
"He said I don't need others to tell me the odds and because Aelia
is his girlfriend, his judgment would be biased" She paused for a
moment,
"And Aelia would have won the championship if she was here"
Andrews frowned. Unlike Noah, Andrews didn't know what Aelia

was capable of. As far as he believed, Sabrina would win the
Body Strengthening stage championship without a doubt.
"You guys always pampered me because im family, it was

refreshing to see someone telling me the truth without sugar-
coating it for me"
Andrews saw the smile on her face getting brighter as she

clenched the handkerchief tightly against her chest.
"What are you getting at?"
"I don't know, he was like a brother I never got"
The bond of siblings ran deep and strong in the Hunt Family.
Sabrina had the same Hunt family gene in her body. Hence she
deep down felt a connection with Ghost.
Somehow Ghost reminded of Noah despite their contrasting

personalities. Sabrina couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity with
Ghost.
Because of that, after the tournament, she wanted to find out

about Ghost's origins through her sister Rowena. If anyone could
find out about Ghost's parents or his past, it would be the Holy
Maiden of Skyhall, her sister.
***************************
Meanwhile, Ghost returned to his seat freshened up. The pain in

his brain was still there but it was way less than before.
[Congratulations, the spell Responsive Shield has been upgraded

to level 8]
[Host is now completely immune to any spell attacks of a Core

Formation stage warrior]
[Warning, Legendary spells cast by a Core Formation level can

still do some damage!]
Finally, Michael let out a grin. Resting his head on his hand, he
looked at the blue-haired youngster on the same stage as Ashton.
"I'm gonna destroy your precious little Thusia brick by brick"
*******************************
Before you get mad at me for not releasing a Gaya chapter that
might be interesting than the tournament to some of you, let me
tell you this, the next chapter will feature the long-awaited battle-
GHOST VS ALEX!!
********************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 346 - The Bloody
Second Round
"Now the tournament committee will provide our audience with

Revitalizing pills," Ishihara said,
"After taking this pill, you will feel rested and refreshed. There
were several complaints about fights in inns and taverns between
youngsters" The people heard James Hall
"Can you believe two noble families went extinct because the
youngsters in their families couldn't wait until the chairs became
available?" James Hall sighed,
"Unfortunately it happens all over the world. The family power

clouds many youngsters' minds so they pick fights with the wrong
people. There are many rogue cultivators in this world who are
stronger than strongest families in some kingdoms"
Michael continued to listen to the commentators' blabber about

the young masters and how they got their asses kicked and
families destroyed. Meanwhile, the coordinators flew around the
arena sending small emerald-colored round pills to the audience.
Everyone including the cultivators got a pill.
Claire helped Cindy swallow the pill. The very next moment Condy
swallowed the pill, the dark circles formed under her eyes due to
lack of sleep faded away. Her face lit up like someone put a
candle inside her mind. With newfound energy, Cindy started to
clap her hands joyfully.
In a couple of minutes, the entire arena erupted in cheers as they

did at the beginning of the tournament.
"In a few more minutes, we will begin the second round of the
Body Strengthening stage championship" Darius' voice calmed
down the people.
The people leaned forward on their seats,
"The second round of the tournament will be just like the first
round with one simple change. In the second round, participants
can use a weapon of their choice. But they can't change their
weapons middle of the battle, you pick it, you stick with it"
"Can this weapon have runes?" Ishihara asked Darius,
"The committee had a long talk about runes but ultimately decided
not to let the participants take rune placed weapons"
If it was before, Michael would have been worried about weapons

with runes. After upgrading spells and skills, unless a participant
had a Legendary weapon or used a legendary spell, Michael
would be invincible among the Core Formation warriors.
"Remind me when my turn comes"
Unlike the rest, Michael leaned back on his chair. He took out the
book he bought from Lord Information and started to read it.
"The 40 participants who qualified for the second round will be

divided into four groups of ten. Among the ten, each of them will
fight another participant in their group. It'll be one on one battle"
James Hall described the format of the second round.
"How does the elimination process work?" Ishihara asked,
"A participant must make his or her opponent surrender or

knockout to win the battle. Remember that the part of a battle
experience is knowing when to back down, many famous
cultivators had surrendered in their life to live to fight another day.
There is no shame in surrendering"? Michael knew Darius's words
were true yet he doubted these thick-headed young masters and
young misses would choose to surrender. Many of them would
rather die than surrender, for them surrendering was a shame.
"Yes, surrendering might just save your life because coordinators
can't always swoop down and save you in time," James Hall said,
"If death were to occur, the families and sects are prohibited to
harm the participant in any way. If any harm is to fall on the
participant by the victim's family or sect, the Guardian Guild will
take it as an action against them and come at you with full force"
When everyone thought Darius couldn't sound any more serious,
he proved them wrong.
Michael was glad to hear Darius. This way he wouldn't worry

about getting chased by the Fisher family after he kills Alex. Of
course, he knew they might try to harm by other means.
Nonetheless, Michael had to kill Alex, it was Alex who pushed
Michael to this point by putting a contract on his head.
Also after spending some time with Lord Information, Michael

began to grasp how the Grim Reapers operate. Unlike he initially
thought, grim reapers wouldn't kill anyone for money. They were
picking targets with weak or no power backing them. The Grim
Reapers were like a hybrid of assassins and politicians. That was
why the Grim Reapers had never killed a high-value target like a
king or a sect leader because they knew if they did, the guild
would be decimated.
"Out honored guests and the judges would decide who faces who.
Now let's begin"
****************************************
Four hours passed in a blink of an eye. Currently, the audience

was relatively less cherry looking at the battle stage. On the stage,
a man wearing silver knight armor was mopping the floor with the
youngster in brown leather armor.
"Why aren't you surrendering?" Everyone heard the youngster in

knight armor grunting. He lifted the golden-haired youngster by
the neck and kept punching him in the face.
"This has stopped being a battle a long time ago. Why isn't he
surrendering?" Ishihara's voice didn't sound as cheery as always.
She felt pity for the golden-haired youngster.
"It was obvious Andrews lacks real battle experience but you don't
need to be forged in a battlefield to realize when to back down
and surrender"
"You're right James. Sir Galahar is offering the chance for

Andrews to surrender. If anyone else was in Sir Galahar's shoes,
Andrews might have lost his life by now"
"Why is he not surrendering?" Claire's voice was filled with

concern and pity.
"Love" Michael mumbled under his breath looking at Princess

Katherin on the stage. The princess's clenched fist and shaking
hands were obvious signs of her being in love with Andrews.
Otherwise, why should a princess look so pale and gloomy
looking at Andrews bleeding on the stage? Michael lived long
enough to differentiate pity from love.
The beating had been going on for almost half an hour. Michael
was surprised by Andrews's ability to take the beating. At first,
Michael thought he would lose consciousness after being beaten
for ten minutes but he was proven wrong.
"Arghhh" after beating the crap out of Andrews, the knight started
to lose his cool. He grunted before throwing Andrews a few
meters away from him. Galahar's red-haired fluttered in the wind
while the smile he wore on his face was nowhere to be seen.
While losing his patience, Galahr failed to notice Andrew grab the
hilt of his sword lying beside him. Andrews rolled over to the side
hiding the sword in his hand from Galahar's eyesight.
"I'm going to stop the fight" Emelda couldn't watch Andrews

getting beaten to death anymore. She stood up from her seat,
tears rolling down on her face.
Cling!
Pulch!
Suddenly a sound of metal hitting metal reverberated in the arena
followed by the sound of flesh getting stabbed. Emelda wiped off
the tears to make her eyesight clear. When her eyesight cleared,
she saw Andrews hanging by Galahar's hand in the air but
Galahar had a sword sticking through his throat.
Everything happened so fast. At first, Galahr lifted Andrews by his

neck, as usual, this time everyone thought Galahr was gonna
break Andrews's neck. In the heat of anger, Galahr failed to notice
the sword Andrews's hiding behind his back. When Galahr lifted
Andrews up, Andrews used the momentum to stab Galahr in the
throat.
"Argh"
Galahar let go of Andrews as he tried to get the sword out of his

throat. However, the sword was too deep and before he could
muster enough strength to pull out the sword, Galahar's body
gave up on him. He fell to the ground while blood gushed out of
the throat. In a few moments, Galahar stopped moving once and
for all.
The coordinators landed on the battle stage, it was too late

though. After checking for a pulse, the coordinators shook their
heads,
"Dead"
"Andrews Winston wins"
The crowd erupted into cheers the moment the coordinators

announced. Many were still in shock, slowly letting the fact that
Andrews, who was barely alive, was able to defeat a knight.
Even Michael couldn't help giving a nod of approval at Andrews.
"Give him a healing potion!" Princess Katherin's sudden shout

stunned everyone. But most of them thought it was a princess's
gentle heart that made her care for Andrews.
************************************
It was almost midnight when the Core Formation stage
championship had only one fight remaining. Before announcing
the last fight,? yet again the coordinators awarded the audience
with Revitalizing pills for the crowd. Even without taking the pills,
the crowd was so excited for the last fight because only two
participants remained to battle - Ghost and Alex.
"Now it's time for the final battle of round two, the battle everyone
including myself is looking forward to" James Hall sounded
excited, just like the crowd.
"Participants Ghost and Alex, please come to the battle stage"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Ghost!"
"Alex!"
"Alex!"
"Alex!"
"Alex!"
"Alex!"
Both the fans of Ghost and Alex shook the arena with their
thunderous cheers. Soon the cheering turned into a competition of
who's cheers sounded louder.? Under their thunderous cheers,
Michael and Alex landed on the battlefield with a smile on their
faces.
Alex took out a long golden spear from his back while Michael
remained still. The coordinators flicked their wrists as Michael felt
a warm air brushing past him. It was the runes placed on the
battleground scanning him for hidden weapons or weapons with
runes.
Looking at Michael, Alex let out a cold smile,
"It's time we finish our little dispute"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 347 - Alex Vs Ghost
As Michael and Alex stood at the edges of the battle stage, the
cheers dulled down. The crowd was too excited to cheer. Michael
calmly remained with his hands folded.
He didn't unsheath his dual swords. On the other side, Alex stood
with his long golden spear in his hand. The spear was nothing that
would scream craftsmanship, rather it was plain-looking. The
entire spear looked like it was made of gold, the long point looked
extremely sharp and pointy.
Despite its normal-looking, Michael could sense the overwhelming

power the spear was radiating. Since the participants were not
allowed to use Arch energy Michael wouldn't be able to use
Responsive shield to protect himself from the spear. Luckily,
Michael trained his sword mastery to 96% and Serpent maga to
93%. Both these skills enabled him to move nimbly and at an
extreme speed even without using Arch energy.
"Can we get this over with? I have a championship to win" Michael

sounded bored to everyone.
"Did you hear that guys? He's so sure" Ishihara commented,
"There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, we just

need to wait and see which is which" James Hall answered
Ishihara,
Michael's words caused a commotion among the fans of Alex.
"Beat him!"
"Beat him!"
"Beat him!"
"Beat him!"
"Beat him!"
The MorningStar dispels and fans of Alex began to chant in

unison while Michael remained calm despite their cheers.
However, suddenly Michael's brows furrowed as he saw Alex

remove the armor covering his chest. The spear remained still
without falling down while Alex continued to remove his armor
pieces one by one.
Thud!
Alex threw the armor pieces on the ground, each time a piece hit
the stage, the heavy metal produced a thud sound.
"You're kidding me?" Michael was confused,
"What is Alex doing?"
Michael was not the only one who was confused, even Ishira
couldn't help asking the question.
"He's throwing away his advantage over Ghost and leveling up the
field" Although Darius's words made sense, many couldn't believe
Alex.
"After I kill you, I don't want people to say that I had an advantage"
Alex coldly smiled.
His words got amplified by the runes and sent a chill running
through Ethan's spine. Diana clenched her fist while trying her
best to control the killing intent from showing in her eyes.
"Kill me?" Michael tilted his head, pretending to be shocked,
"You're not gonna beg for mercy and surrender, are you?" as he
snickered, Alex removed the last piece of armor that covered his
abs. Throwing the armor onto the stage, he stood flexing his
flawless smooth skin to the audience. Alex had a perfect upper
body with six-pack abs, a chiseled chest, and perfectly placed
muscles.
"Oh my god!"
"So sexy!"
"Sister Celina is really a lucky girl"
"Aww, look at his abs"
"So smooth"
With his silver hair fluttering in the wind and golden spear in one
hand, Alex looked like a model for magazines. Many girls had
sparkling eyes looking at Alex. Even men couldn't help feeling
jealous of his body. Granted cultivators had good bodies but Alex
had a magnificent body. It was obvious he was working out in
addition to cultivating or he wouldn't have gotten such perfectly
sculpted muscles.
"Let's start this" Alex taunted Michael to step forward.
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
The crowd erupted yet again seeing the both of them walking
towards each other to fight. Unlike Alex, Michael still hadn't
unsheathed his swords. Diana and Ethan moved to the edge of
their seats as they didn't take their eyes away from Michael. Every
single person in the arena including those who remained in the
strategic hall came outside to see the battle.
Alex made a mistake by removing his armor. He gave up the

advantage he had over Ghost. That was the difference between
Alex and Michael. Michael would have never let go of his
advantage. Thus, Michael still had APD to inject him with the
potions such as healing potions. Considering APD was made of
junk metal and connected with the system, the runes didn't pick up
the APD. As far as the committee and the coordinators were
concerned, the APD was just a black bracelet Michael wore for
style.
When Michael and Alex got close, Alex stabbed the spear aiming
at Michael's chest. His thrust was so fast that it almost hit its
target. With a sway of his body, Michael evaded the spear yet Alex
was quick enough to hit Michael with the staff. Following the staff
attack, Alex roundhouse kicked Michael.
Although Alex removed the armor above his waist, he still wore
metal boots. Hence, when the kick landed on Michael's shoulder,
Michael had pushed away a couple of meters while Michael felt
his shoulder bones hurt.
If the kick had a little more force and he didn't have APD, his
shoulder would have been dislocated.
Without giving a moment for Michael to breathe, Alex dashed at

him with his spear pointing at Michael's throat. Everyone who saw
Alex's move knew it was not his attention to make Ghost
surrender but he wanted to kill him.
Shaking his aching shoulder, Michael quickly evaded the spear's

pointy end before hitting the spear on the shaft just below the
blade using his other hand. Just when everyone thought Alex
made a mistake by getting closer, Alex pulled back the spear and
grabbed the spear in the middle.
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
Alex started to attack Michael with a spear and his bare hand.
Their clash produced continuous sounds as Michael felt like he
was in a martial arts movie.
"Ouch, that has to hurt" After seeing Ghost and Alex exchange
more than forty blows in a minute, James Hall opened his mouth
looking at the spear cut across Ghost's chest.
Diana clenched her fist tiger as her nails started to sink in her
palm. Blood spattered on the battle stage as Alex and Ghost
continued to exchange blows. As time went by, more and more
cuts appeared on Ghost's body.
Still, they were at a stalemate that irritated Alex.
"ARGH!" letting out a loud roar, Alex sent Ghost several meters
back with a swift spartan kick to his chest.
[He's good]
Even the system flattered Alex after their exchange of blows. In

two minutes, they exchanged at least a hundred kicks and
punches. Both of them had sweat drops on their faces.
Michael almost looked like a beggar with his long coat and
turtleneck that had several cuts and holes.
"Thinking about surrendering?"
"YEEEEYYYYY!"
"ALEX!"
"ALEX!"
"ALEX!"
"ALEX!"
"ALEX!"
"ALEX!"
The thunderous cheers of Alex's fans swept across the arena. The
entire pavilion of Ghost's fans went silent looking at his state.
Ethan was speechless as she stared at the bleeding cuts on
Ghost with an aching heart.
"Hahahahahahaha"
Michael suddenly burst into laughter to everyone's surprise. His

laughter reverberated in the arena silencing the cheers.
"Guys I'm confused, why is he laughing?" Just like everyone else,

Ishihara was also confused,
"I don't know" James Hall shook his head,
"Did you think I was fighting you seriously?" As he said, Michael

flexed his shoulders as the long coat and sheathes that had his
two swords fell off. The audience could now clearly see the
definition of his muscles through the cut and torn black turtleneck.
Diana saw Michael ripping off his already ripped and torn turtle
neck, revealing his upper body. The moment she saw his body,
she felt a chilling running through her spine. Unlike Alex's body
which was smooth and fine, Ghost's body was riddled with scars.
Compared to Michael's muscle definition, Alex was nowhere close
to him. Each and every muscle in Michael's body looked created
separately and glued together to form a perfect muscular body.
In addition to muscle definition, every muscle in Michael's body

was bigger than Alex's. Diana's heart ached to see the scars on
his body. She couldn't even imagine what her son has to go
through to get all those scars.
Michael slowed down the healing potion injection through APD.

He didn't want the coordinators to suspect him of using healing
potions. If the cuts disappeared to the naked eyes, they would
definitely suspect something amiss. Hence, Michael let the cuts
hurt and bleed.
The cuts weren't deep enough to mortally wound Michael yet they
were deep enough to make him bleed. Coupled with the blood
and the scars, his body attracted all the gazes like a super
magnet.
The girls who had sparkles in their eyes when they saw Alex's
body had flames of passion and desire in their eyes looking at
Michael. If Alex was hot like fire, Michael was hot like lava that
melted the young girls' hearts.


The notification sound went crazy inside his head. After upgrading
his spells and skill, he had 50,000 points remaining but at the
moment, the points were flying past the mark of 150,000 and
didn't seem to slow down.
"I was just playing with a kid, a kid who has a spear"
As Ghost spoke these words, Alex's smile froze on his face. The
next moment, Diana saw Ghost stomp the stage beneath him as
the stomp made the swords lying on the ground fly straight into his
hand. It seemed like he was controlling the sword using an
invincible force.
Cling!
Michael brushed his two swords together as they produced a

stream of golden-red sparks. The broadcasting tunes focused on
Michael's face to broadcast his smile in the giant mirrors.
"Let's end this"
*******************************
Sorry, I broke the chapter releasing pattern, I thought you guys
and gals would love to see the fight. Let me know you want to see
the fight in the very next chapter or after two Gaya chapters.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 348 - Rude Awakening
Despite the blood dripping from the cuts on his chest and
shoulder, Michael walked towards Alex with an amused grin on his
face. Alex's biceps got bigger when he clenched the spear even
tighter. This time Alex dashed at Michael with an extreme speed
that many doubted it was even possible to move this fast without
Arch energy.
From the beginning of the tournament, the arena never went silent
but at this moment, not a single sound could be heard in the
arena. Even the commenters remained silent. All of the eyes were
glued to Alex and Michael. It was the most anticipated scene that
even made Norvin drop his fruit and stare at the fight.
Just when the spear was a few inches away from Ghost's throat,
he simply evaded the spear. However, he did not only evade at
even greater speed but also knocked Alex on the head using the
sword's hilt.
"Too slow" Michael snickered, making Alex immediately swing his

spear. Yet again, the people saw Ghost evade the spear without
breaking a sweat.
This time Michael smacked Alex on the back with his sword's
surface. Before even Alex could react to the first smack, he
received another smack. The force of the smacks formed two red
lines on Alex's flawless smooth fair skin.
Michael was standing behind Alex so Alex tried to hit Michael in

the gut with the butt of the spear. He pulled the spear closer
quickly.
Ting!
No matter how fast Alex moved, Michael simply swatted the spear
with the flick of his sword. The clash between Michael's sword and
Alex's spear produced sparks with a loud 'ting' noise.
"Surrender now Alex"? Michael snickered before smacking Alex

right on his face with his two swords. Alex was losing his cool
because no matter how fast he moved, Ghost moved faster.
The crowd was completely stunned by Ghost's speed. People who

knew about swordsmanship were stunned by the level of sword
mastery Michael was exhibiting. Especially the Swordmaster of
Aragoth, Darius was speechless. In his seventy years of training,
he couldn't even come closer to the talent Ghost possessed in
swords.
Each of Ghost's moves seemed simple and elegant yet only

people like Darius understood how difficult it was to do what he
was doing. Unlike many commoners were thinking, a sword was
not the most powerful blade weapon, it was the spear. Spear was
far superior to sword yet Ghost's mastery over the sword
completely overshadowed Alex's spearman ship.
It would take decades of hard work to master one-handed sword

skills except Ghost was only twenty-one years old and he seemed
to have mastered dual wielding. If Darius wasn't older than Ghost
and didnt have pride and ego, he would have asked Ghost to take
him as his disciple.
Coupled with the fact he couldn't even touch Ghost, his words
made Alex mad.
"I am giving you a chance Alex"
Thup!
Thup!
Thup!
Alex missed each swing of his spear but kept receiving smacks
from Ghost's swords. Diana knew she had no right whatsoever to
feel proud of her son yet she did. To Ethan, every single move
Ghost did remind himself of Harriet.
"He's our son alright" a tiny teardrop formed in the corner of

Ethan's eyes.
Watching Ghost toying with Alex, Celina clenched her fist as veins
on her forehead started to bulge out. Her entire body shivered in
fury.
"Son of a-"
Thup!
This time Ghost smacked Alex right on his mouth. Alex's anger
exploded as he swung the spear in a crescent shape only to miss
Michael completely. Alex misjudged the athleticism of Ghost.
When he swung the spear, Ghost just bent his back like his spine
was made of rubber to evade the spear completely. The spear
could only brush past Ghost's nose.
"Diddle Diddle" Ethan felt a chill running through his spine when
he heard these words escape Ghost's mouth. Harriet Hunt aka
Diana used to recite a rhyme before she went for the kill.
"He's gonna kill him" Claire's eyes went wide. She knew about
Ghost's habit of reciting the small rhyme before killing someone.
"We are so" Alex saw Ghost's smile disappear from his face as he
dashed at him. Alex tried to defend himself using his spear but
ultimately failed because of Ghost's lightning speed. In a blink of
an eye, Michael closed the gap between him and Alex.
"Little"
"NO!" Celina screamed standing on the MorningStar Pavillion.
The moment the word 'little', Alex felt an excruciating pain in his
heart and throat. The very next moment, the pain multiplied by
several folds as Alex felt the grip he had on his spear loosen. He
lost all of his strength.
"Arghh" Alex blurted out mouth full of blood. Under everyone's
shocked gazes, Michael lifted Alex from the ground like skewered
meat. The spear fell on the ground while Alex's blood oozed on
Michael, bathing him in blood.
Michael immediately twisted both the swords, leaving no chance

for the coordinators to save Alex. Still, Michael didn't rely on this
as he withdrew the sword that stabbed through Alex's throat.
When he withdrew the sword, hot blood gushed out. Within a snap
of time, he stabbed Alex right between the eyes.
Ending Alex's life once and for all.
"COORDINATORS!" it took a few moments for everyone to come

out of their daze including the commenters and coordinators.
Ishihara immediately stood from her seat while screaming at the
coordinators.
Michael was completely covered in the blood oozing out of Alex's

wounds. He looked like the devil incarnate in many peoples' eyes.
A few moments after Alex closed his eyes, the coordinators

landed with haste on the stage. Still, Michael didn't put down
Alex's body. Diana's heart skipped a beat seeing her son like
this.? This was the dark side of him that she never wanted to see.
Only Ashton had a grin on his face seeing Michael like this. In the
giant mirrors, the crowd started at Michael's face without batting
an eye. The dark red blood oozed on his face, painting his face
red. When he smiled, many felt like fainting. It was so terrifying for
the weak-hearted.
"You should warn your brother," Norvin said to Alicia with a

grimace face.
"And Andrews" As silence enveloped the pavilion, Diana's serious

voice drew the attention of Alicia.
**************************************
Meanwhile back in Gaya's cave, Noah was leaning on the cave's
wall with folded arms. Gaya had black lines on her forehead after
hearing Noah call her by her real name.
She was still wearing the mask that Ghost gave her. Despite the
mask, Noah found out her identity, she wondered how. Just when
she thought she couldn't get into any more trouble, she fell into a
deep pit of trouble.
Among all the people, it had to be Noah who found her secret, a
guy who not only connected to guardians but also to her
stepsister. In addition to her secret, he even saw the Hydra.
Killing him would solve the problem but Ghost warned her about
Noah. At this moment, Gaya's instincts told her to heed Ghost's
warning.
"Your sister and the whole Nagaland thinks they crippled your
cultivation. They are in for a rude awakening" Noah chuckled
while Vedora quickly flapped their wings to land on Gaya's lap.
"A Three-headed Hydra, fancy" His words stunned Gaya. He

sounded like he knew about Vedora's species.
"You're a long way from Ghost, does he know you're here?" Noah
walked towards the two dead bodies of the Panthers while still
maintaining eye contact with Gaya,
"Of course, he doesn't, if he did, he wouldn't have sent you here.

Especially if he knew, this was the place that took your mother
away from you. You know your sister and father are pretty worried
about you" Noah flicked his wrist as a green gourd appeared in his
hand.
On the other hand, Gaya couldn't bear to hear his nonsense

anymore,
"Humph, worried? My loving sister threw me in jail while my father

of the year crippled me. So pardon me for not believing the
bullshit coming out of your mouth"
"Hahaha"
Unexpectedly Noah burst into laughter before pouring a green

liquid from the gourd onto the dead bodies.
"Your sister is naive and your father, well I don't talk ill about
others but your father is a piece of work. I mean, what kind of
father would cripple his firstborn"
Gaya was surprised to hear these words from Noah but she
sensed there's a but coming,
"But you did commit crimes such as bribery, assassinations, and

my favorite, mass murders" As he said, Noah threw the gourd with
the dead bodies before snapping his finger. When he snapped, a
park of fire appeared from his hand and shot towards the dead
bodies.
The moment the sparks met the liquid, dark green flames
engulfed the dead bodies,
"If you think serial rapists who raped and killed hundreds of my
people, massacred innocent people in cold blood deserve a
second chance, you are just as naive as Xanali " Gaya stood up,
gently putting Vedora on her shoulder. Since he saw them, there
was no need to hide them anyways.
"Did you know when you burned the prison to the ground, there
was one family who went to say goodbye to their father and one
family went there to see their brother before leaving Nagaland,
hoping to start a new life?"
Gaya's heart skipped a beat as Noah continued,
"One family had two eleven years old kids and a mother and the
other had one eight years old, two fifteen years old and
grandparents in their sixties. What did they do to deserve to be
burned alive?"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 349 - Righteous But
Not Stupid
"What are you talking about?" Gaya grunted. She was unable to
believe Noah. In her lifetime, she had never taken an innocent life.
When she heard that she was responsible for killing several
innocent people, she couldn't even breathe normally.
"Here," Noah flicked his wrist as a parchment appeared in his

hand,
He threw the parchment to Gaya. Her hands shivered. Mustering

all the courage in every fiber of her body, she opened the
parchment. The parchment had the crest of Nagaland, a cobra
coiling around the golden dagger.
Under the crest was a long list of names. She didn't need an
introduction to those names, they were the names of people in the
prison she burned down to the ground.
Their names were in red but when her eyes came to the end of
the list, there were several names written in green ink. These
names, she didn't recognize,
"That was the list created by your own elites, the team your
mother formed"
The crest on the top was proof enough for Gaya that this
parchment was created by the elites. The crest might seem simple
but it was actually a rune, hence it was damn hard to forge it
elsewhere. Only the elites had the knowledge to create the logo.
The Elites was a group of highly trained Nagas that only answered
to the queen. They were the symbol of courage, mercy, justice,
faith, power, and hope. Gaya's mother formed this elite group to
protect the kingdom from threats inside and outside the kingdom.
When she formed the group, she wanted Gaya to lead them in the
future. But her untimely demise and Gaya's father's second
marriage let Gaya's stepmother control the elites. Since the elites
were bound by honor, they answered to Gaya's stepmother as she
was the queen of Nagaland.
A tear formed in each eye before falling onto the parchment. It

was a tear of self-blame and shock.
"People think me as a self-righteous prick but they fail to

understand that I'm like this because I don't want to be the reason
for an innocent to suffer," Noah said in a serious tone,
"Sometimes killing one evil becomes a reason for a hundred more

evil to emerge. And killing one innocent is like letting hundred evil
triumph"
Michael and Noah had completely different perspectives on this.

As far as Michael was concerned, if killing a hundred evil costs
one innocent life, he would kill a hundred evil. But if it was Noah,
he would save that one innocent life at the cost of letting a
hundred evil go.
"Why are you telling her these?" Ayag couldn't bear to see Gaya
sad.
"Don't even think about ratting her out. Ghost will kill you"? Sarba
snapped as he bore his teeth at Noah.
However Noah just smiled,
"If I wanted to rat you out, I would have done it a long time ago.
Ghost saved my sister and mother, I'm grateful to him. This is me
returning the favor. No one will hear from me that you are Gaya.
But if you want to hide your identity forever, you need to find a
better mask. Or you will end up hurting him when the elites show
on your doorstep someday"
Gaya felt a chill running through her spine but when she saw
Ghost's smiling face in her mind, her fear and sadness
disappeared. She trusted he would overcome anything. Unlike
some girls who would only bring trouble to the guy, she wanted to
stop all the troubles before they could reach Ghost.
"I bet you're not here to tell me this" Gaya finally took her gaze
away from the parchment to look at Noah,
"Your father is dying"
Gaya's heart skipped a beat yet another time when he dropped

another bomb on him.
"Only thing that can save him is the heart of the five-headed
serpent. And I guess you're here for that same five-headed
serpent I'm looking for. If we look for the serpent in our own ways,
we might end up getting killed but if we combine our forces, we
can get what we both want"
Instead of responding to Noah's offer to work together, Gaya

asked about her father.
"Someone poisoned him"
Gaya couldn't help clenching her fist when a sudden burst of

anger exploded within her. She hated her father yet when she
heard someone poisoned him, her blood boiled.
"I know you can't complete your naga transformation without the
heart-"
"You can take it" Gaya interjected Noah,
"This shall be my last filial act as his daughter. One day I will rub
the fact I let him live on his face" Gaya put the parchment in her
space ring instead of giving it to him back.
"Why are you here alone anyway? Where're your Guardian

buddies?"
Gaya leaned on the wall asking Noah. Although she asked
casually, she wanted to learn more about Noah because she had
a weird feeling about him. As far as she was concerned, he would
die fighting the five-headed serpent with his Core Formation level
4 cultivation. In her mind, he would make a great distraction by
being the five-headed serpent's snack.
"Where are we going next?" Ayag asked. Ayag still didnt trust
Noah but she was not stupid to let go of help in this place.
"There is a city right in the center of the Fire Realm, Hell City,"
Noah said.
"Oh, so there is actually a city in this god-forsaken place?" Ayag

was surprised, she hadn't expected this at all.
"Hell City is a unique existence. Ancient devils will not enter the
city no matter what, that's why it has become a gathering place for
all humans and other races. Supposedly, this Hell City is the
safest place in Fire Realm, and as long as you stay within the city,
you won't have to worry about being attacked by beasts, and your
safety will be guaranteed. The tunnel leading to the outside world
only opens once a year, therefore, Hell City has become the most
important place to protect. But now, it has become the most
dangerous area in Fire Realm, no different than the deepest area
of Fire Realm"
"How did that happen?" Ayag asked while Gaya remained silent,
letting Noah do the explaining to Ayag. She wanted to remain
silent facing the various emotions surging in her heart.
"Very simple; where there are humans, there is trouble. In Fire

Realm,
You can find trouble anywhere. Between ancient beasts, between

humans and other races, between humans and humans. Blood is
spilled everywhere, there are no rules here, only raw slaughter. In
order to survive in the Fire Realm, you need powerful strength.
Right now, there are all kinds of bad and good people mixed in
Hell City, some are vicious criminals who were exiled here by one
of the Great Nine Clans, or some genius disciples from some big
sect who's looking to forge themselves in the fire of real battle
experience. When so many powerful people are mixed together in
a single place, conflicts are inevitable" Noah explained.
Cain carefully listened to every single one of his words. He could

understand the situation here. There were no rules in Fire Realm,
and the most important thing here was strength and ability.
Without it, one would be nothing but prey to the strong. Although
Hell City could help a person escape from the attacks of demons
and devils, it couldn't help them escape from conflicts between
humans.
"There might be something that instigated the trouble in the first

place," Ayag said.
"It's the damn Thusians"
The word 'Thusians' stopped Gaya's train of thoughts. The pain,

the anger, the fury, and everything Ghost was feeling flashed
across her mind. He gave a small taste of his emotions a long
time ago yet she could still feel everything like they happened to
her.
"Thusians?"
"They've been waging war on small factions and realms like this to
bolster their power. Until recently they've been only targeting small
factions but now, they are waging war on many kingdoms in the
Ozer Continent. It's only a matter of time before they start a war in
Elon"
Gaya began to worry about Ghost. She doubted he would do

something suicidal yet she wanted to be there with him. Now she
wanted more than anything to get stronger. If she was weaker
than him, she would just be a hindrance after getting stronger, it
would become a different story though.
"I thought it's your guild's job to stop wars" Gaya snickered,
"Guardians? Im righteous not stupid. They lost their purpose a

long time ago. Now they are just corrupted politicians who
wouldn't raise a finger without getting something in return"
For a moment Gaya wasn't sure what she just heard. She never
expected Noah to loathe the guardians because he's one of them.
Seeing the stunned look on Gaya's face, Noah smiled.
"I didn't join guardians to earn millions of gold or get beauties. I

have those. I joined Guardians because I want to reform them
from the ground up. I owe it to someone"
Just when Gaya was about to ask him something, Noah

interjected,
"You wanna ask why I'm telling you these right? I'm telling you this
because in the future I would like to work with Ghost to help the
people. I know he's building his own empire and I want us to work
together for the greater good"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 350 - Rampage Of
Gaya
The fire realm had no sunrise or beautiful morning like in the

outside world. The red sky just got brighter, indicating that the
dark night has gone. When the cave got brighter, Gaya and Noah
ended their meditation and stood up to leave the cave.
"Stay inside" Gaya warned Vedora, especially Ayag before putting

them back into her saddlebag. They soon left the cave heading
towards Hell City. Considering flying might attract the crows, they
chose to walk. They both knew it would take a long time but it was
the safest way to reach Hell City without getting into any trouble.
"Hey, I still don't understand why people choose to come to this

dump?" Ayag craned her neck up to peek outside.
"Most of them don't choose. Two-thirds of the people here are

criminals who were exiled from various kingdoms. Even guardians
sent the ruthless criminals here instead of putting them in prison"
Noah said while walking in front of them.
"I thought criminals supposed to be in prisons"
"Prisons are expensive and a hassle to maintain. They would get

overcrowded in a snap"
"Why can't the rulers sentence them to death?"
"Because most of them are stupid" Gaya snickered,
"And stupidest ones believe those criminals deserve a second

chance"
Noah chose not to put his head into their conversation.

"I hope you have gold coins in your ring, I'm starving and I'd
literally kill someone to eat" Ayag complained,
"Gold coins means shit here brat"
"What?!" Ayag almost shouted,
"People deal in beast cores here. Don't worry, I'm sure the Glass
Wraith core will be enough for us to survive and treat you to a
meal"
"Good because your hands are beginning to look real juicy" Ayag
let out a burst of evil laughter.
"Keep them hidden. Although many don't know their species, they
would still hunt you down to sell them as an exotic pet or worse,
they will capture them and do experiments" Ayag frowned hearing
Noah's words,
"The guardians have a safe house in Hell City. We'll get a

takeaway"
"Whoa, slow down. I'm not gonna stay in a guardian safe house.
What if it's a trap?" Gaya stopped following Noah,
"Then rent a tavern and stay there. If I wanted to capture you, I

just need to tip the elites and they will do the rest"
Hell City was located right in the center of Fire Realm. It was a
huge city that covered more than a few hundred miles in
circumference. It looked like a historical city with dolled colors,
scars, and marks everywhere. It was the remains of time, which
proved that Hell City had been around for a long period of time. At
least, it had been here since the discovery of the Fire Realm.
"No fights from here" Gaya wanted patting the saddlebag.
"Just get me something to eat," Ayag whispered silently.
"I will now shut up" Gaya yelled at Ayag as they walked towards
the city's main gate.
Hell City's main gate was actually a huge breach on the city wall,
and it didn't fit the standards of a city gate. When Noah got closer
to the main his expression became a focused one, and a grin
emerged on his face.
"Why are you grinning?" Gaya asked. She was kinda familiar with
Noah's expression. Every time Ghost got something good, he
would smile just like this. She didn't want to admit it but Ghost and
Noah seemed the same and opposite at the same time.
"There are hidden treasures in this city, I can sense it." Instead of
hiding the truth, Noah told her the truth.
"You can sense treasures? What kind of treasures?"
"The kind that helps our fight with the five-headed serpent easier"
Noah said to Gaya.
"I was thinking about why those beasts don't attack Hell City, there
must be some reason behind it, and perhaps it's related to this
hidden treasure." He continued,
"We must get it before someone else does" Noah's eyes lit up.
"Don't get too excited, if no one unearthed the treasure to this day,
it must be guarded or hidden carefully. I doubt with our current
strength and abilities, we can get it" Gaya dampened Noah's
enthusiasm.
"I'm lucky" Noah smiled,
"Luck? Are you fucking kidding me? We can't depend on luck. You
know what Ghost said about luck"
"What?" Noah asked,
"He said that I don't believe in luck, I believe in hard work"
"Stop right there."

Right at this moment, a group of ten middle-aged men leaped out
from the dark bushes on their path, blocking Gaya and Noah.
"This is a robbery. You two, hand over all your belongings now! If
not, we will take it from your corpses!"
A man with a ferocious scar on his face threatened them. Gaya

looked at the ten men frowning. They were all at Core Formation
stage 10. It was true that they were ten and they were two and in
normal situations, ten Core Formation stage warriors had a higher
chance to defeat the Core Strengthening stage cultivator if they
fought with coordination.
However Gaya and Noah were not normal, they were two
abnormal monsters.
Looking at them, Noah burst out into laughter. Pretty good luck for
them to bump into some robbers right as they arrive in the city.
These ten men had pretty strong cultivation bases, therefore he
knew they would have more monster cores with them.
"Fuck you luck Noah"
"Welcome to Hell City. I heard about bandits in Hell City. Some

people group together and hide outside the main gate, and when
they see someone with weaker cultivation bases or loners like us,
they will strike and rob them.? I also heard these men are really
smart, they know about all the alliances, and their strengths, in
detail. They know who can be offended and who can't be offended
like the back of their palm. However, it seemed like today was
their bad day" Noah still had his usual calm smile on his face.
"If you give everything you steal,? I will go easy on you. You know
it'll be hard to survive in Fire Realm with broken bones and no
monster cores"
Noah shrugged his shoulders, then he looked at Gaya. He could

tell she was ready to take out her bow and kill them on the spot,
"Broken bones? Since you shitheads decided to rob me, I'm

gonna rob you and send you to another hell"
The ten men were startled to hear Gaya. Despite her cultivation
base, the ten of them were underestimating her because she was
a girl. They didn't know what she's capable of. The superiority of
numbers on their side blinded their eyes.
"What the fuck?! How could a bitch be so aggressive?"
"Hey, what the fuck? We are the ones robbing you, not the other
way around! Look carefully at the current situation and the
difference between our strengths! Hurry up, hand over all your
belongings, and we will spare your lives. If not… well, it's perfectly
normal for people to die in fire realm"
"Let's kill him and keep the bitch alive. She could entertain us for a
few days. It has been so long I felt the touch of a woman"
Noah turned to see Gaya shivering in anger. She was already in a

bad mood by hearing the truth about the innocent people she
killed, the state of her father, and him finding out her true identity.
These guys just poured oil into her flaming fury.
"Are you sure you want to piss her off more than you already
have?" Noah asked, rubbing his temples.
"Damn it, looks like these idiots don't even know how to judge a
situation. Let's teach them a lesson! Brothers, let's do it, strip
everything they got and kill him. We can keep the girl alive"
The man who looked like the leader of this group shouted out
loudly. Six men dashed towards Noah while four picked Gaya as
their target. They dashed at Gaya, licking their lips.
"Poison Flame" Gaya didn't even try to hide her spells. She just
went straight for the killing move. As far as she was concerned,
Noah could run away or die of poisoning.
The four who dashed at Gaya were stunned to see the emerald
green smoke coming out of her mouth. However, it was too late as
what they thought was a cloud of gas turned out to be a
poisonous flame. Noah didn't expect her to cast such a powerful
spell in such a short time too. He dashed away to avoid the flame.
The emerald green mixed with her poison was too powerful as the
four bandits melted in a few blinks of an eye. The other six were
stunned to see their colleagues die such a horrible death in such a
short time. Just as they were stunned, two silver arrows
materialized in Gaya's hands.
"DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!" she leaped into the air before landing

in front of two bandits who were a couple of meters away from
their colleagues.
When they realized she was in front of them, she stabbed the
arrows straight into their throats.
"DIE DIE DIE!" She withdrew the arrows as blood gushed out of
their throats yet she continued to stab them again and again. The
blood gushed out from their bodies painted her fair skin and the
silver dress red.
"Xanali was right. She is a murdering psychopath"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 351 - Father And Son
After spending a day without going anywhere enjoying the

tournament, the crowd finally got a 6hours break. Of course, the
crowd was reluctant to leave as the tournament was getting better
and better by rounds. Unlike the last tournament where the
participants had to find their own room which led to unnecessary
battles and enmity, this time the tournament committee gave room
for each participant in their own expenses.
At the moment, Michael was sitting in a lavish room. The large

bed on the left side corner was neatly tied like in 5-star hotels. The
room smelled of jasmine and freshness. In addition to the bed,
several pieces of furniture such as a large round table, sofas, and
seven feet mirrors were neatly arranged to make the room cozy
yet spacious.
The golden rays of light coming from the majestic chandelier lit the
room as Michael was sitting in front of the round table flaunting his
muscular upper body.
"Damn it, I need to fix this before going to bed" Michael looked at
the broken pieces of APD lying on the table. He was still drenched
in the blood of Alex.
When he fought with Alex, the APD got broken by Alex's spear. It
was nothing but broken pieces of junk metal.
"And where is this lizard?" He cursed after waiting for Nightmare

to show up. After waiting for half an hour, he could kinda guess
that the dragon had fallen asleep with Claire.
After the battles, he reeked of blood. He liked to take a shower

now more than anything else but unfortunately, the room had no
shower as the cultivators used Arch energy to clean their bodies.
Although using Arch energy was efficient and not tiresome,
Michael used to take showers. His mind always calmed when
standing under the shower, letting the water droplets wash the
blood and his tension away.
The most he could do at the moment was wipe off the blood from
his body and use the arch energy to clean himself.
"Fuck, I have no healing potion left" Michael cursed looking into

his system storage. It had been so long until he restocked the
90% pure healing potion in his system storage. He was pretty
busy dealing with Guardians and Hades.
"Okay I will fix the APD first and then brew a new badge of healing
potions," Michael thought in his mind. Sliding the chair back, he
seated himself. A few deep breaths made him feel slightly rested.
"That snake better come back to me in one piece" Michael

mumbled while cleaning the blood off of his arms. Usually, she
would take care of him by giving him playful massages and
cleaning the blood off of places he couldn't reach.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
His train of thoughts regarding Gaya's whereabouts got

interrupted by a trio of gentle knocks on the door. He willed the
system to show him the environmental map as he saw three
figures waiting outside the door. He activated his X-ray eyes to
see two female figures and one male figure.? One of the women
was at the Core Strengthening stage level 6 which caused a frown
to form on Michael's forehead.
"Who is there?" Michael asked while pulling the swords on the

table closer to him.
"Its…It's…" the man outside opened his mouth, changed his mind,
then closed his mouth.
"Ghost, It's Diana, Diana Winston"
When Michael heard the familiar voice, he was surprised.

However, after giving some thoughts about Andrews's situation,
he just sighed.
"Give-" Ghost wanted to say 'Give me a minute so he could put on

a robe to cover his body yet the man opened the door quickly, it
was more like he barged in.
Michael would have sent a bolt of lightning through the man if he

didn't know Diana. The man who abruptly opened the door was a
dashing man who seemed to be in his mid-thirties or late thirties.
He was wearing a rainy cloud gray V-neck shirt that covered his
obvious chiseled chest. On top of the V-neck, he draped on a long
white fur coat that looked cozy. His black pants contradicting the
white coat still formed an unusual alliance to make him look
stunning.
Just like Michael, the man sported a stubble beard. His shoulder-
length black hair wasn't too neatly combed nor too messy. His
bright blue eyes stared at Michael while his facial muscles
twitched to form a gentle smile.
The man seemed to have inherited all the good genes to be born
with a perfect jawline and a handsome face. It was obvious the
man was Diana's husband, Lord Ethan Winston. There was
something different about Diana though. Michael couldnt put his
finger into it but he knew something's different about her other
than her shocking jump from Core Formation stage to Core
Strengthening stage level 7 in such a short amount of time.
Everyone had their own secrets thus Michael chose not to mind
her secret of such heaven-defying cultivation speed. Beside Diana
was standing Emelda, the elder sister of Diana. For some reason,
she was avoiding direct eye contact with Michael.
"Lord Ethan I presume"? Michael reached his hand out to shake

but Ethan remained still looking speechless.
"Ethan" Diana stepped forwards before putting her hand on
Ethan's shoulder.
"Yeah" her touch quickly brought Ethan back from his daze,
"Ghost" Ethan shook his hand but to Michael's surprise, he

suddenly embraced him,
"Huh, what's happening?" Michael mumbled being squeezed by

Ethan,
"Ethan let him go" Emelda squealed,
"It's just he wants to thank you for everything you did for us. He's
just feeling a little bit emotional" Diana tried to make the situation
less awkward for Ghost. She didn't want Ghost to become
suspicious of them.
"You're getting blood on your coat, Lord Ethan" Ghost said as

Ethan finally realized what he had done on impulse and let
Michael go.
"Please, take a seat" Michael gestured at Ethan and the ladies

towards the sofa beside them.
He then quickly took a towel to wipe off the blood from his body.
After they seated themselves on the sofa, Michael pulled the
wooden chair and sat backward on the chair.
"Congratulations for getting yourself allied with the Kane Family,

Ghost" Diana smiled,
"Yeah after what happened to Alex, it would be good to have an

ally like Kane family behind you" Ethan nodded after Diana.
After Michael killed Alex, everyone thought Ghost was done for as
Alex was the next heir to the Fisher Family. However, as
promised, Ashton personally came to the battle stage and
announced that Ghost would be the best man for Adam Kane at
his wedding. In addition to announcing this, Ashton also made
sure everyone understood that Ghost is Kane's family and his
personal friend. Hence, even if the Fisher family tried to avenge
Michael by trying to kill him, they would face the wrath of the Kane
Family which would soon ally with House Oswen to become the
strongest family in the Royal land.
Celina fainted on the spot after screaming out loud Alex's name.
The MorningStar sect brought her away from the battle stage
before another battle between Ghost and Celina exploded. The
MorningStar sect had already lost a star disciple and they didn't
want to lose Celina too.
Many people including some disciples of MorningStar sided with

Ghost though since he did give Alex the chance to surrender.
Moreover, everyone knew Alex was going to kill him and never
would have given Ghost the chance to surrender.
The coordinators who oversaw the battle were gonna end up

biting the bullet as the committee would blame them for not
stopping the battle before Ghost killed Alex.
"Well Alex didn't give me any choice, did he?" Michael was still
cleaning the blood off of his arms while talking to them. He had no
idea that he was talking to his father, mother, and aunt. They were
his family. Diana and Ethan wanted to hug him tight as they could
and say he's their son. But how could they do that? They
abandoned him, at least Diana was thinking she had abandoned
him. However, only Emelda knew what really happened that night
when Noah and Ghost were born.
Every scar Diana saw in his body squeezed her heart, it felt like
someone slowly stabbing her heart with a rusty nail. His body was
riddled with scars.
Both the scars he got from the earth and the scars Abras got
started to appear on his body. He could remove those scars with
the help of a potion but Michael wanted them to remain as they
were because it reminded him of all the pain, struggles he went
through in his life.
"I doubt you left your security detail to come here to talk about
Alex," Ghost asked with a sliver of a smile on his face,
While Michael was wiping off the blood from his right chest, Ethan
noticed a 'J' shaped burn wound on Ghost's skin. That burn
wound seemed nastier than his other scars. It was almost a
couple of inches inside Ghost's skin.
"This one?" Michael looked at the scar on his right chest. It

brought some bad memories back before his eyes. IF anyone else
asked about it, Michael wouldn't have answered but since Ethan
and the Winston family could be another ally for him, he chose to
answer them.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 352 - We Meet Again
"I got this scar when I was nine years old" Michael touched the
scar.
"I'm not gonna tell my sad story but let's just say, liquid hot metal
is bad for skin" Michael didn't want to say the drug dealers poured
hot liquid metal on him because he dropped a pack of cocaine
when he was smuggling it under his shirt.
He still remembers the pain vividly. He cried so hard that after

lasting for a couple of minutes, he lost consciousness. When he
woke up the next day, he had a crude badge wrapped on his
chest. The drug dealers wouldn't care about his health, they just
wanted him to stay alive so they could use him as a mule in the
future. Until he was fourteen years old, he lived the life of a child
slave. Hence his hate for slavery.
"Who did this to you?" Ethan felt the air around him suddenly
getting chilly. If Michael was good at hiding his killing intent, Diana
was a master at it. Only because Ethan knew her so well that he
could sense the killing intent. To Michael, it seemed like she was
asking the question having no intention behind it.
"They are all dead," he said.
"When-" Emelda opened her mouth, changed her mind, and

closed her mouth.
"Why are you here, Lord Ethan?" He asked with a smile. He

wanted to know what they want even though he knew it would be
related to Andrews.
"Andrews' ' Unexpectedly, it was Emelda who answered Michael

quickly before Ethan or Diana could open their mouths.
Michael turned his gaze at the worried face of Emelda,
"Is that so?" Michael stopped wiping off the blood as he put the
white towel around his neck.
"But what can I do? I already saved him once, you can't expect
me to save him every time he gets into trouble. Even if I wanted
to, I can't do anything now"
Although Ghost still had a calm smile on his face, Ethan could see
the coldness in his eyes. If Andrews got in his way to get the
championship, there was no doubt that Ghost would do the worst
to Andrews in a heartbeat.
"But-"
"I am sorry Lady Emelda, if you really want to help Andrews, talk
to him. When he comes to the final to face me, if he wants what
he's fighting for, he should give his all to beat me" His words and
tone were not neither too polite nor rude, it was a warning.
The images of a seven feet tall man in full black metal armor
holding a war hammer flashed across Emelda's eyes. These were
the flashes she wanted to forget, these were the images that kept
her away for so many years, there were the images that gave
nightmares to her, these were the images the Skyhall showed her,
the DARK LORD.
She didn't want to believe her sister's son would be the dark lord
yet she couldn't help seeing the flashes of the Dark Lord in Ghost.
"We are not here to ask you to lose the final Ghost. We just don't
want anything to happen to Andrews' Diana placed her hand on
Emelda's shoulder, wordlessly telling her to calm down.
"Can we talk honestly Lady Diana, Lord Ethan, Lady Emelda?"
"That's what we want" Ethan quickly said,
Even if he couldn't be a father to Ghost, he at least wanted to be a

good friend to him.
"The Knight Andrews killed, what about him? What about his
family? There's no right or wrong in this world. Everyone's the
hero in their own story who does what's necessary to get what
they want, just like Andrews did" The three of them had no words
to rebuke, after all, Andrews did kill the knight.
"If Andrews wants to get what he wants, there is only one way"
Michael paused,
"What is that?" Emelda asked after a couple of moments of

awkward silence,
"Simple, he just has to kill me" Michael shrugged while the trio
was stunned to hear his words,
"Because he can't break me or make me surrender" Diana knew

very well what her son is capable of long before Ethan and
Emelda. However since the two of them saw what he did to Alex
and how easily he killed Alex, they knew there's no chance in hell
for Andrews to defeat Ghost.
To the last round, no one could guess his real power. Except for
his cultivation level, none knew what he was capable of. Even
Michael did not know how powerful he is right now after upgrading
all of his spells. He had spent 300,000 badass points to become
immune to all the attacks of a Core Formation stage warrior.
According to the system, he could even fight with a level 3 Core
Strengthening stage warrior without losing.
"What would…you…do to him?" Emelda asked after taking a

couple of long breaths,
"There are ways to win the round without killing the opponent,
Lady Emelda '' Michael smiled which sent a chill running through
Emelda's spine. She should have felt better after hearing his
answer but something caused her to be worried about Andrews
more.
"Master Gho-" Suddenly Ricky entered the room only to be

shocked by the three of them,
Forgive me MAster Ghost, I didn't know you were with guests"
Ricky gave a small bow towards Ethan, Diana, and Emelda,
"It's okay, what's the matter?" Ghost was glad Ricky interrupted
their conversation. It was obvious their love for Andrews would
eventually lead them to ask for something he couldn't offer them.
Although Ethan and Diana didn't seem like typical Lord and Lady,
Michael still didn't want to take a chance in pissing them off,
especially after knowing Noah's secret.
"There's someone here to meet you, she seems like she won't
leave until she meets you"
Ethan let out an awkward weird grinning, he was thinking about

his son having a one-night stand. It was pretty normal for boys like
him to enjoy the company of beauty from time to time. However,
Diana frowned. Just looking at Ghost's face, she could tell he was
surprised. Moreover, Diana heard about how deeply he and Aelia
are in love.
"It seems like we have to take our leave" Emelda quickly stood up.
She was too freaked out by Ghost as she wanted to get out of his
sight as quickly as possible.
She almost pulled Diana by her hands while Ethan walked

towards Ghost. Michael also stood up to send them on their way.
When Ethan got closer, he put his hand on Michael's shoulder,
"Take care of yourself" Just as these words escaped Ethan's

mouth, a warm sensation brushed past Michael as he felt
refreshed. He looked down to see all the bloodstains were gone.
"You too, Lord Ethan" Michael nodded. If Michael had known the
man in front of him was his father, he would have reacted
differently. Right at this moment, Ethan was a caring man in
Ghost's eyes.
After the trio left Michael's room, he put on a black full sleeve V
Neck T-shirt and rolled the sleeves up to his elbow. He was
looking at his face in the mirror while whistling some random tone
that came to his mind.
Suddenly though, his whistling stopped as his brows creased. He
sensed a powerful entity approaching him, he willed the system to
show the Environmental scanning map to see an overwhelmingly
powerful entity slowly walking towards him.
"The moment something goes wrong, buy and activate the

teleportation scroll system"
[As you wish]
The system replied to his telepathic order. He didn't turn back to

see the door but took the swords in his hands just in case. In a
couple of moments that lasted longer than he liked, a figure
draped in dark brown robes entered the room. The figure was
covered from head to toe as there wasn't a spot that showed the
figure's skin. The darkness provided by the hood and cloaked
completely hid the face but not for long as the figure slowly
removed the hood covering their head,
"Lailah Alden" Michael looked at the beautiful face staring at him

in the mirror. Ever since he came to this world, he had seen
countless beauties yet Lailah was the only one who could
challenge Gaya in terms of beauty. This woman had the womanly
grace that Gaya lacked.
"Divine wrath"
In a blink of an eye, Lailah raised her hand, sending a powerful

blast of golden energy at Michael.
"Lightning Dash"
Despite Michael's quick reflexes, the golden energy blast hit him
yet he felt nothing.
Laila's cold expression soon took a turn to show the expression of

utter shock. The mirror behind Michael obliterated into millions of
light specks when the energy blast hit the mirror.
After all these times, she hoped she could hurt him unlike when
she was inside the Treacherous ocean. But she was proven
wrong, he still seemed to be immune to her attacks. Regardless of
her bitter understanding, she wanted to cast another spell. Yet
when she moved her lips, she felt cold metal on her throat as she
saw Ghost standing only a couple of inches away from her. She
could feel his hot breath on her face,
"Do that again if you want me to cut Andrews into pieces"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 353 - Good Vs Evil
Good vs Evil
A few moments after keeping the sword against her flawless

throat, Michael threw the swords on the bed. No matter how
powerful she was, she wouldn't be able to hurt him, he knew that.
Hence, he didn't feel threatened by her, not even a bit.
"It was a good mirror, a pity" Michael kicked the pieces of broken
mirror away before stomping the ground. The force of his stomp
made the chair lying on the ground stand straight as he sat
looking at Claire. He then put his legs on the table before him.
"How did you know?" Lailah asked him in a cold voice.
"A Body Strengthening stage cultivator suddenly became Core

Formation level 2 and you show up at my doorstep. I connected
the dots and made a guess. It seems like I was right" Michael
leaned back on the chair supporting his head with his hands,
"Why are you here Laila? You know you can't hurt me"
"Yes," Lailah stepped forward. Looking directly into his eyes, she
snapped her fingers as the door shut close,
"I don't know why I can't hurt you but that doesn't mean I can't hurt
you at all" For the first time, Michael saw her smile. Yet it was not
a smile that radiated warmth. On the contrary, it was cold.
"You really seem to care about what's her name, the little one,
Cindy. I cant start with her, then kill your precious girlfriend" She
walked towards the window with her hands behind her back.
"I'd probably become tired and finish off your entire sect. Their
deaths will be quick and painless, after all, they don't deserve a
painful death as you do. Then you might feel how I feel after you
took my purity" She turned back to see Ghost's expression. She
hoped to see him become enraged yet all she saw was a calm
smile.
"Obviously I can't stop you if you want to do everything you said.

However, what I can do is remain patient. If I put my mind to it, I
can be patient for years, decades, even centuries" As he was
speaking, he took one sword and brushed it using the other
sword. He seemed like a butcher sharpening his cleaver,
"I'll wait for you to forget about me and become happy. Then when
you are laughing and being really happy, I will come for you. I will
start with you precious disciples first, then everyone on your
island, then everyone you care about, next everyone who cares
about you, and cherry on top, everyone you know. And all of their
deaths will be long and painful"
Laila's heart shuddered. She could feel that he meant every single
word he spoke.
"Finally when you feel utter despair, when your heart becomes
numb seeing all those deaths, when you want nothing but death, I
will kill you. And I can get really creative when it comes to killing
people" the smile he let out after finishing his words sent a chill
running through her spine. She had never sensed such evilness
from a person ever before. It seemed like the devil king himself
was sitting in front of her.
"You are not a human, you're a demon child"
"Hahahahaha, demon child?" Michael let out a burst of devilish

laughter that echoed through the room.
"Honey, sometimes devil himself sits back on his throne and

admires my work, I'm his fucking competition" Laila opened her
mouth, changed her mind, and stood in silence. For a few
moments, she couldn't utter a word.
"I may not be evil like you but what made you think I care about
Andrews?" Lailah asked. Her cold tone didn't change at all.
"Because you belong to the category of good people. If you
weren't one, you wouldn't have been playing the mysterious
doctor in Royal land, tending to the sick and weak"
Seeing the smirk on his face, Lailah felt her anger boiling within
her. She wanted nothing but to hurt him. Nonetheless, she knew
he was right. She was not nearly as evil as him. In her whole life,
she helped people, never hurt them.
"When Andrew's step onto the battle stage, I will break him. The
final isn't going to be an interesting one, it's going to be one-sided
ass kickery"
"Humph," She snickered,
"He will defeat you because he's fighting for love. True love can
overcome anything"
"Hahahahaha"
She clenched her fist so hard seeing him burst into laughter yet
again as her nails started to plunge into her soft skin.
"True love can overcome anything? Hahahaha. Are you delirious?

Honey love means shit in front of power. I am gonna show it to
you in the finals"
"You devil, don't you have any feelings at all? You never showed
any feelings when you took my purity, you never even flinched an
eye when I told you I would kill the people who care about you. Do
you even care about anyone in this world other than yourself?"?
Her words get colder and colder. For a few moments, Michael
remained silent as she went on,
"You act as if you care about those people but you don't give a
damn about them. You are putting up a facade, a facade to hide
the darkness inside you. You want everyone to believe you're a
human yet you're not one"
"You're here to make a report on me?" Michael tilted his head,

"I'm gonna stop you. Until I came here, I was just returning a
favor. But now, I'm going to do everything in my power to help
Andrews win the championship. I'm gonna take this championship
away from you"? She stomped the ground as the bits and pieces
of mirror brushed past Michael, giving him a warning.
At this moment, she would do anything to wipe off that smirk from
his face. After this conversation, she almost went back on her
decisions that would change her life forever.
"Poor guy is gonna end up as collateral"? Michael really felt pity

for Andrews. In the game between him and Lailah, it's Andrews
who was going to end up hurt. As far as Michael was concerned,
no matter what Lailah does, he had the system with him. After
upgrading the skills and spells, he was basically a god among
Core Formation warriors.
"In the battle between good and evil, good always wins.
Remember this" As she said, she flicked her wrist as a golden ray
of light enveloped her body. The light was so bright that it made
Michael close his eyes. When he opened his eyes after a couple
of seconds, she was nowhere to be seen.
"Is she watching too many dramas or something?" Michael

snickered.
After Lailah left, Michael focused on fixing the APD and brewing
another batch of healing potions. The two tasks took almost two
hours as he went to bed way past midnight. His brain and body
screamed at him to take a rest. He could have meditated like the
rest of the world but he chose to sleep like he's used to.? Even
after coming to this world, he maintained some of the habits of the
earth such as showering, sleeping, and enjoying every earthly
pleasure he could. Despite breaking several peoples' bones,
brutally killing Alex and challenging Lailah, when he closed his
eyes on the bed, he slept like a baby.
*******************************
The next morning, the curtains added an orange glow to the

morning light, every morning a perfect sunrise. The brightness of
the morning made him slowly open his eyes. The scenery
reminded Michael of the times he slept in a beach hut, watching
the ocean emerge under the golden shimmer. For a moment his
mind conjured the rhythmic waves, soft on the sandy shore, and
felt his heartbeat at the same slow pace. He breathed in deeply. A
new day in this world had begun. He reached his hand out to the
fabric, noticing how up close the light pours through every open
space between fibers, no different from how it once came through
the beach-hut walls, illuminating like brilliant fireflies each dawn.
The material was warm beneath his fingers, and when the sun
flooded the room, painting the colors anew, he felt a little of those
golden rays soak into his skin.
Getting up from the bed, Michael willed the system to give him the
leather pouch that contained water. After leaving the bed, he
continued his usual schedule such as brushing his teeth, combing
his hair to look good in the mirror when beating the crap out of
people. Since they had no shower, he cleaned himself using the
Arch energy before putting up a new black turtleneck, a new long
coat, and a new pair of boots. Without a worry, he bought
everything from the system as he had thousands of badass points
to spend.
Although he bought a new long coat, he cut the embodiment Gaya

stitched in his torn long coat and attached it to the new coat with
the help of the system. It might not look like a 'G' as she intended
it to look, but it reminded Michael of Gaya. Unlike Lailah said, he
cared about people, especially Gaya. There wasn't a single
minute passed by without him missing the snake.? He gently
brushed the embodiment on his chest as a smile emerged on his
face. Soon, the smile turned into a snicker,
"We will meet soon, young master, hahahahah"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 354 - Third Round
The arena was louder than the first day. Everyone thought the first
round would be boring yet all of them were proven wrong.
Because of Ghost, everyone was thrilled to witness the Core
Formation tournament rather than the Body Strengthening one. As
the time passed by, the crowd was settling into their seats. Just in
a couple of minutes, the entire arena was filled once again. There
wasn't a single empty chair in the arena.
"Welcome back to the championship tournaments ladies and

gentlemen" Ishihara's sweet voice echoed through the arena.
"Without further adieu, let's get into the structure of the third
round" James Hall commented looking at Darius.
"As you all know, twenty participants qualified for the third round.
Among the twenty, just like the second round, we will have one on
one battles. Ten participants will face the other ten. The winners
will be qualified for the quarter-final" Darius stopped
commentating for a few moments to let the information sink into
their heads.
"Until now, the rounds were designed to simulate the environment

of the Southern continent. Moving forward, the participants won't
be restricted from using spells, pills, and potions. In a real battle,
you must use every opportunity to enhance your prowess. A
single potion might decide the outcome of a battle between two
equally powerful cultivators"
Darius started to explain the rules and regulations of the third

round.
"Can't hear truer words. When two cultivators at the same

cultivation stage and level fight, what would decide the victory is
who has a better spell, who has a better weapon, and who has
better armor. You'd either need money or luck to get better things.
It's not fair for everyone but life's not fair"
Michael leaned on the wall, listening to James Hall's words. What

he said was indeed true, life is not far. He agreed with everything
James Hall said except the part where he made it seem like one
could get anything with money or luck. It was not true at all
because without hard work, money and luck meant shit.
When Michael came to this world he had nothing, now he had an

empire in the making. Of course, the system played a crucial role
but even if he hadn't gotten the system, he would have still
reached the top. What system he had when he became the
number one hitman in the world?
"After recent events, the tournament committee decided to put a

healing array on the battle stage," Darius said. His words caused
a commotion among the crowd. Some knew about the healing
array while most of the commoners didn't even hear about a
healing array before.
"Can you explain to people like me who have no idea what you
are talking about Darius?" Ishihara chuckled,
"It performs a simple action actually. It'll keep the participants from
dying. If you're badly injured and only a few inches away from
walking into the death's door, the healing array will provide just
enough healing to keep you alive until helps arrives"
After Darius explained about the healing array's function, Ishihara

question,
"What about killing blows? If a participant tried to cleave the head

off of another participant, will the healing array stop him or her?"
"Preventing that from happening is the coordinators' job. Although

sometimes death is inevitable in competitions like this, we still
need to do everything in our power to stop the participants from
killing each other. This is a competition, not a gladiator arena"
Darius looked at the Morning Star pavilion and Sunrise sect
pavilion when he spoke those words. It was obvious he was telling
this to Ghost and Celina who was burning in rage.
The commentators gave the crowd a few moments to chit-chat

and become silent. After the noises died down, they moved onto
the next thing
"Our VIPs and judges will determine who fights who" Michael
smiled. As a small favor for killing Alex, Michael already told
Ashton who he wants to fight. However, unlike his battle with Alex,
the upcoming battle wouldn't be very long. Michael was thinking of
wiping the floor with his opponent.
Through the crowd cheering in front of him, Michael saw Lailah

standing among the commoners with her cloak covering her face.
Since no one could see a person's cultivation level anymore, the
people were thinking that Ashton was the only Fusion Stage
cultivator in the arena.
"We will name the participants who will face each other. Please
come to the battle stage after hearing your name" Ishihara said.
Everyone who was seated leaned forward in anticipation. All of

their eyes were on the commentators to see who they were going
to call first.
"Mareese from Aragoth and Sabrina from Holdy Trident Academy"
The crowd erupted hearing the names. Both Aragoth and Holy
Trident were prominent sects in their continents. Aragoth was on
par with either of the three big sects in Elon while Holy Trident
Academy was one of the powerful sects for girls in Ozer
Continent.
Michael wasn't even slightly interested in the battle regardless of

knowing Sabrina. As Sabrina and Mareese, who was a brown-
haired youngster in his late twenties walking towards the battle
stage, the runes captured everyone's expressions and
broadcasted them in the giant mirrors.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
Despite the battle being between Sabrina and Mareese, when the
mirror broadcasted Michael's face, the crowd let out thunderous
cheers. Even Michael was surprised by their cheers.
"It seems like they are really loving what I'm giving them"
The badass points rapidly increased without even him lifting a

finger.
"Man, I love this tournament" He reminded himself.
Standing on the opposite side of the arena, Andrews sulked

seeing the response Ghost was getting. The battle prowess and
brutality he showed during the fight with Alex made Andrews
shudder. Yet he knew he couldn't back down. The only thing that
kept Andrews calm was the promise Lailah Alden made to him.
Although Ghost was powerful, Andrews had some things that

Ghost lacked, a supportive family behind him and true love.
Andrews believed his love would give him the strength to defeat
Ghost if he was to meet him on the battle stage.
"Let the battle begin" When Sabrina and Mareese reached the
battle stage, the commentators announced. The cheers died down
as the crowd stared at the fight making less noise.
*******************************
After the response Michael's last fight received, the tournament

committee put Ghost's fight at last. This kept the crowd on the
edge of their seats. Each fight lasted longer than everyone
expected. Hence, by the time for the last fight of the Core
Formation stage, the sun had already fallen into the horizon,
letting the darkness paint the sky black.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
The crowd couldn't wait any longer as they started to chant the
name 'Ghost'. Except for MorningStar fans, everyone else joined
in the chant to produce thunderous cheers for Michael. It was
evident that after this tournament, everyone would come to know
the name 'Ghost' if they hadn't heard it before. Plus, he would
become an exception among the Alchemists.
Never before in the history of the championship tournaments has

an Alchemist won the title. After all, Alchemists were believed to
be weak in combat, just like the other specialists such as rune
masters, healers, blacksmiths.
On the VIP seatings, Alicia was shaking her legs as she felt
extremely nervous despite her efforts to stay calm. Norvin liked to
annoy Alicia all the time but at this moment, even he stayed quiet.
Everyone who loved Alicia shared the same nervousness. Finally,

after so much wait, James Hall announced the next battle as the
crowd erupted and jumped up from their seats in excitement
"Peter Stone and Ghost, please come to the battle stage" Even
James Hall rushed the name announcing as he never even said
the name Sunrise sect.
Alicia's heart shuddered. She looked up to see her brother landing

on the battle stage. She searched the sky for Ghost. It took her
several seconds to see him slowly descending onto the battle
stage. His black long coat fluttered in the wind as he still wasn't in
battle armor but wore his usual black clothes.
When Michael landed on the battle stage, he ignored all the

cheers and focused his gaze on Peter. Although Michael stunned
everyone with his power, Peter seemed indifferent. He seemed
like he was bored.
"I always knew Alex was just all bark and no bite" Peter sounded
extremely prideful. He never even showed a shred of respect
towards Alex. Even Michael respected Alex as a warrior.
If these words were spoken by someone else, the crowd would

have become crazy and booed Peter. However, they all witnessed
Alex's battles. Peter held the highest number of knockouts in the
first round and finished the battle in just one minute in the second
round. He was the dark horse in the competition.
"Unlike you, Alex was a true warrior. He never ambushed people

in the dark and gathered information about strengths and
weaknesses"
Peter's nonchalant look completely took a 180 turn when he heard

Ghost's words.
"I did my research after your little visit. People call you the Young
Master"
The moment Michael said this, Alicia felt a chill running through
her spine.
As a Guardian, she knew about the mysterious 'Young Master'.

There was a file on the young master in the Guardian Guild.
Many nobles who got ambushed and defeated by the young

master were looking for his real identity. If Peter was the Young
Master, he was in deep trouble.
*******************************


chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 355 - The God Of
Darkness I
(21 years ago)
The forest was huge, thick, and primal. Its canopy was ruled by
giant banyan, ash, buxus, giant sequoia, sitka spruce and various
monstrous trees. The forest was ancient as not a shred of sunlight
could peek through the canopy. One could not even tell if its day
as the forest looked darker than any moonless night. Coiling
branches drooped from the occasional tree, and a variety of
illuminating flowers, which was the only light source one could find
in the forest, caught attention in the otherwise green scenery.
A clamor of beastly noises, predominantly those of varmint,

echoed in the air and formed a chaotic orchestra with the sounds
of a fight over dominance between larger animals.
"Arrrgghhhhhh" suddenly the scream of a young woman disturbed

the ruling silence,
"Hold on dear, I will get you help" Another woman's voice could be
heard after the first scream. In the light of blue fluorescent
mushrooms and flowers, a girl lay on the lap of another girl. The
girl on the ground seemed young and extremely beautiful but at
the moment, mud and dirt soiled her beauty and the raven black
hair. Her stomach had a bump, a bump that any woman would
treasure with her life, her children. She was pregnant with twins.
The girl holding the pregnant girl had tears gushing out of her
eyes. She was holding the pregnant girl's hand tightly to help her
fight the pain.
The pregnant girl was holding the girl's hand in one hand and
holding a black sword in the other.
The two girls were none other than Diana and Emelda. Twenty-
one years old, they were Harrier and Erena.
"I can't…let them…take…my…sons" Diana grunted in pain. The

words barely escaped her mouth.
"ARGH" Diana felt her twins kicking her belly from within her. This
pain should bring her joy yet at the moment, it was anything but
joy.
The pain she endured was so excruciating as the veins in her

eyes popped. In addition to bloodshot eyes, her nose began to
bleed. Emelda shuddered to see Diana bleeding through her nose
and eyes, it was not normal during labor. However, the twins
within Diana were two gods, God of Light and God of Darkness.
"ARGHH!" Diana grunted again as Emelda saw one of Diana's

eyes turn completely white while the other turn pitch black.
"HELP US!" Emelda's scream echoed through the forest for miles.
Yet no one heard her cry for help.
"There you are" suddenly a calm voice reverberated in the forest.

The entire forest surrounding them gradually became brighter and
brighter.
Slowly, three figures shrouded in white light descended through

the dark canopy in front of Diana and Emelda. They radiated a
holy light that made them look like deities. Soon out of the white
radiance, several figures appeared. These figures were humans
but wore cobalt blue armor. The armor completely covered them
from head to toe. Each armor had glistening runes and
engravings. Yet it wasn't the armor that would attract someone's
attention, it was the wings sticking out of their back. They looked
like angels.
"Angels, bring her to us" One of the figures who were shrouded in
the light ordered the angels. The voice sounded robotic. Hence
Emelda couldn't even tell if it was a woman or a man. She had
bigger problems than finding out the gender of the figures.
The Angels rushed at Diana with a flap of their wings. While they
were flying towards Diana, golden swords materialized in their
hands.
"NO" Despite the excruciating pain, Diana grunted while picking

herself up from the ground. She was kneeling on the ground while
supporting herself with the sword in her hand.
Whoosh!
Among the twelve angels, one angel swung its sword at Diana.
Although Diana knew it wasn't their intention to kill her, she would
rather die than let them take her sons. When the golden sword
was about to cut her in the shoulder, Diana deflected the golden
sword before punching the angel in the face.
Cling!
The clash of their swords created an ear-piercing sound. Despite

her weak state, Diana's punch had enough force behind it to send
the angel fluttering behind. The angel left a trail of pearl white
feathers along the way. The stumbling angel soon hit another
angel and fell down to the ground.
The Angels witnessed Diana's power before, she was the best of
them yet when they saw her fight in her current status, they were
stunned.
"Argh"
"Harry!" Emelda shouted when she saw Diana clench her

stomach with one hand.? Diana almost fell onto the ground in pain
but she mustered every single bit of strength she could to stand
still.
"I…won't…let…you…" As she was grunting looking at the three

figures enshrouded in the radiant light, another angel rushed at
her. The three figures are still hovering in the air above her and
looking at a pregnant girl's struggle without raising a finger.
Whoosh!
With a powerful flap, the angel dashed at her.
"ARGH!" Just as Diana wanted to evade, the twins inside her

kicked her belly. The pain slowed her move down but her training
and skill enabled her to evade the sword just in time before the
golden sword pierced her chest. Although she avoided the major
wound, the golden sword still cut her in the right shoulder.
The other angels also rushed at Diana from every direction. They
circled her.
"Obliterenum!"? Diana held the black sword in her both hands

before stabbing the ground beneath her. The spell created a
powerful beam of energy that knocked a few of the angels from
the sky immediately. The energy beam produced by her sword
glimmered in silver, not the usual silver but the mix of pure white
and pure black.
Five of the angels lost almost all the feathers in their wings while
the rest fluttered backward due to the force of the blast.
"ARGH" Diana felt her sons kick her yet again. This time, she fell
down to the ground on one knee.
"HARRY!"
"Rrrr….run" Diana grunted the words looking at Emelda. She

didn't know how long she could hold off the angels. Right at the
moment, she was prepared to sacrifice herself to save her sons.
She wanted to hold them off until her mentor arrived. If anyone
could save them, it was her mentor.
Clenching her pregnant stomach in one hand, Diana picked

herself up once again. Her legs were shaking in pain. She could
barely hold onto her sword. If she wasn't pregnant and poisoned
by her maid, she would have ripped the wings off the angels and
sent them to hell. These angels trained with her but they were not
at all powerful as Diana.? Although they were all at the Core
Formation stage including Diana, she had the strength to fight a
Soul Refining Stage warrior head to head.? She was a heaven-
defying existence. Normal cultivation standards did not apply to
her. That was what brought Skyhall's attention towards her in the
first place. According to her mentor, she somehow inherited some
of the energy particles of an Ancient God, Arrora. Even her
mentor had no answer how she ended up with an Ancient God's
energy particles in her body. The Skyhall was considered to be
the most powerful existence yet even they knew very little about
the Ancient Gods.
"Twinkle" Diana picked herself up while wiping off the blood

leaking out of her nostrils.
"Twinkle" she stepped forwards towards a fallen angel. Since the

angel lost most of its feathers, it struggled to stand up.? Diana
recited the poem to lessen the pain as well as remind herself that
there's always light after darkness.? The fallen angel struggled
violently to dash away from Diana but it was too late. Diana
stomped the angel in the leg, instantly crushing the bones
beneath the armor. The armor crushing the bones let out a
crunching noise.
"Little STAR!"? Just as the word 'Star' escaped Diana's mouth,

she plunged the black sword through the angel's helmet. Finally,
the angel's frantic struggle had been stopped by her sword.
Diana slowly pulled back her black sword. She swung as the
blood of the angel splattered on the ground. The black long coat
Diana was wearing fluttered in the wind along with her raven black
hair. Coupled with her bleeding eyes and noses formed a terrifying
look as it sent a chill running through the angels' spines.
The remaining angels finally picked themselves again to strike her

down.
"Smite her" as the angels ascended to the air once again, one of
the figures ordered the angels. In a blink of an eye, the golden
swords in the angels' hands disappeared. The very next moment,
they all conjured a ball of the golden orb that had crackles of
golden lightning dancing around.
"NO!" Seeing the angels were about to do something horrible to

her little sister, Emelda ran towards Diana. The angels or the three
figures didn't seem to give a damn about Emelda. The angels
raised their hands above their heads.
"Eren…save…yourself…" tears gushed out of Diana's eyes. She

wanted to hold off the angels until her mentor arrived except he
didn't arrive. Diana wanted to kill herself before they took her alive
but she knew if she killed herself, they would take away her sons.
She was in a situation where she had no answer.? If she tried to
surrender, the Skyhall would kill one of her sons. If she didn't, they
would kill her and her entire family.
Despite their threats, Diana was not ready to give up her son. She
closed her eyes praying to the gods to save her sons and her
family from the Skyhall.
*******************************
I strongly recommend my readers listen to Harriet Hunt theme

music while reading the chapter. It's in my discord server. Trust
me, it will strike you differently.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 356 - The God Of
Darkness II
"Don't" Just as Diana was trying to stand up to save her sons

inside her womb, one of the three white figures spoke.
"We can't risk smiting her. Who knows what the Dark Lord inside
her is capable of? What if he drew the angels' energy" The white
figure asked the other two as silence enveloped the forest for a
few moments.
"You're right, we'll do this the messy way" Diana's heart skipped a
beat when she heard the white figure.
"Angels stand down" The golden orb in their hands faded away
after hearing the order. The angels flapped their wings to back
away from Diana.
"Protem" The word reverberated through the forest as a powerful

blast of sonic wave appeared out of the three figures.
"Harry!" Emelda screamed when she saw the sonic waves blast
Diana into a tree several meters away from her. Diana hit the tree
with such force that her body created a hole in the tree.
"Argrr" Diana coughed up mouth full of blood as she started to feel

her consciousness drift away.
"You bastards!" Emelda's anger exploded as she rushed at the

nearby angel to attack with her hands reaching out. She was
prepared to rip off the wings of the angels. In her anger, she forgot
about the power gap between her and an angel.
Just as anyone would expect, when Emelda got closer to the

angel, it just slapped Emelda before wrapping its metal-covered
arm around her. She struggled violently to free help but she was
too weak and the angel was too strong.
Through her blurry vision, Diana saw the three figures floating
towards her. She turned her head sideways to see her sword lying
on the ground several meters away from her. She tried to move
her body yet she couldn't even move her finger.
"You made us look and behave like animals Harriet"
Diana couldn't see which of the three white figures spoke. It took
everything in her to stay awake. She knew if she closed her eyes,
they would take away her sons.
"One of the twins is the Dark Lord Harriet. Why can't you
understand the danger the world is in?"
"My…son…is…not…evil" Diana coughed up blood while barely

uttering the words.
"Stupid bitch, he's gonna create hell in this world. We have seen
the future" One of the three figures seemed to have lost their
calmness. The overwhelming anger could be sensed in their
voice.
As they got to hand's reach distance from Diana, a white extended

from the white figure floating in the middle. The white figure
landed on the ground as when their feet touched the ground, the
white radiant around the figure slightly faded away to reveal a
beautiful woman's face. It was just for a split second but Diana
saw a graceful lady through the white light. As Diana tried to
struggle, the white radiant around the lady slowly diminished. At
the moment, Diana could vaguely see the human features such as
hands and legs but not the entire body. The bright light prevented
Diana from seeing the lady's face.
The pair of white hands reached out for Diana's pregnant belly.
When the hands touched her belly, she felt electricity running
through her entire body. She felt numb. The black dress on her
belly turned into nothing but ashes and disappeared into the air.
Her pregnant belly was exposed.
"It will only hurt for a moment, Harriet"
"NO!" Emdla screamed as the white figure ran the white light from
Diana's belly from one end to another. The light moved slowly and
gently as a trail of blood appeared on Diana's belly. The lady was
cutting Diana open without a shred of mercy.
"HELP!" Emelda screamed as loud as she could,
"Tranqucto" While the lady was cutting Diana open, another white
figure uttered the word as Emelda's scream was cut abruptly. The
very next moment, Emelda tried to scream but her lips refused to
move, her entire body refused to move. She saw everything that's
happening before her but couldn't move a muscle. Simply, she
was paralyzed.
"Stop!" Suddenly another voice echoed through the forest. The

lady who was cutting open Diana froze as the figures turned back
to see another white figure materialize in the air several meters
away from her.
The white radiance around the newly appeared figure was several
times brighter than the three. When he appeared, one could even
hear a low-frequency whittling noise. The trees around them
stopped waving to the wind, the time around them looked like it
stopped. The newly arrived white figure slowly descended to the
ground. When the figure touched the ground, the light covering
the figure slowly faded away to reveal a tall, thin, and very old
man. Judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both
long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a
white cloak that swept the ground. His brown eyes were light,
bright, and sparkling behind full moon spectacles. There was a
two-inch cut on his forehead as though someone cut his forehead
using a sharp burning weapon.
"What are you doing here, Wulfric?" the lady who was cutting up
Diana asked the old man.
"You are cutting open my disciples despite her current condition

and still asking me what I am doing here?"
"Mentor" Diana's mind finally relaxed a bit seeing her mentor.
"You know who is inside her. You saw the chaos and destruction
the Dark Lord will bring to this world" The lady asked,
"Yes, I saw. But you seemed to forget the other twin, the God of
Light"
Wulfric gracefully walked towards them. The three figures made

way for him to reach Harriet. He knelt down before Harriet,
"What was your plan, child? Kill yourself? You know if you killed
yourself, they will still take away your sons" As he questioned
Diana, he gently touched her forehead as the wounds started to
disappear but not completely. He seemed calm but Wulfric felt a
powerful force fighting his energy from within Diana. It was dark
energy, nothing like he had ever seen or sensed.
He could also sense another energy suppressing the dark energy.

If it wasn't for the suppressing energy, he doubted Diana could
have survived this long.
"I won't let them take my sons" Diana could now speak more
clearly as WUlfrci healed her.
"You have a choice to make child, the Skyhall will take your son
no matter what. They will kill your entire family to do that. Agree to
give up your son and I will make them leave you and your family
alone" These words were only heard by Diana. He talked to Diana
telepathically.
"I'd rather kill my sons with my own hands and go to hell before
giving up my son. Death is better for my sons than letting these
monsters take them"
Diana couldn't even imagine what they would do to her sons if she
handed them over to the SKyhall. Even though they were asking
for only one of her sons, she was not going to give up on her son.
"You're a good mother, child. You still refuse to give up your son
even after knowing he would grow up to be the Dark Lord"
"My son is not evil and he won't become one. I can still kill myself
and my sons with the spell you taught me mentor" Diana
telepathically talked to Wulfric. He let out a gentle smile as though
he was expecting Diana to fight till the end for her son.
"Would you rather kill you and your sons rather than give up one
to save you and your other son?" This time, he didn't talk
telepathically. Everyone heard his words loud and clear,
"Yes. I know what Skyhall is capable of. If I gave up my son to

save another, they would make my son suffer and I can't raise
another one knowing I gave up on one to save another. I won't
forgive myself. So yes, I would rather kill them both than give up
my one son" tears rolled out of Diana's eyes like a flood.
"A mother's love" Wulfric smiled. Diana felt a warm wave surging
from her toe to head. The next moment, she closed her eyes.
"She has a strong love for her sons, you can't perform the ritual if
she still had a strong bond with the Dark Lord" Wulfric turned to
look at the other three white figures.
"What ritual?" the lady asked,
"I'm not talking to you" Wulfric raised his right arm as the silver
ring he wore in his middle finger sparkled. Soon an ethereal form
of a man in his early fifties appeared in front of them.
"I am talking to the Supreme Guardian Andreas," Considering the

white radiance enveloping the three figures, no one could see the
stunned look on their faces when they heard Wulfric,
"You need to perform the forbidden spell Wulfric," Andreas said,

ignoring the three figures standing near him. Although he seemed
to ignore them, he wanted to kill the three of them for what they
did to Harriet.
The ruthlessness and inhumane way of conducting things

prevented the Guardians from working with the Skyhall in the first
place.
"It seems we have no other choice" Wulfric sighed,
"Altering her memories and the mind is the only way to make her
give on her son Wulfric, you know that"
"A mother's love is not something we can change on a whim, the

forbidden spell could only suppress her love for her child for a
short amount of time. As time passes, her love would resurface"?
He stopped for a moment to turn back and look at the
unconscious Diana.
"Only if she sees her son again. The ritual can send him to a place
where he won't return ever"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 357 - A Mother’s Love
"What are you waiting for Wulfric? Cast the spell" Andreas floated
in the air before Wulfric. Andreas talked to Wulfric as though there
was no one around them. He completely ignored the trio of
Skyhall elders and the angels.
"We might just be pushing that child onto the path to become a
Dark Lord Andreas" Wulfric sighed. He looked at the unconscious
Diana once again and went on,
"Every child is innocent when it's born Andreas" ALthough Wulfric

saw glimpses of a future where the world is ruled by the Dark Lord
and knew he can't change the destiny, he still felt reluctant to
change Diana's memories.
"Not this child, Wulfric, you know that. This is the only way, three
thousand years ago, the gods wouldn't have created an entire
universe with no energy to trap this child if they didn't think this
child is evil beyond measures" Just reminiscing the future the
gods showed the guardians made Andreas shudder in fear.
"So it's true? There's a prison for the Dark Lord" hearing Andreas
and Wulfric from the sidelines, the lady in white light asked,
"It is true" Wulfric sighed,
"Only the gods themselves can travel into the black universe.
Prison Earth is not a place we mortals could venture to" The mere
name Earth sent a chill running through Wulfric's spine.
He was there when the gods created an entire universe with no

energy at all. They put the world named Earth in the middle of the
universe. It was a prison created to hold the Dark Lord. Even after
three thousand years, Andreas didn't know why the gods could
simply kill the Dark Lord. He refused to believe that the Dark Lord
is stronger than the gods.
"As long as she has a bond with the Dark Lord, he can't leave this
world Wulfric. We must severe the bond between the Dark Lord
and her" Andreas floated to look Wulfric in the eyes,
"As I said before, the Forbidden spell will only suppress her
motherly love for a short amount of time, Andreas. A mother's love
is the most powerful spell"
"It's enough for us to complete the ritual Wulfric"
Wulfric sighed before nodding. Andreas was preparing for this

ritual for three thousand years with the Skyhall. He sacrificed his
body three thousand years ago to perform the ritual. Wulfric didn't
want his sacrifice to be in vain.
After Wulfric nodded, Emelda saw Andreas's eyes lock onto her.
"Bring her to us, we need her to perform the forbidden spell,"

Andreas said,
"Erael, wake her up, we have to start casting the spell before the
twins are born," Andreas said looking at the lady in white. He
wanted to send the Dark Lord away but wanted to keep Diana and
her family safe from the Skyhall. After all, they were innocent and
the other twin might be the only person alive to stop the Dark Lord
if the Dark Lord somehow finds his way back to this world.
"Remember Andreas, Darkness doesn't always mean evil, just as

light doesn't equate to good" Wulfric's words sounded more like a
warning to Andreas. If it was up to Wulfric, he would have let the
child stay with its family. After all, he believed the family and the
child's mother's love would change his destiny.
The following thirty days were hell to Emelda. She saw the spell
making her sister go crazy. Even after giving birth to the twins,
they only let Diana care for Noah. They kept the other one who
Diana named Dean away from her. The Supreme Guardian and
Wulfric spent thirty days casting the spell on Diana. They failed
the first 29 days, Diana never let go of Dean, every single day she
fought the angels to reach Dean. Emelda's heart bled every time
she tended to her sister's broken bones and life-threatening
wounds.
Emelda's role in the spell was to help Wulfric alter Diana's

memories. Since Diana trusted Emelda with her life, they used
Emelda to alter her memories and mess with her mind. No matter
how many glimpses of a horrible future lies ahead they showed
Diana, she refused to let go of Dean.
After the 10th day, Wulfric gave Dean to Diana so she could
breastfeed him. The Guardians or the Skyhall didn't know about
that. It was the only time Diana had with Dean.
On the 30th day, the spell finally took hold of Diana's mind. They
changed her memories and mind as she was the one who chose
to leave Dean in the middle of the forest. Regardless of the hellish
pain they put her through, Emelda saw her sister smile whenever
she held her sons in her arms. Skyhall wanted to erase their
actions in her life but Wulfric didn't wipe off the memories she had
of Skyhall. He just deleted Andreas, Emelda, and his involvement
in her mind-altering forbidden spell.
However, what Wulfric didn't expect was how strong Diana's love
towards Dean was. Her love broke the ritual that was supposed to
send the Dark Lord completely to his prison, Earth. But Wolfric hid
the truth that the ritual failed due to Diana's motherly love from
everyone. THe Skyhall had no idea that the child's soul split into
two; one soul piece was sent to earth as they planned but the
other piece remained in the child's body and Wolfric teleported the
child near the Cosmic river. The soul piece that went to Earth was
Michael and the other was Abras but both of them were the same
person.
Unlike Michael was thinking, Abras never died and gave his body
to Michael. Abras and Michael joined together, becoming whole
once again.
Regardless of everyone's efforts, the Dark Lord came back to the

universe he belongs from his prison and it was his mother's true
love that saved him.
If it wasn't for Harriet's love, the Dark Lord would have lived, died,
and reincarnated for eternity without any powers.
***************************************
(The Present Day)
Gaya was sitting on the floor of an empty room in Hell's city.

Except for the four wooden walls, round table, and two chairs,
there was not a thing in the room. There was not even a window,
the room had few holes to let the airflow in and out of the room.
Ayag waited so long to speak these words. Since Noah was with
them, she couldn't yell at Gaya but now Noah went outside to
bring them something to eat and Gaya was alone with them.
"You bitch, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Vedora stood on
Gaya's lap. Ayag bit Gaya's legs as strong as she could,
"Ouch" Gaya flicked Ayag on the head,
"What did I do now?" Gaya asked, rubbing the skin above her
knee.
"What did you do? You just fucking agreed to give what you need
from the five-headed serpent to Noah. And he's gonna use that to
save your lowlife father who crippled you, threw you in jail, and
gave your throne to another bitch"
Gaya's veins on her forehead bulged out as she slammed the

wooden floor beneath her. A fist-shaped bump immediately
appeared after she slapped the wooden floor.
"You really think I forgot about everything and turned into a filial
daughter all of a sudden?" Ayag frowned as Sarba looked at Gaya
with a surprised face,
"I don't want someone else to kill that bastard before me. I want to
drag his ass off the throne, cripple him with my own hands throw
him in the same fucking jail cell he put me in" Vedora could clearly
see the cold killing intent in her eyes. She was not kidding around.
"How could I let that old fucker die without making him pay for
what he did time? There is not even a shred of compassion for
him in me" Gaya clenched her fist thinking about her father,
"Every fucking day, I dream about making him pay. I'm not gonna
let him die before he pays his fucking debt" Hearing Gaya's words
somewhat calmed down Ayag. Her sudden 180 turn in her
personality pissed off Ayag except now she realized that Gaya
wasn't being a filial daughter all of a sudden but planning to make
her father suffer more. Her cold words were calmed down Ayag,
they even brought a small smile on Ayag's face.
"What about this Noah asshole? Why are we working with him? I
feel like he's using us" Ayag said to Gaya. After listening to Ayag's
complaint, Gaya snickered,
"Humph, this Noah fucker rubs me in the wrong way. I can tell that
even if I don't work together with him, he has a plan to defeat the
five-headed serpent without my help. If he managed to defeat that
thing first without our help, we'll lose everything. This way, I'll get
most of what I want, since he's a righteous asshole who's
addicted to saving damsels in distress, he'll be our protective
shield. Two birds one stone"
"But-" Ayag wanted to say something but Cain knocked her on the
head with his head,
"We have to work with him, he knows about us and her real
identity. IF he wants, he could make our lives a whole lot worse.
Ghost is not here to protect us and I don't think even he could
protect us if Noah opened his mouth to the Guardians" Cain
explained calmly without showing a shred of panic in his voice or
face.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Gaya said
looking at Ayag,
"Dang you talk more and more like Ghost" Ayag rolled her eyes.
Hearing Ghost's name, Gaya started to think about him. She
wanted to see him, hug him, and kiss him so badly. The distance
between them surprisingly brought them together closer.
"Where are you and what are you doing human?" Gaya closed
her eyes, recalling his smiling face in her mind.
*******************************
Michael chapter next!!!!!
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 358 - Ghost Vs The
Young Master
Peter was flabbergasted to see Ghost revealing his identity to the

entire world. He made sure no one knows about his identity yet
somehow Ghost knows about him. He couldn't help wondering
how he knew about his identity.
"What are you blabbering on?" Peter asked Ghosty with a stoic
face. He couldn't just accept he's The Young Master. What if
Ghost was really bluffing and he had no evidence, Peter thought.
"This has taken a dark turn guys" Ishihara commented after

hearing Michael talk.
"Accusing Peter of being a vigilante is a serious accusation,"

James Hall said,
"After the appearance of Lucifer, the Guardians or the Church isn't

in the mood for tolerating masked criminals who terrorize the
people" THe moment Darius uttered the name 'Lucifer', the entire
arena went deadly silent. Many commoners shivered in fear while
many felt a mix of fear and worship in their hearts. Conserving
Lucifer's victims were ruthless criminals who needed to be rooted
out, those who suffered in the hands of those criminals worshiped
Lucifer for giving them some kind of justice the authority like the
Guardians didn't.
"You know, accusing me of this is a serious crime, Ghost. You

really wanna go down this path. I understand if you are afraid of
losing but this is a new kind of low " Peter coldly said without
showing any emotion on his face.
"Afraid of you, hahaha. You're joking right?"

"Let the battle begin" the voice of the coordinators hovering above
the battle stage reverberated through the arena.
Still, after hearing the words, both Peter and Michael didn't take
battle stances. Michael even turned his back on Peter and started
to talk looking at the crowd,
"I am gonna make you pay for turning your back on me" Peter
gritted his teeth, mumbling under his breath. He Immediately drew
symbols in the air as various runes and patterns began to appear
in the air. They all glowed in sparkling cobalt blue color. At least
fifty tiny runes could be seen floating around in the air above the
battle stage at the moment. A bunch of them continued to float in
the air before disappearing into the battle stage while some faded
away into the thin air.
"Although I like to make new friends and don't like to alienate

people, I'm a very private person who loves privacy. When people
spy on me, I get pretty pissed" Michael talked without turning back
to look at Peter,
"People who piss me off don't get a happy ending, Peter" Alicia
saw the smile on Ghost's face disappear in the mirror. A sudden
dread hit her to the core. She loved her big brother and didn't want
anything to happen to him.
Just by accusing Peter of being the Young Master, Ghost put her
brother in the crosshairs of the Guardians. Nonetheless,
Guardians weren't the ones she should worry about at the
moment. She witnessed how easily Ghost killed Alex who fought
with her brother to a stalemate. Regardless of Peter's talent in
runes, she still feared for her brother's life because Ghost was not
someone who could be defeated so easily.
"You know when you came to fight me that night, I could have
easily flayed you alive and fed it to my dragon" Michael winked at
Nightmare who waved at Michael standing on Claire's lap.
"But where is the fun in that?"

The more he spoke, the violent the spear trembled in Peter's
hands,
"Now I get to destroy your arrogant ass in front of thousands of

people, that is fun"
Many raised their brows seeing the carelessness of Ghost. This

was not a round where the participants were restricted to use the
Arch energy. On the contrary, they could use anything. Hence, no
participant had ever turned their back on their opponent because
a second of carelessness would be the reason for a major loss.
"That's my dialogue," Peter snickered as he raised his spear at

Michael,
"Ray of Spear!"? the golden spear trembled violently before

soaring through the air aiming for Michael's head.
Many people couldn't stay seated as they stood up in

bewilderment. Just when the spear was about to pierce the back
of his neck, Ghost turned his head as the spear suddenly halted in
the air as though the spear put a break in the middle air.
The people were stunned. It took them a few seconds to see

GHost was holding the spear by its handle. The spear violently
trembled yet it couldn't escape his grip.
"Hello Peter" Michael winked at Peter,
"This is not going to be a long interesting battle," Michael felt the

spear fighting his grip to go back to Peter. Nonetheless, he was
too strong for the spear to escape. Besides, the spear lost all of its
momentum when the invisible Responsive Shield absorbed its
power. After upgrading the Responsive shield a couple of levels,
Michael could now decide whether he wants others to see the
shield coming up or not.
Because Peter was trying his hardest to summon back the spear
from Ghost's hand, the veins in his eyes popped open, making his
eyes red. Peter hid his difficulty of summoning the spear from
showing up on his face. Still, when Michael saw Peter struggling,
he tilted his head,
"Oh, you need this, here you go" Michael tossed the spear back to
Peter.
"Wind steps" Peter cast another spell as he suddenly disappeared

from the battle stage.
"Where did he go?" Ishihara asked. Many had the same question
in their heads too.
Suddenly Peter appeared out of thin air behind Michael. Without

wasting a second, Peter plunged the spear towards Michael's
back. Nevertheless, when the tip of the spear was just a few
inches away from Ghost, Peter felt an invisible force stopping him.
He wasn't surprised as he knew about Ghost's Responsive shield,
he felt the force when he fought Ghost in the forest of the Sunrise
sect.
However, the force he felt at the moment was far greater than the
force he felt when he first fought Ghost. The next moment, GHost
yet again turned back and grabbed the spear by its handle. For
others, it seemed like Michael stopped the spear from stabbing
him by grabbing the spear but only Peter knew that it was the
spell that stopped him. The runes he placed on the battle stage
were supposed to prevent Ghost from casting any spells. Peter
couldn't understand how he cast the shield spell ignoring the
runes.
"The runes you placed, it will only stop me if I used any spells, and
Peter" He grinned looking at Peter,
"I never said I can't beat your silly little runes" Michael pulled the
spear towards him along with Peter.
"Ring of Fire"? the moment Ghost cast the spell, a blazing

crimson red fire appeared around the two of them. It burned so
hotly as everything above the fire looked blurry. The people had to
look at the mirror to get a clear picture of what's happening inside
the fire circle.
Peter was stunned. He never expected Ghost to pinpoint the rune
he placed to prevent him from casting Ring of Fire. Peter didn't
know the power of Michael's X-ray vision which helped him
pinpoint the runes. With the help of X-ray vision, Michael stepped
on the invisible rune, breaking it.
Since Michael upgraded every one of his spells to the max level
he could, the Ring of Fire became more powerful. He could
control the fire as easily as breathing inside the fire ring. A blaze
of fire trailed from the fire ring and danced around Michael's
hands.
Boom!
Peter's concentration broke for a second in shock. Michael used

this opportunity as he punched Peter in the chest with his flaming
hand. The fist connected with Peter's metal armor, producing a
loud booming sound. Alicia saw her brother flying backward like a
kite without an anchor in the storm.? A dent was formed in Peter's
armor by Michael's fist.
Peter felt his ribs cracking inside his chest. He coughed up a

mouth full of blood but soon picked himself up. Suddenly he saw
Ghost stop walking towards him.
"This is where you put the rune to prevent me from using my

speed spell. Am I right?" Peter saw Ghost stomp the ground. He
felt the connection with the rune severed after his stomp. He knew
GHost just destroyed another rune.
"He's pinpointing the runs and destroying them. A feat many

talented cultivators struggle to grasp" James Hall seemed more
and more surprised by Ghost. Darius on the other hand was silent
despite his job of being a commentator. He was completely
focused on Ghost's moves.
"Your brother is in trouble Alicia," Norvin said as though Alicia was

not worried enough.
"Lightning Dash" After destroying the rune, there was nothing to

stop him from using Lightning Dash. His extreme speed left an
afterimage. As Peter stared at the after image, Ghost actually
arrived in front of him.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Peter was too slow to defend himself. Michael rapidly punched

him, pushing Peter backward. Every single punch targeted the
weak points of the armor like the joints. Hence, the armor began
to form cracks and dents.
Alicia's blood boiled seeing her brother getting beaten by Ghost.?

The crowd saw Peter trying to evade the punches yet he failed to
avoid even a single punch.
In a few blinks of an eye, Peter's armor was crushed beyond

recognition.
When everyone thought Ghost might give Peter a break, he lifted

Peter by his neck. After receiving so many punches, Peter was
not at his peak self.
But Michael was not done with him yet
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 359 - Literally Wiping
The Floor With Peter
In the giant mirrors above the arena, everyone was seeing Ghost
lifting Peter by his neck. Peter musted the little bit of strength he
had in his body to punch Ghost,
"Pathetic" Ghost snickered after getting a punch from Peter,
Peter was completely stunned by Ghost. When he first fought

Ghost, his movements were slow despite the runes, his fighting
technique was sloppy. Plus, his reaction time was way slower.
This time, however, Ghost fought like a new person. Peter couldn't
even evade his attacks as he was too fast. Moreover, Ghost was
able to destroy the runes he placed on the battle stage without
sweating a break. IT shouldn't be possible yet somewhere Ghost
destroyed them. Without the runes to restrict Ghost's spells and
skills, Peter's plan of defeating him took a nosedive.
Boom!
Suddenly Michael slammed Peter on the floor, almost forming a

crater in the battle stage. The force of the slam sent the spear in
Peter's hands flying away. The light in Peter's eyes started to dim
down due to the broken bones inside him.
Under everyone's shocked gazes, Michael flicked his hand as a

healing potion appeared in his hand.
"The fun is just getting started Peter" He forced the healing potion
down Peter's mouth as the internal wounds Peter suffered
gradually healed. His pale face became rosy again.
GHost's hand was still around Peter's neck. Before Peter could
stand up, he was thrown into the air by Ghost. Because Peter
healed up, he was able to balance himself in the middle and
landed comfortably on the battle stage.
He raised his hand as the spear came flying into his hand.
"You said something about my sword skills" With an arrogant

smile, Peter saw Ghost unsheath the two swords on his back. The
hate Peter had towards Ghost at this point was immeasurable. He
had never felt so humiliated in his life. Thousands of people
witnessed Ghost beating him mercilessly like he was a weak
animal.
Michael could have easily broken Peter's limbs and ended the
fight in a couple of minutes. Yet, he chose to drag out the fight
which was not his style. He always preferred to end the battle as
soon as possible without giving his opponent the time to get lucky.
This time he made an exception to the rule because he wanted to

show the entire continent what would happen if someone messed
with him. Also, beating the crap out of Peter was his way of
venting the anger boiling inside him. Every time he saw the blue-
haired guy sitting next to the princess, the flashes of Abras's last
moments flashed across his eyes.
He never felt such anger like this for a long time. It took everything
in him to keep his cool. The last time he lost his cool, he went on a
killing rampage, ending all the fellow assassins he trained with
under Specter and even killing the girl he loved.
"Lightning Dash"
"Wind Steps"
Both of them cast the spells at the same time with their weapons
in their hands. The nobles once again leaned forward while the
commoners couldn't stay seated.
The Wind Steps was an Epic class spell that let the caster step
into the gaps between realms to teleport. It was similar to a short
distance teleportation spell with quick casting time. The spell was
extremely hard to master and any mishap during the spell would
end the caster's life. Those like Darius knew about the spell, they
commended Peter for mastering the spell.
In a blink of an eye, Peter appeared behind Michael.
Cling!
Without even turning back, Michael blacked the spear with his
sword. The clash of metals produced an ear-piercing sound. The
next moment, Michael turned around swinging his sword. Peter
managed to block the sword as he expected.
Considering spears were not very effective in too short of a

distance, Peter jumped back to get some distance between him
and Ghost.
"Let me show you what a real swordsman can do in a fight against

a spearman" As he said, he brushed the swords together. Each
time he brushed the swords on each other, it produced sparks of
fire.
"Wrath of Amear!" Peter slammed the spear onto the ground.

Michael halted his steps looking at the golden spear trembling
violently. Soon, he saw a glistening purple tornado appear out of
the spear's tip.
The tornado grew bigger and meaner with each passing second.
The tornado gradually moved towards Michael. When the people
looked at the tornado closer, they could see vague images of
spears in the tornado.
"Why isn't he moving?" Ethan worried about his son. Ethan was
one of the people who knew which class the spell belonged to, the
Epic Class. Normally these spells would take a long time to cast
yet Peter cast the spell in a few seconds. This was proof of Peter's
mastery over spells and runes.
Unlike Ethan, Michael didn't worry about the tornado moving

towards him. In fact, he was overjoyed. The more powerful spell
Peter cast, the more badass points he would receive when
walking out of the spells unscathed.
"What is he doing?" Emelda asked with wide eyes seeing Ghost

walking towards the tornado instead of scurrying away from the
tornado's path.
The black long coat fluttered violently in the air while he was
slowly and calmly walking towards the tornado. All the crowd
including the commentators were speechless, it was too exciting.
Under the peoples' shocked gazes, the tornado finally enveloped

Ghost. No one could see his figure inside the tornado. For a few
moments, only the howling noise of the tornado could be heard.
Maintaining the tornado used Peter's Arch energy and strength in

his body. After keeping the tornado from fading away for a few
minutes, his legs grew weaker by the moment. Still, he maintained
the tornado because he wasn't planning to underestimate Ghost
again. It was evident that Ghost intentionally hid his true power
when they first fought. Peter blamed himself for stupidly falling for
his plan.? After their initial fight, Peter didn't even take Ghost
seriously. Therefore, he didnt form another strategy but came to
fight with the same plan he used in their first fight.
If he hadn't underestimated Ghost, he would have created new

runes to defeat Ghost and wouldn't have gotten his ass kicked.
"Hello Peter" Suddenly, Peter felt a chill running through his spine
when he heard a calm voice coming from the tornado. Many
people gasped in shock when they saw Ghost stepping out of the
tornado, not even a cut on his face.
"No…impossible" Peter mumbled as his mind went blank. Granted

Ghost had more cultivation power than him still it wasn't possible
even for a level 10 Core Formation stage warrior to face the
tornado and come out unscathed.
"Lightning Dash" the smile on Michael's face disappeared as he

cast the spell. In a blink of an eye, he appeared before Peter as
Peter raised his spear to defend himself. IT was too late as GHost
swung his sword, inflicting a deep cut on his shoulder.
Gritting his teeth to fight the pain, Peter swung his spear but he
once again felt pain in his other shoulder. Then, on his gut, leg,
face, chest, and every place in his body.? He couldn't even see
Ghost anymore. All he had seen were after images of Ghost
swinging his sword.
Darius was speechless. Every one of his sword swings was

precise, deadly, and elegant beyond words. Regardless of Peter's
suffering, Darius didn't want Ghost to stop. On the other hand,
Alicia's heart bled seeing her brother getting flayed alive.? It was
true that the healing array kept Peter alive but it didn't stop GHost
from inflicting almost a hundred cuts. Peter's armor had already
fallen off as Ghost painted Peter red in blood.
"Bastard!" Alicia couldn't hold back her anger anymore as she

banged the seat's arm. Peter fell to the ground, losing all his
strength due to the blood loss. Ghost was merciless, he never
gave Peter the chance to utter the words? 'I surrender'. Not that
Peter would surrender, many expected Ghost to give him a
chance.
Even Claire frowned seeing Ghost kicking Peter in the gut while
cutting him mercilessly. Sometimes Ghost freaked her out with his
ruthlessness.
"STOP!" Finally, Alicia's anger exploded. Her thunderous voice

closed all the mutterings and drew the attention of the crowd
including the commentators, the VIP guests, and Ghost himself.
Michael put one foot on Peter's blood-soaked face.
Seeing Alicia interrupting the battle, the tournament committee

guards rushed to her before she could further do something
stupid.
"Look, your sister is screaming up there?" Michael giggled before

stomping Peter's face yet again.
"I WILL KILL YOU!" Alicia screamed. Norvin was stunned to see
her lose her patience like this. She had never been good at
showing her emotions but now after seeing her brother getting
beaten like this, she seemed to have lost her mind.
"You should stop her from doing something stupid" Michael looked
at the coordinators floating above him and said.
"Oh too much blood" While some of the coordinators were flying in
the direction of Alicia, Michael turned his focus back to Peter. He
smiled at the pool of blood under Peter.
"Let's mop the blood shall we?" Everyone felt a chill as they heard
Michael. Soon, many peoples' eyes went wide. He grabbed
Peter's right leg and lifted him up in the air before wiping the blood
using Peter's body like a mop.
"BASTARD!" Alicia's scream reverberated the arena. However,

before she could jump down from the pavilion to the battle stage,
the coordinators sent an invisible force field to prevent her from
doing so.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 360 - Do Not Mess
With Ghost
The coordinators were ready to come down to the battle stage to

end the battle. It was obvious at this point that there is no way
Peter could defeat him. The healing array was the only thing that
kept him alive.
Alicia was banging the invisible force field erupted in front of her.
She saw Ghost squatting down in front of her almost dead brother.
Peter couldn't clearly see Ghost's face with his blurry vision but he
could somewhat hear his words,
"The next time you think about fighting me, don't"? Michael ran his
fingers across Peter's bloody face with a devilish grin,
"Besides, you're gonna be pretty busy with the Guardians' ' After
patting Peter's bloody face, he stood up. The coordinators rushed
to the battle stage. One of the coordinators lifted Peter's hand and
let go. Peter did not show any resistance as the hand dropped to
the ground three times,
"Knockout, Ghost wins"? The sunrise sect pavilion erupted in

cheers after hearing the coordinators. However, compared to
before, the cheers were less thunderous. Many were in shock
seeing the ruthlessness of Ghost. None of the participants were
as brutal and merciless as Ghost. Many participants shuddered to
even get on the battle stage with him. Even the disciples of the
sunrise sect shivered; their respect and worship towards Ghost
were slowly turning into fear.
On his way towards the battle stage's center, he swung the two
swords as the blood of Peter splattered on the ground. After
unsheathing his swords, he flicked his wrist as a blue crystal
Standing on another VIP pavilion, Peyton and Xanali saw Ghost's

eyes land on them.
"Is he looking at us?" Xanali asked Peyton.
Soon his gaze turned to Darius,
"Put this on the screen, the people and the guardians should see
this" Michael sent the crystal floating towards Darius. Everyone
had a look of wonder on their faces. They were curious to see
what was in the crystal. Since Ghost accused Peter of being the
young master, few expected some kind of evidence in the crystal
to prove Ghost's claim.
Alicia's heart was beating faster and faster. She stopped banging
the force field and stared at the crystal floating towards Darius,
"I am still in shock but it seems like I have to prepare for another"
Ishihara commented,
"This has gone from competition to a frickin bloodbath. His

ruthlessness is hard to take in" James Hall furrowed his brow. He
had been a commentator for many years yet never saw such a
bloodthirsty individual as Ghost. It felt like Ghost actually enjoyed
hurting others and bathing in blood. In simple words, James
thought of him as a devil in a human form.
Granted there were many rogue cultivators who did more cruel
things than Ghost but it was something different in Ghost. James
Hall deemed Ghost as a person who is capable of doing anything
to his foes.
While the crystal was floating towards Darius, Peyton and Xanali
stared at coordinators dragging Peter from the battle stage to the
infirmary. When Ghost first rejected their offer to join the
Guardians, Peyton was shocked and felt mad at him. However,
after seeing his actions in the tournament, she was glad he
rejected their offer because it was evident he was not Guardian
material. He even seemed like a borderline psychopath who has a
thirst for blood and violence.
Unlike many guardians including the Alpha guardian hadn't

deemed Ghost as a threat to them. Peyton disagreed with them.
The Guardians were too mingled in politics as they strayed away
from their true goals; catching criminals and bringing order to the
world. As far as Peyton was concerned Ghost was just as
dangerous as Lucifer or even more. He was forging alliances with
powerful families, making friends, and building his empire. At this
moment of time, he didn't seem like a threat to the Guardians
except at this speed, he would become a threat in a couple of
decades.
"If Noah said he's a threat, they might have listened," Peyton told
herself.
"He reminds me of my sister," Xanali said. Peyton sensed a hint of

sadness in her voice. It was not only because her sister went
missing a year ago, it was also because someone in Nagaland
poisoned her father.
If it wasn't for Noah, he would have already died. To dispel the

poison in her father's body, Noah went to one of the dangerous
places in the world; The Fire Realm. Xanali's mother ordered
Xanali not to go to the Fire Realm with Noah. Some part of Peyton
wanted Noah to die in the Fire Realm. She wanted everything to
go back to how it was before Noah joined the Guardians.
Peyton's train of thought was interrupted by Xanali's words,
"How so?" Peyton asked
"She too enjoyed such needless bloodshed, she actually enjoyed

making others suffer, including her own family" Xanali's eyes
watered, thinking about her father on the verge of death and
Gaya.
"It's not like you and your family is completely blameless in Gaya's
matter Xanali"
For a moment Xanali couldn't believe what she just heard from
Peyton. She had never talked to her like this before. Peyton's
subconscious anger towards Noah got redirected towards Xanali.
"Peyton, what did you mean by that?"
"Nothing" Peyton waved her hand but Xanali didn't let go,
"You obviously have something to tell me, so tell me Peyton. You

think we were to blame for what my sister did" Xanali's voice didn't
sound like she was angry but glum and concerned,
Peyton sighed, realizing her impulse got the better of her,
"Your father took the throne which was rightfully hers and decided
to give it to you instead Xanali. So anyone in your sister's place
would feel betrayed"
Her words yet again shocked Xanali. She thought Peyton

understood her but Xanali realized she thought wrong.
"I never wanted that throne Peyton, she pushed me to take the
throne. You know why? If she was on the throne, there would be
no need for prisons, she would play the judge, jury, and
executioner, just like her mother. My sister always blamed me and
my mother for the rising crime rate in Nagaland and said if she or
her mother was on the throne, it wouldn't be the case" Xanali
paused for a second seeing Ghost leave the battle stage. Darius
and some others were meddling with the crystal.
"Because she or her mother would have killed the accused

without a fair trial. You don't know how many people were
sentenced to death by her mother without any evidence to prove
them absolutely guilty. She would go with her gut feeling. Of
course no criminals, no prisons , no high crime rate. There might
have been hundreds of innocents who were said guilty by her
mother. Under her rule, my people lived in fear. Just like her
mother Gaya would have been a dictator, I took the throne
because i didn't want my people to live in fear"
Peyton knew Xanali was right but only partially right. Gaya's
mother was indeed a dictator but under her rule, Nagaland
thrived, it was one of the most powerful kingdoms. Under Gaya's
father and Xanali's mother's rule, the kingdom had grown weak.
But everyone was getting a fair trial under the new rulers. Of
course, each case would drag and waste resources. Still Xanali
and her mother advocated a fair trial for everyone without any
compromises. This was one of the reasons the kingdom had
grown weak. Under Gaya's mother's rule, resources were spent to
develop military power. Under Xanali's mother's rule, resources
were spent helping war-torn countries, trials, offering refuge to
refugees, and paying off debts they got to help other kingdoms.
Both queens had done good and bad, some favored Gaya's
mother while some favored Xanali's mother. Peyton didn't talk
about who's right and whose wrong. In fact, she had never judged
Xanali's actions until now.
"I will do what's best for my people. And Gaya was the opposite of
best. If she hates me for caring about my people, so be it.
Nagaland would never be war-hungry as it once was" Peyton
could see the resolve in Xanali's eyes. Peyton was glad that her
sister was not what she used to be anymore. Only a few
individuals could be compared with Gaya in terms of monstrous
cultivation talent. Gaya was on the surveillance list of Guardians
for a reason.
"Look" suddenly people in the same pavilion as Peyton and Xanali

shouted looking at the giant mirrors. They both looked at the
mirror to see a dark room lit with nothing but a few lanterns
appeared in the mirror. The arena became silent, everyone's gaze
was on the mirror. After a few moments, they saw a figure dressed
in black walking into the darkroom. The bright orange light coming
from the lanterns illuminated the book racks, the roundtable in the
room's center as well as the line of armor stands.
The people were staring at the figure's back before the figure
slowly turned back. Looking at the figure's armor, Peyton was
positive that this was the same figure that many noble youngsters
saw when the young master ambushed them.
"It can't be him right?" Emelda asked Norvin who was sitting on
her shoulder. The golden babaroo looked worried. He desperately
needed Noah here to somehow find a way to fix the mess if the
young master turned out to be Alicia's brother.
"I hope not," Norvin said. Soon after the words left his mouth, he
saw the black figure in the mirror take off the hood covering his
face.
"No" Alicia's legs turned to jelly when she saw the figure's face. It
was her brother, Peter Stone. Norvin saw Peyton and Xanali
leaving their seats. He could guess they were going to make sure
Peter stays in their sight until he gets healed enough to visit the
guild.
"Bastard" Norving cursed Ghost. From this moment onwards,

Peter's life would not be what it used to be. The Guardians and
the Church would make his life a living hell by investigations and
trials. If Peter was proven guilty, that would be the end of his
freedom, or worse, he would be exiled to the Southern Continent.
Ghost just utterly destroyed Peter's life, for a private and prideful
person such as Peter, what he did was worse than killing.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 361 - Guild Leader
Position
Having turned Peter's life upside down for attacking him, Ghost
was honing his fighting skills back in his room. After Lailah's visit,
the mirror in his room was gone. He didn't buy a new mirror but
bought a few punching bags and freakishly sturdy Wing Chun.
The punching bags were laying on the ground, broken and

scattered. The punching bags contained pieces of stones that
were similar to granite on earth. Still, they were no match for
Michael's anger. The anger wasn't toward Peter but Thusia. Ever
since he saw Calvin Howard, the representative of Thusia, he was
burning with fury.
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
Chuk!
His punches to the Wing Chun became more and more violent as
the wooden dummy began to vibrate violently despite its
sturdiness. He never even used any Arch energy to power his
punches, he just used raw strength.
"Thusians… Victoria Barnes…ARGH!"
CHUCK!
CHUCK!
CHUCK!
CHUCK!
He violently punched the Wing Chun as the wooden dummy

began to form cracks. Soon, pieces of wood crumbled down.?
After the Wing Chun lost its shape, his punches became more
frantic, they contained no techniques or finance, just random
frantic punches.
"ARGH!"
Boom!
Finally, Michael roundhouse kicked the wooden dummy as it

exploded into nothing but splinters.
"There are many ways to destroy an enemy. The first,

forgiveness" Elder Wright's words sounded in his mind.
"They don't deserve it, when I'm done with Thusia, there won't be
any signs that there was a kingdom called Thusia. I am gonna
massacre them" Michael breathed heavily. He sweated as he was
inside an oven in anger.
Knock!
Knock!
"Master Ghost" Michael heard Ricky's voice coming from the other
side of the door,
"What is it?" Michael tried to sound calm yet it was possible Ricky
might have sensed the anger in his voice.
"There is someone who wants to meet you"
"That someone have a name?" Michael wiped off the sweat before
using Arch energy to clean himself.
"Lord Calvin Howard, Master Ghost"
The moment Michael heard the name, his calmed anger exploded
in his heat yet again. He clenched his fist as he began to shiver.
"Send him in" His brain overpowered the anger in his heart.
"Yes Master Ghost" Ricky left the area to bring Calvin to the room
while Michael entered the system's interface to buy a couple of
sofas. He knew this was not the time to be impulsive and make an
enemy out of Calvin. Hence he bought furniture for Calvin to sit on
instead of beating the crap out of him.
Michael then put on V-neck black long sleeves and rolled up the
sleeves to his elbows. He plunged into the sofa, giving some rest
to his body. After waiting for five minutes, Michael heard loud
footsteps and metal clanking sounds. Soon, the door opened to
reveal Ricky and a blue haired youngster who had a feminine feel
to him. He walked towards Michael with a wide grin. He even
walked like a female while fanning his face.
"Ghost, it's a pleasure to meet you up close"? Michael stood up

and shook Calvin's hands. It felt like he was shaking a girl's hand,
it was so soft.
"Pleasure is all mine, Lord Calvin" Michael gestured at Clavin to

take a seat in front of him. It took an immense amount of effort to
keep his anger contained.
"Aww, call me Calvin, Lord title makes me feel old" Calvin pouted.
Michael couldn't help imagining dashed at him, ripping off his
throat with his bare hands and showing it back into his mouth. He
was starting to get really creative.
"Calvin it is" Michael let out a friendly smile despite the burning
rage in his heart.
"I liked what you've been doing in the competition so far. Letting
everyone know you're not to be messed with. That's how the
enemies should be dealt with" Despite the feminine look, gentle
voice, and lady-like softness, Michael could see the cold
murdered hiding within Calvin.
"Kill one enemy, I have rooted out one enemy. Torture and destroy
one in front of the world, I have rooted out many" Michael said,
"You can leave the room now, Ricky" Michael sent Ricky outside
with a wave. Calvin's armored escort remained outside without
getting inside the room. It was obvious Calvin had no idea who
Michael really is. IF he had seen Abras before, Calvin would have
recognized him by now.
Still, this meeting reminded Michael to change his appearance.

Although Michael looked way different than he did when he first
got Abras's body, he decided to buy something from the system
that would quickly change his face when needed.
"I heard you travel a lot and love making new friends, have you
ever visited Thusia?" Calvin asked,
"I haven't got the pleasure yet. But I heard it's a beautiful
kingdom"
"And powerful" Calvin smiled but the pride and arrogance were
pretty visible in his eyes. Michael sneered inside. They weren't
powerful before the king pimped his daughter to Abras, betrayed
him, and acquired the Cosmic stream.
For others, Thusia was waging war on nearby kingdoms and

forging alliances with powerful organizations to defend themselves
from invasion. That was the story Maxim Barnes, the king of
Thusia spinning. However, Michael knew the truth. They were
waging war to make sure none could take the Cosmic Stream
from them or know the existence of the Cosmic stream.
People like Lord Information would eventually sniff out the

existence of the Cosmic stream if Thusia remained doing nothing.
The Thusian king was gambling with the Cosmic stream to ensure
the future of Thusia. Many would become suspicious if Thusia
grew powerful in a short amount of time but if they waged war and
swallowed nearby kingdoms, people would think winning wars
was the reason for the rise to power. IF Michael's guess was right,
only a small group of people in Thusia would know about the
Cosmic Stream's existence and those few would be insanely
powerful. The void event that took away people's ability to see
someone's cultivation level added extra protection to them. They
didn't need to worry about powers like the Guardian guild
questioning how they suddenly became so powerful.
"I'm really surprised to see a representative of Thusia here,

Calvin. I mean, the ongoing wars might keep your schedule filled
right?" Michael asked without showing a shred of his true
emotions on his face. He sounded like he's really surprised to see
Calvin here.
"It's a messy business but Thusia won't back down to war-hungry

kingdoms. In fact, we are winning the wars in all directions"
"Is that so?" Michael nodded, pretending he doesn't know this.

The book he bought from Lord Information might not contain
information about Cosmic Stream but it contained everything
that's happening in the world right now and the rumors
surrounding each kingdom. Unlike Calvin said, Thusia wasn't just
winning, they were destroying kingdoms. According to the rumors,
Thusia was looking to shift its capital to the Ozer continent and
announce itself as an empire soon.
"Despite our victory in the wars, His majesty Maxim Barnes has
ordered his subordinates to strengthen the kingdom further so we
won't be vulnerable to wars in the future." Calvin paused for a
moment to see the reaction on Ghost's face. After seeing Ghost
still listening to him with curiosity, Calvin continued,
"Part of our strategy was getting new talents and self-sustaining

our kingdom"
"By self-sustaining, do you mean starting your own guilds?"
Michael read something about Thusias starting their own

merchant guild from Olivia's father. Connecting that with Calvin's
words, he could guess where is this going,
"Exactly and that's why I am here. We want you to offer the Guild
Leader position of TAG, Thusian Alchemists Guild"
This time, Michael's brows raised up in genuine surprise. He

expected Calvin to offer some shitty position but never expected
him to offer the position of Guild Leader. Like a spider web, new
plans to get revenge formed in Michael's mind.
"Man of your caliber should be leading a guild, not competing in

silly competitions to prove your worth" Calvin rolled his eyes. IT
was evident he was talking about the Alchemists Guild and the
upcoming Alchemist competition organized by them. Michael
didn't need Calvin to tell him what those old alchemists did was
rude and insolent. They should have invited him to be the judge of
the competition except they invited him to compete in the
competition. Since Michael was hiding the fact that he's the
number one Alchemist in Elon, Gabriel could think of judging him.
But what about the rest of the guild?
There wasn't a single person in that Alchemy Guild to judge him.
"I can't say I'm not tempted but I need to know more about this
before making my decision" Michael already decided to take on
the position yet still didn't want to seem like he's too quick to take
the job.
"I did my research Ghost, you value your freedom and hate being
tied to a place.That was why you rejected the Guardians right?"
Michael nodded as Calvin continued,
"We are still in the first phase of building the guild. Wherever we
build the guild, you don't have to stay there twenty four seven. You
will be the guild's leader, appearing only to make important
decisions. Day to day activities and small matters will be taken
care of by the elders and your assistants if you choose to have"
Seeing the interested look on Ghost's face, Calvin let out a grin,
showing his pure white sparkling teeth.
"If you choose to take the position, you will be granted access to
the Herbal garden we are planning to build, twenty million gold
coins a month and the banner of kingdom Thusia as a sign of
friendship and protection and many other benefits" Calvin could
see the temptation in Ghost's eyes.
"Hook, line, sink. Too easy" Calvin thought to himself. Anyone with
half a brain could see Ghost would take this offer by seeing the
look on his face.
Calvin was an expert in acquiring talents for Thusia. Therefore he

could tell when someone is thinking about taking the offer.
However he had no idea that it was not a fish that bit his hook but
a bloodthirsty shark.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 362 - Noah’s Secret
After leaving the safe house, Gaya and Noah were following a
youngster named Eric, a fellow guardian friend of Noah. Gaya
was silently following the two of them as Eric seemed to know
more about the places and routes in Fire Realm than Noah and
Gaya combined,
"Guardian Eric, where are Oscar and the other men?"
"It's very easy to find them in the outer perimeter. Murdoch has
occupied our previous stronghold, and I'm guessing he's keeping
Oscar and men there. Let me lead you there quietly." Eric said.
"Why are we wasting our time looking for this Oscar person?"
Gaya asked after they entered a dark alley.
"I don't leave friends behind," Noah said. Speaking of friends,

Noah couldn't help thinking of Abel. It had been almost a year
since Abel went missing inside the Nether Realm. Noah had a
feeling that Abel is not alive, still, Noah never gave up the search.
He was still researching about opening a mini-portal to the Nether
realm and going searching for Abel. If Abel was alive, Noah
wanted to rescue him, if not, he wanted answers to what
happened to Abel.
"Just make it quick," Gaya sighed. She could tell by looking into
Noah's eyes that there's no stopping him. Considering her chance
of killing the five-headed serpent was high with Noah, she stuck
with him instead of parting ways. More than that, she had a feeling
that Noah was hiding something crucial and she wanted to know
what.
They followed Eric as they began rushing towards the stronghold.

There was no distinct difference between night and day in Inferno
Hell, as there was no sun or moon, and the skies had the same
crimson color all day long. It was a depressing sight.
Soon after, Eric led Noah and Gaya to a manor. The manor wasn't
huge, but there was a historical feeling to it.
"There is a secret chamber in the manor, and if my guess is

correct, they should be keeping Oscar in that secret chamber. I
know of an entrance behind the secret chamber, we can enter
directly from there. Let's not alert Murdoch and his men, let's first
get our men out. Otherwise, once we engage in a battle, Oscar
and the other men might become collateral"
Eric said. It seemed like Eric wanted to avoid any battles in Gaya's
eyes.
Behind the manor, a seven feet beast that had the body of a dog
and the head of an eagle and a pair of blood-red eyes was laying
in front of the entrance to the secret chamber. It was at the level 7
Core Formation stage,
"This demon beast was caught by Murdoch, he's using it to guard

the door,"
Eric informed them in a husky voice. The trio stood behind a

boulder and looked around the manor to gauge the security.
"Can you shoot it from here?" Noah asked Gaya. She wanted to
be on the way to hunt the five-headed serpent, not help some
random humans. Yet since she might need his help defeating the
serpent, she sighed and took out her bow.
She knocked an arrow that had a green tip on the bow. The
moment she fired the arrow, it soared through the air like a bullet
before piercing through right between the beast's two eyes. Its
body frantically twitched for a few moments before its body
stopped moving completely. Its blood was still oozing out of the
wound but not even a single sound was made.
Soon the trio opened up the narrow back door and snuck in.
Behind the door, there was a tunnel that led downwards. It was
pretty dark inside. At the end of the tunnel, there was an
underground secret chamber.
Ahh!!
Not long after they walked in, Noah began hearing some horrible
screams from the secret chamber. The screams didn't seem to
stop, and it really gave them an eerie feeling. It wasn't hard for
them to imagine what kind of pain the men inside were
experiencing.
"It's Oscar!."
Gaya saw Noah's expression become stern. He had heard

Oscar's voice from the screams just now. He couldn't bear it any
longer, and his killing intent was unleashed from his body.
Right now, inside the underground secret chamber.
This was a huge secret chamber, and cruel torturing was being
carried out right now. It was a horrible scene. Right in the middle
of the secret chamber, seven men with naked upper bodies were
tied onto some iron poles. Their bodies were covered with blood,
their skin was split and flesh broke forth. Horrible scars could be
seen everywhere, and blood kept leaking out from their terrible
wounds.
Right in front of them, a luxuriously dressed adult man was sitting

on a comfy chair, pleasantly watching the ongoing torturing as if
he was viewing the nicest scenery.
"Bastard! Kill us now if you dare, kill us now!"
A young man in his mid-twenties roared out. He kept spitting out

blood as he let out terrible roars. He had the most wounds and
scars on his body, and his vision was blurring. Obviously, even
with his strong mentality and body, he was going to pass out after
going through such cruel torture for a long period of time.
This man was Oscar.

"You want me to kill you? Not that simple! You have offended
young master Murdoch, and that is a crime that deserves eternal
torture! Men, give me something more explosive!"
The adult man said.
There were five of Murdoch's men in the secret chamber, but they
were only at Core Formation level 2. When they heard the man's
words, a ferocious smile emerged on all their faces. One of them
took out a palm-sized tube, then he walked up to Oscar and
opened the tube. Immediately, a muddish brown snake swam out
from it. The snake sent forth a pungent smell which told that it
carried a deadly poison
"Oscar, this is a sand rattler. I think you have heard of it before."
The man said with a hideous smile on his face. After that, he
placed the poisonous snake on Oscar's body. When the snake
smelled the blood, it immediately went towards one of the wounds
on Oscar's body, and tried its best to penetrate itself into his
wound.
Ahhh!!
Even the toughest men wouldn't be able to withstand this kind of

pain. Oscar instantly let out a terrifying cry. A sizzling sound could
be heard from his body, and his skin quickly turned into an
emerald color. The pain coming from the corrosion was not
something ordinary people could imagine.
Ahh!!
At the same time, terrifying screams once again sounded out

throughout the entire secret chamber.
"I can't take it anymore!"
Someone let out a painful shout and was completely silent

afterward. The deadly poison from the sand rattler was not
something anybody could resist. Besides, all of them were
severely injured. The pain they were experiencing was
unimaginable.
"Hahaha…"
The man who was sitting in the chair let out a burst of evil laughter
as if this kind of creepy scream was the most beautiful melody in
this world. The pleasant feeling brought to him by torturing people
could really satisfy his twisted mind, and he had learned all this
from Murdoch.
Right at this moment, three figures appeared in the secret

chamber. When Noah looked at Oscar, flames of fury exploded
forth in his eyes, and he was unable to restrain his anger any
longer.
"Who are you?
When the man saw the uninvited guests, his expression

immediately became cold.
"The man who is going return the favor"
Noah's body swayed, and he arrived in front of the man in an

instant. He clenched his palm onto the man's throat, causing the
man to feel like there was a gigantic mountain pressing him,
making it so that he couldn't even breathe properly.
"Eric capture all these men, but do not kill them."
Noah ordered.
"Understood!"
Eric replied as he immediately dashed forwards. The five warriors

were no match for Eric, they were pressed onto the ground in an
instant.
"Oscar."
Eric walked up to Oscar and hurriedly broke the iron chains on his
body, then he helped him down.
"Eric, what are you doing here?"
Oscar kept throwing up blood as he spoke. His life force was

getting weaker and weaker.
"Oscar, look who is here," Eric said, pointing his finger at Noah
Noah threw the man onto the floor as he hit the floor with a loud
thud sound. Noah then walked up to Oscar.
"Oscar, I'm here to rescue you. Let's get you somewhere safe
buddy" Noah said with a smile on his face.
"Noah, it really is you…"
Cough cough…
When Oscar saw that Noah had come to his rescue, a joyful
expression emerged on his face. But, he had no idea why Noah
had come to IFire Realm, or why he was with Eric.
"Don't speak right now."
Noah placed his palm onto Oscar's body. With a flick of his wrist,
he created a beam of light around his palm and sucked out all the
deadly poisons in Oscar's body. After that, Noah did the same to
the others.
Witnessing this, Eric was stunned once again. It was a deadly

poison, and Noah had absorbed it all into his body, and he was
still not affected by it. This was really frightening.
Ahh!!
Oscar let out another horrible cry, then he passed out instantly.
When a man was relieved from a long, tense situation, he would
immediately pass out.
"Noah, Oscar's condition is really serious, he needs a healer"
Eric said. He glanced at the rest of the men, they were in a worse
condition than Oscar. Gaya couldnt help wondering why
Murdoch's men tortured them instead of just killing them. This
made her curious.
"Hmph! They will pay for what they did to you and your men
Oscar"
"Noah" Gaya heard Oscar who was lying on the ground, barely
keeping his eyes open, speak Noah's name. Oscar moved his
right hand towards Noah as Gaya noticed a small glimmer inside
Oscar's forearm.
"The key…take…it" Gaya saw a vague shape of a three-inch key

appear in Oscar's forearm before the light moved into Noah's arm
and disappeared.
After the energy key came into his body, Noah heard his mentor's
voice in his head,
"With this key, we are one step closer to reviving the elders Noah"
*******************************
The elders Andreas mentioned were not some run-of-the-mill

elders, they were the ones who destroyed the order of death three
thousand years ago.
The Elites of Supreme Guardian…
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 363 - God Of Light
While Noah was helping injured Oscar get back to his feet, Gaya
heard footsteps. She slowly moved into the dark corner of the
room, not to avoid a battle but to see what else Noah could do.
"You…you…have…no idea…what you've…done"
"You're dead"
Few of the men Eric captured muttered. Eric did a number on

them by breaking several bones including the jaw. Hence, they
had a hard time talking.
"You're simply seeking death by killing the men in my stronghold!"
Boom!
Right at this moment, a loud shout sounded out from afar as the
room's door exploded into bits and pieces. The next moment, a
figure emerged through the dust produced by the door. The man
who stepped into the torture room was a man in his early thirties.
He had an oval-shaped face like the full moon with two round
eyes as though someone put eggs in his head instead of eyes.
His body was draped in blood-red robes that swept the ground as
he walked. One would expect a man capable of such cruelty
would look cruel too yet this man looked gentle as a flower.
However, standing in the dark corner, Gaya could see the
murderous intent in his eyes. Eyes were said to be the windows to
one's soul, she could see his cruel soul through his bloodshot
eyes.
"Young master!"
One of the men apprehended by Eric looked at Murdoch as if he

had just found his savior. Their faces brightened up immediately.
They had witnessed Murdoch's strength before and they knew
that no matter how strong the young man in front of him was,
there was no way he would be a match for Murdoch. After all,
Murdoch was a Core Formation level 8 cultivator while Noah was
just at the Core Formation level 2.
Murdoch turned around, looking at the dead bodies scattered

across the place. Blood was still leaking out from many of his
subordinates. In an instant, fury filled his eyes.
"You did all this?"
Murdoch stared angrily at Noah.
Noah didn't answer Murdoch's question. Instead, Noah just stared

at him with a clenched fist.
"So you are Murdoch?" Noah asked as he threw an examining

look onto Murdoch.
"Young master, these guys are guardians. They ambushed us like

cowards they are"
The man who tortured Oscar was called Kai. He had a frightened
expression on his face, and he was unable to pull himself out of
his panicked state. He couldn't say he and his men were beaten
up by two youngsters in a couple of seconds.
"Hmph! I will deal with you weaklings later. I have these two
Guardians to torture and kill"
Murdoch let out a cold snort. It wasn't easy to cultivate a group of

men in Hell City. All these men had pledged loyalty to him and
worked under his command. He would always send them to hunt
for monsters in the depths of Fire Realm, and he would be able to
get a share of their harvest. Put it this way, as long as he had a
group of men working for him, he would be able to enjoy good
wealth and benefits without doing anything himself. In Fire Realm,
monster cores were the currency, the more people he had working
for him, the more monster cores he would get. He accumulated an
amassed amount of monster cores over the years. Hence he was
living a lavish life in Fire Realm. This was why he never left Fore
Realm even though he had every chance to leave this place.
Now, all his men had been injured and apprehended by guardians
in such a short period of time. This was no different than messing
with his life in Fire Realm. Therefore, Murdoch had every right to
be pissed off.
"Murdoch, a genius from Aragoth who turned into a warlord, quite

a career change. But too bad, you've offended someone you
shouldn't have; you hurt my friend, you messed with a Guardian.
Today, I'll bring my friend justice, and that's the reason why I want
to throw everyone in this stronghold into the deepest dungeons of
the Guardian Guild, except you"
Noah slowly walked forwards with his eyes locked on Murdoch,
"You will regret messing with a guardian until the end of your
days"
Noah said without hiding the cold murderous intent in his heart.
Gaya was watching the scene unfold from the dark corner. To this
moment, Murdoch was unaware of her existence in the room. As
far as he was concerned, he only had two Guardians to deal with.
"Don't think I dont know why he's here. Once I sell the information
I know along with him, I'm gonna be freakin rich everywhere"
Murdoch burst into laughter without giving a damn about Noah's

threat.
"Only place you're gonna sell any information to is the prison

you're going"
Noah shrugged. He remained standing in the same spot. Gaya

saw Murdoch flicking his wrist as a? round-shaped lock that
glowed in a dark light appeared in his hand. There were numerous
mystical symbols carved onto the lock itself. She looked closer to
see the symbols were actually patterns that resembled ancient
beasts.
"Flaming Gorilla, come out now!" Murdoch suddenly shouted out
loudly as he yanked the lock.
Ding-ling!
The black lock vibrated violently before letting out a dinging

sound. In a blink of an eye,? a ground-shaking roar suddenly
sounded out from the depths of the stronghold. After that, a
flaming figure suddenly jumped out of the lock.
It was a gorilla with a body that looked made of volcanic stones,

and its entire body was emitting a flaming red light. The fire ape
was over 10 meters tall, and it resembled king kong. When the fire
ape saw Murdoch, an intense hatred emerged in its eyes. But
when it saw the black lock in his hand, the intense hatred was
turned into fear and meekness.
The fire ape let out an angry roar as it descended from the skies.
It slammed into the ground with massive force, causing an
explosion to sound out, the entire stronghold to shake, and
countless cracks to appear on the ground. It unleashed
tremendous Arch energy combined with scorching flames, enough
to send fear deep into one's heart.
"Guardian Noah, be careful, this is a Flaming Gorilla. It's a bloody

level 10 Core Formation stage beast. I don't know how Murdoch
managed to make this Flaming Gorilla obey his command. That
thing somehow makes him control the wild beasts"
Eric's expression changed, and without any hesitation, he

explained to Noah. Normally, ancient beasts all had violent
tempers, and considered humans their mortal enemies or simply
food, even more so for beasts who had broken through to the
Core Formation stage. All of them had their own feelings of pride
and dignity, and they would rather die than be controlled by a
human. This Flaming Gorilla had reached level 10 of the Core
Formation stage and just a few months of cultivation away from
breaking through to the Core Strengthening stage, yet it was still
being controlled by Murdoch. Gaya was both intrigued and
confused.
Looking at the lock made Gaya feel something wired. It was like
the lock was pulling her close and commanding her to get close.
"That's a Demonic beast tamer" It took? Gaya a few seconds to

recognize the lock. She had read about this artifact before but
never had the chance to see one until now. According to the texts
she read, these locks were forged by a 6-star human blacksmith
who had deep hatred towards other races. He forged the locks to
tame and enslave anyone except a human.
The seven locks were said to be lost in time except she found one
today.
Murdoch smiled as he raised the Demonic beast tamer in his hand

and waved it towards the Flaming Gorilla, then he gave out an
order, "Flaming Gorilla, kill this man for me." Murdoch pointed at
Noah.
Roar!
The Flaming Gorilla was furious, and flames were shooting out
from its eyes. As a beast grew up in the Fire Realm, it had its own
pride and dignity, that's why it felt extremely enraged upon being
controlled by a human. However, because of the Demonic beast
tamer, it was forced to obey Murdoch's command. The
appearance of Noah had given it a target to release its anger on.
It wanted to vent all its anger on Noah.
Bang!
The Flaming Gorilla punched a huge hole in the ground, then it

jumped into the air, forcefully throwing its majestic body which was
covered in scorching flames toward Noah.
Eric's expression changed dramatically. With his cultivation level,

he could handle a fire Core Formation level 2 or 3 warriors, but
not a level 10 beast like the Flaming Gorilla. A brutal opponent like
this was really frightening.
"Pathetic" Noah snickered. Despite the Flaming Gorilla that's

flying towards him in rage, he remained calm. It reminded Gaya of
Ghost.
"Light Range"
Noah calmly uttered the two words as Gaya saw the torture room
suddenly gets brighter and brighter. The Flaming Gorilla stopped
rampaging towards Noah as it started to feel threatened by the
human in front of it.
"Release!"
Instead of unsheathing his words, Noah just raised his finger

towards the lock and shouted. The very next moment, a bolt of
bright light appeared out of Noah's finger. The light bolt soared
through the Gorilla without harming it but when it touched the lock,
the lock trembled.
"What the?" Murdoch was stunned to see the lock trembling in his
hand like never before. In a few seconds, the lock exploded into
tiny bits and pieces.
The very next moment, a vortex appeared in the room that pulled
the Flaming Gorilla into it.
The Flaming Gorilla let out shrill cries, all of its furs were standing
up. It tried to run away from the pulling force yet its efforts were in
vain because, in a few seconds, the Flaming Gorilla disappeared
from the room into the vortex.
The blast force produced by the destruction of the lock sent

Murdoch flying into the wall behind him.
"Young Master!" Murdoch's men shouted.
"Argh (cough)" Murdoch coughed up thick blood while Noah

walked towards him.
Murdoch could vaguely see Noah through his blurry vision. He

tried to stand up but he failed to do so due to internal wounds.
Gaya watched Noah putting his hand on Murdoch's head,

"Break!"
If Ghost was here, he would have killed Murdoch by now, Gaya

knew that. However, Noah didn't seem to be interested in killing
Murdoch. He just put his hand on Murdoch's head as a bright light
enveloped Murdoch in a blink of an eye.
Gaya's eyes widened in shock, seeing Murdoch's cultivation level

gradually becoming lower and lower. In a few minutes, Murdoch
hit rock bottom as he became a commoner.
"He crippled him" Gaya muttered in shock because it didn't seem

like typical crippling, rather, it seemed like he locked away
Murdoch's ability to cultivate or use Arch energy completely.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 364 - Reaching The
Semi Final
When the commentators and the VIP guests returned to their

seats, the sky was decorated with colorful fireworks. They painted
the sky as though each firework was a master artist. The fireworks
exploded into all kinds of shapes such as dragons, birds, lions,
dancing men, and finally, the name Ghost. The Sunrise sect
pavilion erupted into cheers when they saw the name 'Ghost'
occupy all the sky above them. Nightmare flew straight into the air,
decorating the golden words with his crimson red dragon breath.
The fireworks weren't arranged by Ghost or anyone he knew. On

the contrary, it was arranged by people he never knew, the
merchants and the tournament committee. Lailah was looking at
the sky as the flashes of light reflected in her beautifully crafted
hazel eyes.
"Welcome to the Quarter final, ladies and gentlemen" Looking at

the sky, Darius snapped as all the fireworks merged to form the
words 'Quater Final'
"As usual, we will go through the rules and regulations. Just like
the 3rd round, participants can use whatever is necessary to
defeat their opponent. Each battle will be one on one. The judges
and the guests will score the battle according to how long the
battle lasted, how the battle ended as if it was a knockout or
surrender and the 5 winners will be ranked according to their total
score. The one with the least score will be eliminated and the first
four will go to the semi-final"
"Since Miss Celina withdrew from the tournament for personal

reasons, we will select a random participant among the nine and
send him or her directly to the Semifinal" Ishihara said. The
commoners sighed hearing the news but the nobles did not seem
surprised. They expected Celina to leave the tournament.
Everyone knew it wouldn't have been her choice, rather her family
forced her to withdraw from the competition instead of facing
Ghost and ended up being killed or worse.
Although there were only one of five chances for Celina to end up
facing Ghost, her family didn't want to take the risk.
Soon, the giant mirror broadcasted all the nine participants' figures
as each figure had a color coin beside them. For instance,
Andrews had the color gold coin while Paul Oswen had a blue
coin. Nine participants were assigned nine coins. When the
mirrors broadcasted Michael's figure, the entire arena once again
let out their thunderous cheers. Coincidentally or intentionally, he
was assigned a black coin.
Under the crowds' excited gazes, nine bright orbs emerged from
the battle stage. In a few seconds, the bright light faded away to
reveal the palm-sized coins.
"Her Royal Highness Katherine would pick the lucky participant

who will go to the Semi-final without competing in the Quarterfinal.
He or She will also be safe from the elimination" James Hall said.
While the coins were floating in a circle, one of the coordinators
landed before the coins with a wooden box in his hand. He picked
the coins one by one and put them into the wooden box.
The coordinator then flew towards the stage where the Princess
was sitting alongside the king and the other VIPs.
"Who do you think will get the lucky chance guys?" Ishihara
asked,
"It's luck Ishihara, we can't predict luck," James Hall said while the
coordinator was flying towards the princess.
"Some would call it luck, some would call it fate, " Darius said in
his rough voice,
The arena was rather silent as they were too focused on the
wooden box. They wanted to see who is the lucky one. Many
prayed that the princess wouldn't take the black coin. They
wanted to see Ghost fight. Unlike many young masters, they knew
they can't see Ghost fight very often. Until this tournament, many
didn't even know he could fight. He was the least controversial
prodigy in Elon who liked to mind his own business and make
fewer enemies.
"Please be Andrews, please be Andrews' ' Emelda prayed to the

gods while Diana prayed to be her son. She didn't want Andrews
to get on the same stage as Ghost. The last thing she needed
was her son to kill his cousin. After destroying Skyhall and
everyone who would hurt her son, Diana wanted him to have a
family that he never had.
"Your Royal Highness" the coordinator bowed his head slightly,

handing over the wooden box to Princess Katherine. Despite the
thousands of eyes on her, Katherine sported a smile on her face.
No one except a few didn't know she was praying to pick the
golden coin which was Andrew's.
It took a few moments for her to grab a coin in the wooden box.
Even though she couldn't see the coin she grabbed, she just
hoped it would be the golden coin.
"Im excited" Ishihara giggled,
Everyone's gaze was on the princess as she slowly retrieved her

hands from the wooden box.
"Black coin!" Many gasped in shock including the princess herself.

Katherine's heart skipped a beat looking at the black coin in her
hand. Drops of sweat formed on her smooth forehead. He got one
step closer to marrying her.
If Andrews couldn't defeat Ghost, her father would announce that

he will marry her to Ghost. Katherine would rather die than marry
that monster in human form.
"It's decided then. Ghost will go to the semifinals directly" James
Hall said as the participants felt relieved. After seeing what he did
to Alex and Peter, none of them wanted to face him in a battle.
Andrews on the other hand had a mixed feeling. He was glad that
he didn't have to face Ghost in the quarter-final but he was
troubled thinking that he needed to eventually face him.
"Now without further delay, let's begin the quarter-finals" Darius's

voice reverberated through the arena. As usual, the Body
Strengthening stage warriors came to the battle stage to pick their
opponents while Core Formation participants were busy
strategizing.
***************************************
"It's time for us to witness the final fight of the day"? The crowd
wasn't as excited as before when the last fight had Ghost.
"Let's have thunderous cheers for our competitors, Paul Oswen

and Andrew Winston"
"Andrew has become the dark horse of the competition guys"

Ishihara commented while waiting for Andrew and Paul to come to
the battle stage.
"Yes, it's really stunning to? see a runemaster with level 3 Core
Formation stage cultivation to come this far" Ishihara nodded as
James Hall continued,
"Many commoners even root for Andrew. People seemed to love

underdogs"
"I can see a resolution in Andrew's eyes. It's like he's fighting for
something, something valuable and bigger than the championship
title and the rewards" Darius's words echoed in Katherine's mind.
Andrew was fighting for her, no one knew that except her.
"Humph, underdogs are good for entertainment but not for life"
King Bredia snickered. He wanted Ghost to win the tournament so
he could make him the baron of Bradford barony and marry
Katherine to him. If Ghost married Katherine, he knew Ghost
would protect his daughter as a good husband should. No matter
what he would only marry his daughter to a warrior who could
protect Katherine in all situations.
"The last time Andrew fought, he didn't seem like an underdog to

me. He defeated his opponent with a single spell"? Ishihara
reminded everyone of Andrew's third round fight,
"Ghost had the longest fight with Peter and Alex while Andrew had
the shortest fight" James Hall paused for a moment and
continued,
"Everyone knew Noah Winston" the moment James Hall uttered

the name Noah, the entire arena shook in thunderous cheers. The
commoners screamed his name as loud as they could. The three
commentators had to go silent for a few moments. Michael had
the undying support of River town because he took care of River
town, a small town. Noah however helped and took care of
several small towns, villages, and hundreds or even thousands of
commoners in his life. After becoming a Guardian, he had the
authority and the resources to really help people as well as punish
the evil.
Hence commoners loved Noah. The admiration towards Noah

was still growing up among the commoners.
"Andrew's cousin is a warrior prodigy but no one knew Andrew

was just as talented as his Guardian cousin. They were both
blessed with specializations too" After the cheers died down,
James Hall spoke
"They are here"
Before Ishihara could speak about Paul Oswen, both the

participants landed on the battle stage.
"I always thought I would end up fighting your cousin but never
thought I would face you," Paul smiled. He didn't radiate any pride
or haughtiness or arrogance.
"Life is strange that way Paul"
"The spell you used earlier, was that a Legendary one?"
Many people gasped in shock just by hearing the word Legendary.

Even nobles leaned forwards to hear Andrew's answer.
"I was not that fortunate Paul, it was an Epic spell. I enhanced it
with a few runes"
Paul's brows arched up as he nodded. He then looked up at the

coordinators,
"Shall we start the battle? I have places to be" Paul asked the
coordinators before turning his gaze back to Andrew,
"There is no shame in surrendering Andrew. We, Oswens have a

wedding in our family so starting it with murder will be a bad
omen"
"I will give you the same advice Paul '' Andrew's words didn't
make Paul mad as many expected. He just smiled. Unlike many
other young masters in prominent families, Paul avoided making
unnecessary enemies. He forced on cultivating and minding his
own business. Because of his character, some loved him while
some loathed him in the Oswen family.
"Let's begin the battle"
*******************************
Michael will be back on the next chapter. This chapter needed to

be written to let the story flow smoothly.
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 365 - Hand Of The
Princess
After the bell rang indicating the start of the battle, both Andrew
and Paul took out their weapons from their space rings. A
longbow materialized in Paul's hand while the quiver appeared on
his back with a bunch of silver arrows.? The bow looked no
different than any ordinary longbow without any magical symbols
or glowing runes on them. Yet no one underestimated the power
of the bow after seeing Paul defeat all of his opponents easily with
the bow.
On the other hand, Andrew took out his two emerald green
daggers. Unlike Paul's bow, the daggers hand glowing runes on
them. There were hundreds of small runes placed on the daggers.
One of them was the rune that connected Lailah's power to
Andrew.
No one could see through Andrew's cheat. Lailah was a master at

runes and arrays. Hence she knew how to avoid getting detected
by the arrays on the battlefield. The arrays on the battle stage
were actually designed by one of the students who studied under
the same tutelage as her.
Lailah knew her attacks wouldn't work on Ghost but she made
some modifications to the runes on Andrew's daggers. She
believed it would defeat Ghost. Deep down in her heart, Lailah
wanted Ghost to be a good righteous man instead of being cruel
and evil. She didn't want him to change for her but for someone
else.
The first step to changing him was making him understand the
power of true love. Although Andrew had her power, she knew
that without strong willpower, his mind and body would have
literally exploded. It was love that kept Andrew alive.
On the battle stage, Paul knocked a silver arrow in the bowstring

to fire at Andrew. He didn't cast any spells but just wanted to test
Andrew's reaction time and speed.
"Ice Shield"
Andrew immediately cast a spell that formed a wall of ice before

him. The arrow penetrated the ice shield a couple of inches but
couldn't break the shield.
"Sonic Arrow" without giving Andrew to mount up an offensive

spell, Paul fired another arrow. This time, when the arrow left the
bowstring, it produced a booming sound as it soared through the
air towards Andrew.
Andrew immediately leaped out of the safety of the ice shield. The
moment the sonic arrow touched the ice shield, the shield
exploded into pieces.
Instead of falling to the ground, the arrow flew back into Paul's
hand like a boomerang.
He fired the arrow yet again at Andrew,
"Ice Shield"? the shield spell could be cast quickly, hence Andrew
cast the spell again to save himself from the arrow. Since Andrew
had the power of Lailah, the shield stopped Paul's arrow from
penetrating through the shield to impale Andrew.
The ice shield grew up to seven feet from the stage. Using the
split second before the arrow destroyed the shield, Andrew placed
a rune on the shield. Then he dashed away from the cover of the
shield.
Unaware of the rune, Paul fired the arrow yet again. The arrow
pierced through the air like a bullet. When the arrow's tip touched
the ice shield, the ice shield didn't explode but the arrow bounced
back. Paul didn't expect the arrow to bounce back. But before he
could react, the arrow exploded in the mid-air, sending a shock
wave at Paul.? The rune was supposed to send back a portion of
the attack's power to the attacker. Since Andrew had the power of
Lailah, the rune almost returned 100% power back to Paul. It was
like Paul hit himself with the sonic arrow.
Paul was knocked back by the shock wave as Andrew dashed at

Paul to close the gap between them. Because Paul was an
archer, Andrew knew getting closer to Paul would put him in a
disadvantageous position.
While running towards Paul, Andrew drew symbols in the air as

the crowd saw golden runes appear in the air before disappearing
into the battle stage. They saw similar runes when Peter fought
Ghost. Many doubted Paul could break the runes as Ghost did.
Seeing Andrew running towards him, Paul immediately tried to

take another arrow from his quiver but he was too late as Andrew
leaped into the air,
"Gates of Valhalla!"
Cling!
In the mid-air, Andrew shouted as he smacked the two daggers

together. Suddenly Paul felt an immense pressure on him like he
was being crushed by an invisible mountain.
"Argh (cough) (cough)" Paul caught up blood as the pressure

increased by multiple folds. At this point, Andrew almost came
down on him with his full might. Paul tried to move his body yet he
couldn't move at all.
Meanwhile lying on the bed, Michael was watching the battle in a

55-inch mirror. He felt like watching television back on earth.
"So Lailah is somehow enhancing his power…interesting" Michael

snickered,
[Don't underestimate Lailah. The system can sense some

changes in the energy patterns. Although these energy patterns
cannot kill you, it can still harm you] The system informed Michael,
"I'm pretty sure you can make me immune"
[For a price of course. But do you want the system to make you
immune? You want to cheat?]
"Isn't Andrew cheating right now? If it wasn't for Lailah, Andrew

would not be here. Besides, I have bigger things to worry about
than dealing with Lailah's bitchiness and petty feuds"'
Michael turned the pages of Lord Information's book to learn more

about Thusia.
[Are you thinking about taking the guild leader position?]
The system was more talkative than usual. Michael was too
focused on building a revenge plan against Thusia to mind the
system's talkative nature.
"Not thinking. I already decided to take the position of Guild

leader"
"Aren't you supposed to take revenge for Abras as you promised

him?"
"Oh? Then how about we go to Thusia tomorrow, ask the princess

and her royal family to kneel down and let me kill them" he said
sarcastically,
[Sarcasm much]
"No shit. According to this book, they are already powerful enough
to wipe out Bredia and any kingdom in Elon within a few weeks.
Those bastards are just dragging the war to hide their true power"
Just thinking about Thusia made his blood boil. He could vividly
see the princess sending a dagger through his heart that she
promised to take care of. Abras gave the princess his heart and
she put a dagger through it. Still, Michael didn't know Abras was
just another piece of his soul.
"I can use their resources to become stronger and I can plan my
revenge under their nose. Keep your friends close, your enemies
closer System"
[Calvin didn't recognize you but the princess will. And now you
can't change your face as Calvin had seen your original face]
"Abras always sported a clean shaven look with long hair. When I
have to meet the princess, I can go with a long Viking beard and
short hair. As far as they are concerned, they killed Abras. They
won't expect to see him again"? While talking he looked at the
mirror to see Paul and Andrew still fighting. Paul seemed to be in
a worse state than Andrew. Paul's sleeves had been torn away as
he had blood coming out of his mouth and nose.
[They have the Cosmic stream host. The more time you waste,
the stronger they would become] the system warned Michael,
"Then I will become stronger. If I wanted to kill that bitch and her
family, I would have done it by now. I don't want to kill them, death
is mercy for them"
[What are you planning to do?] In his anger, Michael failed to

notice the fear in the system's voice.
"I will make the princess and everyone they care about experience
hell. I dont like to torture people, but I will make an exception for
them. I will enjoy every second of it. Anyone who stands in my
path will die. Thusia will burn '' the entire room became darker as
he spoke. The system noticed his strength slowly increasing.
"In this world, many cultivators are doing evil shits every day. But
the guardians painted me like the manifestation of evil, the Dark
Lord. I will show the Guardians what I am really capable of"
Michael stood up from the bed as he walked towards the mirror,
"May gods have mercy upon Thusians, cause I won't"
At this exact moment, a large tree could be seen on a lonely

mountain. The large tree stood alone atop the mountain. One
could see a figure tied to the tree. The figure was more like
merged with the tree itself.
The figure's face was covered in moths, mud, and blood. He had a
gray beard and shaggy hair. His body was riddled with scars as
though he was cut thousands of times by someone.
"My God is here" the figure smiled looking in the direction of the
Elon continent.
Back in Michael's room, he was staring at the mirror as Andrew

stood beside Paul with his daggers against Paul's throat.
"I surrender" Michael heard Paul utter the words. The crowd
erupted in cheers as Andrew plummeted to the ground in
exhaustion.
In the giant mirrors, Michael saw Emelda clapping in joy with tears
of joy running down on her face. He then saw the crowd cheering
as loud as they could for the underdog of this tournament,
Andrew. Even Claire and the elders of the Sunrise sect were
clapping to show their support without having any idea of how
Andrew managed to beat Paul.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Suddenly before the coordinators helped Andrew and Paul leave

the stage, three loud bell sounds reverberated the arena. The
view of the battle stage immediately changed to the VIP stage in
the mirror. They all saw King Bredia stand up with a grin on his
face.
"Please" He raised his hand as the crowd immediately became

silent,
"I have an announcement to make. The winner of the Core

Formation championship will be rewarded with the title Baron
along with Bradford barony" For people like Ashton, it wasn't a
piece of surprising news but for commoners, it was another story.
Many sounds of gasping could be heard in the arena.
The King stayed silent for a few moment before speaking again,
"And the hand of my daughter, Princess Katherine in marriage"
*******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 366 - To The Final
On this cloudy morning, there were growing patches of blue, the

sort of hue that was soft and bright at the same time. Though
beneath the sheet of cloud was a gray that deepened to steel, the
leading edge was a brilliant white, as if it was the pages of a new
book ready for any curious eye. So, on this day that could bring
rain or sunshine, no one in the arena except the VIP guests and
commentators remained in their seats. Their eyes were glued to
the battle stage. In the center of the battle stage, two figures were
laying on the floor. One was completely bathed in blood from head
to toe. The other one was no different than the other except he
knelt on the battle stage on one knee. Anyone could tell he was
about to tumble down any second.
The figure laid on the ground was Ducan, a rogue cultivator while
the other was Andrew. This was the first fight of the Semi-final
which would decide the finalist.
As Andrew was fighting with everything he got to stay awake, the

coordinators landed on the ground to check on Ducan.
"Knockout!" the coordinator's voice echoed through the arena as

the crowd erupted into cheers for Andrew.
"Andrew has entered the final!"
"He has made history reaching the final with the lowest cultivation
level!"
"That kid really put up a fight. I'm really impressed" Followed by

Ishihara and James's comments, Darius also praised Andrew. The
entire arena was shouting Andrew's name as the fireworks
decorated the sky along with their thunderous exploding sounds.
Princess Katherine quickly wiped off the tear running out of her
eyes before anyone could see her watery eyes.
"Andrew!"
"Andrew!"
"Andrew!"
"Andrew!"
"Andrew!"
"Andrew!"
The crowd kept chanting Andrew's name. Surprisingly their cheers

gave Andrew a little bit of strength to stay still instead of falling
onto the ground.
The fight between Andrew and Ducan went for almost an hour
and a half. Although Andrew had the power of Lailah behind him,
Ducan fought strategically which made defeating him difficult for
Andrew.
Andrew was a Core Formation level 2 runemaster while Ducan

was a level 6 Core Formation warrior. Many thought this match
was the end of Andrew's journey as the power gap between them
was too wide. However, Andrew proved everyone wrong and
defeated Ducan. Andrew almost died defeating Ducan.
"Andrew has proved to us that the willpower can overcome the

cultivation level difference"
"Even if Andrew couldn't win the tournament, his name will be

remembered for years to come" James Hall praised Andrew,
"He will be an inspiration for many cultivators. His journey will

show the others that one can overcome a cultivation difference
with willpower and courage" Ishihara joined James Hall in praising
Andrew. The Winstons felt extremely proud of Andrew at the
moment. At first, they all doubted him and even tried to stop him
from competing in the tournament. Nonetheless Noah vouched for
Andrew and gave his support. Even Andrew's mother Natalia
didn't want Andrew to participate as she was afraid of him getting
hurt. Natalia was the softest among the three Hunt sisters.
Regardless of Andrew's reasons to compete in the tournament,
Natalia tried to stop him because she couldn't even think about
losing her son.
"Help them reach the infirmary" The coordinators lifted Andrew

and Ducan and flew towards the infirmary.
Eventually, after a team of maids cleaned up the blood off the

battle stage, the crowd became excited again. Since the next fight
would decide the finalist who is going to fight Andrew, the crowd
was on the edge of their seats. Moreover, they were excited to
see Ghost.
"It's time for the battle we've been waiting for ladies and
gentlemen" Ishihara announced.
"And don't worry people, the battle will not be stopped if it rains"
Hearing Darius's voice, many sighed in relief. The sky was filled
with dark clouds and everyone could hear thunderclaps in the
distance.? Heavy downpour was evident but no one wanted the
rain to interrupt the battle.
"Participant Regan and participant Ghost of Sunrise sect please

come to the stage"
The moment Ishihara uttered the name 'Ghost', the arena once
again let out thunderous cheers. Almost two-thirds of the arena
were bouncing up and down, showing signs boards that had the
letters 'We love Ghost', waving black flags as well as Sunrise sect
flags, and shouting Ghost's name as loud as they could.
Even those who hated Ghost such as MorningStar disciples

became jealous of the support and cheers Ghost received. As the
fans were cheering, Regan landed on the battle stage with a swift
leap.
Regan was a tall man, standing 6' 2" tall, this bronze skinned man
had a really tough feel about him. A particularly notable feature
was his muscular build. His hip-length, shiny, light brown hair,
currently dip-dyed at the ends with shades of sky blue, features a
messy fringe. He has a uniquely styled, perfectly trimmed beard.
His square face with brown eyes didn't show any emotions looking
at the cheers for his opponent, Ghost. Waiting for Ghost, Regan
flicked his wrist as a 7ft war hammer appeared in his hand. Unlike
the other participants, Regan wore no armor to protect himself. He
just wore leather pants adorned with gray fur and long snakeskin
boots.
Lailah was watching Regan with the other commoners. She was
in a battle with her heart and mind. After talking to her mentor and
contemplating what happened inside the Treacherous Ocean, she
understood that Ghost was to be blamed completely. She knew it
was her impulse that led to the First Energies occupying their
bodies which led to spirit walking. He had no choice, her mind told
her that but her heart was burning in fury. He took her purity, her
heart couldn't accept it.
After threatening him of destroying everyone he cares about, she

felt disgusted with herself. She knew she acted like a first-class
hypocrite. How could she call him evil after she herself threatened
to kill innocents?
The fact she couldn't hurt him at all made her feel weak and
helpless. She hated the feeling of being weak. In front of him, she
was exactly that.
Initially, when she came to the tournament, she wanted to tell

Ghost about something important that could change both of their
lives forever. However, after seeing Ghost's cruelty, ruthlessness,
and blood-thirsty nature, she decided otherwise.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
Just as she was thinking the cheers couldn't get any louder, the
arena erupted louder. The figure of Ghost in the giant mirror
stopped her train of thoughts.? Weirdly, Ghost reminded her of
Noah. Only Ghost didn't have the warmth and kindness that Noah
had.
Michael slowly descended onto the battle stage after winking at

Nightmare who was enjoying the battle sitting on Claire's lap. He
was a majestic fearful dragon but when he was with Claire, he
would turn into a puppy.
Because Regan was a rogue cultivator, except for a very few, no

one knew or heard about him before. Coupled with the fact that
Regan always ended up with opponents who were weaker than
him didn't raise any support for him.
Despite the bodybuilder-like physique of Regan, Michael was not

even a bit worried. Regan was just a Core Formation level 6
warrior after all. Instead of unsheathing his two swords, Michael
put his hands behind his back and looked at Regan with a smile.
"Despite most peoples' opinion about rogue cultivators, I respect

you guys. I was one of you before joining the Sunrise sect"
Michael's voice was amplified by the runes to let everyone hear
his voice loud and clear.
"You didn't survive this long by fighting every battle in your way.
Your life depends on every fight you pick, so don't pick a fight you
can't win"
The crowd was not stupid not to understand the meaning behind
Michael's words. He was telling Regan to back off, his words were
on the border of threat and advice. Many nobles expected a
rugged man such as Regan to get mad at Ghost for speaking
these words. However, Regan just sighed as the war hammer in
his hand disappeared back into his space ring.
"You are right, we rogues need to know when to back down"

Regan let out a sigh as he continued,
"This is a battle I cannot win"

Michael nodded with a smile,
"I hope you remember me Ghost"
"Anyone who isn't my foe is my friend" Michael's words put a

gentle smile on Regan's face.
He looked around the arena for a while before slowly ascending to

the air,
"I hope we will meet again Ghost,"? Regan said while floating in
the mid-air. He then looked at the coordinators around him,
"I forfeit," Regan said before flying away from the arena. People
were stunned to see Regan quit like this. He decided to quit
before even exchanging a few blows with Ghost. Many thought
what he did was a shameful act and an act of cowardice.
"Guys what just happened?" Ishihara's brows arched up,
"What do you think? Regan forfeited the battle"
The coordinators murmured among themselves while the crowd

was looking at Ghost speechlessly. Even Ghost's supporters was
unable to believe what just happened. They were expecting an
exchange of blows, not words.
"Ghost wins!" The coordinators announced. It took a few moments

for the crowd to open their mouths again to cheer. They were
stunned. Katherine's heart skipped a beat listening to the
commenters announce that Ghost had reached the final.
When the crowd finally began to cheer, Ghost already left the
battle stage. This was the shortest semi final they all had seen in
their lives. Ghost just came, said a few words to Regan and made
him forfeit the battle. Unlike Andrew who shed almost all of his
blood, Ghost had entered the final without even breaking a sweat.
"I hope you don't mind being called Lady Ghost, Kathy" King
Bredia leaned closer to Katherine's ears and said with a chuckle.
*******************************
This is it my dear readers, the chapter before the finals. Andrew
vs Michael will begin from the next chapter.
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 367 - The Grand
Finale
After the semi final round between Ghost and Regan, the
commentators announced a six hours break before the final of
Body Strengthening stage cultivators. In the final, Sabrina faced
Victoria. The final battle lasted for an hour before Sabrina
overpowered Victoria and defeated her. The battle between the
girls kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Even Ashton, who
wasn't very interested in the tournament, watched the fight without
batting an eye.
Many expected Sabrina to give a speech after winning the

championship while the commoners wondered what would be the
rewards. However, Sabrina just said 'thank you' to the crowd and
left the battle stage.
Taking the pegasi carriage offered to her by the Holy Trident

Academy, Sabrina flew towards where Andrew was staying. The
sun had almost disappeared into the horizon when she reached
the manor where Andrew was staying.
"Young Miss" when her carriage landed, quickly few of the guards
staying outside guarding the door came to open the carriage door.
They bent forwards to show their respects.
"Andrew inside?"
"Yes young miss"
Sabrina hastened inside to meet her cousin leaving the carriage

under the care of the guards. At first Sabrina thought winning the
championship tournament would make her feel pleased or at least
something except it didn't. Although she fought with Victoria for
almost an hour, she didn't use her full power.? IF she had
defeated Aelia, she knew she would have felt different.
However, Sabrina could not think about anything at the moment

except her cousin's condition. She hastened inside the home.
Entering the manor, she walked straight to the hall where she saw
Andrew with several people standing around him.? She expected
Andrew to be in his room taking a rest. Instead, she found him
surrounded by people.? Andrew was resting on the sofa while
Emelda had her hand on his shoulder. She was consoling him.
Sabrina saw her mother, aunt Emelda, a hooded person who

stood in a corner of the hall, Alicia and Norvin.
"Sabi" Emelda was surprised to see Sabrina enter the hall.
All of their gazes including Andrew's fell on Sabrina.
"You won?" Diana asked as though she already knew the answer.
Sabrina gave a small nod before walking towards Andrew.
"Shouldn't you be celebrating your win right now Sabi?" Andrew

asked with a gentle smile on his face as usual. He tried to hide his
worries with a smile but Sabrina could see through the facade.
"I know why you are worried Andrew" Andrew raised his brows as
Sabrina smiled,
"Dad isn't very good at keeping secrets from me, Andrew. Don't
you know that?"
"I know that" Andrew sighed as he chuckled,
"How is your brother Ali?" Sabrina asked Alicia. Alicia remained

silent,
"The healers said they could only heal the physical wounds, not
the mental ones' ' Norvin answered instead of Alicia. Sabrina
sighed. What Ghost did to him was cruel and ruthless. However,
Sabrina also knew Peter brought it on him by himself. No one
asked Peter to dress up as a vigilante to ambush Ghost and other
prodigies just to prove he is better than them.
"Time will heal everything," Emelda said. Alicia nodded but she
knew the mental wounds of Peter would never heal unless he
could defeat Ghost and humiliate him as Ghost did to him.
"Andrew, I am asking you again. Are you sure you want to do

this?" Diana asked Andrew.
"Is there any other way we can convince Katherine's father?"

Emelda asked a question after Diana,
"Can Katherine tell her father she loves you?" Sabrina asked.
Andrew was getting bombarded with questions until Alicia opened

her mouth,
"Why is everyone talking like he's going to lose? When we all,

including me, thought Andrew couldn't do this, he came this far
and proved us wrong. He will defeat Ghost, have some faith in
him"
Everyone was speechless for a few moments. They couldn't argue

with Alicia's words.
"It's because I cheated," suddenly Andrew said, stunning

everyone.
"Cheated? What are you talking about?" Emelda creased her

brows. Except for Diana and Alicia, everyone looked
flabbergasted. Alicia knew about Noah's deal with Lailah and her
involvement in Andrew's victory. Diana however didn't know
anything about Lailah or Noah's deal with her but she was able to
tell that something was amiss.
"If it wasn't for Lady Alden, I wouldn't have reached this far"
"Lady Alden? Lailah Alden?" Sabrina literally started to shiver

hearing the name.
"Without your mental resolution and willpower, you would have
died taking my power" they all heard the melodious voice as they
turned their eyes towards the hooded person. Sabrina saw the
hooded one taking off her hood covering her head to reveal her
angelic face.
Sabrina felt like she was going to faint. The woman in front of her
was Lailah Alden, one of the legends of this world. She had only
seen Lailah in the paintings in her Holy Trident Academy. Lailah
was a pride of all woman cultivators, she was the embodiment of
woman power.
"How far would you go for the girl you love Andrew?" Lailah asked
as everyone stared at her in shock.
"I give my life for her"
Slap!
The moment Andrew finished speaking these words, a slapping

sound could be heard in the hall. Sabrina was stunned to see her
always gentle and warm aunt Emelda slap Andrew. No one could
believe he got slapped by Emelda.
"Are you really prepared to give your life for a girl you know for
how long, a year? Or two years? What about us, your family?
What about your mother?" Emelda was stuck between worry and
anger. Her eyes were bloodshot.
"You're gonna quit whining, go out there and defeat Ghost.

Cheating or no cheating, you will defeat him. You know why?
Because you have us"
Her words did not motivate Andrew but somewhat calmed the
storm within him.
"If you can't defeat him, dont be stupid to fight till you die. Just say
you surrender and we will figure out how to deal with everything
that follows later" Norvin gave a piece of advice of his own. Unlike
Emelda, Norvin doubted Andrew could really defeat Ghost. As
much as Norvin wanted Andrew to defeat him, he was less
optimistic about that.
Diana was in a world of her own thinking. All the people in the
room thought Ghost was some kind of monster. Ever since he was
born, he has faced nothing but tragedies. And he faced everything
life throws at him alone. She didn't know why they called him the
Dark Lord when there are hundreds or even thousands of evil
cultivators who were capable of great evil roaming the work as
they speak.
*************************************
Meanwhile, in Michael's room, he was sitting in front of Calvin

reading several parchments on the glass table.
"Feel free to tell me if you have any changes to be made," Calvin

said with a smile,
"No changes required Calvin. I hope you guys will have my back
when the time comes" Michael inked the quill to sign the
parchments as he spoke,
"Don't worry, King Bredia won't go to war with you if you choose to
reject the princess" Michael looked up at Calvin with his brows
arched up. Michael was surprised to see Calvin grasp the
upcoming problem without any explanation.
"Like I said, I did my research. I know you are not going to accept
the marriage proposal. Naturally, rejecting a king's offer would
result in problems. But worry not, Thusia will have your back"
"This time, I'll be the one stabbing you in the back," Michael
thought to himself.
"It will be a pleasure to work with Thusians" As he said, Michael

signed his name on the parchment. With this sign, he had officially
become the guild leader of the Thusian Alchemy Guild.
Finally, Michael stood up to shake Calvin's hands,

"Welcome aboard Ghost"
After shaking Michael's hand with a wide grin on his face, Calvin
handed over a space ring to Michael.
"This contains some welcoming gifts from Thusia Ghost. I hope

you like them"
The final day of the tournament began with a drizzle. The dark
rain clouds filled the sky like marching soldiers. The thunderclaps
in the distance implied the upcoming heavy downpour. The arena
was filled with chit-chat from the fans. Not a single person who
wasn't in the conversation of who would win the championship. Of
Course, many voted for Ghost while only a few voted for Andrew.
"Welcome to the finals ladies and gentlemen ''? Ishihara's

announcement finally brought down the volume of their chit-chat.
But only for a few moments tho as the crowd yet again erupted
into cheers.
"It has been a roller coaster ride, ladies and gentlemen. What do
you think guys?" James Hall asked,
"I think we better start the final before they start a riot" Ishihara
giggled,
"Before we start the final, let us see the journey of the two
finalists. Andrew Winston and Ghost" After Darius spoke, the giant
mirror began to broadcast the highlights of both Ghost and
Andrew's battles. Seeing both of their battles gave goosebumps to
the commoners and raised their expectations to another level.
The highlight reel went for almost fifteen minutes. Looking at the
reels, Alicia once again shivered in anger. She wanted to destroy
the mirrors to oblivion when they showed Ghost mopping the floor
with her brother.
What disturbed her more was the people who roared seeing
Ghost's ruthlessness.
Sitting on her throne, Katherin clenched her fist tightly. Her heart
pounded against her chest looking at the vial in her hand. The
king was too focused on Ghost's highlights reels to notice the vial
in his daughter's hands.
"Finalists Andrew Winston and Ghost, please come to the battle

stage"
The entire arena was shouting the names Ghost and Andrew to
show their support. The majority of the crowd was waving black
flags.
Under their thunderous cheers, Andrew appeared above the battle

stage and slowly descended onto the battle stage. Andrew
ignored all the cheers to focus on the upcoming battle.
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
"GHOST!"
While Andrew was trying to ignore the shouts, he heard the arena
erupt in cheers. He looked up to see Ghost slowly descending
onto the battle stage with his black long coat fluttering in the wind.
Unlike Andrew, Ghost seemed calm with his usual smile on his
face.
"Shall we start Andrew?"
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 368 - Michael Vs
Andrew
The distant howling sound of the wind coupled with the

thunderclaps gave off an ominous feeling. The violent wind made
waving the signs and flags difficult yet the win couldn't completely
stop them. Michael's long black coat fluttered in the wind behind
revealing the black turtleneck and the lines of his chest and abs.
After asking Andrew, Michael looked up at the coordinators,
"Guys, can we start the battle now? I have a barony to look"
Except for a very few, none of them thought of him as arrogant.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
"Let the battle begin"
As though the coordinators were working for him, they started the
battle. Andrew stared at him with his two daggers in his hands. He
was expecting Ghost to cast a spell. After watching all of Ghost's
fight and strategizing with Lailah and Sabrina, Andrew was
somewhat prepared.
"Andrew" Instead of unsheathing his swords, Michael smiled at

Andrew.
"Dude you can come up with new ways to get what you want
instead of this"
Regardless of what Noah did to the Silent Reaper, Michael didn't
want to hurt Noah's family. They were nothing but good to him. He
knew Lailah was kinda using Andrew to prove to him that nothing
stronger and purer than love. He couldn't understand Lailah's logic
completely.
"This is the only way Ghost," Andrew said as Michaeel sighed,
"So be it" Michael began to walk forward towards Andrew. He

didn't cast lightning dash or any spell, he just walked towards
Andrew without even taking out his swords.
"Gates of Valhalla" Andrew didn't waste any time. He immediately

cast one of the strongest spells he has in his arsenal. The whole
arena was silent as only the thunderclaps and the howling sound
of the wind could be heard.
They were staring at Michael and Andrew without batting an eye.

The commentators were going about but Michael or Andrew didn't
hear what they were saying. Claire was looking at Andrew with
pity.
"Reflective shield" Michael just uttered the word while walking

towards Andrew. When Andrew cast Gates of Valhalla on Paul
Oswen, he was crushed by immense pressure. However, when
Andrew cast the spell on Ghost, nothing happened.
Ghost was just a few meters away from Andrew,
"Emerald thorns!" After competing in a couple of life or death

battles, Andrew's thinking and reflexes became quicker. Hence,
instead of being stunned by the uselessness of the Gates of
Valhalla, Andrew cast another spell immediately.? From the two
daggers in Andrew's hands, Michael saw emerald green spikes
coming towards him like arrows.
There were numerous spikes the size of an arrow pierced through

the air to impale him. Andrew was shooting like he was holding
two machine guns that fired spikes rapidly. Standing among the
crowd, Lailah's eyes began to water up. She spent months
creating runes that could change her energy patterns so she
would not be defenseless against Ghost. She used those runes to
give Andrew the ability to fight against Ghost hoping it would hurt
him. Yet, neither the Gates of Valhalla nor the Emerald thorns
couldn't even graze him.
Emelda's heart was pounding against her chest as Ghost got

closer to Andrew. Ethan was rubbing his temples hoping Ghost
would go easy on Andrew.
"Oh no, he's in trouble," Norvin said with a grimaced face.
"Ice Shield" Andrew cast another spell to slow Ghost in his path,
Michael saw a seven-feel wall made of ice erupt a few meters

before him. The wall seemed to be at least a meter wide and
looked sturdy. Everyone including Andrew expected Michael to
destroy the wall using a spell or his fist. Unexpectedly, they saw
Ghost deviate from the straight line he was walking on and walked
around the wall instead of destroying the wall.
Andrew, who placed an explosive rune that would bounce the

attack power back to the attacker had a troubled look on his face.
All the opponents Andrew faced got defeated by either of the
three spells he just cast. The spell had Lailah's Fusion stage
power behind it, hence, a Core Formation cultivator couldn't take
the attack of Andrew.
However, Michael was immune to Lailah's attacks. Therefore,

Andrew, who had Lailah's power, couldn't even touch him.
"Without Lailah, he's as weak as a blind sick puppy" Michael

sighed inside. He actually felt pity for Andrew. After realizing long-
ranged attacks were not working, Andrew changed his tactic. He
activated the runes on his dagger as several golden symbols
began to glow on the daggers.
"Don't do it Andrew" Diana mumbled under her breath looking at

her nephew leaping higher into the air to attack Ghost with his
daggers.
Since Andrew would not be able to learn swordsmanship in a few
weeks, Noah taught Andrew how to fight with daggers. It had
been a big help to Andrew in the tournament against other
opponents. But Diana knew against a swordsman like Ghost who
seemed to have mastered the swords, Andrew was like a child.
Seeing Andrew descending upon him, Michael just shook his

head disappointedly. The people were on the edge of their seats.
Just when Andrew was a couple of inches away from him, Michael
grabbed Andrew by his wrists in the mid-air. Andrew lost his
momentum and control when Ghost grabbed him. His movement
was extremely fast as Andrew didn't even see Ghost move his
hands.
Andrew's feet touched the ground. He looked Ghost in the eyes

while struggling to get out of his hold.
"If there's a next time, don't depend on others to fight your battles"
Andrew felt his heart skip a beat hearing his words. His words
sounded as though Ghost knew he was cheating in the
tournament.
Chuk!
The very next moment, Andrew felt immense pain in his head.
The crowd saw Ghost head butt Andrew so hard that the sound of
their head clashing reverberated through the silent arena.
Michael slowly trusted Andrew's wrists as Andrew's face muscles

began to twitch in pain. He head-butted Andrew again without
giving him much time to let out a cry of pain. A sound of bone
cracking could be heard when Ghost head-butted Andrew. In the
giant mirrors, they all saw Andrew's nose bent weirdly sideways
as blood poured out of his nostrils.
If it wasn't for the excruciating pain in his wrists, Andrew would

have fainted. The world around him started to spin. Most people
expected Michael to break Andrew's wrists but he proved them
wrong by slamming Andrew on the Ice Shield Andrew erupted.
Boom!
The booming noise sounded across the arena while pebbles of ice
crumbled down due to the force of Andrew hitting the wall.
The force and pain immediately made Andrew cough up blood.

Ghost slammed him again on the ice shield like Andrew was a rag
doll. When he slammed Andrew the second time, the rune Andrew
placed on the wall glowed as the Ice Shield exploded with
immense force.
"Andrew!" Emelda shouted from her pavilion. The ice vaper

prevented the crowd from seeing what happened to Andrew and
Ghost for a few moments. When the fog created by the ice vapor
faded away, they saw Ghost was standing beside Andrew who
was lying on the ground, coughing up blood.
"Give up Andrew," Michael said, looking at Andrew at his feet. He

didn't even use a fraction of his power. Nonetheless Andrew was
almost at death's door.
To Michael's surprise, Andrew pulled himself up after failing to

stand up a couple of times. Seeing Andrew really surprised
Michael. Andrew was indeed resilient.
Still, Michael just shook his head before grabbing Andrew by his
neck. Half of Andrew's face was covered in blood and swollen.
"Taking a beating doesn't solve your problems Andrew" Despite

Andrew being his opponent, Michael advised him. For some
reason, Michael felt bad for beating up Andrew. Perhaps, it was
because the Winstons were good to him, perhaps, it was because
he pitied Andrew.
Nevertheless, he punched Andrew in the face. He didn't use much

power as he didn't want to mess up Andrew's brain. As long as he
could, he wanted Noah and Winstons not to be his enemies.
"I…will…never…surrender…" These words barely escaped

Andrew's mouth when Michael stopped punching him.
"You're not helping yourself Andrew" The crowd saw Michael

clench his fist as veins popped up on his fist. The crowd gasped.
They could guess the next punch would be several times more
powerful than the previous ones.
If this was a movie or a drama, Andrew would have gotten a

sudden power boost thinking about his love and escaping
Michael's hold. Since it was not the case and Andrew had no
powerful being inside his ring, Andrew couldn't even move a
muscle. He could just hope he wouldn't lose consciousness.
"Space Warp!"
Suddenly Michael heard a shout. In a blink of an eye, his hair

neck stood up sensing a threat. He immediately let go of Andrew
to leap into the air. In the mid air, he bent his back and landed on
the battle stage comfortably.
When he landed on the battle stage, he saw Princess Katherine

standing in the place where he was a moment ago. She held
Andrew in her hand. Tears kept rolling out of her eyes.
"Andrew, Andrew please wake up. It's Kathy" the entire arena was
stunned by the act of the princess. Even the commenters or the
coordinators expected Princess to suddenly appear. Not even the
arrays could stop her interference because the short teleportation
spell she just used was a Legendary Spell.
Michael saw a silver dagger in Katherine's place. His killing intent

rose up realizing she would have killed him if it wasn't for his
reflexes and instincts.
"Katherine!" Finally, the king realized what just happened. He

stood up from his throne along with all the VIPs beside him.
No one remained in the seats anymore. The princess caught

everyone off guard.
"I… am… going… to kill you" Michael along with the entire arena
heard the princess let out a murderous grumble.
******************************
Hi my wonderful readers,
After so much thinking and work, I have finally decided to open up

a buy me a coffee account. Your donations no matter how small it
is will motivate me to release more chapters and work on Rise of
the Legendary Emperor 2. I have no other means of income so Im
totally depending on my books.
And I have noticed many readers are willing to support and

donate through other platforms.
Use the link below to donate and please kindly leave a message
stating your name after donating.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donoffl
(shameless author expecting his account be filled with donations

tomorrow)
****************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 369 - Princess, You
Are Nothing
Princess, You Are Nothing
"Your Majesty!" The king's guards quickly surrounded King Bredia

when he tried to rush to the battle stage. The coordinators on the
other hand were stunned to see the sudden appearance of
Princess Katherine. Since she used a powerful Legendary level
teleportation scroll, they weren't aware of her arrival. Just as the
coordinators were about to land on the battle stage, the princess
leaped at Ghost with her daggers raised.
Andrew could barely lift his hand towards Michael. He wanted to

utter the words 'don't hurt her' yet failed to do so.
"You monster!" she shouted, swinging her daggers at Michael.
Seeing the princess trying to attack Michael, Nightmare bore his

teeth. Claire felt the dragon's body becoming hotter and hotter.
"Little one" Claire brushed the dragon's head to calm him down.
Claire wasn't worried about Ghost, she was worried about the
princess.
All the nobles in the VIP pavilions along with the commoners
stood up from their seats. They all were either too excited or
worried about the princess.
"Monster me?" Michael chuckled while evading the dagger easily.
"You heartless bastard!" she was shouting while violently swinging

her daggers. Michael just kept moving his body with his hand
behind his back.
He could see the king flying towards the battle stage with his royal
guards.
"You have the courage for this but not for talking to your father?"
Michael snickered, swiftly moving his body away from her
daggers. He moved like water, swift and smooth.
"Kids shouldn't play with these" Michael suddenly flicked the

princess's wrist as she lost the dagger. In a blink of an eye, he
made her lose another dagger with another flick to her wrist.
"See how weak you are" Michael threw the daggers outside the
battle stage.
"STOP!" The king's shout echoed through the arena. The

Princess's body froze. Her anger slowly faded away while she
started to come back to reality.
The king's royal guards immediately surrounded the princess.

They were all at the Core Strengthening stage level 8 and wore
full metal armor from head to toe.
At the moment, they all surrounded the princess, staring at

Michael through the hole in their helms. Michael didn't dare to hurt
the princess as it would turn the entire Bredia kingdom against
him. However, that didn't mean the princess would escape without
paying the price for trying to kill him.
"Kathy! What is the meaning of this?!" The king's facial muscles

twitched. He shivered in anger. Since everything went into a
chaotic state, the coordinators paused the battle. Immediately,
Sabrina flew to the battle stage along with the Winstons.
"GHOST WON!"
Standing in the River town pavilion, Ricky, the sneaky bastard

shouted, riling up Ghost's fans. Soon, a few disciples followed
Ricky's shout, then a group started to shout and in a few
moments, entire fans of Ghost were shouting in unison.
"GHOST WON!"
"GHOST WON!"
"GHOST WON!"
"GHOST WON!"
"GHOST WON!"
The badass points began to go up yet again.
"I love Andrew!" The Princess's shout however sounded louder

than the cheers. The cheers immediately stopped after hearing
her words.
"You can't make me marry another man. I will rather die than
marry this monster"
The king was too stunned to utter another word. In his whole life,
he had never seen Katherine act the way she was acting at the
moment.
"You're nothing but a heartless bastard, not even his parents

wanted him. They threw him away like a piece of trash. How can I
marry this piece of trash?!" Since Katherine couldn't hurt him with
daggers, she started to spew hurtful words.
Diana couldn't help clenching her fist. She wasn't the gentle Diana
in her heart anymore, Harriet Hunt who was buried within her
heart had returned. She wanted nothing but to rip off the
princess's throat.
"Me? Piece of trash?" Michael asked after realizing the king

wouldn't say something to shut her daughter. He was too stunned
to utter any words.
"No matter how strong you become, how rich you become, you
will never be someone like Andrew. You will never have the last
name, you will always be someone who was abandoned by your
parents!"
Michael was getting really pissed off at the princess. He had

nothing to do with their little scheme. If he was Andrew, he could
have found a hundred ways to get King Bredia's permission
instead of depending on Noah and Lailah to do something
impossible.? Of course, Michael had to give credit to Noah to put
together a plan that would have gotten Andrew what he wanted in
a short amount of time. If it wasn't for him, Andrew would have
won the competition.
If anyone should be blamed, it was Lailah. As far as Michael was

concerned, she should have told her vulnerability against him to
Andrew or Noah.
"Let… me… go" Nightmare grumbled. Claire's hands began to

hurt due to the heat Nightmare radiated. There was no doubt that
if she let go of the dragon, he would go burn the battle stage in
fury. Even the gentle Claire began to feel anger boiling inside her
after hearing the princess's words.
Ethan creased his brows. He wanted to shout as loud as he could

that Ghost is his son, not an orphan. However, he knew if he did
that, the entire Skyhall would come down on his son with their full
power. Skyhall wasn't something anyone could win against. Even
the great clans wouldn't go against the Skyhall.
While the princess was cursing at Michael, Sabrina made Andrew

drink a healing potion. The wounds on the outside and the internal
wounds gradually healed up as Andrew slowly opened his eyes.
"Tsk tsk tsk" Michael shook his head with a narcissistic smile on
his face. He looked around the arena before turning his gaze back
at the princess.
"Even though I am an orphan, I have an identity.? The Core

disciple of the Sunrise sect,? a prodigy, a man who reached the
100th step in Heaven's gate competition, and"? Michael paused
for a moment to look at the crowd once again,
"The 5-star Alchemist of Bredia,"? his cold voice sent a chill

running through everyone's spines,
The smile on his face finally disappeared as he stared at the

princess,
"Without that princess title, what are you? Humph" Michael
snickered.
Many gasped, hearing Michael's question. There was no fear in

his eyes. No one would dare to disrespect a princess in public yet
Ghost did exactly just that in front of her father, the king, and
thousands of people.
Michael wasn't afraid of the king anymore. He now had two major
powers behind him; the Kane family and the kingdom of Thusia.
"Take away that princess title and you are nothing, not even a
piece of trash. NOTHING" The princess shivered in anger. Even
when GHost was beating the crap out of him, Andrew never felt
any anger towards Ghost. However, hearing him district the girl he
loves, Andrew's anger exploded within him.
"Katherine!"
King Bredia's shout reverberated in the arena. He was too mad at

his own daughter to the point he failed to get mad at Michael for
disrespecting her. Perhaps the king deep down knew the princess
deserved what she got after cursing Ghost and acting like a
spoiled brat.
"I am not a puppet you can marry me to whoever you want!"

Katherine stomped the ground,
"I will marry no one but Andrew. I am not afraid of you any more,
father!" Katherine lost all her composure. Her attitude and her
words made King Bredia's body tremble in overwhelming fury.
Guards who stood closer to the King could hear the king's teeth
grinding noise. His breathing got heavier and faster,
"You will marry this man" King Bredia pointed his finger at Ghost.
Michael was so annoyed by the father and daughter duo. This

was supposed to be settled inside walls but the princess brought
the family matter to the eyes of the public. Not only that, they
dragged him into the middle of their family feud.
In the corner of his eyes, Michael saw Calvin give him a node,
wordlessly expressing his support for Ghost. And just when
Michael was about to reject the princess, Katherine began to
chuckle as tears began to roll out of her hazel eyes.
She looked at Andrew who was being held back by Sabrina and
Emelda.
"Forgive me father" She said looking at King Bredia. Then she

turned her watery eyes towards Andrew,
"I hope I will get to live with you in the next life, Andrew. Please
forgive me" As she said these words, a purplish vial appeared in
her hands.
"Kathy!" Andrew shouted as she dashed forward. No one knew

what was inside the vial but anyone could tell it was not something
she should drink.
However, it was too late as she already chugged the entire vial.
Some of the Royal guards tried to stop Andrew while the others
caught the princess who was falling.
"NO!"
"KATHY!"
King Bredia and Andrew dashed at Katherine, shaking all the

guards around them. In the giant mirror, the crowd saw Princess
Katherine's rosy skin slowly turning purple. Blood oozed out of her
nostrils, mouth as well as her eyes. Her body violently twitched.
"HEALERS!"
King Bredia fell to the ground and lifted his daughter's head.
Andrew also came to the princess's side. He held the princess's
hand. The king was too worried about his daughter to mind
Andrew.
"No…no…no…don't…leave… me" Tears rushed out of Andrew's

eyes. His tears watered Katherine's face. Seeing his daughter's
body twitching violently in his arms, King Bredia's heart ached in
pain. The flashes of him holding the princess for the first time
when she was born flashed across his eyes. That was the
happiest day of his life. At the moment, he was not a king but a
failed father.
"Well well well, this is an interesting turn of events" Unlike Andrew

and the King, Michael wasn't shedding any tears. He was looking
at the princess with a blank expression. As far as he was
concerned, they could just hold a funeral on the battle stage. He
couldn't care less. All he wanted was the rewards; the barony. He
had a few plans for the Bradford barony,
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 370 - The Real King
"HEALERS!" Both Andrew and King Bredia screamed as loud as

they could.
"Move" suddenly a melodious voice sounded through the battle

stage.
The Royal guards immediately tensed up looking at the hooded

figure slowly descending from the sky.
In the mid-air, the figure removed the cloak to reveal her angelic
face. Looking at the face in the giant mirrors, hundreds of gasps
sounded in the arena.
"Lailah Alden" Ashton's brows raised up. After landing on the

battle stage, she walked towards the princess.
"STOP!'' However, the Royal guards shouted at her to stop. They

didn't know who this woman was. They perceived her as a threat
to the king.
In a blink of an eye, a majestically crafted veena materialized in

her hand.
Ding!
Her rosy slender finger played one string as a powerful sonic

wave hit the Royal guards. The Royal guards flung away from the
battle stage as though they were hit by a powerful storm. The
wave only targeted the Royal guards, hence, the others remained
on the battle stage.
"Who are you?!" King Bredia asked with a shivering voice,

"Lady Alden" Andrew shouted as a mix of relief and joy hit his
core. He heard Noah talk about Lailah's healing powers.
"GUARDS!" King Bredia's mind went black seeing the purplish

body of his daughter. He didn't want anyone else to harm his
daughter. He was acting crazy in others' eyes.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, King Bredia. You asked for
healers and she's the best'' Ashton finally opened his mouth,
"The wielder of Angel's veena, Lailah Alden" King Bredia felt a

chill running through his spine. He had heard about the Legend of
Lailah Alden but never thought he would see her in real life.
Finally, a small sliver of hope emerged in his heart. Ignoring all the
shocked faces, Lailah walked straight towards? She knelt on one
knee beside Katherine. The Princess's rosy smooth skin had
completely turned purplish. Her body wasn't twitching as it was a
few moments before.
Lailah placed her hand on Katherine's forehead and closed her

eyes,
"Please… please save her" Andrew mumbled while sobbing like a

little child.
"This whole this is too stupid, overdramatic, and illogical" Michael

thought inside,
It was not as he would have married her on the spot. He had

everything figured out. He would have rejected the king's offer to
marry the princess and then, the king would have been forced to
either postpone Katherine's wedding or choose Andrew, the
second finalist as the groom. It would have worked out if it wasn't
for Andrew and his group's little idiotic scheme.
While Michael was thinking how stupid they were, Lailah opened
her eyes.
"She took one of the deadliest poisons in this world, the venom of
a five-headed serpent" Lailah sighed,
"That's problematic" The King and Andrew's turned their gazes
towards Ashton to see him also sighing.
"Problematic is too weak a word, she's at the death's door"
"No shit" Michael chuckled inside but as she heard his mind voice,
she gave him a death stare. Michael just winked at her as she
quickly turned her gaze away from him.
"You…you…can save…her right?" Andrew's voice was breaking

up in overwhelming sadness. He could barely utter these words
through the lumped throat.
"She took the venom of the female five-headed serpent. I can

keep the poison from killing her for an hour maximum. If you want
to save her, you need to find a male five-headed serpent, get its
venom, make an antidote and give it to her. All within the hour of
time"
"Guards!" the king shouted for the royal guards. They still couldn't
pick themselves from the ground or fight the dizziness after being
hit by Lailah.
"Take everything you need and bring me a male five-headed

serpent!" the king shouted the order,
"It's not that simple King Bredia '' Calvin shook his head. He didn't
feel pity but pretended to be sad. Michael could see through
Calvin's facade. Calvin might have put on a grieving face, inside,
he couldn't care less about what happened to the princess.
"Five-headed serpent is a rare creature which can only be found

in the deepest pits of the Fire Realm. Even if someone goes the
Fire Realm within an hour by some luck, finding it and killing it
within an hour is impossible"
Just as King Bredia would shout at Calvin for being negative,

Ashton also sighed,
"He is right. It's impossible"

"I don't care if I have to send an entire Bredian army to the Fire
realm. I will not let my daughter die here" King Bredia held
Katherine's close to his chest,
"Even if you find everything in an hour, brewing the antidote would

take longer than an hour," Lailah said. Andrew and King Bredia
felt their hopes die within them when they heard Lailah. She was
the best healer in the world yet even she didn't seem like she
could save Katherine.
"No no no…Katherine…you can't leave me…you all I have left in

this world" the King cried.? Many commoners couldn't help
shedding tears looking at the scene. It was a tragedy and
everyone felt sad.
"Unless you have me"
Suddenly they heard Ghost's voice as everyone turned to look at

him.
Michael smiled, flicking his wrist as a chair appeared on the battle

stage before him. He sat on the chair backward and looked at the
king, Andrew, Lailah, and the Winstons.
Sitting in front of the king without asking his permission was a

crime in Bredia. It was a sign of disrespect towards the king. Thus,
the king could imprison Ghost if he wanted to.
However, Michael knew when to back off and when to show his
claws. The king would do anything for his daughter. At this
moment, Bredia wasn't the king, it was Ghost.
"How far will you go to save your daughter, your majesty?" He

asked the king with a smile,
"What do you mean?" the king was confused,
"Let me rephrase my question" Sitting on the chair, he flicked his

west once again. The very next moment, a glistening silver vial
appeared in his hand. Looking at the vial, Lailah opened her
mouth, decided not to speak anything, and closed her mouth. A
long time ago, Ethan and Diana found a five-headed serpent
poison antidote in a ruin. They could tell that the vial in their son's
hand is several times purer than the antidote they saw. There was
no doubt in their minds that the vial in Ghost's hand could save
the princess's life. If it was Noah, they knew he would have given
the vial no matter how priceless it was to the princess to save her
life. GHost's smile on his face made them doubt he would give the
vial without getting something in return.
"What price would you pay for this? The antidote that can save
your daughter's life"
"That's…how…what…" The king mumbled as Andrew stared at

the antidote without batting an eye. He was speechless.
"Wow, that's really the antidote" Calvin's words brought King

Bredia out of his confused state. Once again, the light of hope
emerged in everyone's heart.
"Give me that!" The king reached his hand out,
"Tsk tsk tsk" Michael shook his head,
"Are you telling me that the princess's life is worth nothing?"
"GUARDS!" The king's fury exploded within him. He shivered as

he called for the royal guards. This time, they were only a few
meters away from the battle stage.
Suddenly the vial cracked in Ghost's hands. The King and

Andrew's hearts skipped a beat seeing the cracks forming in the
vial. With a little bit more pressure, they knew the vial would
crumble into pieces.
"NO!" Andrew shouted.
"I will give you everything…please…give her the antidote"
"Shut up Andrew. You have nothing to give me. This is between

me and his majesty"
Lailah didn't even try to talk to GHost. However, her heart was
aching to see how heartless he was.
"He can't be my child's father," Lailah said to herself. The hopes of

changing him into a better person slowly began to die inside her.
Despite what he did to her, she wanted to give him a chance for
the sake of her child. She knew how hard it would be for a child to
grow without both parents. She didn't want her child to feel that
pain but it seemed like her child would be better off without Ghost
as the father.
Michael knew nothing about what was going on inside Lailah's

mind. His gaze was on the king.
"How could you play with your daughter's life again, your majesty?
You know this vial is so delicate. What if it got destroyed when
your royal guards come running to me with their heavy armor"
"What..do…you want?" King asked, gritting his teeth. Although he

was burning with anger, he knew that his daughter's life was more
important than his anger. The king was willing to pay any price to
save his daughter.
"You...she's dying" Emelda couldn't keep her mouth shut

anymore,
"You're holding her life as a bargaining chip. How..how" She

began to stutter in anger,
"Could you be so…so… heartless?"
"Me heartless?" Michael tilted his head,
"Just a few minutes ago, Her Royal Highness tried to kill me. You
all heard what she said to me. Still, I'm willing to give the antidote
to her instead of keeping the antidote a secret, I almost died
getting this. And you're calling me heartless"
The entire arena knew he was holding the princess's life as a

hostage. No one in the right mind would believe he's not a cold
heartless bastard. Yet he talked like a kind generous person.
Many people were looking at him with their mouths wide open.
"Your Majesty, I only want you to keep your word. I want what's
rightfully mine and a few other things. I don't want to make the
princess's life cheap, it's not fair" Michael was having fun with the
king. He couldn't care less about what others would think about
him. The Princess tried to kill him, the king stood there watching
Katherine spew hurtful things, Andrew tried to take away what
should have been his. Michael wanted everyone to pay the price.
"Throne doesn't make you a king, power does' ' Michael snickered
inside, looking at the helpless desperate king in front of him.
******************************
Any idea what Michael would ask from the king?
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

King I
Everyone single one in the arena had their eyes on Michael. They
were waiting for what he was going to ask the king. No one let out
a sound. If someone dropped a pin right at this moment, it would
make a loud sound. The arena was deadly silent. Michael stood
up from the chair, put his hand behind his back, and took several
steps towards the edge of the arena.
"I dont give a damn about who wins this tournament, all I care
about is the rewards. So as you promised your majesty, I want the
Bradford barony"
No one gasped hearing his words as they did after his next words,
"I want you to announce Bradford, the River town, and all the
surrounding areas as an independent kingdom ruled by me and
the Sunrise sect"
Ashton knew Ghost is an opportunist and power-hungry young

man but when he heard Ghost just ask the king to make him a
king, he felt goosebumps. Calvin on the other hand praised Ghost
wholeheartedly.
If King Bredia let go of Bradford, the River town and the

surrounding areas as GHost asked, it would certainly make Bredia
weaker. However, the king had no choice unless he was willing to
let Katherine die. Any weak kingdom was a prey to be hunted and
merged into the Thusia empire. Hence, Calvin supported Ghost's
claims.
"We have to do something, Peyton. Arrest him and make him give
up the antidote" Xanali growled looking at Ghost. As a Guardian
Peyton wanted to stop Ghost from toying with the princess's life.
Yet even without Peyton's complete realization, the seed of hatred
towards Noah sprouted in her heart.
One could not blame Peyton, she dedicated her life to Guardian
Guild. Unlike other beauties, she had no boyfriend, she didn't
have fun, she didn't host galas or balls, she only focused on
serving the Guardian Guild. In return, she expected the Guild to
treat her fairly. When everyone thought Lucifer was just a run-of-
the-mill psycho killing people at night, she was the one who
suspected him to be a big threat. She put together the operation
that led to the destruction of his base and almost caught him.
Instead of her getting praises and the rewards she deserved for
the work she did, Noah ended up leading the team. Moreover, the
Alpha Guardian was talking about making Noah a Guardian
Captain instead of her. She was fourteen years old when she
started to work for the Guardian Guild. What she couldn't get in
fourteen years, Noah got that within a year.
It was not fair, she thought.
"If we interfere, he might destroy the antidote. This is between him

and the king"
"But Peyton"
"I said this is between him and the king" her voice sounded colder
as Xanali quickly closed her mouth.
On the other hand, Claire and the elders were speechless. Claire
wanted to stop Michael, ask him to give the princess the vial first,
and then, negotiate with the king. Claire wasn't as hypocritical as
the others. She very well knew the princess had no right to beret
Ghost like she did. In the future, if he needed that antidote, he
wouldn't have one. There was no need for him to give that vial for
free. However, Claire pitied the King and Andrew. She wanted
Ghost to first save the princess and then negotiate with the King.
But she was also not as naive as she used to be. Her mind told
her that if Ghost gave the king the antidote, there was no way the
king would give him everything he asked. The king could even
arrest him for negotiating with him.
"She's dying" Elder Sandra tried to stand up but was stopped by

Elder Reiner,
"Did you all forget that the princess tried to kill Ghost? If he was
one second slow, it would be him lying on the stage" Elder Reiner
said with his usual bright smile on his face.
"Elder Reiner, we teach our disciples humanity, kindness, and

forgiveness. What he's doing is against everything we stand for"
Claire was in a conundrum hearing the conversation between
Sandra and Reiner.
Both of them seemed to be in the right.
"Look at the king, he's not the king of Bredia anymore, he's just a
desperate father. We should help him" Elder Sandra said,
"Elder Sandra" Elder Reiner yet again stopped her by holding her
wrists,
"Do you remember the times we went to meet King Bredia asking
for a loan?" Elder Reiner's question brought back some bad
memories. Claire especially gritted her teeth. The Elders lost pity
for the king after what Elder Reiner asked them.
"Let me refresh your memories, the king of Bredia, his majesty

asked Claire to be his concubine. Do you want me to spill out
what he really wanted?"
The smile on Reiner's face disappeared. For the first time in their
life, some of the disciples saw Elder Reiner looking cold. He was
always a warm, kind and witty person.
"And do you want me to remind the times the king ordered us to

accommodate a part of the Bredian army who harrassed our
female disples and raped some of them?" Elder Reiner's words
got colder and colder,
"He didn't give a damn about those girls. Those girls were
traumatized for their life. Fifty gold coins, that's what the king gave
them. Kindness, humanity, and forgiveness is for only those who
deserve it Elder Sandra"
Elder Sandra was out of words for a few moments,
"We can't let the princess suffer for what her father did, she's
innocent. She tried to kill Ghost because of love"
Meanwhile, Michael was looking at the king's trembling. Each

second passed by, the king's worry overshadowed his anger.
"A kingdom obviously can't survive without financial and military

power.? After all, your majesty won't feel good if someone else
took away something you generously offered" Michael paused for
a second, looked at the people staring at him with wide-opened
mouths, and continued,
"I won't ask for much but one-third of the Bredian army and
financial support for a full year until we get back on our feet " The
king almost spurted out blood hearing his outrageous requests.
Financial support he could provide as Bredia was a preposterous

kingdom. However, giving up one-third of the army would weaken
the military power.
"I also want a peace treaty with your majesty. We can't have some
stupidly loyal general wage war against my kingdom, can we?"
Some of the people of Bradford were worried about his request.
They were worried that they would be led to poverty under the rule
of a cruel ruthless person like him.
However, the people of River town were incredibly joyful and

excited. They knew their life was much better after Ghost joined
the Sunrise Sect. He wasn't even a ruler of the town yet he did so
many things that the king never bothered to.
"I won't ask for anything else except for a little tour around your
majesty's treasury. Since I'm giving such a valuable item, I'm sure
your majesty would want me to take something else in return"
"Her condition is worsening," Lailah said, looking at Katherine's
body twitching violently.
"Ghost please…I beg you…give me the antidote" Andrew

pleased,
"I will, I'm just waiting for his majesty to agree to everything I
asked"
"I will, give me the antidote!" King Bredia yelled but Michael shook
his head,
"I want the official documents with your sign your majesty"
"You bastard!" the king couldn't keep his anger contained,
"Relax your majesty. What if you throw me in jail after getting the
antidote. It's better we go with official documents, am I right
Calvin?" Michael turned to look at Calvin nod,
"Of course, documents are better than just words of agreement"
Meanwhile, Katherine's were violently twitching as purplish blood

oozed out of her pores. The purplish blood painted her body
purple.
"Ghost it will take time to draft documents, can't you just take his
majesty's words?" Ethan asked, trying to convince Ghost. He
didn't want his son to make an enemy out of the king. Although he
still couldn't believe how cruel and ruthless his son is, he didn't
want Ghost to become an enemy of an entire kingdom.
"Calvin" Michael turned his gaze away from Ethan to Calvin,
"How long will it take to draft the official documents for his majesty
to sign?"
"If you desire, I can draft the documents in fifteen minutes"
"Of course" Michael snickered inside. Earlier when he signed the

parchments related to the Guild Leader position, Calvin did not
bring with filled parchment but just wrote the clauses in front of
him. Thus, Michael knew Clavin could come up with documents
before Katherine died.
"King Bredia, shall I start preparing the documents?" Calvin

asked. His inner corners of the eyebrows were angled up. He was
really good at pretending to be sad.
"No… I…can't" the king mumbled under his breath. What Ghost
asked was not something he could give up so easily. The nobles
and the people would definitely cause a massive headache if he
agreed to Ghost. It might even throw the kingdom into chaos.
At first, he wanted to say okay, get the antidote, save his daughter
and come up with something to prison Ghost. That way he could
have said he won't negotiate with a criminal. However, if he signed
official documents in front of thousands of people, Ghost would
become a ruler of another kingdom. King Bredia had no power
over another ruler. Plus, if he signed the documents, Ghost would
get one-third of the Bredian army. Coupled with the Kane family's
support, Ghost would be untouchable. Even if he waged war
against Ghost, Bredia would still lose their remaining troops. It
would result in weaker Bredia.
"Lady Alden, how long can you hold off the poison?"
Lailah didn't even want to look at his face, still he answered him
for the sake of Andrew and the princess.
"Twenty minutes" King Bredia's heart was pounding against his

chest. He started to sweat as he shivered,
"Oooh, cutting it close. Tik tok your majesty…tik…tok"
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

King II
"You…cruel bastard," the King growled. He felt utterly helpless.

He wanted to rip the antidote out of his hands and hang him right
in this instance.
"Kathy was right, you are a monster"
After everything that happened, the King had realized why

Katherine chose to take her own life instead of marrying Ghost.
Although King Bredia never wanted to marry Katherine to anyone
except a warrior, he would rather marry Katherine to someone like
Andrew than Ghost. The King could see the love, care, and grief
in Andrew's eyes. It was pure love.
The King blamed himself for not asking Katherine who she wants
to marry. It was his anger and stubbornness that made his
daughter drink poison.
The smile that lingered on Ghost's face suddenly disappeared. He

knelt on one knee before the king.
"Your majesty, do you think I don't know what you asked in return
for a loan my elders asked a year ago?" His voice suddenly
sounded colder,
"You tried to use their desperation to take Sect Leader Claire as

your concubine. And we both know what's concubine really means
to a person like you"
Except for the elders of the Sunrise sect and a few nobles who
were very close to the king, no one knew about the king's request.
It was Jack who told Michael about the request. At that time,
Michael didn't know he would meet the king in person and
negotiate with him over the princess's dying body. Since Claire
was an exceptional beauty, Michael knew it was natural for people
like the king to court her. However, when the king tried to act
innocent and called him a monster, he decided to let everyone
know the king's actual innocence.
The king was speechless. Something made the king shiver inside
looking at Ghost's eyes. He felt like a beast looking directly into
his soul, waiting to devour him alive. The King felt so weak before
him.
"And should I remind you of the time you offered 50 fucking gold
coins as a remuneration for the girls who were raped by your
soldiers who stayed at the sect due to your order?" Michael patted
the king on the back before standing up,
"If you care about them so much, you should have found a way to
punish him but you're punishing an innocent girl" Emelda raised
her voice before Andrews.
"Innocent? Hahahaha" Suddenly to all of their surprise, Michael

burst into laughter,
"It was the princess who decided the price of 50 gold coins. 50
gold coins, not for each, but to all 8 girls. They were supposed to
share the coins among themselves, based on what? who was
raped worse? What the actual fuck?" Many commoners gasped in
shock. Those who felt pity for the princess and hated Ghost now
seemed to see the princess in a new light.
"The princess decided a girl's innocence was with seven or eight

gold coins. No one is innocent in this world. Everyone is a villain in
someone's eyes"
"But…but" Andrew mumbled,
"What? If the roles were reversed and the king had the antidote,
do any of you think he would have offered it to me for free?" He
looked around the arena to see no one nodding,
"So why should I?"

"Ghost" Right at the moment, Calvin brought the documents. He
handed over the parchments to Michael. Finally, Michael took
away his gaze from the king to the contents of the parchments. He
read the entire 10 page document in a minute,
"I don't have to prove anything to anyone here. It's your majesty
who has to prove your love. You can either sign this and save your
daughter or watch her slowly die in your arms. The choice is
yours" Michael threw the parchments towards the king.
"I assume you have ten minutes to decide, your majesty"
"Sign the damn thing! Andrew took the parchment from the ground
before throwing it on the king's face.
The king's hands shivered. On one hand, he had his flying

daughter, on the other hand, he had something that would divide
his kingdom and probably throw the kingdom in chaos.
"Your majesty, this is no time for thinking. Please, sign them and
save your daughter" Ethan said,
With his shivering hand, the king finally signed the document. His
heart was pounding against his chest. Ricky was feeling
goosebumps along with the other disciples. It seemed like only
yesterday he saw a full black clothes youngster at the gates of
River town. Now the youngster was about to become a king of his
own kingdom. He wished Daniel was here to witness this historic
moment.
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!" Ricky couldn't hold back as he

shouted as loud as he could.
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"

Gradually one by one the people of River town and the Sunrise
sect disciples roared in unison.
Ignoring the shouts, Michael reached his hand out as the

parchments flew straight into his hands. He checked the
documents for a few moments before nodding with a smile.
"Keep the end of your bargain" Lailah reached out her hand
"Of course" Michael threw the antidote to Lailah.
"Kid, you became a king" Ashton was still in shock. He never

expected the tournament would turn out to be like this. He
rejected the princess to gain a kingdom of his own. Moreover, he
had also gained one-third of the Bredian army to command.
"King Ghost…it does have a nice ring to it"
While Clavin, Ghost, and Ashton were busy discussing the future,
Lailah gently poured the antidote into Katherine's mouth. The
moment the antidote touched Katherine's lips, her body jerked.
Soon, her body gradually started to lose the purplish color as her
skin slowly turned rosy again.
"Kathy!" The tears of joy poured out of both Andrew's and the
king's eyes.
Everyone was looking at the Princess, waiting for her to open her
eyes. Only Diana looked at her son, Ghost. Most people including
her own sister were thinking of him as evil but they failed to
understand that if it wasn't for her son, the Princess would have
died. He saved her.
"Katherine" Andrew saw Katherine slowly open her eyes. She

looked at Andrew and then the worried face of her father.
"Father"
"You brat!" King Bredia embraced so tightly and close to his chest.
Andrew couldn't wait to hug her, tell her how much he loves him
and how much she just hurt him by trying to take her own life.
Their union of love continued for a couple of minutes before
Katherine saw Ghost reading a long parchment seriously without
even taking a look at her.
Slowly she started to wonder how they managed to save her. She
was told it was nearly impossible for someone to save her after
drinking the five-headed serpent's venom.
Lailah stood up as Andrew thanked her holding her hand. Sabrina

quickly came to stand by Lailah's side. The Winstons surrounded
her. Lailah couldn't just chase them away. As a person who
trained to fight evil, Lailah developed a seventh sense that
indicates her most evil being. Aside from evil beings, she could all
sense darkness in someone's heart. When she first met Ghost,
she sensed the darkness in his heart. However, she ignored it as
everyone in the world had darkness in their hearts. Weirdly except
Noah. She didn't find any darkness in his heart.
In the corner of her eyes, she noticed Diana Winston staring at

her. Surprisingly Lailah felt a chill.
"You!" Katherine gritted her teeth,
"It's okay Katherine, everything's fine" Andrew patted her

shoulder. The King didn't mind Andrew. He had already decided to
marry Katherine to the man she truly loves; Andrew.
"Heya princess" Like nothing happened, Ghost smiled at

Katherine.
Katherine saw he was brimming in joy. His face was bright as

someone lit a candle inside his head. The Royal guards as well as
her father stared at Ghost with their bodies shivering. Deep inside
her father's eyes, she saw immense worry and anger.
She could tell that something big had happened while she was
unconscious.
"Father…what happened?"
"Ghosty" everyone heard a childish voice as they saw the dragon
land on Ghost's shoulder. It was not as big as before but shrunk
its body to the size of a grown eagle.
Claire sent off little Cindy to her mother before the final. Claire
didn't want Cindy to see Ghost ruthlessly beat the hell out of
Andrew. The little girl had seen enough blood and gore for her
age, Claire thought.
Following Nightmare, the Elders and Claire came flying towards

Michael. Since they all reached the Core Formation stage, they
could fly without the help of flying swords. Except for Elder Reiner
who had a wide grin on his face, the others looked stunned.
Michael could see the reluctance in their eyes.
"Master Ghost"? Ricky came to his side on a flying sword and

landed beside him.
"Oh forgive me" He quickly knelt on one knee,
"Your majesty"
Ashton chuckled lightly before patting Ghost on the shoulder,
"You have a lot to deal with. But come by the manor in three days,
we will hold a gala celebrating the marriage. You must come"
"Of course, Lord Ashton" Lord Ashton immediately took off,

disappearing into the skies. Soon, Calvin also left the stage before
further mingling himself with the king's problem. Although Calvin
wasn't afraid of King Bredia, he was afraid of Lailah Alden. In
Lailah's eyes, he saw a glimmer of anger towards Ghost before,
when she looked at him. Calvin didn't want to get onto her bad
side by being too friendly with Ghost.
"We need to talk" Just as Michael was about to talk to Claire and
the Elders, he heard Lailah's voice.? All the eyes on the battle
stage and the arena turned back to look at Lailah and Ghost.
Some guessed Ghost just made Lailah mad enough to get his ass
kicked.
"Can we talk later? I am kinda busy here"
Many gasped in shock. They couldn't believe he was actually

ignoring a country toppling beauty. Most of all the men in Elon
would die to just have a short conversation with her yet Ghost
shrugged her off.
Lailah however didn't say anything more but came to his side. She
grabbed his elbow. In a blink of an eye, she took off into the sky
with Ghost.
Nightmare couldn't even understand how he landed on the

ground. She was too fast.
"What just happened?"
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 373 - Being A Father
The breezes climbed the mountain slopes until the air became
cool enough to condense its vapor to drizzle. On the mountain
top, the rocky peak, everything beneath seemed so small yet
beautiful. Michael and Lailah landed on this lonely mountain peak.
Along with thunderclaps, the streams of lightning on the horizon
indicated the coming heavy rain.
Lailah stood on the edge of the mountain peak, looking at the

distant horizon. Michael remained silent, expecting Lailah to
speak whatever was in her mind. As though she was battling a
war inside her, she opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and
closed her mouth again.
"I assume you don't bring me here for sightseeing," said Michael,
"I need to tell you something"
"No shit" Michael took several steps forward to join Lailah on the
edge of the mountain peak.
Lailah turned her head sideways to see his calm face. She just
stared at his face for a couple of minutes before finally letting out
a heavy breath,
"I am pregnant with a spirit child of yours" Michael almost fell

down from the mountain top. His calm face immediately took a
one-eighty turn. His heart started to pound against his chest as he
slowly remembered what happened inside the Treacherous
ocean.
"System" Michael growled in his mind,
[What? The system informed you that there is a chance of a spirit

child forming inside her. The system made sure the spirit child
won't inherit any of your characteristics and talents]
"The child will see the world in a few weeks"? For the first time in
a long long time, Michael's mind went blank. Since the system told
him there's only a tiny chance of a spirit child to form inside her,
he subconsciously hoped there won't be a spirit child. Not at this
moment, but he never wanted to be a father ever.
Every time Gaya talked about having children, he always changed

the topic or ignored her. The last thing he wanted was to have a
kid and raise that kid in this fucked up world. Nonetheless, fate
played another game in his life.
"Lailah…that's…"
"What happened between us was my fault" while Michael

stuttered, Lailah opened her mouth.
"I know how hard it is to grow up without a father in this world" she
turned her gaze back at the distant horizon,
"The fate and my fault together forced you to be the father of my

child. I want to give my child a family, Ghost. I really do" For the
first time, Michael saw Lailah's eyes tearing up in sadness. Even
after he spirit walked her, she was furious but not sad, at least he
didn't see her sad.
"But you can't be my child's father Ghost. Not after everything I've
seen. I would rather rise my child alone than letting the child
inherit the darkness inside you"
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Michael lost his cool
when he heard Lailah. Although he was not perfect father
material, he couldn't keep his mouth shut when he heard her talk
about darkness.
"You people are talking like I'm the only bad guy in this world. You
think Andrew is a saint because he is in love with the princess and
was prepared to die for her '' His anger towards the people's
hypocrisy overshadowed his worry about the spirit child.
"Andrew killed a guy who never showed any intention to kill him
with your help. So according to you, Is it okay to kill a guy for
love?" Lailah sensed a murderous aura radiating from him. He
was sick and tired of people judging him and branding him as the
big villain. The so called Guardians had done worse things than
him. If someone ranked the evil in this world, he would certainly
be not first except everyone thinks he's on the top spot. He almost
mixed up his Lucifer persona with Ghost when he talked.
"No one is an innocent Ghost. I'm not naive to believe otherwise.

But there's something inside you, growing stronger every day. I'm
not afraid of you, I'm afraid of that darkness inside you" Michael
clenched his fist. Perhaps, it was coincident, or perhaps, it was
influenced by Michael, the sky suddenly turned darker.
"When you lose to the darkness within you and you will if you
continue your path, I don't want my child to be enveloped by the
same darkness surrounds you"
After these words escaped her mouth, silence enveloped the

mountain top. Except for the claps of thunder, no sound could be
heard in the area.
With loud booming sounds of thunder, the heavy downpour made

its appearance like a sudden guest. The downpour was so heavy
that each drop was as large as a cartoon tear and they fell like
gravity had been turned up a notch. In a few blinks of an eye, the
two of them were completely drenched in rain.
As though the rain had washed off the burning anger inside him,
Michael sighed.
"My so-called darkness won't harm your child Lailah" Lailah saw a
smile dosed with gloom on his face.
"You know I never wanted to have kids of my own. Even with

Aelia" He looked at the distant horizon.
"I was abandoned by my parents. The last thing I want to do is to

do the same to my kids. But you are right, the spirit child will be
better off without me. I never considered that maybe my parents
too abandoned me because they thought I am better off without
them" The thunderclaps reverberated the mountain top as though
they were agreeing with Michael,
"I know even you don't understand but if your child asked about its
father and why he abandoned him, tell the child I had no choice
and I did it for its own good. It is the truth" Michael was almost
certain that his enemies would find a way to use the child against
him. He was trained to take out any potential enemies before they
could become a threat to him. He always abided by this rule. Still,
even when he knew the child would be turned against him by his
enemies, he decided to let the child be. The child was innocent
and pure.
He knew how painful it is for a child to grow without a family to feel

belonged to, without a mother to love, without a father to guide
and protect. Michael had already punished this child by deciding
to leave the child instead of being a father to it. He couldn't get
himself to hurt the child anymore despite he knew the child might
become a threat to him in the future,
"However, remember this Lailah" He turned back his gaze from

the distant horizon to Lailah.
"Protect your child"
Lailah was threatened by the sound of his grave voice,
"Protect from who?"
"Me"
Another thunderclap boomed just after he said,
"Do not let your child be used against me. My enemies will stop at
nothing and so do i" Michael warned. Although he decided to
spare the child, if the child tried to kill him in the future, Michael
would end the child's life in a blink of an eye. Even if he didn't,
Gaya definitely would.
"Ghost, for the sake of our child, why can't you just leave
everything behind you and come with me?"
Although she already decided not to let Ghost be a part of the

child's life, after hearing him, she tried to change him one last
time, for the sake of their child.
The tears drops mixed with water droplets rolled down on her rosy
cheeks,
"I can't Lailah, even if I wanted to, I just can't. Like you said, I'll do
more harm than good to the child if I'm around" while tears rushed
out of her eyes without her control, she saw him walking towards
her.? He lifted her palm? before placing a rather normal looking
chain with a coin sized sun attached to it in her hand.
"Maybe if I didn't meet Aelia and fall in love with her, we might
have ended up different instead of being like this" Lailah saw a
smile that hid the sorrow in his heart.
He picked up the chain as she put it around her neck. She wanted
to stop yet she simply couldn't.
"The child is lucky to have you as its mother Lailah" every single
fiber in her body wanted to embrace him despite how he made her
feel before. All the anger, fury, and everything faded away from
her heart in an instance.
But before her heart could overpower her mind to make her
embrace him, he took several steps back from her.
Both of them looked into each other's eyes in silence for a couple
of minutes. Then, Lailah said,
"I want something else from you, Ghost. This will be the last thing
I would ask from you" Her voice was shaking in a mix of emotions.
"Ask"
"I need your blood to give the child a physical body. That-"
Her words were interrupted when she saw him unsheathe his
sword from his back. Without uttering a single word, he cut his
palm with his razor-sharp sword. The thick dark blood oozed out
of the large cut. A vial immediately appeared in his hand as the
blood drizzled into the vial, rapidly filling it with his blood.
The vial slowly floated towards her as he turned back. The blood
was still gushing out from his hand
"Spoiled milk is still white Lailah. Everything you see and believe
is not always right. Raise your child showing it how this world
really works Lailah" He looked over his shoulder to give her one
last look,
"Good-Bye Lailah"
As a strange emptiness and sorrow were filling up her heart, she

looked at Ghost disappear into the dark clouds.
******************************

the Legendary Emperor 2. I have no other means of income so Im
totally depending on my books.

(shameless author expecting his account to be filled with

donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 374 - King Of
Bradford I
The barony of Bradford was built amidst the flora of a mighty

jungle and was truly a classic phenomenon. Its appearance was
matched by the backdrop of grand forests which have helped
shape the barony to what it is today. The trade resources these
forests brought were of great importance, but they were also
influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast
majority of buildings have been built with many natural elements
to keep in line with the forests.
The skyline was riddled with either elegant two-story or majestic

three-story buildings. Life was great in Bradford, it had attracted a
lot of attention. A few new cultures had left their mark not just on
trade and relations, but also upon the barony's identity.
Bradford barony contained two towns; Bradford and River town.

The two towns were separated by lush vast forest and Hinling
River. The main road connecting the two towns was well
maintained and paved with white stone. Thus, the road was called
Pearl Road. Red maple trees stood on either side of the pear road
as though they were the guards of the road.
At the moment, a heavy downpour was watering the maple trees

as the trees kept waving in the wind. Except for two carriages
pulled by pegasi, nothing could be seen on the road.
In one of the carriages was the first king of Kingdom Bradford.

Unlike other kings, this king traveled with neither a battalion of
soldiers nor a group of royal guards.
"It's beautiful"? Michael pulled the curtain aside to see the dancing
red maple trees. The last time he visited Bradford, he flew above
the trees. Hence, he failed to see their magnificence.
"So Ricky, what do you know about Bradford?" Michael's question

brought Ricky back to reality. He never thought he would become
a right-hand man to a king. From a lowly gate guard to the right-
hand man of a king, he couldn't believe the turn his life took ever
since he met Ghost.
"Well your majesty, the barony…shit" Ricky slapped himself in the

back of his head,
"Kingdom of Bradford has two towns, Bradford and River town.

Though they call River town a town, the town was in decline along
with the Sun Rise sect until you joined the sect. However,
Bradford town prospered under the rule of Baron Totonk. Sigh…"
Michael heard Ricky let out a heavy sigh,
"What?"
"Your majesty, it's that I feel pity for Baron Totonk"
"Is that so?" Michael asked, gently brushing the head of sleeping
Nightmare on his lap,
"Rumor has it that ever since Lucifer killed and hanged Miss
Jane's body atop the manor, the baron has lost his connection
with reality. People say he has gone mad"
"What do people say about Lucifer?" Michael asked as he had no

idea about Lucifer.
The name Lucifer made Ricky shiver. Unlike some cultists secretly
worshiping Lucifer as their god, Ricky never wanted to meet
Lucifer.
The sight of Jane's horribly mutilated body gave him a nightmare.

Ricky had seen his fair shares of murders and deaths but what
Lucifer did to Jane was something else. Ricky doesn't blame
Baron Totonk for going crazy as any father who loves their
daughter would go mad in his shoes.
"Ricky" Michael called him again as Ricky came back to reality,
"Some people say he's the devil and wanted the church and
guardians to catch him so they could sleep at night again. Rumors
have some people are worshiping Lucifer as their god in secret"
"Hehehe" Ricky heard Ghost chuckle from inside,
"Your majesty?" Ricky failed to what could possibly be funny about

what he just said for Ghost to chuckle,
"If you know they worship Lucifer, they are not doing a good job in
keeping secrets, are they? If it is true and you know it, the church
and guardians know it too. There will be no surprise if both of
them hunted these worshippers down"
Michael could use these worshippers to strengthen the Order of

Death again. However, it was too early to recruit civilians. Next
time he streams himself, he might ask for people to stop
worshiping him just for their sake. If they continue to worship and
end up being hunted by the guardians or the church, they should
blame themselves.
"Your majesty, when will the army reach Bradford?"
"In a week according to the King Bredia"
"Your majesty, can I ask you something?" Michael sensed a sliver

of reluctance in Ricky's voice,
"Sure"
"Were you going to really let the princess die? I mean, if his
majesty did not give what you wanted, what would you have
done?"
"The king was lucky I didn't kill that bitch then and there when she
tried to kill me" Michael's words stunned Ricky.
"Stupid bitch and that stupid asshole Ricky came with the most
idiotic plan"
"Good thing you didn't kill either of them, your majesty. Killing the
princess would have turned Bredia against you while killing young
master Andrews would have made Winstons your enemies. You
know, the Winstons were nothing but good to the sect"
"That's the reason Andrew is still alive. But after everything that
happened, I doubt Andrew would be grateful to me for letting him
live" Michael leaned on the seat, resting his head on his fist.
"He should be Your majesty. Although the final ended up without a

winner, everyone knew you would have won if it wasn't for the
princess's interference"
"I'm thankful to that bitch though. If it wasnt for her stupid act, I
wouldnt have gotten a kingdom"
Michael's cold chuckle sent a chill running through Ricky's spine.
"Let's talk about you, how is your cultivation going? What stage
are you on right now?" Michael could see Ricky's cultivation
stage. Still, he asked to see if Ricky lied to him or not. He was
thinking about giving Ricky and Daniel some important roles in his
kingdom but before deciding anything, he wanted to make sure
they are absolutely loyal. Since he has the system, it was easy to
determine their loyalty, he just needed to make them their
subordinates.
At this level of the system, he could have a maximum of eleven

subordinates. He already had Gaya, Raylene, Sadie Kaplan, Aria,
Maxine, Azazel and Tiberius. After the tournament, he had more
than enough points to completely heal Aria's two brothers. With
them, he would have nine subordinates. Michael was thinking of
making Ricky and Daniel the remaining two subordinates.
Although Ricky and Daniel were not as strong as most of his
subordinates, they were loyal to the core and hardworking.
From this point onwards, loyalty wasn't the only thing that
mattered to Michael. He needed powerful subordinates who could
fight his battles for him. In simple words, he wanted to be the final
boss.
"Body Refining Stage level 10 Your Majesty. I feel like I can reach
the Body Strengthening stage in a few months" Michael was glad
to see Ricky telling him the truth.
"What about Daniel?"
"Sigh" Ricky sighed again,
"Poor guy is stuck at Body Refining stage level 8 your majesty"
"Hmm" It was obvious to Michael Ricky and Daniel has no talent

for cultivation at all. He had given them hundreds of thousands of
gold coins worth the pills and potion still, they were stuck at the
Body Refining stage.
If it wasn't for the pills and potions, there was no doubt they
wouldn't have reached the Body Refining stage.
"After we settle things in Bradford, come see me with Daniel. You

two are too weak. We need to fix that"
Ricky felt goosebumps all over.? Everyone in the world loved

power and Ricky was not an exception. If anyone could turn Ricky
and Daniel into geniuses, it was Ghost.
As the rain showered them from heaven, they made their way to
Bradford town where the Baron's manor was located. The people
who didn't attend the tournament had no idea that their barony
had become a kingdom of its own and their new king is Ghost of
River town.
Through the window, Michael saw the city wall in the distance.
Nightmare curled on his lap, sleeping peacefully. Ricky saw a
bunch of archers standing atop the city walls. Regardless of the
heavy rain, they were patrolling on the wall's top. In front of the
main gate of the city, a couple of armored guards remained
outside.
Since the carriages had the flag of Sunrise sect on top, the
armored guards didn't dare try to be arrogant as they waited for
Ricky to slow down the carriage.
"Open the gates" Ricky's voice and demeanor were not of a meek
kid anymore. He sounded as though he was ordering the armored
guards to open the gates.
The armored guards wore helmets covering their faces. Thus,

Ricky couldn't see the annoyed expression that appeared on their
faces.
Michael was waiting patiently for Ricky to deal with the guards. He
didn't mind how Ricky sounded. As far as he was concerned, his
subordinates should not be spineless cowards.
"The Baron has ordered us not to let anyone inside or outside,"

one of the five armored guards said in a grumpy voice.
"Why?" Ricky frowned.
"The Guardians and the Baron are conducting an investigation.

It's our order not to let anyone in or out. Unless Baron gives us an
order to let you guys in, we can't do anything"? Another guard
spoke but he wasn't as grumpy as the guard who talked just a
moment ago.
"Do you know who is inside the carriage?" Ricky had the courage
to talk to the armored guards with his chest up because of Ghost.
He was not the gate guard Ricky anymore, he was the right-hand
man of the king himself. Soon these guards would bow their
heads to him.
"Who?"
The grumpy guard couldn't take anymore of Ricky's arrogant

attitude.
"Your King"
******************************

the Legendary Emperor 2. I have no other means of income so I'm
totally dependent on my books.


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 375 - King Of
Bradford II
The armored guards as well as the archers who heard Ricky were
stunned. They were speechless for a couple of moments. They
lived long enough to know that the King of Bredia wouldn't come
without royal guards and several carriages in front and back.
Besides, they received no information about the king coming to
Bradford.? The last time they heard, the king was going to the
tournament.
"Here, show this to them" through the gap between Ricky and
him, Michael sent the parchment containing King Bredia's seal to
Ricky. Michael didn't want to cause any acne by beating the crap
out of the gate guards. After all, they were just doing their jobs.
Although Michael knew they were just doing their job, he felt the
urge to beat them when they were standing in his way. He could
feel something is changing inside him. It was a feeling that
couldn't be described. Even Spectre and the hitmen of the dark
underworld massacred the orphanage Michael loved, Michael
didnt torture them. He just killed every single one of them,
including the girl he loved who did not inform him about Spectre's
plan.
Never before he experienced the urge to torture except when he

met Calvin. He wanted to torture everyone who betrayed Abras,
he wanted to cause chaos. He asked the system about his new
feelings but the system had no answers. Yet, Michael could feel
something different about him.
The guards saw the young man taking a parchment from whoever
was inside the carriage. Since the tournament winner celebration
was meant to be held tomorrow, they never thought Ghost or any
participants would come to Bradford. As far as they were
concerned, the two carriages that have the flag of the Sunrise sect
were occupied by the guests of the sect.
Ricky jumped down from the carriage while keeping the

parchment under his fur coat to prevent the rain from drenching it.
"Who knows how to read?" Ricky asked as the guards looked at

each other. Finally, an archer from the wall slid down from the
ladder to come to them.
Among the twelve guards in the vicinity, only one seemed to know
how to read. Ricky wasn't surprised though. It was not a
requirement for a soldier to know how to read or write. Education
was for the nobles and the rich. If it wasn't for Ghost's strict order
to learn how to read or write, Ricky would have been just like
them, illiterate.
"Here," Ricky handed over the parchment to the archer.? The

armored guards were staring at the archer and the parchment in
his hand. They might be illiterate but they could tell the parchment
definitely came from a royal or noble seeing the quality of the
parchment.
The archer opened the parchment carefully to read the content.

There weren't even minutes passed by when the archer's hands
shivered as his eyes wide opened as though they were about to
pop out from their sockets.
"What is it?" the other guards asked,
Instead of answering, the archer swallowed a mouth full of saliva,
"Bradford…Bradford has become a kingdom" The archer's voice

trembled,
"And…and…" the archer stuttered,
"What?" the other armored guards asked the archer after a few
moments of silence. Only the sound of heavy downpour filled the
area. The soldiers couldn't believe the archer. Ricky couldn't see
the expressions on their faces but he could guess they were
completely stunned using the silence.
"Our…new…king" the archer kept stammering. All the soldiers

had to wait for the archer to utter the name of their new king,
"Is Ghost of River town" as though the skies were waiting for the
archer to utter these words, the moment he said the name, the
thunderclaps reverberated through the city.
"What you are holding is the king's decree and I'm one of your
new king's hands. My first order to is open the damn gates for
your king, his majesty Ghost"
The armored guards looked at each other.
"Open the gates," the archer said. His look on Ricky completely
changed. Each soldier had several questions running in their
mind. The soldiers slowly opened the giant wooden gates to
reveal the town of Bradford.
With a swift jump, Ricky landed back on the carriage. After

spending time as Ghost's subordinate, Ricky picked some of
Ghost's attitudes. He even started to wear full black clothes like
Ghost.
As the carriage slowly moved forward, Michael looked at the town

through the window. The streets were empty as Michael saw not a
single soul on the roads. However, he could see the eyes looking
at the carriage from inside the building.
When Michael looked at the sky above the town, he noticed

several figures in complete golden armor flying away from the
town.
"Holy Guards' ' Michael mumbled under his breath. Although the
church had not intervened in his life as much as the guardians,
they were still a threat. He had been trying to establish a
connection with the church to see if he could make them his ally. If
they were his ally, he could spy on them, learn valuable
information and turn them against the guardians.
The others including Ricky thought Michael had forgotten Jack
since he doesn't talk about Jack or his death. In truth, Michael had
never even visited Jack's grave, not even once. Gaya took care of
Jack's family. They were millionaires now as Gaya gave a million
gold coins to their family as well as promised to take care of them
and their bloodline. The Guardians would pay for Jack's death.
Everyone involved in Jack's death would pay the price with their
lives.
"It seems like the baron and the guardians ordered a lockdown,
your majesty. But why are there no guards on the streets?" Ricky
asked while looking around the town.
Like most of the towns or cities in this world, Bradford was also
divided into three parts. Commoners lived in the outer part of the
town. This part also contained shops such as smithy, bakery, and
miscellaneous stores.
The middle part of the town had lesser nobles who were either
declined noble families or branch families of main nobles families
and rich merchants.
If one wanted to find a jewelry store or a bank, they should look

for them in the middle part.
Only the ruler, royal family, and prominent noble families lived in
the center. It was the richest part of any town or city. Although the
difference between the town parts was not as drastic as? Royal
land or the capital of Bredia, Michael could see the buildings look
majestic as they moved towards the center.
The last time he visited Bradford, he wanted to open up a shop in

Bradford. Unfortunately, Jane Totonk met him in the alchemy store
in the middle part of the city. If she hadn't met him that day, she
would have been alive.
As the pegasi galloped towards the center, Michael vaguely saw

what might be the baron's manor in the distance through the
window. There were several guards in full plate armor patrolling
the surrounding area. The structure, as well as the atmosphere of
the manor, reminded Michael of Ham House in England. He
wondered how this world has so many similarities with earth.
*************************************
Inside the Baron's manor, Baron Totonk lay on his throne with a
large ale bottle in his hand. There were several ale bottles lying
around him. The walls of the throne hall were void of any paintings
but there were signs of paintings hung on the wall before. Only a
group of fluffy armored soldiers as well as an old man with a long
gray beard remained by the baron's side. The old man had a
wooden staff that had an orb of fire hovering atop.
"Lord Totonk, what should we do with them?" the old man asked,
looking at the three figures kneeling in the hall. All three figures
had their hands tied and heads covered with brown sacks. The
brown sacks were soaked in blood.
"Our spies informed that their families have contacted the

guardians and they are bringing them here"
"Did they tell you something?" Baron Totonk asked in a grumpy

voice. His eyes were bloodshot. He reeked of alcohol and piss.
The noble looking baron Totonk they served was nowhere to be
found.? After Jane's death, the baron had become a new man.
"Unfortunately no my lord. They seemed to know nothing about

Miss Jane's demise"
"Humph, demise? It was a fucking murder"
The baron snickered before smashing the ale bottle on the throne.
"I dont care if I have to burn this entire fucking barony to find who
killed her"
Baron Totonk clumsily walked towards the three nobles kneeling

on the ground.
"Lucifer, guccifer horse shit. It wasn't the devil who killed her, it
was someone in this fucking barony. I can feel him, he's here
somewhere"
"Lord Totonk" when he was about to fall down due to his drunk
state, the old man tried to dash towards him to catch him,
"Im fine" The baron raised his hand, stopping the old man in his
path.
"Unlike my baby" tears began to roll out of the baron's eyes.

Seeing a grown man cry like a baby made the soldiers feel a
heaviness in their hearts. The baron may have gone crazy since
Jane died but the soldiers never left the baron's side. The baron
was a good man. They never thought such tragedy would fall on
him. Although Jane was a spoiled brat, she didn't deserve such
gruesome death. Even the seasoned warriors felt nauseous
seeing her mutilated body.
"Since these three doesn't know anything" the baron stood a few
inches away from the three nobles.
"They can go to hell" Baron immediately drew his dagger out as

the nobles let out a muffled cry through the sack.
"STOP!" Just as the baron was about to send the dagger into the
noble's neck, the manor door opened to reveal a young man.
"Who the fuck let you in?" the baron asked as the soldiers moved
towards the baron to put up a defensive formation.
"By the power of your new king, I'm ordering you to lower your
weapon"
"Huh?" the soldiers and the old man was stunned after hearing
the words coming out of the young man's mouth,
"Who are you young man?" the old man asked. He could see the
courage in the young man's eyes. He lived long enough to tell that
this kind of courage was only possible if someone powerful was
behind this young man.
"Im one of the hands of the king, His majesty Ghost"

******************************
Hi, my wonderful readers,

the Legendary Emperor 2. I have no other means of income so I'm
totally dependent on my books.


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 376 - Thirst For Blood
And Chaos
Ricky's words made Baron's Totonk's hangover disappear for a

couple of moments. The soldiers and the old mage standing
beside the baron's throne had a 'what the hell is this kid talking
about' look on their faces.
"Ghost?" The name brought back the memories of Jane trying to

convince him to arrest Ghost. The baron knew she spent the last
of her days being mad at Ghost. He was the only one who
messed with her and remained unscathed. At that time, his duty
as a baron seemed more important than caring for Jane's tantrum.
After she died, Baron Totonk couldn't care less about this barony
and his baron status. In his drunkard state, his anger shifted from
the nobles to Ghost.
The Baron either interrogated or killed everyone who had the

motive and reason to kill Jane except one person; Ghost. Just like
Ghost, Baron Totonk also knew Lord Information. According to the
elf, there were some ancient spells that could open a temporary
portal connecting the outside world and the Nether realm during
the seven days. The Baron couldn't help thinking if Ghost used
some means to come outside, kill his daughter, and return to the
Nether Realm. It'd be a perfect crime as no one would believe
someone could come out of the Nether Realm before the opening
of the portals.
Even if Ghost had nothing to do with Jane's death, by punishing

Ghost, he could give what Jane asked him. He thought of this as
her last wish.
"His Majesty Ghost? Hahaha" The baron burst into laughter. Ricky
saw his laughter turning eviler by the second.
When the rumors began that the baron had gone mad, Ricky
didn't believe it. However, seeing him laugh like this, Ricky started
to have second thoughts.
"What kind of booze you drank? Pfft, Ghost…King"
The old mage realized something was going on here as he walked

towards the baron.
"Here's the king's decree" Ricky was smart enough to realize that
if he continued to talk to the baron, something bad could happen.
Ricky saw drunkards start fights for no reason during his time as a
gate guard.
He quickly retrieved the parchment from his space ring and

handed over the decree to the old man standing beside the baron
as he looked calm and composed, unlike the baron.
The baron took a long gulp of booze while the old man was
reading the parchment. Soon after the old man read the
parchment for a couple of seconds, a glimmer of shock and
surprise appeared in his old eyes. His hands even slightly
shivered.
"My Lord" with his eyes wide open, the old mage turned his gaze
towards the baron.
"My Lord" the old mage called again to take away the baron's
attention from the booze bottle in his hand.
Smack!
The baron smashed the booze bottle on the head of the noble
prisoner before him. Ricky was stunned as he took a step back in
fear. He looked over his shoulder, waiting for Ghost to walk into
the hall. Ricky kinda started to regret coming here alone. He
would have waited outside if it wasn't for Ghost and Claire taking a
stroll around the manor to get to know the landscape more as
Ghost would live here after today.
"He's telling the truth. This is not barony anymore, its kingdom of
Bradford"
"What rubbish are you blabbering? Give me that" the baron pulled
the parchment from the old mage's hands.
Despite the hangover, the baron could read the metallic black
letters on the golden parchment. Ricky and the old mage both saw
the veins on the baron's forehead popping out. They could hear
the sound of baron's teeth grinding against each other. His body
trembled as they sensed a cold murderous aura filling the hall.
"So this is how they repay me and the Totonk legacy?" The baron
said, crumbling the parchment.
"That bastard!" Ricky wondered if the baron was cursing the king
or Ghost.
Either way, Ricky knew the baron would not leave peacefully, not
with his current state.
"There is nothing we can do My lord."? Compared to Ricky, the old

man had so much life experience. He could tell for sure that the
situation is going to escalate to another level. Although what King
Bredia had done was ungrateful and borderline disrespectful, they
could do nothing. After signing the parchment, even King Bredia
had no power in Bradford anymore.
Bradford belonged to no one but Ghost himself as he is the king

from today onwards.
"Oh I disagree Yenob. I can still do this!" as he said, the baron

immediately dashed at Ricky. Unlike everyone in the room, Ricky
was not very experienced in battle. His reflex and reaction time
was way slower as Ricky didn't even realize what just happened
until he got lifted up by his neck.
Ricky felt the grab around his neck getting tightened. He started to
struggle to breathe.
"My Lord" Yenob, the old mage tried to stop the baron but was
stopped in his path by a death glare came for the baron.
"Let him go, Baron" suddenly a melodic voice reverberated

through the throne hall. Although Ricky sighed in relief, he wanted
the baron to let him go so he could breathe.
The baron and everyone saw a girl with golden hair gracefully
walking towards them. Her eyes contained a sliver of anger.
"Sect Leader Claire" Yenob recognized the girl. It has been almost
two years since Yenob has seen Claire. She didn't seem like the
girl he saw two years ago.
"Let Ricky go before he comes here, Baron" Claire came to stand

beside Ricky. She was more concerned about what would happen
to the barren and his men if Ghost saw this rather than being mad
at the baron for treating Ricky like this.
"You think I'm afraid of him?" The baron was obviously not
thinking it clear due to his current state, Claire knew that.
"Im telling you for your own sake Baron. If you aren't afraid of him,
you should be. Now let him go before this escalates any further"
"Did he kill my Jane?"
Still, the baron hadn't let go of Ricky as Ricky's face started to turn
purple.
"No, what are you talking about? We all know who killed her"
Whoosh!
Chapter 377 - Third Persona I
The words that came out of Michael's mouth sounded unearthly. It

sent a chill running through Claire's spine. A wave of fear hit the
core of the armored soldiers. Unconsciously they took a step
back.
Michael was on the verge of going berserk on them. Every being

in his body wanted to slaughter them mercilessly.
"Did you hurt…my Jane?" Baron Totonk grumbled.
"You know what?" Michael was tired of people accusing him with
no evidence. Although he ordered Gaya to kill Jane, there was no
evidence that tied the murder to him. He knew even if he hadn't
done anything to Jane, these people would have accused him
anyway.
Everyone stared at Michael's face to see what he was going to

tell,
He took a few steps forward as Claire's heartbeat continued to

rise,
"I…don't…give…a" He breathed between every word. He was

battling with himself to block the thrust for chaos.
"Argh" suddenly Michael growled in pain. He lowered his head as

he placed Nightmare on the ground.
"Yaaawn" the little dragon slowly opened his eyes while yawning.
Claire and Ricky saw the side of his face while the baron and his
men could only see the top of his head. They could vaguely hear
him mumble something under his breath.
"Give what?" The baron asked, gritting his teeth. His grief and
booze he drank made him lose all the reasons.
"Give a fuck about what happened to that bitch"? His words

stunned the baron. It took the baron a couple of seconds to sink in
what he just said. Michael's voice became more animalistic, it was
unearthly.
When the words finally reached the baron's head, he stomped the
ground in anger.
"Shit something's wrong with Ghosty" Abruptly the door to the

throne hall shut closed with a loud bang.
After the door shut closed, suddenly the curtains covering the
windows also began violently fluttering in the wind. The wind was
so powerful that it forced Nightmare and Claire to step backward.
"Ghost" Claire wasn't worried about Ghost but worried about the
soldiers and the baron. Regardless of the sudden darkness that
enveloped the throne hall, she walked towards Ghost to calm him
down.
"Claire…let's go" As she walked closer to Ghost, she heard his

words. The violent wind somewhat calmed down. Noticing he
addressed Claire with no title, she knew something was wrong.
She wanted to take him away from the soldiers and the baron. His
voice sounded normal rather than animalistic as before.
"Ricky, we are leaving" Claire ignored the baron, ordering Ricky to

leave the throne hall before Ghost did something that everyone
would regret later. She even doubted they would be alive to regret
their decision to mess with him.
"I'm gonna rip that tongue out bastard!" Baron Totonk trembled in
anger before leaping into the air.
A gigantic war hammer plated silver materialized in the baron's

hands in the mid-air.
"Moon Wave" Claire stomped the ground, turning back. She
pointed her finger at the baron as a sparkling crescent-shaped
wave shot out of her fingers. The blade gradually became wider
and bigger as they flew towards the baron.
Before the baron could react to the crescent blade, the wave hit
the baron and sent him flying backward as though he was a kite
without an anchor in the storm. Except for the old mage Yenob,
the soldiers didn't see what just happened. Claire's movements
were lightning fast.
"Back off!" Claire stomped the ground once again as the ground
split open. The cracks formed until they reached the feet of the
soldiers.
Yenob was pleasantly surprised by Claire. She seemed to be at

the peak of Core Formation. The old man wanted the baron to
accept their fate and move on but he saw the baron stand up with
shelved hair, trembling in anger. A battle was inevitable, Yenob
knew.
"What are you morons looking at? Kill them"
Nightmare flapped his wing to appear before Claire. He

immediately transformed himself. The soldiers shivered seeing an
8ft dragon staring at them with puffs of smoke coming out of its
nostrils. Nightmare's crimson scales began to glow in bright
orange.
"Baron…you really don't want to do this. I can hang you for

disrespecting your king"? Claire glanced at Michael to let them
know who he is now to them. He was still showing his back to
them.
"You… stupid idiots" Once again, Michael's animalistic voice

echoed through the throne hall.
"You wish for death so bad" the violent stormy wind returned. The
howling sound of the win gave an ominous feeling.
"Ghost" Claire tried to touch his shoulder as he finally looked up,
showing his face.? When he turned around, Claire's heart skipped
a beat. She felt a chill running through her spine. Unconsciously
she stepped back and so did Ricky.
There was no white in his eyes anymore, except for his pupils,
everything turned pitch black. His pupils were fiery red, like a
demon. Lightning bolts began to form around his arms as he
walked towards Baron Totonk.
He may have become a king but the soldiers and Yenob's instincts
to protect their lord kicked in. Regardless of a dragon standing
before them, they rushed towards the baron.
"Ghost Stop!" Claire dashed at Michael when he was just a couple

of meters away from the baron.
"Don't!" Claire heard his cold beastly voice before getting blasted
by an invisible force.
"Meri!" Nightmare shouted when Claire was sent flying by Ghost.

With a flap of his wing, he dashed at Claire. However, the force
that hit Claire was far greater than anyone could imagine. She hit
the wall creating a loud thud before falling down to the ground
unconscious.
Michael seemed to give no shit about what happened to Claire.

He continued to walk towards the baron.
"Hallowing Bolt" Yenob immediately pointed his staff at Michael as

a bolt of purple energy blast shot out of the staff. The Responsive
shield immediately appeared to absorb the blast but since Yenob
was at Core Strengthening stage level 3, it couldn't completely
absorb the attack. The remaining force hit Michael, sending him
sliding away from the baron.
"I will grant your wish" His pupils glowed brighter while the golden
lightning bolts dancing around his arm became thicker. They
produced constant crackling noises of electricity. The bolts of
lightning coiled around his arm like hundreds of tiny snakes. The
entire throne hall became darker. Regardless of the daylight
outside, it was like evening inside the throne hall.
"Ignitia" Michael raised his arm as a bolt of powerful lightning bolt

fired out of his arm towards Yenob. The death range enhanced his
power exponentially. Before Yenob finish casting a defense spell,
the bolt of light reached him. If it wasn't for the old man's quick
reflex to leap just in time, he would have had a hole in his chest.
"Protect Lord Totonk!" one of the loyal soldiers shouted before

dashing at Michael with his sword held high.? Ricky couldn't help
shivering looking at the soldier running towards Michael. Ricky
saw Ghost remaining there without even moving an inch.
Pulch!
Just when the soldier was a couple of seconds from cutting open
Michael in half, the soldier froze in his path.
"Nard!" the fellow soldiers screamed. Behind their helmets, they

were horrified. A hand was sticking out of Nard's metal-covered
behind. The hand had a red oozing blop in its hand. Ricky's face
turned pale as he realized the oozing blop in Ghost's hand was
nothing but a human heart. The heart was still beating in his hand
but it was soon crushed into a paste by Ghost.
"Uwah" Ricky immediately threw up.
When Michael retrieved his hand, the soldier collapsed onto the
ground. Looking at Ghost staring at them with blood dripping
down to the ground from his hand, a dread hit the core of the
soldiers.
Still, they were surrounding the baron and waiting for Yenob to
help them. If anyone could help them, it was their court mage.
"Anyone who stands in my way" A devilish grin slowly emerged on

Ghost's face. It was not a smile that radiated warmth. On the
contrary, it was a smile that created a tingling sensation in their
spines in fear.
"Ignitia"
Just when Yenob was casting another spell, Michael sent another
lightning bolt. He didn't even look at Yenob, he just raised his
hand while keeping eye contact with their soldiers.
Yet again Yenob dashed out of the lightning bolt's trajectory.

Currently, there were nine fully armored soldiers surrounding the
baron. Even for someone at the Core Formation level 10, nine
fully armored soldiers as well as a Core Strengthening stage
mage was a huge threat but not for Michael.
The Death Range was cast by him without his command. It

catapulted his overall strength to Core Strengthening stage level
6.
One step at a time, Michael walked towards the soldiers. He kept

tilting his head left and right while grinning.
"Chaos blade"
"Savagery of Strength"
Two soldiers simultaneously cast spells that boosted their

strength. They dashed at Michael. One soldier's metal armor
began to glow in bright golden color while the other one become
bulkier like the hulk.
They dashed at Michael from both sides. Michael grabbed the

sword in one soldier's hand while grabbing the bulkier soldier by
his neck. Before the two of them could wiggle, Michael simply
snapped the bulkier soldier's neck.
The bulkier soldier collapsed onto the floor with a thud sound. The
soldier struggled to release the sword from Ghost's hand yet he
couldn't even move his sword an inch.
The other soldiers wanted to join the fight but they couldn't leave
the baron unprotected. Hence, they saw Ghost pull the sword
from their college's hand like taking candy from a child's hand.
Cling!
As Michael took the sword, he snapped the sword in half.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
The soldier tried to dash backward but he was too late. Michael
plunged the broken arrow directly into the soldier's shoulder
through the metal armor. Without showing a shred of mercy,
Michael kept rapidly stabbing the soldier until the soldier's lifeless
body fell onto the ground.
However, his brutality didn't stop at that. He stomped the soldier

on the chest, crushing his chest.
"Death and chaos…tsk…tsk…so beautiful"
******************************
Yesterday I wanted to release two chapters but this chapter wasn't

up to the usual standards. So I deleted the entire chapter and re-
written it so the chapter will be worth your time and money. Sorry
for not keeping my word.
****************************

the Legendary Emperor 2.

donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 378 - Third Persona II
"Meri, open your eyes" Nightmare shrunk himself. He rubbed

Claire's face with his hand to wake her up. Ricky was staring at
Ghost rip the handoff of a soldier and beating another one to
death with the bloody hand. He couldn't see the brutality anymore
as he turned his head towards sect leader Claire. There was a
hole in the wall where she hit before falling onto the ground.
"FIERY FRENZY!" While Michael was busy stopping a soldier to

death, Yenob screamed, casting a powerful fire spell. Immediately
a stream of lava shot towards Michael from his staff.
"Humph," His crimson red landed on Yenob. The old mage felt a
chill. He could feel his soul shudder in fear.? The soldiers saw
Ghost standing there without even moving an inch. In a few
seconds, the lava stream hit his body but weirdly the stream went
through him. Only then did they realize it was an afterimage as the
figure of Ghost faded into thin air.
They quickly moved closer to the baron. He was still trying to push
them away and fight Ghost himself but the soldiers were
manhandling the Baron to protect him.
Suddenly Yenob's instincts kicked in as he felt someone's behind

him. He tried to dash away but a hand grabbed him by the back of
his neck. Yenob opened his mouth to cast a quick spell but
another hand closed his mouth.
"You should have left when you had the chance" Yenob heard
Ghost's voice. It didn't sound like the voice of any human. It was
something different, cold, murderous, and bone-chilling.
"Now you are going to die"

"NO!" The Baron screamed at Yenob but it was too late for Yenob.
His head exploded into nothing but red mist.
"Lord Yenob!" The soldiers couldn't believe he killed Yenob. Yenob

was the most powerful mage in Bradford. He studied with the
royal court mage of Royal land himself. The old man settled in
Bradford to live his old age in peace yet because of the baron, he
died a horrible death. Two decades ago when the baron was a
young man, he saved Yenob from a beast attack. The two of them
become like father and son. Hence Yenob loved Jane as his own
granddaughter. Hence when he heard she was murdered by
Lucifer, he immediately came to Bradford. Yenob always had the
feeling that the Baron was in danger. That was why he stayed by
his side ever since Jane died. Also, the old man wanted to find
who killed Jane.
"Shit, quick…escort his lord outside the manor. We will hold him
off"
Two soldiers came forward while the rest of them grabbed and
rushed towards the door.
"Too late" As they heard his voice, the soldiers saw him disappear
from Yenob's headless body. In a blink of an eye, he appeared on
their path.
"Let me go, I will kill him!" the baron tried to wiggle out of the
defense formation.
"Ghosty stop, let them go" Nightmare shouted at Michael to stop

him from massacring the soldiers. Unlike the baron who tried to
kill him, the soldiers did nothing but their job. They were innocents
and they did not deserve such brutal death,
"I will let them go" the soldiers couldn't help sighing in relief. For a
moment, they really thought the dragon saved them all. However,
when they heard his next words, they were horrified
"To hell" the lightning bolts gradually disappeared as the dark

crimson red flame coiled around his arms. They moved around his
arms as though they were tiny snakes.
Nightmare noticed he was casting spells without uttering the name
of the spells. Until one reaches the Fusion Stage, they wouldn't be
able to perform chantless spells yet he was using spells without
casting them. Moreover, the lightning bolts and now the flame
seemed like they were being manipulated to his will instead of the
cast using Arch energy.
If someone from the Skyhall saw Michael, they would be

speechless. No one in the world except some higher-ups knew
about the existence of Ancient Gods. Elemental manipulation was
the power wielded by the ancient god themselves. No mortal
could even grasp the basics of elemental manipulations yet Ghost
controlled two elements; lightning and fire.
"GO! We will buy you as much time as we can" the two brave
soldiers knew they couldn't stop him yet the oath they took to
protect the baron gave them the courage to face Ghost. The one
who was at the fault was the baron himself. If it wasn't for him
picking up the fight with Ghost, those soldiers and Yenob would
have still been alive.
"For the baron!"
"For the baron!"
The two soldiers dashed at Michael, letting out a loud battle cry.
Nightmare flapped his wing to dash at Michael before he could kill
the two soldiers. The dragon wanted to save Ghost from himself.
The Ghost he knew would have never killed them. He was
cunning and calculating. However, at the moment, he seemed like
a new person. Even when he was in his Lucifer persona,
Nightmare had never seen him lose his cool. He always remained
level-headed.
More than ever, he missed Gaya now. If anyone could stop Ghost,
it was Gaya.
"Get her out of here" Nightmare flew at Michael after instructing

Ricky to get Claire out of the throne hall.
"Ghost!" Nightmare was flying towards him, the soldiers were
dashing at Michael, the soldiers were escorting the baron towards
the door and Ricky was taking Claire away from Ghost. Everything
seemed like it was happening in slow motion to Michael.
He never felt this strong before. Those soldiers and everyone in

the room seemed so puny.
"Feel like barbeque" As Michael grinned, he raised his arms as

two scorching hot streams of fire shot from both his hands.
"ARGHHH!"
The fire enveloped the two soldiers. Their screams of agony

echoed through the manor's walls but soon, their cries
disappeared. In the place they stood before remained nothing but
a pile of hot ashes and two scorched skulls.
"GHOST!" Nightmare cried. Just as the dragon was about to

reach him, he turned his gaze to look at Nightmare. Seeing the
crimson red eyes staring at him, Nightmare felt a chill.
In the corner of his eyes, Nightmare saw finally Ricky leave the
hall with Claire. He felt somewhat relieved in his heart. But the
moment the door shut behind Ricky, the entire hall turned dark.
Only Michael's red eyes and Nightmare's glowing crimson scales
could be seen in the hall.
Regardless of the sudden blackout, Nightmare could see

Michael's figure. He was getting taller and bulkier. Suddenly a
bright white light flashed across Nightmare's face. The light made
him close his eyes and when he opened his eyes, he was lying on
the bed in Lucifer's underground mansion in the Dark Forest.
Back at the baron's manor, Baron Totonk heard his soldiers cry in
agony. The sound of bone and metal crunching lessened his
hangover. The darkness in the hall coupled with what he saw
made the baron feel a tingling fear in his heart.
"Fucker…where are you?!" baron growled,

"What kind of sorcery is this?" Baron was unable to comprehend
how he turned the day into night.
As he was trying to cast a light spell, a wave of hot liquid splashed

on his face. In a few moments, the hall completely became silent.
He could literally taste blood in his mouth. He knew the hot liquid
was the blood of his men.
Once again the war hammer materialized in the baron's hand. He

was prepared to defend himself and kill Ghost. However, he didn't
see Ghost. Instead, he vaguely saw the red glowing eyes moving
away from him. The Warhammer radiated a faint light that enabled
the baron to vaguely see Ghost standing before the three noble
prisoners.
He could hear the nobles mumble but soon, he heard the sound of
a dagger slicing through flesh and blood. The baron continued to
see the red glowing eyes moving around the hall as though Ghost
was looking for something.
"Fucker…face…me like a man?"
"Tsk tsk tsk…i'm not a man" The baron heard his voice coming
from all directions. He couldn't pinpoint where he was talking from.
The baron started to wave his Warhammer all around hoping to hit
Ghost.
"I am… much… much more than just a man"? The baron swung
his Warhammer violently turning behind as he heard Ghost talk
from behind.
"Let's talk about what a failure of a man you are" Baron heard
Ghost snicker,
"You were searching and punishing whoever might have killed

your daughter"
"ARGH!" Baron swung his Warhammer yet again in the dark,
"She died because of your incompetence. As a father, you were

supposed to protect her" Ghost's words were like needles piercing
through? his heart,
"You were trying to blame someone else for her death…" Baron
continued to swing his Warhammer in anger,
"It was you who spoiled her. If anyone is to be blamed, it should

be you. A failed father"
As the baron heard these words, without even his control or

willingness, he lost the hold of the Warhammer. Tears flooded out
of his eyes as he fell to his knees.
"You spoiled her and made what she was…her death…in…on…

you"? Baron could hear the voice getting closer and closer.
However, he was in no mood to fight. The words uttered by Ghost
shifted the blame and anger from Lucifer to himself.
"Imagine how she would have cried for her daddy…when the life
was leaving her…she would have prayed for you…Prayed for her
father to come and save her" Baron felt a gust of wind as he
looked up to see the glowing red eyes of Ghost staring directly in
his eyes.
"You failed her…you failed your baby girl…you let her suffer…you
let her go through that pain and agony…you killed her" the words
were doing something inside the baron. He couldn't take it
anymore. The baron wanted nothing but Ghost to stop. It felt like
these words torturing his soul itself. He couldn't help imagining
Jane crying for him to save her.
"Take this and take your pathetic life. At Least you will get a
chance to say sorry… for failing her" The baron felt Ghost placing
the dagger in his hand.
"Jane" the baron mumbled as he gripped the dagger tighter.
"Don't make her wait this time"
Pulch!
As the darkness faded away from the hall, several lifeless bodies
could be seen lying on the hall. One of the bodies was the baron
with a long deep cut around his neck.
****************************


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 379 - Crime
Investigation
Crime Investigation
When the heavy rain finally slowed down to a drizzle, two figures
landed on the front lawn of the baron's manor in Bradford. As they
descended on the ground, they were welcomed by a bunch of
guards in both full metal armor and leather armor. Archers were
atop the manor looking at the surrounding cautiously while several
groups of soldiers patrolled the manor around.
There was red tape surrounding the manor with commoners

staring at the manor from behind the tape. The soldiers were
struggling to keep the commoners from crossing the line.
Regardless of the dark clouds hovering in the sky above them, the
people didn't seem like they would leave the manor.
The soldiers didn't dare to stop the two figures because they all
knew who they were; Guardians. The two figures who came were
none other than Peyton and Xanali.
"What's going on here?"? Xanali asked Peyton, looking at the

tensed faces of the soldiers.
Xanali expected the people of Bradford to be in shock but they

looked more terrified than shocked.
"You will know soon" Peyton simply said instead of explaining.

The two of them walked towards the manor's main door. Some of
the soldiers who saw the Guardian crest on Peyton and Xanali's
clothes heaved a sigh of relief.
Along the way, the soldiers who were patrolling the manor halted
their steps to bow. Giving them a simple nod, Peyton and Xanali
made their way towards the manor.
The two soldiers standing near the door quickly opened up the
door without a question when they saw the Guardian crest on their
chests. As the door slowly opened, they saw a couple of holy
guards talking to a young man.
Peyton had seen the dark-haired young man before at the arena.
He dressed in full black like Ghost but he was far cry from Ghost.
Peyton knew who he was. He was one of the Ghost's lackeys,

Ricky Cruise.
Born and raised in a poor family, joined the military of Bredia when
he was sixteen years old after his father retired from the post of
gate guard. His life turned upside down when he met Ghost. At
the moment, Ricky's monthly wage was far greater than any
soldier on the continent.? Within a year, Ricky brought his family
from a small village in Bredia to the residential area of the Sunrise
sect.
Ghost was transforming the Sunrise sect mountain range into his
own mini kingdom. They were creating several zones in the
mountain range. The main mountain had constructions related to
the sect and academic purposes. According to Peyton's new dawn
team, the second zone was supposed to be a residential area.
Another rumor she heard about Ghost as he was searching for
elven architects to work with dwarves to transform the mountain
range without destroying the forests and wildlife in the mountain
range. His love for nature always made Peyton really wonder
about his personality. He never seemed like a person who would
care for mother nature.
However, he was an Alchemist and the owner of the largest herbal

garden in Bredia. Hence, his love for nature somewhat made
sense. Taking her glance away from Ricky, Peyton saw several
horribly mutilated bodies lay on the ground. The entire hall reeked
of blood and Arch energy.
"Miss Peyton" suddenly Peyton heard a calming voice from

behind. She turned back to see Ghost walking towards her with a
welcoming smile on his face.
"I wish we had met under a different circumstance"? She nodded

as he turned his gaze towards Xanali,
"Miss" Xanali gave him a cold nod but he didn't seem like he
cared.
"What happened here, Ghost? Or should I call you King Ghost"
Xanali noticed the smile on Peyton's face. It was peculiar as she

thought Peyton hated Ghost to the core.
"Nah. I prefer you call me Ghost as long as I don't have to call you
Guardian Peyton. Too tongue twisty" Ghost chuckled as Peyton
nodded,
"What happened here?"
The smile on Ghost's face disappeared as he sighed after hearing

Peyton's question.
"Follow me, it's better if I showed you" Peyton and DXanali

followed him behind to the east side of the throne hall. The
shadows of pillars and the curtains darkened the floor beneath.
The closer they got, they saw a body lying on the ground.
Compared to the rest of the bodies, the body before them was
intact.
"That's Baron Totonk" Xanali was stunned. She looked at the deep
cut around his neck before turning her gaze back at Peyton.
Peyton however didn't look as shocked as her. She just adjusted
her square spectacles, taking a closer look at the dagger in the
baron's hand.
"The holy guards are still doing the investigation but it seems like
the baron took his life with that dagger after going mad on the
poor soldiers"
Based on the cut and the baron's body position, Peyton agreed
with Ghost on the fact he took his own life.
"The holy guards took the baron's Warhammer. Some soldiers
were beaten to death with the hammer, at least it looks that way.
Sigh" Ghost sighed as he continued,
"The soldiers' family have to conduct a closed casket funeral. I will

make sure their families get what they deserve and more"
Peyton nodded, "I saw two piles of ashes with skulls. I don't think
the Baron was powerful enough to cast a spell that powerful. I
heard the personal guards of the baron were at Core Formation
level 6. The baron was weaker than them and not a mage"
"Follow me" yet again, Xanali followed Ghost behind. They were
walking towards the throne where Xanali saw a holy guard in full
white metal armor standing beside. Noticing the guardians
approaching, the holy guard walked away from the body.
As the holy guard moved away from the body, Xanali saw the
complete body or what was left of it. In the place where the head
should have been, Xanali saw brain matter, skull pieces, and
blood. She felt nauseous just by looking at it. She thought Gaya's
killing was brutal but what happened inside the throne hall was on
another level compared to the killings of Gaya.
Xanali couldn't believe it was done by a normal being. It seemed

like something much worse stormed into the hall and massacred
them without a shred of mercy. Their bodies were mutilated. She
doubted even Ghost was capable of such violence.
"Oooohhh" Peyton whistled as she took a look at the staff in the

mage's hands.
"If i'm a gambling man, I would say this is Yenob, the baron's court
mage and he has something to do with that spell"
"Maybe" Peyton squatted near the body. She studied the body for
a few moments before turning her gaze to look at the two piles of
ashes. Meanwhile, Xanali and Ghost patiently stared at Peyton.
"It depends on how powerful the spell was but the distance makes
sense"
"Of course it does," Michael thought. He was not a hitman in this
world as he used to be but that didn't mean, he forgot how to
erase the evidence and create new ones to throw the authorities
off.
It took him half an hour to rearrange the bodies and set up a new
crime scene. As far as Michael was concerned, unless someone
like Sherlock Holmes comes to see the crime scene, no one could
find any evidence that ties him to the killings.? As for Ricky and
Claire, he didn't worry about them. He made Ricky his subordinate
to see the loyalty level. The youngster was 95% loyal to him. In
addition to being loyal, Ricky promised he won't tell a soul what
happened in the throne hall. Of course, Michael didn't believe his
words alone. Yet, Ricky was too valuable and loyal to just kill him.
Hence, Michael placed a Spycam on him and ordered Azazel to
monitor him all day every day.
If Ricky kept his mouth shut, he would live. Claire's situation was
somewhat complicated thanks to his stupid outburst. His instincts
told Michael not to harm Claire but only place a Spycam on her
too. In truth, Michael didnt think Claire would ever rat him out to
the Guardians. Just like Ricky, she would not be harmed as long
as she kept her mouth shut. Although he didn't want to kill Claire,
if she ratted him out, he would have to kill her. Too much was at
stake.
He was mad at himself for not being able to control his

bloodthirstiness. He felt like he was caged inside his own body
and someone else took over his body to kill them all. The moment
he finished dealing with the guardians and the holy guards, he
wanted to have a long chat with the system to find what was
wrong with him.? The urge to kill was under control unlike before
but he wanted to fix himself before he was being taken over.
"Ghost, did you inform the baron's family?" Peyton asked,
"Yes, I sent the men to let his sons know what happened here.
Giving the answers of what really happened here depends on holy
guards and you guys. I urge you to do a complete investigation.
My men and I will help in any way we can"
"Your majesty, the nobles are here" Peyton saw Ricky call for
Ghost.
"Excuse? me Miss Peyton, I have kingly duties to take care of

now"
"Ofcourse, we will be in touch," Peyton said.
Xanali stared at Ghost's figure slowly disappearing from her sight.

Then she asked Peyton,
"What do you think that happened here, Peyton? You buy his
story?"
"I don't" Peyton adjusted her spectacles,
"But I also don't think he has something to do with the killings. He

is a Core Formation level 10. Although he is very powerful, he
couldn't have killed all those Core Formation warriors and a Core
Strengthening stage mage. I knew mage Yenob, he couldn't have
been killed by Ghost"
Peyton was not wrong though. What killed them all was not
indeed Ghost. It was something much more powerful…The sprout
of the true dark lord.
****************************


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 380 - Breakthrough To
The Core Strengthening Stage
Back in the dark forest, Michael was standing in front of a mirror

staring at his reflection.
"My lord, you're here" Azazel hovered through the walls to see
Michael.
The demon butler frowned, noticing the scars on Ghost's body.
"Something happened, my lord?" Azazel asked,
Ghost was not wearing any face mask to hide his face. Azazel
was completely loyal to him. Besides, in the future, Azazel would
have to work with both his personas; Ghost and Lucifer. He
thought of Azazel as Alfred to his batman,
"Baron Totonk and a bunch of soldiers who were just doing their
job were killed," Ghost said, throwing the long coat he was holding
in his hand to the bed.
"Who killed them, my lord?"
"Me…" Michael slowly walked towards the mirror. He put his hand
on the mirror.
Boom!
Suddenly Michael punched the mirror as the glass mirror

shattered into tiny pieces. The broken pieces on the ground
reflected Michael's angered face.
"Have you finished with the surveillance room?"

Azazel nodded, "Yes my lord, I can now monitor your Spycams
twenty-four seven"
"Good, now go. I need some time alone"
"I will be waiting for your order my lord" Bowing his head, Azazel
left the room. After Azazel left the room, Michael sat on the bed.
On his face, there was no sign of delight thinking about how he
was going to break through to the Core Strengthening stage.
Rather, he was more worried about his outburst and the third
persona.
"System, what's happening to me?" Michael entered the system

interface. Staring at the status window, he asked the system.
[The system's level is too low]
[The next upgrade will cost the host 200,000 badass points. Does
the host wish to upgrade the system to 4.0?]
"Do it"
Michael was too focused on what just happened to him. He wasn't

in the mood to bitch with the system for its uselessness to this
situation.
[The Experience Cap for each level in the Core Strengthening

stage will be reduced by 25% after upgrading the system]
[Initial Experience Cap 800,000]
[System 4.0 Experience Cap 600,000]
[System upgrade is in progress…]
"I hope you have an answer to my problem system"
System version 3.0
Host: Michael

be consumed)
Badass Points: 500,000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 6
Ignitia - LVL 8
Death Range - LVL 3

others




The Dark Lord
King of Bradford
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
3-Star Inventor
Ricky (loyalty level 95%)

The Abyssal
The Crypt
Kingdom of Bradford
While the system was upgrading itself, he noticed the 5% loyalty

drop in the Silent Reaper crew. It made sense though as they
were stuck in the crypt instead of pillaging the ships in the sea.
Ever since the Guardians destroyed the Silent Reaper, Michael
was keeping the pirate crew in the crypt in Undead Island. He
provided enough rations for them to last for three months.
Although Maxine was there to oversee the pirates, the crypt was
like a cage to the free-spirited pirates.
Michael lost track of time. In a blink of an eye, six hours passed

by.
[The system upgrade is completed]
[Current System level 4.0]
[The host has 1,600,000 Experience points left to consume. Does

the host wish to consume the points?]
"Before we do that, tell me what happened to me earlier?"
[The system's level is too low]
"What the?" Michael couldn't believe what he just heard. He spent

200,000 badass points to upgrade the system yet he received
nothing.? On top of being pissed at himself, the system's
uselessness kindled the fire of anger inside him.
"Shit, how much for the next upgrade?"
Michael wanted to punch the system if it had a physical body.

However, he quickly controlled his anger before he might lose
control again. Instead of getting consumed by anger, Michael
calmed himself down. He tried to think instead of letting the anger
overtake his brain.
"System, consume the points"
[The breakthrough to the Core Strengthening stage will take four

days]
[Warning! The system will be offline for four days]
[Warning! The host will be in an unconscious state for four days]
[The system will notice the host if the host was in danger]
"Do it"
Michael wasn't worried about his safety as he was in the dark

forest. Besides, he let the elders handle the meeting with the
nobles in Bradford.
His top priority now was to get stronger and find a cure for his new
problem of losing control of his mind.
[Congratulations to the host for reaching the next stage, the Core
Strengthening stage!]

Core For Strengthening stage Level 1!]


Unlike before Michael received neither gifts nor special items from
the system for upgrading it to the next level or reaching the Core
For others, Michael was cultivating in a heaven-defying speed.

But for him, he was moving at a snail's pace.
In a blink of an eye, four days had passed. Slowly, Michael felt the
control of his body returning to him. His consciousness returned
as he slowly opened his eyes.
[In Ghost persona, the host is undefeatable to anyone under Core

Strengthening stage level 5]
[In Complete Lucifer persona, the host is undefeatable to anyone

under Core Strengthening stage level 7]
When he activates the Cloud of darkness and eyes of darkness,

his Lucifer form would be completed. In that complete form, if he
activated the death range in the darkness, his power would be
boosted four levels higher. Hence he would be undefeatable to
anyone at or under Core Strengthening stage level 7.
"I must find an answer to my problem" Michael mumbled to

himself.
"Do I suffer from multiple personalities? It can't be…I created

Lucifer to dominate the world but people had been expecting me
for thousands of years" Michael did not even leave the bed as he
began to ponder,
"Only thing that makes me different from the young masters like
Noah is my ability to keep myself calm. I cannot lose my
reasoning ever again. I need to fix myself but where do I search
for answers to my problem?"
He missed Gaya now more than ever.
"I said…no rather he said that death and chaos are so beautiful"
Michael remembered what he said during the massacre. If he
could find out about the persona's characteristics, he might be
able to find some answer, at least he thought.
"What if that's the Dark Lord the Guardians were afraid of? That's
who I'm gonna be in the future? No…No one controls my fate
except me" Michael took a deep breath. An unwavering resolution
emerged in his eyes.
His feet touched the ground as he cracked his neck,
"Who am I kidding? That was me…more powerful" He

remembered how powerful he felt when slaughtering the guards.
Although he felt pity for them, he had to admit that he was frickin
powerful. Even Yenob, a? Core Strengthening stage mage, was
so powerless against him.
"If I could control myself in that form…" Michael snickered,
"My lord" Michae;'s train of thoughts was interrupted by Azazel's

voice. He heard the demon butler's voice coming from the other
side of the walls.
"Come on in Azazel" the demon butler floated towards him,
"What is it?"? As he asked, Michael took a new set of black long

coats and turtlenecks from his space ring. He put them on,
adjusting the collars and sleeves before turning his gaze back at
Azazel.
"While you were cultivating here, I received a request to meet you

from Lady Maxine from the Crypt. Apparently, some pirates have
been acting strange"
"Is that so? I think I have to return to the Southern Continent"

Michael willed the system to equip Lucifer armor as well as
change his face using the face mask.
"My Lord, what should I do while you're gone?"? Azazel asked

with utmost respect,
"Clean up the throne hall. It's time i gather my minions and start
the world domination"
****************************
The Tournament arc has finally come to an end with this chapter.
From the next chapter onwards, we will venture into the new arc.
Yes, I heard your concerns about the spirit child and Michael
losing his mind.
If you're worried about the novel going in a cliche way, it won't.

Michael was not perfect, he was far from being perfect. He would
have his ups and downs.? The next arc will focus on Gaya and
Michael's character building as well as some interesting twists.
****************************


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 381 - This Changes
Everything I
Inside the Fire Realm, one could see a hot gooey lava river
moving in zig zags. If one wasn't careful and greedy, they would
mistake the lava river for a river of gold. Through the bubbling lava
river, a boat was slowly moving. A girl who had a three-headed
pet on her lap sat on the opposite side of the young man who was
rowing the boat. Obviously, it was Gaya, Vedora, and Noah on the
boat as no one else would be crazy enough to choose this route
instead of a safer and longer road.
"Are you absolutely sure there are no fishes in the river?" Ayag
asked, giving Gaya a puppy look.
She instead just rolled her eyes,
"You just ate the last of my cookies"
Rather than minding Gaya and the hydra's quarrel which was
going on for days, Noah focused on the surroundings. There was
nothing else except for desolate land as far as he could see. Few
boulders here and there and that's it. The sky was as usual red
while the air was filled with ash particles. The red and gray
combination gave off an eerie feeling to the fire realm.
"Fuck how long it has been since we came here?" Ayag asked,
"94 days to be exact" A glimmer of sadness emerged in Gaya's

eyes. She looked at the distant horizon thinking about Ghost and
Nightmare. She missed the two of them like crazy.
Noah could see the sadness in her eyes. In fact, he felt happy for
Ghost to find a girl who loves him like Gaya. Although she killed
innocents and committed many crimes, Noah didn't want the two
of them to be separated because of him. He believed in second
chances. This was Gaya's second chance.
They had been in the river for five days. Unlike Gaya believed,
there were indeed fishes in the river along with dangerous beasts.
If it wasn't for the solution Noah applied on the boat, they would
have been inside some beast's belly.
The solution was provided to him by the Alpha guardian of Hunter

Guardians herself.? After rowing for another five continuous days,
Noah's hands started to ache. Fortunately, Noah turned back to
see a couple of burned trees appear in his sight.
"Hey" Noah called out to Gaya to bring her back to reality.
"That's the entrance" Gaya followed his gaze to see two lone trees
that had no leaves whatsoever. Even the lightning-struck trees
wouldn't look as black and lifeless as those two trees.
"We can beach the boat there," Gaya pointed at the ash shore.
Noah nodded before rowing the boat towards the shore. After
beaching the copper boat, Gaya placed Vedora inside her satchel
safely. They didn't rush but cautiously walked towards the lone
trees.
"That's the spot," Noah said.
Vedora craned their necks out to look at the spot Noah pointed at.
However, they could only see two ordinary trees, and they didn't
find anything unusual.
"What the hell are you talking about? There's nothing but burned
trees there" Ayag said,
"Weird" Cain mumbled. He was suspicious of the two lone trees,

they seemed out of place.
"Try to sense the energy fluctuations brat. There's a natural

formation between the trees " Gaya flicked the head of Ayag,.
"What? What the heck is a natural formation?"

"It's kind of an illusion array but very different from those made by
humans. A natural formation is formed by nature after gathering
condensed Arch energy for thousands of years. It's a miraculous
process, and many know very little about it. Anyone can easily be
trapped by it if they don't pay enough attention" Noah explained.
His explanation made Ayag frown deeper,
"If it's a fucking illusion array, why are you two crazy heads
heading towards it instead of running away from it?"
"I said it's a kind of Illusion array. Natural formations also act as a
portal to travel around the Fire realm"
"Oh, then we are gonna finally get the fuck out of this place. Let's
go"
Ayag changed her opinion lightning quick. She now looked excited
to go between the two trees unlike a few seconds ago.
Noah too couldn't help but sigh in relief, as if he had just seen a
light carrying hope. There were many invisible natural defense
mechanisms and formations existing within the depths of Fire
Realm, and they came to this lava river because of a natural
formation. If they could find another natural formation, they would
have a chance at the river. After all, the solution couldnt fend off
the beast forever. When or if they came out of the river, they were
good as dead.
"Let's go!"
Swoosh!
Both Gaya and Noah immediately dashed towards the space

between the two trees.
The aura of the natural defense mechanism in this valley was

pretty obvious, even Ayag could sense it as they approached. Its
aura was much more powerful compared to the formations they
happened to stumble upon.
When the three of them went through the space between the
trees, they disappeared from the desolate valley. The scene in
front of them changed dramatically once again. It was a plain gray
world in front of them. The eerie and chilly energies within were so
much stronger compared to the desolate value they just came
from.
A stinking smell filled up the air within the place, extremely

unpleasant and pungent. Besides this, black whirlwinds appeared
all over the place, and the air blowing across the place was cutting
them to the marrow. It also carried a strong corrosive
characteristic.
"Congratulations, we escaped from the frying pan into the fire"

Ayag couldn't help but curse.
"Be careful, there is poisonous vapor all over the place. A deadly
toxic gas merged with the freezing vapor, causing this poisonous
vapor to be formed. It's a deadly thing that can kill any cultivator."
Noah reminded.
"Is that so?" Gaya snickered as she walked towards one of the
black whirlwinds.
"Bitch stop, are you trying to kill us?!" Ayag screamed trying to
stop Gaya from walking towards the poison whirlwinds.
Gay reached out to touch the whirlwind. Noah was stunned to see
nothing really happened to her. Although Naga's were resistant to
most poisons, they were not immune to the poison whirlwinds of
Fire Realm. However, nothing happened to Gaya when she
touched the poison whirlwind. It should have entered through the
finger to her brain and killed her in a few seconds. Since that
never happened, there was only one explanation for this. That
was Ghost made her immune to the poisons using some
Legendary potions. Noah heard about potions that could be
brewed by 5-star Alchemists to make someone completely
resistant to the poisons known to man.
"Huh?" Ayag opened her eyes to see nothing had happened to

her like she was expecting.? As Gaya was looking smug and
feeling proud of Ghost for making them both poison resistant,
Noah walked towards them with a calm smile.
When he came closer to the black whirlwind, Noah unleashed a

blue barrier of flame, covering his entire body. The layer of blue
flame covered his body as though it was a blanket.
It was a barrier formed by One of the two primordial Flames;

heaven's flame, which repelled all poison known to mankind.
Gaya was stunned by the blue flame. She had never seen such a
majestic flame ever before in her life. She heard Ghost talk about
primordial flames and she could guess that the blue flame on
Noah's body was definitely one of the two primordial flames.
However, she did not let what was in her mind show on her face.
Although she could tell Noah wouldn't easily tell her where he got
the flame, if she could find out, it would get Ghost one step closer
to reaching 6-star Alchemist status.
"This place should be an isolated space, and it doesn't look big.

We just need to find the path to the five-headed serpent's lair"
Noah said. He could feel that they were getting closer to the five-
headed serpent. This place was fully filled with toxic vapor and
could be considered a natural land of death. It would be really bad
luck if anyone ordinary accidentally came to this space.
He was covered by a fire barrier, while Gaya just walked next to

him like it was nothing. The duo began slowly walking forward.
Since the toxicity in the air was too strong, there were no beasts
or bandits anywhere nearby.
The entire space was extremely quiet, and nothing could be heard
except for the tornadoes' swishing sounds. It gave the space an
eerie feeling, as if they had actually come to the real hell.
Crack!
Suddenly, a cracking sound could be heard from underneath

Gaya's foot. It sounded really loud when in this quiet environment.
"Fuck! what was that?" Ayag cursed as she was spooked by the
sound
They lowered their heads, looking at the ground. Then, they saw
an entire skeleton lying where Gaya had just stepped. Her foot
caused a hole to appear on the skeleton's chest.
"This is a skeleton of a Soul Strengthening stage warrior, he must

have been dead for a long time. Look, all the bone has become
porous, you've shattered it."
Noah had eagle eyes. Although the skeleton was badly corroded
by the poisonous air and had turned completely black, he still
found that this was a Core Strengthening stage warrior's skeleton.
"This place sucks"
A Core Strengthening stage warrior could still survive for quite

some time in this space without any poison resistance using Arch
energy to shield his or her body. The only explanation for his
death would be that he depleted all his arch energy in order to
resist the poisonous air. He was killed by the poisonous air once
he couldn't repel the deadly poison any longer.
"Why did he come here anyway?"
Gaya wondered why the cultivator came to the Fire Realm. Noah
and she were here to hunt down the five-headed serpent so Noah
could save Xanali's stepfather while she was here to absorb the
blood and start her metamorphosis. If it wasn't for the five-headed
serpent, Gaya would have never even thought of coming here.
"What next?" Sarba asked after looking around the place.
"Move forward until we find the five header serpent's trail"
Noah smiled. With a determined look in his eyes, he said, "Just

keep moving forward, until we find the five header serpent's trail"
The following journey was completely eventless. They kept

bumping into new skeletons along their way, and all these
skeletons were once Core Strengthening stage warriors. Gaya
really wondered why this many Core Strengthening stage warriors
ventured into the Fire Realm. She even stumbled upon a skeleton
of a Soul Refining Stage warrior. This meant they were looking for
something here.
The duo had walked for nearly an hour, and they kept bumping
into more and more skeletons. The place seemed really desolate.
After spending almost two hours of walking, they suddenly saw a
light blinking in the distance.
"Look, there is light blinking in front!" Ayag informed them. She

almost shouted.
"Let's go check it out!"
Noah saw the light as well. Although the rainbow color light
seemed faded, it couldn't escape their eyes. The duo immediately
dashed forward, and soon, they arrived at the source of the light.
"A human"
Ayag's eyes lit up as she saw a man with disheveled hair was
sitting with both legs crossed, not moving at all, which made him
look like a stone statue. But, the weak aura emitting from his body
showed that this old man was still alive.
****************************

donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 382 - This Changes
Everything II
Both Gaya and Noah slowly approached the old man. As if he had
heard something, the old man finally raised his head up, slowly.
With cloudy eyes, he looked at them. Vedora quickly went inside
the satchel to hide.
An old man, a really old man who was long past his prime. The
robe covering his body was really loose, he had wrinkled skin on
his face and an extremely thin body. He looked just like a skeleton
who had nothing but skin. Pretty horrifying as he looked like a
mummy.
The old man's aura was really weak as if he was going to die at
any time. And yet, he was still alive.
"Sigh…someone is here again… someone is going to die soon…

sign."
The old man let out two sighs. His voice was shrill, making it
unpleasant to listen to. It looked like he had gotten used to the
deaths happening here.
"A Soul Refining stage warrior"
Noah looked closer at the old man. He immediately found out the
cultivation level of the old man. But, because the vital signs of the
old man were really weak, and there was no Celestial energy that
could be sensed in his body, as it had been completely depleted,
he couldn't determine which level this old man was.
"Such young sprouts. Too bad you've come to this land of death."
The old man let out another sigh, then he just flicked his wrist as a
golden barrier appeared around them.
"It's been twenty years, all who came here before me have gone.
Now, I'm soon going to leave as well. For twenty years, I had no
one to talk to. At Least heaven's granted me with my last wish.
Pity the last person you're gonna meet is this old man"
The old man carried a smile on his face. The despair and anger
he had when he first arrived at this place was long gone; he had
seen through life and death. The old man seemed calm, no signs
of grievance could be found on his face. However, from his pair of
cloudy eyes, one could still tell that he is grieving.
"If this old man leaves this place, his cultivation will take a long dip
before rising back again," Noah thought to himself. After breaking
through to the Soul Refining stage, a cultivator required a constant
supply of Celestial energy to achieve higher levels in cultivation. If
the cultivator didn't get enough Celestial energy, his cultivation will
gradually decline. Considering this old man was stuck here
without Celestial energy, when or if he escaped the Fire Real, his
cultivation would drop down to lower stages before returning to his
previous state.
"Shit, you stayed here for twenty years. I hope what you were
searching for in Fire Realm is worth it" Gaya rolled her eyes.
"Being able to stay alive in this harsh environment, you must have
been at the peak of Soul Refining Stage old man. If I am right, you
must have come looking for something that could help you deal
with your bottleneck and reach Fusion Stage. After twenty years in
this environment, the bottleneck has gone but you got stuck here"
Noah said with an indifferent tone.
"Those skeletons belonged to the people who came to see what

happened to you"
Hearing this, the old man's cloudy eyes suddenly light up. He
stared at Noah with a look of disbelief. He couldn't help but start
examining the young man in front of him.
Being able to discover he had a bottleneck with a single look, and
also judging his real cultivation level just from knowing how long
he had been here was not someone anyone could do, that's why
this old man couldn't help being shocked. Besides, he found out
that the men who died here came searching for him.
"What a keen eye… but, too bad…"
The old man kept shaking his head, his eyes filled with deep
regret. He could easily tell that Noah was extraordinary and had
innate potential, a genius like this was supposed to become a
well-known guy in the world. But now, he had to die in this shit
place. What a pity. Gaya was looking around the place to find a
way to deal with the golden barrier while the old man was talking
to Noah.
"Twenty years ago, I traveled alone to Fire Realm searching for

something that could help me reach Fusion Stage. My damn luck
and fate, I accidentally stepped into this place and activated the
barrier set up by someone, and it has been twenty years since
then."
The old man said in a self-mocking manner. He didn't look at

Noah, as if he was just talking to himself. But at the same time, it
seemed he rather enjoyed the feeling of talking. It seemed like he
hadn't talked to anyone for quite a long time. If he could go back in
time, he would stop himself from venturing into the Fire Realm.
"By estimations, my death will arrive tomorrow. But, I don't want to

be like all the other people who died here, having my body
corroded by the poison, that's too tragic. Young man, once I die
tomorrow, burn my body"
This was the last request from an old man who had gone past his
prime.
The old man looked at Noah, focusing on the flames dancing

around his body. Gaya didn't give a shit about the old man's
tragedy. She was busy searching for a way out of here.
Noah inwardly sighed. The man didn't ask Noah to help him
accomplish any weird unfulfilled desire at the last moment of his
life, and neither did he have any special orders for Noah. He only
requested that Noah burn his body and allow him to have a proper
death.
Noah however just calmly smiled at the old man.
"Old man, your estimation is really accurate. If I didn't come, you'd

be dead by tomorrow. But the lady luck smiled on you, I'm here"
Noah walked toward the old man, then he waved his hand and
unleashed a flame. The dancing flame shot out from Noah's body
took the shape of an angel; a humanoid figure with feathery
wings. It transformed into a flame barrier and covered the old man
within. In an instant, all the surrounding poisonous vapor was
pushed away, as if it had just met its natural enemy.
Noah had decided to save this old man, not for any specific
reason, but because this old man had been persistently staying
alive in this place for twenty years. Noah really respected his
endurance. Besides, Noah never ignored anyone in need of help.
"What a majestic flame, it actually carries a divine aura. Even the

poisonous vapor from the Fire Realm doesn't dare try to corrode
it."
The old man's eyes opened as wide as they could.
After a short shocking moment, the old man returned to his calm
state. He looked at the fire barrier covering his body, and with a
smile on his face, he said,
"Young man put away this flame barrier, it will only consume your
energy and focus. You can't hold it for a long time. The poisonous
vapor has already invaded my body, I'm dying.? You can only
lessen the pain but can't stop the inevitable."
"If you wanted to die, you could have ended your life a long time
ago. You hoped to leave this place. Don't lose hope now. Let me
help you get rid of all the poisonous miasma in your body." After
saying that, Noah placed his palm on the old man's chest.
The moment Noah placed his hand on the old man, the old man's
body swayed a little. He stared at Noah's palm with no idea what
Noah was going to do next. He knew very well about his current
condition, and it was impossible to get rid of the poison that had
invaded his body.
The old man who had been tense for the last twenty years had
finally loosened up completely at this moment. He saw the
confidence in Noah's eyes, and it made him feel calm, as well as
hopeful yet again.
Noah unleashed the poison absorbing skill he learned from

Andreas, his mentor. Heaven's flame seeped through the old
man's body. Sending a primordial flame into someone else's body
was extremely dangerous. One misstep and the flame would burn
the body into ashes.
Yet this old man had no fear because, with his current condition,
there was nothing that could scare him. After all, he was soon
going to die. Besides, if Noah really was up to something bad, he
could just kill the old man with a palm strike, there was no need to
go through so much hassle.
Heaven's flame circulated an entire round within the old man's

body. After that, it returned to Noah's body. It only took Noah a few
minutes before he had completed the healing process. Finally, he
removed his palm from the old man's chest.
Puh!
The old man violently trembled, and in an instant, he threw up a

mouthful of black blood and began violently coughing.
The old man coughed for some time before he returned to normal.
Then, he immediately raised his head to look at Noah who was
calmly smiling at him.
The old man checked his body's condition, and he instantly found
out that all the poison that had been corroding his body for the last
twenty years had disappeared. His internal organs that had
completely lost their vital signs were actually pumping with an
extremely active force now.
More importantly, since all the poison was gone, the old man felt
extremely relaxed and comfortable, as if someone had just lifted a
gigantic mountain that had been weighing down on him for the last
two decades.
"I…I…am healed"
The old man closed his eyes. He really enjoyed this moment, it
was a feeling he hadn't felt for so many years.
Twenty years, day by day, year by year, he had been suffering

from constant pain. For ordinary people, suffering such severe
pain for twenty years would definitely make that person crazy.
The old man did go crazy before, but in the end, he had seen
through life and death. Now, Noah had restored his hope of living.
The old man was immersed in the pleasant moment, and Noah
didn't disturb him. He had absorbed all the poison in the old man's
body into his own body.
After some time, the old man finally opened up his eyes. He
looked at Noah and said, "Young man, you really absorbed all the
poison in my body into yours, that's really dangerous. Yet, the
poison hasn't affected you. How is it possible? Who are you
really?"
"A Guardian" Noah replied with a smile.
The old man was stunned but when he thought about it,
everything made sense. Who in the world other than a Guardian
would venture into a place like this and help a stranger?
"Guardian?! Young man, you've saved my life today"

For the first time in many years, the old man bent his back to bow
towards Noah.
" What were you searching for here?" Before the old man could
start rumbling about gratitude and a way to pay him back, Noah
asked him.
"The Five headed serpent"
The moment the old man spoke these words, Gaya immediately
turned back. She dashed forward,
"Did you find it? Where is the lair? Tell me"
"Sigh" the old man sighed. He could tell by seeing the look on her
face that they came looking for the five-headed serpent too just
like him twenty years ago.
"A Naga killed the serpent and absorbed everything except this"?
As Gaya's heart skipped a beat, the old man flicked his wrist. A
charcoaled gray stone-like thing appeared in his hand. Noah and
Gaya looked closer at the thing to sense pulses coming from
within.
"The heart" Noah mumbled. Suddenly Gaya grabbed the old man
by his neck and lifted him up,
"Who killed the serpent?!" Regardless of him being grabbed by his

neck by the girl, the old man remained calm.
Just as Noah was about to stop Gaya, the old man flicked his
wrist again as a gold-plated snake-shaped pendant appeared in
his hand. From top to bottom, Gaya felt an electric bolt running
through her body.
She immediately let the old man go before taking the pendant
from his hand,
"The Naga woman who killed the serpent left this with the heart"
Gaya couldn't believe the words coming from the old man's
mouth. She was shivering holding the pendent,
"It seemed like a family heirloom. If I ever get out, I wanted to
return this to her kin"
"Wait…something's happening"
Unexpectedly Noah sensed energy fluctuations around him. It felt

like the space around them was getting distorted. It was the same
feeling he had when he was teleported into the Alpha Guardian's
warship but much stronger.
Boom!
In a blink of an eye, a bright light flashed across Noah's eyes,

producing a loud booming sound. He couldn't help closing his
eyes. When he opened his eyes, Gaya was gone.
**************************************
On a mountain cliff filled with dancing green lush grass fields,

Gaya appeared out of nowhere. The setting sun painted the
ocean with its golden rays. Gaya looked around, having no idea
what just happened.
There were nothing but grass fields and a calm ocean as far as
she could see. While she was looking around, she felt a breeze
brushing past her from behind. She turned back to see an
ethereal figure gradually forming before a couple of meters ahead
of her in the air.
"Mother"
****************************
Note: The old man will play an important role in the story. Hence
the long chapter about the old man and Noah. I didn't want the
chapter to be split into two. It has crossed the 2k word limit. I hope
you dont feel it draggy.
***************************


donations tomorrow)
******************************

chapters.
Any criticism,

Chapter 383 - Mazeroth,
Academy Of The Arcane
Gaya's eyes watered as the ethereal figure took the shape of a

woman who looked extremely similar to Gaya but more dominant
and majestic. Even if the figure was ethereal, her raven black hair
seemed to be fluttered in the air as though they were the wings of
an angel. The woman was tall, her perfect structure was covered
by metallic black plate armor from her neck to toe.? She radiated
a fearsome warrior vibe all around her.? Her perfect jaw structure
would make anyone think that the god themselves sculpted her
personally. Regardless of her ethereal form, her green eyes
glimmered, reflecting the golden sun rays of the setting sun.
Craning their necks out of the satchel, Vedora saw the woman
floating a couple of meters away from them. Even Ayag was
speechless and felt as if she wanted to bow towards the woman.
They had never seen such a woman with elegance as the woman
before them. In addition to her dominant vibe, she was someone
who could be said to be a country toppling beauty. Even Lailah
paled in comparison to the woman in terms of beauty and grace.
"Baby girl" the two words that came out of the woman's mouth
sounded like music. Gaya lost all control of her body as she
collapsed to the ground on her knees. Tears poured out of her
eyes.
"Mo…Mother…" Gaya's voice broke in overwhelming pain in her

heart. The images of her mother in her mind flashed across her
eyes. She couldn't utter any words through the lump in her throat.
When her mother died, Gaya was just three years old. Still, she
had clear memories of her mother playing with her, teaching her to
read, teaching her to fight, and showing her how to rule over
people. It had been twenty-five years since she last saw her
mother.
Gaya wanted to dash towards, hug her mother and never let her
go.
"Baby girl, what did I tell you about crying?" Gaya looked up to
see the smiling face of her mother. She couldn't help bursting into
tears. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the tears
from gushing out of her eyes. The pain in her heart exploded into
tears.
"You are Gaya's mother?" Ayag asked while Gaya was sobbing
her heart out. Despite the question, Gaya's woman didn't even
take a look at Ayag,
"She is just a soul fragment left behind. She can't see us or hear
us. It's a recording" Cain explained to Ayag,
"Baby girl, if you are here, that means that idiot from the Fisher
family was still alive. Listen to my Gaya, I don't think how much of
this message will remain at the time you're hearing" Gaya saw the
gentle smile on her mother's face disappear,
"Since you are here, that means the prophecy has started already.
Listen to me carefully baby girl" Gaya looked at her mother
without batting an eye,
"You must find the Dark Lord, Gaya. You must find him" Gaya was
stunned by her mother's words.
"The Skyhall spies are everywhere Gaya. You must find him
before they do. They are not what everyone thinks they are"
"Mother…are you alive?" Gaya asked. Despite what she heard

from Cain, she still hoped her mother would be alive.
As though she had heard Gaya's question, Gaya's mother sighed,
"Find the dark elf in the tree baby girl. He will have answers to
your questions and help you find the Dark Lord. ``The ethereal
form of her mother started to flicker as her voice became distorted
for a few seconds.
"You can find him…Akilan Realm…be…Skyhall…Tree" her voice

became more and more distorted as her figure kept flickering,
"Dark Lord…only he can save this world…find him" Whenever

Gaya's mother uttered the words Dark Lord, Cain noticed the
idolizing look in her eyes. It seemed as though she was
worshiping the Dark Lord. He also noticed the vague resemblance
of Ghost's choice of black in Gaya's mother's armor.
"Salesi…Stay away…Skyhall…Guardians…your father…puppet"

Gaya couldn't make sense out of her words. However, she felt a
bolt of electricity running through her spine hearing her mother
talk about Salesi. Gaya was stunned to see her mother actually
know about Salesi because her father married Salesi after her
mother died. She shouldn't know about Salesi yet she seemed to
know about Xanali's mother.
"Mother don't…don't leave..me… again" Seeing the ethereal form

of her mother flickering and losing its glow, Gaya quickly picked
herself up to run towards her.
"I love you…my baby girl" just as the words escaped Gaya's
mother's mouth, her ethereal figure disappeared into thin air.
Gaya's finger touched the glow before it completely faded away
yet she couldn't stop anything.
Gaya remained at the place where her mother was just a few
seconds ago. She picked the pendant from the ground and held it
so tight in her hands. After a few moments, the tears rolling out of
her eyes finally stopped. Gaya whipped off the tears off her face.
She stared at the sun setting down into the distant horizon. To
others it was sunset, for her, it felt like a new sunrise. The pain
and grief transformed into joy because she slowly began to realize
that her mother might still be alive. As far as she could remember,
her mother died twenty-five years ago but clearly, her mother was
in the Fire Realm twenty years ago. If she was dead, she wouldn't
have met the old man from the Fisher family.
There was no explanation except the possibility that her mother
might still be alive and she faked her own death for some reason.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have known about Salesi. When she
thought about everything her mother said, she ended up with
more questions than answers. One of the questions was how the
hell did her mother know about Ghost; The Dark Lord.
"Let's go" Ayag flapped their wings as they ascended to the air
from the satchel. With a few more flaps of their tiny wings, they
successfully landed on Gaya's shoulders.
"I thought our trip to the Fire Realm was a complete failure but I'm
glad that I'm in the wrong" Sarba gently rubbed his head on
Gaya's face. Even Ayag moved her head towards Gaya's face
before wiping the tears off her face.
The three heads of Vedora hugged Gaya and spent a few

moments in silence. Their love gave warmth and much-needed
fearlessness to? Gaya.
"Where are we?"? Ayag asked while still resting her head on
Gaya's cheek.
"All I know is we are definitely out of the Fire Realm," Cain sighed.
He felt safe after a long time. He couldn't wait to go back home.
"Great. We can finally go home"
A gentle smile appeared on her face along with an unwavering

remote in her eyes.
"I am coming back home human. This time, we are going to find
my mother together"
***************************************
While Gaya was stuck on the border of the Ozer continent,

Michael was enjoying the peace and calm of the night sitting on
Baron Totonk's throne.
He initially planned to teleport back to the crypt to deal with the
pirates but Azazel informed him that the king of Bredia had sent
an envoy to deliver him some documents as well as the promised
funds.
Michael had to return to Bradford and deal with the funds.

Fortunately, Elder Sandra who was responsible for managing the
sect's financial side agreed to manage the financial side of the
kingdom too. Hence, he felt relieved because she was really good
at finance. If Elder Sandra was born on earth, she would have
made millions or even billions managing funds through her firm.
The throne hall reminded him of his biggest mistake to the date
since he came to this world. He had lost control of himself.
Although it could be viewed as a weakness or potential threat to
himself in the future, he saw an opportunity. That mad persona of
him was indeed crazy. However, he also felt extremely powerful in
that state. If he could somehow control himself in that state, he
would be one step closer to ruling this world.
As he was thinking about a way to control himself in that state, a

golden ball of light appeared out of nowhere in the throne hall. He
was stunned as the golden ball of light dashed at him.
He almost dashed out of the throne when the golden ball of light
stopped before him a couple of meters away from him. Then, the
golden ball of light slowly opened to reveal a silver-plated
envelope.
The envelope was glimmering in the chandelier light. It slowly

floated towards Michael. Looking at the envelope, Michael
frowned. Carefully after ordering the system to scan down the
letter, Michael reached out to grab the letter floating in front of
him.
The letter had the name 'Ghost' written in gold with beautiful
calligraphy. When he touched the envelope, it opened
automatically revealing the letter inside.
Dear Mr. Ghost,

Your talent of Alchemy has been noticed by our table of
elders and?
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted

at? Mazeroth, Academy Of The Arcane.?
Term begins two weeks from the time this letter reaches you.
We await your arrival by no later than 31.
Your uniform, books, and other equipment will be given to

you when you reach our academy grounds should you
choose to accept the invitation to join Mazeroth.?
Please sign your name on the down right corner if you accept
the invitation. You will be teleported to Akilan Realm. When
you arrive in the Akilan realm, our groundskeeper Gilrine will
receive you and guide you to Mazeroth, Academy Of The
Arcane.?
Yours Sincerely,
Kayla Martin
Deputy Headmistress
"What in the actual fuck is this?" That was the first question that
appeared in Ghost's mind after reading the letter.
*******************************
I have read all your concern about Michael losing his calmness
and change in personality, I can reassure you that this is just a
bump in his journey. The story has just started and the real action
will begin from the next arc.
P..S - The reason for me pasting the author's thoughts in the

chapter itself was to get the readers of pirated sites to change
their minds and come to WN.
Chapter 384 - Going Back To
School
The crypt was as usual dark and gloomy. Gibson didn't even know
what time it was as they had no way of looking outside after
locking down the crypt door. Gibson took a long deep breath
looking at the crew sleeping on the floor completely blackout
drunk. Booze was the only thing that kept them from going crazy.
Gibson turned his gaze to the crypt's dark corner to see Maxine
using Shorty as a dumbbell to train her biceps. She held Shorty by
his belt and lifted him up and down. The little guy seemed to be in
an awkward position as he avoided looking at Gibson.
Noticing Gibson walking towards him, Maxine let go of Shorty.

Shorty ran away as fast he could from Gibson.
"Lady Maxine, did you talk to Lord Lucifer?" Gibson asked in a

worried tone.
It had been almost three months since they were teleported into
the crypt after the Guardians destroyed the Silent Reaper. Never
in his life, Gibson thought the Silent Reaper would be reaped by
someone else inside the void line.
"Lord Lucifer will come here in the morning," Maxine said with a
grin on her face. She was excited to see Lord Lucifer after so
long. She couldn't wait to help him achieve his goals. She was
completely devoted to the cause.
If Lord Lucifer asked her of her life, she would give it to him in a
blink of an eye.
"Shit, tomorrow. Lady Maxine, I would have kept them from getting
this drunk" He looked at the pirates who were snoring and rolling
on the floor,
"You really think we can stop them from getting drunk? That's the
only thing keeping them from killing each other"? Maxine
chuckled,
"You are right" Gibson scratched the back of his head as he

followed Maxine to the newly placed throne on the north end of
the crypt.
Like all the thrones of Lucifer, the throne on the crypt also looked
similar to the one in the Dark Forest.
"Lady Maxine, have you heard anything from Lady Sadie and
Tiberius?"
Gibson asked. Maxine grabbed the white towel hanging from her
waist before cleaning the dust off the throne. Then, she used the
same towel to wipe off the sweat droplets on her face.
Gibson was quite used to her reverence towards Lucifer. At first, it

was creepy but now it didn't freak him out as much as it used to.
"Sadie is still with those girls and helping them settle down. I told
the two of them to get here before Lord Lucifer comes. Lord
Lucifer ordered all of us to gather here"
Gibson took a deep breath. He could tell their vacation would

come to an end soon. Also, he had a feeling that the real work
begins tomorrow morning.
*****************************************
Meanwhile back in Bradford, Michael was holding the acceptance

letter to Mazeroth, Academy Of The Arcane. He was cracking his
knuckle while reading the contents of the letter.
"What is this place? Why have I never heard the name before?"?
He talked to himself. Although he had never heard the name
before, by looking at the quality and the gold plating of the letter,
he had a feeling that this place was not only powerful but also
wealthy.
"Your majesty" As he was deep in thought, Ricky entered the

throne hall.
"What is it, Ricky?" Michael asked with a gentle smile to calm

Ricky. Ever since Ricky witnessed what happened to the baron
and his soldiers, he was shivering. Michael himself regretted
killing Baron and his men. Jane was a spoiled brat but that didn't
mean the baron deserved to die. He was a father in pain of losing
his daughter. Of course, since the baron dared to attack him for no
good reason, Michael would have beaten the crap out of his
soldiers and baron himself but he would have never killed the
baron.
Since there was no use in meddling in the past, Michael never

spent his time regretting his actions. Instead, he was thinking
about how to solve the third person problem. He himself hated
that persona as it was everything he hated. Killing had never been
his first plan. Rather, he preferred making allies and getting
stronger in the shadows. Because of the Guardians and their
prophecy, they pushed him on the path to be the Dark Lord.
Even the Lucifer persona was created by him to get rid of his
enemies in the shadows and let someone else take the fall. He
had never expected that what he had created was something the
prophecy foretold three thousand years ago.
"Someone called Lord Information is here" Ricky scratched his

head saying the name.
"Let him in" Ricky was surprised to see the sudden smile that
appeared on Ghost's face. It seemed like he was relieved to hear
the name.
"That elf has come in a great time," He thought to himself,
"Your majesty, Sect Leader Claire also is here to see you"
"Send them both in"

Michael was surprised to see Claire in here. He thought she would
at least stay away from him for a month or two. After Ricky left the
hall, Michael leaned back on his throne experiencing the feeling of
being the ruler. He had never been drunk in his life but the feeling
he was experiencing kinda felt like a drug.? '
A few minutes later, Lord Information wearing rather plain-looking

brown robes entered the throne hall. He took off the cloak
covering his face to reveal the trademark pointy ears. Lord
Information held the door open for Claire to enter. Giving a short
nod at Lord Information, Claire made her way towards the black
cushion seats Michael placed on the hall.
Considering Michael was dealing with Guardians and the holy

guards, he didn't get enough time to actually decorate the throne
hall. If Gaya was here, decorating would have been her task.
Since it was not the case, he just placed a few black cushion
sofas as seats for nobles and people who came to see him and
put a plain black cloth as banners.
Seeing Michael sitting on the throne, Lord Information gave a nod

of approval.
"Please take a seat Lord Information. Sect Leader Claire, you too
take a seat"
"You two have met?" Michael asked,
"Yes, we have met. It was an honor to meet such a rising star"

Lord Information praised Claire as she waved it off wordlessly
telling him not to flatter her too much in front of Ghost. The main
reason for the SunRise sect's rising was none other than Ghost,
not her or the elders.
However, it was not entirely true. Although Michael brought the

much-needed gold and allies to the sect, it was Claire who is
leading the sect in the path of success. After all, Michael barely
intervened with the sect's business.
"Don't sell yourself too short Sect Leader Claire, your impeccable
leadership didn't go unnoticed among the big names in Elon"
"Is that so?" Claire let out a gentle smile,
Lord Information then turned his gaze towards Michael,
"Take a look at this and name your price for telling me all I want to
know" Michael sent the letter in his hand floating towards Lord
Information. Claire may have not noticed the change in Lord
Information's face but Michael noticed the surprise look in his
eyes.
It seemed like Lord Information had guessed what the letter was
about even without taking a look at it. Hiding the surprise from his
face, Lord Information grabbed the letter.? Just by looking at the
golden lining and paper quality itself indicated to Claire that this
letter came from a prestigious organization.
Lord Information patiently read the contents inside the letter.
"Before we talk about Mazeroth. King Ghost, have you heard

about Skyhall?"
The mere mention of the name Skyhall sent a chill running

through Claire's spine. Skyhall was the most powerful existence in
the entire world. Even Guardians or any of the Great Clans
couldn't be compared to Skyhall in terms of power.
"Little bit. I heard Guardian Noah's big sister is the Holy Maiden of
Skyhall?"
"Yes" Lord Information nodded,
"This world is basically governed and ruled by the Great Clans.

They are the most dominant existence in the world. The Skyhall
can destroy not one but all the Great clans in a few days if they
wanted. That's how powerful they are"
To be honest, Michael was stunned. He was thinking the Great

Clans were the most powerful existences in the world and Skyhall
was just another existence like Guardians but never considered
as a Great Clan. However, it seemed like he was wrong.
"Why haven't I seen any of the Skyhall members or their bases?"
Michael asked as Lord Information just smiled, shaking his head,
"It's because Skyhall has no bases in any of the continents.

Rather, they have their own realms. This Akilan realm is one of
theirs"
Michael couldn't help raising his brows. If they could create realms
of their own, there was no doubt in his mind that they are the final
boss of this world, not the Great clans.
"Mazeroth is a subsidiary of Skyhall. Which makes Mazeroth is

the most powerful academy in the world, not Vogerth in the
western continent"
Lord Information paused for a moment before continuing,
"This letter is the only way to get into Mazeroth. They only choose
the best of the best and they have chosen you. As far as I know,
no one has ever rejected this as this is a once in a lifetime
opportunity. Are you going to be an exception, King Ghost?"
Michael was thinking about rejecting their offer as he had no time

or need to go to school. He wasn't a school kid after all. However,
after hearing about the Skyhall, Michael changed his mind. The
best way to defeat the Guardians and the Great clans was to ally
himself with someone more powerful. Until now, he never found
such an existence that could go on head to head with the Great
clans.
"Lord Information, Sect Leader Claire, I'm going back to school"

Chapter 385 - The First Step
To Becoming The Dark Lord
"Lord Information, since it's another realm, what about the time
differences?" Michael asked Lord Information. Claire seemed
worried, realizing Ghost is going to leave them probably for a long
time.
"Your studies will last for eighteen-month in the Akilan realm. The
time flows three times faster there. So eighteen months there
would be six months here"
"Wow, you really live up to your name, Lord Information" Michael

chuckled,
"I assume you know someone who went to Mazeroth?" he asked.
Since? Michael needed to know everything he could about

Mazeroth and Skyhall, he asked every question that came to his
mind.? Lord Information might be the handful of few who knew
this much information about Mazeroth and Skyhall. Claire seemed
clueless about Mazeroth. One couldn't blame Claire as only a
handful of people knew about the existence of Mazeroth.
"As a matter of fact, I know many. I will tell you two names whom
you already know. Pill King Gabriel and the Wielder of Angel
Veena, Lady Lailah Alden. Both of them studied in Mazeroth"
"So you can't stay there after studies?" Michael asked,
"As far as I know, you can. Some of them choose to stay in Akilan
while some return here. Why stay there and be just another guy or
girl when you can be a king or queen here?"
Michael could understand. In the Akilan realm, both Lailah and
Gabriel would have been another prodigy but in Elon, they were
god-like figures. Every king and noble respects them and treats
them with the utmost respect. Unlike Lailah who chose to live on a
secluded island filled with poor fishermen, Gabriel was living his
life to the fullest.
"Now before we get into the payment and stuff, I'm here to call in
the favor you owe my client"
"Of course you are. What do you need?"
Michael didn't mind Claire being here because he was planning to

tell her that it was Alex who put the bounty on his head. Enemy of
him was an enemy of the sect. Claire had to know the lengths
their enemies would go to end their existence. As a leader, she
needed to be more tough and ruthless.
Lord Information smiled seeing that Michael did not go back on his
word. He would hate to lose a customer such as him. With a smile
on his face, Lord Information continued,
"In an hour, King Bredia's men would arrive here to escort you to
their treasury as King Bredia promised. My client has something in
that treasury that need to be retrieved"
"That's it?" Michael was surprised. At the same time, he had a

feeling that whatever the item is, it must be really important. He
was curious to see what it was.
"This is what you have to get from the treasury" Lord Information
flicked his wrist as a rolled parchment appeared in his hand. He
then sent the parchment flying towards Michael.
After getting the parchment, Michael opened up the parchment to

see a rather plain-looking black ball inside a glass cube drawn on
the parchment.
"You are gonna tell me what it is?"
"Sorry King Ghost, it's a need to know"

"Okay then. Where do I deliver the item to?"
Lord Information flicked his wrist yet again as a golden ring

"Put the item inside this space ring and it will be delivered to the
client directly" As the ring flew closer to him, Michael saw golden
runes glimmer on the surface of the ring.? The ring resembled the
ring in Lord of the rings.
A smile formed on his face thinking about the life he had on

earth.? He thought that life was pressure and he would have a
breeze in this world. But even with the system, his life here was
several times harder than his previous one.
*****************************
After Lord Information left the manor taking his 50,000 gold coins
for the information he provided, Claire was left alone with Michael.
"Ghost come here" Claire called out for him in her gentle voice.
She looked worried to the point he could see the tears forming up
in her eyes. Looking into her eyes, he could vaguely guess what
she was going to talk about and why she was worried. Still,
Michael took a long breath and made his way towards her.
"Sit" Claire tapped the sofa next to her. The moment Michael
landed his butt on the sofa, she grabbed his hand with both her
hands. She squeezed his hand,
"What happened to you that day, Ghost? Something is happening

to you. And I can see the worry in your eyes, you can hide it from
others, but not from me" Michael sighed inside hearing her words.
There was nothing but pure care and concern in her eyes.
"I don't know about you but you are like a little brother to me. You
are family to me. Tell me, how can I help you? I will go to hell and
heaven for you"
"You have no idea what I am Claire," Michael thought inside.

"Helping one person might not change the whole world but it could
change the world for one person. What you did, at that time,
changed my entire life. I will never forget your help" Tears began
to roll out of her eyes as she continued,
"Whatever is happening to you, there must be a way to fix it. Let

me help you for once. Grandpa would know what is happening to
you"
With a gentle smile, Michael cupped Claire's soft face. He wiped

off the tears,
"Claire, I will be fine. That's my promise to you"
"Are you afraid I would rat you out? That's why you are not telling
me what's happening to you"
Claire was not stupid. She saw the sudden darkness that chased
away the light when he began to kill the Baron's men. Although
she fainted, she heard their screams.
"No matter what you are and what you do, I will stand beside you
Ghost. If you have no one to stand beside you and support you,
that means Claire is dead"
Michael sighed. She was not the kind of person who could stand
beside Lucifer. Looking at her eyes, he could tell she would still be
with him even if he told her that he is Lucifer. However, he didn't
want her or the sect to be in the corsair of the Guardians. If one
day the Guardians found out that Ghost is Lucifer, he wanted to
protect the sect and Claire from the wrath of Guardians.
Her words warmed his heart. Claire leaned closer as her forehead
touched his.
"Claire, nothing will happen to me. We will live our immortal lives
as a family since you are my big sister now" Michael chuckled to
make her smile.
Ever since he came to this world, he did many things and

regretted nothing except killing the baron and his men. That was
his only regret and that was because of the third persona inside
him. Seeing the tears in her eyes, he promised himself that he
would fix himself before he puts everyone he cares about in
danger.
Even if there came a day when the Guardians found out that
Ghost is Lucifer, he would not let them touch the sect. His trip to
the Akilan realm would make sure of that.
"Dont worry too much. I'll be fine" Michael gently head-butted her.
************************************
Meanwhile, in a spacious room where there was nothing but

hundreds of books lying around, a white orb was glowing on a
large oak table. The candles lit on the candlestick illuminated the
orb to reveal two figures sitting closer to each other. A little dragon
the size of a peacock with pure pearl scales staring at the orb
without batting an eye.
Under the little dragon, an old man in his sixties with a long white
beard was leisurely sitting on the chair before the oak table. The
windows behind him revealed the massive mountains floating in
the sky.
His eyes behind the half-moon spectacles showed a tinge of joy

and sorrow at the same time.
"Dean…you have grown up and you look just like your mother"
the old man smiled. The figures in the orb were none other than
Michael and Claire. The old man was watching them through the
orb.
"After everything we did, he still came to this world. It seems you

are wrong Andreas. We cannot avoid the inevitable" his voice
sounded extremely calm despite his knowledge about the future of
this world.
"His powers are starting to show up, aren't they?" The dragon
moved his lips as a melodious voice of a girl came out of its
mouth.
"Unfortunately, yes. What we did twenty-one years ago has made
him stronger. I doubt the Guardians will be able to stop him after a
few years"
"Master, if he is going to become a threat to the entire world. Why

can't you stop him before it's too late?" the dragon asked,
The old man could only sigh,
"When Andreas asked me to perform the forbidden spell, I told

him, we might be pushing the child towards the path to becoming
the Dark Lord. IF the Skyhall listened to me, Dean might have
become a normal child under the care and love of his family. If the
gods wanted Dean to become the Dark Lord and fight with his
own brother, no one can stop the battle from happening. Any
interference in his life would make the situation worse for
everyone" The old man took a deep breath and turned back to see
the majestic view of floating mountains outside.
"Is he coming here, Master?"
He kept staring at the floating mountains with his hands behind his
back. Then after a few moments of being silent, he opened his
mouth,
"Yes. The moment he reaches Akilan, he will step on the path to

become the Dark Lord"
Chapter 386 - World
Domination Begins I
"My Lord" After his meeting with Lord Information, Michael came
back to his hideout in Dark Forest. The moment he appeared in
the dark corridors, Azazel welcomed him with a bow.
"Where is Aria?" Michael asked,
"In her room with her brothers, my lord" Azazel answered as

Michael began to walk towards Aria's room. It was time he healed
her brothers and received her undying loyalty. Before he travels to
the Akilan realm, he had to tie all the loose ends.
One of those loose ends was Aria's brothers. The system required
150,000 badass points to heal them completely. He could now
afford the points. He already had a plan for the two brothers.
The closer he got to Aria's room, the more he heard a sobbing

sound coming from inside the room. Obviously, Aria was as usual
crying looking at her brothers. Azazel got used to her behavior.
Usually, she would go outside to gather information on nobles,
kings and place the Spycams in places such as Adventurer guild,
noble houses, and army barracks to spread the eyes of Lucifer.
When she returns to the hideout, she would go to her room, lock
the doors and start crying, that was her schedule.
No matter how many times Azazel told her not to cry and trust
Lord Lucifer, she didn't seem to stop sobbing.
"She always cries like this?" Standing in front of the dark door,
Michael asked Azazel. Her sobbing sound vanished as she
probably heard the footsteps of Lucifer.
"Yes my lord"
Michael nodded at Azazel while the demon butler just flicked his
wrist as the door creaked open to reveal Aria standing beside her
brothers. Blue tubes were running in and out of her brothers'
bodies through mouth and chest. The scars had mostly
disappeared from their bodies yet they were in no shape. It was a
miracle they survived. According to the system's scan and his
understanding, they inserted some kind of potion or substance
into their bodies which kept them alive even after they lost organs
such as the pancreas and livers.
"My Lord" when Michael entered the room, Aria quickly wiped the
tears off her face and bowed. In her eyes, Michael could see a ray
of hope glowing. The hope of saving her brothers.
With a nod, Michael moved towards the large bed where the
limbless brothers were sleeping peacefully. He placed his hand on
their foreheads.
"System, it's time for us to heal them"
[System scanning initiated…]
[Getting vital signs…]
[Initiating healing plans…]
The system's voice sounded in his head,
[150,000 badass points required]
[The system requires some other items to complete the healing

process. The items would cost the host additional 5000 points]
[The healing process would last long for a week]
The system's voice continued to ring inside his head.
[Does the host wish to start the healing process now?] the system
asked,
Instead of saying yes in his mind, he turned his gaze towards Aria.
She was staring at him as her body shivered, expecting him to
give her some good news about her brothers.
"Do you remember the price to heal your brothers?" Michael

asked. She couldn't see his reaction through the skull mask on his
face. Taking a long breath, she looked directly into his glowing red
eyes,
"I do, Lord Lucifer. IF you can heal them and give me back my
brothers to me, I will gladly give my life to you. I just want to see
my brothers again"
"Your undying loyalty will ensure nothing happens to you or your

brothers in the future. I'm giving them life…" Michael looked at the
two brothers for a second before turning his gaze back at Aria,
"And I can also take their lives…if you betray me in any way" His
cold voice sent a chill running through Aria's spine. Her heart
skipped a beat as she nodded in fear,
"System, start the healing process" he waved his hand after

ordering the system. Right at the corner of the room, two ten feet
glass containers filled with sparkling blue water appeared.
With another wave, he sent the bodies of the two brothers floating
towards the containers. Aria watched her brothers getting
submerged into the blue liquid with her body shivering.
"In a week, they will be completely healed. Remember, their souls

have been damaged. I can heal their bodies but only they can
heal their souls. Unless they quench the thirst of revenge, their
souls won't heal" Michael added the last part so they won't try any
shit like forgive and forget.
The last thing he wanted was his subordinates to turn peace

pigeons.
"What…what does…it mean…my lord?" Aria stuttered.
"It means they have to seek revenge on whoever was responsible

for their state. Souls are magical complicated things. Make sure
you kindle the flame of revenge in their hearts"
"I will…my lord…I am not planning to let go of those who did this
to my brothers" Michael grinned inside to see the murderous look
on Aria's face. He was glad to see the fire of revenge blazing hot
in her heart.
"Put this on and meet me at the throne hall" Michael flicked his
wrist as a neatly pressed black cloth appeared in his hand. He
threw the clothes to Aria, gave her an order, and left the room.
Although Aria had some questions regarding her brothers, she
didn't get the chance to as he left the room before she could ask
another question.
"My Lord, are you going to the Southern Continent?"? Azazel

asked while following Michael back to the throne hall.
"Yes. I have to deal with the pirates and then," Michael took a
deep breath. Azazel couldn't guess the meaning of his sigh.
Perhaps he was tired or perhaps he was excited or both.
"I am going to Mazeroth, an academy in Akilan realm"
"My Lord, you are going alone?"
"They want me to bring a familiar. So I'm bringing Nightmare with

me"
He couldn't help thinking about Hogwarts ever since he received

the acceptance letter to Mazeroth. Only this time, they invited the
Dark Lord instead of the boy who survived, Noah.
"What about…Lady Dark Queen, my lord?"
"Who knows where she is and what she's doing?" Michael sighed.
Since she put the earpiece in her space ring, Michael or the
system couldnt track her as the space ring prevented the system
from tracking them. Of course, the system was one level higher, it
could have tracked Gaya and told Michael that she is now at Ozer
Continent.
"While I am away, keep spreading the Spycams all over the

continent. I want you to monitor everything that happens in Elon.
Stay away from Noah's home for now. I'm pretty sure that old
smoke would have come up with a way to prevent me from spying
on them by now"
"As you wish my lord"
"And give priority to the Spycam I placed on Peyton. If she gets

anywhere near Noah or his family, destroy the Spycam" Michael
ordered Azazel.
Paying 10,000 points to the system enabled Michael to give

control over the Spycams to Azazel. He could now monitor,
destroy and use the Spycam to its fullest potential alone without
needing Michael.
Monitoring the hundreds of Spycam from the hideout was Azazel's

main task. Information was wealth and power, Michael had begun
to hoard information like crazy. If it wasn't for the bad vibe he got
from Lord Information, Michael would have placed a Spycam in
his office or on him when he came to Baron's manor. Michael had
a feeling that the elf had some kind of countermeasure to prevent
others from spying on him. After all, the elf was making millions by
selling secret information. He wouldn't be careless or stay without
a countermeasure against spies.
As they reached the throne hall, Michael saw several undeads

cleaning up the hall as though they were professional maids.
Michael even slightly chuckled behind his masks imagining the
zombies in maid outfits.
He made his way towards the throne and then, leisurely sat on the
throne. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, Aria finally
appeared wearing the new clothes Michael gave him.
The cloth was specially tailored made for Aria by Michael with
several assassin characters in games and movies in mind. The
cloth was obviously black and had a cool hood to cover her head.
He even gave her a nice cape to cover the throwing daggers,
hidden blade on her wrists, and blades attached to her legs, waist,
and hands.
The dress seemed to be the child of assassins creed and blade.
He was planning to give all his subordinates cool outfits with
benefits. Just he needed a runemaster and a blacksmith to forge
armors that would give them an edge in battles.
"The blade work well?" Michael asked. With a nod, Aria flicked her
wrist as the hidden blade came out of her wrist producing a sling
sound.
Aria was at Body Refining stage level 2, she was vulnerable in

Elon or any other cultivation continents. The hidden blades
wouldn't do much damage to the cultivators but in the Southern
continent, she would be a perfect assassin with the blades.
"Step closer to me. We are going to the Southern continent once

again"
As Aria stepped close to him, Michael willed the system to

activate the runic teleporter. A bright light flashed across the hall.
In a blink of an eye, Azazel saw Michael and Aria disappear from
the hall.
****************************************
Maxine and Gibson were hanging out in the crypt. Currently, there
were no rooms in the crypt but just a large spacious hall that could
hold hundred people easily.
Currently, the hall was filled with snoring and weird sounds made
by the drunk pirates.? Their snorting sounds even overcome the
grumble noises made by hundreds of undeads outside the crypt.
Suddenly a white light flashed across the hall as Maxine and

Gibson couldn't help but close their eyes with their hands. When
they opened their eyes, they felt a chill. Lucifer was sitting on the
throne with his glowing red eyes staring at them.
"My Lord!" Maxine shouted with excitement before immediately

falling onto her knees.
"My Lord"
Gibson also bowed his head and went to his knees.
"My Lord"
Aria heard another meek voice. She turned her head in the
direction of the voice to see Shorty running towards them. Michael
was surprised to hear Shorty actually address him as 'My Lord'
instead of Cap'n.? When he saw the skull mask on his face,
Shorty was stunned as a sudden nervousness occupied his heart.
"Maxine, Gibson, let's go buy ourselves a new warship"
*****************************
**Expect Pirates of the Caribbean like sea battle in the upcoming

chapters**
Chapter 387 - World
Domination Begins II
World Domination Begins II
"Swallow this" With a flick of his wrist, he took out three tiny blue
pills the size of a pearl. It was odorless but shiny. Maxine took the
pill without any hesitation while Gibson stared at the pills with a
confused face.
"Just take it" Maxine growled as Gibson quickly took the pill and
swallowed it. Shorty had no idea what the pill would do but he
kinda wanted to try it for himself. He kept staring at Michael
expecting that he would give him a pill too.
"Shorty" Michael called,
"You are in charge when we are away. Use this as a last resort
and close your mouth and nose after using it"? Shorty saw him yet
again flick his wrist. This time it wasn't a pill that appeared in his
hand but a glass vial. Shorty's hands shivered while taking the
vial. He held it close to his chest.
"Tell them to be ready, we will leave when we get back," Michael

said as Shorty nodded. The very next moment, Shorty saw a
bright light flash across his eyes. When Shorty opened his eyes
after closing it due to the bright light, he stood in the hall alone.
Gibson, Maxine, Aria, and Ghost were nowhere to be found.
Shorty stared at the vial in his hand, wondering what it could do.
He had no idea it was diluted Fear Toxin that would scare the crap
out of the pirates if it escaped the glass vial.
With his Inventor skill, he was able to make adjustments to his

armor which enabled him to release Fear Toxin into the air
whenever he wanted. However, unlike the vial in Shorty's hands,
the Fear Toxin in his armor was potent to the point it would kill
anyone in Southern Continent in a few minutes while cultivators at
or below Core Formation level would die of heart attack if they
breathed in the toxin for more than five minutes.
*********************************
"Fuck, where are they? We have been waiting for an hour here"
Inside Senator Caius's manor, Tiberius punched the wall, losing

his patience. Caius was too focused staring at the map on his
table.
"Calm down Tiberius, do you know where H is?" Another sweet

gentle voice could be heard in the room. It belonged to none other
than Sadie Kaplan. She traveled from newly found Tiberius's
kingdom to Gisel with Tiberius to the meeting with Lucifer.
It was time she returned to Elon but to return, she would have to
sail by the sea which would take months. Hence, she wanted
Lucifer to teleport her to Elon.
The last couple of months had been an eye-opener for Sadie.

When she was initially assigned to investigate the killings of
Lucifer, she thought he was nothing but pure evil. It was rage and
helplessness that pushed her to seek out Lucifer when her sisters
disappeared.
Now she changed her mind about Lucifer. Although he was not
exactly what someone would call good, he wasn't as evil as the
Guardians claimed him to be. Because of Lucifer, the girls were
alive and got a second chance at living. The former slaves settled
into Tiberius's place seemed to be really getting along with the
girls. They were helping the girls overcome the trauma despite
being that they had been through traumas of their own.
"Ask the Senator. He was the one who sent him to the Maven
Kingdom"
"Maven?" Sadie asked bewildered. She was still not quite used to
the landscape and the kingdoms of the Southern Continent.
"What are the seven kingdoms again?" She asked, hoping to get
Caius's attention. If he started talking, she hoped it would calm
down Tiberius who had no patience whatsoever.
Her melodious sweet voice was indeed able to take his eyes away
from the map. She stood up from her chair and walked towards
Caius's table to see the map. Sadie saw a huge piece of land
divided into seven pieces by black lines. The border of the
continent had three adjacent kingdoms which were surrounded by
mountains according to the map.
"These are the seven kingdoms, Gisal, Maven, Bralon, Prerid"

After pointing the four kingdoms on the map, he moved his fingers
towards the border where the three kingdoms were surrounded by
mountains
"Qiven, Xoral and Netis. These three kingdoms are known as

Trident of Southern Continent because these three are ruled by
kings, not senates"
"Yeah. I heard about the freedom fighters were hiding in the

forests of gray mountains near Qiven"
Tiberius finally stopped punching the walls and came to join them
at the table.
"So what makes you so tense?" Sadie asked. Caius sighed as he

moved his finger towards Maven. The kingdom was adjacent to
Gisel and almost the same size as them.
Caius's finger rested on the border of the two kingdoms where

Sadie saw a marking of a mountain. The mountain seemed to be
right between the two kingdoms. Almost fifty percent inside Gisel
and fifty percent inside Maven.
"This Stormveil mountain"

"What makes that a problem now? Isn't that mountain closed for
some bullshit political reasons?" Tiberius asked,
"Two decades ago, the senate of each senate agreed to close the
mountain range until both senators come into an agreement of
who owns the mountain"
"This sounds silly to me, no offense. Why not simply share the
mountain? Also, what do you guys want with the mountain
anyway?" Sadie asked as Tiberius also nodded, looking as though
he was agreeing with Sadie.
"Stormveil is not just any mountain, deep inside, there are gold
veins. Anyone who owns this mountain will basically become a
superpower. Hence, the other senates poked their nose into the
matter and brokered a peace talk" Caius rolled his eyes. The other
senates brokered the peace talks not to avoid a war but to keep
both Gisel and Maven from becoming superpowers. They were
only keeping their hands off the mountain because they had no
claims on the mountain.
"If there is an agreement, why are you worried?"
"Let me guess, you received news of MAven preparing to make

their move on the mountain," Tiberius said, surprising Caius. That
was exactly the truth. Caius had been receiving news of MAven
spending a huge chunk of their wealth buying weapons, armors,
airships as well as hiring mercenaries.
"How did you know?" Seeing Caius's reaction, Saide could tell
Tiberius guessed it correct. Therefore, she turned her gaze
towards Tiberius and asked,
"It doesn't take a genius actually. After Lord Lucifer helped out
Senator here kill the previous senate, the seats of the senates are
empty. Although the senate has been filled with Senator Caius's
buddies, it's temporary. The elections are coming. Gisel has to
spend most of her resources ensuring the elections would be fair
and the kingdom would be in a tense situation. Plus, until the
elections are over, the spartans would take over the leadership.
They are great soldiers but shitty leaders. The kingdom will be
vulnerable without the senate to lead" Tiberius snickered as he
continued,
"If they conquered the mountains first, it would be near impossible

to take the mountain range back because that's a damn good
place to defend. It's a natural forte. Anyone who fights will have an
uphill battle in their hands. Also, the Senate will have so many
meetings, bickerings and when they finally get their shit together,
Maven would become strong enough to wipe out Gisel from the
map"
After listening to Tiberius explain, Sadie understood the

seriousness of the situation. With the senate destroyed in a single
day, the people of Gisel were tense as it is, they weren't prepared
to face a full-scale war.
"I could send in the spartans to defend the mountain range until
the election finishes but it will be like sending them to their graves.
Besides, I'm having some problems with the new Spartan captain"
"New? What happened to the old one?" Tiberius asked,
"He was injured during the explosion at the arena. A month ago
he died and a new one took his place" Caius sighed,
"Took his place? Shouldn't it be you who chooses the new

captain?"
"Unfortunately spartans have their own rules about choosing a

new captain. The senate or the senators can't poke our noses into
their matter. I can't fight Maven and the Spartans at the same
time. This is giving me a headache on top of the upcoming
elections"
"I hope Lord Lucifer don't get disappointed with you, Senator"
Tiberius snickered,
He hated all the senators including Caius. All the senate and the
senators sent their forces to shut down the rebellion. Even now,
except Gisel, the other three senate-ruled kingdoms were
enforcing harsh rules to put out the rebellion and hanging slaves
mercilessly.
Although Caius helped the rebels take refuge in Tiberius's

kingdom and gave protection, Tiberius knew he was doing that
because of Lucifer's orders, not out of the goodness in his heart.
Tiberius was only thankful to Lucifer, not to anyone else.
"Don't listen to him, Senator. Tell everything to Lord Lucifer, he

might just go there and destroy their asses overnight" Sadie
slightly chuckled,
Tiberius was surprised as this was the first time he saw this girl
chuckle since he met her. She always had a gloomy face. He
knew the reason for her sadness. After hearing their story, he
came to realize that cultivators aren't better than the nobles in the
Southern continent. They both seemed evil to the core. Compared
to them, Lucifer seemed to be the good guy in Tiberius's eyes.
Swoosh!
Suddenly, a bright light flashed across the room as the three of

them quickly shut their eyes close. A few seconds after they
opened their eyes to see Lucifer sitting on a throne made of Skull
and bones behind Senator Caius.
Sadie saw Maxine and Gibson standing on each side of the

throne.
"Lord Lucifer"
"Lord Lucifer"
"Lord Lucifer"
Caius was the first to kneel down, followed by Sadie. Tiberius took
a few seconds before finally getting onto his one knee.
"You seem tense, Caius. Tell me everything" Michael didn't beat

around the bushes but directly asked after seeing the dread in
Caius's eyes.
"Lord Lucifer…"
For a few minutes, Michael just listened to Caius explain the

problems Gisel was having since he last saw him. Michael was
too focused on the tournament and the guardians and kinda
neglected Gisel. It was not because Gisel wasn't important but
any problem in the Southern continent could be fixed by brute
force as Michael was a godlike existence here, especially now
after upgrading himself.
"Maxine, let's buy the warship and take a trip to Maven"
"As you wish my lord, we should destroy the senate as we did

here" Maxine grinned evilly as Caius felt a chill running through
his spine.
Chapter 388 - World
Domination Begins III
"My Lord, Can I suggest something to you?" Maxine asked when

Michael was about to leave the room. Michael turned his head to
look at her,
"Go ahead"
"Instead of buying a warship from Gisel, we should buy one from

the pirates yard. They have more choices"
Michael thought about it for a few seconds before turning the

other side to look at Gibson,
"What do you think Gibson?"
"Lady Maxine is right, Lord Lucifer. Pirates build best warships in

the entire southern continent"
What Gibson said didn't surprise Michael much. There was an

unwritten rule about a kingdom having naval power in the
Southern Continent. If one kingdom began to build its naval
power, the three pirate captains would wage war against the
kingdom and destroy the kingdom before it could become a threat
to them. This was how the pirates have been ruling the oceans of
the southern continent for hundreds of years.
The combined power of the pirate lords was not something to be

taken lightly. Some senates wanted to increase their air force by
building flying warships but the pirate lords made an example of
them by destroying the kingdom overnight by pillaging and
destroying the kingdom.
Each kingdom was allowed to have only a small number of
warships and airships. The pirates didn't care about soldiers and
ground forces as no matter how many soldiers a kingdom had,
without enough warships, they wouldn't be able to touch the
pirates in the sea.
"Since you were a pirate captain served under Corey, I assume

you have some contacts in pirates yard,"
Maxine nodded,
"Speaking of Corey, who are the other two pirate lords?"
"Gibbes 'Blackmane' Jett, Hobson 'Rum Lover' Vance" Michael

took a mental note in his head. Previously he heard about the
pirate lord Maxine was serving under, Pirate Lord Corey 'Witch'
Drachen.
Most of the pirates tend to have a nickname between their first

and last names. The name varied from something that expressed
great feats to great shame. Either way, almost 90% of the pirates
had a nickname.
"Where are they now?" Michael asked. Instead of approaching

them with hostility, he first wanted to try to make them his allies.
Killing them would be as easy as crushing an ant to him but
getting the loyalty of their underlings and dealing with the
revolution afterward would become a headache to him.
"Corey is on her own island, north of pirates cove. It's called the
witch island"
Michael listened to her with his head resting on his fist.
"Caius, You have an airship?"
"Of course, he has," Tiberius answered before Caius could open

his mouth.
"Good, then we use that and talk about solving your problem in
the ship"
Michael closed his eyes behind the mask, willing the system to
unequip all the Lucifer armor and equip a brown long coat, white
loose shirt, black pants, and black boots. The system also
equipped the facial mask and changed his real face to make him
look like someone else completely.
Except for the color of his hair, everything changed, including the
length of his hair. His hair instantly became shoulder length as
most of the men in the Southern continent.
Sadie was stunned to see his face without the skull mask. Of
course, she knew this wasn't his real face yet she was stunned to
see the face without the mask. He looked rather normal, not like
someone who would catch the eyes of a girl instantly such as
Ghost or Noah.
"Lead the way" As he stood up from the throne made of skulls and
bones, the throne vanished into thin air. Caius quickly nodded,
stood up, and then began to lead everyone towards his personal
airship.
"How is your kingdom shaping up?" while following Caius out of

his room towards the airship, Michael asked Tiberius. Instead of
addressing it as a village or a town, Michael addressed it as a
kingdom. In the future, Tiberius's kingdom would become a huge
part of his army to conquer and defend the entire southern
continent from the Guardians if they chose to attack.
"We are still at war with the senates of the other three kingdoms,
Lord Lucifer. They are still hunting everyone who dares to rebel.
The gladiator schools are spending so much fucking gold to
prevent anyone from rebelling against their dominus"
"Caius" After listening to Tiberius without showing any expression

on his face, Michael called out Caius as the senator turned back
to look at him,
"Let's walk and talk," Michael said, preventing Caius from halting
his steps. Then they began to talk while walking.
"How long will it take to visit each of the other three senate ruled
kingdoms?"
Caius could sense the air become chilly. He even slightly

shuddered after hearing the question.
"Five days if we used full speed"
"I can spare five days to fix Tiberius's problem" Michael shrugged.
No one dared to ask how, even Tiberius remained silent but he

could kinda guess what was about to happen to the senators. To
be honest, Tiberius couldnt care less about the corrupted
politicians who supported the Spartans and dominus killing
hundreds of slaves all over the continent.
After taking the mantle of leading the freedom fight, he cared

about every single slave. He made his life purpose to erase the
slavery from Southern Continent.
Sometimes even Tiberius would wonder what made him like this.
Perhaps, the death of Doctorus or perhaps his muscles sickness
or just anger towards the nobles who enslaved them.
"What about you Sadie? The girls, how are they holding up?"
Sadie sighed,
"Better than they were two months ago. They are still traumatized
but those girls are strong, stronger than me" Her voice stuttered,
"Of course they are. You were wasting your life in delusion.
Welcome to the real world" Gibson was stunned. He was kinda
hoping Lucifer would say some calming words to her. Instead, he
uttered the words that made Sadie's eyes water up.
"People like Guardians will only care about you as much as they
can use you. Their care and considerations end where the
benefits stop. Turn the tables, use them before they use you, and
throw you away like trash"
Although the SilverMoon was on the right track, they still weren't
using the SilverMoon girls to their full potential. SilverMoon was
basically a huge spy agency with extreme potential to collect
information about anyone or anything.? They lacked the
leadership, gadgets, and tactics to extract information to their full
potential. If Michael could place Sadie as the next sect leader of
SilverMoon, he would then show her the ropes and receive
hundreds of spies.
"How?" Sadie asked. Her voice stuttered.
"Become the next sect leader," Michael said as though it was a

simple matter. He knew SilverMoon is not a sect like Sunrise sect
to change the sect leader just like that. However, with Sadie's
loyalty towards him, he could infiltrate the sect and get the sect
under his thumb little by little.
Eventually, they climbed the stairs to the top floor. The Spartans
were staring at them but didn't dare to stop and question Senator
Caius. After climbing the stairs for a few minutes, Michael finally
saw a door blocking their way with two spartans with spears
standing on each side of the white door.
"Senator"
"Senator"
The two Spartans stomped the spear on the ground as their

version of bowing. Then one Spartan opened the door to reveal a
giant airship on the other side.
"I never flew in a blimp, hmm" the airship in front of him reminded
him of blimps. It looked exactly like a blimp. The golden paint
almost hurt his eyes with its bright color. Several Spartans and
guards of Caius were patrolling around the blimp. From the
balcony, Michael could see half of the kingdom.
The outfit of Aria, the rugged look of Tiberius, the beauty of Sadie
immediately attracted the eyes of the soldiers. Especially Sadie,
few soldiers stopped patrolling for a moment to just stare at her.
Ignoring the soldiers, Michael followed Caius. When they came
closer to the blimp, a servant girl wearing a brown maid dress
pushed a button as steps came out from the blimp's side.
After climbing the stairs, Michael got into the blimp and was
quietly stunned by the interior. He felt like he was transported
back to earth as the interior reminded him of the interior of the
private jets. The golden chandeliers coupled with glass tables and
comfy white sofas made the spacious interior feel cozy.
Tiberius's jaw almost dropped seeing everything before him.

Unlike Michael or Sadie, he had never seen something so fancy.
Michael saw a minibar with a who seemed to be the bartender, a
glass round table in the center, probably for Caius to plan
something, several silver orbs attached to the ceiling as well as a
rack filled with books and parchments.
"Everyone out" Caius ordered with a domineering voice. The

maids and the bartender quickly cleared the area, leaving them
alone.
"Where to, my lord?" Caius asked. Rather than taking out the
throne and sitting on it, Michael sat on the single-seater sofa
beside the window.
"Get us as close as you can to pirates yard"
Caius nodded before walking towards the far end of the blimp.
"Take your seats, ladies and gentlemen"
One by one everyone landed their butts on the sofas. Several

moments later, Maxine broke the awkward silence.
"What's the plan Lord Lucifer?"
Gibson was really surprised to see how Maxine could easily talk to
Lucifer. Everytime Lucifer's eyes land on him, he would feel a
shudder in his heart.
"Nothing much. Just going to take over the four senate ruled
kingdoms within five days"
The words that came out of his mouth stunned every single one of
them including Maxine. Michael kept cracking his knuckles one by
one looking at the figures of the soldiers gradually becoming
smaller and smaller.
When he took his gaze away from the window, everyone saw his
eyes glow in pure crimson red for a few moments before
becoming normal.
It had been almost eighteen months since he came to this world

and finally, he decided to be on the offensive against the
guardians instead of playing defense. The Southern Continent
would be the first to bow to the Dark Lord and be ruled from the
shadows by Michael.
"We are the Order of Death"

Chapter 389 - Pirate Wars
In silence, they flew towards the pirates yard where the pirates
had been building their pirate ships. Considering Michael lost
control of his anger, leaving the third persona to come out, he
decided to resume meditation. He used to meditate every day
when he was on earth. Now he has started to meditate in this
world too. Caius or anyone would guess whether he was sleeping
or just enjoying the peace and calm with his eyes closed.
Nonetheless, they didn't dare to utter a word to disturb his peace.
Through the window, Tiberius saw nothing but an endless ocean.

There were several ships including merchant ships, small
fishermen boats as well as a man of war in the distance.
Eventually, after flying for a couple of hours, clusters of little
islands and rock formations began to appear in their sight. As they
continued to fly, they saw several warships patrolling in formations
as a gigantic island with numerous ships docked appeared on the
horizon.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Michael's meditation was interrupted by thunderous booming

sounds. Everyone except Maxine quickly looked through the
window to see the patrolling warships getting into formations and
firing their cannons.
"Tell your driver to stop the airship. This is as far as we can fly"
Maxine calmly said without even looking outside. She just stood
behind Michael's seat as though she was his personal guard.
Finally, Michael slowly opened his eyes to see everyone looking
through the window. He turned his eyes, getting a view of the
pirate ships lining up to shoot the airship down if they flew any
closer.
"Sadie,Tiberius and Caius stay here. We will go and deal with this"
"Really? I always wanted to fight the pirates" Tiberius sighed as

Sadie elbowed him gently.
"Yes my lord, I'll go tell the driver to put us down and prepare the
boat for you" Michael nodded at Caius. While they were waiting
for the pilot to lower the airship, Michael saw more and more
pirate ships appear on the horizon.
"Quite a welcome" Michael smiled looking at the warships waiting

to destroy them. There were at least fifty warships including
frigates as well as galleons.
"This airship has the crest of Gisal on it Lord Lucifer. It's unusual
for a senate ship to fly to pirates yard. Pirates tend to follow the
fire first and ask questions later policy when it comes to the
outsiders"
Gibson nodded at Michael while Maxine was explaining,
"I am pretty sure those idiots are itching to fire us down as we

speak. So we better leave the airship and tell the senator to fly
back to a? safe distance"
With a nod, Michael stood up from his chair, He turned his gaze
towards Aria, then at Tiberius.
"You two should talk. After all, you have someone in common"
***********************************
Leaving the airship, Michael ended up on a small boat that had

only space for three people. Michael was sitting on end, Gibson
on the other rowing the boat towards the warships while Maxine
remained in the middle.
Since they were using a rowboat, the pirates didn't shoot them
down but waited patiently, letting the rowboat near them.
"My Lord, shall I introduce myself to them?" Maxine asked

Michael. Before joining his ranks, she was an infamous pirate
captain named Marina, the iron fist. Almost every pirate in the
Southern continent heard or knew about her because she had
sunk hundreds of merchant ships and army warships alike under
the order of Pirate Lord Corey.
She was a feared pirate captain. It had been two months since
she had seen her crew. The last time she saw them, she ordered
her crew to station at the pirate cover with her ship. She
commanded fifteen ships but they didn't belong to her. Rather
those ships and crew belonged to Corey.
"Go ahead before someone gets trigger happy" Michael calmly

said. Gibson saw no fear in his eyes at all despite being facing
fifty warships.
He was calm as the sea, no fear or any emotions could be seen

on his face.
Even with spells, Gibson doubted if he could take on an armada of

this size. However, after seeing his calm look, Gibson asked
himself the question, "Is he more powerful than we realize?"
"Lower your cannons and let us pass through idiots" Maxine's

shout reverberated the sea.
A few moments of awkward silence filled the area while Gibson

stopped rowing the boat. Suddenly the brigades blocking their
path slowly moved aside, forming a path for them to the island.
"Good, you idiots still have some brain inside ur thick skulls"
Maxine yelled again before sitting back on the boat.
While rowing through the brigades Michael looked up at the ships

and saw the pirates staring at Maxine with wide eyes. In their
eyes, he could see fear and respect.
The pirates yard was a giant island that had several shipyards.
Everywhere he turned, he could see ships being built and
repaired. The smell of oil and gunpowder overwhelmed his
senses. The sweet sound of a hammer hitting the iron, log sawing
and chattering of the pirates offered a rather charming experience
to Michael.
They were rowing towards the dockyard where several crates

were stacked on each other along with several barrels. There
were hundreds of pirates running around the shipyard.
"Dock the boat here," Maxine told Gibson as he docked the ship
with several other fishing boats the same size as their boat.
Michael stood up, jumped on the dock with a swift leap. Then he
reached out his hand to help Maxine. She was surprised but
ended up grabbing his hand to get onto the dock.
"Don't mind me" When Gibson was about to reach his hand too,
he saw Micahel and Maxine turn back to walk away. Fortunately,
the water was not too deep. Therefore, he stepped out of the boat,
dragged himself through the water, and climbed the few steps to
reach the wooden platform.
"Lead the way," Michael said to Maxine. Since she seemed to

know the layout of the island more than him and Gibson, he let
Maxine take the lead while he just followed her behind, looking at
the surroundings. The island was not much different than any
tropical islands on earth but with lots of ships, barrels, drunken
pirates fighting each other, and few anchors buried in the sand.
As he was following Maxine behind, he saw a lone pirate with a

Cuban cigar in his mouth approaching them with a sly smile on his
face. On the other hand, he had a bottle of rum.
The man had shoulder-length greasy hair that seemed like it did
not see the sight of a comb for at least a decade. The scare that
ran from his upper left eye to the upper right corner of the mouth
gave a ruthless look to him.
He flaunted his chiseled chest and six-packs abs while walking
towards them. A tattoo of a flying eagle could be seen on his
chest along with a dagger.
"It isn't the famous captain Marina herself?" the man took the cigar
out of his mouth,
"Wow, I wouldn't have recognized you if it wasn't for your face.

What happened to you? You've been eating less?"
Michael did not react at all as he remained behind Maxine without

uttering a word.
"Or did you become poor after deserting Pirate Lord Corey's
fleet?"
"What the fuck do you care?" Marina snickered,
Just by the exchange of these words, Gibson could tell the two of
them have some bad blood between them.
"I have a hundred thousand reasons to care"? the smile on his

face grew wider.
"Someone put a bounty on my head i assume" Maxine shrugged

without a shred of worry,
"Aren't you a smart one?" The man put the cigar back in his
mouth,
"You can try putting your hands on me" Maxine cracked her
knuckles as the man just shook his head,
"I would love to, especially now you aren't as fat as you were.
Luckily for you, Pirate Lord Vance ordered us not to take on the
bounty. So if I were you, I will get on that ship of yours" he looked
at the rowboat with a mocking smile on his face,
"And row as fast as you can away from the continent"
"Get out of my face, we have a ship to buy" Maxine waved her

hands off as though she was shooing him away.
And just as she was about to take a step forward, the man burst
into laughter,
"Buy a ship? Fuck me. You have no idea what's going on do ya?"
Maxine frowned, clenching her fists. She wanted to punch the
smug off of his face,
"What?" she didn't hide the annoyance in her voice,
"No one is selling ships here or anywhere for that matter. Every
single ship's being built is going to the Pirate Lord themselves.
Since you abandoned your ship, crew, and Pirate Lord Corey, you
are not getting a new ship baby, no matter how much you pay"
Michael had a weird feeling listening to the man. Also, he was

getting annoyed as he wanted to grab the man by his neck, beat
the hell out of him, and make him spill out what was going on.
"Some moron king from Ozer is sending a war fleet into the void
line. They might be big assholes on the other side of the void line.
SInce they are coming to our world, we are gonna tear them a
new one"
The trio was surprised, including Michael himself. He wondered

who dared to cross the void line, battle with pirates and hope to
win in their own territory.
"What king?" Maxine asked. This time, her voice did not show any
signs of irritation but curiosity.
The man closed his eyes, looking as though he was picking his
brain to remember the name,
"Masia…Rosia…yeah" he snapped his fingers as he opened his

eyes,
"Thusia…Kingdom Thusia"
The mere mention of the name made Michael clench his fist. His
heart began to beat faster and faster. Gibson noticed Lucifer
starting to breath faster as well as the clenched fist,
"Calm down Michael" Michael ordered himself in his mind before
the other persona took control over his body. If that persona came
outside, the entire island would be painted in red with their blood.
Fortunately, his extreme control over himself, as well as the

meditation, kept his anger under control.
Chapter 390 - New Ship
New Ship I
"So the pirate lords are going to war with a cultivation kingdom"
Maxine frowned,
"They were the morons who suddenly cross the void line and sink
whatever pirate ship they see" the man let out a puff of smoke as
he continued,
"Anyways, it doesn't concern you anymore. If I were you, I will get

out of the Southern continent as soon as possible"
"You are not me, Sheyan. But if you don't like being who you are
now, I can remodel that ugly face of yours" Maxine cracked her
knuckles. The feeling of the Dark Lord standing behind her gave
her immense courage to take on not only Sheyan, a pirate captain
under Pirate Lord Vance but also the pirate lords themselves.
For the pirates and anyone in the Southern continent, the pirate
lords were not someone they could touch. However, in front of the
Dark Lord, they were as weak as a newborn child. With a single
spell, Michael could kill the pirate lords.
"You are not pirate captain Marina the Iron fist anymore, just
Marina. You are not worth fighting"
Maxine clenched her fist tightly as she looked like she was about
to punch him in the face. Gibson decided to take a step back,
letting Maxine take care of Sheyan. However, when she was
about to raise her hand, Gibson saw Michael step forward. He put
his hand on Maxine's shoulder, calming her down instantly.
"Thank you for the information you provided, have a nice day"
Sheyan creased his brows. He thought the youngster behind
Maxine was just a lackey of hers but seeing how he placed his
hand on Maxine's shoulder and calmed her down, he realized that
he was not a mere lackey.
"Let's go" Michael took the lead. Rather than wasting time with
Sheyan, he walked away from the pirate, taking Maxine and
Gibson with him.
While walking away from Sheyan, Michael could feel the pirate's
gaze on him. Gibson was baffled. He thought Lucifer was going to
mercilessly kill Sheyan yet he did not only kill him but also talked
to him with respect. He had never seen Lucifer act so modest
towards someone else until now.
Still, Gibson was not stupid to think Lucifer was afraid of Sheyan.
As far as Gibson was concerned, Sheyan was lucky not to get
himself killed.
In silence, Maxine and Gibson walked beside Michael. A few

moments later, Maxine opened her mouth, decided not to speak,
and closed her mouth. She kept opening and closing her mouth.
She wasn't afraid of talking to Michael but was afraid to question
him. Michael noticed the way Maxine's been acting.
"He is just a small fry, Maxine. Killing him would unnecessarily

make us enemies with Vance. He is not worth it" Michael calmly
said,
"But my Lord," Maxine talked quietly,
"You can kill the pirate lords within a few seconds. Give me the
order and I will take them out"
The medallion of Order of Death gave her inhuman strength, to be

exact, a strength of a Body Refining stage level 3 cultivator. In the
Southern continent where everyone had no cultivation power, she
was a superhuman indeed. Nonetheless, Michael had a feeling
that Maxine alone wouldn't be able to defeat the Pirate Lords. If
they were so easy to defeat, they wouldn't have been ruling the
seas for more than five decades.
"If I wanted them dead, they would have been dead by now,"
Michael said. The noises around them prevented anyone other
than Gibson and Maxine from hearing the words coming out of
Michael's mouth.
"Killing them would create a power vacuum, everyone under the

three would want a piece of the power. Eventually, the struggle for
power would create many factions, internal wars. A kingdom like
Thusia would use this opportunity to either destroy the pirates
once and for all or take control over them. Which would make
Thusians even more powerful than they are right now" Maxine
listened to his words in silence. She never thought killing the
pirate lords would be a bad thing but what he said made sense.
"Also, pirate lords are the ones keeping the kingdoms in the
southern continent from building their own armadas of ships.
Without them to keep them under control, each kingdom would go
crazy with warships. If they build a naval force, along with their air
force, every kingdom would turn into a threat to us. So we need to
make a subtle approach with the pirate lords"
While listening to Michael, Maxine led them through the muddy

streets towards somewhere. They passed a couple of taverns
where they heard loud singing sounds and smelled the
overwhelming scent of booze and pirates.
"My lord, if I may…"
"Don't be afraid to ask questions and tell me what you think

Maxine. I want to lead lions, not mindless herd of sheeps" he said,
seeing Maxine being afraid to question him. She wasn't afraid to
talk to him but scared as hell to question him.
He preferred his subordinates to be more vocal, using their brain

rather than following him blindly. Although Michael was an expert
in planning, conquering the world wasn't his forte. To become the
Dark Lord, first, he had to become a good leader and any good
leader would listen to the people under him. That was one of the
differences between a leader and a dictator.
"Yes my lord" Maxine's fear disappeared after hearing him. Gibson
also felt somewhat relaxed.
"How do you plan to deal with the pirate lords? They won't bend
their knees, my lord. Those stubborn bastards would rather die
than serve someone else"
"That's where you are wrong Maxine. Everyone has a price and a
weakness. We just need to exploit one of them/I will show you,
after buying the ship, we will deal with Corey" Michael cracked his
neck,
"Time to undo that bounty on your head"
In addition to Corey's decision to put a bounty on Maxine's head, it

was her name Corey 'Witch'? Drachen that made him decide to
meet her first. He was curious to see why she was being called
Witch.
Since Michael encouraged them to be more expressive about

their questions, Gibson wanted to ask about Thusia. When
Sheyan told them about Thusia, Gibson noticed a change in his
calm face.
However, before Gibson could ask Michael, Michael questioned

Maxine,
"I assume you are leading us to a place where we can still buy a
ship"
Maxine nodded,
"A shipbuilder named Welton owes me a favor"
"Is it enough to disobey the rules set by the pirate lords?" Michael
asked,
"It is my lord. If it wasn't for me, he would have been shark shit by
now"
With a nod, Michael followed Maxine. On his way, Michael saw

several frigates, schooners, galleons, and even a man o war
being built on the shipyards. Some pirates were ripping apart the
hulls, cannons, and masts for spare parts.
On the other side of the streets, he noticed several weapon stores

as well as forges. Almost all the forges and weapon stores were
full. All the blacksmiths seemed to be working on cannons,
probably for the upcoming war.
"War is always profitable" he mumbled under his breath. Spectre,

his mentor, always used to say this.
Eventually, after a few minutes of walking through the muddy

streets, Michael saw a huge hanger where he saw numerous
pirates running around doing various chores such as carrying
wooden logs, welding iron, rolling cannons and sawing giant
wooden logs.
There were two frigates inside the hangar. One was being built, it
had a glossing hull, new shining brown paint job with several
drawings of which seemed to be a Kraken, thick brand new sails.
The ship seemed to be in the last stage before its first voyage.
The other ship which remained beside the ship looked exact
opposite. Compared to the ship the pirates were working on, the
other one looked like a beggar. It looked ancient with its battered
hull, torn sails and half-destroyed figure head which looked like a
crying lady with wings.
Nevertheless, the damaged one was bigger in size compared to

the brand new one. It could hold more cannons as well as crew
members. Any sane person would choose the brand new one as
the other one looked as if it would sink into the sea if being put on
the water.
The pirates were too busy to notice the trio entering the hangar.
Maxine led them towards the far end of the hanger. They were
walking between the two frigates. Gibson was staring at both the
ships. Either of them couldn't be compared to the Silent Reaper in
terms of size, power, or anything. The Silent Reaper didn't belong
to specifically any class but many identified it as a war galleon.
Thinking about Silent Reaper, Gibson sighed. The ship was stinky,
nasty, and filthy yet it was his home for the last two decades.
Overnight, the Guardians destroyed it into bits and pieces.
Even Gibson, who respected the Great clans, wanted to destroy

the airship that destroyed the Silent Reaper. Since they were here
to buy a ship, Gibson began to look at the brand new ship as he
completely ignored the old one on the left side.
Michael on the other hand was looking at the ancient-looking ship.

It kinda reminded him of the black pearl. He ran his fingers on the
eh tattered hull with a smile. Usually, in the novels he read, the
ignored or rather normal-looking things would end up as the
ancient things that hold unlimited potential. When the main
character finds the item, he or she would see the OPness of the
item. It would serve the main character in the future after restoring
it to its former glory.
Yet, this ship was neither OP nor an accent power. Rather, it was
just a damaged frigate. If Michael wasn't an inventor, he would
have obviously gone with the brand new one. Since he was an
Inventor, he was able to identify which ship could be upgraded
easily. The brand new ship could be upgraded but not as much as
the old one. Every single component of the old ship could be
upgraded, unlike the brand new one.
"It's time to put my inventor skill into more use"

Chapter 391 - 4 Star Inventor
Michael was not in a rush to meet Welton. He was patiently

looking at all the nooks and crannies in the ship. The ship seemed
to be armed with 42 twelve-pound cannons: 24 on the gun deck
and 18 on the upper deck.
At the moment, there were only holes in the place where the
cannons should have been. Obviously, the pirates ripped her
apart for parts and only kept the ship for some sentimental value
or something.
Gibson was too focused on the brand new ship. He was almost
certain that they were going to buy this ship. Hence, he didn't
notice Michael studying the old ship without even giving a look at
the brand new ship.
As Michael was counting the cannons, they came to the back of

the ship. When they turned the corner around the ship's backside,
they saw a group of three pirates discussing something. When the
pirates noticed the trio approaching they quit talking. One of the
three pirates opened his eyes wide the moment he saw Maxine.
Nothing special about the man. He was neither too tall nor too
short, medium built, wore a white loose shirt that was soiled with
oil, dirt, and grease which turned the white into a brown. Looking
at Maxine, he scratched his stubble brown beard with a solemn
expression.
The tension was visible to the naked eyes on the man's face.
"Welton" Maxine put a phony smile on her while greeting him with
a wave.
"What the heck are you doing here?" Welton asked in a husky
voice,
"Nice to see you too" Maxine rolled her eyes as Welton quickly
rushed towards the other side of the old ship to hide from the
others. When they disappeared behind the old ship, Welton began
to talk,
"Get out of here Marina, you already fucked me up by coming

here" Welton didnt even look at Michael or Gibson. He seemed
more focused on chasing them away,
"I'm here to call in the favor Welton. I need a ship and you're
gonna provide us one"
The moment Welton heard her, Gibson could see him literally
shudder.
"You crazy? No. I can't give you a fucking ship. They will hang me
alive. Don't you know what the fuck is going on here? All the ships
are going to the pirate lord themselves. If they knew I sold a ship
to you of all people, a deserter, they will skin me alive" He was
frantically shaking his head,
"What about this one?" Suddenly Maxine and Gibson saw Michael
stepping up into the conversation,
"Huh?" Welton was confused for a few moments. Gibson couldn't

believe Lucifer was looking at the old ship instead of the new one,
"You owe her your life but since you can't give us a new ship
which would make you lose your life, why dont you fix her up real
quick and give her instead?"
Although Gibson had way too many questions including why the
heck does he want the old ship which looked as though it would
sink into the sea the moment being put on the water, he chose not
to question him in front of Welton.? Gibson was sure that Lucifer
would kill him if he questioned him in front of Welton.
"Who the fuck are you? Doesn't matter. You have a hundred
thousand bounty on your head. Although no one would touch you
on this island thanks to Pirate Lord Vance, if anyone had seen me
with you, the moment I step outside this island, I am dead" Welton
said looking around,
"What about you repairing the ship for us to escape to the

Southern continent and we will give you hundred thousand gold
coins for your risk?"
"Whoa,dont fuck with me"
Welton was taken aback by surprise. He literally took a step back

after hearing the offer. Then, the realization hit as he snickered,
"You take me for a fool? You will give me a hundred thousand gold
coins for this piece of crap"
"One-time deal, take it or leave it" Welton gawked at Michael in

disbelief before turning his gaze towards Maxine,
"You have my word, Welton. Do this and we will never meet

again"
For a few moments, Welton just rubbed his beard, pretending to

ponder. Michael was not stupid to think he was actually thinking of
whether to take the deal or not. Obviously, Welton decided to take
the deal. Who in the right mind would refuse such a deal.
"Looks like this is my lucky day, hehehehe" Welton chuckled

inside. Gibson and Maxine were oblivious to the evil plot Welton
just hatched in his mind.
"Come back with what you promised in a few hours, the old
Bertha will be ready to set sail then. But remember, she won't be
battle-ready, she will only get you out of here if you don't meet any
pirates on your way"
Welton looked at Michael rather than Maxine. He could tell the

youngster was the one calling the shots regardless of standing
behind Maxine.
"That's enough" Michael nodded,
"Paint her black"

"I can do that" For the first time since they met him, Welton
grinned.
He was too excited to become rich. Of course, Welton knew there

was a possibility of them lying about giving him a hundred
thousand gold for the old Bertha but it didn't matter, if they wanted
to get out of the Southern continent, getting a ship was the only
way. And no one on the island would give them a ship except him.
"We will come back in two hours. I assume she will be ready by
then" Michael asked,
"Yes," Welton nodded excitedly,
There was no need for them to know that Bertha's keel was split
as any moment the whole ship could fall to pieces. He would just
need to fix the keel enough to get them off the island. Few logs
would do the trick, he thought.
"I will be back" Michael turned back, making his way towards the
outside.
When no one was around he quickly flicked his wrist as a

notebook and a quill appeared in his hand.
"My lord, why did you choose this ship?" Gibson couldn't hold the
question in his mind any longer,
"She looks like if we put her in the water, she would sink any
moment," Gibson said, sounding as if he was pleading not to buy
the old one.
"I'm sure Lord Lucifer has seen something in that ship that we
didn't"
"In simple terms, both ships are upgradable but the new one is not
as upgradeable as the old one"
Gibson had no freaking idea of what he was talking about.
"System, so the price of becoming a blacksmith is still 700,000

badass points?"
[Yes]
Michael sighed. Alchemy was great, it had helped him in a lot of

ways. Yet it couldn't be compared to forging. The advantages of
being a blacksmith outweighed the advantages of being an
Alchemist. Coupled with his inventor specialization, he could do
so many things. The only obstacle that prevented him from
becoming a blacksmith was the price. To become a 1-star
Blacksmith, he would have to pay 700,000 badass points.
This was why Michael considered recruiting a blacksmith

subordinate and making him or her 5-star blacksmith because the
cost of making a subordinate 5-star Blacksmith was 1.2million
badass points according to the system.
Compared to becoming a Blacksmith himself, it was cost-effective

to recruit someone and make him or her a 5-star Blacksmith.
"System, you said it's 60,000 badass points to upgrade Inventor

skill to the 4-star right?"
[Does the system wish to upgrade?]
"Let me see the benefits first"
[Star 1 - The host will be able to build basic tools and day to day
items]
[Star 2 - The host will be able to build basic gadgets such as

night-vision goggles, lasers, etc]
[Star 3 - The host will be able to build complex gadgets such as

eavesdropping bugs, micro cameras, trackers, etc]
(Current Level)
[Star 4 - The host will be able to build new and antique firearms
such as crossbows, mini crossbows, limited shots revolver,
cannons, etc]
[Star 5 - The host will be able to build various types of new

gadgets and weapons]
[The host is required to either have a 5-star blacksmith or become
a 5-star blacksmith to unlock the Star-6 Inventor Trait ]
"Cannons, that's just the thing I want now. System, upgrade it to

the next level"
[Wonderful]
Immediately the next moment, Michael felt a sharp pain in his

brain. It wasn't enough to halt his steps but just made him crease
his brows.
With this upgrade, he got 200,000 badass points.
"What's the cost for the next upgrade?"
[180,000 badass points only]
"Shit" Michael wanted to upgrade the skill to 5-star. However, he

had a feeling that he would need the badass points when he
reached the Akilan Realm. Hence, he decided not to upgrade the
skill just yet.
"Guys, let's go shopping"
With a grin on his face and a note in his hand, he exited the
hangar to go on a shopping spree.
*******************************************
A few hours later, Welton was standing in front of Old bertha. The
new black paint job didn't exactly make her look brand new as one
could still see the sorry state of the hull and the ship as a whole.
Perhaps Welton was too lazy or he didn't care enough to fix the
tiny holes in the hull. He only patched up the giant holes in the hull
with wooden planks and nails.
Since this was a backdoor deal, Welton didn't keep anyone with
him. He sent everyone on a break so he was alone.
Baam!
Baam!
After waiting for a while in excitement, Welton finally saw the three
of them enter the hanger. The man beside the youngster and
Marina carried a giant chest which instantly put a smile on
Welton's face.
"Took you long enough. Let me see the coins" Gibson put the
chest on the ground, letting out a heavy breath.
Welton did not waste any time as he immediately opened the

chest. The moment he opened the chest, his mouth opened wide
as the chest was filled with glistening gold coins. They reflected
the light making his face look golden.
Welton was drooling so much to notice Michael running his fingers

through Old Bertha's hull.
"Diddle diddle" suddenly Michael's voice drew the attention of the

three.
Welton looked over his shoulder to see the youngster smiling at

him.. However, the smile was not a warm friendly kind, rather, it
was cold, devilish, and murderous.
Chapter 392 - Old Bertha, The
War Frigate
No one had any idea about what those words meant. It seemed
like he was chanting something. Gibson felt the air around them
become chilly. Moreover, Gibson saw his eyes flicker in crimson
red. Gibson and Maxine unconsciously took a step back.
Welton noticed the youngster's eyes flickering. He was confused

as he saw him get closer and closer.
"We are so little" the moment these words came out of his mouth,
Gibson saw Lucifer grab Welton by his neck. He lifted him off from
the ground, slamming him against Old Bertha's hull.
"Hrrmmmm" Welton struggled to utter a word,
"I told you to repair her, not hide twenty-six pirates inside her to kill
us" Maxine and Gibson was stunned,
Welton's eyes opened wide in disbelief,
"You sighed the death warrant for twenty-seven pirates today"
Crack!
Welton's frantic struggle came to a halt as his neck produced a

cracking sound. His eyes were still wide open when he hit the
ground.
"My Lord" Gibson shuddered,
"Maxine, get her on the water. Gibson go tell those pirates to put
everything on the deck"
Michael didn't bother telling why he killed Welton. He just gave
them an order, flicked his wrist, willing the system to put the gold-
filled chest into the system storage, grabbed Welton's body, and
threw it on the deck
With a swift jump, Michael landed on Bertha's upper deck. He

walked towards the rudder before holding the rudder which
reminded him of Silent Reaper. With a sigh of breath, he turned
back to see a barrel on the corner.
Conveniently for Michael, when he opened up the barrel it was

empty.
"Looks like this is your fancy coffin buddy" Michael snickered. He

then picked up Welton by his collar, putting him inside the barrel.
After hiding the body, Michael walked around the upper deck. If it
wasn't for his X-ray eyes, he may have not found the pirates
hiding in the lower decks. Those visions enabled him to see the
armed pirates hiding beneath him. It was obvious Welton was
planning to get the bounty amount as a price for the ship, then kill
Maxine, get another hundred thousand from Corey.
Michael was not stupid or generous enough to give him a hundred

thousand gold coins for the old ship. He planned to beat up
Welton and then get the ship and go. However, Welton's ambush
plan made Michael take his life.? As far as Michael was
concerned, he could let go of hundred enemies but not a single
traitor. His focus now turned towards the hooks attached to the
poles. They were holding the ship from sliding through the slop to
the ocean.
"You are a lucky girl Bertha" he talked to the ship while making his
way to the metal hooks.
"I'm going to make you a super OP ship and avenge the Silent
Reaper" he removed the first hook from the mainsail pole.
He continued to remove hooks while he saw several pirates

entering the hangar carrying huge crates. Their biceps were
flexing as the frowns on their faces indicated how heavy the
crates are.
One by one the pirates put down the crates,
"My Lord, can you throw down that rope attached to the lever?"
Gibson shouted from the ground,
"Here" With a kick, Michael sent down the roll of ropes to him.
The pirates along with Gibson tied the ropes around the crates to
lift the crates up. If Michael used Arch energy, it would not even
take a minute. He could just put the crates inside the space ring,
jump onto the deck and retrieve the crates out of the ring.
"My Lord" suddenly, Michael heard Aria voice in his head through
the earpiece,
"What is it?"
"There are several war frigates surrounding us"
"Don't move, I'll be there"? as he said, he jumped down.
"Gibson give them something and see them outside"
Hearing Michael's serious voice, Gibson realized something was

amiss. He quickly nodded before giving a pirate a? pouch of gold
coins,
"Share the tip"
"Thanks man" the heaviness of the pouch immediately put a wide

grin on the pirates' faces. In addition to the hefty tip, it seemed like
they didn't have to put the heavy crates on the top deck which
meant less work for them.
"It's done my lord" Gibson said while Maxine walked towards the
crates to help Gibson.
Both of them saw Michael wave his hand as the crates

disappeared from their sight in an instance. The very next
moment, he grabbed both of them by the coolers
"Ah!"
"Shiiiit!'
Both Maxine and Gibson cried out aloud when Michael leaped into
the air with them. In a second, they landed on the upper deck.
"Get to the rudder, we are leaving," He said before leaping into the
air once again. This time, they saw him land on the crow's nest.
He did not give a damn about the pirates hiding beneath. They
would be thinking they are going to ambush them surprisingly.
Rather than worried about war frigates surrounding the Caius's
airship, he was excited.
"Corey, is that you or one of the others?" Michael cracked his neck
before clenching his fists,
Maxine made quick work on the sails. Since the hooks were off,
sails were ready to open and Gibson was at the rudder, Old
Bertha just needed a push to slide through the slope.
"Wind Blast" a powerful gust of whirlwind fired out of his hands.

The whirlwind of wind blast was so powerful that it shook the
entire ship. The creaking noise appeared as well as they felt the
ship moving.
Creakkk!
The ship purred as it slid forward slowly. The entire ship trembled,
the poles and every nook and cranny in the ship let out a gust of
dust.
"Is that Old Bertha?"
"What the fuck?"
"Is that Welton's piece of crap?"
"Shit run!"
The ship immediately caused a commotion on the streets when it
left the hangar. Someone dashing away from the way while many
were pointing out at the ship and speculating.
Michael hoped Welton idiot did a better job fixing her than he did
with his ambush plan. He still wasn't aware of the main issue of
bertha. A ship's keel was like the spine of a human being, if it was
split in half, there was no fixing the ship.
With a few plants and metal plates, Welton patched her up

temporarily. Fortunately, it was enough for Bertha to stay afloat
instead of sinking into the ocean.
The sails slowly opened, putting a smile on Maxine's face. Even

Michael had a grin on his face. He couldn't help remembering the
Silent Reaper. Although the ship was nasty as hell, he missed the
ship since it was his first ship.
"Back to the airship" Standing on the crow's nest, Michael ordered

Gibson.
Now that they were on the ocean, they could see tiny figures of
ships on the distant horizon. The crow's nest enabled Michael to
see the airship more clearly. There were five war frigates
surrounding the airship as they slowly sailed towards the airship.
Michael leaped down onto the deck without even using the arch
energy. He landed comfortably.
"My Lord, the pirates…"
"In the below decks. Kill them all and bring their bodies to me" At
that moment, his eyes completely became crimson red. Michael
noticed the change in his eyes. He wasn't using eyes of Darkness
yet his eyes were turning red without his control.
It was a sign of him becoming the dark lord he was supposed to

be.
Michael knew this. He had no problem becoming the Dark Lord.

Even before he knew about the prophecy, he was planning to rule
the world from the shadows. However, he had problems with
people judging him from prophecies and divinations. Unlike what
they were thinking, he wasn't planning to destroy the world. Why
would he want to destroy the place he plans to rule?
As far as he was concerned, if there was one ruler to the entire

world, the kingdoms would stay united, no wars, no hunger, and
the world would actually be peaceful.
Even to this day, Michael had no idea what the Guardians and
Skyhall did twenty-one years ago to him and Diana, his birth
mother. He thought he was born on earth, came to this world
because of the system, and got his soul transmigrated into
Abras's body. He had no idea he was in a rude awakening after
reaching the Akilan realm and getting to know more about Skyhall.
For a battle-hardened warrior with the medallion that gave

inhuman strength and speed, killing twenty-five pirates was not a
difficult task.
"Drink this" with a flick of his wrist, Michael retrieved a vial

containing a glistening blood-red potion.
Maxine did not even ask a single question as she gulped the
potion in one go. He was glad to see such loyalty from her.
"The potion you just drank will give you speed, strength, and quick
reflexes for thirty minutes. Hunt them down"
The blood-red potion was called the berserker potion. It would

temporarily enable the user to achieve a berserker state which
would triple the strength, speed, and speed of reflexes. The only
drawback of the potion was it could only be used by a Body
Refining stage or anyone under the Body Refining stage.
After sending Maxine down decks, Michael walked towards the

rudder stage. When he reached the steps, he just sat on the
stairs,
"My Lord, did you go there? Some war frigates surrounding the
airship"
Lucifer's calm face gave Gibson strange confidence. Regardless
he was sailing basically a naked ship towards War frigates, he
wasn't afraid at all.
Boom!
"ARGHHHH!"
"Kill her!"
"Bitch!"
"shit….Arhhhhhhhh!"
They began to hear cries of agony coming from below decks.

Gibson saw no expression on Lucifer's face. He was looking in the
airship's direction through the spyglass. The cries of agony
continued to sound throughout the ship but as time passed by, the
cries sounded quieter and quieter.
*********************************
"Holy fuck!"
One of the war frigates that surrounded the airship belonged to

none other than Sheyan. He was at the helm when she heard one
of his crew members shout.
"Cap'n you…you have…to see this"? the crew member came

running to Sheyan with the spyglass.
"What the hell happened to you?" Sheyan frowned, looking at the

shivering crew member.
Grabbing the spyglass from the crew member, Sheyan looked at

the ship approaching them in the distance.
It took Sheyan a few moments to lock his eyes on the ship. Then,
he felt a cold chill running through his spine.
"Shit"
Through his spyglass, he witnessed several bleeding men
hanging from the sail posts. The sight gave him a chill.. It was not
because he hadn't seen dead bodies before, those men hanging
from the poles, they were his men.
Chapter 393 - The Witch Island
Old Bertha slowly approached the airship. The sun was in the
middle of the sky, roasting everything under. Anyone on the sea
could feel the ocean breeze getting warmer and warmer to the
point it made them sweat under their loose shirts.
"You gotta be kidding me" Tiberius looked at the approaching ship

through the window. He could vaguely see the sorry state of old
bertha. Lucier went to buy a new ship and an old ship was sailing
towards them after some time, it didn't take a genius to figure out
they bought the old ship.
"Shit" Tiberius heard Sadie curse from the window next to him. He
turned to see her looking through the spyglass.
"What?" Tiberius asked. She was shivering slightly. Hence he was

curious.
"See for yourself" Sadie handed over the spyglass to Tiberius.
Closing his one eye, Tiberius placed the spyglass on the other to
look through it. The surrounding war frigates looked bigger and
clear as well as the old ship sailing towards them.
"I'll be damned" Tiberius mumbled the moment he saw the bodies

hanging from the sail poles. The bodies were still bleeding. Some
bodies had their chests caved in, some had shoulders cut off,
some had a hole in their head right between the eyes.
He moved the spyglass to see Lucifer sitting leisurely on the steps

with a calm face. Then he moved a couple of inches up to see
Gibson holding the rudder while Maxine moved around the deck,
keeping the sails intact.
He could vaguely see the blood splatters on her cream-white top.

"Gotta love that woman" Tiberius could guess who was
responsible for the hanging bodies.
"Whoever they are, they just called in the devil" A cold sweatdrop
appeared on Sadie's forehead,
"You believe in that shit. I mean he's a freak of nature but I don't
think he is a god as Maxine or you people claim him to be"
Tiberius rolled his eyes,
"You're either stupid or ignorant to believe otherwise. Not even an

immortal can use cultivation in the southern continent but he does
that. Have you heard of Guardians?" Sadie asked while he was
slightly in shock of her direct approach,
"Yeah, they are some big potatoes in your part of the world right?"
"They are one of the most powerful organizations in the world. If

they wanted, they could take over the world in a few weeks. Still,
they started to piss their pants when he made his mark. I'm telling
you Tiberius, he's not a human. At best, he's a god, at worst, he's
the devil" Sadie said. Her voice and face couldn't be any more
serious.
"Either way, we are here because of him" Suddenly they heard

another voice. They immediately turned back and saw Aria
standing in front of them
Her gratitude towards Lucifer was multiplied by several folds when

he agreed to cure her brothers. In a week or so, her brothers
would be completely healed. He performed a miracle in her life.
She would never forget what he did for her.
"When my brothers wake up, we are gonna dedicate our lives to

his cause and get rid of all those fucking slave traders from this
world" Sadie could see the murderous intent in her eyes. Her
voice sounded so cold.
*******************************
Big Bertha slowly sailed towards the war frigates surrounding the
airship. The cannons on the upper deck were tilted up aimed at
the airship. At this close range, there was no way the airship could
escape if the pirates decided to fire at will.
"That son of a bitch" Maxine came to his side before handing over
the spyglass to him.
"It's Sheyan" As he was looking at Sheyan through the spyglass,

he heard Maxine's annoyed voice which also had a tinge of shock.
"So they are here on Pirate Lord Vance's orders?" Michael asked,
"No. The other ships, they belonged to Corey my lord. The eight-
petal flower symbol on the flags, that's Corey's crest"
"Hmm, Gibson, slowly sail towards Sheyan's ship in the front"
Michael calmly waited for their ship to get closer to Sheyan's.

Sheyan's ship was a war frigate. The ship was almost 60 meters
long and seemed to have up to 124 guns: four at the bow, eight at
the stern, and 56 in each broadside. The sails were dyed in
muddy brows just like the hull. Unlike the rest of the ships, Sheyan
had a blood-red shark in the flag.
Although Bertha was bigger than any war frigates surrounding the
airship, she had zero firepower at the moment. The size of Bertha
intimidated some pirates. Of course, she was not as scary as the
Silent Reaper, however, she was intimidating with her sheer size
and speed.
When Bertha sailed adjacent to Sheyan's ship, Sheyan along with

a couple of other pirates came to Bertha using rope swings.
"Hello Marina, ship sucks but I dig the decoration" he looked at

the bleeding bodies hanging from the sail poles above them.
Maxine looked at Michael, asking wordlessly for his permission to
talk. He nodded, giving her permission to talk.
"What's going on?"

"Nothing, Pirate Lord Corey just wants to meet you"
"There is no just Sheyan. Cut the crap, this is a fucking fleet. You
are taking the airship hostage and what the hell are you doing
here? You don't answer to Corey"
"I think you are mistaken about the situation here MArina. We can
do this the easy way, or the hard way. If I were you" Sheyan
snickered as he looked around the ship.
"I'd pick the easy way"
"We will pick the easy way"
"The silent queen talks" Sheyan laughed when he heard Michael

finally talk. He had a feeling that this youngster is the one running
the show behind Marina.
"You made the right choice, now if you follow us"
"Lead the way Captain Sheyan," Michael said with a smile,
"I like you"
The respectful way Michael addressed him put a smile on his

face. However, in Gibson's eyes, Sheyan looked like a sheep
calling the wolf with a wide grin on its face.
"And if you don't mind, we will remove these decorations," Sheyan

asked. It didn't sound like a request but an order.
"Of course" Yet again Michael nodded with a smile,
"And the airship coming with us"
Maxine wanted to leap at Sheyan, rip his throat off for making too
many requests at Lord Lucifer.
"As you wish"
"I like you more and more, big fella," Sheyan laughed out aloud.
Michael was six foot three and almost looked six foot four with his
muscular build. Even with a large shirt and long coat, his muscles
were visible.
Height was another thing that changed about him. Abras was six
feet tall but recently Michael had grown extra three inches.
Fortunately, the system ensured Michael would grow taller unless
he wanted to.
"Aria, follow us!" Sheyan saw the youngster mumble something

under his breath, keeping his hand on the right ear.
"They will follow us Captain Sheyan"
Sheyan pointed his finger at the hanging bodies before jumping

back onto his ship. The pirates climbed the poles as though they
were human monkeys. In a few short moments, they cut down all
the bodies from the ropes. As the pirates were lining up the
bodies, Gibson followed Sheyan's ship while the rest of the ships
followed Sheyan's ship. The airship also slowly moved.
"My lord, what's the plan?" Maxine whispered,
"Just go and have a nice long chat with Pirate Captain Corey"
Six hours had passed in a blink of an eye. In the six hours,

Michael was inside the captain's cabin meditating. The captain's
cabin was a dust-covered, broken mess. There was no table,
chair, or anything but only broken wooden plans and empty ale
bottles. The place seemed like the go-to place for pirate parties.
The room reeked of piss and ale yet Michael controlled all his
senses through meditation. He learned meditation from a Shaolin
monk back on earth when he trained under Specter.
"My Lord"? He could hear the door creak open, He slowly opened
his eyes to see Maxine standing by the door.
With a nod, Michael stood up. He walked towards the door, feeling
the anger within him calming down. When he stepped out of the
door, he was welcomed by a colorful island under millions of stars
and a fool golden moon.
There were countless warships lined up before the island. The
peculiar feature about the island was the glowing flowers. The
scenery looked as though the island was a Christmas tree and the
flowers were the decorations. Everywhere he turned, he could see
the glowing flowers. Red, blue, orange, golden, silver, green,
every color flower could be seen on the island.
In addition to the glowing flowers, the island's atmosphere

resembled a party. A piece of loud music reverberated the island
while the cheers of the pirates were earsplitting.
"I love this world" He took in the beautiful sight of the island. A
smile appeared on his face after a while.
"Lead the way, Maxine"? as Maxine led the way, he saw Sheyan
and his crew walking in front of them. The airship was still above
the same fleet that came to surround the ship earlier.
Although Michael seemed to be walking looking at the path before

him, he was scanning his surroundings. Thanks to the
Environmental scanning skill, he didn't have to make a mental
map like he used to.
For a few minutes, they continued to walk on the wooden platform

that led to a huge manor in the center of the island.
It was neither a castle nor a fancy manor like Bradford manor but
it was huge. Three stories, a balcony where several couples of
pirates were making out, lawn filled with drunken pirates singing
and dancing, and tiny glowing flowers decorated the entire manor
like led lights.
Following Maxine and Sheyan's group, Michael entered the manor

through the main door.
From the outside, the manor looked delightful, rustic, and folksy.
When he stepped inside he was welcomed by redwood walls and
thick, stone beams as well as a sense of home and the smell of
alcohol.
It was as charming inside as it is on the outside. Tree logs
supported the upper floor and the sconces attached to them. The
walls were decorated with veins, the same glowing followers that
Michael saw outside and several pot plants. He felt like he had
entered a tavern inside a botanical garden. It was clear Corey was
a lover of nature.
The manor itself was packed with pirates. Several long tables
were occupied by separate groups of pirates, all enjoying
themselves, but they kept to themselves. The other, smaller tables
were also occupied by people who are clearly having a good time.
Even most of the stools at the bar were occupied, though nobody
seemed to mind more company.
"Welcome to witch island folks" Sheyan turned around with a wide

grin on his face to welcome them.
Chapter 394 - Lucifer Appears
When the pirates having drinks saw Maxine, the smiles on their
faces completely vanished. At the moment, the joyous mood
inside the manor died down. Instead, a gloomy atmosphere took
control over the area.
Gibson felt uncomfortable seeing the countless death glares at

them.
Through the glaring pirates, they followed Sheyan behind. At the

end of the hall, there were crescent-shaped stairs leading to the
upper floors. On his way, Michael noticed the maids and female
pirates licking their lips looking at him.
The face mask changed his extremely handsome face to some

generic normal-looking face. There was nothing special about his
facial features. However, his height and muscular build made him
stand out in the crowd.
All the girls in the hall wanted a piece of him. Even some of the
girls sitting on their partners' laps stared at Michael instead of their
partners.
Ignoring the gazes, Michael followed Sheyan. The stairs were

decorated with the same glowing flowers. The island seemed to
have glowing flowers in abundance. Everywhere he turned, he
could see the flowers. The veins were coiling around the stair
edges. Hence, he was able to touch the flower. Like most of the
flowers, the petals were extremely soft and silky, too soft. He
rubbed his fingers together to feel a powdery substance that got
attached to his fingers when he touched them. Despite its
powdery form, the powder seemed to stick like glue to the skin.
He then quickly took a whiff without letting the others notice him.
His lips slightly curved upwards a few moments later. Listening to
the cheery pirate music, they climbed the stairs. Finally when they
reached the top floor where they saw a couple of pirates staying in
front of a redwood door. The door had carvings of various fishes,
flowers as well as a huge eye on the center.
The guards did not wear any armor. Instead, they had spears in
their hands. Also, they looked huge, almost 7ft with biceps the
size of a normal human being's thighs. Any lesser man would be
torn to pieces by the guards. Their stature alone freaked out
Gibson. Only because he had Lucifer before, Gibson wasn't very
afraid of the guards.
Approaching the door, Sheyan nodded as though he was giving a

wordless password. The guards slowly opened the door to reveal
the room on the other side. The gigantic diamond-shaped
chandelier hanging from the ceiling lit the room with its golden
light. In the golden light, two figures appeared in their sight. The
two figures were surrounded by nothing but greeneries. The wall
was completely layered by green veins and heart-shaped leaves.
There wasn't a single spot in the room that wasn't covered by the
veins or leaves. In addition to the thick veins and leaves, the
emerald green flowers riddled the room. Even the round table
between Michael and the group and the two figures were covered
by the veins. This was the only place Michael saw no glowing
flowers.
One of the figures on the other side of the table was a woman. At
the moment, they could only see her back. She had wavy long
brown hair in which she had tiny glowing flowers as a decoration.
She was 6ft tall with a slender build. The smell of rustic nature
permeated from her as well as the walls around them. When they
stepped into the room, the guards shut the doors.
The other figure was tied to a chair. She was slowly running her
fingers on her face. Michael stepped aside slightly to see the bald
man struggling to speak something but his words were muffled by
the cloth around his mouth.
Although Michael had no idea about the identity of the man, he

knew she was one of the three pirate lords, Corey. HE still couldn't
see her front side. while? he was staring at her back, she raised
her hand,
"So nice of you to return to your former lord, Marina" her sound
sounded sweet and gentle. She slowly turned back to let them see
the front of her.
The moment she turned around, Gibson was stunned. Her face
was completely filled with tattoos. Michael was slightly stunned
too, not because her face was buried under tattoos. It was
because the tattoos resembled Mayan and Aztec tattoos on the
earth.
Gibson couldn't tell she was beautiful or not so beautiful before all
the tattoos. Corey smiled revealing her pearl white row of teeth
looking at Michael's fixed gaze on her.
"Like what you see handsome" she suddenly opened up her

brown blouse revealing her ample bosom. Gibson's jaw almost
dropped to the ground. She removed the shirt and threw it on the
floor. Just like her face, every inch of her body was decorated with
tattoos.
However, Michael saw a thin layer of oil on her body. He wasn't

surprised though because he knew why exactly she applied oil on
her body.
"You know who he is?" She took a step forward, then walked
around the tied-up man while running her finger through his face.
When she came behind the man, she bent down to kiss the top of
his head.
"My lover, soon to be ex I suppose" her hands leisurely moved

towards her long gown. With a flick of her wrist, she untied the
laces on each side. The long gown slowly fell off, revealing her
lower body. Gibson couldn't help swallowing a mouth full of saliva.
Right at the moment, Corey had nothing but a tiny piece of cloth
covering her womanhood.
"Am I ugly my dear? You didn't think I am when we made love"

"Hrrgghhhh" the man seemed to be trying to scream but all that
escaped his mouth was a muffled cry.
Yet again she slowly walked to the front of the man, sat on his lap
and licked his cheeks.
"Am I ugly my dear?" She whispered into the man's ears. It was
loud enough for everyone to hear.
"HRGGHHHHHHH!" The man frantically struggled against the

ropes that tied his arms and legs to the chair. But no matter how
hard he shook his body, he couldn't escape.
After a few moments of licking the man's cheeks, she stood up.
Michael was patiently looking at all the drama with a smile on his
face. All of their eyes were fixed on Corey, expecting what she
was gonna do next. Gibson couldn't help expecting the last piece
of cloth to come down, just to see if all of her had been decorated
with tattoos.
"Ummah" Corey gave the man a flying kiss. She then placed her
hand on the man's cheek. Under their gazes, she snapped her
fingers. The very next moment, the flames appeared out of
nowhere and enveloped the man.
"HRGHHHHHHH!" The man was on fire literally. His frantic

struggle became worse by the second. Everyone was completely
in shock except Michael. Although Maxine had seen Corey
perform with Chris many times, she was still stunned to see it
again.
She told Michael about Corey's ability to perform witchcraft. Yet,

he had never reacted much except a smile.? Gibson was staring
at the burning body in a daze. His mind was boggle trying to figure
out what just happened.
"She used magic?" Gibson asked himself. Then he looked at

Lucifer to see him standing there completely indifferent. The
burning smell of skin overpowered the rustic aroma in the room.
"Who feels like barbeque?" Corey chuckled before stomping the
ground. The floor beneath him quickly opened up as the burning
man dropped into the hole.
After burning the man alive, Corey turned to lock her eyes with
Maxine. She still had an alluring smile on her face.
"You don't scare me, Corey," Maxine calmly said. In terms of

making people scared, Corey was nowhere near Lord Lucifer.
"Is that so?" Corey licked her lips.
"Enough of this circus" Finally Michael opened his mouth. Sheyan

almost unsheathed his sword when he saw Lucifer pull back one
of the chairs.
Corey looked at him sitting on the chair without batting an eye.

Her alluring smile almost turned cold as Michael put his leg on the
table.
"I have to say, you put up a good show" he chuckled,
"Pirate Lord" Sheyan tried to step forward but was stopped by the
wave of Corey's hand.
"A highly flammable spores produced by the glowing flowers" he

calmly said,
"The gunpowder mixed with a tinge of iron powder under your

fingernails, snap your fingers hard to create a spark" As the smile
on Michael's face grew wider, the smile on Corey's face dimmed
down.
"Everyone walking through the party will basically be bathed in

invisible oil"
Maxine always wondered why there were no torches inside the

manor and the pirates were prohibited to use torches. If everyone
were flammable in the manor thanks to the glowing flowers, it
made sense not to allow anyone to play with fire.
"Then why am I not on fire?" Corey asked,

Michael chuckled yet again looking at her confidence in her voice
despite scamming people with her fake witchcraft for years,
"They might not see the oil on your body but I can. It prevents you
from getting caught on fire in close range" He paused for a
moment to Corey realize her scam has been exposed,
"The tattoos on your body, your gimmick of being a witch, the

decorations" he looked around the room,
"You wanted to be a witch when you were little and managed to

be a fake one with the help of your scams. I got to hand it to you,
fake or not, you built yourself an empire, I respect that"? He
nodded approvingly,
"But do you want to see real magic?" the smile on his face
disappeared. Gibson felt a chill hearing his animalistic voice once
again. The next moment, the room became dark despite the
chandelier light. Corey's eyes opened as wide as they could when
she saw the youngster in front of her suddenly change his form.
She unconsciously took a step back seeing the dark smoke

around him. His red eyes, the skull mask, the black armor, and his
voice, everything made her shiver.
The next moment, when Sheyan was still in shock, Corey saw him
point his finger towards Sheyan. A bolt of lightning immediately
fired out from his hand and struck Sheyan.
Boom!
Corey was taken aback by the muffled exploding sound.. It took

her a few seconds to realize the red mist in the air was Sheyan.
Chapter 395 - Subduing A
Pirate Lord
Corey's legs were uncontrollably shivering. Her mind was blank.

She was unable to understand what just happened. Not a single
sound could be heard at the moment except the music sounds
coming from downstairs.
Her eyes watched him slowly stand up from the chair. She wanted
to scream but not a single word came out of her mouth.
Overwhelming sock had completely taken over her mind and
body.? His every step towards her made her heartbeat increase.?
With his fully Lucifer armor equipped, he almost looked 7ft tall.
The completely Lucifer form freaked the hell out of Gibson.
Despite the chandelier light, his complete Lucifer form darkened

the room. The darkness overshadowed the light. He came behind
her. With a flick of his wrist, he retrieved a normal wooden chair
from the space ring.? He placed his hands on her shoulder as
Corey felt a chill running through her spine.
He pushed her down to make her sit on the chair. Just like she
did, he ran his fingers through her face. His sharp claw-like gloves
slightly hurt her skin but she didn't utter a word.
"You have two choices darling. You can choose to scream and
hope your guards arrive before you turn into our friend Sheyan
there" he cupped her face before turning her neck in the direction
where Sheyan was. The ground was painted with his blood, not
even bits of bones remained on the ground. Sheyan was
completely turned into a bloody pulpy mess by Ignitia.
"Or you can agree to my offer and taste the power of real magic"
In one hand, a golden bolt of lightning, in the other, crimson red
flame danced around. Corey could feel the electricity from the
lightning bolts and the heat from the crimson red flame on her
skin.
He bent down, kissing the top of her head, just like how she did to
the bald man.? Corey's entire body shivered because of the fear
toxin Michael released into the air. Not only Corey but also Maxine
and Gibson shivered in fear.
The fire and lightning bolts above his palms soon faded away. A
pendant appeared in his hand. He placed the pendant around her
neck.
"Remove it and you will know there are things worse than death"
Corey touched the tiny pendant on her neck. She felt the chill on
her neck.
He took a few steps to stand in front of her. His hands ran through
her shoulder, arms then he clutched the arms of the chair. Corey's
teeth chattered. She slowly tilted her head up to see him bend his
back to look directly into her eyes.
"Here's my offer darling" He willed the system to stop radiating

fear toxin from his suit. Instead, he ordered the system to release
the antidote so Corey's mind would become normal. Scam or not,
she used her brain to build an empire from scratch. As far as he
was concerned, a brain like that was more valuable than any
superweapon.
Every time he willed the system to radiate fear toxin from his suit,
he had to pay 2000 badass points. It seemed like a waste to him.
However, he had no other way because his inventor skill level was
too low to build a device into his suit of armor which would control
potion releases instead of the system. It changed after he
upgraded the Inventor skill. He could now build various devices to
replace the system. Ever since the system went offline, he started
to plan for the future without the system. He realized long ago that
he shouldn't completely rely on the system.
Since Corey was just a mortal with no cultivation base, the

antidote quickly dispelled the fear toxin from her bloodstream. Her
pupils retracted as she stared into the crimson red eyes of Lucifer.
"You now serve me. You can carry on your pirate lord's work as
usual except sometimes. You answer to me or Maxine. Fail to
carry your orders, and you will be replaced. That's the stick"
Michael turned his gaze on the robes on the ground,
He just flicked his wrist as the cloth floated into his hands. Maxine
and Gibson saw Lucifer covering Corey with her clothes,
"If you serve me well, you will get rich, powerful and a shot at
immortality. That's the carrot"
Corey couldn't believe for a second what she just heard. She had
heard of immortals in cultivation continents. Unfortunately, she
was born in the Southern continent, which made her unable to
cultivate to reach higher stages.
"System, imprint a simple fire conjuring spell into her brain"
Back on cultivation continents, even a commoner could conjure

sparks or a tiny ball of fire using arch energy. In addition to
conjuring fireballs, they were also able to do simple things such as
makinge small objects levitate.
Simple tasks such as these did not even require the user to cast
spells. They could just manipulate the arch energy with their mind
and accomplish that. For cultivators and even for commoners,
these tasks were as simple as breathing and use a negligible
amount of Arch energy. Hence, Michael decided to give Corey a
little taste of magic.
[They system can imprint the ability to conjure fire into her brain
for just 4000 badass points]
[The system can transfer a tiny amount of Arch energy from the
host's body to Corey]
"Do it" As he ordered the system in his mind, he placed his hand
on Corey's head.
"Ahh" for the first time since Michael revealed himself as Lucifer,
Corey opened her mouth. Seeing her cry, Gibson thought Lucifer
was hurting Corey.
Corey felt like a bullet ant drilling through her brain. The pain
gradually lessened as Corey sensed something different. She
couldn't explain the feeling but she felt a new sensation. It was
natural and easy as breathing.
"What you feeling is a little taste of the power you can wield in the
future…" he took a several steps back from Corey,
"If you serve me well" Michael said as Corey lifted her hands,
feeling the hot sensation building inside her palm. The very next
moment, she snapped her finger like a tiny orb of fire lit up above
her palm. The fire danced around her palm as Gibson and Maxine
stared at Corey with their eyes wide open.
"How…how did…you? Shit…I'm using magic" Corey stuttered.

Her eyes were filled with joy and shock. She soon conjured a
fireball in each hand.
She laughed so wide as though she was a child playing with her
favorite toy. A few moments later playing with the fire, she looked
up at Lucifer,
"Who are you?" she asked shockingly,
"I am Lucifer. People call me, ``The Dark Lord" the moment the
words escaped his mouth, a stream of crimson red fire and golden
streaks of lightning crisscrossed around him. Coupled with the
dark cloud, the fire and lightning scared the shit out of Corey.
"What's it gonna be Pirate Lord Corey? Stick or carrot, your

choice" As he spoke, Maxine made her way to stand behind
Michael. Gibson too soon followed Maxine's footsteps to stand
behind him.
Corey was not dumb to refuse the offer. It was a once-in-a-lifetime

offer. Besides, he didn't give her much of a choice. She could
either agree to serve him or disagree and probably die like
Sheyan. She didn't build an empire by making wrong choices and
letting go of opportunities such as this.
Hence, naturally she wanted to agree.
"I agree…Mister.."
"You will address him as my lord" Maxine interrupted Corey.
"I agree, my lord. My fleet is yours to command" Corey knelt down

on one knee. She was an opportunist, not a woman who clung
onto pointless pride.
"You are going to take back the bounty you put on Maxine"
His first order to her was regarding the bounty on Maxine's head.
He would have loved to have some sea battles if old bertha had
some fire power and was in a fighting condition. If he had Silent
Reaper, the mere sight of that beat would have scared the shit out
of the pirates.
"Yes my lord" Corey immediately agreed with him. She was glad
he didn't take her life for putting Maxine's life in danger. As far as
Corey could guess, Maxine seemed like the right hand of Lucifer
which kinda made Maxine her superior.
"Then I'm pretty sure you can spin some story to explain what
happened to Sheyan. My existence must be kept as a secret until
I tell you otherwise"
Michael did not waste his time and brain thinking about a way to
explain Sheyan's death. A woman who managed to scam the
pirates for decades would be able to spin some bullshit story to
cover up Sheyan's death.
"Until I deal with the other pirate lords, don't engage in combat
with the Thusians" Maxine was slightly surprised to hear his order.
She thought he would send Corey's entire fleet to chase away the
Thusians after subduing her. Instead, he did the exact opposite.
"My lord, can I ask you something?"

"Yes. Don't be afraid to speak your mind. Your mind is a precious
one, it should be used to its full potential. Only then, we can rule
this entire world"
Obviously his words stunned Corey. Hence, her eyes opened as

wide as they could.
"Stand up and speak your mind" Michael said, willing the system
to unequip the Lucifer armor. In a blink of an eye, he transformed
into his previous human form.
Corey heaved a sigh of relief inside. The normal human form was
easy to talk to compared to his freakish Dark Lord form.
"Can I really achieve immortality?"
Michael smiled hearing her question. He could see the thirst for
power and immortality in her eyes. People like her would be
easier to control than people with high morals and righteousness.
"As I said before, serve me well and? you will rule a part of this
world forever"
Chapter 396 - Order Of Death
Meets Guardian
At the moment somewhere else in the Southern continent, a man

robbed a pearl white toga with a golden laurel on his head sitting
on a throne. The man seemed to be tall but not too tall to stand
out in a crowd. This fair-skinned man has a suspicious feel about
him.
His greasy, light blonde hair was very short and currently dyed
completely butterscotch. His forehead got bigger as his hair
seemed to be falling out.
He had a square face with a cleft chin, a long neck, broad

shoulders, toned arms and large hands, a heavy torso with no
muscle tone, round hips, weak legs, and average-sized feet. He
was sitting on the throne as though he was a king who rules the
entire kingdom rather than a head senator.
His thirst for being a single ruler made him decorate the hall in his
manor like a throne hall of a king.
In the hall, bulky braziers encompassed each of the twelve

marmoreal columns that light up every part of the throne hall,
covering the hall in dancing shadows and a warm radiance. The
intricate golden patterns on the layered ceiling danced in the
flickering light while memorials and statues looked down upon the
oaken floor of this sublime hall.
A jade rug was running down from the throne for a few meters
before coming to an end while forked banners with burnished tufts
dangle gently from the walls. Between each banner sat a small
altar full of candles, all but a few have been lit and in turn
illuminated the paintings of men wearing a toga and golden laurel
on their head of the world below them.
Slim windows were edged by veils colored the same jade as the
banners. The curtains had been adorned with gold leaves and
decorating tips.
A magnificent throne of oak sits atop a tall elevated platform and

was adjoined by three plain, but comfortable seats for those
closest to the man.
Those who wanted to be heard by the man could do so on the

several long and rather bulky stone benches, all of which were
facing the throne. Those of higher standing such as other
senators and nobles could instead take seats in the renovated
balustrades overlooking the throne.
"Your majesty" from the left side of the throne, a spartan soldier
walked towards the man. The spartan soldier's boots kept making
thud sounds as he came before the man. Immediately the spartan
soldier knelt on his one knee.
The man liked to be addressed as 'Your Majesty' as though he

was a king rather than 'Senator' when they were in his manor.
Those who disagreed with his request would disappear overnight.
Although Maven was a senate-ruled kingdom, it was ruled by this
man, this man alone. The other senators were just puppets of him.
He was corrupt to the core with an insatiable thirst for power and
money.
The soldier placed the spear on the ground before sliding his hand
into the red cape he was wearing. In a moment, the soldier
retrieved a luminous bluish crystal from his pouch. The crystal
was covered in gray dust which dimmed out the crystal.
"Is that…?" the man's eyes glistened in excitement,
"Bring it to me" the man ordered the spartan. No one was in the
throne hall except the man and the spartan soldier. The man
couldn't hold his excitement as before the spartan could reach
him, he stood up, walked straight to the spartan, and grabbed the
crystal from the spartan's hand.
"Arch energy…pure Arch energy…I can feel it" the man grinned,
feeling the pulses coming from the crystal. He clenched the crystal
so tight. The longer he held the crystal in his hand, the louder his
laughter became.
"It's true, Stormveil mountain really has Arch energy crystals

within. Hahahahah"? his mad laughter echoed through the empty
throne hall.
Several minutes later, the man finally stopped his mad laughter.
"Spartan Hostus, how many crystals those slaves mined?"
"The last time I counted, they had mined a hundred stones, your
majesty. If you give me the word, I can hire the scholars and
engineers to build a pulley system which would speed up the
mining process your majesty"
The man rubbed his chin for a few moments after hearing the
spartan,
"You can do that. But after they build everything, kill them and
bury them in the mine" the man said without any remorse and
hesitation.
"What about the slaves, your majesty? Should I recycle them or

make sure they never leave the mine until they die?" The spartan
soldier was not much different than the man.
Spartan Hostus had been serving Senator Vibius Caelius Sarrius

for more than a decade. In this decade of time, he had killed more
than a hundred people including slaves, nobles, and senators for
Senator Vibius. Senator Vibius had been spending millions of gold
to increase the military power of Maven in secret. No one had a
clue that kingdom Maven had two or three times the size of other
senate-ruled kingdoms such as Gisel.
He was amassing the military power to conquer the Stormveil
mountain. Even if all the senate-ruled kingdoms formed an
alliance to take the Stormveil mountain from him after they
conquered it, Senator Vibius had enough military power to defend
the mountain for years.
"Those idiots have no idea what they have in their hands" Senator
Vibius mumbled under his breath with an evil grin on his face.
"How many slaves working in the mine?" Senator asked,
"Hundred and twenty slaves, your majesty"
"Killing all of them and buying a new batch of slaves might raise a
few eyebrows. Still, mining is a dangerous task, ten or so slaves
could die every month and new slaves could replace them" As he
said, the senator made his way back the throne,
"Make sure none of the slaves currently mining leave the mine
alive. The existence of these crystals must be kept secret at all
costs. Also, make those scholars prepare a document saying the
Stormveil mountain originally belonged to Maven, make sure the
document looks ancient. Kill them after they finish the job"
The Spartan soldier wasn't surprised at all. He expected the order

before the senator actually said it.? Senator Vibius was waiting for
this moment for more than a decade. As far as the people of
Maven knew, Senator Vibius came from a long family line of
Sarrius. However, the Sarrius family was not always called
Sarrius. The first ancestor who found the family came from a
secret order. Only the main bloodline knew the existence of the
order and the first ancestor's involvement in the secret order.
"Spartan Hostus, to the outside world, we are just mining iron and
minerals"
"Yes, your majesty" Spartan Hostus bowed before leaving the

throne hall. At the moment, the Senator was sitting on the throne
alone. He looked at the crystal in his hand. Then, with the other
hand, he clenched the medallion on his chest.
He pulled the medallion with force. The medallion remained in his
hand, radiating a dim glow. The coin-sized black medallion had
nothing but a letter etched onto its surface; L. This medallion
looked exactly the same as the medallion on Maxine's neck.
"Order of Death" Vibius snickered. The founding ancestor of the

Sarrius family was a member of the Order of Death. He was one
of the few who survived the Guardians. But unlike others, Vibius's
ancestor did not escape the Guardians. Rather, he was escorted
to the Southern continent safely by the Guardians because his
ancestor was the man who betrayed the Order to the Guardians
for wealth, power, and kingdom.
Vibiuis's ancestor did not believe in the Dark Lord Lucifer and
neither did Vibius.
As Vibius was looking at the medallion in his hand, another soldier

entered the throne hall. He was not a Spartan but a normal soldier
who wore full plate armor and chainmail.
"Your majesty, his lord Canus is here to see you"
Vibius quickly put the medallion into his pocket before nodding at
the soldier. Several minutes later, Vibius saw a man wearing black
robes with a hood covering his head walking towards him.
"Lord Canus" Vibius chuckled, standing up from his throne.
"I'm sick of that name" the figure growled before slowly taking off
the hood to reveal his golden shoulder-length hair, perfectly
sculpted handsome face, and bluish eyes.
"I'm sorry the name your superiors picked is not as good as your
real name, Guardian Connors"
Guardian Connors was none other than the man who was part of
the operation new dawn organized by Peyton and Xanali. He was
responsible for gathering information about Ghost and the man
who killed Jack. Peyton had no idea that Connors killed Jack
during his surveillance. Connors was able to blame the bandits in
the forest. Since Operation New Dawn was an off-the-books
operation, there was no investigation on Connors.? After Peyton
dismantled the team, each of the team members was welcomed
into the Guild as fully-fledged Guardians.
Afraid of Ghost finding of his involvement in Jack's death, Connors

used his connections inside the guild to get himself assigned to a
top-secret mission in the Southern Continent.
"Tell me that's THE crystal," Connors emphasized the word 'The',

raising his brows. He walked closer to Vibius to take a closer look
at the crystal.
"Should this be enough to convince the Guardians?" with a

snicker, Vibius tossed the crystal towards Connors.
The moment Connors caught the crystal in his hand, he felt a

pulse of energy. He was completely stunned. He could yet again
feel the Arch energy running through his energy veins.
"Arch energy" Connors snapped his fingers as a spark of flame

appeared above his fingers,
Connors's mind went blank.
"Impossible"? He mumbled. Though the energy inside the crystal

was not enough to cast powerful spells, he could absorb the arch
energy from the crystal to perform simple spells which should be
impossible considering the Southern continent was void of any
energies.
"Not anymore guardian Connors. Now let's talk about how bigger
the army the guardians will send here for me to command"
Chapter 397 - Taken Prisoners
"Your majesty" Just as the two of them were about to discuss the
terms of their deal, a soldier entered the throne hall. Connors
quickly hid the crystal with his robes. The Senator gave the soldier
a death glare as the soldier's face went pale behind his metal
helmet.
"What?" Vibius growled like an animal,
"Senator Caius is here to meet you"
Vibius was taken aback by surprise. He didn't receive any report

of Caius's visit to Maven from Gisel ambassadors or his spies.
"Why wasn't I informed about his visit?" Vibius asked the soldier,
"Your majesty, Senator Caius just suddenly appeared with another

one. They are requesting an audience with you"
Yet again Vibius was surprised by the soldier. He couldn't help but
raise his brows. Even Connors who was standing beside Vibius
had a frown on his face.
"Weird" Vibius rubbed his chin,
The soldier remained in the hall waiting for Vibius's orders. After
pondering for a few moments, Connors opened his mouth,
"The other guy you mentioned, does he pose a threat to the

Senator?"
"No my lord, they are both unarmed. The Spartans already

confirmed they have no weapons on them" Connors listened to
the soldier patiently.
"What do you think, Lord Canus?" Vibius asked Connors.
Connors was confident in his combat ability as he was trained by

the best coaches in the Guardian guild. In addition to his training,
they had Spartans waiting outside the throne hall. If Caius or the
other guy tried to do any harm, they would be dead before they
could reach Vibius. Besides, if Connors could broker peace
between the two kingdoms, his job of getting the crystals to the
Guardians would be much easier. Otherwise, the guardians would
have to allocate resources such as an army and weapons to
Maven to fight Gisel.
"I say we should ask Caius why is he here"
Vibius racked his brain for a few minutes before nodding at the
soldier. Connors quickly put the crystal deep within his inner
pocket.
"Send them in but make sure the Spartans are within a shouting
range" Vibius ordered the soldier as the soldier bowed before
leaving the throne hall.
"What if Caius becomes a problem guardian Connors?" While

they were waiting for Caius to enter the throne hall, Vibius asked
Connors,
"Then we deal with it in the Guardian way" Connors waved his

hands casually,
"And what is that?"
"Solve the problem or make it disappear"? the cold smile that

emerged on Connor's face indicated the true meaning of his
words.? Vibius was thinking the same. If Caius became too much
of a nuisance, he was planning to assassinate Caius. It would be
difficult to assassinate a head senator in his own kingdom but
Vibius had connections with the Grim Reapers. Only a handful of
few knew the existence of Grim Reapers in the Southern
continent. Vibius was one of those few people.
The two of them were already planning on killing Caius. They had
zero clues that the Dark Lord himself was coming to greet them.
After waiting for the guests to appear for a few minutes, Vibius
finally saw Caius wearing a white toga and golden laurel on his
head walking towards him with a tall youngster in a long gray coat
and black pants. His dress was not of a Southern noble but was
similar to Connors's robes. He seemed like he came from one of
the cultivation continents. Nonetheless, Vibius paid little attention
to the youngster because no matter who he was or where he
came from, when he stepped inside the void line, he was nothing
but a mere mortal.
Vibius put on a fake smile to welcome Caius. Vibius noticed the

fake smile on Caius's face as well as the cold sweat drop on his
forehead.
"Senator Caius, I didn't expect you to visit me suddenly" Vibius

and Caius shook their hands as Connors stared at the youngster
behind Caius. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut.
Connors noticed the youngster looking at Vibius but soon, his

gaze slowly turned towards him.
"Ouch" when Vibius was shaking Caius's hands, he suddenly let

out a muffled cry. Connors was shocked. Still, before Connors
could react, he saw the youngster behind Caius suddenly
disappear. His mind went blank as he felt a sharp pain. Within a
second after he felt the sharp pain, everything around him turned
dark.
*********************************
"Argh" Connors let out a moan slowly regaining his

consciousness. He tried to move his arms and legs but he simply
couldn't. He opened his eyes, fighting the pain in his head.
"Finally he's awake" Connors was not sure what he just heard.
The voice he just heard didn't sound like a human. Struggling to
move his body, he opened his eyes to see nothing but an endless
ocean around him. The half-moon and the millions of stars in the
sky were the only light source. He looked down at his hands to
see his hands and legs are tied up with ropes.
He gritted his teeth trying to get himself out of the ropes.
"Don't bother" While Connors was trying to get himself out of the
ropes, he heard a voice from behind. This time the voice sounded
human.
"Hrggh" Connors growled as he turned back to see a Spartan

soldier behind him. The Spartan soldier was in no better shape
than him. His hands and legs were tied using ropes too. If it wasn't
for the red cape, golden chest armor as well as a crimson red
tunic, Connors wouldn't have recognized the man as a Spartan.
The red feather-covered helmet indicated that the man was not a
mere soldier but someone who held high rank in the Spartan
army. At the moment, the spartan's ranking didn't help him as he
also remained a prisoner.
Connors then turned his gaze away from the Spartan and saw
several other figures kneeling on the floor with their hands and
legs tied. Looking at their togas and golden laurels on their heads,
Connors could tell all of them were nobles.
"Vibius" Connors mumbled when he saw Vibius among the

nobles. However, Vibius didn't notice Connors as all the nobles
had their eyes covered with a cloth. Except for him and the
Spartan, everyone had a cloth around their eyes.
"What happened?" Connors asked himself. He tried to recall what

just happened. One moment, he was in the throne hall looking at
the youngster behind Caius and the next moment, he felt a sharp
pain and then he woke up here.
His memory was clouded. He tried his best to clear out the fog. As
he thought deeply, he remembered the youngster suddenly
vanishing into thin air.
For a few moments, Connors just looked around to see where he

was. Even though they were on the upper deck of a ship, Connors
saw no crew members. In addition to the lack of crews, he also
noticed the lack of cannons around him. The upper deck was void
of any cannons.
"Where are we?"? Connors asked the Spartan.
The Spartan soldier looked around before sighing,
"The better question is how did we end up here? Where were you
before this?" The Spartan soldier asked,
Connors didn't immediately answer the Spartan. Despite the

confusion of how he ended up here, Connors was able to tell that
he was either poisoned to lose consciousness and transported
here or he was teleported. But the latter possibility seemed
impossible as no one could use teleportation within the void line.
Hence, Connors bet on the poison theory which made sense as
he felt a sharp pain like a bee sting in the back of the neck before
he lost consciousness.
Connors couldn't trust the spartan. What if the Spartan was one of
those who kidnapped him?
Suddenly Connors realized something as he quickly touched his

chest.
"Shit" Connors cursed out loud. When he touched his pockets, he

couldn't find the crystal inside.
"If you are searching for a weapon, don't. They stripped all the
weapons" The Spartan told Connors.
"I'm not looking for any weapon" Connors growled. His mind
disregarded the possibility of him being teleported. Instead. He
thought someone poisoned him and transported him with the
others to the ship.
"You have no idea who you are messing with!" Suddenly Connors
shouted loudly. He was so pissed as he wanted to kill whoever
kidnapped him.
"I tried that" the Spartan soldier shook his head,

"Shut up Spartan" Connors snickered. As far as Connors was
concerned Spartans were nothing but glorified slaves to the
senators. They were pawns.
"Did you hear the voice?" Connors asked the Spartan as he

nodded,
"It didn't sound human, did it?" the Spartan asked,
The Spartan seemed to be more worried about something else

than escaping his bonds, unlike Connors. Connors was struggling
and trying to bite the ropes that tied his arms.
"A Guardian"? While Connors was struggling to escape from the

ropes, he yet again heard the animalistic voice. This time he
heard the voice coming from above him. The Spartan and
Connors looked at the sky as their eyes immediately went wide
open. Their jaws dropped a couple of inches down in complete
shock.
"What?" Connors couldn't believe his eyes. A figure enveloped in

a black cloud of smoke was slowly descending to the ship. His
heart skipped a beat as he started to shiver. He kinda recognized
the figure. He had seen the vague images resembling the figure
on Peyton's board during the New Dawn operation.
"Lucifer" Connors mumbled as the dark figure landed on the ship.

The black smoke enveloped the armor but Connors could vaguely
see the black armor and the crimson red eyes. The last time he
talked to Peyton before ending the New Dawn Operation, Peyton
told him Lucifer had been dealt with. He believed Peyton because
she also told him the Alpha guardian of Hunter Guardians herself
came to apprehend Lucifer. Since the guardians kept the matter of
Lucifer extremely secret, he couldn't get any more information..
Plus, he was too busy partying and spending his time in the arms
of beauties to think about Lucifer.
Chapter 398 - Dark Lord
Shows No Mercy
The senators who had their eyes covered looked around

bewildered after hearing Michael's voice. Meanwhile, Connors and
the spartan stared at Michael with their eyes wide open. Their
eyes were glued to him as he landed on the deck.
When he landed on the deck, he flicked his wrist as a tall

frightening throne made of skull and bones materialized on the
deck.? The six senators including Vibius were trying to see what
was happening.
"What? Where?" Vibius growled. He kept struggling against the

ropes to free himself.
Connors couldn't believe his eyes. He had heard about Lucifer

and seen sketches of him yet in reality, he looked more menacing.
The skull mask on his face was a dead giveaway of his identity as
Lucifer.
Both of their eyes were glued to him. They saw him leisurely
sitting on his throne, leaning back and putting his leg on the other.
His crimson eyes landed on Connors.
At this moment, they heard a creaking noise coming from behind.

They looked over their shoulders to see a gray-haired man
walking towards Lucifer. Connors could tell the man had some
kind of injury in his leg looking at the man's gait. He was slightly
limping. Surprisingly the man didn't seem like a prisoner of Lucifer.
Rather, he seemed like Lucifer's minion.
"My Lord" He bowed standing before Lucifer,

"Take off his blind" Connors saw Lucifer pointing his finger at
Vibius,
"Who are you?" Regardless of the shock, the Spartan soldier was
brave enough to question Michael.
"I should ask you the same, Spartan Captain Decimus. Who are
you?" Lucifer added, tilting his head.
The Spartan didn't understand Lucifer's question. Thus, he had a

bewildered look on his face.
"Your job was to follow orders Spartan. Not poke your nose into
where it doesn't belong. When you chose to do that, you put
yourself and the others in danger" Spartan's heartbeat gradually
raised as they heard another creaking voice from behind,
As Connors turned his head behind, he surprisingly saw a woman

dragging another woman in a red tunic towards Lucifer. She had a
baby covered in cloth in her arms.
"DILLIA!" the spartan immediately cried out loud looking at the

woman in the red tunic. She was being dragged by her hand by
another woman in a gray long coat. His wife didn't move at all as
she seemed to have lost consciousness.
"LET HER GO!" The Spartan growled as he violently struggled

against the ropes to escape but no matter how hard he struggled,
he couldn't untie the ropes.
The senators were trying to make sense of what was happening

by hearing the shouts and Lucifer's words. At this moment, Gibson
finally took off Vibius's blindfold to let him see everything.
Vibius's vision wasn't clear. Everything in front of him was blurry.

He also felt an urge to throw up but he was able to control the
urge. When his vision finally cleared, he was stunned by the black
figure sitting on the throne.
His heart skipped a beat. The figure's crimson red eyes were not
on him but on the Spartan. Vibius did not recognize the Spartan
yet he quickly recognized Connors.
"You bastard! I will kill you!"
The spartan kept screaming while Maxine was dragging the

spartan's wife towards Lucifer.
"Kill me? Hahaha," Michael burst into laughter. He grabbed the

unconscious wife of the Spartan, lifting her up by her neck.? He
stood up from his throne while Maxine remained by his side with
the baby in her arms.
Gibson was moving his head staring at both Lucifer and the
Spartan.
"It will take me less than a second to snap her neck right this
instance"
Holding her in one hand, Michael ran his index finger through her
face. A red line appeared along the way as blood slowly started to
seep through the cut.
The Spartan was struggling more and more violently. Connors

saw the Spartan trying to stand up but fell onto the floor ultimately.
Still, the Spartan kept trying. Gibson felt pity for the Spartan.
"This is what happens when you try to be what you're not

supposed to be"
"DON'T HURT HER!" The spartan's rage in his voice disappeared

completely when he saw Lucifer take the baby in his arms.
Compared to his 7ft stature and bulky armor, the baby seemed
tiny in his arms.
Even Gibson's heart skipped a beat when he saw the baby in

Lucifer's arms. Michael placed his hand on the baby's tiny head.
Everyone could tell the baby and the mother was sedated as they
remained without moving a muscle.
"Tell me Spartan, is the investigation more important than the lives

of your beloved wife and the newborn child?"
Connors had no idea about what the hell was Lucifer talking
about. However, Vibius knew about the investigation the Spartan
captain was conducting. His spies reported to him about the
Decimus's investigation of what happened during Senator
Viridius's daughter's marriage. The entire senate of Gisel was
wiped off that day except for Caius.? The Spartan captain was
conducting an investigation to find out what truly happened that
day.
He suspected Senator Caius had a hand in that explosion which

took the lives of all the Senators, their families as well as many
nobles. Decimus had received threatening letters from unknown
people asking him to drop the investigation. Still, Decimus
continued his investigation.
"What was your end game plan, Spartan Decimus?"? As he asked

the Spartan, Michael lifted the wife by her neck. In one hand, he
held the baby, in the other, he held the mother.
Vibius's neck moved in the direction of Lucifer. He was too

stunned to utter a word. Until now, he didn't believe in the
existence of the so-called Dark Lord whom the order of death
believed in so much.
Spartan Decimus kept struggling as Lucifer came in front of him.

Connors was able to see Lucifer so close. The dark cloud of
smoke faded away revealing his metal armor. The intricate black
armor had a skull on the chest. The armor looked both sturdy and
flexible. There was not a single place that exposed what was
underneath the armor.
Each step he took towards them produced a heavy thud sound.

Maxine followed him behind.
"Get him up" Connors heard Lucifer order the woman behind him.
The woman quickly stepped forward to get behind the Spartan.
Then she grabbed the Spartan by his shoulder, making him stand
straight up.
"Take off his helmet" The woman quickly lifted off Decimus's
helmet to reveal his clean-shaven face. Decimus had shoulder-
length dirty brown hair. Due to his clean-shaven look, the scars on
his face were visible. At the moment, his hazel eyes looked
bloodshot red because of the overwhelming anger and
helplessness.
"What are you?" Decimus growled as Michael let go of Dillia's

neck. She fell onto the wooden floor making a thud sound.
Michael could hear Decimus's heart pound against his chest. He

wanted to teach this idiot Spartan a lesson. Michael couldn't care
less of who's getting promoted among the spartans. As far as he
was concerned, they were supposed to follow the order of Caius
and help him take over the southern continent in the future.
Imagine his surprise when he heard from Caius that a nobody
Spartan got promoted after the death of the previous Spartan
Captain and started to conduct an investigation on what happened
at Viridius's daughter's marriage.
Since there was no international court of law in the Southern

continent like on earth, he knew the Spartan Captain was
collecting evidence to show the people and nobles and get himself
elected as the head senator in the election. He was looking to
replace Caius which made Michael kidnap Decimus and his family
along with all the Senators of Maven kingdom.
"DILLIA" Yet again Decimus' screamed looking at his wife on the

ground.
Normally Michael wouldn't hurt innocents such as the spartan's

wife or the baby but this time he made an exception, he wanted to
teach Decimus a lesson.
The very next moment while Decimus was struggling to bend

down and pick his wife up, Michael put his boot on her neck. He
did not put any pressure but placed his boot on her neck.
"BASTA-"
Pulch!
Decimus's shout was interrupted by a punch to his gut. The punch
had enough power to create a fist shaped dent in his armor as
well as cough out mouth full of blood.
The blood oozed out of Decimus's mouth. Connors looked up at

the Spartan to see his eyes closing and opening. He seemed to
be struggling to stay awake.
"Look at your beloved wife under my feet. I can squeeze the life
out of her in front of your very eyes"
Michale moved his boots, pretending to press her throat with his
boot. However, he didn't put any pressure at all. He would hurt
Decimus for the trouble he caused for Caius but never intended to
hurt innocents like Dillia or her child. However, he wanted the
Spartan, Connors, and Vibius to think that he would go any length
to destroy his enemies.
"Stop…stop…please" the spartan breathed heavily. There was no

anger in his voice, he was pleading with Michael.
"I will teach you a precious lesson today, Decimus. Every action
has a reaction"
When he flicked his wrist, Connors saw a ling syringe appear in

his hand.
"No'
Pulch!
Decimus received another punch to his gut. This time, the blood
and saliva came spraying out of his mouth. Maxine grabbed
Decimus's hair, keeping his head straight so he could look at
Lucifer and the baby.
"Shit" Gibson cursed as he saw Lucifer injecting the needle into

the baby's tiny arm. He was stunned completely as he started to
sweat. He knew Lucifer was ruthless but he had never imagined
he would be cruel and ruthless enough to hurt a newborn child.
"Ple…please" the words barely escaped Decimus's mouth.
Connors was not a big fan of Spartans but even he felt pity for
Decimus at the moment.
"Your child will have the poison running through his veins all his
life because of your mistake. With a snap of my fingers, I can
activate the poison and end his life just like that" Connors felt a
chill running through his spine. If Lucifer could do that to a baby,
Connors couldn't even imagine what he's gonna do to the
grownups like them.
"As for your wife" Michael looked down at Dillia before turning his
gaze back at the Spartan,
"She will make a great snack for the sharks"
Pulch!
Before even the words could sink into Decimus's mind, Michael
punched him so hard on the head, immediately knocking him out.
The Senators who heard his words including Vibius shivered in
fear. Gibson's legs kept shivering.
"You" Gibson never thought Lucifer would suddenly turn back to

look at him. When his crimson red eyes landed on his, his entire
body shuddered,
"Clean this up"
Michael gave a simple order before walking back to his throne. On

his way to the throne, he could see the fear in Vibius's eyes. By
the look in their eyes, his tactics worked. For them, the wife's
gonna end up as shark food but in reality, Maxine would drop
Decimus, his child, and the wife in a faraway kingdom from Gisel
with enough gold coins to start a new life with a warning from
Lucifer.
Of course, Decimus would be placed under surveillance.

Nonetheless, he would never be able to step on Gisel ever again
or show his face.
*********************************
This day completes my two years journey as an author.
I want to thank all my wonderful readers for supporting me until

now.
Your comments, reviews, and criticisms not only boosted my

happiness but also made me a better writer.
I am extremely happy and honored to announce that my third

book, Rise of the legendary Emperor will be released 23rd of this
month.
And Im happier to announce that my next adventure Dictator with

a Badass System will be released this month.
I hope every one of you would continue to lend me your support.

The schedule of HBS will not be affected in any way by the new
novel.
Please show me your support by leaving your comment under this

chapter. This is my life now so I hope everyone will stick with me
and support me.
Always your goofy author,
don_offl
Chapter 399 - Arch Energy
Crystal
After sending Decimus, Dillia, and their baby down into the lower
decks, Michael sat on the throne. His throne was located just
before the captain's cabin. The Senators were lined up in front of
him, they were made to kneel down. Connors remained a couple
of meters back from the senators.
"Where are we?"
"Let us go,"
"Whoever you are, you just made a huge mistake"
Few of the senators dared to threaten Michael. Since they were

blindfolded, they didn't see his frightening figure.
At the moment, Michael's full focus was on Vibius and Connors.

Of course, Michael had no idea about Connors's deeds. If he
knew Connors killed Jack, Connors would have been bleeding on
the floor. While he was waiting for Gibson and Maxine, Michael
closed his eyes, calming himself down. He could feel the bloodlust
inside him yet again.
"System, when will you have the answers to my problems?"

Michael asked the system. When he upgraded the system, he
thought he would have his answers. However, the system asked
him to upgrade it once again but the system gave him no
guarantee that it would have answers for his third persona
problem if he upgraded it.
He was asking questions related to his bloodlust. He got no

answers except the system's notification, asking him to upgrade it.
[Please upgrade the system!]
[System level is too low to answer the host]
"What about the other matter? Do you have the schematics and
the parts?"
[Ofcourse, the schematics and the parts would cost the host
10,000 badass points]
After upgrading Inventor skill to star level 4, he got 200,000

badass points. To upgrade the skill to 5-star, the system required
180,000 points. Because he had to go to a new realm, he decided
to save enough points. The 10,000 points for the schematics and
the parts were absolutely necessary. The device in his mind
required one important resource that he lacked until now. If he
could build the device, it would give him a huge advantage over
the Guardians in the Southern Continent.
"If I'm right, I can build seven devices with the parts. But I still
need more of them to make the device work"? As he was thinking
about the new device, he saw Gibson and Maxine climb out of the
lower decks. Gibson seemed more relaxed. When he issued the
order to kill Dillia, Michael noticed Gibson's face become pale.
Obviously, Gibson was questioning his judgment to follow Lucifer
at that moment. Although Gibson was a pirate, he wasn't cutthroat
or an evil person. Michael knew he was a soldier before becoming
a pirate. If he ordered to kill Decimus, Gibson wouldn't have felt a
thing because Decimus was trying to screw things up for Michael.
But, Dillia and the baby were innocent, they did nothing to him.
Hence, when Michael ordered Maxine to kill Dillia and injected the
baby with something, Gibson was startled.
As usual, Michael expected everything. Hence, he ordered

Maxine to reveal everything to Gibson when they were away from
the Senators.
He was ruthless but not evil to inject the baby with poison.
Decimus would forever be afraid of Lucifer thinking his child could
die any moment if he messed with Lucifer again. The child
however was injected with nothing but water.
"It's done, my lord" When she came to his side, Maxine said with
enough volume to let everyone hear her. She stood on his right
side while Gibson stood on the left side.
"Take off their blindfolds," Michael asked as Maxine nodded

before making her way to the senators. In a few moments, she
removed all the blindfolds, letting the Senators finally take a look
at where they are and who they are dealing with.
The five senators blinked several times to make their vision clear.
After a few moments, their eyes landed on Lucifer.
Gasp!
The moment they saw him sitting on his frightening throne made
of skulls and bones, they gasped in shock. Their bodies began to
shiver.
"Shut their mouths, they don't need to speak" Michael ordered

Maxine.
While they were still in shock, Maxine used the cloth that was
used as the blindfold to cover their mouth.
"Not him and him" When she was about to wrap the blindfold
around Vibius's mouth, he stopped her.
The other senators turned sideways to see Vibius. They were

slightly relieved for a moment but seeing Vibius was also tied just
like the rest of them, they started to panic.
"Senator Vibius and Guardian Connors," Connors was stunned as

black lines appeared on his forehead. He couldn't guess how
Lucifer knew about his identity. Instinctively he looked down to see
his space ring missing.
Michael stared at the scared faces of the senators for a few

moments,
"On second thoughts" With a flick of his wrist, he took syringes

filled with emerald green liquid out of his space ring.
"Hrrmmmm" some of the senators squirmed in fear. Connors and
Vibius stared at the syringes slowly floating towards the senators.
They stopped in the air a couple of inches away from the senators
for a moment.
Pulch!
Then several seconds later, each of the senators was stabbed by

a syringe. In a few blinks of an eye, all the senators collapsed
onto the floor.
Vibius felt dread in his core. He wasn't sure if they were alive or
dead. Since he saw issuing an order to kill a commoner and
poisoning a baby, Vibius didn't lean much on the side of the
senators being alive.
"You've been a bad boy Senator Vibius. Sending troops to harass

the border soldiers of Gisel, ordering the soldiers to wipe out a few
villages, buying hundreds of slaves, and robbing people of their
freedoms, the list goes on"
He was disgusted by Vibius. The only reason Michael had not

killed him yet was the item he received from Vibius. He then
turned his gaze towards Connors,
"Tell me, Guardian Connors, you people calling me evil, demon,

and Dark Lord. Is he not evil?" Michael pointed at Vibius,
"He would have been evil if he wasn't much use to your guild, am I
right?"
The Guardian Guild disgusted him the most, even more than
Vibius or any slave traders in Southern Continent. If he could, he
would wipe out the entire Guardian guild in front of Noah and
Andreas's eyes. He wanted to prove the Guardian Guild was
nothing but a corrupted organization filled with scumbags.
Compared to them, the Order of Death didn't look evil at all.
Connor didn't answer but stared at him without uttering a word. He

was thinking of a way to leave this place alive. As far as Connor
could tell, if Lucifer could kill an innocent woman and poison her
baby, killing him would not be hard at all.
As he was remaining without uttering a word, he saw the woman

walking towards him.
Bam!
Vibius saw Connors's two molars flying out of his mouth along
with blood and saliva. Maxine's punch was so powerful that it
made Connors's face hit the ground hard.
"Lord Lucifer asked you a question"
"(cough) (cough) Arghh" Connors coughed up a mouth full of

blood. He felt an excruciating pain in his mouth due to the sudden
removal of the molars.
"I know I am right," Michael calmly said. He didn't mind Maxine

punching Connors. Her loyalty and the way she acted made him
happy. She was shaping up to be a loyal and powerful bodyguard.
Her loyalty to him was unparalleled. Just his look was enough for
her to understand his intentions.
She was one of the reasons that he wanted to build the device as
soon as possible before he leaves for Akilan Realm.
"The two of you should tell me everything you know about this"?
Michael flicked his wrist yet again. This time, instead of a syringe,
the crystal Vibius received appeared in his hand.
After he reached Maven, he planned to kidnap all the senators

and subdue them except Vibius. When he sent the Spyders into
Vibius's manor, he was surprised to see the senator talking with a
guardian. What surprised him more was the crystal he saw in
Connors's hands.
While they were unconscious, Michael was studying the crystal. It

was pure Arch energy. He had never expected to see a pure Arch
energy source such as the crystal. Unlike Vibius and Connors
were thinking, the crystal did not contain arch energy within. The
crystal itself was Arch energy. The Crystal was a crystallized form
of Arch energy.
A pure source of Arch energy was the object that he lacked to

build a device that would enable all of Michael's subordinates to
use spells in the Southern continent. The Crystalized Arch energy
could not be directly absorbed completely. The Arch energy
radiation could help cultivators cast weak spells. That's how
Connors was able to conjure fire sparks holding the crystal.
The device Michael was planning to build would help the

subordinates or whoever wearing the device absorbs Arch energy.
This would help them cultivate in the Southern continent without
crossing the void line.
If his subordinates absorbed enough Arch energy from the crystal

with the help of his device, they could reach the Body
Strengthening stage. The higher stages of cultivation would
require them to absorb thousands of crystal stones such as the
one in his hand. Unless there was another type or more powerful
crystals in the place where Vibius got the crystal, giving
subordinates thousands of crystals would not be very efficient.
"Where did you get this crystal?" Michael asked. His voice was
cold as it sent a chill running through Vibius's spine.
Vibius's heart shuddered. The crystal was supposed to be his way

to reach the top in life. He planned to use the crystals as a
bargaining chip to get help from the Guardians and conquer all the
Southern continent.
However, if Lucifer took over the Stormveil mountain, his dream of

becoming the ruler of the Southern continent would be shattered.
Vibius was stuck in a conundrum, if he didnt tell where he got the

Crystal, Lucifer would take over the mountain which would make
him the ruler of the Southern Continent. If he did not tell him,
Lucifer would either torture him or just kill him.
"I can lie to him or tell him the truth but what if he kills me
afterward?" Vibius questioned himself. In a split second, he had
an idea.
"Unless I make him trust me"
The medallion of the Order of Death appeared in his mind.

Chapter 400 - Another
Descendant Of The Order
"I…I am...Order of Death…my lord" Vibius stuttered. Michael was

bewildered. Maxine stared at Vibius in shock. No one should know
about the order unless they were high up in the Guardian guild.
Vibius didn't seem like he held any position in the Guardian guild.
"I can prove myself" Vibius's words confused Connors. He was

wondering what the hell Order of Death is.
"My inner pocket" Vibius looked down at his chest,
Michael gave Maxine a nod to take whatever was inside his

pocket. After taking the Crystal from unconscious Connors, he
was too focused on the Crystal as he didn't bother to search
Vibius. Yet he ordered Gibson to do a thorough search but it
seemed Gibson failed the task a bit.
First Maxine ran her hand through Vibius's chest, shoulder, and
arms to find if he had any weapons hidden. Making sure he had
none, she put her hand inside Vibius's toga. Surprisingly Maxine
found a hidden pocket in his toga. The tiny pocket was very well
hidden. No wonder Gibson failed to find the pocket, Maxine
thought.
"My Lord" a moment later, Michael saw Maxine's eyes open wide
in shock. He looked at her hand to see a glowing coin. The coin
looked exactly the same as the medallion he found on Maxine's
neck when he first fought her.
Connors stared at the woman handing over the glowing coin to

Lucifer. Gibson on the other hand wondered why Vibius was not
able to rip off the ropes that tied his hands. He knew the medallion
on her chest is the reason for her monstrous strength. If he used
the ropes to tie Maxine, she would rip it off in a mere second.
Vibius could have done the same if he had worn the medallion
from his birth. He kept the medallion in a locker instead of wearing
it. His ancestor worried that the medallion was making the wearer
a slave to the Dark Lord.
Hence, Vibius chose not to wear it just in case.
Plus, he never believed in the Dark Lord's existence. In his mind,

he thought it was all made up by the elders of the Order to scare
people into submission. After all, he knew fear makes people
submit.
For a few moments, Michael just stared at the glowing medallion

on his palm. He could feel the pulsating energy coming from
within the coin. The energy pulses were not as strong as Maxine's
coin. Somehow the medallion felt weaker than Maxine's. Anyway,
this proved Vibius was one of the descendants of the elders who
survived the Guardian attack.
Before seeing the medallion, Maxine wanted to end Vibius's life.

She started to have as the medallion basically made them brother
and sister in arms. Loyalty to the Dark Lord and the fellow
members of the Order was what made the Order so powerful
enough to rule the world from shadows for centuries.
But a betrayal from one elder collapsed the entire order as though
it was a house made of cards.
"Your ancestor"
"Damien Zayne. We are the Zayne family, my lord"
Vibius hoped the Dark Lord dont know about his ancestor's secret
deals with the Guardians. Only one in the world knew about
Damien's betrayal and it wasn't the Dark Lord.
"You are a descendant of my worshippers. Hmm," Vibius saw him

rub his chin,
"Since you are a descendant, I'll let go of your sins. But only if you
tell me where did you get the crystal"
Obviously, the crystal was found in Stormveil mountain. Why else

would Vibius have sent his troops to occupy the mountain despite
the peace talks and agreements?
Still, Michael wanted to hear it from Vibius, just to make sure he

was telling the truth.
"Stormveil mountain, my lord. I can show you the operation"
Vibius was not an idiot to lie to the Dark Lord. If he was right, the
Dark Lord would already know about his attack on Stormveil
castle. He always had a weird feeling about what happened in
Gisel. The entire senate wiped out in an explosion, Caius being
the sole survivor and then him replacing the senate with his
underlings seemed too coincidental.
The Dark Lord definitely had a hand in what happened in Gisel.

Everything that happened a few moments earlier made sense to
Vibius. He was able to quickly connect the dots. Caius must be
Dark Lord's man, the Dark Lord took out the senator for Caius,
Decimus started an investigation to prove what happened that
day, the Dark Lord found out through Caius about the
investigation and the rest was history.
"How big is the operation? Who else knows about the crystals?"
"Hundred and twenty slaves are mining the crystals as we speak

my lord. Except you and me, only guardian Connors and my
spartan captain Hostus knows about the existence of the crystals"
Michael could hear a hesitation every time Vibius addressed him

as 'my lord'. He then turned his gaze towards Connors.
"Guardian Connors, did you tell anyone about the crystals?"
"Alpha Guardian of Hunter guardians know. They must be looking

for me as we speak" Connors didn't show any fear in his voice.
The way he saw it, he had very little chance of getting out of the
ship alive unless he could make Lucifer think he has to keep him
alive. If the Alpha Guardian was searching for him, Lucifer might
decide to keep him hostage.
Every Guardian undertaking a secret mission had a handler

assigned to them. Connors's handler was in Maven and every
night, Connors had to report to him. If he didn't, the handler would
know something happened to him and look for him. The last time
Connors met the handler, he told the handler he was going to
meet with Vibius. Hence, the handler would definitely start to look
for him from Vibius's manor.
If Vibius was spared by Lucifer, the handler would investigate him

and hopefully realize something was wrong. Otherwise, the
handler would investigate both Vibius and his disappearance.
These investigations would often lead to calling the hunter
guardians who were specialized in tracking and investigating.
Connors just hoped the hunters would somehow find him. All he
had to do was stay alive until they did.
"Is that so?" Connors heard him chuckle.
Michael already decided what to do with the guardian. Therefore,

he wasn't worried about whether he was lying or not.
He turned his gaze back at Vibius,
"Are you willing to serve me and honor your ancestors, Vibius

Zayne?"
Gibson had a bad feeling in his gut. When Caius was telling about
what Vibius was doing to amass military power, he saw Lucifer's
eyes flicker in red. This often led to a death or multiple deaths.
"Yes, yes my lord" Vibius heaved a sigh of relief inside. He just

needed to get out of the ship, sneak past the Dark Lord's security
measure if he had any, warn the guardians, and help them kill the
Dark Lord.
Thousands of years ago, his ancestor destroyed the Order and
now he was presented with an opportunity to cut the head of the
snake. As far as Vibius was concerned, The Dark Lord pushed
him to do this.
"Good good. Let me welcome you to the Order with a little gift"
Michael stood up from his throne.
As he was walking towards Vibius, he flicked his wrist. In a few

blinks of an eye, several syringes appeared yet again. The bluish
syringes immediately stabbed the senators who were on the
ground in the neck.? Their eyes were abruptly opened. Their
bodies shuddered as though they were hit with an electric bolt.
The senators didn't dare to utter a word because Lucifer was

standing so close to them. They were afraid of pissing off this
monster.
Michael lifted Vibius from the ground by his shoulder with one
hand. He then ripped off the ropes that tied his hands while a
blade of wind cut the ropes that tied his legs.
"Senators of Maven, we have a proposition for you" Michael

placed his hand on Vibius's shoulder, talking to the senators.
Their eyes were glued to Lucifer,
"You have two choices. The first choice, swear you loyalty to me
and you will not only get out of here with your lives but also get
rich and powerful"
Michael paused for a moment before continuing,
"The second choice, you can choose not to swear your loyalty and
you can hope someone would come and save you from me"
Vibius saw Lucifer's hands slowly moving from his shoulder to
neck,
"Like our senator Vibius here"

The very next moment, the senators saw Lucifer clutch Vibius's
neck. He lifted Vibius off the ground by his neck as Vibius began
to squirm in his hand.
"HRGGMMM" Michael's hold was too strong as Vibius's face

turned purple in a few mere moments,
"He was hoping the guardians would come and rescue him. The
man behind you is a guardian and I see no one coming to save
him"
The senators looked over their shoulders to see a woman holding

a knife against the youngster's throat.
"Let me show you what will happen when you go with the second
choice" The surrounding air became a bit chilly as he spoke in his
cold voice,
Pulch!
Suddenly Michael punched Vibius in the chest. For a moment,

Connors's eyes closed when the blood splashed on his face. As
he opened his eyes, he felt a chill running through his spine.
Lucifer's hand was sticking out of Vibius's back. In his hand, he
saw the beating heart that oozed blood on the ground. Vibius was
violently shaking in his arms but his body gradually stopped
squirming as the light of light slowly left his eyes.
"AH!"
One of the senators couldn't help shouting in fear. Michael put the
lifeless body of Vibius on the ground before stepping towards the
senators. The heart was still in his hand.
"Time to make your choice, Senators"
Creech!
Michael crushed the heart in his hand, spraying blood on their

faces. Their faces were as pale as a white sheet. He could even
see one senator wet his toga in utter terror.
"You are next darling" Connors heard the woman whisper into his
ear before everything turned dark.
Chapter 401 - The Secret Of
Stormveil Mountain I
In the eastern border that separated Gisel and Maven, Stormveil

mountain stood tall. The mountain range was almost a thousand
miles long and reached 40,000 feet at its highest point, and many
of its slopes were extremely treacherous.
Most of the lower range was covered in a dense forest. Not even
a single ray of sunlight peeked through the stormy clouds above
the mountain. The howling sound of the wind created an ominous
feel around the mountain along with the stormy weather. Hence,
the name Stormveil mountain. The upper regions of the mountain
frequently experienced heavy rain with violent mini cyclones.
There was no paved road to the mountain. The area around the
mountain had a grayish color due to the storm clouds. The trees in
the forest were frantically waving in the wind.
"My lord" Michael sat on his sofa in the airship, looking at the
mountain in the distance through the window when he heard
Maxine.
"Gibson has reached the witch's island"
After dealing with Vibius and the senators, Michael sent Gibson to
the witch's island. They were stationed near the island as it was a
short journey for Gibson to the witch's island.
Michael teleported the Senators to Maven before teleporting

himself and Maxine back into the airship. Currently, he was on his
way to see Stormveil mountain. He took a three hour meditation
break which gave enough time for the senators to withdraw the
soldiers from the Stormveil mountain.
"It looks freaky, my lord" Maxine bent her back to look through the
window. The howling wind coupled with thunderclaps and lightning
streaks in the sky would make anyone feel terrific or at least some
dread in their core.
The tallest peak of the mountain could not be seen as it passed

through the clouds in the sky.
The tallest mountain on the earth would look like a boulder in front
of Stormveil mountain. He could feel the airship begin to shake
due to the stormy wind. As they got closer to the mountain, the
louder the noise of heavy rain hitting the roof sounded.
Regardless that this was the middle of the day, it looked as though
late evening because of the darkness.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Lightning flashed in the dark sky and thunders shook the air. The
airship soon started to shake violently. Maxine almost lost her
balance. She quickly grabbed onto the sofa and steadied herself.
"My lord, we can't fly any further without risking a crash landing"
Caius came running to them.
"Tell him to stop the airship and go back to Gisel" Michael stood
up from his sofa,
"But my lord" Caius seemed reluctant to leave them in the

Stormveil mountain. This mountain range was one of the most
dangerous places in the Southern continent. Countless travelers
and soldiers lost their lives in the terrain.
Still, they were not Lucifer and Maxine.
"While I'm away, use this to communicate with the other senators"
With a flick of his wrist, he took an earpiece from his space ring.
All the other senators were given an earpiece so they could talk to
Caius. In addition to earpieces, they were also wearing Spycam
pendants. Hence, Azazel could monitor them 24/7. If they tried to
remove the pendant, the venom inside the Sydercam would be
injected into them, taking their lives instantly.
Michael made his way towards the door as Maxine followed him
behind.
He stood before the door before wrapping his arm around

Maxine's slender waist.
He pulled her closer as he opened the door. The moment the door
was opened, a powerful force of wind almost pushed them
backward. Without wasting any time, he jumped out of the airship
"Wind blast" In the mid-air, he turned his back, sending a blast of

wind to shut the door behind him.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Maxine couldn't hold her screams. She hugged him tightly and
closed her eyes. Her hair and long coat were fluttering violently
but they soon got drenched in the rain.
"Lightning Dash"
He cast the spell to quicken his pace. No matter how many times
he flew, he could never get used to the fact that he's actually flying
like a superman.
The feeling of flying was magical.
The lush green forest below them was covered by a hazy fog. The
wind and rain brushed past his face so fast that it made him close
his eyes occasionally.
As they got closer to the mountain, the sight of the gigantic

mountain frightened him. They looked so miniature in front of the
mountain.
He noticed a few figures on the ground. Quickly he flew away

before anyone could notice him, not that anyone could with the
stormy weather.
"Land, thank god" When her feet touched the ground, she heaved
a sigh of relief.
"Get used to flying because" He let her go,
"Soon you will fly" For a moment, she looked frightened. Still, she
nodded, controlling her fear of flying.
They were currently standing on a narrow path between the forest

and the mountain's footsteps. They noticed several figures in
ragged clothes or naked walking out of the mountain.
"He must be Hostus" He looked at the Spartan soldier who was

overseeing the slaves. The soldier was staring at a parchment.
In his focus on the parchment, the Spartan almost failed to hear

the footsteps of Michael and Maxine. One could not blame the
spartan for not hearing the footsteps because the howling sound
of the wind and the heavy rain would prevent anyone from hearing
the sound of footsteps.
"Spartan Hostus" The spartan shuddered hearing the sudden

voice,
"Who are you? You shouldn't be here" the spartan reached for his
scimitar hanging on his waist,
"Calm down Spartan, Senator Vibius sent us" the spartan

frowned. Despite the golden helmet with a huge red feather,
Michael could still notice the frown on his face. Still, he couldn't
see his face completely but he never cared about how the spartan
looked under the helmet.
"I never heard anything about someone visiting the mountain from
senator Vibius"
Hostus's hand was still on the hilt of his scimitar. Obviously, he

didn't believe them.
"Senator gave us this" Michael slowly put his hand inside his coat
pocket as the Spartan stared at him without batting an eye.
"See"
When Hostus saw Michael taking out the Crystal, he was stunned.
"We don't have much time to play around Spartan. Gisel's spartan
army is on its way here."
Michael handled situations like this before back on earth. When

the opposite person was in doubt, rush them, giving them no time
to think. Until he learned as much as he could from Hostus about
the mining operation, he didn't want to kill him. That was the
reason Hostus was still alive.
"What? Spartan army? Shit"
"You can mumble later Spartan. Now we have a job to do. Tell me
you finished evacuating the slaves as your order said you to"
The parchment in Hostus's hand contained signed letters of the

senators Michael spared. It was a pity he didn't get a signed letter
from Vibius before killing him. Since he did not need Vibius for
much, he didn't bother.
Maxine thought the sole reason for Vibius's death was his sins.
However, that was only one of the reasons. The other reason was
Vibius's loyalty level. When the system prompted him whether he
wanted Vibius as his subordinate or not, Vibius's loyalty level was
at 0.2%. Vibius had everything and craved too much power.
Raising his loyalty would be a headache and his gut feeling told
him to kill Vibius because Vibius had gone too far with his killings
of innocents and slaves.
There was no way Michael would make such a murderous psycho

his subordinate.
"Yes, those are the last of them. The order said I have to send
them to the Gisel border. What if those slaves tried to escape?"
Hostus asked as Michael made his way to the mine entrance.
"Don't bother, we have bigger things to worry about. Show me the
mining site inside"
Spartan Hostus fastened his steps to walk forward. As they

walked deeper into the mine, the darker it became. Only a few
torches hanging on the wall were their light source.
"Anything I should know before those assholes come here to

check the place"
"What assholes my lord?" Hostus addressed him as my lord.

Coupled with the fact his attitude, the fact that he has the crystal
indicated the youngster was someone from a high place, perhaps
a noble related to Vibius.
"There is a group of Guardians coming. Peace talk or some shit

like that. We need to make sure they do not find out about the
existence of these crystals"
Michael was making stuff up as he walked.
"Guardians?" Hostus was stunned,
"Nothing major my lord. Just a few slaves died inside. I cleaned up

their bodies, so no problem"
Michael frowned but didnt stop walking deeper into the mine.
"What's the cause of death?" He asked the Spartan,
For a few seconds, Hostus remained silent.
"You didn't bother to check, did you?" He sighed as the spartan

scratched the back of his helmet.
Eventually, after walking for almost half an hour, they started to

see a few glimmers of bluish light deeper into the mine.
Soon the narrow path opened up into a large spacious area where
they saw crystals in the walls, ground, and above them. Hundreds
of people could occupy the area, it was enormous. He could see
the crystal in various sizes. On the other side of the area, he
noticed a narrow opening as well as tools such as hammers,
shovels, crowbars, and large picks.
"Where does that lead to?" Michael pointed at the narrow opening
and asked Hostus,
"Deeper into the mountain my lord. Those slaves died caving the
pathway"
"Why did they die? What's on the other side?"
Michael had a bad feeling in his gut. With utmost caution, he

made his way to the narrow path through the rocky ground.
*****************************************
NEW CHAPTER OF ROLE? 2 IS UP!!!!!!
Link is in the comments section
***************************************
I take this moment to thank my dear friend and fan GOD OF CAT
for reforming my server and being a huge help in the making of
ROLE 2.
Thank you buddy for helping me these last couple of weeks.
You've been a wonderful friend....

Chapter 402 - The Secret Of
Stormveil Mountain II
Michael was squeezing through the narrow crack to get to the

other side.
Hostus followed him behind while Maxine entered through the

crack last.
As he squeezed through the crack, the torch he had in his hand

got put out.
The sudden darkness worked in his favor though. Without Hostus

noticing, Michael cast the Death Range spell. His strength
exploded thanks to the darkness. He pushed the rock in front of
him while pushing back the rock behind him using his back. The
narrow crack creaked as it got wider.
Maxine could breathe a little considering the narrow crack became

wider.
Although Hostus felt the crack widening, he didn't think the

youngster before him had the strength to move the mountain
literally.
"My lord, can you see the other side?" Maxine breathed heavily.
Even after the crack widened, she had a hard time squeezing
through the crack due to her body shape.
"I can feel the air, just a bit more" he answered. He sensed
tiredness in Maxine's voice. It was weird of her to get exhausted.
"I…I don't…feel very good" Just after Maxine talked, Hostus also
opened his mouth.
Surprisingly the Spartan also sounded exhausted, more
exhausted than Maxine.
"Quit whining, just a bit more" He focused on squeezing through

the crack. When he was a little child, he had an extreme
claustrophobic condition. He had that condition until he trained
with Spectre. One day when Spectre knew about Michael's fear of
closed spaces, Spectre put him in a casket and buried him for an
entire day.
Spectre made him face his own fears rather than running away
from them. In the end, he was able to let go of the fear of closed
spaces. Until Spectre went crazy and ordered assassins to kill the
orphanage Michael cared about, he was not only a mentor to him
but also a father figure.
Everything Michael knew, he learned from Spectre. Deep down in

his heart, he still missed the old guy.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
Suddenly his entire eight sight was filled with warning messages
from the system. His train of thoughts immediately stopped by the
screaming noises inside his head.
[Extreme amount of radiation!]
[the host has been exposed to an extreme amount of radiation!]
[Immediate action required]
[The system recommends the host to purchase and use 100%

healing potion]
[The healing potion would prevent the radiation from permanently

causing damage to the host for 30 mins]
"Shit!"
"Maxine, go back!" He was startled. Immediately turning his head
towards Maxine, he shouted,
[One potion would cost the host 5000 badass points. Does the
host wish to buy the healing potion?]
"Yes..fuck..do it. Buy two"
Michael shouted in his mind at the system.
"ARGHHH!"
Several seconds after the warning, he started to feel a vomiting

sensation as well as muscle pain because of the radiation.? Using
his remaining strength in his body, Michael began to push the
mountain wall forward with his legs.
He let out a loud cry pushing the mountain back and forth. He was
not strong enough to move the mountain but strong enough the
widened the crack several inches more which would make
escaping the narrow crack easier for Maxine,
As he made the crack open wide, the system gave him the
healing potion. He wasted no time as he immediately chugged the
entire potion in one gulp.
"Maxine, drink this" he completely ignored Hostus who was

between Michael and Maxine. The Spartan leaned back on the
wall to stand straight. He was breathing heavily.
Completely ignoring Hostus, Michael conjured a ball of flame

which lightened up the dark mine. He then tossed the sparkling
blue healing potion towards Maxine. The potion was sparkling as
though it was liquid gold.
Maxine was having trouble standing straight. She felt her muscles
become weak and had a killing headache. In addition to muscle
pain and headache, she felt like she was going to faint any
second. Still, mustering all the strength in her body, she raised her
hand catching the potion in the mid-air.
"Wind Blast!"
Just like him, Maxine too chugged the healing potion in one go.
The moment she finished the healing potion, Michael sent a
powerful blast of wind towards her. The powerful gust of wind
pushed both Hostus and Maxine out of the narrow crack.
Unlike Maxine and Hostus, he didn't run out of the narrow crack
but pushed himself deeper into the crack.
"Lightning Dash" he cast the spell and willed the system to equip
his Lucifer armor.
In a split second, he transformed into his complete lucifer form.

The metal plates attached to the armor scratched with the rough
walls on either side, creating sparks of fire. If it wasn't for the
armor, the skin on his arms would have been scrapped off like a
carrot by the rough walls.
With the help of Lightning Dash, he pushed himself out of the

crack.
"Whoa!"
Michael's reflexes saved him yet again as he was just an inch

away from falling down into a pit below him. The ground ended
after several meters from the narrow path opening. What in front
of him was nothing but an endless dark pit.
"Wow" He looked down into the dark pit. The hole was as large as
the meteor crater of Arizona or wider. He could not see the end of
the dark pit. It was pitch black.
"What is this place?" He looked around in shock. Above the crater,

he was able to see countless crystals brighter than the one he got
from Vibius on the roof. These crystals were blood red and bigger
in size.
However, Michael was afraid to fly to the crystals and mine them
without knowing what was lying inside the hole.
"System, if something went wrong, buy a teleportation scroll and
teleport me and Maxine to a safe distance"
[Is the host planning to jump into the endless pit?]
"Of course not"
He took out a drone from his space ring. Standing on the edge of
the crater, he looked down once again before sending the drone
flying down into the deep dark pit.
His heart was pounding against his chest. The mere sight of the
gigantic pitch-black pit freaked him out.
"Azazel, are you seeing the footage of the drone I just deployed?"
"Yes my lord" Azazel's grim voice sounded in his head.
"System, record everything"
He could see the footage being captured by the drone in his mind.
The drone disappeared from his eyesight yet he noticed nothing
but darkness.
"Grmmmmmmm"
Suddenly a ground-shaking groan emerged deep from the pit. The

very next moment, the drone footage disappeared before
glitching. The drone crumbled into bits and pieces.
"Shit shit shit" Michael's legs took steps backward in fear,
"Lightning Dash" he immediately cast the spell, wasting no time.

Under his skull mask, his face was pale as he was drenched in
sweat.
He never felt overwhelmingly terrified before in his life.
He ran away from the pit without even turning back.
Screech!
The armor collided with the walls, producing sparks as he dashed
away from the pit. The armor was completely disfigured and lost
its shiny metallic black color.
Boom!
As he exited the narrow crack, he stumbled down and went sliding

for a couple of meters before stopping.
"My Lord!" Maxine shouted seeing him coming out crashing down.
However, before she could run towards him, Michael kicked up.
He didn't stand still but yet again activated a lightning dash
towards the narrow crack opening.
This time when he reached the opening, he didn't squeeze

through. He grabbed the two sides of the mountain and pulled
them closer using all of his strength.
"ARGHHHHHHHHH!" his shout echoed through the mine. Every

single muscle in his body popped up as the armor began to crack.
There were also cracks formed up in the walls of the mountain on
either side of the narrow opening.
Maxine was completely stunned by his show of raw strength. She

saw the narrow opening-closing up inch by inch. It seemed like he
was moving the mountain itself. Closing the opening was not easy
at all, he could feel his consciousness drifting away. Yet, he
pushed himself to the absolute limit because what he saw was
nothing but death. He stared death in its eyes and came back.
Boom!
Eventually, after several seconds, the crack finally shut, producing

a booming sound. Maxine came running to him when he collapsed
down to the ground.
She didn't worry about Hostus because the spartan bled to death.
It was a horrible death, he bled through all the pores and holes in
his body. He kept twitching like a fish out of the water before
losing his life forever.
"My lord, what happened?!" Maxine knelt on his side before taking
his head in her hand. She placed his head on her lap,
"System…"? Michael mumbled under his breath using the last bit
of his strength,
"Teleport…dark…forest"
Maxine felt the air around her become chilly. She had experienced
this before. Hence, she held Michael closer and closed her eyes.
***********************************
When she opened her eyes, she was in a dark cozy room.
"What happened?"
"Fuck!" Maxine shouted. She was startled by Azazel's sudden

appearance.
"What the fuck are you?"
"It's not important. Put my lord on the bed" Azazel pointed at the
bed. His ethereal face had a worried look. Maxine growled, lifting
Michael. With his armor, he was a little too heavy.
"Careful" Azazel exclaimed,
She almost collapsed onto the bed with him because of his
weight.
"The moment you go back to the mountain, close the area you
were in '' Maxine didn't know what the hell is the figure floating
before her but she could sense the fear in his voice.
"Do you know what happened and why Lord Lucifer closed the
opening?"
"Dorment Hydra"
Both of them heard Michael's voice. They turned their heads to

the bed to see Lucifer standing up.
"The hydra is in Stormveil mountain"
*********************************
This day completes my two years journey as an author.
I want to thank all my wonderful readers for supporting me until

now.
Your comments, reviews, and criticisms not only boosted my

happiness but also made me a better writer.
I am extremely happy and honored to announce that my third

book, Rise of the legendary Emperor will be released 23rd of this
month.
And Im happier to announce that my next adventure Dictator with

a Badass System will be released this month.
I hope every one of you would continue to lend me your support.

The schedule of HBS will not be affected in any way by the new
novel.
Please show me your support by leaving your comment under this

chapter. This is my life now so I hope everyone will stick with me
and support me.
Always your goofy author,
don_offl
*****************************************
NEW CHAPTER OF ROLE? 2 IS UP!!!!!!
Link is in the comments section

Chapter 403 - Ancient Monster
"Hydra? My lord, I thought Vedora is the only Hydra in this world"

Maxine muttered. Michael removed his mask as well as his chest
armor to breathe a little.
"I have to see something" Michael walked out of the room as

Maxine and Azazel followed him behind.
As usual, the netherels were cleaning the corridors as though they

were professional maids. Azazel attached blue orbs on the ceiling
to lighten up the place. They didn't provide light like eclectic bulbs
but they provided enough to make navigating through the
corridors easier.
After a while of walking, they reached a grayish door that stood 7ft
tall. The door had intricate carvings which seemed like Lucifer
battling several soldiers on a battlefield filled with skulls.
Michael pushed the door open to see a spacious room. All four
walls had mirrors the size of a 24 inch monitor glued to them.
Each monitor showed a view. Previously this room was used as
the armory by the Order of Death. The weapons they stored in the
room were corroded and rusted with time. They became
unusable. Except for the mirrors, there was a glistening white orb
that remained in the center of the room on a 4ft pillar.
"Welcome to the place of power, Maxine" Michael greeted Maxine

with a smile. He then walked towards the center of the room. He
took a minute to comprehend the potential of the surveillance
room. Currently from this room, he could watch over Bredia, some
places in Kethen and Royal land. If he could deploy thousands of
Spyders all over the world, he would have a bigger surveillance
system than anyone in the world.
The white orb worked as a hard disk. It stored every single
footage. If required, Michael could access the footage through the
system. Other than him, only Azazel had access to the footage.
"My Lord, is that…" Maxine pointed at one of the mirrors. Her

voice trailed away,
Michael looked at the mirror pointed by Maxine to see Pirate Lord

Corey sleeping on a comfy bed with a naked man. Then Maxine
turned her head to the mirror next to see Shorty picking his nose.
She even saw her old crew having a party on her ship anchored at
the pirate cove. In her shock, she failed to notice the black mirror
that had no footage on the corner of the wall.
She couldn't help feeling her privacy being invaded.
"Are you feeling like your privacy is being invaded, Maxine?"
As though he was a mind reader, Michael asked what she was

feeling. Maxine was stunned by his question. She wanted to
shake her head but she hesitated,
"Can you see the footage of your room in those mirrors?"
Maxine looked around the room, staring at every single mirror

including the black mirror. Eventually after several moments later,
she found no mirror that showed the footage of her room in bertha
or her old ship,
"I don't spy on people I trust. And if I did, it's for your own safety.
The Guardians and my enemies will use the people closest to me
to get to me. If I don't watch over them, best case they will die.
Worst case, they will be tortured until they are broken" His words
were somehow soothed her down.
It also made sense to her, if she was captured by Guardians, she

would want Lucifer to locate her and come to her rescue.
"Take this" Maxine saw the pendant they previously gave to the
senators appear in his hand,
"When you don't want to be watched, remove it and place it
somewhere safe" He handed over the Spycam pendant to
Maxine.
"Yes my lord"
She could feel that Lucifer really trusts her. That warmed her heart
deeply. Just as he explained, he wasn't spying on his loyal
subordinates because he could see their loyalty in the system
window. Yet he was watching over them in case they got into
trouble.
After she wore the pendant around her neck, Michael waved his
hand as every single mirror in front of them went black.
"System, play the footage captured by the drone" He willed the

system. Azazel and Maxine stared at the flickering screens in front
of them.
"Play it in slow motion," he ordered the system. Without uttering a

word, they all stared at the screens. At the moment, all the mirrors
worked as a single gigantic screen.
For several moments, the screens showed nothing but pitch-black

darkness. Then, for a split second, Maxine noticed three pairs of
crimson red glow deep within the dark pit. The very next moment,
the screens glitched and stopped moving.
"Play it again slower"
The footage started again. This time, Maxine didn't even blink.
She looked closer at the red glows that appeared for a brief
second.
Michael let out a deep breath. It was dark and the red glow
appeared only for a split second but he knew what he saw, they
were not just red glows or glitches in the footage. They were pairs
of eyes, three pairs of eyes. The three pairs of eyes, the high
radiation, the size of the eyes, and his gut feeling told him that it
was the hydra resting at the end of the dark pit.
If his guess was correct, the hydra would be three times the size
of King Ghidorah. Just imagining it terrified him to the core. The
hydra might be the most powerful existence in this world. Fighting
a monster such as this hydra was nothing but asking for death. He
realized why the system told him not to search for the hydra until
he could reach the immortal stage.
"Are those eyes, my lord?"After seeing the footage in extreme

slow motion, Maxine kinda guessed it.
"Yes. That hydra is the reason no one in Southern continent can

become cultivators" Maxine's jaw slightly dropped,
"It's sucking all the Arch energy in the atmosphere" As he said, he

flicked his wrist, taking the crystal out from his space ring,
"These crystals must be the by product of Arch energy gathering

into the mountain"
Azazel was hovering behind him. When he saw the crystal he

floated towards him in curiosity. He stared at the crystal for a
moment,
"My lord, this is pure arch energy" the demon butler exclaimed,
"There must be purer Arch energy crystals within the pit" he stood
there looking at the screens with hands behind his back,
Yet again, he played the footage to see the crimson eyes of the
Hydra.
"Not worth the risk of waking that monster up. Azazel"
"My lord"
"Tell Dular to summon as many as netherels he could. We are

going to mine the shit out of that mountain"? He then turned his
gaze towards Maxine,
"Maxine, make sure no one opens that pathway to the pit. If that
Hydra wakes up, it will be game over for us"
Maxine nodded, hearing his serious voice. She had never seen
him serious such as this before.
"I will teleport the netherels into the mountain. Maxine will store all
the crystals for me"
"How my lord?"
"Go look how are Aria's brothers doing?"
Instead of answering how she would be able to store the crystals,

Michael asked her to check on Aria's brothers,
After she left the room, he waved his hand as the dark footage
changed into lively scenery. A woman standing on the top of a
boulder could be seen. her eyes were closed. Behind her was a
majestic waterfall. The water sprayed by the waterfall coupled with
the sunlight produced a beautiful miniature rainbow behind the
woman.
"Lailah Alden" Azazel could recognize her with a single look

despite her pregnant belly. The pendant Michael gave Lailah was
a special one. It had the spyder he built as well as a tiny fly that
could detach from itself from the pendant and fly around, taking
footage of Lailah from all angles. He bought it from the system as
he lacked the materials and tools to build such a tiny camera.
If one knew what happened between Lailah and him, they would
definitely mark him as a hypocrite. He was infuriated at his
parents for abandoning him but he did the same to the spirit child.
Except, he didn't abandon the child or Laila. He was watching
over them. Only Michael was able to access the footage of Laila.
Hence one mirror remained dark showing no footage.
He just remained there watching Lailah in silence.
"Take care of yourself and the kid Laila"
Taking a last look at Lailah, he waved his hand again as the

mirrors went back to their normal state. He then left the
surveillance room to resume his work of shadow ruling the world.
When he reached his room, he sat on the table and placed the
crystal in front of him.
"Bracelet or pendant?" He asked himself before starting to build

the device that would make his subordinates overpowered in the
Southern Continent.
**********************************
Right at the moment, Maxine was standing before the tubular

contaminants in Aria's room. She was staring at the two muscular
men submerged in the sparkling blue liquid. Their limbs seemed
to be growing which was surprising for her. She knew this was
another miracle the Dark Lord could perform.
As she was staring at them, she heard the door behind her creak
open. She turned back to see Lucifer entering the room. She
quickly bowed,
"Give me your hand"
She reached out her right hand without asking a question. He took
out a dark metal bracelet before putting it on her hand,
"Ouch!" she let out a burst of cry when she suddenly felt a sharp
pain around her wrist. It felt as though the bracelet pierced her
wrist with hundreds of tiny needles.
The pain quickly disappeared as he took out a red vial.
"Drink"
The red portion was not as watery as the potions she had drank
before. It was thick, almost like jelly. It took her a second to
swallow the tasteless odorless jelly.
Several seconds later, she felt an electric bolt running through her
veins. She jolted as her entire body shivered. In addition, she was
sweating.
"Put this ring and concentrate on it"

Taking a few deep breaths, she steadied herself. As he said, after
she put the ring on, she began to concentrate on the ring.
"Are you feeling a connection with the space ring?"
Maxine nodded. She was still getting used to the new experience,
"Put this inside" he then threw a healing potion towards her and
waited for Maxine to put the healing potion into her space ring.
Dark lines formed on her forehead due to her concentration but

after several seconds, the healing potion in her hand finally
disappeared.
"And that's how you gonna store the crystals"
******************************
IF everything went to plan, you will see Gaya in the next two
chapters.
Chapter 404 - Princess
Victoria Of Thusia
As Michael was building bracelets that allow his subordinates to

use Arch energy, four horses were pulling a fancy carriage
through a thick forest. The forest was far-reaching, compact, and
budding. Its canopy was eclipsed by a magnolia, asp, and
dogwood, still, plenty of light passed through their crowns for a
plethora of sprouts to make use of the insect-riddled soils below.
Curving branches waved from every tree, and a potpourri of
flowers, which grew in abundance, clashed with the otherwise
amber terrain. In addition to the horses galloping, a variety of
animal sounds, most belonging to rummaging critters,
reverberated through the air, and almost completely muffled the
occasional roar of a large animal trying to scare away predators.
From the outside, the carriage seemed rather generic, nothing

special about it at all. However, the inside was exactly the
opposite. It was fancier than the interior of Caius's private airship.
Two gorgeous young girls were sitting gracefully in the carriage.
One of them wore a white, jade embroidered robe and had her
silky hair draping down all the way to her shoulders. A jade hairpin
was stuck within her bun of hair. Her face was alluring and friendly
because of the warmth smile on her face. Those hazel eyes of her
exuded an elegant and intelligent demeanor which caused
everyone around her to like her instantly.
The young girl infront of her was prettier and had sharper features
than her. Her red hair was tied up in a high bun and her skin was
smooth and flawless. However, she had a certain cold and icy
look in her eyes which almost seemed like she could see through
anyone and anything. Her posture and aura indicated an arrogant
elite demeanor.
The girl in white robes whose face was full of smiles asked softly,
"Victoria, you seem to be bothered by something. From the
moment our journey back to Thusia began, your expression was
so sullen. Be careful that wrinkles don't sprout out since you've
been frowning."
If Michael was to see the girl, a blood bath would have happened
inside the carriage. THis Victoria wasn't the Victoria of
GoldenValley sect, this Victoria was the one who pretended to be
a farm girl, made Abras fall in love and betrayed him by sending a
dagger through his heart. Abras knew her as Emily until General
Booth revealed her identity as the Princess of Kingdom Thusia,
Victoria Barnes.
Ofcourse, her hairstyle, hair color as well as her dress was way
different than the girl Abras used to know. Still, he would
recognize the face anywhere anytime. Her face was etched into
his very soul, the soul that now merged with Michael and
becoming whole.
In his memories, the Princess wasn't so cold and arrogant back

then. In fact, she was a warm and adorable girl in the past. Unlike
Michael, Abras had no connection with the outside world.
Therefore, she was able to fool him easily with her phony love and
sweet talks.
"Do you believe in this Lucifer figure?" Victoria asked the girl in
white robes softly.
The warm smile on Edith's face faded away after her question. A
solemn expression replaced her warm smile
"I don't know Vikki. It seemed he appeared when we were in Awor.

I think people are exaggerating things. I don't know if Lucifer is
real or not, but I certainly know he's neither the devil nor a god as
some claim him to be. Why do you ask?"
"I have this weird feeling in my gut, Edith. Like, something dark
follows me"
"Huh? What are you talking about? Lucifer might be just some
punk running around killing people Vikki. If you ask me, he's either
not real or he's a murderous psychopath that Guardians needs to
apprehend as soon as possible"
"Is it a coincidence? Lucifer appears claiming he's the devil after

we took over the Cosmic Stream. What if his sudden appearance
and Cosmic stream are connected?" Her one eyebrow raised like
a sharp sword as she talked,
"You are overthinking Vikki. I heard how you guys took the Cosmic
Stream.If you want to blame something, blame the flu that wiped
out the people who protected the stream"
"No. The flu wasn't natural Edith, it was made by our Alchemists
and healers, to subdue the elders protected the Cosmic Stream"
Victoria shook her head gently, her expression was blank, "Since
we are going to be family and form an alliance, you deserve to
know the truth"
Victoria began to narrate the events that led to the capture of

Cosmic Stream. She did not hide anything from her best friend?
because Victoria trusted her friend more than anyone.
"What?" Edith widened her eyes and spoke in shock, "why? Why
did you do that?" Her hazel eyes contained a tinge of fury,
Victoria sighed, "It was not by choice Edith. I can't tell you
everything but trust me, we were forced. It was either taking over
the Cosmic stream or cleaning up thousands of corpses, corpses
of my people"
Edith remained silent for a couple of minutes.She took a several

deep breaths, looking at her best friend's eyes,
"Do you regret it Vikki?"
Victoria shook her head, "I feel bad for everyone who lost their
lives but i don't regret it. They could have helped millions of
people with the stream yet they chose not to share with the world,
kept it as a secret. Because of what we did, thousands of people
are alive now" Victoria replied nonchalantly.
"What would you have done in my situation, Edith? Would you

have chosen to save them and let thousands of innocents die?
Being rulers is not always fancy Edith, we need to make tough
choices such as this" Victoria calmly spoke,
"Your sister wiped out an entire army of the orcs to save a

kingdom. The orcs were just following orders but if your sister
didn't do anything because they were just following orders,
thousands of humans would have lost their lives that day"
Edith's pupils constricted as she became silent for a little while

before letting out a sigh.
"I guess you and my sister are a lot stronger than me. I couldn't
have made the choices you two made. But what about him Vikki?
The guy you pretended to love?"
"What about him? If it wasn't him, I would have done the same to
someone else. He was an orphan who was thrown away by his
parents.The elders raised him but a couple of days of a woman's
warmth was enough for him to betray them and run away. As far
as I was concerned, I gave him a quick death. They all died
quickly and painlessly" Victoria said dully. She showed no regret
or emotions at all. Her face and voice sounded cold
Victoria remained unmoved and without any sign of emotions,

saying apathetically, "Everybody has their own fate. There are
way too many pitiful people in this world besides him. Moreover,
his death wasn't anything important. After absorbing the energy
from the Cosmic Stream, my father quickly reached Fusion stage.
If he continues his cultivation, he would enter the immortal stage
which would bring peace and prosperity to not only Thusia but
also to the entire world"
"Sigh…" Edith closed her eyes,sighing briefly. She did not speak
for a couple of moments
"Enough of talking about my feelings. How do you feel Edith? I
heard you may have met your soulmate"
Instantly Edith's face became redder than a ripe tomato. Even the
cold beauty such as Victoria gently smiled looking at her best
friend blush.
"Shut up Vikki, it's not anything like that. Noah is just a friend"
"Is that his name? Noah, nice" Victoria said as though she was
hearing his name for the first time.
"Does he know who you are really?" Victoria asked as Edith let
out a deep breath,
"If he's just a friend, you don't have to tell him anything.Otherwise,
its better you tell him you are an Alden, better yet, little sister of
Lailah Alden, the wielder of Angel's veena"
*********************************
(Two hours later)
Rustle!
Rustle!
Rustle!
Among the trees in the forest, a girl was laying on a thick branch
up high from the ground. She used one hand as her pillow and the
other to cover her face. Her snoring sound was interrupted by a
childish voice.
"Hey hey wake up"
"Fuck, lets just bite her face" Another childish voice of a girl
sounded,
"Snake wake up" This time, the voice belonged to a boy but the
voice sounded calmer and more mature than the two previous
voices.
"Aaaaawwwww" the girl yawned as she moved her hand away.
Her eyes slowly opened,
"Didn't I tell you three shitheads I need rest?"
This girl was none other than Gaya herself. She was taking a long
nap after continuously flying for three days. She was craving for
snacks and exhausted. Despite her deep thinking about her
mother, she was able to sleep due to her exhaustion. As Ghost
always used to say 'sleep is not only for the body but also for the
brain', she decided to sleep before continuing her journey. She
wanted to look at her mother's disappearance with a fresh mind
yet for some reason, the hydra woke her up in the middle of her
sleep. Just as she was about to slap each of the heads for waking
her up, her ear twitched a little. Not too far off, there was a faint
noise.
She turned her head in the direction of the noise to see six
silhouettes running through the forest. They were wearing
completel black clothes along with a wolf mask, only exposing a
pair of eyes filled with murderous intent.
"Not here. Continue to search. That princess bitch dies today!"
The six people didn't notice Gaya on top of them. They just
continued to search the forest.
"What the fuck?" Gaya was stunned,
"Are they searching for you?" she frowned after hearing Sarba's
question.She had the same doubt but she had no idea who they
are except they belonged to the Grim Reaper guild,
"We better follow them silently. I have some weird feeling about
this" She stood up to follow them behind,
"I can sense the energy fluctuations around them, they are
definitely weaker than you" Sarba exclaimed.Since recently, Gaya
learned that each of the heads is developing new powers. Ayag
was able to create a powerful sonic blast that distorts people while
Sarba developed some kind of sense that let him see the energy
radiations. With this skill, Sarba could compare cultivators in terms
of power and determine their cultivation stage.
Only Cain was yet to show his powers but Gaya was sure his
powers would soon come to light.
"Let's see what these idiots upto" Gaya rolled her eyes,
"Yeah and I wanna see who that bitch princess they were talking
about"? Ayag chuckled.
Gaya took off from the branch into the sky. When she was high in
the sky, she was able to see some smoke coming from not too far
from her location. It took her a few minutes to reach the place.
When she descended onto the path through the canopy she saw
a horse carriage. Surrounding the carriage were many corpses
with fresh blood flowing all over the ground.
She walked to the carriages and squatted down to look for some
footprints if there were any.
"I hear heart beats" Suddenly Cain opened his mouth. Hydra's
senses were extremely sharper than anyone in this world.
"How many?"
"Two" Cain said, looking in the direction of the heartbeats,
"Killing Grim Reapers is always a great exercise to mind and

body.. It will calm you down" Gaya devilishly chuckled before
dashing into the forest.
Chapter 405 - Gaya Vs Jacobe
I
At the same time, not too far from the stream, under the shade of
some tall and old trees, two figures were hiding behind a thick
bush. It was Edith and Victoria who barely escaped the Grim
Reapers after their initial ambush.
However, the two of them looked way different than before

because of their disguise. They used the commoners' robes from
their space ring and wore them to look like they were from a
village. In addition to their raggedy clothes, they also smudged
some mud over their fair skin to hide the glow.
In their disguise, it would be extremely difficult for someone to

recognize them as royalty and noble.
The two of them kept looking around with frowns on their faces.
They didn't dare to make a single sound.
"If I only had my cultivation" Victoria gritted her teeth.
"Whoever put the contract on our head would have sent more
powerful reapers or they wouldn't have put the contract at all"
Edith whispered.
Both of their cultivation was reset by a powerful spell. Absorbing

the energy from the Cosmic Stream required the individual to start
cultivating from the beginning. That was one of the reasons that
either of them had no cultivation power. They were just at the Arch
sensing stage.
"Who else knew about our trip? This is definitely an inside job"
Edith tightly gripped her tiny hands and exclaimed while gritting
her teeth.
"When I find out who, i'm gonna show how Thusians deal with
traitors"
An intent to kill flashed past Victoria's eyes. She coldly replied,

"They are definitely at the Core Formation stage, I can feel it" She
then clutched the dragon pendant hanging around her neck. A din
glow could be seen within the dragon pendant.
"That doesn't change anything. If they managed to find us…"

Edith's voice trailed away as her expression became gloomy
"Hideo sent a distress signal before they killed him. We just need
to hide from them until General Booth comes with the men and
slaughters them" Victoria said with a cold tone.
Edith's tiny face turned pale in fear of losing some color, "What if
they didn't get the signal?. Vikki, we can't hide here forever, we
should make a run for it and look for a village of something"
Victoria went quiet for a while and sighed, "Edith, their target is
only me. There is a village nearby in the north, I will run in the
opposite distracting them, you make a run for the village"
"Victoria Barnes," Edith frowned. Instead of calling her Vikki as

she used her full name with a stern look on her face.
Victoria tried to open her mouth but turned into a bitter laugh. She
nodded, "You've always said that with my personality, I'll never
find my guy who would want me. But with your temperament, you
are not too far off from me"
Edith giggled, "No. I was just kidding with you in the past. In
reality, many guys wish to court you. If all of them were to line up,
they would definitely make a circle around the capital. It's just that
you are interested in none of them."
"They might be the same age as me but the guys who tried to
court me are either spoiled brats or weaklings. The highest
cultivation among them was only Core Formation stage level 4.
None of them were qualified to be my prince" Victoria replied
unenthusiastically.
Edith lightly sighed, "why do you always judge people with their
strengths? After you rebuild your cultivation with Cosmic energy,
no one in the world would be on the same level as you. Alignment
of hearts is more important in marriage life than the cultivation
stage. Love Vikki, if he loves you and you loves him, it's enough"
The two girls forgot about the danger for a moment and started to
discuss life,
"You know, I heard about someone who might interest you"
"Who?"
"He goes by the name Ghost, apparently he's a 5-star Alchemist

in the age of 21 and he's at Core Formation stage level 10" For a
moment, Edith saw a glint of surprise emerge in her eyes,
"That is somewhat impressive but I've seen more talented people

in Awor and i'm sure we will meet monstrous talents where we are
going"
"So if you find someone with the qualities you look for there, you
will take him as your husband?"
Victoria snickered, "I will still look for some qualities such as when
I need him, he must always appear on time. It's not that I need his
help but he should be at my side when I need him"
Edith couldn't help rolling her eyes, "For god sake Vikki. You are
so complicated and stubborn. I doubt I would be still alive to see
you get your ideal bodyguard"
"It's not like I have to get married, me and my father will reach
immortality and rule over Thusia forever. I don't need to provide an
heir for the throne after me" Victoria nonchalantly said,
"Look at your sister, did she marry anyone? A woman can get
married but it's not a must, women should learn to live
independently without needing a man. We don't need to be
married or mothers to be complete"
"I dont overthink marriage like you Vikki. If I love someone and he
loves me as much as I love him, I'll marry him and be happy "
Victoria, with creased brows, said, "I'm not against marriage Edith.
I'm just saying it's better to marry the right person later than the
wrong one earlier because our families force us to"
"Whoosh!" At this time, amidst their conversation, an abrupt

movement could be heard from the woods ahead.
"What the fuck are you two doing here?"
Edith felt a chill running through her spine when she heard the
sudden voice coming from behind. They immediately turned
around to see a golden-haired girl wearing a gray long coat and
black turtleneck and black leather pants walking towards them. On
her back, they saw a longbow and quiver filled with arrows.
She wasn't as beautiful as either of them but Edith noticed a grace

in her movements. Her golden hair danced around her shoulder
as she walked towards them.
Whoosh!
As they were staring at the girl, a man wearing a creepy wolf

mask jumped out of the trees.? The man looked at Victoria and
Edith for a few moments. He looked as though he was scanning
them. Thanks to their disguise, the reaper failed to recognize
them. However, the reaper thought Gaya was the princess they
were searching for as she looked clean and nobler than the other
two girls.
"You!" the masked reaper raised his hand at Gaya,
"You, what you you you?" Gaya mimicked the reaper's voice to
make fun of him.? Meanwhile, Edith was standing by the side with
face still in astonishment. Victoria was also surprised at the girl's
courage to make fun of the reaper.
The reaper was furious as he leaped at Gaya with the dagger in

his hand. In the mid hair, he cast a spell that enabled his dagger
to be enveloped in bluish fire,
Bang!
The very next moment, Edith and Victoria saw the reaper's head
explode into red mist in the mid air. They were unsure of what just
happened. When they looked at the girl, she had the long bow in
her hand instead of on her back. They were stunned by her
lightning quick speed. They did not even see her taking out her
bow, knocking an arrow and fire at the reaper.
"Space ring" Gaya noticed the space ring in the reaper's hand.
She ignored the two girls to go loot the body.
After Gaya walked some distance away, Edith suddenly snapped

out of her astonishment. She looked at Victoria and said, "Vikki,
did you see that? She killed the reaper just like that. If we could
ask for her protection, we might be able to escape from here"
Victoria frowned, creasing her brows, "If I, the dignified Princess,

were to put down my pride and seek protection from a stranger, it
would taint my name. Also, this reaper might be a scout with weak
cultivation levels. Edith, General Booth would have already
received my distress signal and is coming here to over. We should
hide for a little while more!"
"This forest is so far from the outpost Vikki. Even if General Booth
has sent help, it would take a very long time for them to reach
here and locate us amidst the forest," Edith thought for a while
and suddenly laughed,
"Vikki, I have an idea. What if we tell her the truth and tell her we
would pay her handsomely if she escorts us to the outpost?"
After Victoria listened, as if a little swayed, she knitted her brows

and contemplated.
"No Edith," She shook her head,
"No time for arguing Vikki, follow me" While talking, Edith pulled
along her hand and walked towards Gaya? who was busy looting
the reaper
"Sister, could you please do us a favor?" Edith asked with a

pleading tone,
"Just get out of here before more of these assholes come here"?
Gaya didn't even turn back to look at them. Which made Victoria
clench her fist in anger.
Gaya would have recognized them as nobles if they hadn't

reseted their cultivation level. According to Sarba, they were at the
Arch sensing stage. Therefore, coupled with their disguise, Gaya
really thought the two girls were commoners.
However, very quickly, she hid the bitterness. Her eyes regained
their apathetic look and her expression became icy cold once
again.
Regardless of Gaya's behavior, Edith continued to plead,
"To be honest, my… my sister and I are working for a young noble
in the city of Cadena. A few days ago, we came out to collect
herbs for our young master but were attacked by these guys on
the way. They seemed like they were searching for someone.
They killed the servants and guards but? we managed to escape
up 'till this point. The young master has an outpost nearby. Could
you please protect and escort us back to the outpost? If we
manage to return, the young master will definitely give you a
satisfying reward"
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Just as Gaya was about to answer, she saw four reapers leaping
out of the darkness and surrounding them.
Chapter 406 - Gaya Vs Jacobe
II
The four reapers who surrounded Gaya had their gazes locked on
Gaya. They were all wearing wolf masks hence Victoria and Edith
couldn't see how they looked behind the mask. The repairs
weren't sure whether the girl in front of them or the two near the
bushes were their targets. However, just to be sure, they decided
to kill all of them.
"Energy Whip" one of the reapers quickly cast a spell as sparkling

blue energy whip materialized in his hands. The whip produced a
crackling sound of electricity.
"Shield of Shadows" another reaper cast a spell that formed a thin

layer of dark smoke around all of the four reapers. It was obvious
this was a defense spell but Gaya couldn't care less. She was at
the Core Strengthening stage and these reapers were just at Core
Formation level 4 or 5 according to Sarba.
"Lightning arms" the third one cast a spell as the reaper's hands
illuminated blue because of the lightning bolts coiling his arms.
Gaya patiently waited for them to finish casting spells. She wanted
to evaluate how powerful she has become after breaking through
to the Core Strengthening stage.
The best way to find out was to battle and push herself to the
limits. She wasn't worried about getting herself killed though. If
she couldn't defeat four Core Formation stage reapers with her
Core Strengthening stage cultivation, she wasn't worthy of being
her mother's daughter, and certainly wasn't worthy of being with
Ghost.
"What about you? Aren't you gonna cast any spells?" Gaya asked
the reaper who hadn't cast any spells yet.
The reaper remained silent as Gaya cracked her neck. Victoria

and Edith were stunned. If Victoria was in the girl's shoes, she
would have attacked them before they could finish casting spells.
It was the most sensible strategy. Gaya would have also done that
if she didn't want to assess herself.
"Suit yourself," said Gaya,
"Shall we start?"
The moment these words escaped Gaya's mouth, the reaper with
the energy whip in his hand leaped at her. He swung the whip
violently as she immediately leaped into the air, evading the whip.
Boom!
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!
In the mid-air, she shot an arrow into the ground beside the
reaper. They reached her target within a second. It exploded
creating a muffled booming sound. Soon thick white smoke began
to emerge from the place where the arrow hit.
"Fuck" She cursed at herself. Instead of firing an explosive arrow,

she mistakenly took the smoke arrow from her quiver. The thick
smoke enveloped the area a few seconds after.
"Edith, this is our chance" Victoria immediately grabbed Edith's

hands before running in the opposite direction of the reapers.
Because of the smoke, the reapers didn't notice the girls running.
The smoke irritated their eyes and almost completely blocked their
views.
"Hmm, surprising" Right at the moment, a figure was standing on

a tree branch from quite a distance from the reapers and Gaya.
The figure wore metal armor covering his chest and legs but he
exposed his beefy arms.
If one was to see him at the moment, they would definitely think of
him as a predator because he wasn't a human but a beast-man. A
rare breed of beastmen, striped tiger. His orange shiny fur had
black stripes which gave him the look of a Bengal tiger.
This man was tasked to find Gaya by Xanali. He was one of the
best trackers in the world. His services cost millions. For Xanali,
one million gold wasn't a big chunk. With his tracking skills and
superior senses, he was able to follow her scent to a broken portal
in a ghost town. Then her scent disappeared as Jacobe could
guess she had traveled to another realm. He was waiting for her
to come back as his instincts told him she would.
"It seems like she's wearing a mask to disguise herself, a powerful

magical artifact," He said, licking his claws.
On the other side, Gaya had no idea she was being watched.
After firing the smoke arrow, she dashed away from the attacks of
the reapers. Currently, only two reapers were attacking; the one
with the whiplash and the other with the lightning bolts covered
fists. The whiplash one swung his whip from a distance while the
other one leaped into the sky to fight her in close combat.
THud!
Thud!
Thud!
In the mid-air, she fought the reaper. She used the bow to avoid
his lightning bolts covered fist.? The bolts of lightning reminded
Gaya of Ghost. However, compared to Ghost's Ignitia spell, the
lightning spell the reaper cast was weak as hell.
Both of them kept exchanging blows as Gaya managed to avoid

the whip while fighting the reaper.
"Pathetically weak" After a few minutes, Gaya memorized the

reaper's fighting style. Hence, she was able to form a deadly
counterattack.
While dashing left to avoid the whip, she saw the reaper throwing
an upper hook at her. She was expecting it as she simply bent
back to avoid the punch. Then with a lightning quick movement,
she took out an arrow from her quiver and stabbed the reaper in
the neck.
"AH!" the reaper let out a muffled cry. Although the reaper had a
dark shield to absorb attacks, it wasn't powerful enough to
completely save him from her stab. The Warrior trait enabled her
to infuse her arch energy into any weapon she wielded. Only the
warriors were able to infuse 100% of their arch energy power into
their weapons. This special trait allowed a warrior to inflict
maximum damage without casting a spell. Michael was able to
infuse his arch energy power into his swords because of the dual-
wielding skill he bought from the system. Even he wouldn't be able
to infuse his arch energy power into every weapon like Gaya or
any other warriors without the special trait.
Her Core Strengthening arch energy broke through the shield

covering the reaper. Blood sprayed out of the wound as Gaya
twisted the arrow to end his life. The reaper fell out of the sky
dead. After killing the reaper who fought her in close combat, the
rest of the reapers became an easy target for her. Of course, if
she used her spells, the fight would have ended in a few seconds
but she always avoided using her spells as much as she could to
avoid revealing her identity.
"Meteo…Grk!" The reaper who cast the shields around them tried
to cast another spell. But his spell casting was abruptly stopped
by an arrow through his throat.
Bang!
Another arrow impaled his head before even he could grab the
arrow sticking through his throat. The next second, the arrow
exploded along with his head. The red mist above a headless
body put a smile on Gaya's face.
The remaining two reapers stared at Gaya without moving a

muscle. For a few moments, the area was filled with an awkward
silence. Only the noises of crickets and the rustling sound of the
dried leaves could be heard.
"Elemental Summ-"
Bang!
The one who remained without casting a spell finally opened his
mouth to cast a spell only to get struck by Gaya's explosive arrow.
The reaper looked down at his chest and saw an arrow sticking
through. He tried to remove the arrow but it exploded with a loud
bang.
"You are a summoner, nice killing ya"? Gaya saluted him with two
fingers, chuckling. The last remaining reaper who had the whip
shivered in fear. It was too late for the reapers to realize her true
strength.
The whip in his hand dematerialized quickly. He tried to turn back

and run.
"Leaving the party soon, awww. Too late fucker!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
As the reaper was running for his life, Gaya rapidly fired arrows
one after another. Each of the four arrows hit the running reaper
with deadly accuracy. Taking an arrow to each leg,one in the back
and one through the head ended the reaper's life in a matter of
seconds.
After killing all the reapers, Gaya descended to the ground to loot
their bodies.
"So those bitches made a run for it huh? Damn it, what about my
reward?" She looked around, cursing the girls.
She then made her way towards the last victim of hers to loot the
body when her ears twitched.
Boom!
Just as she was about to turn her head in the direction of the
rustling noise, she was hit by a powerful blast of energy. It was not
lethal but it sent Gaya flying. She hit the tree before falling onto
the ground. Her strong physical strength saved her organs but it
couldn't prevent her from getting mad as hell.
She immediately kicked herself up to see a seven feet beast man

standing near the dead reaper with a chain in his hand.
"Whoa you are one ugly cat!" Gaya cracked her fist,
"Hey you both seemed to be on the same level" She heard

Sarba's whisper. Surprisingly, it sounded like the voice was
coming from her voice, asthough Sarba was talking to her through
telepathically.
"Says the snake in human disguise,"? Jacobe said in a gruff voice.

Gaya was stunned by his words.? She was about to deny when
Jacobe spoke again,
"Gaya Ashton, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
Either way, you're coming with me to meet your step sister"?
Jacobe swung the silver chain in his hand. Gaya noticed the
glowing symbols on the chain. It seemed like the chain was
strengthened by runes which would be problematic if she was tied
by the chain.
"Is that so?" She snickered,
"Tell my sister she can go fuck herself. Oh wait, you can't,

because you're gonna die" As these words escaped her mouth,
she removed the satchel with Vedora in it and put it on the ground.
The very next second, an emerald green smoke enveloped her
body.. When the smoke disappeared, a seven feet purple cobra
with a terrifying presence stood before Jacobe.
Chapter 407 - Battle
Concludes
Gaya's instincts told her the beastman in front of her shouldn't be

underestimated. Hence, she transformed into her true form which
enhances her power by multiple folds.
Any weak-minded person would have been scared to death if they

had seen Gaya's true form. She was terrifying with her shining
dark purple scales, the two long fangs, the blood-red eyes with
pitch-black vertical pupils. Except Jacobe wasn't a weak minded
person at all. In his life of hunting criminals and wrongdoers, he
dealt with countless terrifying people who were more terrifying
than her. Apprehending a criminal didn't completely depend on the
cultivation stage. If it did, he wouldn't have been able to catch
criminals more powerful than him.
Hunting was an art and he loved to hunt the predators. Hunting a

more powerful prey was always more stimulating.? Evey hunt
required Jacobe to be prepared to the maximum. He was taught
not to underestimate the prey because even the weakest prey
would become powerful when it was pushed into a corner. He was
provided with tools and accessories to hunt even the stronger
prey.
In addition to tools and accessories, Jacobe had the knowledge of

every strength and weakness of all races including Nagas. For
instance, Nagas were extremely dangerous in close combat, they
would spray their poison to surround themselves. If the foe was
trapped within the poisonous cloud, the foe would rapidly lose
strength which would lead to the ultimate death.
"Poison Cloud!" Gaya hissed as the thick jade green poison gas
shot out of her mouth. The poisonous cloud surrounded the area
within a couple of seconds. However, Jacobe didn't even budge.
Gaya noticed a translucent mask on his face which covered his
nose and ears completely.
Gaya hissed before slithering aside while carefully watching

Jacobe. Her vertical pupils were locked on Jacobe.
Whoosh!
Jacobe suddenly swung the chain in his hand at her. The chain
flew towards her making a sharp ear piercing sound. She quickly
dodged the chain as the chain hit the tree behind her. The poor
tree exploded into countless wooden splinters.
Both of them were stunned. Gaya was surprised by the speed of

the chain while Jacobe was surprised by the speed of her reflex.
"Poison Flame" Gaya dashed at him, breathing dark-green flame.

The stream of green flame burnt everything it touched to ashes.
Jacobe ran as fast as he could from the fire. He wasn't afraid of
using the trees to climb and leap to another tree like a monkey.
Gaya's aim was perfect yet Jacobe was able to avoid getting
roasted by the flame because of his agility, extreme training, as
well as the innate ability he had as a big cat. As a beastman who
belonged to the tiger family, he inherited all the abilities of a cat.
The green flame torched every single tree that it touched. Soon, a
5 meter radius forest was burned to ashes. Considering there was
no canopy above them, the moonlight lightened up the place as
though it was a giant chandelier in the sky.
"(Cough) (cough)" Gaya's green flame finally stopped coming out

of her mouth. The next moment, she coughed a couple of times.
Whoosh!
Jacobe immediately swung his chain at Gaya yet again. In a split

second, she tilted her head sideways to evade the chain. She was
quick enough to avoid the chain but the chain managed to graze
her neck. Her purple scales were scorched by the chain. The
scorched scales became darkish black losing their purple shine.
Moreover, she felt excruciating pain.
Bang!
The chain grew longer in size in the mid-air and hit the tree behind
her. Just like before, the tree exploded into countless pieces. As
they were battling, Vedora peeked through the satchel to see what
was happening outside.
"Look a giant cat" Ayag whispered,
"Shhh" Cain shushed her immediately,
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The two of them continued to battle as the sound of explosions

reverberated the forest. Gaya spitballs of poison at Jacobe while
he kept swinging his chain.? Both of them were at a stalemate.
"Fuck, we have to help her" AYag tried to move but only to be

stopped by Cain,
"No, that beastman has no advantage over her yet. If we reveal

ourselves, he would capture us and use us as hostages"
Although Cain's words made sense, Ayag couldn't stay still and
watch Gaya fight alone. She gritted her teeth, feeling a surge of
power building within her.
"Don't do anything stupid Ayag" Cain's voice became cold and

serious,
"Ayag, he's right, he always is," Sarba said before quickly turning
his gaze towards Cain.
"Do you have any idea to help her?"

"Your poison reserves will soon be empty, Princess" Jacobe
exclaimed. He sounded like he was amused. The smugness on
his face indicated that he enjoys the thrill of hunting.
"Shit" Gaya cursed. Jacobe saw she finally stopped breathing

flames. He jumped down from the tree with a smirk on his face.
He could see her breathing heavily as the shininess on her scales
dimmed down which meant she only had a little bit of arch energy
left in her body.
As he was walking towards Gaya, she slithered backward. Her

vertical pupils became round.
"Fuck this, im gonna help her" Ayag tried to jump out. But Cain
and Sarba stopped her from moving. She bit Sarba on the neck in
anger. Cain quickly head-butted Ayag with enough force to make
her let go of Sarba's neck.
"It's over Princess. You put up a good fight, not impressive but
meh" Jacobe grinned for the first time since he came. Gaya
looked tired. She? saw him coming towards her with his chain
swinging in his hand,
Rather than throwing the chain at Gaya, he kept walking towards

her. Since she was weak and exhausted, he thought he could
simply apprehend her without wasting the charge in the chain.
After tying a person using the chain, it required one month of
charging before it could be used again. Jacobe didn't think it was
unnecessary to use the chain on Gaya and wait a month. He
could use this month of time to hunt another one, the big one;
Lucifer.
As Ayag struggled to jump out of the satchel, Jacobe almost

reached Gaya. He stood a few meters away from her with a smirk
on his face,
"IGNITIA!" Suddenly Gaya shouted, firing an emerald green

lightning bolt at Jacobe.
Bang!
The bolt of lightning was way faster than Jacobe's reflexes. The
lightning bolt sent Jacobe flying for several meters before he hit
the tree and fell down. His chest armor had a hole in it as he felt
excruciating pain. He looked down to see the fur on the palace
where the lightning bolt hit and got charcoaled. The smell of
burned hair slowly permeated the air.
"Whoa! That's Ghost's spell. When did she learn that?" Sarba was
surprised.
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
On the other side, Gaya kept firing bolts of lightning one after
another at Jacobe. Several bolts hit him precisely. If it wasn't for
his strong physics and the armor, he would have been dead by
now. He kept running chaotically. The shininess on her scales
came back. He couldn't help cursing at himself when he saw the
shininess on her scales return. Obviously, she used some kind of
technique to pretend she was exhausted and fooled him.
"I never wanted to do this, you pushed me!" Jacobe growled while
running.
"Shit shit shit" Cain suddenly began to curse. The other two heads
were confused, they had no idea what made Cain upset. As far as
they could tell, Gaya was kicking Jacobe's butt.
However soon they realized what made Cain upset when they
saw Jacobe running towards them. They quickly put their heads
back into the satchel.
"Fuck!" Gaya realized what was his plan but it was too late for her
to stop him. With a final leap, Jacobe landed near the satchel.
Just as she was about to dash towards him, he grabbed the
satchel. Jacobe saw the look in her eyes, she was worried sick.
His guess was right. When he was watching her fight the reapers,
she kept touching the satchel with one hand. Then they started
the battle, she didn't throw away the satchel but gently placed it on
the ground.
He noticed how she cared for the satchel. Evidently, he came to

the concussion that she has something she cares about within the
satchel.
"What do you have in here?" In his hand, the satchel seemed so

little. Gaya's heart was pounding against her chest as he grabbed
the satchel.
"A pet it seems" Jacobe felt something inside squirm against his
hold. He was curious to see what was inside but first, he wanted
to apprehend Gaya before opening the satchel. After all, he didn't
want another surprise from her.
"Transform and kneel!" Jacobe's thunderous roar echoed through

the forest. She hesitated as he started to squeeze the satchel with
his big hands.
"No!" Gaya quickly transformed herself back to her human form.

She was shivering in anger yet compared to the life of Vedora, her
anger seemed worthless.
"Tiger Punch!"
He cast a spell that formed an ethereal fist of a striped tiger

behind Gaya. The very next moment, the fist hit her in the back
with enough force that stomped her to the ground.
"Ah"
She growled as blood started to drip down from her mouth. He

then flicked his wrist. The ethereal fist moved according to the flick
of his wrist. It grabbed Gaya before picking her from the ground.
Her eyes were blood red in anger, her entire body was shivering.
But she controlled herself for the sake of Vedora.
After making her kneel, Jacobe let out an arrogant grin. The chain
once again materialized in his hand,
"Game over Snake"? As he said, he swung the chain at her. She

closed her eyes instinctively. She expected to feel something but
nothing happened. The chain never touched her. She opened her
eyes to see the chain remain still as though it was stopped by
something in the mid-air. She looked up to see a hand holding the
chain,
The anger in her eyes immediately disappeared as her eyes

began to water up. Her lips curved upwards, finally, she heaved a
sigh of relief. Her heart pounded against her chest, this time, it
was because of joy,
"Ghost"
Chapter 408 - No Escape From
Death
Michael held the chain in one hand and looked down at Gaya. A
gentle smile merged on his face regardless of the burning anger
within his heart.
"I will take care of this" With the other hand, he ruffled her head
playfully,
Then, he stepped forward, shielding her with his body. Jacobe

furrowed his creases. He didn't sense or hear someone coming,
rather he just suddenly appeared behind Gaya.

Jacobe wasn't threatened by his appearance though. Because he

did his research on Ghost. Jacobe's plan A was to separate Gaya
from Ghost and deal with her alone. His job got a lot easier when
he met Gaya in Ozer far away from Ghost and her friends.? The
sudden appearance of Ghost would make apprehending Gaya
difficult as he would have to either subdue Ghost or kill him.
Nonetheless, it wasn't impossible. He would just need to switch to
his plan B.
"Put that down" Michael's voice was rough. It was filled with cold
murderous intent. Seeing the blood dripping down her lips, he was
on the verge of losing control of himself.
"Ignitia '' the bolt of lightning hit Jacobe's wrist with deadly
accuracy. He dropped the satchel in pain.
"So quick" Jacobe was completely stunned by his speed,

Gaya quickly reached out her hand towards the satchel as the
satchel came flying to her. Michael did not cast any spell but
walked towards Jacobe with absolute killing intent in his eyes.
"Tige-"
Boom!
Before even Jacobe could finish his spell casting, Michael

appeared in front of him and punched him in the gut with enough
force to send him flying.
"ARGGH!"
A deep fist shaped dent formed by Michael's punch in Jacobe's

armor.? The armor was forged to endure a tremendous amount of
attacks. Yet, a single punch deformed the armor. In addition to the
dent, Jacobe's felt the pain of his ribs breaking.
He tried to pick himself up when Ghost dashed at him again.
Boom!
This time, Michael kicked Jacobe in the gut. The force of the kick
sent Jacobe flying yet again. He hit a tree hard before falling
down.
"Rage Shield!" Ignoring the sharp pain in his gut due to the kick,
Jacobe cast a defense spell. Immediately a glistening fiery red
bubble materialized around him.
Without giving Ghost the time to cast another spell, Jacobe

jumped up to stand on his feet. He saw Ghost was walking
towards him with his fist clenched.? Jacobe noticed the half-moon
in the sky. The area should be bright but everything around him
was darker than it was supposed to be.
"Tiger Claw!"
"Fist of Justice!"
"Elemental Spikes!"
Jacobe cast spell after spell. The first spell formed a crimson red
claw the size of a grown elephant directly above Michael. On his
side, a fist the same size as the claw materialized. As the name
suggests, the elemental spikes spell sent sharp spikes made of
elements such as fire, ice, earth, and lightning.
Boom!
Boom!
Simultaneously the claw and fist hit Ghost. Jacobe saw Ghost
neither move nor evade to avoid the claw and the fist. The force of
the attacks created an ash cloud around Ghost, preventing both
Gaya and Jacobe from looking at Ghost.
"Wind blast" Jacobe suddenly heard Ghost's voice. The very next
second, a gust of strong wind blasted away the ash cloud. Ghost
revealed himself, there was not a scratch on his body.

Jacobe couldn't believe what he had just seen. Looking directly

into Jacobe's eyes for a second, Michael raised his hand.
"Ignitia"
"Ignitia"
"Ignitia"
"Ignitia"
Several bolts of lightning shot towards Jacobe. He tried to evade

them and he did manage to avoid one but when he avoided one
bolt of lightning, another hit him in the rib cage. The moment of
slowness resulted in Jacobe getting bombarded with lightning
bolts.
Michael focused on his limbs, especially on his legs.
"ARGHH!"
"ARGHH!"
"ARGHH!"
Jacobe kept growling. No matter how hard he tried to escape, he

simply couldn't. His rage shield was penetrated by the lightning
bolts like a hot knife cutting through butter. There was no stopping
the lightning bolts.
Instead of going for the kill shot, Michael kept barraging Jacobe
with lightning bolts. His fury found no bound when he saw Gaya
kneeling.
Jacobe was just a Core Strengthening stage level 2 cultivator. On

the other hand, Michael was at level 3 which made him stronger
than Jacobe by default. With all his spell upgrades, he would be
undefeatable to anyone under Core Strengthening stage level 5 in
his Ghost persona. In his complete Lucifer form, anyone under
Core Strengthening stage level 7 had no chance of defeating or
even hurting him a little.
The distance between Jacobe and Ghost grew shorter and

shorter. Still, Michael did not stop attacking him with lightning
bolts. All of Jacobe's assessment of Ghost became wrong, way
wrong. He was being overpowered by Ghost and saw no chance
of escaping unless he could use the chains on Ghost and render
him powerless.
Puff!
Suddenly Jacobe used all of his strength to grab a handful of sand

beneath him before throwing it at Ghost's face. It was an
underhanded technique but everything was fair in a life or death
battle. Ghost momentarily closed his eyes as Jacobe immediately
called out the chain. In a blink of an eye, the chain materialized in
his hand. He wasted no time as he immediately wrapped the
chain around Ghost. He ran the chain around him a couple of
times to make sure he was tightly tied.
"You!" Gaya burned in anger. She was just about to dash at

jacobe when she saw Ghost rip off the chain as though it was a
hemp rope. There was no slow motion, no fancy movements, and
no dialogues. He just ripped off the chain in a second.

The chain lost its glimmer in his hand,
"What?!" Jacobe cried out in shock,
"Argh!" In his momentary shock, he received an elbow to his gut

from Ghost.
The next moment, Jacobe was being wrapped around by the

chain.
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
….
Michael grabbed Jacobe's throat and began to punch him in the

face with all his strength. The blood spurted out more and more
with each punch. The skull of Jacobe began to cave in.The light of
life slowly faded away yet Michael did not even slow down the
speed of his punches.
He lifted Jacobe from the ground while punching him. In his fury,
he was walking towards a? tree.
Bam!
Michael slammed Jacobe against a tree as the large tree

shuddered.It lost almost half of its leaves due to the force. One
could see Michael's eyes flicker in red.
The rage Michael kept within him exploded like a volcano. Even
Gaya who was enjoying the beatdown began to freak out when
she saw Ghost keep punching Jacobe mercilessly. The Ghost she
knew before leaving for the Fire Realm would have killed Jacobe
by now. However, he just kept going.
He even began to miss his punches.Those missed punches

landed onto the tree. The tree caved in because of his punches.
"Argh!"
The cry didn't come out of Jacobe but from Michael. He was in
rage mode. The lingering light in Jacobe's eyes enraged Michael.
He wanted to beat Jacobe to death.
Because of his rage, he failed to notice the small grenade appear

in Jacobe's hands.
"Human!" Gaya however noticed the grenade. She

shouted,dashing towards Michael. However, it was too late as the
bomb explded with a loud bang.
The ear piercing sound coupled with a bright flash of light

disoriented Gaya. She stumbled down. For a few moments, the
world around her spinned unstoppingly.
Fortunately, the bomb Jacobe used was a stun grenade. While

Ghost and Gaya were in a disoriented state, he mustered the
leftover strength in his body to run. The first thing he did was chug
a healing potion. The punches broke his jaw but he still managed
to drink a healing potion. Obviously one healing potion was not
enough yet it gave him enough strength to run away. The healing
potion he drank was extremely powerful. It was brewed by none
other than Ghost himself.
He was dashing into the forest and just when he was about to
take off, an invisible energy force blasted him off.
"Argh!" Jacobe growled. He was just a few minutes away from

escaping.
"Only" suddenly out of nowhere a gruff voice echoed through the
forest. The next moment, a large dragon descended through the
canopy and landed directly beside Jacobe. The dragon stomped
Jacobe as he spurted out mouth full of blood,
"I can hit her" Jacobe struggled to breathe under the feet of
Nightmare,
Jacobe's eyes opened as wide as they could. He began to

struggle violently because he saw the dragon's body begin to glow
brighter and brighter. It was the indication of the dragon's breath.
Whoosh!
"ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jacobe lost his calm

composure. When the dragon's breath came out of Nightmare's
mouth, he screamed like a scared cat. His scream of agony
reverberated the forest.
Although he was a Core Strengthening stage level 2 cultivator, he

was injured by Michael to the point of death.Coupled with that
point, Nightmare was able to overpower Jacobe with his Core
Formation level 6 cultivation. His superior physical size and
strength gave him an advantage over Jacobe.
Finally, the dragon's breath ended Jacobe's life.

Chapter 409 - Reunion
Chapter 409 - Reunion
The moon was showering the land beneath with its sparkling blue
light. The millions of stars generously provided their light,
partnering with the moon. Under the two natural light sources, the
forest remained in silence. Except for the songs of night crickets
and the rustling of flora, there was no sound to be heard. In the
scorched area of the forest, Michael and Gaya were standing on
opposite sides. They spoke no words for a few minutes. Their
eyes were locked onto each other. Either of them had so many
things to say to the other. However, no words came out of their
mouths, at least from Gaya's mouth.
Her eyes watered with a mix of joy and worry. She was afraid of
how he might act. After all, she disappeared leaving a simple
letter. Michael noticed her Core Strengthening stage level 2
cultivation. Granted he expected her to become stronger but at
the moment, he couldn't care less about cultivation levels. He was
glad and elated to see her back in one piece.
"Snakey" Michael smiled, breaking the silence between them.
"Human" Gaya just dashed at him as fast as she could, dropping

the satchel with Vedora in it on the ground. She came running to
him before leaping at him like a tiger. She wrapped her legs
around his waist and hugged him with all her might. He returned
the favor as he hugged her as tight as he could. Both of them
embraced each other without any intention to let the other go.
They both missed the warmth of the other. Deep down both of
them yearned for the other one's touch. All of their senses were
having a blast. They took in each other's smell, touch, warmth,
and embrace to the fullest. Gaya frantically began to shower him
with kisses. The stubble beard did not stop her from landing
passionate kisses on his cheeks. She cupped his face and kept
kissing him without uttering a word.
Vedora crawled out of the satchel to see Michael and Gaya locked
into passionate kissing. Soon she changed her target from cheeks
to his lips. Her kiss was fueled with passion and wild heated love.
He could not hold back as he ran his fingers through her hair to
grab her by the head. He pulled her closer, flaming the fire of their
love. They savored each second of the kiss. Nothing bothered
them for long minutes. They forgot about their worries and
enjoyed the moment. Gaya pulled Michael towards her with both
her hands and legs that wrapped around his waist.
While the lovers were enjoying the passionate moment of

tenderness, Nightmare's vertically slit pupils became rounded,
noticing Vedora in the distance. Immediately Nightmare shrunk
himself to the size of a puppy before running towards the three-
headed Hydra to welcome them back home. For Nightmare, Cain
and Sarba were the little brothers as Ayag was a bratty little sister.
He loved them dearly and they too loved Nightmare.
"Ayag, Cain, Sarba" Nightmare reached Vedora in a few blinks of

an eye.
"Hey brother" Sarba greeted Nightmare with a wide grin,
"Come here you big lizard" Ayag seemed more excited than
Sarba. She was bouncing. When he got closer, Both Sarba and
Ayag coiled around Nightmare's neck. They licked him and so did
Nightmare. As usual, Cain remained expressionless yet he too
gave a gentle headbutt as a gesture of his love towards
Nightmare.
"I missed you three so much" Nightmare gently lifted them off the
ground.
"We too. You won't believe the shit we've seen inside the Fire
Realm" Ayag said excitedly.
"Fire Realm?" Nightmare was surprised,

"We will talk about that later. After we reach dark forest" Cain felt
bad for breaking up their reunion but the appearance of Jacobe
and the reapers made him go home as fast as he could before
they received any more surprises.
"We aren't going anywhere until those two get tired" Ayag
chuckled at Cain,
As though Gaya and Michael heard them, they finally ended their
kissing. Their heads moved a few inches away from the other.
Looking directly into Gaya's eyes, Michael spoke.
"Next time you pull a stunt like this, I will chase you down and kick
your snakey ass"
"Aww, my human is worried about me" She giggled. The tears of

joy couldn't be stopped from rolling out of her eyes. She then
gently kissed him on the forehead. Finally, after several minutes of
clinging onto him, she let go of her legs to land on her feet on the
ground.
"I'm worried about them, not you" Michael pinched her cheeks
with an intention to make her pout. It had been so long since he
messed with her. Felt good to play with her after a long time.
"You are still a jerk" in return, she pinched his nose frowning.
Whoosh!
As Gaya was pinching his nose, Nightmare dashed at her. He was

too fast as even Gaya noticed him after he came colliding with
her.
"Stupid Naga" Nightmare brushed his warm head onto her

cheeks. He embraced her with his feathery wings.
"I missed ripping off your ugly clothes," Nightmare said, continuing
to rub his head on her face.
"I missed kicking your scaly butt every single day" Gaya brushed
his head gently with a smile on her face. Nightmare opened his
feathery wings to embrace Ghost and Gaya together. Vedora felt
cozy between the three of them.
"Sorry to break our reunion guys but we should hurry back home"
Cain drew their attention to him. He really hated to break the
group hug but he liked to be safe rather than sorry. Removing
himself from the hug, Michael looked around at the dead bodies of
the reapers as well as the charcoaled body of Jacobe for a
moment. The dead bodies of the reapers were beyond
recognizable. They were deep into the forest and if he was
correct, their bodies would decompose before even anyone could
find them.
"Let's go," Michael said. There was no point in searching Jacobe's

body because the space ring as well as the armor was melted by
the dragon's breath. Nightmare could have gone easy on Jacobe.
The dragon was too mad and Michael couldn't blame him. Even
he was losing his control and rational thought because of what
Jacobe tried to do.
With Vedora in his hands, Nightmare flapped his wings while

Gaya and Michael took off from the ground creating a shock wave
due to their speed.
"We should fly instead of teleporting" Sarba raised his concern in

the mid-air,
"Yeah, I for one would love to listen to everything that happened

since we left"
Michael and Gaya nodded agreeing with Ayag and Sarba. It didn't
seem like a bad idea to fly rather than teleport. If something
happened, Michael could always teleport back to a dark forest.
Else, flying under the beautiful starry sky seemed to be the best
place to tell each other everything that happened.
*******************************
"My Lord" Eventually when they returned to the dark forest,

Azazel greeted Michael as usual with a deep bow.
"My Lady, you are back!" Azazel's eyes sparkled in joy when he
saw Gaya and Vedora. His ethereal face lit up,
"Before you start celebrating my return, leave us the room" Gaya's

face was serious just like her voice.
"Yes, yes, of course, my lady" Azazel could tell the reason for her
concern must be Dark Lord's recent problem.
After Azazel left the room, Gaya sat on the edge of the bed while
Michael sat beside her. Nightmare and Vedora took Michael's
working chair in front of his workbench where there were
blueprints, various metal parts, and tools lying around.
"So we are fucked in so many ways" she looked at him with a

worried face. However, Michael just smiled. No matter how
worried she was, seeing him smile always reassured her. It gave
her an immense amount of courage. She missed this feeling when
she was in Fire Realm.
"Noah knowing your identity is not a biggie"
"What do you mean not a biggie? You just told us Noah is the
disciple of Andreas who happens to be the Supreme Guardian
and very very very powerful" Ayag asked,
Michael told her everything that happened from what happened

inside the captain's cabin of the Silent Reaper to his invitation to
Mazeroth to the appearance of the third persona. At the moment,
she was equally worried about both Ghost and her mother.
"Noah is a self-righteous guy. He feels indebted to me for saving

his family. Guy like him hate to be indebted. By keeping your
secret, he feels he has settled his debt, and trust me, he will keep
his word. After all, he's the next Supreme Guardian" Michael
calmly explained. They couldn't understand him completely but his
words somewhat made sense to them, especially to Cain who
also thought like Michael.
"The problem is the tiger attacked you"

"Was a problem" Nightmare growled after hearing Michael,
"If he could find her identity, then we have to assume, more

trackers like him can too"
"Killing Xanali and her mother will solve the problem," Cain coldly
said. He wasn't too happy about being held hostage by someone.
He felt disgusted, not at Jacobe but with himself for being too
weak.
"I agree with blacky here. Let's go kill those bitches" Ayag
snickered.
"I hate to admit it but it seems to be the quick and the right way"
Finally Sarba raised his opinion. Both Nightmare and Gaya were
stunned. It was extremely rare for the three heads to agree on
something.
As much as she loved to see them agree on something without

biting each other, she couldn't agree on killing Xanali and her
stepmother. Especially after her mother warned her about Xanali's
mother.
"If I only had 200,000 badass points" Michael sighed inside. If he

had the amount, the system would have placed a rune on Gaya's
body preventing anyone from tracking her down. According to the
system, no one could track her down using any methods after
placing the rune on her. However, Michael did not have 200,000
badass points. He lacked 40,000 points.
"System, can you create a teleportation scroll to teleport Gaya

with me to Mazeroth?"
[Of Course the system can. For 100,00 badass points, the system
can create an invitation just like the one you received for Gaya]
Chapter 410 - Next level of the
relationship
Chapter 410 - Next level of the relationship
"Yes, do that" Michael willed the system to create an invitation for

Gaya. He could face the problems thrown at him by others but it
would be difficult to face those problems when he was dealing
with a problem within. The third persona problem had to be solved
before doing anything.
"So your mother is still alive?" Nightmare asked Gaya. She sighed
but several seconds after deep thinking, she reluctantly nodded,
"I think so. Human do something and bring me with you to the
Akilan realm. Let's go beat the crap out of that elf. He might know
a way to get there without the invitation"
Since he told her about the invitation he received to join Mazeroth,

she wanted to come with him to the Akilan realm. She was
completely stunned when she first heard him. Perhaps it was luck
or perhaps it was a coincidence, either way, Gaya was surprised
to the core.
"Getting you to the Akilan realm is not a problem"
He shook his head,
"The problem is dealing with Xanali and hiding your identity"
After spending 100,000 badass points on creating an invitation to

Gaya, he had 60,000 badass points left. The special rune which
would hide Gaya's identity cost 200,000 badass points. Therefore,
he needed 140,000 badass points immediately. He could earn that
if he remained in Elon and made an appearance in the Alchemy
competition. However, time was of the essence. The longer he
spent in Elon, the more problems would occur. Gaya was not safe
anymore. The best way seemed like visiting the Akilan realm with
Gaya, finding the dark elf Gaya's mother told her about, trying to
find answers, and leaving the realm as soon as possible.
"We may or may not face some problems if we go to the Akilan

realm" Cain calmly spoke,
"But your third persona will definitely be a problem for all of us if

we stay here. We should take the risk and go find that dark elf and
try to find a fix for your problem as well as some clues about her
mother" Cain had exactly the same thoughts as Michael.
"It's indeed a risk, especially after her mother spoke something

about Skyhall spies. We can't stay here"
If Gaya was with him, in case a danger comes to her, he could

use the system to save both of them. He wouldn't be able to do
that if he was in another realm without her. Moreover, he had a gut
feeling that the Akilan realm might have the answers he
desperately needs and more.
"The we don't include the three of you" Gaya sternly said looking
at the three of them. Except for Cain, both Sarba and Ayag
scowled.
"What do you mean? We are coming with you!" Ayag raised her
voice.
"No, it's already a risk I'm going with him. If you, an otherworldly
creature came with us, we'd be in big trouble. Stay here and
cultivate while we are away"
"NO WAY!" Ayag shouted regardless of Gaya's deathly gaze.
"Ghost say something, bring us with you" Unlike Ayag, Sarba took
a more subtle approach. He just pleaded with Ghost.
However, Ghost also shook his head,

"It's better if you three stay here" He had enough to worry about
already. The last thing he wanted was someone in the Akilan
realm to find out about Vedora. They accepted familiars but he
doubted the list of familiars would include a Hydra.
He wanted to protect Vedora. If the dormant Hydra came out of its

slumber one day, the entire world would be in danger. That day,
he knew he might have to fight the hydra along with Nightmare
and Vedora. With the system's help, he could make the Vedora
more powerful than the Hydra in Stormveil mountain. Otherwise,
that hydra would crush everyone and everything under its feet.
Approximately three hours later, Michael was standing under a

gigantic banyan tree. There were hundreds of giant trees in the
dark forest. They literally prevented any sunlight from peeking
through the canopy. Hence, the name dark forest. In addition to
the massive trees, there were always storm clouds above the dark
forest. To others, the forest was a freaky horrifying place but for
Michael, it felt like home.
Currently, he stood under the tree calming himself. The

illuminating mushrooms and the flowers were the only light source
he had. He didn't want to conjure fireballs and disturb the sea of
crows watching him from the branches.
"Human"
Michael heard Gaya from behind. He turned back to see her

approaching him slowly. Her fist was curled as though she was
holding something in her hand that she didn't want him to see.
"How are they?" Michael asked. Ayag and Sarba weren't very
happy about being left behind and Michael was not in the mood to
tend to their tantrums.
He was more focused on the risks of traveling to the Akilan realm.
"Not very thrilled but I managed to convince them to be here while

we are away" She sighed.
"I…You…something…shit" She soon began to stutter for some
reason. Her toes shoveled the soil beneath her while she kept
avoiding direct eye contact with him.
"What? You being shy?" Regardless of all the concerns in his

mind, when he saw her, he couldn't help smiling.
"No, I'm not shy. You're shy, what the fuck are you talking about?
Shit im rumbling" She blabbered. He wondered why she was
acting weird all of a sudden.
Nonetheless, he could tell she was about to tell him something

important by looking at her behavior.
"Fuck it" Gaya took a deep breath before lifting her head to look
him in the eyes, With several steps forward, she closed the gap
between them. At the moment, she stood only a couple of inches
away from him.
While he was wondering what she was planning, she grabbed his
hand, putting a ring on his finger to his surprise. Michael was
startled by what she did. The ring was not a very fancy one but a
silver ring with a tiny round sapphire in the center.
"Kneel down and ask me to marry you right this instant" She
placed a ring that looked exactly the same as the one in his ring in
his hand.
For a few moments, his mind went blank. No words escaped his
mouth as he just stared at her in shock. Gaya's heart was
pounding against her chest looking at his stunned face.
"Did I rush this? What if he rejects me? What if he's not ready?
What if I'm being too pushy? What if…" there were so many
questions running inside her mind.
Only when she saw a smile emerge on his face, did the storm in
her heart and mind calm down. He knelt down on one knee. She
began to shiver although she expected this to happen when she
handed over the ring to him,
"Gaya Ashton, will you marry me?"
This was not how he imagined proposing to Gaya, not at all. He

loved her dearly and she loved him. That was all that mattered to
Michael.
"Yes, yes I will" She gave her right hand for him to put the ring on
her finger. Like a flood breaking out of a dam, tears of joy gushed
out of her eyes. She did not even wait for him to stand up but
wrapped her hands around his neck as tight as she could.
They spoke nothing to each other as they just stood in the middle
of the dark forest in each other's embrace.
"I will marry you despite the fact you have a fricking spirit child
with that bitch" She said in his ears.
"I won't share you with her but if that child needs a father, you can
be there for the kid"
The last thing Gaya wanted was Ghost to abandon his child as
they abandoned him. She knew better than anyone how much
Ghost hated his parents for throwing him away. By leaving the
spirit child, he kinda did the same. Deep down Gaya couldn't help
thinking he left Layla and the child because he was in love with
her.
Unlike the men in this world, he hated the idea of having multiple
spouses.
In truth, Gaya could not even imagine sharing him with another
woman.
That didnt mean she wouldn't let him be a father to the spirit child.
As far as she was concerned, that child did nothing wrong. She
did not want to be the reason for Ghost to abandon the child.
"It's better this way Gaya. I will watch over them but I won't be a
father to that child. The child is better off with its mother" Michael
said while brushing her back to reassure her. He knew she was
blaming herself deep down for what happened to the child.
Words were the only thing he had to reassure her. He just hoped
Layla would raise the child away from the guardians, away from
the outside world. This time he didn't kill the child because the
child did no wrong. However, if the child somehow became a
pawn of the guardians, he would have no choice but to neutralize
the child. Of course, he would give the child an explanation and a
chance. His life was getting complicated with each passing day.
He had more problems to deal with than being around the kid who
may or may not become a threat in the future.
"Don't worry, we will make sure no one brainwashes that child

against you" Gaya reassured him,
After they cleared the air about the spirit child, she bite his ear
playfully,
"Are you gonna tell me your real name fiance?" She chuckled,
regardless of her playful tone, he knew she was really hoping for
him to answer. She wanted him to know his name. It was the level
of trust she wanted for him, her future husband.
"Michael, my name is Michael"

Chapter 411 - Close to
Avenging Jack’s Death
Chapter 411 - Close to Avenging Jack's Death
"Michael," Gaya said. Countless emotions got stirred up by the

word. It had been decades since someone called him Michael.
"Michael" Yet again she called him. She did not let go of him as
she still had him locked in her embrace.
"Michael"
Again and again, she called him by his name until Michael began
to chuckle,
"Okay okay," he took his head off her shoulder and cupped her
head. With a bright grin on his face, he playfully rubbed his nose
on her nose before giving her a gentle head butt. His soft kiss on
her forehead warmed her heart.
"Still I like to call you human," As Michael put his arm around her
neck, she pinched his cheek.
Forgetting all of his problems for a while, he walked around the

forest with Gaya. Being with her felt different than being alone. It
was like all of his problems became puny when he was with her.
Moreover, the blood lust diminished from his heart.
He wondered if Gaya leaving him was the reason for the third
persona to appear.
"Did I tell you that we have a guardian to interrogate?"

"Yeah. Let's go celebrate our special day with good old-fashioned
torture, hehehe" She chuckled. Her reaction made Michael
chuckle too,
"You are so evil. Are you sure you don't have any alternate
personas within you?"
"I have and you will see them after marriage" She sounded like a
cartoon villain. Her evil laughter echoed through the forest.
Regardless of his problems, he couldn't help laughing with her. It

was so funny. On their way back to the underground mansion,
they did not fly but just walked, enjoying each other's company.
For Michael, it felt like he was taking a walk in the park with his
fiance. All the way to the mansion, he had his arm around her
neck while her hand was around his waist.
When it came to romantic gestures, Ghost beat Noah every time.

Noah's love was spread to multiple girls but Ghost only loved
Gaya. All of his love was directed towards Gaya. That didnt mean
Noah didn't love the girls in his harem. However, he was too busy
solving every single girls' problems instead of actually spending
time with them. No matter how busy Michael was, he always
made time for Gaya. Sometimes Gaya wondered how they could
call him evil.
When they entered the mansion, Azazel appeared before them to

greet them.
"How are they?" Gaya asked,
"They are sleeping with Lord Nightmare, my lady" Gaya nodded

on her way to their room. She stayed outside making zero noise.
Then she slowly opened the door to peek through the gap to see
Vedora cuddling with Nightmare. They were sleeping under
Nightmare's wings. Ayag's head was on Nightmare's face with her
mouth wide open. Sarba and Cain slept peacefully under
Nightmare's warm body.
"I can't believe they will soon grow up" She smiled as Michael put
his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. For a few moments, she
rested her head on his hand and watched them sleeping.
"Azazel, tell Dular to come to the guardian's chamber with an

undead" Michael let Gaya take the lead as torturing was not his
strong suit. He preferred to kill instead of torture.
At the moment, Connors was tied to a tree in the pocket

dimension attached to the mansion. He was unconscious. Michael
injected enough knockout potion into his body to keep him
unconscious for several days.
In addition to the potion, he had to buy specialized chains from the

system store to tie him up. Usually, the guardians used a chain
with specialized runes to keep a cultivator tied. These chains were
extremely expensive.
This was why Runemastery was the highest-paid skill in the world.
They could make a piece of junk into an enhanced magical item.
Since Michael had no time to go shopping and it would raise

suspicions if his underlings bought these expensive chains,
Michael decided to buy them from the system store.
"Hrmmm" Connors's consciousness slowly returned to him. He felt

a sharp pain on his cheek. While growling, he opened his eyes.
The last thing he remembered was getting knocked down by the
woman with Lucifer back on a ship.
His eyes twitched due to seeing a light after a long time. as his
blurry vision cleared up, he saw Lucifer standing in front of him.
The surroundings surprised Connors. He was outside as he could
hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance, birds chirping and as
far as he could see, there was not a single man-made structure.
The tall mountains stood around as though they were guards of
Lucifer.
Connors tried to move his limbs but he noticed he had been tied
to the chair. He looked at his wrists to see the silver chains. The
chains gave him some hope because he recognized the chain. If
Lucifer was using the chains, that meant they were no longer on
the Southern continent.
"Our guardian is awake. Wonderful" Connors's body jerked when
he heard a voice all of a sudden.
He couldn't turn back but soon he saw another figure walking from
his behind. The figure wore armor similar to Lucifer but the figure
looked feminine. The shape of the armor indicated whoever
wearing the armor was a woman.
Connors was staggered by the two of them. The guardians were

thinking Lucifer was working alone. They did not even suspect
there might be two Lucifers, let alone one woman and one man.
"Guardian Connors"
Regardless of her feminine look, the figure sounded exactly the

same as Lucifer. The unearthly animalistic voice still freaked him
out no matter how many times he had heard it before.
"We have some questions for you. And you're gonna answer them
like a good boy"
Connors didn't know how many days he'd been out. The faith in
the guardians was not as strong as before. He joined guardians to
climb the ranks and live long enjoying a wealthy life. Getting
tortured was not in his mind. He had two choices, he could try to
stall them and hope for the guardians to appear but the possibility
of that to happen was extremely slim. The second choice was to
answer their questions and hope they won't torture him and let
him live.
"What…what do you want to know?"
Gaya was surprised. Behind her mask, one could see her brows
arch up. She did not expect the guardian to drop his shield just
like that. Again, when she thought about it, it wasn't much of a
surprise to her as she knew the guardians valued their lives more
than their duty as a guardian. Only a few handfuls of guardians
valued the principles of the guild more than their lives such as
Noah, Peyton, and probably Xanali.
"Tell us everything about operation New Dawn," Lucifer asked as
Connors was startled to the core.
"How…how did he know?" Connors asked himself. His body

shivered.
Sweat began to appear uncontrollably through every single one of

his pores.
There was only one thing that could tie him to the New Dawn
operation; an access card with the name 'Operation New Dawn'
etched onto its surface.
The reason he kept the card was that it was made of pure gold.
He planned to use that card and negotiate with Alpha guardian to
climb up the rank. Off-the-books operations were risky but they
also came with opportunities.
Keeping his mouth shut about Operation New Dawn was not
worth losing his life. Hence, he decided to spew out everything he
knew about the operation. There was no information about the
operation that would make Lucifer torture him to death.
"You can start by telling us what was the goal of this operation?
And who ran it?" asked Michael gruffly. The feeling of something
amiss whirled inside his heart.
Gaya strolled towards him and put her hand on Connors's

shoulder. She drummed her fingers on his shoulder,
"Come on Guardian,"
"Peyton-Peyton was the lead. She put together a team to find

clues about you"
"Oh"
As Michael had expected, Gaya's voice sounded surprised. What

were the odds of a guardian they knew personally to run the
operation that aimed to take them down? If Peyton was running
the operation, Xanali would definitely be involved.
"I assume there were others in your team. Names" said Gaya
sharply.
"Hashira Sayo, Alberto Pirani and Xavier Rogers" Connors listed

the names without a second of interruption. For him, ratting out
their names was no big deal. After all, they weren't the ones tied
to the chair and being interrogated by two scary people.
"And Noah Winston"
Connors never liked Noah. Ever since he joined the team, all the
girls including the red haired hottie were too mingled with
him.Which obviously annoyed Connors. He felt threatened by
Noah. So Connors wanted to put Noah in the crosshairs of Lucifer.
"What was your role in the team?" asked Gaya, tightening her grip
on his shoulder,
"We…we each got a target. We followed, surveyed and reported

back to Peyton"
"Who is your target, Guardian Connors?"
"Gh-Ghost" Connors stammered.
Michael's red eyes flickered. With a few steps forward, he came

before him.
"If you had followed him, then you must know how much sins
Ghost and the people around him committed"
Gaya was bewildered by his words but decided to play along.
"In my eyes, those who had the power to punish the evil and
chose not to are the worst kind. So tell me Guardian Connors,
have you punished the evil as a Guardian should? Have you
punished Ghost or his lackeys? Your answer will decided whether
you leave here alive or dead"
What the hell? Gaya's mind had so many questions.Still, her mind
quickly came to a conclusion that made her blood boil.
"A life for a life. If you had taken a life of a sinner, you will be
forgiven" Michael bluffed.
His flickering red eyes hid the murderous intent within him. At the
place where Jack died, he saw two words 'GG'.
Chapter 412 - Avenging Jack’s
Death
Chapter 412 - Avenging Jack's Death
Jack's death affected Gaya more than it affected Michael. For

Gaya, Jack was like an annoying little brother. He always came
running to her whenever he got into trouble, which was a lot.
Everywhere she went, she could hear 'sister Aelia' from his
mouth. She never thought she would miss him so much. Michael
on the other hand didn't grieve as much as Gaya but he promised
Jack that he would avenge his death.
"I did…I punished evil" said Connors quickly.
"Whom did you punish?" Michael was feeling the anger growing
inside him as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.
For a few moments, Connors went silent. He did not remember

the name. He picked his brain to remember to recall the name of
the youngster he killed while surveying Ghost.
Finally, after a few moments of silence, Connors remembered the

name. There was a big funeral for the youngster in the Sun Rise
sect and Peyton ordered him to attend the funeral so he could
learn more about the people close to Ghost. As far as Peyton was
concerned, the youngster was killed by a bandit or a group of
bandits.
"Ja-Jack" the words barely escaped his mouth.
"Jack?!" Gaya boomed,
"You killed Jack?" when she spoke, every syllable trembled with
rage.
Connors gulped but no words came out of his mouth,
Michael took a step back as she came before Connors. There was
no saving Connors and honestly, there was no point in saving
Connors.
The feeling of anger building within worried him already. He was

focused on controlling his anger while Gaya grabbed Connors's
neck.
"You killed Jack!" she hissed, her voice becoming more animalistic
and otherworldly. Connors had gone too far. He killed someone
Gaya cared about. Never in a million years, she would have cared
for a human eighteen months ago. After meeting Ghost and
joining the sect, she had a family, a real family that cared for her.
Although she did not express her fondness to them clearly, she
cherished them in her heart.
By killing Jack, Connors had crossed the line.
"Azazel tells Dular there is no need for him to come here" Michael
used the telepathic connection he shared with Azazel to inform
him.
Connors was confused by the sudden change in her behavior.

One moment she was listening to him calmly from behind and the
next, she was radiating immense killing intent.
"You fu- ARGH!" She was so furious that words didn't come out of
her mouth.
Thud!
She raised her leg and kicked Connors in the chest with enough
force to send his chair flinging like a kite in the storm. The chain
still held him to the chair but the force of the kick loosened up a
bit. Yet, Connors was not in the state to yank the chain to release
himself. He felt as if his ribs were cracked by the kick.
She flew towards Connors in a blink of an eye to continue her

thrashing. Michael did not stop her and did not even think about
stopping her.
Connors was just a Core Formation cultivator. Even if he escaped

from his chains, there was no escape from Gaya. They had
already taken his space ring as well as scanned him for any
artifacts that would make him escape.
"Argh!"
Connors let out a cry as Gaya stomped him on the chest. It

seemed like she wasn't going to use any spells to torture him
other than her own raw strength. Regardless of the blood spraying
out of Connors's mouth, she kept stomping him to the point the
chair crumbled to pieces.
"ARGHHHHH!" The furious cry came out of Gaya's mouth as she

picked up the chain lying on the ground.
Cling!
Cling!
Cling!
Cling!
She was beating the crap of Connors with a chain. Every single
swing had pure rage/ His skin was splitting open and blood came
out almost every single part of his body. Then, she stopped
beating him. She was breathing heavily, not because of
exhaustion from beating him but in fury,
With a flick of her wrist, a bunch of healing potions appeared in

her hand. She squatted down and forced the healing potion down
into his throat. The healing potion she used was not enough for
Connors to get back to his full strength though. It was just enough
to heal his wounds inside and out so he could sustain more
beatings.
Instead of standing up, she grabbed Connors by his head while

squatting beside him and began to punch him in the face and
chest furiously. The green grass under Connors turned red. The
soil was soaked in blood. His consciousness was drifting away
when she forced another healing potion down his throat.
It had been three hours since she began to beat the hell out of
Connors. Michael was standing still and watching Gaya going
berserk on him. She got really creative with Connors. She landed
punches and kicks on every part of Connors's body. No matter
how hard Connors cried, she did not show him a shred of mercy.
After the second hour of getting beaten by Gaya, Connors began

to beg for death. Michael would have felt pity for any other man
but not for Connors. He murdered Jack who was a naive innocent
guy in cold blood.
The reasons for Connors's actions did not matter to Michael. In

fact, he couldn't care less about the reasons. Connors killed Jack
who adored Michael and Gaya. As far as Michael was concerned,
Connors deserved this and so does Peyton who put together the
New Dawn Operation and anyone who knew the truth about
Jack's truth,
"Where the fuck is Dular?!" her rageful shout reverberated the

entire pocket dimension,
"Azazel, change of plans, send Dular to me with an undead"
"Yes my lord"
A few minutes later, Dular appeared in the pocket dimension with

an undead. The orc had grown quite a bit as he now stood almost
six feet 8inches. In addition to his physical growth, he had also
reached Core Formation level 6. Michael would have been
disappointed if the orc didn't break through to the Core Formation
stage because Michael had provided hundreds of thousands
worth of potions and pills to Dular.
The undead standing beside Dular was growling. Black gooey

liquid oozed out of its mouth and nose as though it was drooling at
the blood sprayed from Connors.
Except for the missing genitals, the undead zombie had
everything of a human. The putrid smell that came from the
zombie's grayish skin would have made Michael twitch his nose if
it wasn't for the mask.
Dular wanted to bow and greet Lucifer yet his eyes were glued to
Gaya mercilessly beating a human.
"Come here!" Gaya thundered yet again.
Dular's legs automatically began to walk in her direction. The

undead dragged its feet to follow him behind. The next moment,
Azazel's ethereal body materialized beside Michael,
"My lord"
"Azazel"
Michael turned his gaze aside to see Azazel looking at him with a
bewildered look on his face. The demon butler was obviously
curious to know why Gaya was thrashing Connors instead of
interrogating him.
"He killed Jack" He simply said as Azazel gave him a long nod.
Azazel wasn't familiar with Jack but he knew his death affected
Gaya. After he started surveillance, she gave him an order to look
out for anyone who might have killed Jack. She asked him to look
for clues although they both knew at that time, it was a long shot.
From Nightmare, he heard the full story of Jack as well as
everyone from the Sun Rise sect.
"My Lady" Despite the size and horrifying look that all the orcs
had, Dular was freaked out by Dark Queen. She was scarier than
Lucifer himself. When Lucifer was training with undeads, by
training, he meant slaughtering Netherels left and right, Lucifer
would focus on killing them efficiently, swift and quick.
However, Dark Queen was more sadistic, she would rip them
apart, beat them to pulp and laugh out loud while killing them. As
an Orc who grew up with a bunch of violent blood-thirsty orcs,
Dular knew a sadistic vicious being when he saw one. Gaya was
definitely on the top of his list of vicious ones.
Dular noticed a bunch of empty vials lying around the poor human
who was getting beaten to death. Except for a small piece of tunic
covering the human's genitals, there was no cloth on his body. His
skin was riddled with scratch marks. It seemed like the Dark
Queen was clawing and scratching him with her sharp claws.
"Make it eat him," said Gaya, gritting her teeth. For a moment,
Dular couldn't realize the meaning of her words.
"Make…it…eat…him" She spoke every word full of rage,
Dular saw several healing potions appear in her hand. Now he

realized what those empty vials were.
"Don't let him die. Heal him and make it eat his flesh slow and
painful. I want to hear his screams"
This was borderline sickening to Michael. Yet he couldn't get

himself to stop her. Deep within his heart, he wanted her to
continue. At this moment, Michael realized that something really
broke within him. He wanted to fix that as soon as possible before
he turned into something the Guardians claimed.
"No…please…no" Connors stuttered only to get a kick to his

mouth. His jaw cracked,
"You murdered someone I really cared about. Your death should

satisfy him" Gaya spoke with her grave voice. She then looked up
at the sky,
"Are you seeing this Jack? Your murderer is suffering"
During the following hours, Connors's scream filled the pocket

dimension.
No mercy was shown to him until Nightmare chose to end his life
once and for all.
Chapter 413 - Throwing a party
Chapter 413 - Throwing a party
After throwing away Connors's body, Michael and Gaya left the
dark forest with Nightmare accompanying them. Vedora stayed in
the mansion as they planned. Gaya promised them to bring a lot
of snacks and reading materials for Cain.
"Do you remember the times we went to buy some alchemy stuff
for you in Bradford and Jade bitch messed with us?" She amused,
"Hmm" nodded Michael recalling the past events. It felt as though

everything happened yesterday.
"That bitch Peyton spied on us. We spy on others, not the other
way around. We should find her and make an example out of her
before going to eww" she stuck her tongue out,
"school"
"No, Aria can take care of spying on her. We should leave for
Mazeroth as soon as possible"
She was flying a couple of meters ahead of him but when he

heard him, she flew closer to him. Her face showed signs of
concern,
"You will be okay human. We are gonna find the dark elf in the
tree and fix you"
Rather than speak anything, he just nodded. Positivity was the

thing that kept him going ever since he was born. He couldn't think
he won't be cured at all at this point. He had to stay positive and
hope the dark elf in the tree would have answers for all of their
problems.
Three hours of flying later, Gaya saw the outskirts of the Sunrise
sect after a long time. The images of shabby buildings in the
mountain range flashed across her mind as she flew closer and
closer to the sect. Now the sect looked completely different. Alive,
that was the word that best described the sect. Even from a
distance, they could see the lines of carriages going in and out of
the mountain, groups of nobles dressed in fancy clothes,
youngsters dressed in their new black sunrise sect uniform,
buildings built with eye-catching architecture, and neatly pruned
trees and plants.
The mountain range was buzzing with chit-chatter of people.

There was only a barren land void of buildings in the mountain
which was supposed to have the main headquarters of the sect
and a huge library.
"Remind me to draw plans for the main building and library" She
directed her request towards Nightmare. The dragon was enjoying
the flying and occasionally sticking his tongue out against the
wind.
"Stop that brat"
Despite her warning, Nightmare kept sticking his tongue out.
Rolling her eyes at Nightmare, she descended towards Claire's

manor which now acted as the headquarters. Claire dealt with all
the sect business in her manor.
"Look"
"Brother Ghost"
"Is that Sister Aelia?"
"Yey she is back!"
"Oh my god a dragon!"
"They are back!"

The disciples on the ground cheered excitedly. The senior
disciples who spent more time with Gaya and Michael were a little
too excited. Those girls were jumping up and down clapping their
hands together.
"You two have an important announcement to make, so go ahead.

I'll deal with your fans club" Nightmare willed himself to grow a bit
bigger. A few seconds later when they landed on the ground, he
had grown into the size of a fully grown elephant.
"Hey guys"
"If you hug me"
Michael greeted them with a smile as usual while Gaya warned

the girls not to hug her because they looked like they were going
to squeeze her to death. Most of the disciples were stopped from
reaching Ghost and Gaya by Nightmare. Of course, those
disciples were happy to feel the scales of a dragon and remain so
close to one. After this day, they could brag about them being
friends with Nightmare which would surely let them land a
girlfriend or boyfriend from either of the three big sects.
The corridors were lit with mini light bulbs which looked like the
miniature version of chandeliers. Many of the lights were switched
off or put out by the maids because the sun was rising on the
horizon and soon, the mansion would be filled with natural
sunlight.
As the narrow corridors opened up to the spacious hall, they saw

little Cindy meditating on the sofa. Her eyes abruptly opened as
though she sensed their arrival.
"Sister Aelia!" Cindy jumped up from the sofa so fast shouting in

her childish voice.
"Brother!"
She leaped into the air and flew towards them with her hands
wide open. Cindy wished she had bigger arms so she could hug
both of them so tight. Gaya caught her in the mid-air.
"You've grown up. Soon, you won't be a tiny human anymore"
Gaya ruffled Cindy's head frantically, making her neatly combed
and pony-tailed hair into a mess.
"Ummmuuaaaa"
"Ummmuuaaaa"
"Ummmuuaaaa"
"Ummmuuaaaa"
Cindy showered Gaya with kisses. She cupped Gaya's face with
her little hand and kept kissing her,
"Aelia" her rapid kisses were interrupted by Claire's voice. They

looked up to see Claire climbing down the stairs. Her face was
beaming in joy seeing Aelia after a long time.
Ghost snatched Cindy from her hands as Claire hugged Gaya

without uttering a word. Michael squeezed her baby cheeks and
gave her a kiss on the fluffy cheeks.
"Where did you go brother?"
"Aelia, I'm glad you are fine. Where were you? We were worried"
Still keeping her in the hug, Claire asked,
"We are engaged"
Gaya avoided answering the question by stunning Claire. Gaya

felt the hug getting tighter. Claire let go of Gaya and then grabbed
her hands to see the ring on her finger,
For a few moments, Claire did not speak anything. She just stared
at Gaya with utter shock. But soon, her face brightened up as she
hugged her yet again even tighter.
"I am so happy for you two. We must celebrate this. Ghost come
here" While holding Gaya in her hug, she reached out to hug him
too. Since she was looking funny holding out her hand, Michael
reluctantly joined the group hug.
After almost five minutes of hugging, she finally let them go. Cindy
seemed confused about what made Claire so happy, She kept
gawking at the adults in the room.
Ghost took the single-seater sofa while Claire forced Gaya to sit
beside her. She squeezed Gaya's hand. Cindy on the other hand
left the hall to play with her friends after giving everyone a loving
kiss on their cheeks.
"You two enjoy your days before leaving for MAzeroth.Im gonna
throw a huge party at Hades. We should invite everyone we know"
Usually, Ghost would have rejected Claire's idea. But this seemed
to be a good way to get closer to Peyton and place the Spycam
on her. Moreover, he could invite many important figures and spy
on them too. Mazeroth was connected to Skyhall which was more
powerful than the Great clans themselves. Hence, letting people
know that he was connected with Skyhall through Mazeroth would
boost his reputation as well as prevent the powers such as the
three big sects from thinking of harming the Sunrise sect.
Even the Guardians might think twice before messing with him in
the future if he was connected with Skyhall. Granted, Skyhall
could be more dangerous to him than the Guardian guild. It didn't
stop Michael from turning the invitation into an opportunity and a
platform to spread his influence.
"We should do it, Ghost" Gaya agreed with Claire. Somehow

Michael felt as Gaya also planned to use the party as a way to get
closer to Peyton.
"Like it or not, you are a king now. And a king needs connections.
Parties like these will get you just that" Claire was used to the
wisdom of Gaya when it comes to managing. Be that it was
managing the sect or the restaurant, she always had the best
plans in her mind. Claire lost the count of times Gaya helped her
with the problems in the sect.
"Besides, it had been so long since I ate Raylene's cooking" Gaya

licked her lips. The fury in her eyes about Jack's death slowly
disappeared after meeting Cindy and Claire.
"By the way, where is your grandpa Claire?" asked Gaya as the
brightness in Claire's face slowly dimmed down,
She sighed, "ever since he came back, he's spending all his time
in the Royal land library. You know, I do want to find mom and
break the curse permanently. When he told me everything, I
wanted to go to Awor myself and search for mom"
"What changed?" asked Gaya. She knew the pain Claire is going
through. Her mother was alive yet Claire was too weak to look for
her. That pain and helplessness would soon turn into a self-blame.
Gaya didn't want Claire to go on the road of self-destruction.
"Everyone Aelia. Everyone told me not to rush and they are right. I
can't get myself or grandpa killed or worse end up in prison. We
need to deal with the problem cautiously. Any mishap and yet
another tragedy would fall on us"
Michael and Gaya both felt pity for Claire. Although they wanted to
help her, now was not the time to get meddled with the elves who
were the most powerful race in the entire world. Going against
them at this point in time would be nothing but suicidal.
"I'm glad you're being patient, Sect leader Claire. Focus on getting
stronger, no one will mess with you if you are the top dog in the
yard" said Michael leaning back on his sofa.
"And oh" all of a sudden, Claire seemed like she had remembered
something,
"King Bredia's men are waiting for you in Bradford manor. You still
haven't gone to check out the treasury"
He almost forgot about the treasury visit amidst his problems. This
was the last thing he planned to do in Elon before departing to
Mazeroth. He just hoped he would find something interesting in
the treasury. Little did he know, he is going to find something that
would make him the most dangerous man in the world.
Chapter 414 - Like taking
candy from a baby
Chapter 414 - Like taking candy from a baby
The Kingdom of Brediais a little country with a population of

almost 300,000 people including a small population of beast-men.
Bordered by a river to the North, a small sea to the South, a
bamboo forest to the East, and woodlands to the West, the
country of Bredia mainly thrived in wood production, mining, and
foreign trade as well as tourism.
The country's landscape was cheerful; impressive architecture,

jade green fields, and green, open fields were just a sliver of the
elegance Bredia had to offer, which was why the country was
treasured among foreigners.
The people of Bredia were neighborly towards foreigners and

tended to welcome them with open arms. They felt foreigners
could fortify the country's well being.
Bredia had moderate laws and law enforcement, which was

expected in their circumstances. The people were troubled by the
growing bandit problems as Bredia had a lot of forests that had
been used by the bandits to hide.
The kingdom was divided into 3 baronies; Bradford, Whiteridge,

and Sarton on top of the Capital where the king resides. After the
tournament, three baronies were reduced to 2 as Bradford
became a kingdom itself under Ghost.
There was visible tension among the people after what happened
in the tournament. Many criticized King Bredia for letting go of
Bradford while some sympathized with the king.
Instead of carriages suited for the king, Michael decided to fly to
the Capital along with the group of escorts King Bredia sent. The
one-third of the army King Bredia agreed to give him had just
reached Bradford and were making themselves at home. It would
take at least a couple of weeks for them to relocate their families
according to Gaya. It was Gaya's idea to relocate the soldiers'
families to Bradford. She was already having a meeting with Elder
Sandra to discuss the financial side of things needed for
relocation.
The plus side of this was Bradford had so many empty lands
which could be used to build new homes. The downside was it
would take some time before finishing all the new homes required.
According to Gaya, until the soldiers completely sever their ties
with Bredia, their loyalty would remain to King Bredia instead of
Ghost and her.
It made sense to Michael hence he went with her plan. After all,
she had more knowledge and experience in ruling than him. She
was so excited as he had never seen Gaya act so excited.
"We have so much work to do. How long will this take?" asked
Gaya while flying towards the capital of Bredia.
The five of the escorts flying in front of them had three armed
soldiers who seemed to be the royal guards and one of the
remaining two was an old man in his seventies while the other
was a middle-aged man dressed in crimson red robes.
The two of them were visibly surprised. They didn't expect the
king and his girlfriend would travel to another place, a place that
viewed them as enemies without any soldiers or bodyguards.
Obviously, Ghost was powerful but not that powerful to escape the
wrath of an entire country if they chose to attack him.
After almost three hours of flying, the outskirts of the capital began
to come into their view. The city was surrounded by a city wall
made of granite stones. Golden paddy fields blanketed the land
outside of the city walls, creating beautiful scenery.
While flying forwards, the two men without wearing the metal
armor drew some signs in the air as golden runes materialized
before them. The golden runes flew towards the city before fading
away.
Then nothing happened. They just continued their journey towards

the castle that remained tall and majestic at the end of the city.
The castle of Bredia wasn't as majestic as the castle of House

Kane. In fact, it was not even fair for this castle to be compared
with House Kane. Still, the castle was elegant. Ten slim, round
towers that looked as though they were piercing the sky were the
first they saw of this castle and were connected by giant, firm
walls made of white stone contrary to the blackish granite stone
city wall. Tall, wide windows were scattered generously around the
walls in seemingly perfect symmetry, along with symmetric holes
for archers and artillery.
A moderate gate with hefty metal doors, a regular bridge, and

various artillery equipment guarded the only passage into the
castle built upon a mountain top, but it was not the only way in,
which fortunately only very few know. Since they were flying, they
had no need of going through the main gate and the guards.
As they were flying towards the castle, they noticed the various
large houses scattered outside the castle gates, surprisingly the
rich were comfortable with living outside the gates as well. This
castle showed signs of expansion as some parts were clearly built
more recently than others, the inhabitants were already working
on another part and hoped to keep expanding.
Many children playing on the paved pathways looked up at them

with their hands waving. Many nobles failed to notice them but
Michael noticed the several groups of people gathered on the
streets with labels and signboards. If he had to guess, he would
say they were waiting for him, not to welcome but to show their
disapproval.
"Poor people, hehehe" chuckled Gaya looking at the protesters.

They seemed clueless which amused Gaya. She couldn't care
less about what these Bredians think.
Michael noticed the two men show their objection to her laughter
by frowning. Yet, they knew better to open their mouths. One of
the tall towers had a metal door that glowed before opening.
Through the tower, they flew down into the throne hall where he
saw a young girl in a sparkling blue dress that screamed princess.
When Michael and Gaya landed in the middle of the throne hall,
she turned back. Immediately the gentle smile on her face
disappeared. Instead, a rather cold and murderous look appeared
on her face. If one had an acute sense of hearing, they could hear
her teeth grinding against each other and the rising beats of her
heart.
"Your Royal Highness" the five of them bowed towards her in

unison while Gaya was busy scratching her ear. She did not even
look at the princess. Michael on the other hand remained calm
and cool as usual.
"Humph," Princess Katherine snickered as she walked forward

gracefully.
"Where is the treasury?"
Asked Gaya looking around the throne hall. She wasn't impressed
by the throne hall, not even a bit. Neither the modest braziers that
enclosed each of the fourteen alabaster columns light up the
entire throne hall and engulf everything in a flickering radiance nor
did the lilac rug split the entire hall in half from the doors to the
throne while swallowtail banners with emblazoned tassels the
walls impressed the Princess of Nagaland.
She looked at the grand throne of bronze sitting atop a tall

elevated platform quite a distance behind the princess. The throne
was covered in hundreds of elaborate patterns and fixed on each
of the rather slim feet is a gemmed symbolic emblem. The fluffy
pillows were a light lilac and these too had been adorned with
ornate quilting. Currently, the throne was empty as the king was
nowhere to be seen.
"The treasury will be the first place thieves would look for" The
Princess coldly said, shocking the men behind her.
"Yeah, we hate thieves too"
Michael let Gaya deal with the princess. It was funny to see Gaya
talk to the princess with a serious face while she was obviously
fanning Katherine's anger flames for fun.
"Is that so?" Katherine gritted her teeth,
"If you don't mind, lead the way please princess. We have things
to do, like ruling a kingdom" Gaya spoke, waving her hands.
"Humph, follow me" Yet again the princess snickered before

turning back. She then began to walk towards a silver door
guarded by a fully armored soldier who stood 7ft tall.
The soldier stomped the ground with his leg as the silver door slid
open to reveal the pathway lit with golden chandeliers. Only their
steps could be heard as no one uttered any word. The five men
who escorted Michael here remained silent while following them
behind.
"Lalalala…tudu..tudududu…lalalala"
Michael tried not to chuckle hearing Gaya singing. He didn't know

the lyrics but enjoyed her funny gibberish. It seemed as though
Gaya was trying to piss off Katherine.
"Tuttudu…dudududu….tututu"
After hearing the same gibberish again and again for almost
fifteen minutes, Katherine couldnt hold back anymore,
"Will you please shut up?"

"Nope. Hey Ghost, remind me to invite the Winstons to the party"
"I already sent the invites," said Michael,
"Leave them alone. They are good people," Katherine almost lost
her composure. She did not want people like Ghost to get close to
the Winstons. Especially after what he did to Andrews and her.
"We are good people. If not for us, somebody would have been
under six feet by now" said Gaya. The others felt the situation
getting tensed up by the second. They just wanted to get this
done before the two girls try to kill each other,
"When the time comes, Andrews will settle his debt," Katherine
said firmly.
"Let us pick one more thing from the treasury and we'll call it even.
We will forget about saving his butt at that time forever. How about
that princess? Are you willing to settle your sweetheart's debt?"
"Your Roya-"
The two unarmored men immediately tried to stop the princess but
it was too late as Katherine stopped them with a wave of her
hand. She turned back to look at Gaya,
"I will settle his debt but after this, you are never to speak of
Andrews ever again"
"Deal"
Michael couldn't believe how easily the princess got manipulated

by Gaya.
"Unbelievable" Michael said to himself,
"Heheheh, like taking candy from a baby…too easy" Gaya

laughed out aloud inside. The Princess was unbelievably easy to
manipulate.
Gaya almost felt bad for not asking for a couple of more items
instead of asking for only one more.
Chapter 415 - Army of Undead
I
Chapter 415 - Army of Undead I
"Lord Dular" Dular was busy poking a severed head on his table
when he heard a voice. He didn't have to turn back because he
knew who it was, an apprentice he never wanted in the first place
but got impressed by the knowledge he possessed about the
undeads; Jonah.
Jonah was dragging a dead body that reeked of putrid smell into
Dular's workshop. The workshop was a spacious hall yet there
was no empty space. Every nook and cranny had something. The
wooden racks were lined up against the walls. Jars filled with
weird eyeballs, body parts, black goo in bottles, dead bodies with
countless cuts, and various tools could be seen in the room.
After getting teleported to this dark mansion, Jonah entered into

seclusion according to Dark Queen's instructions. Three months
later, he was able to reach Foundation stage level 10 and a few
days cultivation away from reaching the Body Refining stage.
Meanwhile, during his breaks, he worked with Dular to find out
more about the undeads and the Alpha undeads.
Their combined knowledge of undeads enabled them to come up

with the most efficient way to kill the undeads. They were just a
few days away from finishing the tests and let the Dark Lord and
the Dark Queen know about the breakthrough.
This was only a side project though. The main project assigned to
Dular by the Dark Lord was to summon more powerful netherels
from the Nether Realm. In addition to more powerful netherels, he
tasked Dular to find a way to summon more netherels at a time.
Since Dular reached level 7 of Core Formation and got proficient
in summoning, he was able to summon fifty netherels at Body
Strengthening stage level 9 at a time. If it wasn't for the Dark
Lord's order to stop summoning more Netherels than they could fit
in the combat hall next door, they would have had an army of
Netherels.
Of course, it made sense not to summon more and more

Netherels because of two reasons. One, they had no place for the
undead army. If they let the undeads roam around in Dark Forest,
the guardians would definitely sense the undead presence.
Second, Dular could only bound 150 undeads using the book of
netherels. If he summoned more, they would wreak havoc,
probably rip him apart piece by piece. The second reason led to
his current experimentation with Alpha Undeads. The Alpha
undeads Michael encountered on the undead island had a certain
level of sentience. They controlled the undeads just as Dular
without any book of netherels.
"I hope this one dont end up like the last one" Jonah sighed. The
body he was dragging was an Alpha. The Dark Lord gave them a
potion that paralyzed the undead as well as knocked them out
unconscious. Dular and Jonah killed three Alpha undeads in their
experiment. They still had two more Alpha undeads and after that,
they would have to ask the Dark Lord to capture more Alpha
undeads if there were any on the undead Island.
"I'm close, I can feel it. I just need to figure out the telepathic
signals produced by the brain of an Alpha. If I could pinpoint the
signals and mimic the signals somehow, I can control the undeads
like an Alpha" Dular explained while poking the head of the alpha
on the table.
The room was dark and gloomy. Only a couple of luminous

mushrooms attached to the ceiling were their light source. The
faint blue light produced by the mushrooms was barely enough to
see where something was at.
The Alpha undeads were apparently sensitive to bright light

including sunlight. Any kind of bright light would be harmful to the
Alpha. The light sensitivity was not enough to kill an Alpha but it
was enough to disorient them by burning their skin.
"So where is the Dark Lord and the Dark Queen? I haven't even
seen the floating butler"
"It's Azazel"
"What?" asked Jonah,
"The floating butler, his name is Azazel"
Boom!
The head situated, getting poked by Dular suddenly exploded into

bits and pieces. Jonah dashed aside to avoid the brain matter yet
he couldn't avoid them completely.
"Fuck!"
Dular cursed as he punched the table with his big fist.
"Why the fuck can't I pinpoint the signals?!"
*******************************
At the moment, Ghost, Gaya, Katherine, and the five men were in
front of the metal door with intricate symbols. The door stood
almost ten feet tall and six feet wide. The sheer size of the vault
made Michael and Gaya excited to see the inside.
Katherine placed her right hand on the silver door,
"Katherine Vincelet Bredia" after Katherine spoke, the ground

beneath them lightly shivered as they heard a heavy rumbling
noise from the other side of the door. Soon, the thousands of
weird symbols on the door sparkled.
A few seconds later, the door gently opened itself to reveal the
treasury. However, when the door opened completely, Michael
was disappointed, to say the least as he saw nothing but a dimly
lit hall with several wooden racks.
"This is underwhelming," Gaya sighed. As a princess, she had
some idea where they would have stored all the wealth but she
expected at least a few million worths of gems and gold coins.
"This is the treasury?" asked Michael, creasing his brows.
"Of course it is. So according to the agreement and my word, you

can pick any two things from here" Katherine seemed to be
enjoying their disappointment. They were not idiots to keep all of
their wealth in a single place where security was an issue. Like
most of the kingdoms in Elon and Ozer, they kept their wealth in
Grand Spire bank vaults.
Grand Spire bank was the safest place to keep wealth and
precious items. It was like the Gringotts of this world. Instead of
goblins, Grand Spire was run by Elves and Dwarves.
A few days ago when the king returned to the capital, he

transferred all the remaining wealth in the treasury to the Grand
Spire bank branch in Bredia with the help of the Adventurer Guild.
Only items that were identified by the scholars and deemed as
junk remained in the treasury.
Michael had already took a huge chunk of kingdom Bredia from

the king so he did not feel any murderous anger towards the king.
After all, in time, everything in this world would belong to him.
He stepped into a dimly lit hall with the hopes of at least finding
something interesting.
"System scan everything in the room and let me know if you find
something interesting"
[That will cost you 5000 badass points]
The system began to scan the entire hall. Gaya wanted to beat
the crap out of the princess. Controlling her impulse to do so, she
looked through the items in the wooden rack.
"I pity the people of Bradford" Katherine was unable to keep her
mouth shut recalling what happened at the tournament. Her father
had never been ashamed like that ever before in his life. Granted,
she knew it was partially her fault for what happened. Still, she
hated Ghost as he almost killed Andrews and took a huge chunk
of land from them.
"Shove that pity up your ass" Gaya mumbled in just enough voice
for the princess to hear her but not too loud.
"What did you say?!"
"I said thank you"
The five men behind the princess wanted this to be over as soon
as possible before the situation escalated into a fight. They could
see Katherine clenching her fist looking at the back of the girl. The
girl on the other hand was more focused on rummaging through
the items on the rack.
"What is this?" Gaya took an old parchment covered in dust. The

parchment looked as though no one touched it for at least a
couple of decades.
She opened up the parchment to see a blueprint for a carriage,
"Seriously?" She placed the spell back on the rack with enough
for to make a thud sound.
[System has found only one item that could interest the host]
"What? Only one?" Michael asked the system in his mind,
[Yes. All the other items are mediocre at best and most of them
are just junk]
"Where is that item you found?"
The system pointed to the item using the environmental Scanning

Map as Michael made his way toward the item. One of the racks
in front of him had countless parchments and other weird-looking
objects covered in dust.
He shoved all the objects aside to pick up a rusty old metal box. It
was small as it fit in his palm. The rust covered the symbols on the
surface, preventing anyone from recognizing the symbols.
"What the hell is this?"
[It was a portal opener. Now it's just a rusty old box. Only the
system can make the box work again. For a price]
"No shit," Katherine noticed the rusty old box in his hand. She
used to play with that box when she was little. Her grandfather
bought the item in an auction in Awor continent. He believed it
held some heaven defying secrets yet after trying to unlock its
secret for decades, he realized the box was nothing but just a
metal box.
"Portal opener huh? So can I open portals anywhere using this?"
[This portal opener can open a portal to only one place. After
fixing the place, the host will be unable to change the portal
location]
A smile emerged on his face,
"How much for repairing this?"
He didn't order the system to repair the box at this moment. He

turned back to see the princess staring at him,
"Do you know what this is, Princess Katherine?"
"I'm not your personal scholar" Katherine coldly replied.
Gaya clenched her fist as she felt like knocking Katherin's teeth
out of her mouth.
"I'll take this"
Only Gaya noticed the glint of excitement in his eyes. Except for
Michael, no one had an idea he was holding a power that could
change the world forever.
[Where does the host want the box to open a portal?] The system
sounded rather curious,
"Nether Realm"
II
Chapter 416 - Army of Undead II
"Lord Dular, the Dark Lord, and the Dark Queen are back" Back
inside Dular's workshop, Jonah informed Dular about the arrival of
the Dark Lord and the Dark Queen.
The workshop was a mess because after killing the last Alpha
undead they had, Dular went crazy as he started to punch
everything he could in the room. Jonah could not stop him as he
barely survived the crazy orc.
Jonah could still vividly see the Orc running around crazy. He kept
screaming 'I was so close'
"Sigh," Dular sighed. The orc was looking at the severed head on
the table. Among all the things in the room, that head was the only
thing that survived Dular's wrath.
"Lord Dular" out of nowhere, Azazel materialized in the room just

a couple of inches away from Jonah.
"Eeek!" Jonah jumped in shock. He almost had a heart attack.
Azazel's mouth opened but when he saw the mess, he closed his
mouth. He looked around for a couple of seconds before speaking
again,
"Lord Dular, you've been summoned by Lord Lucifer and the Dark
Queen"
Azazel then turned his gaze towards Jonah who looked pale as he
was terrified of the Dark Lord and the Dark Queen.
"You're too Lord Jonah"
Azazel flew through the walls as though there were no walls in the
room. A few seconds after Azazel left the room, Jonah talked,
"Lord Dular, we shouldn't keep them waiting. Let's go"
Dular sighed again, "You're right"
Both of them walked out of the room. Just before shutting the door
closed, Dular took one last look at the mess.
The throne hall of the mansion was not very brightly lit. The
chandeliers produced just enough light to make everything visible
and at the same time, it gave a gloomy feeling to the throne hall.
After all, he was the Dark Lord and he shouldn't be sitting in a
bright place.
Instead of one throne as before, Dular saw two thrones on the

elevated platform where he saw the Dark Lord and the Dark
Queen waiting for them.
Azazel remained beside the Dark Lord on the elevated platform.

Dular and Jonah couldn't help thinking Azazel informed the Dark
Lord and Dark Queen about the mess. They didn't know about the
Spycam in their workshop. Azazel witnessed everything from the
surveillance room and just pretended to be seeing the mess for
the first time.
"Dark Lord Lucifer"
"Dark Queen"
Jonah and Dular knelt on the floor obediently,
"Rise" Dark Queen's cold voice echoed through the hall,
"How is your experiment going on Dular?"
His voice sounded calm. If he was mad about the mess they
made, he sure didn't show it in his voice.
"Dark Lord…I…" Dular stuttered. He tried to tell the Dark Lord
about his failure when Jonah surprisingly intervened,
"We found out some valuable information about the Alpha

undead, Dark lord"
"Do tell" Michael asked,
He was amused by Jonah's sudden courage. Whenever he came

to the mansion, Jonah purposely hid himself pretending to be
cultivating. Since Michael had no use for Jonah other than being
an apprentice to Dular, he didn't talk much with Jonah.
Dular growled after Jonah intervened. The Orc hated the human
for trying to help him. The last thing Dular wanted was a human to
help him in a situation such as this. It was embarrassing. Teaching
him a few things because he was helpful was another thing but
getting saved by him was not cool as far as Dular was concerned,
"The Alpha undeads, they are extremely sensitive to sunlight or

any bright light. By focusing a light source on them, the
connection they have with the other undeads could be severed
and be killed easily"
This wasn't a shocking reveal per se as Michael already knew

about the Alpha undeads' vulnerability to sunlight. When he fought
them, they always moved under the shade of the trees. The
stormy clouds at that time prevented the sunlight from completely
falling on the Alphas.
Michael was expecting the results of Dular's other experiment.

The experiment of controlling the Alphas. The last time when
Michael asked the system about controlling the Alphas, the
system informed him that its level was too low. Since he upgraded
the system he decided to try again.
"Jonah, what you two apparently found is completely useless.

Without an army of undead to control, the Alphas are easy prey.
Especially for the cultivators. They could kill them with a single
spell"
"In other words, these two were killing the Alphas I captured for
nothing" Dark Queen's cold words almost made Jonah wet
himself.
Fortunately, the Dark Lord squeezed her hand to calm her down,
"I was so close Dark Lord. I just need a little more time. I was able
to feel the connection before the head exploded" Dular said. He
didn't want to hide behind Jonah anymore. If push came to shove,
he would have to use the item he got from his father. Nonetheless,
he doubted the Dark Lord would kill him just because he failed to
achieve a breakthrough in his experiment.
"Azazel, bring them here"
Dular and Jonah looked at the butler disappear around the corner
with confused faces. Several minutes later, Azazel appeared in
the hall again. As Azazel approached the Dark Lord and Dark
Queen, hovering in the air, there were two figures dragging
themselves behind Azazel. The smell of rotten eggs filled the hall.
Jonah and Dular almost got used to the smell as they immediately
recognized the two figures behind Azazel.
"Alphas" Dular mumbled under his breath.
One of the alpha was a ripped man while the other was a woman
with ample breasts. Both of them were naked of course. Their skin
was pale with several bite marks around their chests. Their
shoulder-length hair was greasy and messy. With their dead fish
eyes, they stared at Dular. He was stunned to see the obedience
of the Alphas. He wondered how the heck the Dark Lord
controlled them.
Only Michael knew it wasn't controlling but keeping the Alphas in

a state of dizziness by injecting a potent potion into their brain.
"Do what you did in your workshop"
Dular nodded. He had the feeling that the Dark Lord might hold
the final key to controlling the alphas. Taking the book netherels
from his space ring, Dular drew some symbols in the air. Jonah
backed away to avoid getting blasted or worse getting killed.
The tattered leather cover of the book lit up as the bright blue
symbols began to appear in the air. Soon, the symbols began to
rate, creating a sphere of blue light.
Speckles of blue light separated themselves from the sphere and

floated towards the male Alpha. Then, the blue light slowly
protruded into its mind,
"System, are you seeing this?" Michael asked the system. His X-
ray vision enabled him to see the energy spectrum between Dular
and the Alphas. The spectrum of energy was very similar to the
energy waves between Michael and his drones. Unlike the energy
waves that appear when Michael establishes a connection with a
drone, the energy waves between Dular and the Alphas were
violent and much more powerful.
[Yes. The signal waves are too powerful and unstable. It will harm
the undead and in time, it will harm Dular. Since the host
upgraded the system you can buy a connector to control the
Alphas. It will cost you only 10,000 badass points. One connecter
will let you control two alphas and Dular control four Alphas]
"So the extra two because of the book of netherels" Michael

pondered,
"Okay I will take it"
[How many? Two?] The system asked,
"No only one. It's four Dular. I don't need to control the Alphas, at
least not yet. That's why I have Dular"
[Warning!]
[Dular is still not a subordinate. The system strongly advice

against giving Dular the connector]
His vision became red as the system warning screen appeared in
front of him,
"He has a Spycam on him, remember? If he tries to mess with me,

the Spyder will inject potent poison into him. Plus, if he wants to
escape, he needs to go through the forest filled with deadly fear
toxin"
[What about teleportation?]
"He has a tracker on him which I bought from you"
[What don't you want to control the Alphas?] the system continued
to ask him questions. It was not completely concerned about
Michael's safety. Rather, it wanted to sell two connectors.
"First, I'm going to Mazeroth. Second, the more things I control,

the more the strain on my brain. By controlling Dular, I can control
the Alphas, by controlling alphas, I will control the undead army"
When Michael was trying to control countless Spycam with his

mind, the system warned him about the drawbacks of controlling
too many things with his brain. Hence, he connected the feeds to
the mirrors and gave control of all the Spycams and drones to
Azazel while he only established connections with them when
needed. This way, his brain had way less strain.
"Third, I have 40,000 badass points remaining. I need to to have

as much points as i can when I go to Mazeroth"
The system went silent for a couple of moments,
"One connector coming up"
The connector was a three-inch-long two-inch wide paper-thin

card with countless micro symbols etched into it. It vaguely
resembled the chip in his forearm which connected the APD with
his body. Whenever he needs a potion, he just needs to establish
a connection with the APD and it would inject the potion into his
bloodstream. Alternatively, the APD could also automatically inject
potions into his body in case he lost consciousness and needed a
healing potion for instance.
"Stop"
When Michael closed the system interface, the time slowing down
effect disappeared as he ordered Dular to stop before he killed the
Alpha.
Dular quickly stopped the ritual. In a blink of an eye, the Dark Lord
appeared in front of him. For a moment, Dular thought he was
going to die. Instead, the Dark Lord just gently slapped the back of
his neck. He suddenly felt a bolt of electricity running through his
spine. Dular touched the back of his neck and felt something on
his neck,
"Now perform the ritual"
Dular was confused but he obeyed the order given to him. As

before, the ritual started with a blue sphere and everything
continued perfectly. A few minutes after Jonah stepped aside
because Dular reached the point where the Alpha's head would
explode. However, that did not happen.
The blue sphere gradually disappeared as the cold dead eyes of

the alpha shone in red,
"I…I can feel the connection" Dular mumbled.

III
Chapter 417 - Army of Undead III
Dular was flabbergasted. His entire body shivered, looking at the

Alpha. It was not a connection that enabled Dular to control the
Alpha like a robot. Rather, the connection enabled Dular to give
telepathic orders to the alpha. With the alpha's limited intelligence,
it would do its absolute best to complete the order.
"That's how you do it" Michael gave a pat on Dular's back. He was
more excited than Dular.
"Come, we have an army to summon," said Michael calmly. Gaya

came to stand at his side with the others.
A bright light flashed across the hall the next moment and
everyone disappeared from the hall except Azazel. The sudden
flash of light made Jonah tightly shut his eyes. When he opened
them again, he was standing in a familiar place. From one gloomy
place to another. The empty hall was dimly lit with torches. The
walls and the floor was made of marble which reflected the light
produced by the torches and lit the place orange.
The crypt was empty since all the pirates were teleported back to
Corey's witch island where they joined Maxine's crew. The crew
along with Gibson were working on fixing the old bertha. After they
found out her keel was broken in the middle, they suggested he
let the ship go as there was no way to fix the keel.
What was the point of having a system if he couldn't find a fix to a

simple thing such as fixing the keel? The system sold him
something that looked like white clay and instructed him to apply
the clay to the heel. Since he had minions to do that, he gave the
clay to them. Surprisingly for the crew, when they applied the clay,
it mended the broken heel, healing Old Bertha.
Dular had no idea about this place. It was spacious enough to fit
hundreds of people. Dular wondered why he brought them to this
empty place.
"You can control four alphas. When you achieve proficiency in

controlling them, I will grant you the ability to control more Alphas"
Granted controlling more alphas would take a toll on the brain.

Hence, Michael gave the task to Dular on top of Dular's ability to
control more alphas at the same time than him because of the
book of netherels.
However, the limit was not four. As a Core Formation cultivator,

Dular would be able to control at least 10 alphas. According to
Jonah's research, one Alpha could control 80 undead. Alpha
undeads were extremely rare. They were created by the energy
signals leaked from the Hydra egg. Since the egg was no longer
existing, no alphas would be created on the island.
Since Michael reached the star 4 inverter lever, he could build

complicated devices. One of the devices he could build was a
signal creator which would replicate the signals. He would have
built the device if it wasn't for Vedora being too weak. The device
required Vedora to be at least Core Formation level so the signals
produced by Vedora would be powerful enough to create Alpha
undeads.
Of course, it was not that easy as it had several complications.

For the time being, Michael decided to capture the remaining
Alpha undeads on the island and let Dular control them. By
controlling the Alphas, he could control the undeads outside the
crypt as well as the undeads of the Nether Realm.
"800 undeads, not enough" Michael thought,
"Did you buy the thing I asked you?" Michael then turned his gaze
towards Gaya,
Before he set up the portal opener and summoned undeads from
the Nether Realm, he needed to find a way to control them to his
will after they crossed the portal. Unruly mindless creatures were
no use to him.
At the moment Dular could summon 50 undeads from the Nether

realm and control 150 undeads at once. Since controlling Alphas
would take a toll on his brain, he would not be able to control
Alphas and the undeads at the same time.
Hence, Michael came up with a new plan,
Gaya flicked her wrist as a bronze collar appeared in her hand.

The collar was big enough to put around a human neck and
looked plain without any fancy runes or inscriptions.
Taking the collar from her hand, he walked several steps away
from them. Then, after a flick of his wrist, a large heavy table and
a long chair appeared for him to sit and work.
He took out a bright orb and placed it on the table for light. While
Dular and Jonah were familiarizing themselves with Dular's ability
to control the Alphas, Michael worked in silence.
"What's the plan?" she whispered after coming to his side,
"Why did you want me to buy a slave collar?"
"To control the undeads who are going to walk out of the portal we
are about to open"
When Michael first told her that the rusty old box could open up a
portal to another realm, she couldn't believe it. But she soon came
to agree with him as she had seen him perform so many miracles.
The moment he said 'undead army', she was on board with his
plan. There was no loyalty or wage problem with an undead army.
Therefore, maintaining an undead army was a breeze if they could
control them.
"How are you going to do that? Explain it to me" She leaned

closer to his face,
Although she had a feeling that whatever he was going to say, she
wouldn't understand it completely.
"I will simplify things for you" said Michael, not wanting to make
her feel stupid.
"That chip I placed in Dular's neck radiates an energy wave that

would control the Alpha. The slave collar works also has the same
underlying principle. It creates an energy wave and that energy
waves control a person's very soul. The slave master establishes
a connection with the slave collar and through that connection, the
slave master controls the slave. If the slave shows any
disobedience, he or she just has to will the collar to send a bolt of
energy wave into the slave's body which target's the soul" he
paused for a moment to breathe and continued,
"Since the netherels have no soul, I can modify the collar to

redirect the energy wave to the undead brain"
"But a slave master could control 40 slaves at best. How are you
planning to control the hundreds of netherels outside and the ones
we are going to summon through the portal?" asked Gaya,
"Controlling a brain takes way less toll on the slave master's mind
than controlling the very soul. If my calculations are correct, a
Core Formation cultivator could control 300 undeads after I
modified the collars"
Gaya raised her brows after doing the math in her brain,
"Let's say we both control 400 undeads each, that's 800 undeads.
What about Dular?"
"He could control 10 Alphas and each of them could control 80

undeads"
"Then that's another 800. 1600 undeads. The ones outside had no
cultivation power. So still not a powerful army perse"
Gaya was right. If all the 1600 undeads had Body Strengthening
level 7 cultivation, they would have been quite a power to reckon
with. Since it was not the case, dominating the cultivation
continents using this army was nothing but a dream.
"I'm working on a way to make the undead outside get cultivation

power. As for the undeads in Nether Realm, we need to find
suitable candidates to control the undead aside from you, me, and
Maxine"
"If we are going to build an army, we need loyal generals"
"We already have two. Aria's brothers" Michael reminded Gaya

about Aria's brothers who were getting healed rapidly inside the
tubes.
"We will summon the undead from the Nether Realm here. That
way they won't be as strong as they are in the Nether Realm. Until
we come back from Mazeroth, let Dular summon the undeads and
roam around the island. This island suits better to build an undead
army. Since they already have undeads, no one would find out
about our summonings"
"Like hiding a tree in a forest. I like the way your brains work"
Gaya would have kissed him so deep if it wasn't for Jonah and
Dular in the hall.
"It's not a perfect plan but it'll work for now. Hopefully, we will have
an army of the undead by the time we return from Mazeroth" as
he finished talking, the bronze collar lit up for a few seconds
before returning to its normal dull self.
"Done"
"Whoa, you're done?" Gaya was surprised. He was just placing

some weird objects on the collar and connecting them with a thin
wire. She couldnt understand what was happening between the
objects or how they worked together to modify the slave collar.
"Can you grab me an undead from outside?" asked Michael,

preparing to test the collar.
"Before I go, I have questions"

"What?"
"Why can't you use this collar to control the Alpha?"
Michael just smiled behind the mask. It was actually a good

question that he himself asked the system for an answer,
"The energy waves created by the slave collar are too weak. If
anyone tried to enslave an alpha, they will be killed in a few
seconds"
She still had a few questions but before she could ask them all,
she flew high towards the roof to go outside. Michael waited
patiently for Gaya to return. He was calm as he knew the collar
would work and the undead would be controlled.
"Order's up, one freshly captured undead"
A pale undead landed on Michael's feet. The putrid smell was

overwhelming to Jonah and Dular. They momentarily stopped
studying the Alphas and turned their gazes towards the Dark Lord.
Michael placed the collar around the undead before the undead
could take a bite at his leg. The moment the bronze collar touched
the undead, Michael felt a connection. It was like another arm, he
could feel the undead. A tiny crystal stone mined from Stormveil
castle was placed inside the collar. It sent a bolt of energy wave to
the undead's brain, making it obedient in a flash. His power made
subduing and enslaving the undead easier than he imagined.
The undead slowly stood up. This time, it didn't try to leap towards
Michael. It growled but remained obedient.
"Well, I need to reduce the power of the collar"

Chapter 418 - Portal opened to
the Nether Realm
Chapter 418 - Portal opened to the Nether Realm
The collar was working perfectly, too perfectly. At the moment,

they were like robots waiting for Michael to control them. That
meant their each and every moment could be controlled by
Michael. It was not efficient when he had thousands of undeads
as he would not be able to control each and every one. He wanted
them like mindless war machines. If he instructed them to attack,
they should be able to attack their target without him controlling
their movements. This way, whoever controls the collar would
have less stress on their brain.
"Grrr" the undead growled as Michael approached the undead.

Jonah and Dular were staring at the undead without batting an
eye. Dular started to sweat inside his long coat. If Lucifer was able
to control the undeads without him, his usefulness to Lucifer
would diminish greatly.
Since the system could not make Dular his subordinate for some
reason, Michael always handled Dular with caution. He wanted to
replace Dular if Dular tried anything weird. He almost replaced
Dular with the portal opener. Before the portal opener, Dular was
the only one who could open a portal to summon the netherels but
this portal was one way. Only netherels could walk through the
portal, no one could enter the nether realm.
Now Michael could open the portal to the Nether Realm and
capture as many netherels as he wanted. In addition, he could
farm experience points inside the Nether Realm as well as gather
rare herbs for his herbal garden.
"What are you doing?" asked Gaya, looking at him tinkering with
the bronze collar around the undead's neck.
"Give me a minute"
Using runes to control the Netherels would be much easier.

Considering he was not a runemaster, he had to take the long
route by placing several components he bought from the system
and the stores in this world into the collar.
After tinkering with the collar for a few more minutes, Michael felt
the control over the undead had been greatly reduced. But the
undead was still in his control.
"Attack that wall"
His order sounded weird but the undead was already running
toward the wall he pointed. Reaching the wall, the undead began
to attack the wall violently. It punched, scratched, slapped, and
even bit the wall.
"That's how you make an undead army" Michael cracked his neck.
The words that came out of his mouth were drenched in pride.
With an undead army, the bloodshed would be greatly reduced.
Also, there wouldn't be major loyalty issues, maintaining an
undead army cost fewer resources, and compared to the human
army, the undead army was several times deadlier. Unlike an
army made of humans, the undead army would fight till the end as
they would not feel any emotions or pain.
"Jonah, Dular" Michael called the both of them. They left the
Alpha undeads to come to him,
With a flick of his wrist, Michael retrieved the portal opener from
his space ring. He threw the portal opener into the middle of the
hall and closed his eyes,
"System, activate the portal"
[Establishing connection with the portal opener…]

[Please select a target location!]
[Warning, the host will not be able to change the target location
afterward…]
"Nether Realm"
[Locking coordinates…]
[Manipulating the space between the Southern continent and the

Nether Realm…]
The portal opener on the ground began to vibrate as the symbols

glowed brighter and brighter with the seconds passing by. They
could feel the distortion of space around them.
Boom!
A muffled booming sound echoed through the hall as the portal to

the Nether realm finally opened. Dular was stunned and so was
Jonah and Gaya. On the other side of the portal, they saw a land
filled with foreign vegetation. Rainbow color trees, gigantic
sunflowers, miniature trees as well as netherels. The netherels
looked in the direction of the portal as though they had detected
the portal open. However, after a few seconds, they went back to
roaming around aimlessly.
"Jonah, Dular, your task is to summon as many netherels as you

can and put this collar around their neck. You will get more collars
before tomorrow night. Take this, this will help you knockout the
netherels when they come out of the portal" Michael flicked his
wrist as several crates appeared beside the portal.
"Maxine will bring you all your necessities"
Jonah and Dular had no choice but to accept. He then retrieved a

drone from his space ring before sending it flying into the portal.
"Azazel, I have sent a drone into the Nether Realm. Monitor the
feed carefully and contact me if anything interesting happened"
After giving an order to his trusty demon butler, Michael and Gaya
activated the runic teleportation to leave the Crypt leaving Jonah
and Dular behind.
******************************
Two days later, Michael and Gaya were preparing to attend the
party in Hades. Gaya looked stunning in her new clothes. Her
glistening white ornate dress flew from top to bottom and had a
square neckline, which gracefully revealed the luxurious dress
worn below it. The delectable corset of her dress covered her
stomach where the continuous flow was broken up by a simple
cloth band worn quite high around her waist.
Below the cloth band, the dress opened up to the left and
revealed the dress below. The front of the top dress easily
reached the ground in the front, the back continued to flow a good
length behind her and ended in a broad rectangle.
Her sleeves were incredibly long and incredibly wide, their flow
was broken up just above the elbow where they changed color
from pearl white to a tinge of silver and where they were divided
by thick, simple bands, these were the same fabric and color used
to outline the edges of the dress.
When she adjusted her loose hair, Michael was staggered by

beauty. He wore a Victorian gothic-style jacket that reached his
knees. The jacket was ornate with silver etchings. His black
trousers perfectly complimented his black jacket. Adjusting the
edge of his sleeves one last time, he walked towards Gaya. He
hugged her from behind and kissed the back of her neck
passionately.
"Hehehe it tickles Michael" she giggled.
"You smell good" Michael kissed her cheek,
"It's the jasmine drops Olivia gave me"
"Speaking of Olivia, is she still in seclusion?"

According to Claire, Olivia was trying to break through to the Core
Formation level 9 and she had been in seclusion ever since Gaya
left for the Fire Realm.
After the championships tournament, Michael presented her with

enough pills and potions to successfully reach the Core Formation
level 9. He planned to make her his subordinate when she came
out of the seclusion.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Someone gently knocked on the door thrice. Since the two of

them finished getting ready, they stepped toward the door. When
they opened the door, Claire was standing outside in amazement.
"Wow, you two are going to steal the show"
Claire put her hand around Gaya's hand and led them towards the
outside. When they reached outside, almost the entire Sunrise
Sect was there to cheer for them. Michael felt like he was a
celebrity on the red carpet. He waved his hand at the disciples as
their thunderous cheers got louder.
Ricky was waiting in the carriage.
"Ladies first" Michael opened the door for Claire and Gaya. He
helped both of them get into the carriage by holding their hands as
a gentleman should.
"Did you give the package to him?" he asked Ricky,
"Yes, Master Ghost. He gave you this" Ricky handed over a tiny
piece of paper. He opened the paper to see two words written
inside,
'Debt settled'
He put the paper into his space ring just in case. In addition to the
portal opener, Gaya and Michael took another item from the
treasury. It was the item Lord Information asked Michael to get.
The item was a bronze plate with several runes on it. Michael
scanned the bronze plate. According to the system, it was a piece
of an artifact and without two more pieces, the system was unable
to tell Michael about the function of the artifact.
Although Michael was curious, he handed over the item to Lord

Information via Ricky. With this, he had returned the favor to Lord
Information for giving the information of who put the bounty on his
head before the tournament.
Also, Michael asked all his minions to call him 'Master Ghost'
instead of 'Your Majesty' outside Bradford. There was no reason
for this except the latter made him feel somewhat older.
Since all the pathways were paved, the carriage ride was so
smooth. It used to take two hours to reach the river town by
carriage due to the untended path but now, it would only take
them an hour.
"When are you going to Mazeroth Ghost?"
"Tomorrow morning"
"Aww, your finance gonna miss you" Claire playfully nudged

Gaya's elbow,
"I am going into seclusion" lied Gaya as Claire was taken aback
by surprise,
"Again? Don't tell me you're about to reach the Core

Strengthening stage"
Gaya shook her head,
"How can I? I'm not a monster like him. I feel like I will reach level
3 if I spend another month or two in seclusion" Gaya lied again
because she did not want Claire to get more suspicious than she
actually was.
At this moment, he did not know he was about to meet his arch-
enemy, to be more specific, Lucifer's arch-enemy, the future
Supreme Guardian Noah.
Somewhere else in Ozer, someone had already sent assassins to

crash Michael's special day.
************************
Major( or minor ) turns of events coming up. New enemies, a new

realm and a new version of Michael. The next tournament arck will
be a fun filled wild ride with lots of actions and background story.
So get ready....
Also... Hunter Sterling Blade in another universe is about to get

his own system...
Dictator with a Badass System...
(fear not, the both systems are not the same)

Chapter 419 - Engagement
Party at Hades
Chapter 419 - Engagement Party at Hades
The vibrancy of the river town peaked when they heard Ghost was
planning to visit Hades. This was his first visit to the river town as
their king. The people had decorated the entire town with lanterns,
ornaments, dancing dragons that resembled Nightmare, and
signboards. Regardless it was the morning, the people of the river
town fired countless fireworks into the sky.
Their clothes were contrary to the colorful decorations. Almost all

the people in the river town were dressed in black. They did not
know the purpose of his visit. Nonetheless, they were delighted to
welcome their king.
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail SunRise sect!"

Their thunderous chants echoed through the river town as the

carriage of Ghost entered the town. The carriage slowly moved
towards the Hades where the waitresses and waiters were waiting
to welcome Michael. Today, Hades was closed. Only the invited
guests could enter Hades.
The guest had already arrived at Hades and they were waiting for
Ghost to make his appearance. Gloria, the manager of Hades,
was waiting outside with a wide grin on her face. No one would tell
she was a commoner by looking at her. From her clothes to her
attitude, everything changed after joining Hades. Even the waiters
and waitresses looked stylish and smart in black coats, white
shirts, and bows.
Inside the carriage, Michael had a grin on his face. The

notification sound of getting badass points sounded louder and
louder. He almost earned 20,000 badass points just by reaching
the river town.
"It seems our son has come" Meanwhile inside the Hades, Ethan
put the orange juice in his hand and whispered to Diana. The loud
noise outside made it obvious.
When Diana saw the invitation from Ghost, she was excited
beyond words. She canceled all the events she had to attend and
made time to come to the river town. Ethan was equally excited to
see his son regardless of what happened in the tournament.
Despite everything that happened, everyone got what they
wanted. Andrews was about to be engaged to Princess Katherine,
Ghost got his own kingdom, and the king got to save his daughter.
"Excuse me" while Diana was waiting for her son, she heard a
sweet childish voice from behind. She turned back to see a cute
little girl wearing a glistening blue dress. She carried a green rose
in her hand. The little girl's round eyes and her two pigtails made
her extremely cute. Ethan couldn't resist the girl's cuteness. Unlike
Diana, he didn't know the girl.
"Cindy"
Cindy looked surprised when Diana called her by her name,
"My Lady, you dropped this" Cindy held out the green rose for
Diana to take. Ethan couldn't resist the little girl anymore as he
ruffled her head,
"Dian, you know this cutie pie"
She nodded,
"She's the daughter of Lady Raylene, the 5-star chef"
"And the little sister of brother Ghost, sister Aelia, and sister
Claire"
Cindy puffed out her chest and said, basking everyone around her
with her cuteness.
"Aww"
Many who noticed Cindy couldn't help sighing. They wanted to

squeeze this little girl,
"Green Rose, extremely rare" another mature voice sounded as

Diana looked in the direction of the door to see Peyton
approaching them with a calm smile on her face.
"Guardian Peyton"
Regardless of Diana's hate towards the Guardians, she greeted

Peyton with a nod and a smile. Ethan also smiled at Peyton hiding
the hatred in his heart.
Peyton knelt in front of Cindy and took the green rose from her
hand. She adjusted her spectacles,
"Very rare indeed"

"Sister, does this belong to you?" Cindy asked politely,
"No little one but I will hand this over to the owner. Deal?"
Cindy looked at Peyton for a few seconds before shaking Peyton's

hand with her tiny hand. After Cindy disappeared back into the
kitchen to join her mother, Peyton took the seat at Diana's table.
Diana did not hate Peyton as she was the best friend of Noah's
girlfriend, Xanali. Plus, Diana or Ethan had no reason to hate
Peyton except for the fact she's a guardian. They couldn't hate all
the Guardians because their son was a Guardian himself.
Peyton took in the atmosphere of Hades for a few seconds in

silence. When her colleagues said she must visit Hades at least
once just for the view, she thought they were overselling it. But
after seeing the majestic view of the flowing river outside, the
lighting inside the restaurant, and the decor of the place, she was
truly amazed. Although Hades was just recently opened, booking
a table was a hassle, even for a Guardian. The nobles spent
thousands of gold coins just to get a table for themselves and
taste the cooking of Raylene. Even the people of royal families
were in line to get a table.
Peyton also noticed all the prominent figures enjoying the drinks.
There were elders of the Kane Family, representatives of the
Rainshade merchant guild as well as the elders of the Sunrise
Sect.
Not all the tables were occupied as it seemed like Ghost only
invited a handful of people to the party. Peyton was curious to see
what the reason for his invitation was. The coronation ceremony
was meant to be held after six months.
As Peyton was looking around, everyone's gaze fell on the main

door. They saw Ghost and Aelia enter Hades. Both of them looked
dashing, especially Gaya.
Gloria took the wine glass from the table nearby and tapped the
glass with a spoon. The atmosphere quickly became silent,
"Everyone, first of all, thank you for accepting my invitation on
such short notice. Please enjoy the meals first, I have an
important announcement to make afterward. It will be worth the
wait, ladies, and gentlemen"
Michael did not beat around the bush. The people before him
were extremely busy and there was no need for him to use
flowery words. Instead, he knew they would like a more direct
approach.
Quickly the waiters and waitresses started their work. They moved
around the tables taking orders like water flowing downstream,
flawlessly. Their coordination and speed were truly magnificent
and efficient.
Somehow the first faces that drew his attention were Diana and
Ethan. On his way to Diana and Ethan, Michael greeted everyone
and spent a couple of minutes talking to them as a courtesy.
Claire joined the Elders at their table, leaving Michael and Gaya to
attend to the rest of the guests.
When he reached Diana's table, he was greeted by her and her

husband with wide grins on their faces.
"Lady Diana and Lord Ethan" Michael shook Ethan's hand and
then Diana's hand. He then greeted Peyton with a smile,
"Miss Peyton" he shook her hand,
Gaya then shook everyone's hand and took her seat beside
Ghost. She wondered why out of all seats he decided to sit with
the Winstons and a Guardian.
"I hope you don't mind me sitting here, Lord Ethan," Michael said.
Their table was meant for a family of twelve to sit so they had
enough seats to go around.
Ethan shook his head, chuckling,
"Hey, it's your party and restaurant. You can sit anywhere you
want, your majesty"
"Oh please, call me Ghost. I'm still not a king and I prefer my
friends address me by my name, Lord Ethan"
"Ladies and gentlemen" As they were talking, Gloria herself came

to take the order,
"The specials Gloria" Gaya ordered for them before they could
even open the menu. The 'specials' was a code word for 'bring
everything on the menu for today'
"Trust me, you have to try them" Gaya winked at them. Something
about Aelia rubbed Diana in the wrong way. According to Diana's
spies, Aelia was an orphan who grew up with Ghost. But the aura
the girl radiated was not of an orphan. Diana met countless
orphans and Aelia was not one of them. Diana noticed the way
Aelia handled the guests. A commoner girl would have at least felt
a little nervous facing powerful people such as the elders of the
Kane family. However, Diana saw no signs of nervousness in her
attitude.
As Diana was watching Aelia, her heart skipped a beat when she
noticed the rings on her finger and the ring on Ghost's finger. The
last time Diana saw her son, he did not have the ring. She started
to connect the dots.
"He's engaged," Diana came to the conclusion in her mind. A

burst of joy exploded in her heart along with a tinge of sadness.
She would have celebrated the day as a festival but because of
the circumstances, she couldn't do so. Still, Diana wanted to leap
at them and hug them both so tight.
Meanwhile, in the forest surrounding the river town, a group of

figures dressed in black clothes was looking at the Hades from the
shadows. They covered their bodies from head to toes. They hid
in the darkness of the forest. There were at least fifty people in the
group and they all had bows in their hands.
"Team Hawk is in place" One of the black-clothed figures among

the group spoke. He didn't seem to speak to the others but to a
red stone in his hand,
"Team Eagle is approaching the target site. Let loose on our
signal"
A thick voice came from the stone as the black-clothed figure

nodded,
"Target in sight" another black-clothed figure spoke looking at the

Hades,
"The green roses are in place" Another voice came out of the
stone,
"Wait for the target to reach the marked location" the black-clothed
figure who had the red stone in his hands spoke,
Inside Hades, everything was going without a mishap. No one had

any idea about the lurkers around them. Even Michael did not
sense the figures in the forest as they were far away from the
range of Environmental scanning.
"Father, Mother"
Michael and Gaya stood opposite Diana and Ethan. At that

moment, Michael heard a voice from behind, a familiar voice.
Without even turning back, he could tell who just entered Hades.
"Noah Winston'
Chapter 420 - Ninjas crashed
the celebration
Chapter 420 - Ninjas crashed the celebration
Noah who came with Alicia and Xanali took the seat beside his
mother and father. Gaya clenched her fist as the smile on her face
disappeared instantly when she saw Xanali. Under the table,
Michael squeezed Gaya's hand to calm her down and remind her
where they were. Alicia was wearing a sparkling golden gown
while Xanali wore a ruby red gown with loose full sleeves. Their
beauty caught everyone's attention. In the middle of the two
beauties, Noah remained calm as serene water. He looked
contrary to Michael wearing pure white robes.
Diana's heart warmed seeing her two sons at the same place
despite both Noah and Michael not wanting each other's
company. Before they were born, Skyhall told her that the twins
were destined to battle each other for the fate of the world. One
would fight for blood and chaos while the other would fight for
peace.
Still, Diana invited Noah to the party just to start building the
bridge between them and Ghost. Deep down, Noah and Michael
didn't hate each other. Unlike Noah, Michael knew about Noah's
secret. As far as Michael was concerned, Noah and the rest of the
world were being manipulated by a higher power; the Guardians.
"Have you two met each other before?" Ethan asked, looking at
them.
Gaya's eyes were locked onto Xanali. For Xanali on the other
hand, a commoner girl no matter who she dates didn't earn her
attention. Hence, Xanali did not even take a second glance at
Gaya.
Noah and Michael remained silent for a few moments. Diana was
afraid that Noah would be mad at Michael for nearly killing
Andrews during the tournament.
"Not like this" Noah calmly answered,
Just like Michael, Noah too squeezed Alicia's hand under the table
to calm her down. Ghost spared Peter his life but made his life a
living hell by revealing Peter's vigilante life. In addition to that, he
literally wiped the floor with Peter. The mental trauma Peter
suffered affected Alicia's entire family.
The Guardians started investigating Peter and with the evidence

Ghost provided, it was only a matter of time before Peter received
a sentence from the Guild.
Compared to Michael, Noah was a good guy as he did not reveal

Gaya's identity even though Ghost almost destroyed Alicia's
family and killed his cousin.
"You know, unfortunate things happen in life. We should forget,

forgive and move on" Ethan quickly said to ease things up.
However, to everyone's surprise, Noah smiled,
"If you're talking about what happened to Andrews, I don't blame

Ghost"
Even Michael was surprised to hear Noah. He knew Noah was a

guy who could be branded as a righteous goody two shoes. Still,
he didn't expect this answer from Noah.
"Andrews knew what he was getting into. I am glad everything

worked out for everyone"
Noah signaled one of the waitresses to fill their cups. The waitress
came running to them with an expensive bottle of wine. She filled
all their cups except for Michael and Gaya
Everyone at the table looked at the two of them with a bewildered
face,
"We don't drink"
Diana nodded approvingly while Ethan looked just stunned.
"Me too," Michael nodded at Noah with a smile. Noah really

seemed like he didn't hold any grudge against Michael for beating
the crap out of Andrews or destroying Peter. Of course, Noah still
hated Ghost for using his talents to get richer instead of helping
people. In Noah's mind, Ghost was a first-class self-centered
person who would lift a finger if there is no profit for him.
Diana was glad to hear Noah and felt quite proud of her son.
Everything was going better than they expected. The aroma from
the kitchen started to kindle their appetite. Noah and Michael
could even hear some stomachs growling. They couldn't blame
them as whatever Raylene was making smelled so good.
Soon the waitresses and waiters arrived carrying plates from the
kitchen. Gloria and two other waiters came to Michael's table with
so many delicious dishes. They neatly lined the dishes on the
round table for everyone to easily reach them.
Creamy squash risotto with toasted pepitas, Chilled-marinated

pork with brussels sprouts, Clam toast with pancetta, Filipino-style
meatloaf, Grilled garlic, and black pepper shrimp, Grilled kingfish
with creamed corn, Olive Oil confit chicken with cipollini onions,
Pork chops With celery and almond salad were just a few dishes
Gloria and the two waiters could carry at once. The rest of the
dishes were still on the kitchen table waiting to be picked up.
"My lords and my ladies, please enjoy your meals' ' After serving
Michael, Gloria tapped the glass in her hands and announced with
a gentle smile.
Soon after she announced, everyone dug into the dishes in front
of them.
The hall was filled with the sound of forks and knives hitting the
dishes and chewing.
The feast continued without any problems. The desserts arrived

right after everyone finished their main courses. At Michael's
table, everyone was enjoying their meals in silence. Occasionally
Diana tried to start a conversation that would involve both Noah
and Ghost. However, when one answered, the other remained
silent. So there was no conversation between Noah and Ghost as
Diana wanted it to be.
The desserts disappeared faster than the main courses. When

everyone licked the plates and cups clean, they all looked at
Ghost for the reason for his invitation.
"The floor is yours Ghost" Ethan patted Michael on the shoulder

as he stood up to talk,
"Who else still has some space in the stomach for more
desserts?" Michael joked. All the guests let out a chuckle.
"I have two announcements to make. Two life changing

announcements" Michael looked at Gaya and smiled before
continuing,
"Ladies and gentlemen, I was invited to join Mazeroth" the entire

hall went silent after he announced. Gaya expected a few more
sentences from his mouth but he suddenly announced the thing
without beating around the bush.
The people were stunned, especially Diana. She felt a chill

running through her spine. Her shock was not the good kind, it
was utter fear and dread. Everyone's eyes were one Ghost so
they failed to notice the gloomy look on Diana's face.
"So I-"
Just as when Noah was about to turn to look at his mother, all of a
sudden, Ghost stopped talking. The very next moment, the smile
on Noah and Ghost's faces vanished. The two of them had
sensed the danger before anyone else.
Chill!
Chill!
Two arrows pierced through the glass walls out of nowhere. In a

blink of an eye, Michael and Noah both reached out to their
parents. Noah caught the arrow that was aimed at his mother and
Ghost grabbed the arrow that was aimed at Ethan.
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
It took a few moments for everyone to realize what just happened.

Thanks to Michael and Noah's reflex, they grabbed the arrow mid-
air before they could hit Diana and Ethan.
"Get down!" Peyton screamed as loud as she could after seeing

the arrows.
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
Chill!
The glass walls around them shattered before anyone could react
to Peyton's shout. Gaya immediately kicked the table before them
and used the table as a cover.
"Sunlight shield"
"Earth protection!"
"Metal bubble!"
Many quickly cast defense spells while the arrows were

continuously getting forest at them from all directions. Noah
waved his hand as a white translucent bubble covered everyone
hiding behind the table.
"Mom, dad, stay here!" Noah shouted,
Pulch!
Pulch!
"Argh"
"Grr"
"Argh"
The blood splashed across Michael's table from the waiters who
just got riddled by arrows.
"Lightning Dash!" He immediately cast the spell to save Gloria

before she loses her life. The arrows were extremely fast. Even
when he was using lightning dash, the arrows seemed to move
relatively faster. He was too late but not too late. An arrow stuck
Gloria in the arm but he was able to grab her and run into the
kitchen area where they had no glass walls.
When he entered the kitchen, he saw Raylene and Cindy backed
into a corner by several figures in ninja robes. Under different
circumstances, Michael would have thought of earth when he saw
the ninjas.
"Master Ghost!"
"Brother!"
Raylene was holding Cindy tight. Her face was pale of the terror
around her. The kitchen floor was red with blood. All the helpers
were slaughtered by the two ninjas. On the floor near Cindy,
Daniel was holding his stomach as blood was spraying out of the
wound. He looked pale with blood loss.
Michael's killing intent exploded through the roof when he saw

this. The ninjas were only at Body Strengthening stage level 10. It
seemed like Daniel who was a Core Formation level 1 cultivator
saved Cindy and Raylene and brought enough time. The ninjas
were extremely quick. A few minutes ago, Michael did not sense
any danger around him. In a split second, they appeared on his
Environmental scanning map. They slaughtered the helpers in a
few blinks.
"Ring of Fire '' Michael only had to think as streams of fire rushed
out of his hands as though his hands were flamethrowers. It was
not a ring of fire but a straight line of lava flame aimed at the two
ninjas near Raylene and Cindy.
"Lightning Dash" Michael felt losing control to the third persona. It

was like something screaming inside his head to let it out. This
time, Michael had the upper hand thanks to the meditation and
control over his anger.
The ninjas were fast but not as fast as Michael. Before they could
leap at him, he reached Raylene and Cindy,
"Go!" Michael shouted as he willed the system to buy a

teleportation scroll and teleport the three of them to his room in
the dark forest mansion.
In addition to the teleportation scroll, he also willed the system to
knock them out unconscious.
The bright light flashed across the kitchen and in the next second,
Cindy, Raylene, and Daniel disappeared from their sight. The
kitchen then became darker as he turned back. His eyes flickered
in red. The ninjas who were surrounding him had no idea they just
punched the ticket to hell. Fifteen Body Strengthening stage level
10 ninjas were about to face one pissed off Core Strengthening
stage warrior. Ghost was too mad to think about the reason for the
ambush or who sent the ninjas.
Chapter 421 - Gruesome
Massacre
Chapter 421 - Gruesome Massacre
Gruesome Massacre
Michael could hear the sound of battle outside. But more than the
sound of spells, the sound of arrows shattering glass and utensils
rolling on the ground could be heard louder. He was surrounded
by fifteen Body Strengthening stage level 10 cultivators. At the
moment, they all looked like dead bodies to Michael because they
would soon be.
"Chop him to pieces" one of the ninjas ordered the others as they
dashed at him. Michael on the other hand did not unsheath his
words or cast any spells. Instead, he grabbed the kitchen knives
from the nearby table where the soup was boiling in the pan.
The ninjas zig-zagged towards him. Surprisingly Michael did not

hear them casting any spells. Michael couldn't care less how they
managed to perform chantless spell casting.
Some of the ninjas stayed behind and fired arrows made of black
energy.
Those ninjas who dashed at him swung their daggers at Michael.

The responsive shield spell formed a transparent blue bubble
around him. When the arrows hit the bubble, they just
disappeared. In a blink of an eye, Michael grabbed the ninjas by
their hands before they could cut him.
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
Pulch!
He stabbed both the ninjas in their chests violently. The blood kept
splashing out of their bodies.
Boom!
He threw the two ninjas onto the others. The ninjas had lightning-
quick reflexes so they avoided the two dead ninjas. He did not
stop at that as he grabbed the soup bowl and threw the bubbling
hot soup onto the ninja dashing towards him.
"AHHH!"
One unfortunate ninja's skin was completely burnt by the soup

because the ninja did not have any defense spell cast on him like
the rest of them.
"Ring of Fire" he raised both his hands at the ninja who was
screaming in agony. Out of his hands, a scorching hot stream of
fire came out. The fire burned the ninja into a pile of dust within a
few seconds.
Surprisingly the ninjas did not back off. Instead, they dashed at
him more furiously. Michael showed no mercy to them. He
grabbed one ninja by his hand, slamming him onto the table
where Raylene used to cut meats.
This time the ninjas threw star shaped shurikens at him.

Countless shurikens glowing in crimson red flew towards him. Yet
all of them burnt to a crisp when they came to contact with the
responsive shield.
He grabbed the cleaver on the table as the ninja on the table

squirmed frantically. Three ninjas leaped at him to save the ninja
on the table.
"Ignitia" holding the meat cleaver in one hand, sent bolts of

lightning at the ninjas approaching him with the other.
Zzzrrrhhhh!
Zzzrrrhhhh!
"Argh!"
"Argh!"
"Argh!"
The lightning bolts hit their target with deadly accuracy. The ninjas
dropped dead to the ground and all of them had a hold right
between their eyes.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
This time, an ear piercing squeal came out from under the table. It
was Gloria who witnessed Michael chopping the ninja on the table
to pieces with the meat cleaver. She couldn't hold back her
scream. In her life, she had never seen such a gruesome killing.
Until now, she was looking at him killing the other ninjas and
keeping her mouth shut. But when she saw him chopping the
ninja into pieces, she couldn't hold back.
The ninjas did not change their target. Even after seeing their
friend getting chopped to death, they still rushed toward Michael
without a sliver of fear for their lives in their eyes.
Outside the kitchen, everyone was still pinned down by the rain of
arrows. Somehow the arrows pierced all their defensive spells.
Fortunately, the arrows were still weak against physical objects.
Those who survived hid under the tables. They could not see
where the arrows were coming from. Hence, they couldn't fight
back
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
All of a sudden, the ceiling above them exploded. Several figures
jumped through the ceiling after the dust cleared. The crumbled
pieces fell down from the ceiling, hit several waiters and opened
up their heads.
The figures who jumped through the roof looked different than the
ninjas in the kitchen. These figures wore thin plate armor covering
their chests, shoulders, and arms. Silver metal covered the rest of
their bodies.
Gaya looked over the table to see their faces. All of them wrapped
white cloth around their head to hide their faces.
Gaya counted at least twenty armored figures. She wasn't sure if

they were humans or elves or demihumans behind the cloth.
"I'm sick of this!"
Gaya was just about to leave the cover of the table when all the
figures raised their hands up. The very next second, a gigantic
chakra materialized above them.
She expected the chakra to do something other than glowing

brighter and brighter and rotate in the air. The chakra faded away
into thin air after a few seconds. A faint vibrating sound was still
ringing in their head. It took these ambushers only a couple of
minutes to turn Hades into a ruin. At the moment, people were
hiding under the tables for their lives. Many waiters and
waitresses lay on the ground in their own pool of blood.
Noah saved as many people as he could. Although Gaya hated

Noah, if it wasn't for him, the casualties would have been much
higher.
"I can't feel" suddenly Xanali mumbled,
"What's happening?" followed by Xanali, Peyton also looked

horrified.
"I can't feel my Arch energy" Peyton started to breathe heavily.

Not only Peyton and Xanali but every single one of them except
for Diana looked terrified. They tried to cast spells yet no matter
how hard they tried, they could even cast a basic spell.
However, Gaya could feel Arch energy running through her veins
just fine. She wanted to use this opportunity to end Xanali's life. It
was obvious the chakra made them temporarily unable to use
Arch energy.
Peyton read something about spells that would block arch energy
flow in an area, making the place void of Arch energy. However,
she had never seen the spell before. It felt as though she was
teleported to the Southern continent where she would feel the
same way as she's feeling at the moment,
Pulch!
Suddenly, one of the figures standing in the circle dropped to the

ground. Everyone looked up and saw a spear made of glowing
energy sticking out of the figure's leg.
All the figures looked in the direction where the spear came flying
to see Noah standing a couple of meters away from them with a
sword in each hand. A glowing shield formed around him which
prevented the arrows from piercing through his body.
Gaya was not going to let Noah be the savior of them and steal
the show. Besides, she knew about Michael's problem. She
wanted to rush to the kitchen and help Michael before he lost
control again.
"Don't move my lady"
Just as she was about to stand up, Gaya heard Azazel's voice in
her head,
"I have located the archers. If you use your arch energy, the
guardians will suspect you and Lord Lucifer. I will deal with the
archers from here"
Since Azazel lacked a physical body and he couldn't leave the
dark forest without Michael's help, he was unable to kill the
archers hiding in the woods. He located them using drones and
Spycams. It was either the ninjas were lucky or the ninjas were
too skillful to pick a place in the woods that wasn't covered by any
of the Spycams.
Azazel could count fifty to seventy archers surrounding the hades.

They were rapidly firing arrow after arrow to pin everyone down.
Azazel moved all the Spycams in the nearby area towards the
archers. Each Spycam was made with stingers and poison. If
Azazel could inject poison into the archers, he could put a stop to
the rain of arrows.
"Fuck it"
Gaya was not going to stay still while Michael was losing control
of himself.
"I can't use Arch energy fine, I will still reach him" Gaya mumbled
under her breath.
"What are you going to do?" Peyton saw Gaya preparing to move
out of the table.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
On the other hand, Noah was swinging his sword, cutting the
fireballs fired at him by the armored figures. Noah was on the
defensive but he was gradually moving towards them.
"Aelia wait,"
Diana tried to stop Gaya but it was too late as she leaped out of
the cover.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The arrows and fireballs brushed past Gaya. Several fireballs

blasted the wall behind her.
"Argh!" one arrow stuck her in the arm when she leaped into the
air to reach the kitchen.
"What the?"
When she reached the kitchen, she felt a cold chill running
through her spine. Her face turned pale. What she saw was a
gruesome massacre.
Limbs, chunks of meat, severed heads, and burned pieces of

cloth were everywhere. The floor was completely drenched in
blood.
"Ghost" She uttered the word. Fear had suppressed her voice.
She saw his back as he was holding a ninja by his neck against
the wall.
As she approached him, she couldn't help feeling dread in her

core. The air in the kitchen felt chilly and the flickering orbs of light
gave an eerie feeling to the place.
The closer she got to him, the faster her heart started to beat.
"Argh"
Creech!
The ninja in his hand squirmed but soon, his entire body got
ripped in half by Michael. Blood and organs splashed across the
floor and walls. Throwing the two halves of the body to the corner
where she saw a pile of mutilated bodies, he turned back to look
at her.
Gaya stepped back in fear. His eyes were blood red, they were
glowing as though someone lit a fire inside his eyeballs,
"I can control him but not for long" His voice terrified her. It was
like his normal voice and Lucifer's voice had a baby together. The
glowing red eyes were flickering as he talked
"We have to burn this place to the ground" Gaya conjured a ball of
fire. They must not let anyone see what has happened here.
************************************
Yes yes, I know you don't like Michael losing control over himself.
It was part of the story and stay tuned to see how he is going to
handle it.
P.S => The final battle between Noah and Ghost will happen. No
changing that.
Chapter 422 - Two Gods, Two
ideals
Chapter 422 - Two Gods, Two ideals
Outside the kitchen, Noah was fighting all the armored figures by
himself. Regardless of their number, they couldn't get the upper
hand in the fight. Noah's spells were so powerful. However, Noah
did not kill any of them. He just incapacitated them as his mentor
taught him. While fighting the armored figures, Noah noticed the
interruption in the rain of arrows.
"Light Blade" Noah cast the spell without chanting. A long sword
sparkling materialized in his hand. The armored figure surrounded
Noah. Some of them had swords, some had spears, and some
cast a spell that turned their fists into fire fists.
Diana's heartbeat was getting faster by the second. Looking at

Noah facing all the unknown figures by himself made her uneasy.
No one could tell which cultivation stage the armored figures or
Noah was at.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Noah swung his light blade at the three figures dashing towards
him. The figures with fiery fists shot fireballs. Nearly twenty
scorching hot fireballs flew towards Noah.
The figures were fast but Noah was faster. He safely evaded their
swords and counterattacked. The light sword in Noah's hand
clashed with their metal swords, creating sparks of fire.
Diana and Ethan looked in the direction of the kitchen. They were
nervously expecting Ghost to come out of the kitchen. They did
not know what happened inside the kitchen.
"Puriferous"
"Expinio"
"Recta"
"Exterminiatis"
After Noah knocked out the three armored figures, those who
were behind them immediately cast spells.
Ethan and Diana were stunned after they heard the spell casting.
Ethan looked at Diana with a terrified look on his face. Diana's
face was pale with shock and terror.
The spells they cast conjured various objects such as a dragon

head made of fiery red energy, rotating chakra, and thorns that
came out from the ground beneath Noah. The thorns tried to coil
around Noah's legs but he cut the thorns like butter using his light
sword. A hot stream of scorching hot fire was shot from the
dragon's head. It burned the marble ground beneath to ashes as it
shot towards Noah.
"Noah!"
Ethan, Diana, Xanali, and Alicia all shouted in unison.
"ARGH!"
Boom!
Noah let out a battle cry and swung the light blade at the stream
of fire approaching him, splitting the fire in halves.
The translucent light bubble around Noah flickered after the

chakra hit the bubble. The force of Noah's sword-swinging split
the ground open. One of the armored figures fell into the crack.
When he tried to get out, Noah flicked his wrist, forming a light
spear in his hand.
He threw the light spear at the figure. The light spear stabbed the
figure through the shoulder, pinning him to the ground.
Noah started to breathe heavily as he could count twenty people

surrounding him. In addition, he sensed more figures flying above
the building.
"Teacher" Noah called his teacher in his mind,
"They can't keep the void spell for no longer than ten minutes,
Noah. Five minutes more and all the cultivators here would get
their arch energy back"
Andreas's voice reassured Noah. Noah wiped off the blood

dripping down the corner of his mouth.
Noah closed his eyes as the translucent bubble became brighter

once again.
"Increnuno"
"Reflectenus"
"Clarasi"
"Scorchorus"
Some of the figures cast the spells and at the same time, the rest
of them rushed at Noah. They seemed to target only Noah.
Boom!
All of sudden, a loud explosion shook the entire building. The

ceiling crumbled, raining concrete bits and pieces down. The
explosion did not even slow the figures down a bit. Thick gray
smoke came out of the kitchen and covered the entrance. Diana
and Ethan fixed their eyes on the kitchen door.
Through the cloud of smoke, they saw two figures walking out.
"Ghost" Diana couldn't help letting out a heave of sigh in
relaxation. Ethan too slightly looked relieved.
When Michael came out of the kitchen, he saw nothing but ruins.
His favorite restaurant and the first business he owned in this
world were in rumbles.
The elders and the guests were hiding behind tables while many
bodies were laid on the ground under blocks of rocks. The arrows
stopped fortunately which meant Azazel had done his task
successfully.
Gaya's anger was bubbling inside her yet she remained calm for
Ghost. She squeezed his arm.
Since they saw Ghost use his arch energy earlier, they kinda
expected him to join forces with Noah and fight the armored
figures. However, Michael just completely ignored the battle
happening just a few meters away from him and made his way
towards where Claire and the elders were.
Surprisingly the armored figures completely ignored Michael and

Gaya.
"What is he doing?" Ethan asked bewildered,
Michael stepped over an armored figure who was pinned to the

ground by Noah.
"Ghost, Aelia, get down!"
Gaya heard a familiar voice coming from behind a round table.

However, she sensed grief in the voice of Elder Reiner. Behind the
round table, Claire was sobbing. Elder Mark laid on her lap as
Elder Reiner and Elder Sandra were holding Elder Mark's hand.
An arrow was sticking out of Elder Mark's throat. His eyes were
closed and his skin was pale as white paper.
Claire looked up at Ghost. Tears were gushing out of her eyes.

There were several empty vials near Elder Mark. Everyone looked
at him. But there was no expression on his face at all. He stood
there like a statue.
Inside, Michael was burning with rage. His rage was so

overwhelming that he suppressed the third persona completely.
He was so pissed at himself. He blamed himself for the ambush.
His mind kept reminding him that he should have been more
prepared and careful.
"Go," Gaya said. She wasn't going to hold him back anymore. She
doubted she could hold him back anymore. She herself was
burning with rage.
Granted Michael and Gaya weren't close with Elder Mark as they
were with Elder Reiner. Gaya was close with Elder Sandra too as
she worked with Elder Sandra managing the funds in the sect and
Bradford.
Yet when they saw Elder Mark's lifeless body, both of them
grieved. The death of Jack flashed across their eyes. First Jack
and now they lost Elder Mark.
Michael was standing on one end, Noah was on the other hand
and the armored figures stood in the middle. Several figures
surrounded Noah as they focused on Noah.
Zzzhhhhhrrrrrrr!
Zzzzzzhhhhhrrrr!
The buzzing sound of electricity reverberated the hall as bolts of

lightning coiled around Ghost's hand. The two black swords
materialized in his hand and soon, the lightning bolts coiled
around the blades as though they were tiny snakes.
"Teacher"
Noah called out to his teacher in his mind. Noah was stunned to
see Ghost using Arch energy.
"I…I don't know" for the first time, Noah heard his teacher stutter
without having an answer.




….
The sound of notifications kept ringing in his head like crazy. He

completely ignored them. When a rapidly increasing amount of
badass points could not put a smile on his face, one should know
someone was about to get slaughtered mercilessly.
Diana's jaw slightly opened as the images of the Dark Lord she
saw in the future flashed across her eyes. Those who surrounded
Noah dashed at him despite failing again and again to kill him.
They seemed to be oblivious to Michael's existence.
Michael slowly raised his sword as the golden lightning bolts

coiling around the sword became brighter and brighter. In the next
second, a thick bolt of lightning shot out of the end of the sword.
Boom!
The armored figure which got hit by the lightning bolt exploded
into a red mist. A Core Formation level 3 cultivator stood no
chance against Michael.
The rest of the armored figures finally noticed Michael. They

stopped attacking Noah and turned their gazes at Ghost.
Noah could have easily overpowered the armored figures if he

went for the kill. Instead, Noah focused on incapacitating them.
Otherwise, Noah would have ended the battle long ago.
"Kill them, kill them all!" Claire shouted. For the first time in her
life, she encouraged someone to take lives.
"No, don't!" Peyton and Xanali screamed from the other end.
The armored figures momentarily stopped attacking as though

they were interested in the conversation. Something about them
rubbed both Noah and Michael in the wrong way. They were
acting more and more like puppets who were being controlled by
someone or something else.
"Diddle diddle" the cold words escaped Michael's mouth,
"You are so…" he slowly stepped towards the armored figures

without an expression on his face. There were two armored
figures in front of him. One was standing with a fiery fist while the
other one was pinned to the ground by Noah's light sword.
"Etheri-"
The one who was standing tried to cast a spell,
Pulch!
His chanting was abruptly stopped by a sword through his throat.
Zzzzhhhhhrrrrr!
The electric bolts slid through the sword to the armored figure.
The figure's body violently squirmed as smoke began to come out
from the inside and out. The lightning bolts turned his body into a
pile of half-burned mess within a few minutes.
"Ignitia" Michael turned his sword to the armored figure who was
standing a couple of meters away from him. The lightning bolt
shot out from the sword soared through the sky,
"Light beam"
At the same time, Noah raised his light sword as a beam of light
shot out from the end of the light sword.
Boom!
The light beam hit the lightning bolt before it could reach the
target. When they both clashed, a mini-explosion knocked
everyone around them to the ground. Their eyes were locked on
each other.
Chapter 423 - Infiltrating the
Alpha Guardian
Chapter 423 - Infiltrating the Alpha Guardian
Diana clenched her fish, looking at her sons. The two of them
looked as though they were about to start a battle. If they battled it
out, none of them would survive the backlash because just the
clash of their spells knocked all the armored figures out. They
were still struggling to stand up.
"Killing is not justice," Noah said calmly.
"Late justice is injustice," Michael coldly replied.
Noah was planning to capture everyone and interrogate them

while Michael planned to kill everyone except one. Michael would
then interrogate the one to get the information he needed.
Either of them knew the other one wouldn't back down without a
fight. Usually, Michael would have avoided fighting with Noah,
especially after knowing Noah's secrets. If he was to battle Noah,
he had to use his full power. Revealing his full power would
eventually lead them to conclude that Ghost and Lucifer were the
same people.
However, Michael was confident that Noah couldn't defeat him. He

would either win or their battle would be a stalemate. The odds of
Noah defeating him were almost zero unless Noah revealed
himself as the future Supreme Guardian and the existence of
Andreas's soul.
He doubted Noah would reveal his secret so Michael wasn't going

to back down. Moreover, he was pissed off. These ambushers did
not only destroy Hades but also killed Elder Mark.
The Guardians almost had the same justice system as in most of
the democratic countries on Earth. They would first file a case,
then go to trial, then another trial, and another and another, the
case would go forever. According to the information Michael
gathered on the internal workings of the Guardians, it would take
at least a few years for Noah to get the one who was responsible
for the ambush. The worst thing was the guardians would keep
the armored figures safe and cozy in their prison cells instead of
torturing them for information. There was no way in hell Noah
would torture them. For Noah, these armored figures were just
another problem. With time, even he might forget about them after
handing over the case to some guardian. If these armored figures
had some power behind them, they would bribe the guardians and
get them out.
Michael's route was more direct and efficient although inhumane.

He did not know Noah was planning to reform the Guardian guild
and their justice system from the ground.
"I'm going to stop them" Ethan could not see his two sons fight.
"Stop!"
All of a sudden, a gentle yet mighty voice reverberated in the

area. A bright beam of light shot from the sky through the broken
ceiling. The beam of light sent a shock wave when it hit the
ground, breaking everything around.
Several figures stepped out of the bright light beam.
"Alpha Guardian" Peyton was startled to see the sudden

appearance of the Alpha Guardian of Hunter Guardians. Michael
did not recognize the elf in front of him.
Golden, straight hair slightly covers a fine, lived-in face.

Expressive amber eyes, set deep within their sockets, watching
over the castle bodies and the rubbles calmly. Her skin was
smooth as silk and so flawless. The pointy ears looked as though
they were a pair of sharp daggers.
The set of armor she wore had a squared helm with a faceguard
shaped in the face of an Eagle. Attached to its side were two tall
wing-shaped ornaments to mimic the shape of Eagle wings.
The shiny silver armor was made from many layers of smaller
metal pieces, mimicking the scales of a dragon. It covered the
entire front and backside, but the attachment straps leave the
sides under the arms exposed which enabled the armor to be
more flexible. The edges and the linings in the armor were made
of pure gold. On the chest plate, the letter 'H' was surrounded by
four wolves engraved.
The armor made the elf look like she was almost 6ft 6inches in
height. She looked at Ghost first and then turned her gaze to
Noah. Without uttering a word, she just flicked a wrist as all the
armored figures around them got beamed into the sky.
Those who stepped out of the light beam with the elf also wore the
same armor as the elf lady but their faces were covered by
helmets.
"Guardians sweep the place clean" The Alpha guardian ordered

her men. Everyone else breathed a sigh of relief after the Alpha
Guardian's appearance.
"Noah, do you need healing?" the Alpha Guardian asked Noah as

he shook his head. The light sword in his hand disappeared,
"You can all give your statements and leave" The Alpha Guardian
did not even look at them. She just waved her hands like she was
chasing dogs away.
The people in the room were prominent figures. Seeing the way
she acted rubbed them in the wrong way. Still, none of them
expressed their dissatisfaction. The third persona inside him
screamed at him to rip the elf into pieces. It couldn't take the
disrespect well. Although Michael was pissed off at the Guardians,
he was not stupid to go against a Fusion Stage level 3 warrior.
Controlling the boiling anger within himself, he turned to leave.

This was not the right time to go against the Guardians. The
blacks swords disappeared into his space ring along with the
golden bolts of lightning.
"Not you" When he turned around, he heard the elf's voice,
Without even turning back, he could tell the elf was talking to him.
Gaya stood up to stand beside him. On the other side, Peyton and
Xanali came to join the Alpha Guardian.
"This is now a Guardian business, stay away"
"Fuck you bitch" Michael wanted to say these words directly to her
face. To be honest, he could feel the third persona inside him
wanting to say this.
"I don't know who ordered this" Michael said, looking around,
"Whoever they are, they should pray for you Guardians to get
them first"
The threat was obvious. The elf could see the killing intent in his
eyes.
Michael did not linger around. Elder Reiner stood up carrying

Elder Mark's body in his arms. Before Diana could talk to him, she
saw Ghost leave the area with the people of his sect.
The other elders and the guests left the area too as quickly as
they could. They were afraid of another ambush. The moment
they felt the arch energy again, they flew out of Hades or what
was left of it.
A few hours later, Michael was in the dark forest mansion. He did
not attend the funeral of Elder Mark. After paying gold coins for
the renovation of Hades, he left the sect. Apparently, the armored
figures cast an illusion spell around Hades. The illusion made
everything normal to the people outside so they had no idea that
there was a battle happening inside.
Ricky told them about that. Daniel on the other hand was not so
lucky. If Michael had just been a couple of minutes late, Daniel
would have died.
The arrows and the weapons they used prevented the healing
potion from healing the wounds.
"Did you manage to get any of them?" asked Michael, entering the
surveillance room.
"They were teleported my lord" Azazel pointed at a mirror that

showed numerous black-robed figures disappear in a blink of an
eye.
"So the Spycams?"
"They were destroyed, my lord" Azazel shook his head,
"Teleportation, void creating spells, grand scale illusions, weapons

that mess with healing potions. Who are these guys?" Gaya
looked at the mirrors with her hands behind her back.
"Whoever they are, they just made themselves an enemy of mine.

And that's gonna end very badly for them" said Michael coldly.
"Aria will get you more mirrors. I have already built more drones
and Spycams for you. I want my eyes in every corner of this
continent"
"That will be done, my lord" Azazel bowed,
"Lucifer, did you notice those freaks mainly targeted Noah? I have
a feeling that this ambush wasn't meant for us but Noah"
"I don't give a shit who their target was. They messed with me.
Before all this shit, I was a hitman, I was the best. When I pick my
target, I will always get them, no matter who they are, or where
they are" By almost killing Cindy and Raylene, whoever sent the
ninjas reached the top of Michael's kill list.
"How do you plan to get them?"
"By infiltrating the Guardian guild"

Gaya felt a chill,
"Whoa, infiltrating the Guardians? You're joking?" asked Gaya.

Her brows were arched up behind her mask. She was completely
stunned.,
As far as she could remember, he always stayed back from the

Guardian guild. Even when they learned that Guardians was
hunting him for more than three thousand years.
"I have a plan" Michael snickered. He was building this plan for
quite some time and only now he got all the required items to put
the plan in motion.
For the next few minutes, Michael explained his plan to Gaya and
Azazel. When he finished narrating his plan, Gaya was genuinely
surprised.
"Lord, I have only one question," asked Azazel after giving a deep
thought to the plan he just heard.
"Ask"
Michael knew what he was going to ask,
"What if those armored men were teleported to the Guardian Guild

headquarters? They will decimate-"
Michael interrupted Azazel,
"They are not in the Guardian guild headquarters"
With a wave of his hand, Michael changed the footage of all

mirrors. All those mirrors worked as one single display. In the
display, they saw an empty hall lit with white orbs. The hunter
guardians of the Alpha guardian Michael met earlier stood
guarding the hall.
Gaya and Azazel were bewildered as they couldn't guess where

the footage was coming from,
"They are in the Alpha Guardian's airship" a cold smile emerged
on his face,
"Did you just bug the Alpha Guardian?" asked Gaya.

Chapter 424 - The Dark Elf in
the tree
Chapter 424 - The Dark Elf in the tree
Michael was sitting on his throne in the dimly lit throne hall. Gaya
paced towards him after finishing her tasks.
"Claire has informed everyone you are going to Mazeroth as we

told her to"
"Hmm" nodded Michael,
Instead of sitting on her throne beside Michael, she sat on his lap.
She removed the masks on their faces and kissed him. The kiss
made both of them feel lightened. With everything that happened,
the kiss calmed their nerves.
Michael too enjoyed the passionate break. He gently caressed her

hair while kissing her longer and deeper.
When his grab around her waist tightened, she purred
"Are you sure Michael?" After several minutes of kissing, she

departed her lips from his.
"It's for the best. The longer I stick with the sect, the more they
become the target to everyone else. Those who cannot hurt me
will harm them and I won't be able to protect them forever"
"I can see that but we put so much effort into the sect and it's
growing up to be a formidable force human" Gaya placed her
forehead on his forehead. She was so close to him and wrapped
her hands tight around his neck,
"Snake, I'm just talking about graduating from the sect, not
completely abandoning them. We still manage the sect from
behind the scenes"
He pinched her nose,
"I know human. I just wanted to hear you say that. I'm not gonna
stop until our sect becomes the most powerful one in this fucking
world. In the future, every sector should be in our control"
He could see the resolve in her eyes. It felt great to have her
around. With a woman like her by his side, he could indeed take
the entire world head-on.
As they were talking, Azazel appeared in the hall out of thin air,
"Oh, forgive me my lord, my lady. I will come back later" Azazel

quickly said.
"Don't be a baby Sebas" Gaya chuckled, looking at the mighty

demon who tried to be courteous.
"What is it Azazel?" asked Michael before the demon started to

blush or something.
"I talked to Lady Aria, my lord. I informed her brothers should stay
in the manor until you return. She asked for your permission to
leave Gisal and stay with her brothers"
"Why not?"
Michael wasn't going to prevent Aria from spending time with her
brothers. The longer she spent time with her brothers, the more
she would feel grateful to him. Thus, her loyalty to him would
increase.
He planned to make the two brothers his generals. Soon his

undead army would grow in numbers and at that time, he would
need loyal generals to command the army. Since Aria's brothers
were soldiers, with enough training, they could become great
generals. However, war and commanding an army was not
Michael's area of expertise. Luckily, he had the princess of
Nagaland with him.
Though Gaya had no prior experience commanding an army,

there was no doubt in his mind. She would make a damn good
queen and a superior commander.
"Another loose end tied. What else should we do before

departing?" asked Gaya,
"Nightmare is saying his goodbyes, Vedora has entered into

seclusion. Maxine will be busy mining the crystals in Stormveil
mountain, Tiberius is building his own kingdom"
Michael had given orders to each of his subordinates while he

was away.
"Caius and Heinberg are working with the Maven senators to

merge the two kingdoms. The civil war in Maven is still young so it
will take some time"
Said Michael as though he had nothing to do with the civil war in

Maven.
He was the one who orchestrated the entire thing so he could

merge Gisel with Maven with the support of the people of both
kingdoms. Through Corey, he supplied weapons and resources to
the freedom fighters in Maven who were fighting against Senator
Vibius. They believed that Senator Vibius was raising taxes,
driving the economy to drain, and militarizing the kingdom. They
had no idea that Senator Vibius was long dead.
Michael's plan was to merge all the senate-ruled kingdoms into

one single kingdom. For now, the merger of Gisel and Maven was
enough. No matter what, he needed to protect the Stormveil
mountain and the existence of the arch energy crystals from the
Guardians.
"What about Sadie?" asked Gaya,

"Her task is to simply get stronger. I provided her with enough pills
and potions to reach Core Formation level 7 within four months"
"The sooner she gets stronger, the better. We need to take over
the SilverMoon as soon as possible. I'm getting sick of this
Guardians"
Michael felt the same way. It was like no matter how strong he got,
the Guardians seemed stronger. However, when he thought about
the third persona, surprisingly he smiled,
"Did you forget darling? I am the fucking dark lord"
****************************************
Somewhere else, a man wearing long purple robes and half-moon

spectacles was walking towards a giant banyan tree. A white
dragon the size of a three months old puppy was standing on his
shoulder and calmly looking around the surroundings. The figure
was none other than Wulfric.
As far as one could see, there was nothing but the banyan tree
and Wolfric in the place. One could wonder how such a giant tree
grew on a land paved with marble stones. Several cone-shaped
mountains were floating in the sky as though they were balloons.
Wulfric calmly walked towards the tree.
As he approached the tree, the tree moved, not the entire tree but
the bark of the tree.
"Destiny is a mysterious thing" another calm voice sounded from

within the tree. Soon, a figure emerged from inside the tree. A
humanoid figure and the face of a man could be seen in the tree.
"Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same" the words were
spoken in a gruff voice,
"How are you, old friend?" Wolfric asked the figure stuck to the
tree,
"Same old Wulfric, asking the questions you already know the
answer to" the figure seemed to be chuckling but the mouth did
not move much,
"Elidyr" Wulfric uttered the name,
"It's been ages since I heard that name," said Elidyr. He sounded
exhausted. It was not a surprise as he was being tortured by the
Skyhall for the last three thousand years.
Elidyr was one of the founding fathers of the infamous Order of

Death. He started a cult to suppress the Skyhall. With geniuses
and prodigies from every corner of the world, he and the fellow
founding fathers managed to create a power that rivaled the
Skyhall itself in a mere thousand years.
But like many powers who challenged the Skyhall, they were
obliterated.
"When did we last meet? Thousand years ago or twenty one

years ago?" Elidyr amused,
"Same old Elidyr, asking the questions you already know the
answer to"
Wulfric began to walk around the tree with a calm smile on his
face. Since Elidyr was stuck to the tree and couldn't move his
neck, he waited until Wolfric came before him.
"What's troubling you my friend? What you did twenty one years
ago?"
"You said it yourself Eldity, dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all
the same. You cannot escape destiny" Wolfric sighed,
"You also cannot imprison the destiny Wulfric" This time, Elidyr's
lips curved upwards, letting out an amused smile,
"No prison in the universe could hold him back. He is here, isn't
he?"
Wolfric smiled. There was no fear in his eyes, just exhaustion.

"He's coming here Elidyr. I invited him"
Elidyr was surprised and yet, ever since he knew Wolfric, it had
always been impossible to know the reasons for his actions.
"He goes by the name Ghost and he has already started to grasp
the power of darkness"
One could not see any expression on Elidyr's almost wooden like
face. But inside, Elidyr was excited. Three thousand years of
torture grew into a giant tree of anger towards SKyhall in his heart.
He was waiting for the day of the Dark Lord's arrival. Elidyr
wanted nothing but to see him burn the SKyhall to the ground and
everyone who helped Skyhall decimate the Order of Death as well
as his friends.,
But still, Elidyr had one question after hearing Wulfric,
"And if you know this, why don't you go kill him?"
The dragon looked at Wulfric. She also had the same question as
the dark elf,
"Meddling with gods' will only lead to catastrophe, my friend. I

learned that the hard way. If the world's destiny is to get destroyed
by the Dark Lord and reborn as a new world, no mortal can stop
that from happening"
Eldyr remained silent for a few moments before asking,
"Still, why did you invite him? Let me guess, you are not going to
tell me"
Once again, Wulficr smiled gently,
"Goodbye old friend" As he said, Wulfric placed his hand on

Elidyr's head as numerous symbols appeared on the tree. The
faint sound of vibrations reverberated the area. Soon, Elidyr's
eyes began to glow too.
"AHHHHH" Elidyr screamed as the dragon watched the dark elf

with a bewildered face. Soon, the dark elf's scream abruptly
stopped,
"Master, what was that?"
"I erased his memories of me" Wulfric almost sounded sad. He

patted Elidyr on the shoulder which was covered by bark and a
green moth. He then looked around, enjoying the serenity of the
Akilan realm one last time,
"Soon, everything is going to change"
Wulfric closed his eyes, stroking his long white beard. A gentle
breeze arrived at the same time gathering all the green leaves
shed by the banyan tree. The trees brushed past him and when
the breeze settled down, Wulfric and the dragon were nowhere to
be found. They disappeared into the thin air.
Chapter 425 - The Grandspire
Bank
Chapter 425 - The Grandspire Bank
In Flamefair, one of the dukedoms of kingdom Kethen was an

imposing milky white building built with marble stones. The
building was located near the avenue that led to Flamefair duke
Avon's villa. From the street, a set of paved stairs led up to a set
of burnished golden doors. The doors were flanked by an elf in a
uniform of scarlet and gold. This was the entrance to the Grand
Spire Bank Flamefair branch. Before leaving for Akilan Realm, he
had to deposit a percentage of his wealth. By doing so, he would
get a paycube which was similar to a credit card on earth. Since
he agreed to become the leader of the Thusian Alchemy Guild,
Calvin insisted he open an account in Grand Spire Bank so they
could transfer his monthly payment without any delay.
"Nice" Michael nodded in approval looking at the bank before him.

This building could not scream 'wealthy' any louder. The stairs led
into a small entrance hall and another set of doors. The door
frame and the handles were made of pure gold. He chose not to
stare at the elves at the door because he did not want to be seen
as a noob who had never seen an elf in his life before.
Through these doors, also flanked with elves, was a vast marble
hall with long counters stretching along its length with doors
leading off to the vault passageways with around a hundred elves
and dwarves sitting at them. The vaults extended for miles under
the city and were accessible through rough stone, complex and
interconnected passageways by means of magic pushcarts that
were operated by dwarves. Rumor had that a dragon a lurk in the
depths of each branch as additional security devices.
"Lord Ghost" Just after passing through the door, he was called by
a youngster wearing sky blue robes. He was fanning himself with
a matching blue fan and when he saw Ghost, he grinned ear to
ear which seemed pretty forced.
"You must be the one Calvin sent" Michael shook the youngster's
hand,
"It's an honor to meet you Lord Ghost, I am Liang Li"
"Lead the way, Li" said Michael as the youngster walked towards
an elf sitting on the far end counter in the hall. He heard about
elves being innately beautiful but when he saw the girl before him,
he realized beautiful was an understatement. Her skin was
sparkling smooth, the golden hair looked as though each strand of
hair was made of gold.
"Mister Li, Lord Ghost. Please be seated" the elf said with a
heartwarming smile,
"You know me?" asked Ghost in doubt.
The elf nodded, "it's our task to learn about potential clients Lord
Ghost"
"Cool"
"Now Lord Ghost, Mister Li. How can I be of assistance?"
Michael looked at the name board on the table before her. The
name 'Vanya Valric' was written on the board in beautiful
calligraphy.
"Miss Valric. You said it's your task to learn about your potential
clients. So I assume you know about my two businesses"
The elf nodded once again as Michael continued,
"Until now im dealing without pay cubes but it's not- how do you
say, professional and convenient" Michael was just saying this for
the sake of conversation. The bank took pride in keeping the
contents stored in their vaults safe and secure. However, security
was not a concern to Michael as he stored his gold coins in
system storage which was the most secure place he could think
of.
The reason Michael decided to open an account was because of

Calvin and for the ease of transferring coins. To this day, when he
purchases something for a hundred thousand gold coins, for
example, he had to give a hundred thousand gold coins
physically. That meant, stacks made of gold coins so high would
appear and the seller or the owner had to count the coins. This
process was tedious. If he had pay cubes, on the other hand, he
could just transfer the gold coins in his Grand Spire bank account
to another account easily in a few seconds.
"To be honest Lord Ghost, I don't know how you managed until
now without a paycube. It's a must for a business with a caliber
like yours. You have made the right choice by coming here. I
would suggest you open a VIP account rather than a normal
account, Lord Ghost" the elf suggested,
"Let me explain the key benefits, Lord Ghost. Transferring funds in

your account from one continent to another will be done within a
day. If you wish to transfer items such as artifacts, paintings
etcetera etcetera, we will handle the security so you can be at
ease. Another benefit that you would be interested in more is our
tax reduction"
"What is that?" asked Michael,
"Currently, if your monthly income is more than 10million, you will

have to pay tax to each kingdom your revenue flows through. 40%
of your income will go to paying taxes. But if you are a VIP
account holder in our bank, your income will be directed to your
grand spire account and your taxes will be reduced to 30%. You
will save 10% and Lord Ghost, that's not a small percentage "
The last part got him. He hated paying taxes and filling the bellies
of nobles in each kingdom. If Gaya was here, she would have
jumped the gun and said okay right away after hearing the elf. His
current monthly income was somewhere between 12- 14 million
including his 2 million monthly paycheck from Thusian Alchemy
Guild.
"Miss Valric. I heard how secure your bank is"
"But you want to see how secure" the elf cut Michael's sentence.
"It'll be better if I show you instead of explaining Lord Ghost. Shall

we?" the elf stood up, gesturing at Michael and Li to follow her.
"Great" Michael was kinda excited. As the elf turned around to

lead them to the vaults, he took out a Spyder from his system
storage and willed it to be on his chest, sending feeds to Azazel.
At the end of the brightly lit hall was a golden door. The two elves
flanking the door opened it to let Valric, Michael, and Li through.
In contrast to the grand marble of the entryway and the main hall,
on the other side of the door, the passageways to the vaults were
stone and dimly lit with flaming torches. After following Valric for a
few minutes, they came to a slop where Michael saw coiling train
tracks.
"Levetus" a golden cart materialized on the tracks after she

uttered the word. The trio climbed onto the cart one by one and
when they were settled, Valric just flicked her wrist and the cart
began to run automatically.
"Whoa" Li seemed a little queasy when the cart began to

accelerate significantly. The cart was taking them deep beneath
the surface through the maze of twisting passages. Michael tried
to get a look at their surroundings but in addition to the cart's
speed, the vast, complex interconnected series of tracks
prevented him from doing so.
After almost fifteen minutes of cart riding, the cart came to a halt
in front of a giant door made of dark metal. The door stood at least
30meters in height and 20 meters wide.
"This is the first security measure, Lord Ghost. This door is built to
withstand any magical spells cast no matter who cast the spell"
Valric sounded proud. She then placed her hand on the door and
said,
"Obenta"
The ground vibrated as the door slowly creaked open. While it

was opening, Michael asked,
"What if someone else said the same word. Will the door still
open?"
Valric smiled, almost seeming amused by the question.
"The door has runes on it which analyze the voices of Grand Spire
workers in real-time Lord Ghost. Plus, the passcode changes
every minute which only the authorized personnel know"
Michael took a mental note,
"Miss Valric. How does this door open, runes?" Li asked,
"No runes Master Li, raw physical strength"
"What do you mean by that?" Li couldn't help questioning,
"Giants Master Li. Only the strongest giants can open this door
from inside. As for the location of the giants and the door
mechanism, it is kept as a top-secret"
When the door completely creaked open, they were welcomed by

an endless dimly lit hall with thousands of mini vortexes. These
deep-sea blue vortexes were hovering in the air and the sheer
number of them startled Michael.
"This is the second security measure, Lord Ghost. When you open
your account, a mini pocket dimension and the entryway to that
dimension will be created here. Each portal is assigned a number.
Only the handler of that account number could enter the portal.
Every portal you see here is protected by several powerful runes
and arrays. If anyone tried, not that they could come this far, they
will be burnt to a crisp"
"What if this handler tried to get his hands on the items?" asked
Michael,
"The handler could access the dimension but he or she won't

know the coordinates of the place where the bank keeps your
items. Every dimension is near inhabitable Lord Ghost. No one
can survive there for more than an hour. So if you don't know
where to look for the items, odds are you're dead. After knowing
the coordinates by contacting us and passing the verification
tests, the handler will be given the coordinates. The vault at the
coordinates is impenetrable even by an immortal. When the client
requested an item to be taken out of the vault, the bank will hand
over the handler a special rune. After reaching the coordinates,
the vault will ask for the passcode which will be given to the
handler from our security branch after another series of
verification processes"
By the minute, she was impressing Michael. Somehow these

verifications sounded like intriguing death traps. On top of
everything, Michael felt like he's been watched by several entities.
"The handler then places the rune on the vault. The rune will
teleport the item directly to a secure place. The rune will change
every three hours so duplicating is not an option. After that, the
bank will give the coordinates of the place to the client. The client
has the option to pick up the item or to be delivered to the
preferred location. We will take the required items from the client
when opening a new account"
The elf explained everything patiently.
"Of course, this is just the gist of it. Some parts of the security are
only shared with those with high clearance levels. You can rest
assured Lord Ghost, there are no other secure places like
Grandspire in this world"
Michael was truly surprised. He could not think of a single weak

point in the security system and what she told him until now
seemed like only half of the security. It was evident that behind the
scenes, there were more security measures in place. Therefore,
robbing this place was nothing but suicide. Michael hoped he
won't have to steal from Grandspire in the future.
At this time, he did not know fate had another thing in store for
him.
Chapter 426 -Arriving at
Mazeroth
Chapter 426 -Arriving at Mazeroth
The next day, the sun slowly rose from the horizon spreading its
golden rays to the land. The warmth of the sun woke up the early
birds along with the disciples of the Sunrise sect. The sect was
completely revitalized by new buildings and majestic flower
plantations. The fountains built occasionally on the neatly paved
road added an extra bit of charm to the sect's beauty. Only one
construction place could be seen and it was on the place where
Ghost's previous house was located.
On Gaya's rampage, she destroyed the home. Ever since then,

the dwarven engineer who built the Hades was tasked to build
Michael's new home. Michael bought a blueprint from the system
store and made some changes to accommodate his taste and the
size of the land given to him and handed the construction work to
the dwarf. The total cost to build his new home was a whooping
18million gold coins. The blueprint Michael bought was the
blueprint of Updown court in England. The changes were made to
make the house smaller since Michael had no need for so many
rooms and bathrooms.
After discussing with the dwarf, the house ended up with 20

rooms, 10 bathrooms, and five swimming pools including one
private swimming pool for Gaya and Michael. Even this felt like
too much to him but Gaya insisted and refused to go lower than
20 rooms.
Currently, only Gaya was standing in front of the half-built home

waiting for Michael,
"Sorry, it took longer than I expected" Michael appeared out of thin
air thanks to runic teleportation.
"Everything alright?"
Gaya asked, hugging him tight. They both continued to kiss each
other before departing,
"Went great actually, I opened up a VIP account and Calvin's guy

made a deposit of 6million into the account as my bonus. I guess
Thusians have gold to spend"
"We should milk as much as we can before we destroy them"

Gaya grinned,
"What about you? Did you tell the Kane family elders we might not
be able to make it to the wedding?" asked Michael. He sat on the
stack of marble stones and helped Gaya up. He then put his hand
around Gaya's shoulder,
"They are pretty pissed off about the ambush. I heard that's the
hottest topic in Elon right now. And oh, the wedding has been
postponed"
Michael was surprised. The Kane family went to such lengths to

make sure Adam weds the Oswen family heiress. It was highly
unlikely they postponed because a trio of elders got ambushed.
"They didn't tell me why. They just told me the wedding has been
postponed"
"Did you happen to meet Lord Ashton?"
"Nope," Gaya shook her head,
"Your full name is Gaya Ashton and he is also called Ashton. You
two related?"
"It's coincidence brat" she gnawed Michael's hand playfully,
"Ouch, you animal" Michael knocked her on the head,

He suddenly stopped chuckling which made Gaya frown. She
looked at his face to see a worried look on his face,
"Don't worry Michael, we will find a cure for your problem. I have a
feeling the dark elf my mother talked about has all the answers we
need"
"I am afraid he will have more than answers," said Michael. His
gut feeling told him something was going to happen soon.
Ignoring the gloomy feelings, Michael accessed the system
storage to take out a brown sparkling potion.
He drank the potion quickly and closed his eyes. The potion was
so bitter that it made bitter melon look sweet. After he drank the
potion, Gaya noticed tiny hairs coming out of his cheeks. She saw
his beard grow at a visible speed. In a few blinks of an eye, his
stubble beard turned bushy.
His hair also grew a couple of inches but not as much as the
beard.
"System, upgrade her mask to the max level" he then willed the
system, placing his hand on Gaya's face. She began to feel a
warm wave spreading through her head.
[The chameleon mask has been upgraded. Anyone under the Half
Immortal stage will not see through the effects of the mask]
The system charged 10,000 badass points for the upgrade. This
was the last thing Michael planned to do before leaving for the
Akilan realm.
"What did you do?" asked Gaya, touching her face.
"I made sure you stay safe. Just run if you see anyone above Half
Immortal stage"
"Human, I don't think those guys will be teaching there"
"Better safe than sorry. Shall we go?" Michael jumped down from
the stacks of marble stones,
"Go? Aren't you gonna tell everyone?" she frowned as Michael
sighed,
"I already told Claire. I am not very good at goodbyes. Besides,

they are still grieving. We should leave them be"
Whoosh!
As Michael was speaking, a shadow was cast on them. They both

looked up at the sky to see Nightmare slowly descending from the
sky. He landed comfortably on Michael's shoulder,
"You're on time" Michael brushed Nightmare's neck gently,
"Before we go, I have a question. You are going to study, what is

she gonna do? You faked the acceptance letter but what if they
have records of new admissions. If they compare the list of names
with the people who arrived, she will stand out" Gaya looked at
Michael, expecting him to explain.
Believe it or not, Michael had the same question. However,

according to the system, it altered the records somehow. At first,
Michael couldn't believe the system. He never thought the system
would be able to alter records of Mazeroth from another realm. Yet
the system did that and reassured him that he has nothing to
worry. He trusted the system enough to bring her to the Akilan
realm.
"Where does this come from?" Nightmare nudged his head on

Michael's beard.
"Let's go shall we?"Rather than explaining and wasting time,

Michael retrieved the golden parchment from the system storage.
Gaya also took out similar-looking parchment from her space ring.
Both parchments looked exactly the same. No one could find any
difference in the scroll except for their names.
Taking out a quill from their space rings, they signed their names
on the corner of the parchments as instructed. After signing,
nothing happened. They just kept staring at each other. For a
couple of minutes, an awkward silence filled the area.
"What-"
And just as Gaya was about to say something, the air around the
became hotter. They felt the space around them getting distorted.
In the next second, a blue vortex appeared behind them and in a
blink of an eye, the vortex sucked them in.
************************************
They traveled through space for more than three days but for
them, it felt like a couple of seconds. When they opened their
eyes, they were standing on endless grassland.
"Wow," Nightmare's jaw dropped a couple of inches down in

shock. Not only he but Gaya and Michael were also mesmerized
by the beauty around them. The puffy milky white clouds seemed
so close to them, around them, there were hundreds of giant
mountains in the shape of cones floating in the air. Hundreds of
people flying on what seemed like swords and spears and even
broomsticks.
Whoosh!
As they were basking in the beauty of the Akilan realm, the space
around them was distorted once again. Before even Michael could
turn his head, Gaya was sucked into a vortex.
Michael's heart skipped a beat as he reached for the vortex to pull

her out. However, it was too late, she and the vortex both
disappeared.
"System, locate her. Where is she?" he shouted at the system in

his mind,
[Do not be alarmed, host. Gaya is still in the Akilan realm. The
system has teleported her to another more suitable location]
"What do you mean more suitable?"
[You will see]

The system kicked him out in spite of his urge to ask more
questions. The Akilan realm's sky was filled with floating
mountains. Each mountain looked unique. One had water flowing
from the top, one was covered in vegetation, and one seemed to
be covered in snow. Under different circumstances, Michael would
have taken some time to enjoy the beauty in peace and calm.
Now, he wanted to find Gaya first.
"Human" all of a sudden, he heard Gaya's voice in his head

through the earpiece.
"Fuck, did you teleport me here?" She sounded slightly annoyed

because of the sudden teleportation.
"Trust me, I had no control. Where are you now?"
"I think I'm on a floating mountain. So I guess, I'm still in Akilan

Realm"
Michael sighed,
"Let's find where are we exactly and rendezvous somewhere"
"Got it,"
"Welcome to Mazeroth"
A gruff voice sounded from behind. Michael quickly turned around

and saw a giant of a man walking toward him. The man was about
twice as tall as an average man, standing at ten feet tall and three
times as wide, with a long mane of shaggy black hair and a beard
that covered most of his face. He kinda reminded Michael of
Hagrid in Harry Potter. The entire world seemed to be the world of
wizardry in a weird way.
Except this man did not speak with an accent.
"You must be the youngster who goes by the name Ghost and
who is this majestic creature?"
"Grrrrr" when the man tried to pet Nightmare, the dragon showed
his razor-sharp teeth.
"Fierce one heh? I admire creatures with some spirit like this. You
little dragon need all the spirit you can get to face those jerks
called royal dragons"
For a moment, Michael remained silent. He was scanning the man

from top to bottom. Surprisingly, the man was only at the Body
"Where are my manners? Im Gilrine, the groundskeeper of

Mazeroth"
Chapter 427 - Flying train to
Mazeroth
Chapter 427 - Flying train to Mazeroth
"Follow me, your ship departs in forty minutes" Gilrine gestured at

Michael to follow him. Reassured that Gaya is still in the Akilan
realm, Michael walked behind Gilrine looking around. The place
was simply magical. The rainbows added another layer of charm
to the already magnificent Akilan realm.
Michael did not know where Gilrine was leading him to. As far as
he could see, there was nothing but grassland and floating
mountains. Few of the mountains had small pagodas atop.
However, those pagodas did not look like the famous Mazeroth.
"How may I call you?" asked Michael,
"Gil, Gilrine, groundskeeper, fatso as many like to call me" Gilrine

chuckled,
"Gilrine it is"
"How many students are in my batch?"
Michael tried to gather information about the Akilan realm and

MAzeroth starting from Gilrine since Gilrine seemed like a
talkative type.
"Twenty-four. The number is twice in the junior batch. Trust me,

this time, we have some monsters. When they leave after three
years of study in Mazeroth, they will rule the world"
"Three years? I thought the studies in Mazeroth will be eighteen

months" asked Michael,
Gilrine scratched his bushy beard as a few peanuts jumped out of
his beard.
"That's for the senior batch which is you kids. The little ones will
study here for three years"
Nightmare couldn't take his eyes off the sky where he saw
countless people flying. He wanted to check out the new place by
flying around. He really missed Vedora. They would have really
loved the place, Nightmare thought.
After almost half an hour of walking, they came to the edge of the
mountain. Michael stood on the edge, looking down. There was
nothing but puffy clouds down. They covered the air as though
they were fluffy white blankets.
"You are the last one in your batch and surprisingly you took your
time. Normally kids come running here the second after they get
the invitation"
Michael could barely see the expression on his face through the
bushy beard.
"I had some loose ends to tie up"
For some reason, Gilrine had a weird feeling looking at the calm
face of the youngster. He couldn't explain the feeling but it was
drilling his heart like a drill.
Choo!
Choo!
The sound of the train in the distance drew their attention towards
the sky. Michael was pretty surprised to see a train approaching
them. The train was flying rather than running on a track. The train
was at least 650m in length. It was painted in black with the word
'Mazeroth Express' written on the side in crimson red. Michael
counted five coaches while waiting for the train. He couldn't help
remembering the Hogwarts express looking at the train. This
whole place and MAzeroth reminded him of Harry Potter. Instead
of Harry Potter, he felt like Voldermort since the guardians named
him the 'Dark Lord'
As the train approached them, it slowed down and eventually

stopped in the air above them. A bridge made of light appeared
from the center car to the edge of the mountain Michael and
Gilrine were standing on.
"Bollocks" all of a sudden, Gilrine slapped his own forehead.
"I forgot to pick something important" he turned to look at Michael,
"Do you mind going alone? I will meet you at the gateway"
Michael did not know how this entire process works yet looking at
the man's pleading face, he nodded,
"Sure thing"
"Great. Here's your ticket"
Gilrine handed over Michael a golden card the size of a credit

card and flicked his wrist. A large broomstick materialized on the
ground beneath his feet. In a blink of an eye, Gilrine stepped on
the broomstick and disappeared into the sky in a rush.
The ticket had the number 34 under the name Mazeroth written in
emerald-green ink. The sparkling blue light bridge seemed
intimidating as Michael never walked on a light bridge before. Still,
he wasn't afraid. Even if he fell, he could fly so there was no need
to be afraid.
To his surprise, when he stepped on the light bridge, a loud

thunder shaking even the mountains sounded throughout the
realm.
"That's ominous" Michael looked up at the sky. The puffy white

clouds were being chased by dark gloomy clouds. The colorful
realm slowly turned darker and darker.
In the distance, several lightning cracks were splitting the sky. The
darkness soothed. He walked the bridge with his head held high.
When he finally stepped into the train, the light bridge faded away.
He was welcomed by a corridor large enough for two grown men
to walk side by side. There were several compartments in front of
him and each of them had a number on the door. Not a single
compartment had open doors. The door near him had the number
23 and the numbers increased further he walked through the
corridor.
"Twenty-five, twenty-eight" Nightmare counted along the way. The

train was spotless. The blue rug they were walking on was clean
and the place smelled like jasmine. He could not look into the
compartments as the doors were made of some kind of redwood.
The coordinator was brightly lit by golden orbs on the ceiling.

Finally, several minutes later, he found the number 34.
"There is no knob on the door," said Nightmare,
Michael looked at the ticket in his hand, wondering how to open

the door when the door next to his compartment opened. Alluring
beauty with silky brown hair stepped out of the room. She wore a
warm smile on her face.
"You have to place your ticket on the door," the girl spoke in a
melodious voice.
She turned her gaze towards Nightmare while Michael was

placing the golden ticket on the door. Her warm smile and beauty
mesmerized Nightmare. He was just staring at the girl's face
without batting an eye.
Several runes began to glow when the ticket touched the door. A
golden knob appeared as Michael twisted the knob to open the
door. The compartment was a small room with a single door
opening to the long corridor. There appeared to be seating for up
to 6 adults or 8 children in the compartment, on two cushioned
benches facing each other.
"Thank you"
"Don't mention it, number 34" She smiled, making Michael frown,
"You seem like you don't know it. In Mazeroth, no student is
allowed to use their names. Just only by the numbers given to us
when they sort us into specialization houses. I am 33 until I get my
student number, I'm your neighbor" the girl reached out her hand
to shake his hands with a bright smile. She seemed warm and
friendly and deep down, she reminded someone of him.
For the sake of manners, Michael shook her hand. She did not
linger around to have a conversation as she returned to her
compartment. He entered his compartment and sat next to the
window. The windows were getting covered by tiny droplets of
water formed by the drizzling rain.
As though the train was waiting for him to settle in his

compartment, the train began to move only after he reached his
place.
"Where is she?" Nightmare asked again. He jumped onto

Michael's lap and looked at him with a worried face.
"She's fine," he said before calling the system in his mind,
"System scan this compartment. I want to know if there is

something that could spy on us"
[That will be hundred badass points]
As usual, he had to pay the system to get it to do something.

Surprisingly, the system informed him there is nothing in the
compartment that could spy on them.
"Where are you?"
It took several seconds to get a reply from Gaya.
"Human you're not gonna believe this" Gaya sounded excited,
"I will tell you everything when you come here"
Michael frowned,
"Are you in Mazeroth?"

"Yeah. Holy shit Michael, you have to see this place. This is
fucking awesome"
He was stunned because Gaya was extremely hard to please yet

even he praised the place and seemed shocked by Mazeroth's
beauty.
"I have a surprise for you Mikey. Come sooner, I'll be waiting for
you. Shit, I gotta go" the connection broke off abruptly. Although
he did not know what was the reason for her excitement, he was
relieved to hear she made it into Mazeroth without a problem.
Inside the compartment next to Michael's compartment, two girls

were drinking hot tea facing each other.
"Edith, who were you talking to?" asked Victoria, the girl who
betrayed Abras and sent a dagger through his heart. Michael was
oblivious to the point that he was sitting next to the princess of
Thusia and the girl who he just talked to was the younger sister of
Lailah Alden.
"Number 34" Edith chuckled winking at Victoria,
"You know, he was pretty okay in the eyes. Good height,

awesome body. Regardless of his robes, I was still able to see his
muscles flexing out. Plus, he has a dragon for a familiar"
"Let me guess, a forest dragon" Victoria did not even look at Edith.
She was still looking outside through the window and calmly
taking sips from her cup.
"How did you know?" Edith was shocked,
"Because if he had a Royal dragon, I would have known him and

you would have known him" Victoria calmly said. Anyone could
see the superiority in her voice.
"So what? I'm telling you, you should find a boyfriend and this is
the only place you might find the one who fits your criteria"
"You always ask me to find a boyfriend. What about you? Have
you confessed your feelings to your sweetheart?" Edith's face
immediately turned red,
"Or you're going to tell me that you and Noah are just friends"
Victoria was smiling. As far as she was concerned, nothing could
worry her and she and her family were reaching for heaven with
the help of Cosmic Stream.
Only if she knew the deadliest man in the world was sitting next to
her with a vengeance against her and her kingdom.
Chapter 428 - Runemaster
Chapter 428 - Runemaster
"I should check out what's happening" After traveling for an hour,
he eventually decided to send spyders throughout the train.
"Open the door," Michael said to Nightmare who was watching the
outside with his nose pressed against the window. Nightmare flew
towards the doorknob and opened the door by twisting the knop
using both of his hands.
Michael sent several spyders through the door. Nightmare kept

watching the spyders crawling out the door and activating their
camouflage to blend in with the environment,
The corridor was pretty much empty except for a few youngsters
who put their heads out the door to look at the corridor as though
they were expecting someone.
Michael was watching everything with his eyes closed. The feeds
were running in his mind. Although it was stressful to watch them
in his mind, he was not in the situation to set up mirrors or contact
Azazel.
Speaking of Azazel, Michael tried to establish a connection with

his demon butler but he was unable to connect with him. It didn't
come as a surprise to Michael as his earpieces lacked the power
to enable him to communicate between realms.
The spyders he sent towards the front of the train returned

nothing. However, the ones that went on the other side showed
him something interesting. It was a sight of several youngsters
who were tall, lean, and mean-looking ganging up on a youngster.
The guy who was getting the beating curled in the shape of a
question mark to cover his chest, gut, and face.
The elves wore robes so fine and silky. They looked like they were
weaved using golden threads. They neatly combed their golden
hair and wore a silver circlet with a red ruby in the center.
Their pointy ears and flawless smooth skin were a dead giveaway
of their identity as elves to Michael. He could not identify the
youngster's race as he was covering his face. Michael moved
around the spyders to get a better angle,
"Filthy half-blood"
"Thank Eladriel we could only give you a beating"
"Let's just cut his ears"
"I feel disgusting just by kicking this filthy half-blood"
The elven youngsters were shouting while beating the one who
they called half-blood. Michael began to realize what was
happening and his suspicion was confirmed when he saw the ears
of the youngster who was getting beaten up. Those ears were not
as pointy as the ears of the elves, still they were not the ears of
humans.
"Half elf," Michael thought. He heard Claire's grandfather

Christopher talk about the proud nature of elves. Because Claire's
mother, who was an elf eloped with a human, the house of Elacan
sent a mage to capture Elasha, Claire's mother, and put a
powerful cure on Christopher and Claire's father.
Claire was a half-elf too but she seemed completely human,

unlike the youngster. Although Claire was an exceptional beauty, it
was still far too for someone to say she has elven blood running in
her body.
"I am tired"
"Yeah I need some blood wine"
"And I need to change my shoes because of this filth"

The youngsters began to kick the half-elf harder and harder but
soon, they left him alone. Michael saw the half-elf lying on the
ground still. He almost thought the half-elf lost consciousness
because of the beating the elves gave him.
The half-elf surprised him by standing up. Now that the half-elf
was on his feet, Michael could see his face. The half-elf had a pair
of blue eyes, golden shoulder-length hair, warm ivory skin tone as
well as a pair of arched eyebrows on his long face.
Unlike the elves, the half-elf was wearing a cream colored jacket,
black pants that had several stitches and worn-out brown boots.
The half-elf bent backward holding his waist,
"Oh my back" the half elf grimaced,
He then wiped off the blood coming out from his nostrils and
surprisingly, he grinned ear to ear. The reason for his happiness
was revealed to Michael when the half elf opened his fist. Michael
saw several silver rings,
"Great harvest. I hope these assholes have something valuable

inside"
The half-elf mumbled under his breath. Still, Michael was able to
hear him. The half-elf gawked back and forth before rushing
towards the back of the train.
"Interesting"
Michael moved the spyders behind the half elf to follow him. The
half elf passed every compartment until the last one. Yet, he never
opened the last compartment. He walked past the compartments
and stepped into the last couch which was one open
compartment. Several suitcases were lying around and some of
them were opened. Clothes and books were lying around
chaotically. The half-elf jumped onto a stack of suitcases,
The half-elf looked around, closed his eyes, and placed one space
ring on his right palm. Michael was staring at the half elf curiously.
The half elf remained with his eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
When the half elf opened his eyes, his index finger was glowing.
He touched the space ring with his index finger as the space ring
began to tremble. The half elf moved his finger, drawing some
kind of symbol on his palm.
Boom!
The trembling space ring all of a sudden exploded. Yet, there were
few items materialized on the floor just after the space ring
exploded. Michael saw a couple of jade daggers, scrolls, and a
few gold coins.
The half elf frowned,
"Damn it" he cursed, waving his hand. A beam of light shot out
from the half elf's palm and engulfed the items. The very next
second, the light beam disappeared along with the items on the
floor.
The half elf continued to break the space rings one by one. Each
time he broke a space ring, he ended up stealing the leftover
items.
"A runemaster"
Michael realized the specialization of the half-elf while watching

him break open the space rings one by one. Obviously, the half elf
was destroying the space rings along with most of the items
inside. Still, it was a great feat that many believed that space rings
are unbreakable.
"If he was called by Mazeroth, he must be a gifted one," Michael

thought.
For a long time, he was looking for a runemaster to serve him. It

seemed like he had finally found a suitable candidate to recruit.
The problem was however how he should approach the half elf.
He could either meet the half-elf as Ghost or Lucifer but getting
into his Lucifer persona in the Akilan realm was a risk.
Therefore, he decided to approach him as Ghost. Fortunately, the
girl he met told him that in the Akilan realm, Mazeroth in particular,
everyone would be called using their student numbers rather than
real names. If he played his cards correctly, he could hide his
identity and recruit him into the order.
Several minutes later, the half elf broke all the space rings in his
hand. He jumped down to the floor with a grin,
"It's time to find another group of racist assholes to steal from" the
half elf made his way towards the student compartments once
again.
The half elf walked out of the compartment having no idea of

being followed.
Inside compartment 33, Edith and Victoria were staring at an orb

floating in the middle of them.
"Why does your father want you to hide your identity?" Edith
asked. The orb was powered with Cosmin c energy. Hence, they
were able to communicate with Victoria's father in Thusia using
the orb.
"I don't know but dad must have his reasons"
In her life, Victoria had never questioned her father's decisions.

For her, he was the greatest ruler born to unite the entire world
under the name of Thusia. She believed it was her destiny to rule
the united world as the Empress of Thusia.
"Atleast I dont have to wear any masks to hide my face" Edith

rolled her eyes. She did not seem very happy about Victoria
hiding her face as well as her identity as the princess of Thusia.
"So be glad," Victoria said, flicking her wrist. A porcelain mask

appeared on her face. She slowly placed the mask on her face.
Victoria kept the mask on her face and gradually, the mask
merged with her face, changing her facial feathers and the color of
her hair. In mere moments, Victoria's face transformed completely.
She looked nothing like the Victoria Edith knew and saw a few
seconds ago.
"This is going to be weird," Edith said. She couldn't help reaching

out to feel Victoria's face. Her face was still soft and very human-
like.
"Now can you keep your mouth shut Edi?"
Edith knocked Victoria on the head playfully,
"I'm not a secret spiller. You can hide your face but you cannot
hide who you are. Eventually, you yourself will reveal your identity,
and Ill have to save your butt as usual" Edith said, puffing her
chest out,
"Tell me the one time you saved me" asked Victoria.
Edith stuck her tongue out since not even once she saved Victoria
from trouble. On the contrary, it was always Victoria who saved
Edith from trouble. She was friends with Victoria as far as she
could remember. Simply, they were family to each other. They did
not keep secrets from each other except for Victoria's involvement
in acquiring the Cosmic Stream. However, that was because
Victoria's father made Victoria promise not to tell anyone until they
obtained the Cosmic Stream. Edith would have stopped Victoria
and persuaded her to find another way instead of betraying
someone using love. For Edith, love was the most precious thing
in the world.
Because Victoria was her best friend, subconsciously Edith

ignored the fact Victoria faked being in love with Abras and
betrayed him for the Cosmic Stream.
Thusians did get the Cosmic Stream and they were using the
Stream to become the strongest. However, they failed to realize
that the power came at a cost.
Chapter 429 - Castle of
Mazeroth
Chapter 429 - Castle of Mazeroth
Castle of Mazeroth
While Michael was coming to Mazeroth on the train, Gaya had

already reached the outskirts of Mazeroth. Mazeroth Castle was a
large, nine-story high building supported by Celestial magic with
two hundred and fifty-two staircases throughout its many towers
and turrets and very deep dungeons. The castle was built four
thousand years ago by a 6-star architect and the four most
celebrated cultivators of the age: Archer Crooke, Ingrid Stenham,
Qiu Jin, and Kargin Pavlovich. All of them were 6-star Warrior,
Alchemist, Rune Master, and Blacksmith respectively.
The castle was the main building of the Mazeroth, regarded as the
finest academy for studying wizardry in the world.
Mazeroth was built on the mother mountain in Akilan Realm. The

mother mountain was said to be one giant mountain before
something destroyed the mountain into pieces. The floating
mountains were once pieces of the mother mountain. Mazeroth
was surrounded by a fairly large lake to the south of the main
building. The huge main oak front doors that led into the Entrance
Hall faced west and opened up to sloping lawns. Endless forest
extended around to the west of the castle. There were also
exterior greenhouses and herbs patches on the school grounds
for the Alchemy students.
Due to its ancient age and the sheer amount of Celestian energy
present in or around it, the castle had developed a form of
sentience though none could confirm this.
Gaya just came out of the forest to the west. She was stunned by
the sheer magnificence of the castle. She always praised the
castle of Nagaland and took pride in the castle her ancestors built.
However, the castle of Mazeroth made the castle of Nagaland
look like a poor shack.
"Ah miss"
Suddenly Gaya heard a voice from behind. In a split second, a

long sword appeared in her hand. She turned around at lightning
speed,
"GOD!"
The one who shouted seeing her sword against his throat was a
giant of a man. His face was almost covered by a tangled mane of
a beard.
"Miss, my name is Gilrine. The groundskeeper of Mazeroth" said

Gilrine without moving an inch. The pointy edge of the sword was
just an inch away from his throat and the girl looked as though she
would send the sword through his throat if he dared to move.
"Prove it"
Gaya was the intruder yet she intimidated Gilrine without showing
any hesitation. She trained herself to proficiently lie before
meeting Ghost but after meeting him, he honed her skill of lying
further. One of the lessons she learned from Ghost was; that the
best way to lie was to believe the lie.
"Slowly" Gaya threatened when Gilrine tried to move his hand,
"My card is in my pocket" Gilrine slowly moved his hand inside his
coat pocket. Gaya heard several sounds, she even heard a bird
squeak.
Gilrine let out an awkward smile trying to find his identification

card given to him by the Headmistress. It took him almost five
minutes to find the card.
Gaya noticed Gilrine taking out a silver card with his picture on it.
The words 'Groundskeeper of Mazeroth' was etched onto the card
in gold.
"excellent," she thought to herself.
"Miss, can you please…" Gilrine gently touched the sword,

pleading for her to take the sword away from his throat.
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ovel,c.o.m Gaya looked at Gilrine from top to bottom before finally
moving the silver sword away from his throat. She put the sword
into the sheath hanging on her waist.
"Sigh" Gilrine sighed,
"Miss, how did you get here? You should be with your batchmates
on the train" frowned Gilrine,
"Batchmates? Who do you think I am? I am the new Combat

professor, Nayla Steinmeyer" she exclaimed, flicking her wrist as
a silver card similar to Gilrine's identification card appeared in her
hand. She threw the card at Gilrine,
Gilrine was taken aback by surprise. At most, she would be thirty,

and thirty was way too young to be a professor. Still, the
identification card showed him that she was indeed Nayla
Steinmeyer, the new Combat Professor.
If Headmaster recruited her to teach the art of combat to the

students, Gilrine had no doubts that she was the best because
Mazeroth accepted only the best of the bests.
"Professor Steinmeyer, you were hunting out in the woods?"

asked Gilrine. The thought of Gaya killing another imposter and
taking her identification card and pretending to be Nayla
Steinmeyer never came across Gilrine's mind.
After being teleported by the system, she woke up in the forest.

While she was searching for a way to get back to Michael, she
ended up in the middle of a battle between two girls. They were
equally matched and when Gaya saw them, both of the girls were
badly injured by each other. She did not interfere. However, she
wanted to contact Michael and ask him what to do when both the
girls used the most powerful spell in their arsenal. Unfortunately,
the two girls died on the spot. As usual, Gaya tried to loot their
bodies. The spells destroyed their bodies along with all their
belongings except for the identification card and the long sword in
her sheath. The moment she picked up the card, she experienced
acute pain in her face. Surprisingly, the mask Michael gave her
transformed her face to look like the face on the identification
card.
"Are you going to stand there or show me around the castle?"
"Yes yes, this way Professor Steinmeyer. We still have some time
before the students arrive" Gilrine walked in front of her, taking the
lead. While showing around the castle grounds, Gilrine went on
and on about the history of Mazeroth. Gaya paid no heed to the
history lesson.
"Show me the tree"
"Huh?" Gilrine was confused by her sudden question. They were

at the training grounds which was a flat, short-cut grassy area and
were located near the greenhouses. There was no tree in the
vicinity so he scratched his bushy beard with a confused look on
his face.
"Can you be more specific Professor Steinmeyer?"
"Never mind, I will practice my punches later" Gaya lied. She

wanted to find the tree her mother talked about; the tree with the
dark elf. She probed Gilrine because he seemed to know a lot
about the castle grounds and the Akilan realm. Since there was
nothing but a confused look on his face, she learned that the
location of the tree was well hidden.
"Gilrine" they were on their way to the courtyard when Gaya met a
tall, severe-looking lady in her late sixties. Her dark hair was tied
up in a bun and wore round spectacles.
Gaya's heart skipped a beat as the woman was a level 10 Fusion
Stage cultivator.
"Headmistress Martin" Gilrine bowed his head with the utmost

respect.
The lady nodded in return before turning her gaze towards Gaya,
"Oh headmistress Martin, this is Professor Nayla Steinmeyer, our

new combat professor. How stupid of me? You must have known
this" Gilrine let out an embarrassed chuckle,
"New Professor? Wulfric did not say anything about getting a new
Combat Professor"
"I checked her identification card headmistress," Gilrine said

before Gaya could open her mouth,
"It must have slipped his mind"
Fortunately for Gaya, headmistress Kayla was on an urgent

business and she trusted Gilrine and the security measure of
Mazeroth. Hence, she did not think Gaya was an imposter.
In a blink of an eye, Kayla turned herself into a milky white eagle

and flew into the dark sky. Gaya was stunned yet again.
"She is the best shapeshifter there is," Gilrine proudly said. Gaya
could also notice a tear dropping rolling out of his eyes in pride.
Through the oak door in the courtyard, they stepped into the
castle. The corridors were as wide as a spacious hall. It was
brightly lit with huge chandeliers and giant candles.
"Where is everyone?" Gaya couldn't help asking Gilrine looking at

the empty corridors and halls. This entire time, she saw no one
except Gilrine and Headmistress Martin. Once again, she looked
around standing in front of the giant oak door.
Instead of answering, Gilrine just grinned. Then, he pushed open

the oak door. The moment the door was opened, the silence she
experienced disappeared. The buzzling sound and the chitter-
chatter of people reverberated in the area.
"Welcome to Mazeoth Professor," Gilrine said proudly.
The buzzling large hall before her was the main hall of Mazeoth. It
had enough space to hold every student, as well as the main staff
and guests. The Hall had tall walls that reached up to the ceiling,
which was covered with floating candles and enchanted to look
like a starry sky.
At the front of the hall was the staff table, which was designed to
house the entire Mazeroth staff. In the center of the table was a
throne chair where the Headmaster sat. In front of the staff table
were five six feet pillars. The pillar in the center was made of glass
unlike the rest of them which were made of granite stone.
The hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were
floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the
students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden
plates and goblets.
Gaya looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with
stars. It was nothing like the starry sky she had seen, it was more
beautiful, more mesmerizing. She really had a hard time believing
there was a ceiling there at all, and that the hall didn't simply open
onto heaven. The students were busy gossiping and playing as
they did not notice Gaya.
Chapter 430 - Sorting
Ceremony l
Chapter 430 - Sorting Ceremony l
Finally, the train came to a halt. One by one, the compartment

doors opened. Michael waited for everyone to leave before he left
the train last. When he came to the door, the scenery before him
took his breath away.
"Wow" Nightmare exclaimed,
Unlike Michael who meditated on his way, Nightmare was looking

at everything through the window still when he saw the place with
nothing in front of his eyes, the place looked a hundred times
more stunning or more.
For Michael, the Mazeroth castle immediately reminded him of

Hogwarts. Of course, the castle was unique in its own way. Now
that he stepped outside the train, he was able to see more and
more students who seemed to be of the same age as him. He
could see almost every fantasy race such as elves, dwarves,
humans, orcs, and beast-men. The elves were standing in a group
away from the other races while the dwarves seemed to be
cursing at the elves for some reason.
The tension between the two races was visible. Almost every
single one of them was familiar with them. The elves mostly
carried a beautiful snowy owl in a cage. Contrary to the elves, the
dwarves were standing beside various breeds of dogs. Michael
smiled inside seeing dog breeds such as husky, german
shepherd, and bulldogs in this world. Some of the dogs however
had wings and pointy ears.
Taking his eyes off the dwarves, he noticed the growling faces of
orcs and the beast-men. Orcs were the bodybuilders of this world.
Their bulky muscle mountain physique itself terrified many
humans. Despite their terrifying look, the orcs were a peace-loving
race. Only a few tribes such as Dular's tribe advocated war and
violence. According to Gaya, the orcs preferred to live in peace
and prosper through trade routes with nearby kingdoms. The orcs
were the only powerful race in the world who did not have their
own kingdom. Almost all the orcs had a raccoon with a long bushy
tail sitting on their shoulders.
Among the humans, he was standing last beside the half-elf. Each
and every man and girl in the crowd carried an exotic rare familiar.
The dragons were said to be a rare race yet he could see a bunch
of dragons flying around like flies.
Some of the dragons radiated a noble aura, their demeanor, the

way they looked at the others, the shininess of their scales,
simply, those dragons stood out.
Edith and Victoria were standing in the front. Since Michael had
no idea who they were, he paid little attention to them. His full
focus was on the half-elf and the majestic castle in front of him.
"Why are we standing here?"
"Where is that giant?"
The elves began to show their discontent with waiting. Only the
elves were daring enough to be like this. The rest of them were
glad to be a part of Mazeroth, unlike the elves. The more he saw
the elves, the more he realized the assholeness of the elves. On
top of being racists, they seemed to be lacking patience.
Michael looked around his surroundings. They seemed to be in

the training grounds because the grass field was neatly pruned
and he could notice pitches resembling cricket pitches.
The cultivation level of each individual surprised Michael. None of

them was stronger than him. Only one girl seemed to be on the
same stage as him. With the experience points he received from
the reapers Gaya killed and the ninjas he killed back in Hades, he
was able to reach Core Strengthening stage level 4. He was the
strongest among them and the girl piqued his curiosity. However,
curiosity wasn't enough for him to go to the front and talk to the
girl. He had more pressing issues to take care of. In this world full
of surprises, it was logical for someone else to be stronger than
him at this point in his life. It would take him decades to be the
strongest of them all.
"Silence" An authoritative voice sounded from above them. All the

students looked upward and saw a group of four descending. The
leading figure was a young man wearing square glasses, behind
him were two girls and a youngster who showed his chiseled body
and magazine-worthy abs.
The gray-haired young man wearing glasses was in silver armor

that fit perfectly on his body. He carried a heavy sword on his
back. Just like Michael, this youngster too had a short haircut. The
blonde-haired girl behind the young man looked cold, stern, and
unsympathetic. The other girl whose black hair flayed in the wind
had a warm smile on her face. She seemed more friendly and
very approachable than the other girl.
Currently, the four of them slowly descended onto the ground.

Unfortunately for Michael, all of them were Core Formation level
10 cultivators. While he was in the Akilan Realm, he did not want
to stand out. The attraction would hurt his search for the dark elf in
the tree. He simply preferred anonymity in Akilan Realm.
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ovel,c.o.m He never expected that he would be the strongest
among them. He could however hide his cultivation level with the
help of the system but that would definitely raise red flags if
someone tried to perceive his cultivation level, especially the
professors. The other option was to lower his cultivation except if
they used powerful arrays, his real cultivation would be exposed
and result in unnecessary complications. Therefore, Michael
mingled with the crowd, staying at last. Since the half-elf was a
thief, he too naturally stayed behind.
Nightmare wrapped his tail around Michael's neck as he stared at
the other dragons in wonder. He had never met his species and
he was curious about the other dragons.
"Welcome to Mazeroth. I am Elliot Watson, the head prefect" the

youngster carrying the heavy sword proudly said. He adjusted his
glass before continuing,
"Shall we? " Elliot looked over his shoulder at the tall bulky
youngster behind him.
The students including Michael did not know what the four of them
were planning to do. Soon, he found out when a hot airbrushed
past them. The heavy sword which was in the sheath a second
ago was now in his hand. Even Michael failed to notice as the
youngster moved too quickly, faster than blinking an eye.
"As expected," Elliot nodded. He then turned his gaze back at the
new students,
"Listen to your prefects and don't taint the proud name of

Mazeroth. If you do, I will take care of the matter myself"
Then the four of them took off leaving the students confused. Only
a few students could guess why they came. The hot air brushed
past them was Celestial energy. Elliot checked if there was an
imposter amidst them. Although the odds of forging the
teleportation scroll to Mazeroth were near zero and no one had
managed to do so, it was customary for the head prefect and the
student leaders of each specialization to conduct a search when
the new students arrived.
Michael felt a major deja vu looking at the disappearing figures of

the four students. It felt like yesterday he saw Alex, Adam, Celina,
and Sadie at the heaven's gate competition.
As he was looking at them, he felt the half-elf moving his hand

through his coat. The half-elf was daring to pickpocket Michael.
He could tell the half-elf was highly trained by the way he was
moving his hands. Too bad the half-elf was trying to pickpocket
the earth's number one hitman and the deadliest man.
"Your trick won't work on me half-elf" Michael whispered to the half
elf.
The half elf's face instantly became paler.
"You need fingers to break open those space rings you stole.
Don't make me break them" he whispered to the half-elf with a
smile on his face. To others, they were like friends having a nice
chat. The half-elf shivered after he heard Michael. He had no idea
how the human next to him found out about his trick of breaking
the space rings. It took him years to come up with a rune hack to
break open the space rings.
"There is that giant"
"Someone should teach him the concept of time"
When everyone saw Gilrine walking out through the door in the
courtyard, the elves began to bitch.
"Welcome welcome to Mazeroth"
"Someone already said that, now lead us to the sorting pillars

without wasting our time anymore" one of the elves rolled his
eyes. His arrogant demeanor drew everyone's attention including
Michael's. He was one of the elves who beat the half-elf earlier on
the train.
Gilrine's grin shrunk,
"Sorry, now if you follow me," Gilrine said, clearing his throat to
disguise the embarrassed look on his face. Despite his look,
Gilrine seemed to be a soft-hearted man.
The elves followed Gilrine first as the others followed them

behind. The half-elf tried to speed up his steps,
"Try to escape and ill tell the elves what you did to their stuff"
His words stopped the half elf in his way.
"I don't know what you are talking about," said the half elf.
"Nightmare" Michael gently nudged Nightmare's chin as he leaped
onto the half elf's shoulder. The half-elf almost shouted and
swatted away Nightmare but Nightmare's razor-sharp teeth
stopped him from doing so.
"Walk with me," said Michael following the crowd.
The half-elf realized he had no choice but to follow him because

the man walking in front of him was the strongest of them all. He
made an amateur mistake by not checking his cultivation before
trying to pickpocket him.
However, he did not have to worry for long as the professors

would strip away their cultivation after the sorting ceremonies. The
students would only be allowed to use their cultivation during
certain tasks and assignments.
"Hey, little dragon" the half-elf smiled at Nightmare,
"You're either extremely lucky or unlucky" the half-elf couldn't

guess whether to laugh or cry hearing the dragon.
"What's your name by the way?" asked Nightmare,
"Wilkas"
The half-elf sighed, giving the dragon one of his aliases.

Chapter 431 - Sorting
Ceremony ll
Chapter 431 - Sorting Ceremony ll
Michael followed Gilrine while keeping an eye on the half-elf. The

walls above the corridors were filled with dancing plants and
talking portraits. The closer he got to the oak door at the end of
the corridor, the louder the students began to chit chat. They were
clearly more excited than Michael.
Under different circumstances, Michael would have enjoyed

spending his time on Mazeroth. The third persona problem of his
prevented him from appreciating the life around him.
"What's behind this door is the heaven kids" Gilrine grinned ear to
ear before opening the oak door. And just as Michael expected,
the hall reminded him of Hogwarts great hall. Each specialization
class was called a house. The house tables were as follows from
left to right; Warriors, Runemasters, Blacksmiths, and Alchemists.
Each long table was designed to resemble their houses. The table
of Warriors looked like a long sword, the Runemasters table was
etched with countless glowing runes, and the Blacksmith table
was made of metal rather than wood like the rest of the tables.
Finally, the Alchemy table had veins coiling around and little
sprouts were sticking out from within the table.
The five pillars drew Michael's attention. They were situated just
before the staff table. Each pillar contained a glowing rune except
for the pillar in the middle. The two pillars left to the center pillar
had a crimson red sword and navy blue chakra on top of them.
The pillars on the right had a silver anvil and an emerald green
tree etched onto them.
Only the girl sitting at the far end of the staff table was young and
the rest of the staff were mature and older. Everything seemed in
order, the little children who were in the first years murmuring
excitedly and enjoying the magical atmosphere, the staff wore
warm smiles on their faces and the throne in the middle of the
staff table remained empty. Only one professor who was in
complete black robes was yelling at a student with a bloody face.
The professor kept slapping the boy despite the wounds on his
face. Eventually, the professor noticed the new students and let
go of the student with a final slap to the back of his head.
"Students, please be silent" one of the professors who wore a

pointy hat on her hat clapped her hands. Her clapping was as loud
as thunder. The great hall immediately became silent.
Gilrine walked towards the staff table to take his seat beside the
youngest professor at the table. Headmistress Kayla stood up to
welcome the new students,
"I am Headmistress Kayla Martin and before we begin the feast,

we will conduct the sorting ceremony. Please step forward and
place a drop of your blood on the center pillar"
The first years were curiously looking at them to see who was
going to end up in their house. They were even betting on them as
though Michael and the others were racehorses.
"You will receive your student id after you're sorted into one of the
four proud houses, Warriors, Runemasters, Blacksmiths, and
Alchemists. It's forbidden to use your real identity while you're
studying in Mazeroth, your student number will be your identity for
the next eighteen months" Professor Kayla explained,
Michael sighed and relaxed inside. With this rule, he could hide
his real identity rather easily. Also, if someone messed with him,
he would be able to beat the crap out of them without worrying
about the consequences for once.
"Now step forward one by one"

She returned to her seat as the sorting ceremony finally began.
The first one to step forward was the elf who bitched about Gilrine
being late. With his chest puffed out and head held high, he made
his way towards the center pillar. Rather than using a dagger to
cut his palm to shed blood, he cut his palm using just his
delicately pruned and manicured nails. He touched the pillar with
his bloody hand. The blood was instantly absorbed by the pillar
and the glowing runes on the pillars lost their glimmer. The next
moment, the center pillar began to vibrate.
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The pillar with crimson red sword rune glowed brighter as the first-
year students sitting on the warrior house table cheered
thunderously. The elf grinned arrogantly. Soon, a cloud of smoke
emerged from the center pillar forming the number '23'.
"Humph" he snickered at the others for no reason before walking

to the table of warriors.
Following number 23, many of the elves were sorted into the
house warrior. Some of the elves ended up in the house of
runemasters. If the elves were warriors, the dwarves were
blacksmiths. Unlike the elves, every single dwarf ended up in the
house of blacksmiths. There was not a single elf sitting on the
table of blacksmiths.
To Michael's surprise, when someone sorted into the house of

Alchemists, the entire hall was rather silent. Even the students
sitting at the house Alchemists table did not cheer for the new
additions to their house.
Michael did not know the reason for this exactly but he deemed
the Alchemists were considered inferior compared to the rest of
them. As a 5-star Alchemist, he felt offended by the thought.
One by one everyone got sorted into their houses. Nothing

interesting happened until a red-haired girl touched the pillar. This
girl went after the girl who talked to him back on the train.
When the girl touched the pillar, both the pillar of warriors and the
pillar of runemasters let out a blazing glow. Even the proud elves
were stunned beyond words.
"Number 34" Headmistress Kayla stood up from her chair. As a

Headmistress of Mazeroth, she had seen many students with
more than one specialization, she even saw a couple of students
with three specialization talents. Every time they admitted new
students, they would see one or two students with two
specialization talents.
"You can choose either Warriors or Runemasters, the choice will

be yours and yours alone"
Everyone stared at Victoria for her answer. While they were

looking at Victoria, Michael was searching around to see her
familiar because the girl didn't seem to have one on her. Only a
couple of students remained without having a familiar and she
was one of them.
"Professor, I choose Warriors"
The moment Victoria chose the warriors, the students of Warrior

house let out thunderous cheers. They were excited to welcome
such a talented person to their house. The more talented students
they had, the higher the chance to win the house cup at the end of
the year.
Eventually, Michael's turn came as he stepped towards the pillar.

Although the students had seen numerous students before him,
they still had the same excited look on their faces as they had for
the first student.
"System, you know what to do" he willed the system in his mind
as he cut his palm with a dagger. He simply placed the bloody
palm on the pillar and then, the pillars began to vibrate.
The half-elf was rather curious to see the human's specialization.

His curiosity was soon answered when the rune on the Alchemy
Piller shone.
As usual, the students looked bummed after he was sorted into

the Alchemists.
Michael on the other hand was glad and in fact, he was the one
who ordered the system to manipulate the pillars. He did not want
to draw attention by showing his true powers. If the system hadn't
intervened, both the Alchemist and Warrior pillars would have
lightened up brighter than Victoria.
If that had happened, even Kayla would have been stunned

because in the history of Mazeroth, only once did the Alchemy
pillar and the Warrior pillars light up at the same time. It was by
the Supreme Guardian Andreas.
"Number 66"
Michael was given the number '66' as his student number.

Eventually, after an hour, the sorting ceremony came to an end.
As expected, Wilkas, the half-elf was sorted into the house of
runemasters.
Unfortunately for Wilkas, there weren't any half-elves in the house

of Runemaster, and in fact, there was not a single half-elf other
than him in the hall.
Michael noticed not only elves and humans but everyone isolating
Wilaks at the table. Only a couple of orcs remained still without
moving away from Wilkas.
Although Wilkas seemed to be used to this treatment by

everyone, Nightmare could see the pain and anger in his heart
through his eyes.
"I can turn this hate into loyalty," Michael said to himself, sitting on
the Alchemists' table.
After the last dwarf got sorted into the house of Blacksmiths, the
sorting ceremony finally came to an end. The throne at the center
of the staff table remained empty to the end,
Headmistress Kayla yet again stood up from her chair with a wine
glass and a silver spoon in her hand. She tapped the glass with
her spoon,
"Students"
The entire hall went silent,
"Let the feast begin"
The golden plates and goblets on the tables were instant loaded
up with delicious food. The new and the old students alike dug
into the feast, devouring everything before them. The food could
be on par with Raylene's cooking. Hence, even Michael was
unable to resist the mouth-watering deliciousness in front of him.
Everything in the cooking book could be seen on the table. There

were roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops,
sausages, bacon, steak, joints, steak, boiled potatoes, roasted
potatoes, mashed potatoes, chips, pudding, peas, and carrots.
The desserts such as blocks of assorted ice cream, apple pies,
chocolate gateau, treacle tart, pumpkin tart, chocolate éclairs &
jam doughnuts, trifle, and strawberries were served for the
students who craved sweets.
After the last student licked his bowl clean, the food on the table
magically disappeared as the table became empty once again,
"Now the students can take some time to bask yourselves in the
beauty of Mazeroth. But remember, the forest to the west is
forbidden for the students" Headmistress Kayla's words piqued his
curiosity. If the forest was forbidden, he knew there must be some
secret hiding within the forest and that secret might be the dark elf
he was looking for.
"Follow him or I'll bite your head off" Nightmare threatened Wilkas
when he tried to walk in the opposite direction of Michael,
Chapter 432 - Angels in the
Nether Realm
Chapter 432 - Angels in the Nether Realm
"Students" Headmistress Kayla called out the students,
"Please be aware that after midnight, your cultivation will be

temporarily blocked. You are only allowed to use your Arch energy
during certain events. Now you can leave if you wish"
The new students excitedly rushed out of the door to explore the
castle. Michael also left the table without talking to his fellow
alchemists. He was not in the mood to make new friends.
Exiting the great hall, Michael walked aimlessly exploring the

castle. Occasionally the first years would bump onto him. They all
looked so happy. Michael felt slightly jealous of them because
they were having the best childhood unlike him. While he was
their age, he was smuggling drugs and getting beaten up by the
drug and weapon traffickers.
He explored the grand staircase of Mazeorth which was used to

access the various floors and rooms in the castle. The staircases
were moving at regular intervals. There were hundreds of portraits
hanging on the wall and they seemed to be talking to each other.
Surprisingly some of them disappeared from their portraits when
they noticed Michael staring at them. They looked afraid as
though they knew he was the Dark Lord.
Michael did not mind them as he was getting used to being the
Dark Lord. He started to accept the fact he was the Dark Lord.
The more he embraced his identity, the more powerful he
became.
After roaming around the castle for some time, he made his way
outside, reaching the castle grounds. He walked further and
further away from the castle under the light of millions of stars.
What was in front of him was a massive lake and on the other side
of the lake, was a forest which reminded him of the forbidden
forests.
The forest was thick with trees, such as beech, oak, banyan, pine,
and yew, as well as undergrowth such as knotgrass and thorns.
With his X-ray eyes, he could notice the paths, brooks, and some
clearings. Off the path, the way seemed almost impassable.
"System, something is blocking the communication between me

and Azazel. Can you fix it?"
[Of Course, the system can. The host just needs to pay 10,000
Badass points]
The system's greedy voice sounded in his voice. Fortunately, he

amassed quite a bit of badass points during the battle in Hades.
By quite a bit, he meant 60,000 badass points. Because of the
battle, he was able to afford the fix.
"Do it and scan if im being watched"
[Done]
Within a second, the system fixed the issue as Michael was able
to contact Azazel yet again.
"Azazel"
"Lord Lucifer. I was trying to contact you" Azazel sounded slightly

alarmed,
"Something happened?"
"You talking to Ghost?"
Michael heard Ayag's voice,
"Ghost we have a fucking problem"

Both Ayag and Azazel sounded alarmed, he wondered why.
"We are not the only one who has a portal to the Nether Realm.
There is someone else harvesting the undeads" said Ayag. She
was quite annoyed rather than alarmed.
They came out of seclusion because of Cain as he said he was

having a bad feeling. She hated him for being right every single
time.
"What do you mean harvesting?" asked Michael,
"They are putting the undeads into cages and teleporting them to
who knows where through a portal. They are capturing all the
powerful undeads" Sarba explained to Michael,
"Do you know who they are?"
Somehow Michael doubted they would know the answer because

whoever they were, they must be extremely powerful and if they
were harvesting the undeads, they were planning something
nefarious. Powerful people with nefarious reasons would rarely be
careless enough to let their identity be known to others.
"No my lord but they all look like angels, wings and metal armor,"
said Azazel,
"Ironic isn't it, angels harvesting undeads"
"Ghost, I have ordered Azazel to stop summoning undeads

through our own portal. It might draw the attention of these
unknown people"
Michael heard Cain after Ayag. If he was there, he would have

done the same. He was glad Cain was there to deal with things
when he and Gaya weren't around.
"We should monitor them continually before resuming the

summoning. If they are building an undead army just like us, we
will need an army more than ever. So we can't stop the
summoning forever" Want to see more chapters? Please visit p a
n d a -n o v e l .c o m
"Hmm. Record everything. Do as you said but if they notice you,

order Dular to destroy the portal opener immediately"
"Will do" Cain agreed,
"Where is Gaya? Let us talk to her but don't tell we asked"
"She's not here," Michael said to Ayag,
"Someone's coming. Talk to you later" Michael quickly closed the

connection when he heard rustling from behind,
He slowly turned around,
"What are you doing here all alone?"
The young professor he saw at the staff table was standing in

front of him with her brow arched up. There was no one in the
area except him and the professor.
"Just sightseeing professor"
From far away, Wilkas and Nightmare were looking at them. If it

wasn't for the professor, they would have gone to meet Ghost.
"You are planning something 66 and whatever you're planning, it's

not gonna happen as long as I'm here but" she came closer to
him.
"If you do something" her voice turned seductive as she ran her
fingers through his chest,
"I can overlook and even give you some extra credits" she
whispered into his ears seductively
[Scan completed. The host is only being watched by Nightmare

and the Half elf]
The system encouraged him to make a move on the professor. It
sounded amused,
"Is that so?" Michael wrapped his arm around her wrist.
"Sounds dirty but I like it" Michael pulled the professor closer to
him. They both could feel each other's warm breath brushing past
their faces.
"I hope you don't mind the fact I'm engaged" he gently bit her ears
before whispering.
Gaya, who was disguised as the professor, shivered with mixed

feelings. Her anger was soaring through the roof and tears formed
in her eyes without her control,
"Nice disguise but you forget to remove the ring on your finger,
professor" he chuckled,
Her mind went blank for a second. The tears rolled out of her eyes
as she felt so relieved knowing that he wasn't going to cheat on
her. She planned to prank him, expecting him to chase away her
thinking she was a professor. But her prank backfired chaotically
when he did the opposite of her expectation.
"You fucking bastard" she began to pound his chest,
"You gave me a heart attack. Don't do that again, I will kill you"
She became madder looking at Michael who was laughing. It was

because she looked extremely cute when she was mad and he
couldn't resist the urge to laugh.
Wilkas was confused as he was staring at them with wide eyes.

He never expected the human to be so lovey-dovey with a
professor. Nightmare on the other hand was completely stunned.
It took him a couple of minutes to notice the ring on the girl's
finger. He finally realized what just happened.
"How did you end up like this?" Asked Michael. They were still too
close to each other. Gaya was hugging him as though she was a
koala bear.
It only took her a couple of minutes to explain to him what

happened after she was teleported away by the system. After her
story, Michael told her about what was happening in the Nether
Realm.
And just as they were about to talk about finding the dark elf,
Gilrine came carrying a bucket full of grayish mushrooms.
"Huh?" Gilrine squinted his eyes as for a second, he could swear

they were hugging each other. However, when he realized the girl
was the new professor, he dismissed the thought and cursed
himself for thinking like that,
"What the hell are you doing?" Before Gilrine could ask anything,
Gaya shouted at him. The big man started to get freaked out by
the new professor.
"Professor Alani asked for these rain cloud mushrooms, Professor

Steinmeyer"
"I assume these are for that moron who got his ass kicked by a
dwarf"
Gilrine was shocked to see Gaya calling a student moron. He had

never seen a professor utter such a word so casually,
He scratched his head, thinking about what to say next,
"I heard Professor Lane is talking about suspending that moron. It

was funny actually, first, he got his ass kicked by a dwarf and now
he's facing a suspension for getting his ass kicked" Gaya laughed,
"What was that about?" asked Michael. Professor Jane was the
dark-robed professor with dark hair who was slapping a student in
the great hall before the sorting ceremony. Michael was curious
about what happened,
"Simple version, the guy is a Warrior. Because of some reason, he

chose to squabble with a dwarf in the house of blacksmiths.
According to him, the dwarf carefully planned and ambushed him
which is utter bullshit. He got his ass handed over to him by the
dwarf"
"So what's gonna happen to the dwarf professor?" Since Gilrine

was looking at them, Michael addressed Gaya as Professor.
"Nothing," Gilrine said,
"He is a warrior and in house Warriors, getting beaten up by the

other house students is considered a shame as the Warriors feel
they are superior to the others. The student is lucky the head
prefect did not expel him"
Now Michael understood what was going on here. However he

had one doubt,
"Professor Steinmeyer, I thought you are the head of House

Warriors"
"I am," Gaya said,
"Professor Serine Jane is head of Alchemists and I heard he's

been eyeing the Combat teacher role for some time. Isn't it true,
Gilrine?" she turned her gaze towards Gilrine who felt
uncomfortable talking about the politics amongst the staff in front
of a student.
Seeing how he react, Gaya rolled her eyes,
"I heard this from a student and it seems everyone knows it. No
point in hiding you big dumbo" She stepped towards Gilrine,
"As the head of house warriors, I have the right to know

everything related to my house and you're gonna tell me
everything" Gaya put her hand on Gilrine's shoulder and smiled.
That smiled freaked him out more,
"Or I'm gonna shove those mushrooms so far up your ass and you
will taste them in your mouth"
She left the area after threatening Gilrine.

"God, what just hit Mazeroth?" Gilrine mumbled under his breath
looking at her figure disappearing into the darkness.
Chapter 433 - Mysterious
Employer of 66
Chapter 433 - Mysterious Employer of 66
"Hey Gilrine, I want to ask you something" Michael came to

Gilrine's side. The big man was still staring at the door that Gaya
walked through.
"Hello," he had to pat Gilrine on the shoulder to get his attention,
"Oh sorry, did you say something?"
"Yeah, I want to ask if someone from another house could share

the room with me"
Gilrine was taken aback by surprise,
"No no no no, god no. You just came to Mazeorth and you already
found a mate" the big man was frantically shaking his head,
"It's not a girl, he's just a friend" Michael quickly said before Gilrine
could get another idea,
"Why can't he stay in his room?" asked Gilrine as Michael waved

at Nightmare to bring Wilkas closer.
Hearing the footsteps, Gilrine turned around and saw Wilkas

walking towards them. The moment, he saw the half-elf, Gilrine
discovered why Ghost was asking such a question,
"Oh"
Michael noticed the sadness emerge in Gilrine's eyes for a

moment when he saw Wilkas,
"You can share rooms, there are no rules against a student from
another house bunking in another house room. It's a common
thing here"
When Wilkas came to them, Gilrine patted Wilkas on the shoulder,
"Have it rough eh? It will get better, don't fret about it"
Gilrine sounded as though he had personal experience of getting

bullied. It was obvious to everyone that Gilrine isn't a pure-
blooded human. Michael guessed he might be half-giant and half-
human.
Compared to the humans, the elves were next-level racists.

Hence, Wilkas was affected by the racism much more than
Gilrine,
"Yeah, he's having it rough. So he will stay with us" Michael

placed his hand on Wilkas's shoulder with a smile. Wilkas felt like
he was being stared at by a predator as he swallowed a mouth full
of saliva. Wilkas wasn't a softhearted one. The life on the streets
forged him to be cold, cunning, and headstrong. However,
something about the human before him sent a chill through his
spine.
"You two should return to the great hall. Your prefects will be
waiting there"
Gilrine patted the youngsters before gently stroking Nightmare's

chin.
"Good luck with your classes tomorrow. Especially in your combat

classes, professor Steinmeyer freaks me out"
"You didn't see?" Wilkas asked Gilrine,
"Saw what?"
"Nothing. Come on 45, it's way past your bedtime" Michael

dragged him away from Gilrine before Wilkas spilled the beans
about Gaya and him.
"See you tomorrow Gilrine" Michael waved at Gilrine before
making his way to the great hall.
The great hall was once again packed with students when he
arrived. Few of the elves gave Wilkas a death glare while some
just ignored him completely as though he didn't exist.
Michael could care less about these racist assholes.
"House Alchemists, follow me in an orderly manner," said a curly

brown-haired youngster.
"Arch energy flow will be blocked in three…two…one" a voice

echoed through the hall,
When the voice said one, the Arch energy in the hall disappeared.
However, Michael did not feel any difference. In fact, he could feel
the arch energy running in his body.
[The changes the system made to you when you were in the
Southern continent applies in Akilan Realm too. You can thank me
now]
"It's not like you did it for free. Anyways, I appreciate the help"
said Michael in his mind.
As they were following the perfect, more and more elves down the
hall were staring at Wilkas. Some of the elves were slapping him
on the head for no reason. The perfect seemed to ignore it and
Michael started to get annoyed by this.
"Fuckers" Wilkas cursed under his breath. When he received the

invitation to join Mazeroth, he was happy in his life for the first
time. He thought he would finally be free of elves and their
bullying. His fantasy was shattered as he realized this place was
no different than Awor, filled with elves.
On top of these racist bullies, he ended with a human who

somehow saw him breaking space rings and stealing stuff. Wilkas
still had no idea what the human wanted from him.
As Michael expected they followed the prefect to a wall where
there was a portrait of a lady with green hair hanging on.
"Password," the lady asked in a melodious voice,
"Proporium Triecto"
The portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They
all scrambled through it and found themselves in the Alchemist
common room, a cozy, square room.
Once they arrived inside the room, they were welcomed by the
roaring fire, squashy armchairs, and sofas. The dormitories were
reached by climbing the winding mahogany staircase, decorated
with emerald green. Posters of a few old people and a twelve feet
tall massive painting of a green-haired lady with two saplings in
her hand were covered with thick golden blankets.
She was one of the four founders of Mazeroth and the patron of
House Alchemist, Ingrid Stenham. Gold chandeliers cast a warm
glow all around, making the room cozier and shinier.
The room was full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin

board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. could be
posted. The common room was decorated in several shades of
emerald green, which was associated with the house. The
common room was comfortable, but not more comfortable than
the Warrior House Basement. There were also bookcases located
in the room, filled with various novels and forms of literature.
The room was instantly hated by Michael due to the lack of

darkness and to be exact, too much green. He wanted to wear
sunglasses to cover his eyes from all the greenness.
"Boys' rooms are this way" the perfect pointed to the mahogany
staircase at the far end of the room,
"Girls' are through that door" he then pointed at the door on the
right as the girls made their way to their rooms instead of
spending some time in the common room.
Michael and Wilkas reached the dormitory by climbing the stairs.
In front of them was a narrow corridor and on either side of the
corridors were doors that had no number of any sort.
"Take a room you like, we have so many" the prefect's voice came
from behind as the boys began to get into a room one by one.
Michael loved some privacy and silence hence he chose the last
room at the far end of the corridor.
The room was equipped with a centrally-located mini fireplace and

a bunk bed flanked by a set of windows and space for storing
personal belongings. On the window sill, a water jug was placed,
in case any of the students should feel the need for a drink in the
middle of the night. A wooden board was located on either side of
the bed. A wooden chair and dresser were located on one side of
the bed, near the nightstand. A wooden bookcase was located on
the other side of the bed with books on top of it. The room had
stone walls and wooden floors. The windows had emerald green
curtains just like the carpet with the house crest; a single tree in
the center of it.
"I'll take the top bed" Michael took off his silver long coat and hung
it on the dresser before jumping up onto his bed.
"Are you gonna tell me who the hell are you and what do you want
from me?" Nightmare flapped his wings to land on Michael's
chest.
"What's your plan in life?" Instead of answering Wilkas's question,

he questioned Wilkas,
"You're gonna live your whole life scrounging for coins like a petty
thief?"
Asked Michael,
"Nah, he will get caught one day and probably die in prison. If he
didn't get beaten to death first"
"So you two are now my well-wishers?" Wilkas rolled his eyes,
plugging into the comfy chair beside him,
"We can be," Nightmare said,
"There's someone who would pay a lot for your talent, Wilkas"
"Is that so?" Wilkas leaned back to listen to his sales pitch,
"Since you might have grown up in the streets, you probably know
what kind of men would pay a lot for thieves like you"
"As a matter of fact, I know and I've worked for many. I probably
know the person you are talking about"
"Trust me you dont. No one knows him, you just do our work
without asking any questions and he would pay you quite
handsomely. What are you saying?"
"Hey, im just a petty thief. I stole a scroll years ago which showed
me how to break open space rings okay. Here I said it. What kind
of work can I do to earn a lot? I'm not a cultivation monster like
you"
"But you are a runemaster and my employer is looking for an

ambitious runemaster. Your star level doesn't matter, if you serve
him well, he can make you climb up the star levels and even
reach the 6-star level"
"You can't bullshit a bullshitter sixty-six or whatever your name is"
Knock!
Knock!
Someone knocked on the door. Wilkas was closer to the door so

he opened the door to see an old lady with a trolly full of stacks of
clothes,
"Oh," the woman seemed surprised to see a half elf. Several

seconds later, she put a smile on her face,
"Your uniforms dear, two Alchemist robes I presume" asked the

old woman,
"Nah" Wilaks shook his head, pretending he didn't see the
surprised look on her face,
"One Alchemist and one Runemaster please"
The old woman picked up an emerald green robe from the top of
the trolly and a navy blue one from under. He handed over the
neatly pressed robes to Wilkas.
"There he is" just when the lady was about to turn the trolley and
leave, a tall lean, and mean-looking elf arrived. He was not alone,
he had a group of five elves behind him. All of them were wearing
gray robes with golden borders,
Sensing the trouble, the old woman rushed away from the room
as fast as her old legs could move.
"Oh no you dont"
The elves grabbed the door before Wilaks could shut it close.
Nightmare craned his neck to see five elves walking into their
room like they own the room. One of the elves leading the group
pushed Wilkas onto the chair behind,
"So the filthy rat is hiding in the sewers"
"Guys should we not do this now" Wilkas tried to wiggle himself

out of the trouble,
"This is the perfect time to do this. Guys close the door, we don't
want the rat to escape do we?" the elf put his leg Wilkas's chest
and pressed him against the chair,
"Evindal, do we really have to waste this healing potion on him?"

the elven girl asked worriedly. She seemed to care more about the
healing potion than what was about to happen to Wilkas,
"We can't risk getting expelled, Leena. Especially because of this

filth"
The elves completely ignored Michael. Nightmare turned his head

towards Michael and saw him lay down on the bed with his eyes
closed. He did not seem like he was going to intervene.
"We really shouldn't do this," said Wilkas,
"Or we like to do"
Plap!
The elf slapped Wilkas with enough force to produce an ear-

piercing sound. The hand mark was imprinted on Wilkas's pale
face. His face reddened,
"Gu-"
Plap!
Wilkas's words were abruptly interrupted by another slap. This

time, blood started to seep through his nostrils due to the force,
"Ghost do something" Nightmare whispered yet Ghost remained

still.
Chapter 434 - The Prophecy
Breaker
Chapter 434 - The Prophecy Breaker
"Let him get soften up a bit more," Michael nonchalantly said to

Nightmare and continued to lay down on the bed with his eyes
closed.
Meanwhile, the elves began to get rougher and rougher. Wilkas

growled in pain. Before coming to Mazeroth, Wilkas lived in the
slum area of Kingdom Lantus. The elves hated coming to that part
of the area. Wilkas learned to hide and he seldom got the
attention of the elves after he grew up. However, in Mazeroth, he
had a target on his back. He had no place to run away anymore.
He thought Mazeroth would be different but now he realized that
Mazeroth could be worse than Lantus.
Nightmare wanted to save Wilkas but after what happened last

time when he tried to save Sabrina, Nightmare obeyed Michael's
order not to get into trouble by helping people prematurely.
As Nightmare was looking at Michael and Wilkas, the elves began

to stomp Wilkas on the chest,
"Hey don't kill him" the elven girl shouted seeing Wilkas puking out
blood,
"We have a healing potion"
The beating had crossed the point of bullying. They were killing
Wilkas.
"Take the deal 45 or this will be the rest of your life. Getting beaten
up"
Finally, Michael opened his mouth again. The elves stopped the
beating for a second to turn their gazes towards Michael. Michael
jumped down from the bunk bed/ He rolled up his sleeves to his
elbows slowly walking towards the group of elves.
The elven woman was taken aback by him as she stared at him
for a few moments without even blinking. He was on par with the
elven princes of Awor in terms of good looking and unlike the
elven princess, his body was rough and muscular.
She was undressing him in her mind as she couldn't help it. The
white shirt he wore stretched to the point it looked as though it
was going to tear apart.
"Deal"
"Look at this human asshole" the leader of this elven gang

snickered at Michael,
"What do you want?" the elf asked grimly. He was not threatened
by Michael's physique.
"To give you a choice," said Michael, cracking his neck.
"You see this half-elf works for me now. So the employer-

employee contract says any damage to the employee by racist
assholes will result in the assholes getting their bones broken up"
The elf's face turned in overwhelming anger. The elves believed

they were the superior race and every other race was beneath
them. Thus, Michael's words kindled the anger flame inside them.
The other elves showed the same reaction as the leader elf. Even
the elven girl frowned as she wanted to rip his tongue out for
insulting them.
"You just made the worst mistake in your pathetic life magot"
"You and your friends can leave now or one of you can carry your
racist butts in a bucket"
Wilkas was growling on the ground. If he wasn't overwhelmed by
pain, he would have been surprised by Michael because he was
picking up a fight with five elves without the ability to cast spells.
"Now I'm going to count to three"
"Maggot"
The elf stepped forward,
"Two"
The moment the word 'two' came out of his mouth, Michael
headbutted the elf breaking his nose. In a snap of time, he
slammed the elf's head onto the wall nearby and elbowed his
head rapidly. The elves were stunned as everything happened so
fast. The elf fell with blood spraying out of his nose. The elf did not
move at all. Nightmare wondered if the elf was dead or alive.
While the elves were stunned, Michael grabbed a thick book from
the book rack on his right and used the spine of the book to break
another nose. This time, the other elves reacted as they threw
their fists at Michael.
Michael hit the elf's nose with the book yet again before slapping
the fist of the girl so hard her wrist turned another side.
"AHHHHH!"
The girl screamed in agony. The girl was so delicate and Michael
was so strong. Hence, his single slap on her wrist broke her wrist.
The elf who got hit by the book stumbled back due to the force of
his nose breaking.
The leader elf was lying on the ground beside Wilkas, the girl was
screaming in agony and another elf was knocked out. Only two
elves remained but fear started to cloud the hearts of the
remaining two.
Michael was too fast. They couldn't cope with his speed. Michael
did not stop with breaking the girl's wrist. He threw the book which
now had blood on the cover at one elf. The elf stumbled back as
he walked towards them stepping over the elf who got his nose
broken by the book.
The elf puked blood as Wilkas did when Michael stepped over his
chest.
"ARGHHH!" The girl was still screaming holding her broken wrist.
But her scream was abruptly stopped by a knee to her face. The
force immediately knocked her out cold.
Seeing the girl gets knocked out by the human caused the last
two elves to boil in anger. They mustered their courage to dash at
him. Michael evaded their fists with ease.
Plap!
He slapped one elf on the face, making him stumble back and fall
down. The other elf was unlucky as he grabbed his hand and
punched the elbow, snapping the bone in half. The elf screamed
but Michael did not give a shit about his agony. He grabbed the elf
by his neck and rapidly punched him in the face until the elf's rosy
face got painted red with his blood.
When Michael turned to look at the elf who did not get knocked
out cold by him, his eyes flickered in crimson red. In pain and fear,
the elf did not notice his eyes flickering.
Michael bent down and picked up the healing potion from the
ground near the elven girl.
"Get out of my room"
His gaze sent a chill running through the elf's spine. He quickly got
himself back to his feet and dragged his friends outside the room
as fast as he could. Michael then threw the healing potion as it
was nothing to Wilkas.
"What have you done?"

After chugging the healing potion and getting back on his feet,
Wilkas asked Michael. He was back on his bunk bed,
"Bullied the bullies"
"That fucking idiots, why can't they leave me alone?" Wilkas

cursed the elves before crashing down on the chair.
"This is our first day here and we are already in a big trouble"
"Now we aren't. If anyone is in trouble, it's them" said Nightmare.
Wilkas looked surprised as Nightmare began to explain what

Gilrine and Gaya said about the dwarf beating up a guy from the
Warrior house.
Although what he heard from Nightmare surprised him, the story

did make sense to Wilkas.
"The elves are like snakes man, once they target you, they won't
rest until you are under six feet"
"Humph" Nightmare snickered.
Neither Wilkas nor the elves had any idea about what he was
capable of. As far as Nightmare was concerned, they were lucky
that Michael was able to control himself. In case the third persona
took control, they would have been lying on the ground in their
own pool of blood.
"I don't think the Warriors would let go scot-free after someone
beat up their house students. I hope we don't get expelled" Wilkas
sighed,
"I don't give a shit about this school and you shouldn't either. If
you aim to get rich and powerful, there are better ways and the
choice you made is the best way" said Michael.
He wanted to get some shut-eye before starting his search for the
elf in the tree. He had no idea where the elf might be or how big
the Akilan realm was. He was having second thoughts about
using drones to scour the realm for the elf as the drones might get
detected by some arrays if Mazeroth have any and it was highly
likely that they have numerous defense mechanisms.
************************
Somewhere else in the Akilan realm, Elidyr, the elf Michael and
Gaya were searching for, was looking at the dark sky above him.
The sky was ominous and dark like never before. There was not a
single star or speck of glow in the dark sky. It was pitch black void
of any light.
The ominous sky put a smile on his face. One could not see a
smile though because his face was merged with a tree and barks
covered most of his body.
"He is here," Elidyr said. He closed his eyes, mumbling something

under his breath.
Several glowing runes appeared on the tree. The banyan tree

withered immediately but soon, the tree turned into its previous
self. However, the leaves fell off the tree and began to form a
cyclone.
A couple of seconds later, the cyclone took a shape of a

humanoid shape,
"Find him. Where there is blood, he will be there" the humanoid

figure made of leaves flew away with the wind leaving Elidyr
alone.
"The great war has finally begun"
The Skyhall went so far to prevent the Dark Lord from appearing
in this world. Three thousand years ago, the Order of Death was
wiped off by the Skyhall and the Guardians. They failed the Dark
Lord and their failure resulted in Skyhall prisoning the soul of the
Dark Lord in a void universe.
Only a few in this world knew the origins of the Dark Lord and
what the Skyhall did to him. The reason they left him alive was
only Elidyr knew how to open the portal back to earth and if the
Skyhall managed to cast the Dark Lord back to his cage, he
wouldn't come back to this universe for the rest of his life.
Suddenly Elidyr looked up to see a bright glow appear in the sky.
"Alas, the Prophecy breaker appeared"

Chapter 435 - Unruly Proffesor
Steinmeyer
Chapter 435 - Unruly Proffesor Steinmeyer
The next morning Michael reluctantly put on the emerald green

robes of the Alchemy house and left his room with Wilkas.
Nightmare was called to another classroom where they trained the
familiars. Since Nightmare was curious about the other dragons
and the magical beasts, Michael let the dragon go.
The robes were similar to the robes worn by the Hogwarts

students with a few adjustments. There were clear signs to guide
them toward their first class. Through the labyrinth of corridors,
they reached a red oak door that had the sign 'Combat Hall'
hanging above.
The combat class took place on the first floor, Class 86. In the
Classroom, an iron chandelier hung from the ceiling, as well as a
huge dragon's skeleton. On one end of the classroom stood a
projector that was activated by magic. Several desks and tables
could be found in the classroom as well as some sets of large
windows. Calling it a classroom was an understatement, it was a
large hall big as some throne halls.
The classroom was gloomy as curtains had been drawn over the
windows, and was lit by candlelight. Portraits of various fighting
forms and battlefields adorned the walls. Some portraits were
showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly
injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Inside the classroom,
nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the
shadowy, gruesome pictures.
All the houses were required to take combat classes. Hence, the
hall was filled with students wearing various color uniforms. When
Michael and Wilkas entered the classroom, the students sitting in
the front row stared at them, and immediately a look of scorn
appeared on their faces. Wilkas got the worst of it because many
just ignored Michael but almost half of the students were staring at
Wilkas with disgust, especially the elves.
In the classroom, elves occupied the first three rows in the front.
The humans sat behind them and dwarves and orcs occupied the
tables before the last row. No one sat on the last row except for a
few beast-men.
Because the last row attracted less crowd, the row was pretty
empty.
Michael did not attend any schools but still, he liked to sit on the
last bench because, in his mind, that's where the legends would
sit.
A few human girls made space for Michael to sit beside them
when he was walking to them. However, Michael ignored them
and went to the last bench.
Wilkas slid into the space to get to the place near the window.
Michael placed the stack of books in his hand on the table.
"Look, the elves you beat up last night" Wilkas nudged Michael's
elbow. Michael looked at the front row where the elves were
staring at him. When his gaze fell on them, they quickly looked
away as though they were never staring at him with killing intent.
Wilkas began rummaging through the books one by one. Every

single book was a couple of inches thick and heavy.
"You know how to read?" asked Michael,
"I'm not illiterate thanks to Mentor Orc"
"Mentor Orc?"
"That's what we call him in the slums. No one knew his real name
or why he spent his time teaching the orphans in the slums"
Wilkas was grateful to the orc and Michael could see that in his
eyes. They looked at the orcs who occupied the middle benches.
Unlike the rest of the students, the orcs were sitting in silence
reading their books. They did not seem violent at all despite their
scary looks.
The dwarves were the rowdy kids as they already started to tear
the pages from the books and build ships, ducks, and all kinds of
things and threw at the human girls.
"You're gonna learn combat by reading books?" snickered Michael

seeing Wilkas reading the thick black book.
"Why else do we have this book?"
Michael just shook his head before leaning back on the wall and
stretching his legs out. He used his hands as pillows to cushion
his head. The longer they spent without a teacher, the louder the
classroom became.
The elven girls were staring at the door eagerly waiting for their
combat teacher.
Creak!
Almost half an hour past their class time, the door creaked open.
Wilkas craned his neck to see the professor who was intimate with
sixty-sixty last night entering the classroom with a honey bun and
a large mug.
Gaya approached the teacher's table located at the front of the

classroom before a large blackboard. She placed the mug on the
table,
"Get your asses up!"
Gaya slammed the table as the students were shaken by her.

They immediately stood. To attract less attention, Michael too
stood up. However, he was laughing inside so much. He couldn't
wait to see Gaya's atrocities as the combat teacher.
"Didn't anyone tell you to stand up and greet the teacher when
they enter the classroom?" asked Gaya looking at the classroom.
"Wait, you are the combat teacher?" the dwarves murmured,
"You have a problem with that you short fuck"
The elves almost coughed up blood when they heard her yell at
the dwarves. The dwarves were stunned beyond words. None of
them expected to get yelled at like this. Many doubted she could
be their teacher because she was too young and too unruly.
"I am Professor Steinmeyer. I came here to teach you noobs how

not to get yourself killed. Now move your asses, we are going out"
And just as Gaya took a step towards the door, an elven girl
raised her hand. Gaya looked over her shoulder to see her silver-
haired girl from the front row raising her hand,
"What?"
"Aren't we gonna start with chapter 1?"
"Chapter 1?" frowned Gaya,
She made herself to the front row and snatched the book from
another elven boy.
"Give me that"
The students realized their professor was reading the combat

book for the first time in her life by looking at the surprised look on
her face,
"What is this shit? You're gonna learn combat by reading books?"
"That's what he said" Wilkas mumbled,

"Basics of combat, how to defend yourself, magic defense, sword
theory, dual wielding, archery" Gaya rummaged through the book
before throwing it away,
"Only morons would expect to learn the art of combat by reading

books. Unless your pathetic plan is to kill your opponent by boring
him to death, you have to move your asses and try to grasp what I
teach you. Leave your fucking books and follow me"
She turned again to walk towards the door when another elven girl
raised her hand,
"I swear to god if you ask anything remotely related to the book, I
will barbeque your ass and feed it to the giant eagles"
The girl quickly put her hands down. Although the elves were not
at all delighted to see a human teaching them the art of combat,
they did not dare to show their arrogance to Gaya because she
held the position of the professor.
Everyone stepped out of their tables and followed her in an

orderly manner.
"You know her?" asked Wilkas following Michael behind.
"I saw you saw"
"Saw what?" Wilkas was surprised,
"You know what"
"Where are we going?"
"She seems like a crazy bitch"
"No shit. I have a bad feeling about her"
"Lol she called you a short fuck, hehehehe"
"We are the same height, you moron"

The dwarves were bitching about Gaya while moving forward in
the line,
"She is interesting"
"I feel we are going to learn a lot from her"
Compared to the dwarves, the orcs were such nice guys. They
were praising Gaya regardless of how she acted. Michael was
truly surprised to see how these orcs behaved. They seemed
peaceful and friendly.
Several minutes later, they reached the outskirts of the forest

spanning to the west. The forest was dark and gloomy. And
radiated an eerie feeling.
The trees in the forest were malady-brown.
Grains of poison begrimed the bark and gleamed like witch dust.
The smokey air and stifling atmosphere provided the perfect
abode for those who worshiped the darkness rather than the light.
In the dense shadows, spiders clutched their snare strings. Their
webs shimmered like meshed steel dipped in silver.
The forest looked primordial, dark, and gloomy as the dark forest
where Michael lives. Centuries-old trees with sprawling limbs
guarded the darkness, blotting out any sunlight. Bewailing sounds
ghosted through the trees. Whether it was from prey or a predator,
only the forest could tell. It was truly a place to make everyone's
veins freeze over.
"Form a circle," Gaya said, amplifying her voice with arch energy.
"I assume you all have your weapons with you"
The students nodded. Many were gawking at the forest. Their

faces looked pale due to fear.
"Your first lesson, go to the forest and survive for thirty minutes. If
you step out of the forest before the clock runs out, you will be on
the roster to clean the latrines for a week"
The students were stunned. Their jaws dropped a few inches as
one elf shouted,
"You can't do this. The black forest is forbidden to the students.

You can't ask us to risk our lives"
Gaya stomped the ground as a pebble rocketed to her hand. With

a swift kick to the pebble, she sent the pebble soaring towards the
elf.
"Argh!"
The elf screamed when the pebble broke his nose. The pebble hit
the elf right between his eyes with deadly accuracy,
"Go cry to your mommy, boo hoo"
The elf was too ashamed. His body shivered in anger as he had
never been ashamed like this in his life before. He could not stand
there anymore as he rushed away from the group.
"If you bitches are too afraid to roam around the safest areas of
the forest, you shouldn't have come to Mazeroth. This is a place
for winners, not for cowardly losers. Are you winners or spineless
losers?"
Michael wondered why she was trying to send the students into
the forest.
As expected, the students did not shout but mumbled the word
'winners' meekly.
"What is she doing?" from a distance, an elderly woman with a

hunched back was looking at Gaya and the students.
Headmistress Kayla stood beside her with a curious look on her
face,
"Trying something new I guess"

Chapter 436 - A Mountain troll
Chapter 436 - A Mountain troll
The further they walked into the forest, the lesser they saw what
was in front of them. The paths were barely passable. Wilkas
could hardly keep up with him without losing sight of him.
"Do you know how to climb trees?" asked Michael, stopping under
a huge birch tree.
"Because I'm a half-elf, you expect me to know how to climb a

tree?"
Wilkas misunderstood Micahel. He didn't realize Michael was

really going to get onto a branch on top until Michael fired a metal
hook from the mark 3 bracers he was wearing around his wrist.
In a blink of an eye, he was on top of the tree. Wilkas looked up at

the tree with his mouth wide open,
"Grab this tight"
Wilkas grabbed onto the metal hook tightly. The next thing he
knew, he was getting lifted off the ground.
"What the hell?" Wilkas grabbed onto the tree to balance himself.
He didn't even want to look down as they were standing too high
from the ground.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind flew past his face.
"Why is he here?" Wilkas turned to see professor Steinmeyer

standing between them on the tree branch. She was staring at
him,
"Professor?"
"What's your plan?" asked Gaya, ignoring Wilkas. After Wilkas

went to sleep last night, Michael and Gaya talked about
everything through the earpiece. Since Gaya just came up with
the plan to send the students into the forest just this morning,
Michael was in the dark.
"You know what they say when you want to hide a tree, hide it in
the forest. In our case, they might have literally hidden the elf
somewhere in this forest. I needed an excuse to get you here"
said Gaya.
The way professor Steinmeyer put her hand on sixty-six's

shoulder creeped out Wilkas. He couldn't believe how a professor
of a prestigious academy like this could have a relationship with a
student. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that
they might know each other before coming to Mazeroth.
"I did some digging. This place hasn't been monitored by any
arrays, so it's safe"
Their conversation didn't make any sense to Wilkas. He felt pretty

awkward and unsafe standing on the branch.
Michael had already scanned their surroundings and made sure

that they were not being watched. However, he did not want to
deploy the drones and Spyders in front of Wilkas. The point was
to show Wilkas how powerful his mysterious employer is.
"Keep digging. If the elf is here, I don't think we can find him
without any help"
"Let's go searching"
By giving the students the assignment to survive in the forest, she

gave both Michael and her the chance to roam through the woods
searching for the elf without raising any suspicion.
"Should we take him with us?" asked Gaya,
"Why not?"
The next moment Gaya grabbed Wilkas by the back of his neck
before jumping down from the branch.
"Argh, fuuuck" Wilkas screamed,
When they landed on the ground, Wilkas was breathing heavily as

he was terrified,
"You sure he'll be of use to us?"
"Hmm"
"Who are you people?"
Gaya put her hand on Wilkas's shoulder. He could feel her gently
squeezing his shoulder,
"The people who could make you very rich or very dead"
"ARGHHHHHHHHH!"
Suddenly a scream echoed through the forest. They immediately

looked in the direction of the scream.
"Huh? Do you feel that?" asked Wilkas feeling the ground

trembling,
The tremble increased by the second to the point it felt like they
were having a powerful earthquake.
"ARGHHHHHHH!!!"
The screams of the students reverberated in the forest louder and

louder.
"Something's coming this way" Wilkas looked terrified as

expected.
Gaya took off from the ground like a bullet through the canopy. It
didn't even take a minute before she came back with a pale face,
"We have to go" she sounded alarmed,
"What did you see?" asked Michael,
"We don't have time, there is a fucking mountain troll coming this
way"
"What the fuck is a mountain troll?" Wilkas shrieked.
"Come on run" Gaya pushed Michael and Wilkas to run. She

could fly away unlike Wilkas and Michael. To hide his ability to use
arch energy, Michael had to avoid flying or using any spells.
Hence his only way to escape was to run.
"Didn't you read the fucking book they gave you?"
Wilkas almost puked blood. She threw away the book and
mocked them for having a combat book. She talked as though she
loathed having books for combat class yet at a moment like this,
she was yelling at him for not reading the book. It was obvious
that she read the whole book unlike what she pretended.
Although Michael did not know what a mountain troll is, he wasn't
going to wait around. He started to run towards the castle as
Wilkas ran behind him.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!"
A thunderous growl shook the forest as they were running.
"I hate this place" Wilkas shouted while he was running,
They ran as fast as they could without looking back. However, the
trembling indicated that the mountain troll was getting close to
them. The sound of trees shattering and cracking could be heard
on top of the screaming sounds of the students.
Seeing the light at the end of the forest gave Wilkas enough boost
to push his body to the extreme. As a half-elf, Wilkas was born
with extreme agility and speed. No human had ever outrun
Wilkas. He was able to run through the woods as the forest was
his playground thanks to his nimble body and the training he had
since he was born.
Nonetheless, he was barely able to keep up with sixty-six.

Surprisingly this was sixty-six did not look like he was pushing his
body to the limit. He seemed calm and collected regardless of the
mountain troll chasing them.
With a final push, Wilkas and Michael jumped out of the woods
and reached the ground between the forest and Mazeroth castle.
They saw students running to the castle like a bat out of hell.
Michael was neither in the shape to fight nor wanted to fight the
mountain troll which would defeat his purpose of staying
anonymous.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
After putting some distance between the forest and them, they
heard an ear-piercing thunderous roar coming from behind. They
looked over their shoulder to see a fifteen feet humanoid beast
with gray skin, a bald head, and overgrown ears roaring to the
sky. In its giant hands, it held a grown tree. The troll used the tree
as a club.
The troll's belly looked as though it just ate a few buffalos whole.
Even from a distance, the putrid smell that came from the
mountain troll made Wilkas's face go green.
"RUN!" Gilrine's shout attracted Michael's attention as well as the

other students.
It was not like Michael planned to stay put and watch the troll. He
was just momentarily stunned to see a mountain troll in real life.
"Run human, the troll is resistant to all magic attacks" Michael

heard Gaya's voice in his head.
Defeating a fifteen feet giant without spells was impossible, even
for him. He was strong but not strong enough to defeat the
mountain troll. It would squash him like a bug if he picked up a
fight with the troll. Besides, Michael had no intention to fight with
the troll. The more he pushed himself, the harder it would be to
prevent the third person from showing up.
"Where the heck are the professors?" Wilkas asked while running
with him,
"Calm down boy" Michael saw Gilrine approach the troll with his
hands reached out,
"What the fuck is he doing? It's not a dog he could tame" Wilkas
growled looking over shi shoulder,
The mountain troll surprisingly stopped roaring. It tilted its head

looking at Gilrine. The troll stood still as Gilrine slowly approached
the troll daring not to make any sudden moves.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!"
Yet, when he was just a few meters away from the troll, the troll's
eyes flickered in red as it raised the tree in its hand high in the sky
to squash Gilrine with it.
BOOM!
The very next moment, a rainbow color beam shot out from the
sky and landed between Gilrine and the mountain troll. The force
of the beam pushed the mountain troll a couple of steps back. The
bright light radiated from the beam made the troll close its eyes for
a second.
Michael knew it was a teleportation beam and he wondered who

would step out of the beam. Wilkas on the other hand expected a
bunch of people or the guards or the professors to step out of the
beam to kill the troll.
However, who was there when the light beam disappeared was a
girl in ocean blue robes. She was taller than average girls and
wore clothes that screamed wealth. Her raven black hair fluttered
in the wind. Michael could not see her face but by the look of her
arms, he could tell she was a trained warrior.
Standing in front of the mountain troll, the girl never moved a

muscle. She remained as calm as the sea.
"Leave" the girl ordered Gilrine. Her authoritative voice shook

Gilrine as his legs automatically started to move backward.
Michael failed to see any magical fluctuations around her which

meant just like the students, she was too unable to use arch
energy.
"GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!"
The mountain troll changed its target from Gilrine to the girl in
front of it. It once again raised the tree in its hand higher to attack
the girl.
Chapter 437 - The Holy Maiden
Chapter 437 - The Holy Maiden
"GRRRRRRRRRR!" the mountain troll roared before smashing

the club on the ground to squash her. However, the girl threw the
blade aiming at the troll's chest. The blade impaled the mountain
troll. The chain attached to the blade grew shorter and shorter as
she used the blade as a pulley to reach the mountain troll.
BOOM!
At this time, the mountain troll smashed the ground, creating a

deep crater. The troll lifted off the tree to see there was no blood
and felt the girl running on its shoulder.
"GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!" the mountain troll roared violently,

slapping itself to catch the girl. She was fast. In frustration and
anger, the troll raised its club once again. This time, however, the
girl fired the two blades in her hand aiming at the tree in the troll's
hand.
She jumped off from the troll's shoulder holding the two blades
tight. She yanked the chains attached to her blades to bring down
the tree on the troll's head. When she landed on the ground, the
troll lost control of the tree in its hand.
"GGGGGRRRRRR!!!!!"
Bam!
With a final yank, the girl brought the tree hard on the troll's head.
Wilkas realized the tree was heavier than it looked when it split
opened the troll's head like an egg.
The girl did not even turn back to see the troll's body as it hit the
ground with a loud booming sound. The blades reached her hand.
She put the blades into the sheathes hanging on her back.
Michael had been fascinated by the girl. She was so badass. The
battle with the troll ended before it even began. Only a battle-
hardened warrior would be able to pull off what the girl just did.
Moreover, she did not use any arch energy or spells, it was her
raw strength.
After Noah, this girl seemed to be a tougher opponent. He had a

feeling that if they battled, he might lose the battle.
"Mithak!" Gilrine cried out loud running towards the fallen troll,
The girl did not remain there but left the area. Several professors
were running towards the mountain troll while the prefects came
rushing out to escort the students to their dorms.
"Who is that?" asked Wilkas in shock,
Michael stared at the girl disappearing into the castle,
"I have a feeling we will meet soon," he said to himself before

turning back to leave for their rooms.
Gilrine in the distance knelt beside the mountain troll with tears
gushing out of his eyes. His sobbing sound was loud enough for
everyone to hear.
**********************************
Back in the castle, a hunched old woman walking with the support
of staff was walking from one end to another in a spacious room.
It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of weird little noises.
Several gold instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring
and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with
portraits of old old men and women, all of whom were snoozing
gently in their frames. There was also a throne made of ice.
The old woman's pace came to a halt when she saw the door
creak open,
"Holy Maiden" the old woman's back already looked like it was
bowing down due to her hunched back still when she saw the girl,
she bowed further down.
"Bai Ning" the girl nodded before making her way to the throne,
The air around the throne was chilly enough to freeze someone's
bones still the girl sat comfortably on the throne without showing
any signs of pain.
She seemed extremely comfortable and dominant,
"I told you you can address me as Rowena in private"
The girl who stunned Michael was none other than Noah's elder
sister. He had no idea that she was his big sister. The position of
Holy Maiden was only given to a cultivator with extremely rare
yang energy in their body. The position was held by no one for the
last three thousand years until Rowena. Her successor the
previous Holy Maiden was said to have reached the Celestial
stage and parted the world to the realm of Angels.
"That was an incredibly dangerous Holy Maiden" Bai Ning

stomped the ground with her staff. In her voice, one could notice
the anger but also care.
"I'm alive and the troll isn't," Rowena said with an expressionless
face,
"Kayla should put a leash on her professors" the woman hunched

her way towards the table, flicked her wrist to take out the teapot
set, and began to brew tea for the Holy Maiden. The tea she
brewed was radiating smoke. However, the tea was not hot, it was
freezing to the bone.
If anyone else drank it instead of her, the weak would die in a

matter of seconds while the strong might live only when they
warm their body to an extreme temperature.
"Have you located the primordial flames?" asked Rowena taking
sips of her bone-chilling tea,
"The spell has narrowed the search area but we still need some
time"
"What about the demon?"
Bai Ning waved her hands as a large bowl full of glistening blue
liquid appeared on the table. The old woman poured a red liquid
into the bowl and stared at the red liquid fuse with the blue liquid
"Somehow the demon has been escaping my location spells"
"Then the devil is not alone. The sooner we find it the better" said
Rowena,
"The world is not ready to accept the existence of higher realms. If

they knew they had a demon walking among them, it would cause
a massive panic wave. Demons, imposters, wars, famine, hunger,
the great clans are supposed to fix these. They are becoming
incompetent by the day"
Bai Ning was a straightforward person. She had never held back
her thoughts. Hence, she called the Great Clans incompetent in
front of Rowena whose brother is in one of the Great Clans, the
Guardian Guild.
"And the other task" the air in the room became chillier. Bai Ning
stopped looking at the bowl and turned her gaze towards Rowena,
"The Guardians should handle it Holy Maiden. The Skyhall

shouldn't meddle with-"
Bai Ning was interrupted by the sudden coldness she felt in her
body. Rowena crushed the teacup in her hand before standing up
from her throne,
"Someone targeted my family, I made it clear you find them and

bring them to me"
The old woman stepped backward in fear Although she had
higher cultivation, Bai Ning was afraid of the Holy Maiden. They
couldn't measure Rowena's power using just cultivation stages.
She was a being in the making to become a goddess and Bai
Ning did not want the wrath of a goddess to fall upon her.
Rowena's eyes flicked in blue like a pair of sapphires,
"My family is more important than Skyhall. You have three days to
find the assassins"
Bai Ning could barely breathe. She just nodded her head in fear
and waited for Rowena to leave the room.
"The elders need to know this" after Rowena left the room, Bai
Ning mumbled under her breath.
**********************************
Meanwhile, Gaya and Gilrine were standing in a cozy room. The

room had a large fireplace, windows overlooking the training
grounds and the battle arena, and a sparse stone-floored
bedroom behind a concealed door.
Headmistress Kayla was staring at both of them. Her eyes were

like daggers cutting through Gaya and Gilrine,
" A mountain troll? What were you thinking, Gilrine?" Gilrine was
shivering. He was swallowing a mouth full of saliva in
nervousness.
"And you professor Steinmeyer" Kayla turned her focus onto

Gaya,
"You should have been more careful"
"How the hell would I know this crazy brat was raising a bloody
mountain troll in the black forest?"
"Mithak" Gilrine mumbled under his breath. His eyes were still
teary due to the loss of his beloved mountain troll,
Kayla sighed,
"Explain yourself, Gilrine. Why were you keeping a mountain troll

in the black forest?"
Gilrine looked awkward as he looked between Kayla and Gaya,
"Professor Steinmeyer" Seeing Gilrine hesitating to explain

himself in front of Gaya, headmistress Kayla realized that he must
be keeping the mountain troll for a reason. Hence, Kayla first
wanted to deal with Gaya and sent her away,
"I am not going to tell you how to conduct your classes but please
be more vigilant, lives could have been lost today"
"I'll be more careful, Professor Kayla" Gaya nodded as she did not
want to argue with Kayla when she was a frickin imposter.
Gaya turned back showing her back to Kayla,
"Is that a peanut stuck in your beard?" asked Gaya. Before Gilrine
could put his hands into his beard, Gaya helped him,
"Jeesh"
Gilrine awkwardly tried to smile after she helped remove the

peanut. Little did he know that Gaya was not removing any
peanuts but putting a Spyder into his bushy beard. It was indeed
risky but she took the risk to know why Gilrine was keeping a
mountain troll in the black forest. Since a lousy-mouth man like
Gilrine was keeping it a secret, she knew whatever the reason he
was keeping a mountain troll, it must be something very important.
"Oh Professor Steinmeyer" Gaya felt a chill running through her

spine. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest cavity when she
heard Kayla calling just after she placed a Spyder into Gilrine's
beard to spy on them,
"Yes Professor Kayla" she turned back again controlling any signs
of nervousness from showing up on her face,
"You are on detention duty today. If anyone received detention,
take them to the black forest and make them harvest black foot
mushrooms. Just do me a favor, don't let the students go past the
red oaks "
"Human, get yourself a detention" after leaving Headmistress

Kayla's room, she contacted Michael through the earpiece,
******************************
In the girl's dormitory of warrior house, Victoria was practicing her

sword skills by slashing and dashing a dummy while Edith was
laying on the bed complaining,
"You know we could have died. Most of us who are taking the
combat class arent warriors. We want to learn about defending
ourselves, not how to get yourself killed" Edith was pretty shaken
up by the mountain troll. They were one of the few students who
saw the mountain troll too close and barely escaped,
"We have to complain about professor Steinmeyer to someone"
"You're just overreacting" Victoria calmly said,
"She was right. You can't learn combat by reading books. If we

can't survive a mountain troll, we don't deserve to be here. Think
about it, the next time when you're being chased by a mountain
troll, you would not be as scared as now"
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Their conversation was interrupted by someone who was

knocking on the door outside,
"Who is there?" asked Edith with an irritated voice,
"Trouble" Victoria muttered.

Chapter 438 - Michael meets
Victoria
Chapter 438 - Michael meets Victoria
"We are here for thirty-four," the youngster who was adorned in
gray robes of house warriors said to Edith,
"Why?" asked Edith,
The blonde-haired youngster smiled but behind his smile, there

was a slight irritation. Obviously, he did not know Edith's identity. If
he had known she was the little sister of Lailah Alden, he would
have talked to her in a different tone.
"Brother twenty-nine asked for her"
Victoria put her wooden sword into the sheathe hanging on the
side of her waist,
"Who is twenty nine and why is he asking for her?" Edith was
annoyed by the group. They acted so smugly and she did not like
their attitudes.
"If I am right, he must be a friend of the head prefect Elliot

Watson" Victoria came to Edith's side tying her hair into a bun and
putting on the warrior's long coat.
The young man nodded,
She had noticed a senior student following her since she joined
the House of Warriors. She was quite annoyed by him and she
decided to deal with them before they became trouble,
"You can stay here Edith. I'll go with them"

Edith immediately shook her head,
"If you are going, I'm coming with you"
Victoria sighed. Edith did not seem like she could be convinced
otherwise. Food Edith, it was impossible to change Victoria's mind
after she decided something. This time, she decided to go with
these youngsters and Edith knew she could not be stopped. Since
she wouldn't be able to change her mind, she decided to
accompany Victoria.
"Lead the way, I have something special to give him" Victoria

smiled,
The youngster's heart skipped a beat because of her alluring

smile. The Cosmic energy running in her body was transforming
her body as well as soul from inside. It had been turning her into
an angelic beauty.
The arrays surrounding the castle prevented the students from

using Arch energy. However, they were unable to do anything to
the Cosmic energy in her body.
Hence, if she wanted, she could cast spells and the spells cast
using the Cosmic energy would be devastatingly powerful.
"Wonderful" the young man grinned ear to ear before leading

them to twenty-nine who was a lackey of head prefect Elliot
Watson.
They strolled through the corridors and came to the grand

staircase which was a massive stairway in Mazeroth Castle, the
structure was mainly used to access each floor of the castle,
including the dungeons. The concept of moving stairs was
invented and built by the 6-star architect who built Mazeoth and
Kargin Pavlovich, a 6-star blacksmith and one of the founders of
Mazeroth.
The staircases led from platform to platform and went as high as

the ninth floor, where they came to an end. The stairs also had a
knack for moving around the staircase chamber, usually when a
student was walking up one of them.
Like most walls in the castle, there were hundreds of portraits

covering the walls surrounding the staircase, and it was
considered an honor for the painted likeness of a cultivator to be
mounted on the walls of the grand staircase. Some of these
portraits concealed secret passages to other areas within the
castle.
After climbing several steps, the youngster stood in front of a

portrait of a laughing chubby old woman.
"Rishta"
"Password accepted," the lady smiled, waving her hand. Soon the
portrait moved revealing a secret passage.
The passage was lit with torches rather than glowing orbs. Victoria
silently followed the boys into the passage while Edith kept
looking around nervously. She was not a warrior such as her sister
or Victoria. In fact, she hated violence and killings but she was not
naive to expect a world without both.
It took them exactly five minutes to reach the end of the passage.
The passage opened up to a cozy room decorated with portraits,
a fireplace, and exquisite vases containing ravishingly beautiful
flowers. At the center of the room was a round table with two
candles as well as various delicious foods.
"Welcome young miss"
A tall young man clad in golden robes walked out of the door on
the other side with a bright smile on his face. The passage
opening behind Victoria and Edith vanished into thin air. Edith was
slightly panicked, unlike Victoria who remained as calm as the
sea.
When he came closer to them, the five young men who led
Victoria here stepped back. The young man bent his waist to give
Victoria a royal bow,
"You look beautiful. I am-"
"Earl Decker" Victoria finished his sentence with a snicker. The

young man was taken aback by surprise,
"The third son of the Decker family of Kingdom Marina of Awor"

Victoria talked while gracefully walking around the room.
"Your family holds many mines including the second largest gold
mine. Your family had been trying to expand your mining business
to the Southern Continent"
Earl was having mixed feelings. On one hand, she looked so

domineering and gorgeous, on the other hand, she looked kinda
scary. He had no idea how the heck she figured out his identity as
he had never revealed it to anyone except Elliot.
"For years, your family has been trying to leverage the senates
using your identity as a student of Mazeroth. Fools, humph"
Victoria snickered,
"The senates don't give a damn about Mazeroth. Hence, your

family chose to go with the next big thing, marriage"
Earl frowned hearing the scorn in her tone. She just called her
family fools in front of his lackeys,
"But your fiance disappeared the day before your marriage.

Everyone believes she eloped with her mysterious lover but you
know the truth, don't you Decker?"
"I don't know-"
"Don't bother" Yet again, Victoria interrupted his sentence.
She finished strolling around the hall and came before him,
" You were pretty high that night and when she told you no, you
forced yourself on her and strangled her to death"
Decker's mind went blank. No one knew what happened that night
yet somehow she knew exactly what happened. He started to
have a bad feeling in his guts,
"Men like you are trash and I don't like being stalked by trash like
you"
Plop!
Victoria slapped Decker, shocking everyone in the room. His face

immediately turned red. Edith could see Victoria's palm prints on
his face.
For a moment, the room fell silent. Then, Decker lost his
gentleman composure as he gritted his teeth,
"bitch"
Plop!
She slapped him again. This time, her slap contained a sliver of
Cosmic energy. He was thrown into the table with the food he
prepared to impress Victoria.
The five young men behind them were in a stupor. They did not
know what to do.
"Argh!"
Decker's world was spinning. His mind was in shambles due to

the slap. He tried to pick himself up but he was unable to do so.
Victoria unsheathed the wooden practice sword. However, her

target was not Decker but the five youngsters behind her. When
she turned back with the sword in her hand, the five of them felt a
chill,
"Miss"
"Pimps, humph" Victoria snickered, closing the gap between them.

The five young men could not raise their hands to hit her. They
had no idea about Decker's history like Victoria. They thought they
were helping him confess his newborn love to Victoria. Simply,
they were not as bad as Decker.
Pat!
Pat!
Pat!
However, Victoria gave no damn about their intention. She started

to swing her sword, beating the crap out of the five youngsters.
"Hey" Edith tried to stop Victoria from beating them up. The
youngster who led them here received more beatings than the
rest of them. He had lost several teeth and was on the verge of
losing consciousness,
"Watch out!"
Suddenly Edith noticed Decker rushing towards Victoria with a

knife in his hand. Without even turning back, Victoria swung her
sword back.
Plap!
The wooden sword hit Decker with enough force to make him
stumble backward. The wooden sword almost cracked due to the
force,
"Trash, did you think I'm as weak as your fiance?"
Victoria put her feet on Decker's neck,
She pressed his neck with her feet, squeezing the life out of him
slowly.
"Stop!" Edith cried out loud.
She came running to Victoria and shook her shoulders,
"You're gonna kill him. We will report this to professor Steinmeyer,

she will deal with them. If you killed him, we will be expelled" Edith
pleaded with Victoria to knock some sense into her,
"I don't give a damn about this place. I am here for the" before
finishing her sentence, Victoria stomped Decker's face, knocking
him out cold.
"Primordial flame,"
Edith heard Victoria.
At this point, Victoria didn't know she just gave a reason for the
Dark Lord to turn the Decker family against Thusia.
**********************************
The next day night, Gaya was waiting on the grass field near the
black forest border with Gilrine by her side,
"I am gonna give him another detention for making me wait"
Gilrine scratched the back of his neck hearing her threaten the
student.
"There they are"
Gaya couldn't help smiling seeing Michael. Her smile however

immediately froze when she saw two girls behind him.
"Who the heck are you two? And what are you two doing here?"
Gaya asked the two girls. One girl seemed warm and friendly
while the red-haired girl looked cold and proud. The two girls were
none other than Victoria and Edith. Victoria's mask prevented
Michael from recognizing her and she did not recognize him
because of his beard and changed demeanor. Moreover, Victoria
barely looked at him. For her, he was not even worth a look.
"We are here for the detention, Professor"
For a moment, Gaya looked at them blankly. She was planning to

venture into the forest with Michael to find the secret that Gilrine's
mountain troll was guarding.
"Who gave you detention girls?" asked Gilrine,

"Professor Lane," said Edith.
"Oh" Gilrine did not seem very surprised,
"Why?" asked Gaya in an annoyed tone of voice,
"He caught us outside our dorm after the curtain," Edith told Gaya.
After coming back from Decker's little secret room, Professor

Lane, the head of House Alchemists caught the two girls and gave
them detention for being late.
Edith was grateful that he only gave them detention and did not
expel them. However, Decker wasn't so lucky. He was packing his
bags as they were speaking.
"Gilrine, can't I give them something else to do instead of bringing

them with us?"
"I don't think so, professor Steinmeyer"
"Professor, we won't give you any trouble," Edith said politely.
"We can protect ourselves professor" Victoria calmly said,
"We could use a warrior Professor in case we encountered a wild

beast"
In the corner of her eyes, she could see Michael nod,
"Damn it, okay but you two must follow my orders no matter what
without a question. Got it?"
"Yes Professor" Edith bobbed her head up and down while

Victoria gave Gaya a small nod.
"Let's go"
Finally, in the middle of the night, the five of them ventured into
the black forest with each having a plan of their own.
Chapter 439 Let me out
The smokey mist filling the forest gave out an ominous feeling.
There wasn't a sound except for their footsteps. Gilrine led the
way with Gaya while Michael walked last following Victoria and
Edith. Occasionally Edith made eye contact with him and smiled.
Somehow he reminded of Noah to her. They were still on the

outskirts of the forest as they did not go deeper into the forest. A
few yards away, they saw a line of red oak trees. Students were
forbidden to cross the red oak trees.
"Now you should feel the arch energy once again," said Gilrine,
turning back to look at the three students.
He was oblivious to the fact that except for Edith, both Michael
and Victoria could use spells. The latter had the Cosmic energy
running through her veins while for Michael, the system enabled
him to use arch energy despite the arrays.
"Look around, you will find the mushrooms you're looking for," said
Gilrine,
"Where are you going?" Gaya asked Gilrine,
"Just making sure we are alone. I don't want any more surprises"
Gaya could see the sweat drops forming on his forehead. It was
obvious that he was lying.
COnsidering Gaya wanted to follow him, she pretended to believe

him.
"Good idea" she nodded,
"You three, start picking the black foot mushrooms" Gaya sat on a
log as the three of them pretended to look around to pick the
mushrooms,
Thanks to the light orb conjured by Gaya, they were able to look
around their surroundings.
Edith stared at Michael picking the charcoal-colored mushrooms.

As their name suggested, the mushrooms were in the shape of a
human foot. Michael picked a bunch of mushrooms from the
rotten logs and the ground surrounding the trees.
Following Michael, Edith also located the mushrooms and

collected the mushrooms. Victoria was just pretending to pick
mushrooms. Gaya saw that but did not give any shit.
"You go look somewhere else" Edith saw professor Steinmeyer

shouting an order at sixty-six.
"Yes professor" he nodded before walking away from their spot

leaving the girls.
Victoria and Edith sighed in relaxation as they now only had to

deal with professor Steinmeyer. IF she left the area, they would be
able to look for the primordial flames.
Just as they hoped, a few minutes later, professor Steinmeyer left

the area after telling them to stay put.
Victoria waited until professor Steinmeyer's figure disappeared

into the forest.
She then flicked her wrist as a golden compass materialized on

her palm.
The single red needle kept spinning fastly before coming to a halt
pointing towards the east, the opposite direction Gilrine went.
"We are close to finding the flames, come on" Victoria dragged
Edith in the direction the compass was pointing.
Meanwhile, Gaya and Michael regrouped on top of a banyan tree.

They were far away from the girls. As far as they were concerned,
the girls were collecting mushrooms as they were told.
Michael was watching Gilrine navigating through the forest in the
mirror in his hand with Gaya,
"Where is he going?" frowned Gaya,
"Let's find out"
The duo shot out into the air like bullets. They avoided breaking
branches or making any noises. Michael sent a drone in front for
reconnaissance.
Almost ten minutes later, they landed on a tree branch. In the

distance, they saw Gilrine standing under an oak tree. He was
gawking around to see if anyone was following him.
After making sure he wasn't followed, Gilrine took out a leather

pouch from the inner pockets of his long faded coat. He poured
out a white powder from the pouch. He drew a 'W' on the tree
using the white powder.
The oak tree's branches moved as several glowing symbols

appeared on the stem. Looking at the symbols, Gilrine sighed with
ease,
"Thank the gods. Huh?"
All of a sudden, they heard a twig breaking nearby. Gilrine's body

immediately tensed up as he started to look in all the directions.
He then quickly wiped off the 'W' on the tree. When he removed
the symbol, the tree moved yet again to its previous state as the
glowing symbols slowly faded away,
Michael sent the drone in the direction of the noise.
"Fuck" Michael cursed,
"What?" asked Gaya. She did not seem very patient. It took great
effort for her to stay put instead of jumping on Gilrine, knocking
him out, and interrogating him to get the truth.
"It's Wilkas," said Michael,

"And he is not alone"
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind blew past them. Both Gaya and
Michael almost lost their balance and fell off the branch. Gilrine
was just about to take a step forward when he was knocked out
by an invisible force. Gaya and Michael looked at Gilrine
stumbling to the ground. For a split second, they saw a humanoid
shape standing beside Gilrine before vanishing into thin air.
"Tell me you saw that?" frowned Gaya. She could swear she saw
a shape beside Gilrine who lay on the ground without moving a
muscle.
"See what happened to him. I'll deal with Wilkas" said Michael
before leaping towards the next tree. Just like him, she leapt from
the branch and landed near Gilrine,
Before squatting down to check on Gilrine, she looked around

vigilantly. Until she was sure that the humanoid shape was
nowhere near her, she remained vigilant. Still being vigilant, she
squatted down, putting her finger on Gilrine's throat,
She felt the pulses but his body was cold. Quickly, she picked up
the leather pouch. Before standing up, she took out a needle from
her space ring with a flick of her wrist. She injected the needle into
Gilrine's neck.
"Stay down"
Amidst the woods near the oak tree, Wilkas was bleeding on the
ground. His face was all bruised up and a white bloody bone was
sticking out of his forearm. Another youngster laid not so far from
Wilkas and compared to Wilaks, he seemed to be in a much
better state.
"I only wanted to kill one bitch. But now I have to kill a bitch and a
maggot"
It was Decker who just spoke these words. Yesterday after
Victoria beat the crap out of him, he was found by professor Lane.
In front of the most terrifying professors in Mazeroth, Decker's
lackeys crumbled, spewing everything they heard from Victoria.
Professor Lane did not immediately take any action. He just gave
Decker a truth pill and interrogated him. The pill prevented Decker
from lying. Hence, he admitted to violating and killing his fiance.
Professor Lane expelled him on the spot and gave him two days
to get his affairs in order before leaving Akilan Realm.
Decker had no affairs to settle except dealing with Victoria.

Learning Victoria received detention, Decker was waiting for the
two girls in the black forest when he saw Wilkas.
Wilkas was already in a bad shape when he saw him. Since

Wilkas too saw Decker, Decker planned to take him out before he
informed the professors. Decker did not want the professors to
find out what happened to Victoria and Edith.
"And here I thought coming to Mazeroth was the best thing in my

life" Wilkas coughed up blood. Weirdly, he was laughing for some
reason.
He always thought he was going to achieve something bigger but

now he realized his life was a bit anticlimactic. As his last wish, he
just wanted to bring the god's wrath on those elves who
kidnapped him from sixty-six's room and mercilessly beat the hell
out of him.
"You're not going to beg for me to let you live?" Decker asked
while walking towards him with a crimson red dagger in his hand,
"Nah, I prefer to die with a bit of dignity" Wilkas coughed up some

more blood,
"Let me out"
Suddenly a demonic voice reverberated in the area. The voice

sent a chill running through Decker's body. He tensed as he
frantically looked around,
"Tear him"
"Piece by piece"
"Broke his limbs"
"I want to feel his warm blood between my fingers"
As the demonic voice sounded closer and closer to them, Decker

heard twigs breaking. He conjured an orb of light to see a figure
walking out of the shadows,
"You" Wilkas couldn't believe his eyes. It was sixty-six, his buddy,
roommate, and who punched him in the face to get detention.
"Who…who are you?"
"Go away," Michael growled.
Seeing Wilkas bleeding on the ground reminded him of Jack's

death. Although he avenged Jack, he could not save him. Michael
sensed the third persona within him getting stronger as though it
was harnessing the power of darkness somehow.
The last thing Michael wanted was to let the third persona take
control of his body and wreak havoc in one of the most powerful
places in the world.
"What the fuck are these prefects doing?" Decker cursed the
prefects for letting students sneak out to the black forest which
was supposed to be forbidden for them
Michael threw a healing potion to Wilkas,
"Leave" once again, Michael warned Decker.
"Let me out" Michael's eyes suddenly flamed up. A set of pitch-

black armor replaced his green robes for a second,
"Whoa" Decker was stunned to see the voice was actually coming
from the student in front of him,
What shocked him more was his eyes and the way his looks
changed. For a few seconds, he grew taller, a scary-looking armor
appeared covering his body from head to toe and his eyes were
shooting crimson red flames.
"Buddy, I don't know what drugs you are on. But it's one spooky
thing"
What could one more body do to him? Thought Decker, hiding the
crimson red dagger behind his back.
At this point, Wilkas was completely healed. He picked himself

from the ground.
"I'm not going to…" Michael closed his eyes, mustering all of his
strength to control the third persona,
"Let you out"
"Oh you will…you will" the demonic voice of the third persona
once again growled. This time, it sounded as though it amused,
Finally, Michael felt the urge to go berserk calming down within

him which was a sigh the third persona went away.
"Human, we have a problem" he heard Gaya's voice in his head.

Michael took a long breath. Yet again, his third persona put him in
a heap of trouble. Both Wilkas and the new guy saw him
transform and if either of them told anyone in MAzeroth about this,
his life would be at risk.
Wilkas could be dealt with easily unlike the new guy.
"We didn't see each other. Got it?" Michael asked Decker,
Decker took a few minutes to ponder and answer,
"Why not?"
Michael snickered, "I don't believe you"

The very next second, Wilkas saw sixty-six dashing at Decker.
The next thing he knew, Decker was lying on the ground without
moving an inch.
"The hell are you doing?" Wilkas asked, looking at sixty-six tying
Decker onto a tree.
"Go back to the dorm," Michael said to Wilkas before injecting a

needle into Decker's neck.
Chapter 440 The Origin of
Dark Lord I
"If I go back now, I will get caught by professor Lane for sure. He
is roaming outside the castle for some reason" Wilkas shook his
head,
[The host should bring him with you]
Surprisingly the system asked Michael to bring Wilaks to the tree.

Deep down, Michael too had a feeling that he might need Wilkas.
Trusting the system and his instincts never went wrong. Hence,
Michael chose to bring Wilkas with him to the tree.
"Follow me"
Considering Michael planned to make Wilkas his subordinate, he

did not have to worry about the half-elf betraying him. Plus,
Michael didn't think Wilkas would double-cross him as he stood to
gain nothing by betraying him,
"What about him?" asked Wilkas pointing at Decker,
"Leave him"
Wilkas didn't feel bad for leaving Decker alone. He barely knew
the guy yet he tried to kill him. If it was up to Wilkas, he would
expel him before beating the crap out of him. Wilkas had no idea
that Decker had been already expelled and he was there to kill the
ones responsible for his expulsion.
When Wilkas and Michael reached the oak tree, Wilkas's eyes
went wide. They looked as though they were about to pop out of
their sockets.
"What the heck? Is that Gilrine? What happened to him?" he

frantically asked. As he was about to run towards Gilrine, he saw
Professor Steinmeye stepping out of the shadows,
"Professor Steinmeyer" Wilkas's body went rigid in shock,
"What the fuck is he doing here?" asked Gaya staring at Wilkas

with murderous intent in her eyes,
"I'll tell you later. You said we have a problem"
Rather than explaining what was the problem, Gaya walked to the
tree, grabbed a handful of powder from the leather pouch, and
drew the symbol 'W' on the tree.
Wilkas looked at the tree moving with his mouth wide open. He
couldn't believe a giant tree such as this was moving like a
puppet. It was too magical. Soon, dark lines appeared on his
forehead because he was able to read the glowing runes unlike
Michael or Gaya,
"That's it, nothing happens. It will stay like this and after two
minutes, the tree will move back to normal" Gaya punched the
tree in frustration,
"System"
[The system requires 500,000 badass points to disarm the runes]
[Since the host has only 160,000 badass points, the system could
loan you the remaining amount for just a 40% interest rate]
Frowned Michael. But when he turned to look at Wilkas, he saw

Wilkas staring at the runes as though he recognized them.
Because Wilkas was a runemaster, Michael realized he might
have some ideas and he might not need the help of the system.
"Can you read them?"
"I already did"
Gaya finally stopped punching the tree and turned her gaze
towards Wilkas,
"What does it say?! Tell us" Gaya dashed at Wilkas. She grabbed
him by his collar and lifted him off the ground,
"Professor"
"Say it!"
Wilkas swallowed a mouth full of saliva. He had no idea why the

professor was behaving like this. He even began to doubt if she
was a professor at all.
"Put him down" Michael placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to
calm her down. For him, it was just finding a solution for his third
persona problem. But for her, it was about finding her mother. He
knew how much her mother meant to her.
"AAH" Wilkas breathed heavily when his feet touched the ground.
"What does it mean?" asked Michael,
Wilkas took a deep breath,
"They are ancient runes. They roughly translate into, the blood of
evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness"
"What the fuck is that?" Gaya threw her arms in the air. It seemed
like a riddle and Gaya hated the riddles so much, especially when
her mother's life might depend on this riddle.
"The blood of evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness,

hmm"
"Does it mean something to you?' asked Gaya after hearing

Michael mumbling what Wilkas said under his breath,
"Stay here"
In a blink of an eye, Michael disappeared, turning himself into a

bolt of lightning. He came back dragging Decker with him. Gaya
was confused,
"Shit who is this?"

"Wilkas" Michael looked at Wilkas. Maintaining the eye contact, he
bent down to pick up the crimson red daggers in Decker's
sheathes,
"Kill him"
Wilkas was startled by Michael's words.
"What do you mean kill him?"
"You have been bullied your whole life. This world will never stop
treating trash until you choose to change the world. Your whole
life, you've been hiding and fearing for others. Even coming to
Mazeorth didn't change your life like wanted"
"But" Wilkas clenched his fist. Although his words made sense,
Wilkas could not get himself to take a life.
"You can be a maggot as they've been calling you or choose to

man up and change your life around"
"If killing him would open whatever it is, let me kill him" Gaya tried
to snatch the daggers but she couldn't,
"Yes, let her do it. Why do you want me to kill him? I am not a
killer"
Michael was losing his patience. He was not in the mood to deal
with Wilkas's naiveness.
"In this world, you can only be either a prey or a predator. Man up,
kill him, and let me change how this world works" Michael said
gritting his teeth,
Still, Wilkas shook his head. Michael lost his cool as he grabbed
Wilkas by his neck. His eyes flickered din red as the dark armor
slowly started to appear on his body replacing the green robes,
"Let me make this simple for you. Kill him or I will kill you and
everyone you know in the slums you grow up"
Wilkas's heart skipped a beat seeing his transformation. His voice
sounded creepy and demonic and his eyes were burning as
though someone set them on fire,
"You don't understand what's at stake here Wilkas" Gaya tried to

knock some sense into Wilkas,
"If he doesn't do this, the whole world will suffer. Let him see his
people suffer first. Give Azazel the order" Michael turned his fiery
gaze towards Gaya,
"STOP!" finally Wilkas shouted,
He was an orphan but he could not let the innocent people in the
slums suffer. His hands shivered as he grabbed the daggers in
Michael's hands,
"Don't hurt them" Wilkas stuttered. He was too afraid to curse at

sixty-six. The fear had clutched his heart thanks to the fear toxin
Wilkas inhaled.
"Kill him"
Gaya saw the runes losing their glow. She quickly moved towards
the tree and drew the symbol once again. On the other hand,
Wilkas clutched the dagger tightly. His body was shivering
uncontrollably.
Wilkas breathed heavily. He wanted to shout for help but no words

came out of his mouth. He saw no way to escape from this
situation. His mind could not think of a plan.
"DO IT!" Michael growled in his demonic voice. Slowly Wilkas

raised the dagger above his head. He clenched the dagger with
his two hands,
"KILL HIM!"
This time when he heard the shout, Wilkas brought down the
dagger, penetrating Decker's chest. The blood sprayed out of the
wound. The beating heart of Decker pumped out the blood
forcefully. In a couple of seconds, Wilkas's pale face was painted
red with Decker's blood and the ground beneath them was
completely soaked in thick blood.
Michael turned his head and saw the blue runes slowly turning
red. The blood on the ground began to gather into a puddle. From
the blood puddle appeared several extensions made of blood.
Soon these extensions moved towards the tree like snakes.
The ground beneath them trembled as they started to hear

something heavy crack open. The center point of the oak tree
slowly split open, revealing a spinning vortex.
Whoosh!
The vortex sucked in Decker's body. After his body disappeared

into the vortex, Wilkas felt the pull. Gaya did not wait for the vortex
to pull her in but dashed into it. Michael grabbed Wilkas by his
collar and threw him into the vortex before he himself dashed into
the portal.
Michael had no time to wonder what was on the other side of the
portal. The third persona had already taken control of half of his
body and it took everything in him to keep it from completely
manifesting.
After the trio entered the portal, the tree returned to its normal
state. And just before the last rune faded away, the humanoid
shape made of leaves appeared in front of the tree. A split second
after, the blood on the ground completely vanished along with the
humanoid figure.
Somewhere else in the Akilan realm, Michael, Gaya, and Wilkas

were free falling.
"AHHHHHH!" Wilkas screamed out loud when he opened his eyes

and realized that he was falling from the sky.
Suddenly he felt a hand grab his shoulder and the next thing he
knew, he landed on the ground safely. He let out a heavy breath.
His vision slowly cleared as he didn't feel as terrified as before.
He closed his eyes tight and opened them again, hoping
everything that happened was just a nightmare. When he opened
his eyes, he saw sixty-six and professor Steinmeyer walking in
front of him towards a lone tree.
He was not in his scary black armor as just a few moments ago.
Wilkas looked around to see where he was. As far as he could
see, there was nothing but floating mountains. The place he was
standing on was paved and the only thing in the vicinity was the
lone tree on the edge.
While walking towards the lone oak tree, Gaya's body was
shivering. The closer they got to the tree, the more they could
make out a face in the tree.
"The God of Darkness" suddenly a calm voice reverberated in the

area.
"I've been waiting for you for three thousand years" Gaya looked
closer at the tree to see the face talking.
Finally, she had found the dark elf in the tree her mother asked
her to find. She felt like she got a step closer to finding what really
happened to her mother.
Dark Lord I
Chapter 441 The Origin of Dark Lord I”If I go back now, I will get
caught by professor Lane for sure. He is roaming outside the
castle for some reason” Wilkas shook his head,
[The host should bring him with you]
Surprisingly the system asked Michael to bring Wilaks to the tree.

Deep down, Michael too had a feeling that he might need Wilkas.
Trusting the system and his instincts never went wrong. Hence,
Michael chose to bring Wilkas with him to the tree.
”Follow me”
Considering Michael planned to make Wilkas his subordinate, he

did not have to worry about the half-elf betraying him. Plus,
Michael didn’t think Wilkas would double-cross him as he stood to
gain nothing by betraying him,
”What about him?” asked Wilkas pointing at Decker,
”Leave him”
Wilkas didn’t feel bad for leaving Decker alone. He barely knew
the guy yet he tried to kill him. If it was up to Wilkas, he would
expel him before beating the crap out of him. Wilkas had no idea
that Decker had been already expelled and he was there to kill the
ones responsible for his expulsion.
When Wilkas and Michael reached the oak tree, Wilkas’s eyes
went wide. They looked as though they were about to pop out of
their sockets.
”What the heck? Is that Gilrine? What happened to him?” he
frantically asked. As he was about to run towards Gilrine, he saw
Professor Steinmeye stepping out of the shadows,
”Professor Steinmeyer” Wilkas’s body went rigid in shock,
”What the fuck is he doing here?” asked Gaya staring at Wilkas

with murderous intent in her eyes,
”I’ll tell you later. You said we have a problem”
Rather than explaining what was the problem, Gaya walked to the
tree, grabbed a handful of powder from the leather pouch, and
drew the symbol ‘W’ on the tree.
Wilkas looked at the tree moving with his mouth wide open. He
couldn’t believe a giant tree such as this was moving like a
puppet. It was too magical. Soon, dark lines appeared on his
forehead because he was able to read the glowing runes unlike
Michael or Gaya,
”That’s it, nothing happens. It will stay like this and after two
minutes, the tree will move back to normal” Gaya punched the
tree in frustration,
”System”
[The system requires 500,000 badass points to disarm the runes]
[Since the host has only 160,000 badass points, the system could
loan you the remaining amount for just a 40% interest rate]
Frowned Michael. But when he turned to look at Wilkas, he saw

Wilkas staring at the runes as though he recognized them.
Because Wilkas was a runemaster, Michael realized he might
have some ideas and he might not need the help of the system.
”Can you read them?”
”I already did”
Gaya finally stopped punching the tree and turned her gaze
towards Wilkas,
”What does it say?! Tell us” Gaya dashed at Wilkas. She grabbed
him by his collar and lifted him off the ground,
”Professor”
”Say it!”
Wilkas swallowed a mouth full of saliva. He had no idea why the

professor was behaving like this. He even began to doubt if she
was a professor at all.
”Put him down” Michael placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to
calm her down. For him, it was just finding a solution for his third
persona problem. But for her, it was about finding her mother. He
knew how much her mother meant to her.
”AAH” Wilkas breathed heavily when his feet touched the ground.
”What does it mean?” asked Michael,
Wilkas took a deep breath,
”They are ancient runes. They roughly translate into, the blood of
evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness”
”What the fuck is that?” Gaya threw her arms in the air. It seemed
like a riddle and Gaya hated the riddles so much, especially when
her mother’s life might depend on this riddle.
”The blood of evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness,

hmm”
”Does it mean something to you?’ asked Gaya after hearing

Michael mumbling what Wilkas said under his breath,
”Stay here”
In a blink of an eye, Michael disappeared, turning himself into a

bolt of lightning. He came back dragging Decker with him. Gaya
was confused,
”Shit who is this?”
”Wilkas” Michael looked at Wilkas. Maintaining the eye contact, he

bent down to pick up the crimson red daggers in Decker’s
sheathes,
”Kill him”
Wilkas was startled by Michael’s words.
”What do you mean kill him?”
”You have been bullied your whole life. This world will never stop
treating trash until you choose to change the world. Your whole
life, you’ve been hiding and fearing for others. Even coming to
Mazeorth didn’t change your life like wanted”
”But” Wilkas clenched his fist. Although his words made sense,
Wilkas could not get himself to take a life.
”You can be a maggot as they’ve been calling you or choose to

man up and change your life around”
”If killing him would open whatever it is, let me kill him” Gaya tried
to snatch the daggers but she couldn’t,
”Yes, let her do it. Why do you want me to kill him? I am not a
killer”
Michael was losing his patience. He was not in the mood to deal
with Wilkas’s naiveness.
”In this world, you can only be either a prey or a predator. Man up,
kill him, and let me change how this world works” Michael said
gritting his teeth,
Still, Wilkas shook his head. Michael lost his cool as he grabbed
Wilkas by his neck. His eyes flickered din red as the dark armor
slowly started to appear on his body replacing the green robes,
”Let me make this simple for you. Kill him or I will kill you and
everyone you know in the slums you grow up”
Wilkas’s heart skipped a beat seeing his transformation. His voice

sounded creepy and demonic and his eyes were burning as
though someone set them on fire,
”You don’t understand what’s at stake here Wilkas” Gaya tried to

knock some sense into Wilkas,
”If he doesn’t do this, the whole world will suffer. Let him see his
people suffer first. Give Azazel the order” Michael turned his fiery
gaze towards Gaya,
”STOP!” finally Wilkas shouted,
He was an orphan but he could not let the innocent people in the
slums suffer. His hands shivered as he grabbed the daggers in
Michael’s hands,
”Don’t hurt them” Wilkas stuttered. He was too afraid to curse at

sixty-six. The fear had clutched his heart thanks to the fear toxin
Wilkas inhaled.
”Kill him”
Gaya saw the runes losing their glow. She quickly moved towards
the tree and drew the symbol once again. On the other hand,
Wilkas clutched the dagger tightly. His body was shivering
uncontrollably.
Wilkas breathed heavily. He wanted to shout for help but no words

came out of his mouth. He saw no way to escape from this
situation. His mind could not think of a plan.
”DO IT!” Michael growled in his demonic voice. Slowly Wilkas

raised the dagger above his head. He clenched the dagger with
his two hands,
”KILL HIM!”
This time when he heard the shout, Wilkas brought down the
dagger, penetrating Decker’s chest. The blood sprayed out of the
wound. The beating heart of Decker pumped out the blood
forcefully. In a couple of seconds, Wilkas’s pale face was painted
red with Decker’s blood and the ground beneath them was
completely soaked in thick blood.
Michael turned his head and saw the blue runes slowly turning
red. The blood on the ground began to gather into a puddle. From
the blood puddle appeared several extensions made of blood.
Soon these extensions moved towards the tree like snakes.
The ground beneath them trembled as they started to hear

something heavy crack open. The center point of the oak tree
slowly split open, revealing a spinning vortex.
Whoosh!
The vortex sucked in Decker’s body. After his body disappeared

into the vortex, Wilkas felt the pull. Gaya did not wait for the vortex
to pull her in but dashed into it. Michael grabbed Wilkas by his
collar and threw him into the vortex before he himself dashed into
the portal.
Michael had no time to wonder what was on the other side of the
portal. The third persona had already taken control of half of his
body and it took everything in him to keep it from completely
manifesting.
After the trio entered the portal, the tree returned to its normal
state. And just before the last rune faded away, the humanoid
shape made of leaves appeared in front of the tree. A split second
after, the blood on the ground completely vanished along with the
humanoid figure.
Somewhere else in the Akilan realm, Michael, Gaya, and Wilkas

were free falling.
”AHHHHHH!” Wilkas screamed out loud when he opened his eyes

and realized that he was falling from the sky.
Suddenly he felt a hand grab his shoulder and the next thing he
knew, he landed on the ground safely. He let out a heavy breath.
His vision slowly cleared as he didn’t feel as terrified as before.
He closed his eyes tight and opened them again, hoping

everything that happened was just a nightmare. When he opened
his eyes, he saw sixty-six and professor Steinmeyer walking in
front of him towards a lone tree.
He was not in his scary black armor as just a few moments ago.
Wilkas looked around to see where he was. As far as he could
see, there was nothing but floating mountains. The place he was
standing on was paved and the only thing in the vicinity was the
lone tree on the edge.
While walking towards the lone oak tree, Gaya’s body was
shivering. The closer they got to the tree, the more they could
make out a face in the tree.
”The God of Darkness” suddenly a calm voice reverberated in the

area.
”I’ve been waiting for you for three thousand years” Gaya looked
closer at the tree to see the face talking.
Finally, she had found the dark elf in the tree her mother asked
her to find. She felt like she got a step closer to finding what really
happened to her mother.
Dark Lord II
Chapter 442 The Origin of Dark Lord IIMichael approached the

tree while scanning the surroundings. His Environmental scanning
did not find any intruders or living beings.
”Who are you?” asked Michael, frowning. It was evident that this
figure is the same one Gaya’s mother was talking about; the dark
elf in the tree.
”They should have known mortal arrays are no match for a god”
the figure merged with the tree amused,
”I am Elidyr, one of the founders of Order of Death and the man

who created the ritual to open the gates to the void realm” the
man spoke.
Michael was calm but when he heard what the dark elf said next,
he was startled to the core,
”You may know the void realm as Earth”
Michael halted his pace, staying still in shock. No one except

Gaya knew about earth and that was because he told her. Except
for her, only the system knew his origin.
Michael stared at the dark elf to see how powerful he was which
resulted in another surprise as the dark elf was only at the Body
Refining stage.
”God of Darkness?” Wilkas gasped hearing the dark elf.
He couldn’t simply believe sixty six is a god as the figure stuck to

the tree claimed him to be.
”You know about Earth”
Since the dark elf clearly knew about the earth, Michael did not try
to conceal his secret.
”I know everything about you Lucifer. I know you’ve been in war

with yourself, a version of yourself more precisely”
Elidyr kept shocking Michael with his knowledge. Gaya remained

silent, letting Michael get an answer for his problem from the dark
elf. Then, she would inquire the elf about her mother,
Michael on the other hand completely ignored the existence of

Wilkas.
He approached the elf and stood a couple of meters before the

tree.
”You came here looking for a fix for your problem, didn’t you
Lucifer?” asked Elidyr,
”Tell me how do you know about Earth?”
Elidyr looked at him for a few moments in silence,
”Earth is the grandest and most secure prison in the entire

universe, Lucifer. It was built to imprison and prevent you from
coming here. Yet you are here. All those lives lost for nothing”
Elidyr sighed,
Michael clenched his fist. He couldn’t process the information

given by the dark elf. His mind was in complete chaos. If what
Elidy said was true, his entire life was a sham and those who
imprisoned him were punishing him for something he didn’t even
think of doing.
Gaya was stunned as her mind went blank. She came to his side
and placed her hand on his shoulder to reassure him because she
knew his entire world was collapsing.
”What about my parents on Earth? They were imprisoned too?”

Michael’s voice stuttered. For some reason, he felt a lump in his
throat. It was too much for him to rationalize and process. He
even started to sweat. To be honest, he wanted to sit down.
”Have you met your parents on Earth?” asked Elidyr as Michael

slowly shook his head,
”You have no parents on Earth. Your parents are from this world”
Michael’s heart skipped a beat.
”Tell us who they are” asked Gaya immediately,
”That’s an answer only time can give you”
Only silence filled the surroundings for a few moments before

Michael opened his mouth. His eyes already began to flicker in
crimson red,
”Who imprisoned me?” asked Michael coldly. Gaya felt the air
around her getting chilly. Soon, the sky started to turn darker and
darker. The wind howled ominously warning them about the
approaching storm.
“The same people who imprisoned me, Skyhall”
Every time the elf opened his mouth, he stunned Michael and
Gaya. It took them several minutes before speaking again,
”Skyhall?”
”You must be thinking the Guardians are the bad guys, cute”
Elidyr chuckled,
Wilkas stood alone listening to their conversation. He was pretty

freaked out by the sudden change in weather and the crimson red
eyes of sixty-six. His eyes were glowing in red as though they
were rubies.
”I want to know everything”
Michael’s entire world collapsed in front of him. Everything he

knew and believed was said to be nothing but smoke and mirror.
He was sick of being in the darkness and wanted to know
everything about him and his origins from the dark elf.
”The least I can do for you is give you some answers before I
wither away”
Elidyr sighed as he began to narrate everything from the

beginning starting from three thousand years ago.
The story began three thousand years ago with Qiu Jin ascending
to the throne of Holy Maiden. Michael didn’t know that Qiu Jin,
one of the founders of Mazeorth, was the Holy Maiden of Skyhall.
She was a 6-star Runemaster and according to Elidyr, at the peak
of her power, she invented an array that let her soul travel through
time.
Her time travel adventure turned out successful but not without a
cost.
The entire Skyhall was thrown into chaos when their beloved
goddess returned from the future half dead. She was an Immortal
stage cultivator yet something or someone almost took her life.
She was never the same afterward. To let the world know about
the approaching danger, she built another array with the help of
her friends to let the Skyhall see the approaching calamity. The
elders of Skyhall and a selected few witnessed a glimpse of the
future.
Elidyr was one of the elders of Skyhall who watched the world fall
into darkness. Qin Jiu called the future world, the dark realm.
There was neither sun nor moon in the dark realm, there was only
utter chaos and darkness.
People of the dark realm were stripped of their free will. They lived
and died as mere cattle. In the world filled with darkness, only one
stood atop and ruled the dark realm with an iron fist and dread,
The Dark Lord.
Qin Jiu was terrified of his power. She claimed even the gods left
the universe fearing the dark lord’s powers and the only way to
stop the dark lord was to imprison the Dark Lord before he
reached the pinnacle of his power. Elidyr and the other elders
were aware of Earth but they did not know how they created a
void universe, there were records of it.
Qin Jiu’s words turned out to be the prophecy and each of the
selected few who witnessed the glimpse of the future created a
Great Clan of their own to protect the world and prepare for the
Great War against the Dark Lord.
What they witnessed pushed the Skyhall to take drastic

measures. They scoured the world for the Dark Lord. They
massacred anyone who slightly deviated from the path of good in
the name of the greater good. After the disappearance of Qiu Jin,
the once protector of the world slowly turned into
something they were supposed to fight against.
Some believed Qin Jiu died due to the injuries she suffered during
her time travel, some believed she went back to the future again
and some believed she ascended to the realm of angels after
reaching the Celestial stage. No matter the reason behind her
disappearance, it resulted in Skyhall building prisons, mass
graves, torturing thousands of people, and wiping out entire races
they deemed evil.
Elidyr along with some other elders couldn’t stand and watch
doing nothing. They defected the Skyhall but not before Elidyr
finished a ritual that would open the gate to Earth. Elidyr and the
others saw the Skyhall turning the world into the dark realm
without even the Dark Lord. Hence, they worked in the shadows
to put a stop to the madness. As time went by, they were called
the Order and when the Skyhall found out about them, they
branded the Order as the Order of Death.
Although the Order of Death was powerful, they couldn’t stop

Skyhall from capturing the founders of the Order including Elidyr.
Elidyr believed some escaped but he wasn’t fortunate. The
Skyhall marked him as the traitor and chained him to the tree,
chaining him with powerful curses.
He was to suffer all the eternity alone.

”And twenty-one years ago, I felt the portal to the Earth open and I
knew, they found you”
”How do they know for sure it’s the Dark Lord they found?” asked
Gaya. She was burning with overwhelming rage for what they did
to Michael,
”Qin Jiu left the Skyhall the means to locate the Dark Lord.
Nineteen months ago, I felt the gate to earth open again. Only this
time, no one was sent to earth. On the contrary, you came here.
This means Qin Jiu was right, it was you who sent to earth twenty-
one years ago and there is no mistake, you are the Dark Lord”
The armor of Lucifer had completely covered his body along with
the cloud of darkness. He transformed into a complete Lucifer
form without his control.
”My parents, what happened to them?” Michael growled. Gaya felt

a chill as his voice had never sounded more demonic and cold like
this before.
”The ritual required your ties to be cut off. The strongest tie of
them all is the bond between you and your family. To cut the bone,
your family had to give you away willingly, and since they sent you
to earth-”
”They didn’t abandon me” Michael interrupted as the area grew

darker. Wilkas was shivering seeing what was happening in front
of him. He was in total shock. If he had seen a way to escape, he
would have already called for help because it was too freaky.
”They gave me away willingly” Michael looked up at the sky. Tears

rolled out of his eyes and seeing the tears, Gaya couldn’t hold
back her tears. This was the first time she had seen him shed
tears. In the corner of his heart, he always believed his parents
didn’t abandon him but forced him to leave him for some reason.
His belief was shattered as he realized they gave him away
willingly.
”If the Skyhall was capable of genocide, they were also capable of
torturing his parents. What if they killed his family?” Gaya asked
Elidyr. Gaya would rather hear his family was killed than give him
away willingly. She knew how much pain he was going through.
”The ritual doesn’t work that way and killing his family would not
cut the ties. The ritual was extremely powerful and volatile, any
mistakes or changes would have resulted in a calamity”
”What about Abras? The owner of this body? Is it a coincidence I

ended up in him?”
Michael did not ask more about his parents. He got his answers.
There was no need for him to know more. They willingly gave him
away and as much as it hurt him, at least his heart could be at
peace.
Dark Lord III
"Nothing is a coincidence when it comes to you, Lucifer. Have you

ever wondered that out of millions of bodies, why you ended up in
this particular body?" asked Elidyr.
Although the dark elf seemed to know a whole lot about him,
Michael didn't think he knew about the system's existence. Under
no circumstance, Michael would reveal the existence of the
system.
Therefore instead of telling the system chose this body, Michael

shook his head. He was oblivious to the truth behind why the
system chose Abras. There was more than just a resemblance
behind the system's decision to choose Abras.
"It's because this body belongs to you. Only souls could pass
through the gates to earth. It seems like a piece of your soul
remained in your infant body" Elidyr was not only a 5-star
runemaster but also an expert in souls. He trained his mind and
eye to see through a person as nobody could. Therefore, Elidyr
could see the broken soul inside Michael.
"You're saying he and the owner of the body are the same
person?" asked Gaya while Michael remained, uttering no words.
It was too much for his mind to process quickly. However, the
more he thought about it, everything started to make sense.
"You are him and he is you. The two pieces of the soul are in
peace…" Elidyr paused to look at both Gaya and Michael for a
minute,
"Unlike the third piece"
Elidyr could see the third piece of the soul is at war with the other
two pieces. It was preventing the two pieces of the soul from
merging together.
Something was amiss but Elidyr was unable to see what.
"Tell me how to fix him?" Gaya rushed to Elidyr. She grabbed what
seemed to be his shoulder.
However, Gaya could only feel wood, not flesh. Soon, the green
leaves of the oak tree slowly began to dry and turn brown. The
tree was withering.
"What's happening?" Gaya stepped back,
"My time is up. I used what was left in me to summon you here. I
am sorry I couldn't help you more, Lucifer. The path you walk-"
Elidyr stopped talking as half of the tree withered completely,
"System, I need him"
[The system has found several curses on him that are binding him
to this oak tree. The system also found an interference. It's
temporarily blocking the curses and letting his soul depart from his
body. In other words, he is successfully dying]
"I can see that" Michael grumbled,
[There are two ways to save him. One way will cost you 500,000
badass points. It will save him along with his body. The second
option has several complications. First, it requires 180,000 badass
points. Second, the host will have to find a new body as the
system won't be able to save his body. Third, the body needs to
be found in five minutes tops. Lastly, the body needs to be at least
10% genetic match with his dark elven race and the body must
not have any wounds when the soul enters the body]
Michael listened to the system list all the requirements. For a few
moments, he looked at Elidyr and turned his gaze towards Wilkas
who was still in shock.
"I want a loan of 100,000"

[Shouldn't it be 340,000 points?] the system asked with a
surprised tone,
At the moment, Michael had 160,000 badass points. Hence, to get

500,000 badass points, he needed 340,000 badass points as the
system suggested.
"Do as I say. Take 100,000 badass points and buy the Soul eater
skill"
[Shit] the system was stunned. If the system had a face, the face
would have shown an expression of utter shock.
The acute pain in his head had appeared again. However

compared to the pain in his heart, the pain in his head was futile.
[Ding, The host has successfully acquired level 1 Soul Eater]
[The skill Soul Eater can be integrated with Energy Devouver for
2000 badass points. Does the host-]
"Yes," Michael interrupted the system. After the system integrated

the new skill he bought, it showed him his status in front of his
eyes.
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Core Strengthening stage, level 4
Experience Points: 70,000/600,000
Badass Points: 160,000 (40,000 badass points loan)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 6
Ignitia - LVL 8
Soul Eater - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 3

others


more powerful, and if activated in darkness, the host's cultivation
level will be boosted 4 levels up regardless of the stage barrier.

The Dark Lord
King of Bradford
Status: Healthy

Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
4-Star Inventor
Raylene - 5-star Chef (loyalty level 99%)
The Abyssal
The Crypt
Kingdom of Bradford

Michael noticed the bump in loyalty levels. But he was concerned

about more pressing issues than loyalty levels. Soul Eater was a
skill he was eying for quite some time to buy. He was in no rush to
buy the skill until now. The reason he didn't buy earlier was that
the price of Soul Eater was 60,000 badass points. Among all his
spells, this was the deadliest and most powerful.
[At level 1, the soul eater can be only used on cultivators who are
at least two-stage below the host]
"Prepare to save Elidyr"
[Host, what are you planning to do?] the system had already
guessed what he was about to do yet the system asked the
question because it was unbelievable. Quite honestly, the system
didn't think he would do that.
The surroundings started to move again after he exited the

system as though they were being paused. Sporting his complete
Lucifer form, he walked towards Wilkas,
Wilkas was stepping back in fear. The closer Lucifer got to him,
the faster his heartbeat. Wilkas shivered as he looked up at
Lucifer's crimson red fiery eyes.
Seeing him in his full armor, Gaya had a feeling that Michael was
planning something.
"Pull another miracle human" she prayed in her mind,
"You've heard him" Michael began to talk to Wilkas in his demonic

voice.
"Now you may have an idea of what I am capable of. Bend your
knees and swear your loyalty to me. I will give you the blood of
those who hurt you as one of the many gifts I have in store for
you"
Wilkas almost stumbled and fell on his back hearing Michael,

"Blood? I don't want any more blood on my-"
"Wrong answer" Michael interrupted by grabbing Wilkas's neck,
"As expected" Gaya saw the half-elf being lifted off from the
ground,
The next moment, she saw the dark cloud of smoke shrouds
Michael enveloping Wilkas. All of a sudden, Wilkas's body went
rigid and his mouth opened wide. A bright stream of white smoke
rushed out of Wilkas's mouth and went straight into Michael's
mouth.
Wilkas's body kept twitching violently. In a few blinks of an eye, his

body stopped twitching.
"System here's the body for Elidyr"
[Soul Transferring initiated…]
Gaya noticed a beam of light being shot out from Michael at

Elidyr. She felt the air being sucked out by the light beam. She
took several steps back looking at the tree withering more and
more. In a few moments, the tree had crumbled into nothing but
ashes. When she looked at Michael, Wilkas's body moved yet
again in his hand.
Wilkas's eyes rolled back in his eye socket and stayed that way
for a few moments. Michael put Wilkas on his feet again as the
half-elf gasped for air suddenly.
"I am alive" Gaya heard Wilkas. She came to Michael's side as

Wilkas kept looking at his arms and body as though he had never
seen them before.

[The Soul Eater has absorbed the soul of Wilkas. The host has
received 20,000 Experience points]
[The more tainted the soul is, the more the Experience points]
The system sounded in his mind. Absorbing the souls without

battling wasn't the Soul Eater's powerful ability. What made the
skill powerful and deadly was its power to turn the Souls into
Experience points. As the system suggested, the more tainted the
soul is, the more the Experience points. In other words, absorbing
an evil person's soul would give him more experience points than
the soul of a lesser evil.
"You absorbed his soul" Gaya heard Wilkas but something told
her that the half-elf in front of her is not Wilkas. The Soul Eater
was supposed to be used with Soul Stare which would make the
victim see their past transgressions, and it inflicts upon the
individual the same pain they have caused to others. The Soul
Stare skill required 300,000 badass points and Soul Strengthening
stage level 8.
"He was naive and a spineless coward. He would rather live like a
maggot than take the chance to change his life. I have no place
for a person like him"
Elidyr was truly stunned at the display of Lucifer's power. The

curses put on him were unbreakable yet Lucifer did not only lift the
curse, but he also transferred his soul into another body. He had
never heard of or seen a person who could perform such a feat.
"Now tell me how to deal with this third piece of the soul?"
Chapter 444 The Origins of
Dark Queen
It was supposed to be daytime in the pocket dimension created to

imprison Elidyr but because of Michael, the night had fallen early.
Elidyr was still familiarizing himself with his body. The last time he
moved his limbs was almost three thousand years ago.
"How do I defeat this third piece of the soul?" asked Michael. His
mind was still processing everything Elidyr had said. Yet, Michael
focused on fixing the imminent problem first. The flame of
vengeance was burning like wildfire inside him. He wanted to
sacrifice everyone who wronged him in the past, present and
future. To achieve his vengeance, he needed to be in his best
shape both physically and mentally. The third persona made being
sane a difficult task recently. Hence, he wanted the third persona
gone.
"You can't" Elidyr shocked Michael and Gaya with his answer,
"It is a piece of soul but it's your piece of soul nonetheless. You
can't defeat yourself"
"I assume you have a solution," asked Michael,
Luckily Elidyr nodded. After seeing the glimpse of the Dark Lord's
power, Elidyr was convinced that the Dark Lord would be able to
destroy the Skyhall. Defeating the Dark Lord would be near
impossible but if he stuck with the Dark Lord, he might be able to
deviate the Dark Lord from destroying the entire world and turn
this world into the realm of darkness they saw in the future.
Compared to the Dark Lord, the Skyhall seemed more evil. Over
the years, he had seen the Skyhall do all kinds of forbidden acts in
the name of the greater good. They were not directly done by
Skyhall but their puppets.
Moreover, Elidyr wanted nothing but to see Skyhall destroyed.
How would anyone feel if someone imprisoned them for three
thousand years?
Over the years, the elders of Skyhall tortured him and

exterminated his entire bloodline. They hunted his descendants
and family like dogs.
He wanted revenge and the one person who was capable of

destroying the Skyhall was the Dark Lord.
"First, we have to extract the piece of the soul out. In the soul
state, it can't be defeated, so we need to cage the soul into a
vessel. The vessel needs to be extremely powerful to contain the
soul. Finding the perfect vessel and caging the soul into the
vessel will be the easy part" Elidyr paused for a moment and went
on,
"In physical form, the soul would be manyfold powerful. You need
another being strong enough to weaken it. Then, you can absorb
the soul piece and it will be merged with the other soul pieces and
your soul will become whole once again"
Elidyr couldn't see the expression on Lucifer's face through the

mask.
After remaining silent for a few moments, Elidry said,
"The question is who is powerful enough to defeat a piece of the

dark lord's soul?"
"We have to find a vessel to contain the soul," Michael said to

Gaya and turned his gaze back to Elidyr
"Tell me how do we extract the soul piece out of me?"
Gaya already guessed who was in his mind to face the soul piece.
Surprisingly, Elidyr also knew the person who was in Michael's
mind.
"Thanks to this new body, I can now create an array to help you.
But we can't create the array here, we should do it in the black
forest during the full moon night" as he said, Elidyr walked
towards where the oak tree was. Elidyr squatted near the tree and
grabbed a handful of mud from the ground.
He threw the mud in the air as the dust formed a ring in the air.
Soon the circle transformed into a vortex just like the one they
used to come to this place.
"After you" Elidyr gestured at Michael to walk into the vortex first.
Michael looked around as the black armor disappeared from his
body. The green robes of House Alchemists once again covered
his body.
When they stepped out of the vortex, they saw Gilrine still lying on
the ground unconscious. Elidyr took a deep breath as though he
was tasting the air and freedom.
"Tell me what do you know about my mother, Adelia Ashton ''

Gaya didn't even think that he has been imprisoned in the pocket
dimension for three thousand years. She couldn't hold back as
she desperately wanted to know what happened to her mother.
The paralyzing agent mixed with the knockout potion would keep
Gilrine unconscious for at least 12 hours unless he received the
antidote. He was in no rush to wake up Gilrine. Hearing Gaya's
question, Elidyr turned his gaze from the night sky to her.
A few seconds later Elidyr heard Gaya, he frowned. He stared at

Gaya from top to bottom. He walked towards her, looking her
directly in her eyes,
"You have her eyes" Elidyr's voice broke as his eyes watered.
Michael could see the great pain in his eyes.
"Her? You saw my mother?"
Elidyr shook his head,

"Your ancestor, one of the founders of the order, Edwina Wraith.
You have her eyes" Elidyr gently brushed Gaya's face. She didn't
move or take his hands away because deep down, she too felt a
connection with Elidyr.
"Ashton is an alias used by her. I guess her descendants used this

alias as their family name" Elidyr smiled slightly,
"Tell me, what do you know about my mother? Where is she? Is

she alive?" asked Gaya with the hope of finally getting an answer
about her mother.
Michael didn't interrupt. He remained silent, letting her ask all the
questions she wanted while checking out his surroundings.
Besides, he himself was in utter shock.
"How is my family related to your order and him?" she pointed at

Michael,
"You don't know?" Elidyr was surprised,
Gaya shook her head,
"Your ancestor Edwina was a founder of the order. She served the
order and the Dark Lord. During the last stages of the war, she
made sure the elders who were essential to finding the dark lord
could escape the guardians and the Sky hall. When everyone was
afraid of the Dark Lord, she was the only one who believed that he
might be what this world needs.
So together we came up with a rune that would pass the secrets

about the Order and the responsibility of the Wraiths to her
descendants"
Gaya's face was blank as she didn't know how to react. She
thought her mother had somehow meddled with the order yet she
never expected her entire bloodline would be the servants of the
Dark Lord and her ancestor was one of the founders of the Order.
"When a Wraith dies, a piece of their soul would be left behind to

pass on the secrets to the next of kin. If you hadn't seen it, that
means your mother is still alive"
"Mom" Gaya's eyes watered up but this time, it was filled with
tears of joy. She couldn't stop herself from grinning.
"My mother is alive?" asked Gaya, tears rolling on her face.
"That rune was one of my best works. So I am sure"
Gaya leaped at Elidyr and hugged him tightly. He had given her
the best news in many many years. She did not even dare to think
he might be lying or wrong. Deep down, she always felt as though
her mother was still out there somewhere.
"I need to find her. How do I find her?"
She was still hugging him.
"You can't, no one can"
When she heard Elidyr, her smile froze as she let him go. She
took a step back to see Elidyr sigh,
"Your mother is a Wraith. When a Wraith doesn't want to be found,

no one can find them. You can't hunt a huntress. Wherever she is,
she must be hunting someone"
Somewhere else in the black forest, Victoria and Edith were

standing among numerous dead mountain trolls. They were in a
dark dungeon dimly lit with torches. In addition to mountain trolls,
there were countless dried bones and skeletons.
Unlike Victoria who remained calm, Edith was breathing heavily.
"Is it over?"
"I think so but don't let your guard down"
The sword in Victoria's hand was not made of any metal. Her
sword could not even be compared to the swords in this world.
Any blade would be cut in half by her sword because it was made
of pure Cosmic energy. The emerald green energy sword radiated
frightening power.
At the end of the dungeon was a metal gate with several glowing
runes.
Victoria cautiously walked towards the gate expecting a trap to

appear any second. They had faced countless traps, skeleton
guards and mountain trolls, and undead. Yet, nothing could stop
Victoria and Edith. They came prepared and she overwhelmed
everything with her cosmic energy.
Edith's runes enhanced already god-level powerful Victoria to

another level. The mountain trolls and the skeletons stood no
chance against her.
Unexpectedly they face no more traps or enemies on their way to

the gate.
"What do they say?" Looking at the glowing runes, Victoria asked

Edith.
"Darkness is not the opposite of light" Edith began to slowly

translate the runes,
"It is just the absence of light. The place where light and dark
begin to touch is where miracles arise"
"It doesn't make any sense. Does it say anything about how to
open this gate?" Victoria asked, running her hand on the gate.
Creak!
The moment she touched the gate, the gate made a loud creaking
noise. They immediately stepped back as the gate slowly opened
to reveal what they were looking for, the primordial flame. The hall
before them was lit with blue flames on braziers on each corner. In
the center of the hall floated two orbs of fire; a pure white flame
and a pure black flame.
"Two primordial flames" Victoria and Edith were startled. They
never expected to find two primordial flames in one place. Anyone
else in Victoria's place would have gone crazy with excitement.
She however had a frown on her face. Edith noticed the dark lines
on her forehead and asked,
"Vikki, what's wrong?"
"This is too easy," Victoria muttered.

Chapter 445 The Primordial
Flames
The two primordial flames were hovering in the air next to each
other. Victoria could feel the power being radiated by the two
flames. Victoria closed her eyes as a wave of golden energy shot
out from her. The wave of Cosmic energy scanned the room for
any traps. The lines on her forehead became darker, seeing the
cosmic energy activates no traps.
Although the Cosmic energy activated no traps, Victoria still

expected a trap to appear any second when she was making her
way towards the primordial flames.
The primordial flames didn't react to the intruders. Victoria was

informed that the primordial flames have a mind of their own. In
the world, there were only three primordial flames; Cold flame,
Hell's Flame, and Heaven's Flame. Only a few knew the myth of
the existence of the fourth primordial flame; the dark flame.
Victoria recognized the white flame as the Cold flame. A golden

layer enveloped both Edith and Victoria to prevent the coldness
radiating from the white flames from penetrating their bodies.
Unlike the Cold flame, she felt nothing from the black flames
hovering beside the Cold flame.
"How do we take them with us?" asked Edith. She was

overwhelmed by the power of the flames.
"Do you recognize this flame? it's definitely not the Heaven's
flame"
"Must be the Hell flame. Let's take them and get out of here
before anyone notices our disappearance" Edith said to Victoria.
With a nod, Victoria reached out to grab the two flames. The
golden cosmic energy enveloped her hands as she approached
the flames. Victoria felt a sudden pressure pushing her away. The
pressure created a force field around the Cold flame. She gritted
her teeth, pushing her hand towards the Cold flame.
"ARGHH!" she growled in pain but she was far from giving up.
She was using all of her Cosmic energy to get her hands on the
flames literally. Edith saw Victoria's face start to go pale and soon,
her blood dripped through her nostrils. Still, Victoria was fighting
through the force field to reach the flames.
The blood spurted out of her nostrils after a few moments. Finally,
her finger touched the Cold flame, and just as her finger touched
the flame, it exploded, throwing Edith and Victoria onto the walls
behind them.
"Argh!" Victoria growled in pain. The entire dungeon shook due to

the force of their collision with the walls. When she looked up, her
pain disappeared but instead, a complete utter shock occupied
her heart. The flames hovering in the air a few seconds ago were
nowhere to be found.
The flames just disappeared. She jumped back to her feet. The
utter shock was written all over her face. She frantically looked
around to locate the flames but to no avail. Looking for the flames,
she walked towards Edith to get her up.
"Vikki" Edith stood up holding Victoria's hands.
"The flames?"
BOOM!
Before Edith could get an answer from Victoria, the entire

dungeon began to tremble. The ceiling above them crumbled,
falling down on them.
"We have to go" Victoria knew there was no time for them to linger
around. Their lives were more precious than the primordial flames.
While the dungeon was crumbling like a house of cards, they ran
as fast as possible. The flame of anger burned inside Victoria
hotter and brighter. If she had absorbed the primordial flames, she
and her father would have reached a pinnacle of power sooner
than they initially planned.
Only the primordial flames were powerful enough to be equal to

the Cosmic energy. That was why her father was hunting for the
primordial flames. Absorbing the primordial flames would ensure
their everlasting domination.
Even though they were running for their loves, Victoria took out
the compass that had the ability to locate the primordial flames to
find where the flames went. Unfortunately, the compass was
broken due to the previous collision. The needle was broken in
half and the glass was shattered.
"Damn it"
Meanwhile, in the black forest, Gaya injected the antidote into

Gilrine to wake him up. Michael and Elidyr left the area to resume
connecting the black foot mushrooms.
"ARGH!" Gilrine jolted. He was breathing heavily and when he

saw Gaya squatting beside him, his face went pale.
"What happened?" Gaya asked, pretending not to know anything.
"Great, I will tell headmistress Kayla that you were busy sleeping
in the middle of the fucking black forest" Gaya punched Gilrine on
the shoulder,
"No…I wasn't sleeping…I saw something"
"Move your ass, we have to get them back to the castle" Gaya
didn't linger around but walked away from Gilrine.
Gilrine stared around him with a pale face. He quickly checked his
pocket to see if the pouch was still there. He was relieved to find
the pouch in his pocket just as he left.
He could swear he saw something before he lost consciousness.
Once again before following professor Steinmeyer, Gilrine went to
the tree and checked if there was something amiss.
"Did something happen? Nah, what am I thinking? No one can

walk past the headmaster's defenses" Gilrine mumbled under his
breath.
The two girls along with Michael and Elidyr were collecting
Blackfoot mushrooms when Gaya returned. She had no idea
Victoria and Edith almost absorbed the primordial fires.
"That's enough" Gaya clapped,
"Your detention is over. Let's go back to the castle"
On their way back to the castle no one uttered a word. Elidyr was
staring at everything with an amazing look on his face, Victoria
was frustrated by her failure, Edith was pretty shaken up by nearly
getting crushed to death, Gilrine was contemplating what just
happened back and what made him lose consciousness, and
lastly Gaya, she was having mixed feelings. On one hand, she
was happy beyond words because of her not-so-dead mother, and
on the other hand, she was worried about her mother's safety.
Michael's mind was drifting. Many memories he experienced on

earth as Ghost and in this world as Abras flashed across his eyes.
Realizing that Abras and he was the same person established a
harmony between the soul piece of Ghost and the soul piece of
Abras.
It was extremely difficult for him to keep calm instead of going

berserk.
"Go to your dorms" after reaching the castle grounds, Gaya asked
them to part ways.
"What about these mushrooms professor?" asked Edith.
Gaya almost forgot about the Blackfoot mushrooms in her deep

thinking,
"Just give them to Gilrine"
Gaya left the students to go to her room. Just like Michael, she
also wanted to be alone. Elidyr was smiling on their way back to
their dorm rooms. The memories of him being a student flooded
his mind. He had many happy memoirs in Mazeroth.
"You're an Alchemy student?" Even after thousands of years,

Elidyr still remembered the way to each house's dorm room.
"Hmm"
"I think I'll go to runemasters house. You need some time alone"
Elidyr said as Michael opened the door to his room.
"I know the way"
Michael just nodded as Elidyr turned back and left. When Michael
stepped into his room, Nightmare was waiting. Michael did not
utter a word. He just flicked his wrist as a punching bag attached
to a stand appeared in the center of the room.
"System, did you know?" Michael asked in his mind standing

before the six feet punching bag.
[The system level is too low]
His fist clenched as he breathed heavily in anger. The next

moment, he willed the system to soundproof the room. Nightmare
noticed a dim light appear in the room.
"Skyhall"
Boom!
Michael punched the bag with enough force to create a loud

booming sound.
"Guardians"
The punching bag received another hit. Nightmare wanted to ask
what happened but seeing the murderous look and the flickering
red eyes, he stayed back.
"Qin Jiu"
"Andreas"
"Victoria!"
"Thusia!"
He started to punch faster and faster. The force of his punches

shook the room as several cracks began to form in the punching
bag. Nightmare noticed the lights in the room go out as the room
was soon engulfed in darkness.
"Let me out" the voice of the third persona sounded in his mind. It
was laughing at him which made him more furious.
"You can't keep me locked forever. I am you"
"Shut up!"
Nightmare almost bounced hearing his sudden shout.
As Michael was struggling to keep his anger and the third persona
contained, Elidyr reached the room assigned to Wilkas in the
house of runemasters.
The rooms of the runemasters made alchemy students' rooms

look like a shabby basement. The common room Elidyr was
standing in was a wide, circular room, airier than the common
room of Alchemy house. Graceful arched windows punctuated the
walls, which were hung with blue- and-bronze silks: By day, the
runemasters would have a spectacular view of the surrounding
mountains. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which
echoed on the midnight-blue carpet. There were tables, chairs,
and bookcases, and in a niche opposite the door stood a tall
statue of white marble.
Elidyr didn't give a shit about the elves and the others' gazes on
him. As a dark elf, he went through the same bullying as Wilkas.
However, unlike Wilkas, Elidyr fought back and showed the bullies
how it would feel to be bullied with his superior talents.
"Maggot"
"Filth"
"Why does he have to be a runemaster?"
"I thought he stayed with the alchemists?"
Elidyr walked towards the sofa in the center of the room and
plunged into the comfy sofa. It had been thousands of years since
his butt rested on a sofa.
Leaning back on the sofa, he put his leg over another. The elves
were surprised. They couldn't take him being arrogant in front of
them.
"Filthy maggot" from the elven gang, an elf walked towards Elidyr
with the intention to throw him away.
The elves who got their butts kicked by Michael were standing in
the corner smiling. He was not in the house of alchemy but the
house of runemasters.
They were excited to see the half elf get beaten. Little did they
know that the half elf they knew was no longer in this world. The
one occupying his body was a several thousand years old 6-star
runemasters.
Chapter 446 Something that
could kill The Dark Lord
"Everything has changed except you half-minded idiots" Elidyr

shook his head disappointedly,
He leisurely grabbed the goblet on the side of the table to quench

his thirst. The elves were having a bit of a party so the goblet was
filled with red wine produced from the nearby village,
Despite the goblet's simple look, it was heavy and imbued with a
rune that made the goblet near impossible to break,
Ignoring the approaching elf, Elidyr took a little sip of wine. His
body jolted when the red wine touched his taste buds.
"I can't say I didn't miss this" Elidyr took a long sip and in a few
blinks of an eye, he emptied the goblet.
"You have some ba-"
Bang!
The runemasters who were looking at the elf dashing at the half-
elf stumble down. They couldn't realize what just happened. The
half-elf was drinking wine, the elf was dashing at him. The next
thing they saw was the elf collapsed to the ground.
Only a few seconds later they noticed the crushed goblet in the
half elf's hand. They finally realized that the half-elf hit the elf with
the goblet with enough force to not only knock down the elf but
also crush the goblet itself.
The amount of force required to crush the goblet was not a joke
yet the half-elf crushed it by hitting the elf in the head.
"ARGH!" The elf was grumbling on the ground in pain. He held his
head as blood drenched the floor beneath.
However, his agony became more painful when Elidyr stepped on
the elf's throat, increasing pressure little by little.
"If you assholes want to spend your lives being racists, knock
yourselves out. But when I'm here, I don't wanna hear a single
snarky comment about me or my race"
Few of the elves couldn't see a fellow elf being crushed by a half-
elf in front of their eyes. Hence, they dared to attack the half-elf.
Fighting in the common rooms was not a big deal until no one
informed the prefects about the fight. They doubted that even if
the prefects knew they beat up a half-elf, they would give a damn
about a maggot. After all, the prefects of house runemasters were
also elves.
ZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
The elves were a couple of feet away when a sudden vibration

reverberated in the room. The elves halted their steps. Their
golden hair produced smoke as the smell of burning hair
permeated the room.
Elidyr snapped his finger and the elves began to tremble violently.
Their robes smoke as they crumbled down leaving the elves

naked. Their golden skin soon turned as red as ripe tomatoes.
The other runemaster witnessing the scene with startling faces

looked down to see a glowing chakra on the floor where the elves
were standing.
"When did he place the rune?"
"What rune is that?"
"So powerful"
"How did he do that?"
The onlookers were stunned beyond words. Elidyr snickered

inside, seeing how a basic level rune could surprise these
amateurs like this. The energy in his soul deteriorated over the
years and once a Half Immortal stage cultivation was now a mere
Body Refining stage cultivator.
Until Elidyr could cultivate to become stronger, he would only be

able to use mediocre runes. Nonetheless, these basic runes were
enough to keep the elves from annoying him in his time at
Mazeroth.
"Next time, I'll burn the thing between your legs" Elidyr threw aside
the goblet before making his way towards his room.
The elves who were being electrocuted collapsed to the ground

finally when Elidyr snapped his fingers again.
"Now someone shows me my room" he evilly grinned which sent

a chill through everyone's spines.
*********************************
Somewhere else on the Ozer continent, Noah was trekking

through a snowy mountain. As far as one could see, there was
nothing but milky white snow and crystallized ice pikes that were
sharp as daggers. The howling sound of the wind was the only
thing that accompanied them while the blowing wind brushed past
their bodies with enough force to knock them down at any
moment.
"Argh I miss flying" Noah sighed but kept trekking through the
snow,
"And I miss a roof above my head and something that saves my

hairy butt from freezing" The golden babaroo, Norvin, curled up
inside Noah's inner pockets. The monkey made a comfy home of
his long coat's pocket but still bitched about the weather.
"You should have brought Alicia instead of me. She must have
loved being literally cold"
"We are close Noah" Andreas's voice sounded in his head.
"Shh" Noah shushed Norvin quickly,

"The old man inside the ring talking to you again?" Norvin rolled
his eyes being annoyed by getting shushed,
Apart from Noah, Norvin was the only one who knew the
existence of Andreas. Just like the dragons, Norvin's race, the
golden babaroos also possessed the skill to view the world
differently. After Norvin reached the Core Formation stage, he
sensed a living being in Noah's ring. His suspicions were
confirmed when Noah was stuck in an unwinnable fight and
Andreas had to manifest to save him.
"Conjure the heaven's flame"
Hearing his mentor's voice, Noah closed his eyes as an emerald

green flame shot out of his hand. The green light lit their path,
"Look" Norvin quickly pointed out at the runes on their path to the
top of the mountain.
"We are on the right path" Andreas was excited. It was the first
time he sounded excited since they found the location of the Dark
Lord. The failure to apprehend the Dark Lord still haunted both
Noah and Andreas. They were so close to capturing him yet he
outsmarted him by using Noah's family as hostages. What
happened that day made Noah realize what the Dark Lord was
capable of and the necessity to eliminate him.
What they were seeking could help in doing just that. They
followed the runes to the top of the mountain. Noah climbed the
mountain with new vigor seeing he was close to the weapon that
could slay the Dark Lord.
"Tell me why we can't fly up again?" asked Norvin, feeling tired

just by seeing Noah climb the mountain.
"Using arch energy will activate the traps" Noah answered while
climbing higher and higher. The higher he climbed, the colder it
got.
The runes led him to a dead end where he saw nothing but a
stone wall in front.
"Hmm, I thought a door or a pathway would appear" Norvin
rubbed his hairy chin,
"Teacher" Noah called out Andreas standing in front of the wall

where the runes are glowing,
"These are Lady Qin Jiu's runes, there is no doubt" Andreas's

ethereal figure manifested out,
While Andreas was studying the runes, Noah conjured a ball of

heaven's flame and sent a stream of emerald green flame towards
the wall.
The wall didn't open as Noah expected but a bright beam of light
shot out within the wall toward Noah. Noah's instincts made his
legs dash out of the way yet the bright beam was too fast and
Noah was standing too close to the wall.
Unexpectedly the bright beam of light shot through Noah doing no

harm to him.
"The God of Light" a sweet feminine voice echoed through the

snowy mountain. The showering snowy rain stopped all of a
sudden as though someone pushed the pause button.
The mountain before Noah slowly split open to reveal a grandiose

hall. Noah stepped into the hall as the mountain closed up behind
him. The eleven braziers on each side of the hall lit up brightening
the hall. A snowy white carpet materialized under Noah's feet to
the end of the hall as he cautiously took his steps forward. There
were four twelve feet statues made of ice stood majestically, two
of the statues were female while the other two were male. Despite
their gender difference, the four of them looked extremely
dominant and mighty.
"Who are they?" asked Norvin in amazement.
"The four great legends" Norvin saw Andreas's ethereal form bow
towards the statues. His eyes were full of reverence as though he
was worshiping them.
Archer Crooke, Ingrid Stenham, Qiu Jin, and Kargin Pavlovich
"Archer Crooke, the heavenly warrior" Andreas looked at the

statue of a man in battle armor. He was holding a sword in one
hand and a spear in another.
Andreas turned his gaze to the statute of a graceful smiling lady

who held a tiny bonsai tree in her hand
"Ingrid Stenham, the legendary 6-star Alchemist. Her talents were

beyond any star levels. The legend has that a drop of the healing
potion brewed by her could heal an army to their full health"
He turned around to look at the statue of a long-haired muscular

man with a hammer,
"Kargin Pavlovich. The only human 6-star blacksmith this world

has ever seen"
Finally, they all turned their eyes to the statue of a lady in qipao.
Her hair was tied into a bun and unlike the rest of the statues, she
was looking at the stone table at the end of the hall.
"Qin Jiu, the woman who saw the future, the mother of the great
prophecy"
Noah was surprised to see Andreas kneel down in front of her,
"We won't fail you Lady Qin Jiu" Andreas said, letting out a deep
breath.
After saying those words, the trio cautiously walked toward the
stone table. They expected to spring a trap any second but they
never did. When they reached the stone table, they saw two hand
imprints on the table.
"I have a feeling you two should place your hands on the marks,"
Norvin exclaimed. Andreas and Noah looked around, there was
nothing except statues and the stone table in the hall.
"Shall we?" Noah believed those who were called him here, they
had no intention to harm him. If they had, they would have done it
by now. Therefore, he placed his hand on the stone table and so
did Andreas.
Nothing happened for a moment but soon, the hall trembled as

they noticed the heads of the three legends slowly turning towards
them. From each of them, a bright beam of light shot out at Noah.
Finally, a golden light shot out from Qin Jiu's statues. When the
four light beams met at the center of the stone table, the same
voice they heard before sounded again,
"Find the other four arrows and vanquish the darkness"
From the four lights emerged an arrow that radiated an immense

amount of power. The arrow was made of no metal but light.
Noah gently grabbed the arrow and the moment he touched the
arrow, it disappeared into him. He sensed the arrow within him, in
a form of energy.
"We are one step closer to ending him teacher," Noah grinned.
Chapter 447 The Dark Lord
from the future
The next day, Gaya attended the combat class only to see
Michael absent. Elidyr was there, sitting on the last bench as
Wilkas. For Gaya, what Eldiry revealed was joyous news to be
celebrated. After all, she had learned that her mother is still alive.
But for Michael, it was devastating. Everything he knew and
experienced turned out to be a sham. His entire life was controlled
by a prophecy he never wanted to be a part of.
In a short amount of life, he had faced so many betrayals and

even worse, betrayal by his own family and the girl he loved,
Victoria. She knew how he was feeling, a puppet, a boogeyman
created by the Skyhall. If he was what they claimed, he wouldn't
have saved her, Raylene, Christopher and revived a dying sect to
live. Regardless of his intentions, he saved more people than a
typical guardian.
The thought of Skyhall and the Guardians pushing him on the

path to become the Dark Lord and dictating his life pissed off her.
He always acted calm even when the odds were against him
which happened rarely due to his caution and plans.
She wasn't sure how he had been reacting. Her mind was boggled
on her way to his room. Since she sent all the students including
the alchemists out on training, no one saw her entering the house
of alchemists.
Her heart was pounding faster and faster as she got closer to his
room.
"Sigh" standing in front of his door, she took a deep breath. She
rotated the wedding ring on her finger nervously. The room was
ominously silent. The thought of him leaving her flashed across
her mind, almost making her eyes water. She didn't know why she
thought that but the thought did come across her mind.
Her hands shivered, moving towards the doorknob. When she
finally opened the door, she was thoroughly shocked. She just
stood in the doorway dumbstruck.
Michael was doing push-ups rather than being sad or gloomy. The
other surprising thing was he had the Lucifer armor on an armor
stand. His naked upper body had smudges of black paint which
indicated he had been painting the armor and modifying it.
"Hey gorgeous" She saw him jump back on his feet. He walked to
her with a wide grin on his face, wrapped his hand around her
waist, pulled her closer, and locked her lips with his. For a man
who should have been gloomy, he was way too cheery.
"Hey human. What's going on?"
"I've been busy modifying my armor and training" he flexed his

muscles.
Under normal circumstances, she would have gawked at his

chiseled body with awe. He went back to the armor and attached
the hidden blades to the sleeves.
"Michael" she was confused. She expected anything but this. He

was so cheery than usual.
"I was thinking that I should remove the cape. Hmm"
Gaya saw him rubbing his beard doubtfully.
"Are you gone mad?"
His behavior creeped her out. Yesterday, he was so gloomy and

silent. She was afraid that too much anger and sadness muddled
his brain.
"I was," Michael smiled, brushing the dust off of his armor.
"What do you mean I was? Stop looking at that fucking armor and
talk to me" she stomped the floor,
Michael turned his gaze at her. A gentle smile appeared on his
face. With a worried look on her face, Gaya walked to him. Her
eyes expressed the concern in her heart better than her words
and face.
He cupped her face, gently kissing her forehead
"I was mad to try to run away from my destiny Gaya. I always
thought Lucifer is the mask and Ghost is real. But no, yesterday, I
realized it was the other way around" Michael let her face go to
put his hand around her neck. He walked towards the windows
with Gaya,
"Every time I put on the armor, I say to myself, this has to be done
to make my life easier. The desire to control the world from
shadows was just a fantasy of mine" he paused for a second as
the doom suddenly grew darker,
"Now I realized it wasn't a fantasy, it was my destiny. Even after

learning everything about the order, the prophecy, what the
guardians did, I tried to run away from my destiny, I wanted to
change it. But dread it, run from it. Destiny arrives all the same"
Gaya sensed an otherworldly aura from him. Even the breathing

became harder as she felt like being choked by the aura.
"You're acting weird Michael. You're not the Dark Lord they
claimed you to be. You're better than that, I know you. If anyone is
evil, it's the Skyhall and Guardians"
"I am the Dark Lord nonetheless. Why try to avoid who I really
am? If they had left me alone when I was born, I might have lived
and died as an ordinary person. But they showed me the path to
become something more, a god, a god who could reshape this
world to his own liking"
The fear shrouded Gaya's mind as the light in the room continued
to flicker. Soon, the room fell pitch black.
Manipulating the darkness was not a skill or spell he bought from

the system. Rather, he felt as natural as breathing. His strength
had gone through the roofs and he sensed that he would be more
powerful if he merged with the third piece of the soul. Just making
peace with himself unlocked an ancient power in him.
When the lights returned to the room, Gaya was staring at him
with a pale face.
"Don't worry snakey, this is what the future me wants" Michael

smiled looking at the distant horizon,
When he saw her face, confusion was written all over her face.
"Think about it, Gaya, Qin Jiu went to the future and saw the Dark
Lord. And who is the Dark Lord? Me. You heard Elidyr, I beat her
to half death but didn't kill her, that doesn't sound like me unless I
let her live"
"You're saying you came from the future"
"It makes sense, doesn't it? How we met, the portraits of me in the
dark forest, how I met Nightmare, don't you feel like everything is
connected?"
"I don't care where you came from or from when you came, I'll be
at your side as long as I'm alive. What if your family gave you
away? I'm all the family you need" Gaya embraced him in a tight
hug. She squeezed him, having no intention to let him go.
Knock!
Knock!
Gaya jolted away from him when someone knocked on the door.
"It's me, can I come in?" Elidyr's voice came from the other side of
the door,
"Come in," said Michael as Eldiry opened the door to come in.
"Am I interrupting something?" seeing the half naked Michael and

the tense body of Gaya, Elidyr thought they were exploring the
area of love together.
"Nope. Did you find everything you need?"
Elidyr walked towards the armor of Lucifer hanging on the armor

stand. He just looked at it from top to bottom before turning his
gaze back at Michael,
"I had to go through some annoying conversations but I managed

to get everything. Now we just need a vessel and someone who
could weaken the vessel with your soul piece in it"
With a flick of his wrist, Michael took out a tablet size mirror from
the system storage. He threw it at Elidyr,
"There is your vessel"
Elidry looked at the mirror to see a mountain troll in it but this

mountain troll was nothing like the one he scared using his energy
a day ago. The mountain troll in the mirror was on fire and had a
pillar with scorching hot lava oozing down.
"A fire giant" Elidyr had seen only a few in his lifetime. They were
extremely rare and almost extinct from the world thanks to the
Skyhall.
They were one of the races Skyhall deemed as helping the Dark
lord. Thus, they almost wiped them out from the face of this world.
"A fire giant you say. That thing crawled through a ruin far north
from here, relatively closer to where we went to collect Blackfoot
mushrooms"
Gaya took the mirror from Elidyr's hand and saw the fire giant
sleeping. The snoring giant was a couple of times bigger and
meaner than the mountain troll Gilrine loved.
"We will let the fire and ice battle it out. In two days, I want my
soul to be whole again"
The ritual to extract the third piece of soul out had to be performed
on a full moon day. Fortunately, the next full moon was in two
days. The fire giant's appearance was not a coincidence but a
result of Victoria's visit to the dungeon. She killed everything that
guarded the dungeon except the fire giant. When the primordial
flames left the dungeon, they woke up the slumbering giant. The
giant was now tracking the primordial flames.
Michael was oblivious to the intention of the fire giant. His first
priority was to make his soul whole. He had a feeling that once his
soul became whole again, his powers would grow exponentially.
"What's the plan?" asked Gaya,
"I will lure the fire giant to the ritual site, you make sure no one
plays hero"
Michael then explained the full extent of his plan to Elidyr and
Gaya. After hearing the plan, Elidyr was quite surprised. The plan
was simple but elegant and fail proof. Slowly Elidyr realized why a
legend of a person such as Qin Jiu shuddered to even utter his
name.
He had devastating power and a brain to outsmart his opponents.

This was a deadly combination. Moreover, his soul seemed to be
in peace unlike when he first met him.
"What's the plan after you absorb the third piece?" asked Gaya,
"Farming badass points" Michael thought in his mind but only

revealed a smile to Gaya.
Chapter 448 The Alchemy
class and Bullies
Only one day remained until the full moon. To farm badass points
and brew a potion that would attract the fire giant to the ritual site,
Michael went to the potions class. Lucky for him, today was the
first day of potions class.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was

colder in the classroom than up in the main castle and would have
been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in
glass jars all around the walls.
The classroom was large enough to hold at least thirty students,

their cauldrons, and their work tables. In the corner of the
classroom was a basin into which icy cold water poured from a
snake's mouth. A student supply cupboard could be seen in the
room, along with a blackboard on which the professor could write
formulae and recipes for potions and pills.
Professor Lane's office and personal stores were adjacent to the

potions classroom and there was a room in the corner to access
the office from the potions classroom.
Michael felt weird carrying a set of books like a student. When he

entered the classroom, he noticed that not only the classroom was
gloomy but also the students looked gloomy. None of them dared
to utter a word.
As he liked, he went to the table at the far end of the corner from
the professor's table. A copper cauldron along with a yellowish
parchment laid on the table.
"Hey" a brown-haired youngster next to Michael's table waved at

him with a friendly smile. Since the youngster was sharing his
table with orcs and beastmen, he seemed to be glad to meet a
fellow human,
Michael just nodded with a smile before reading the contents
written on the parchment.
"Healing potion recipe" Michael immediately recognized the

ingredients and what potion could be brewed using these
ingredients.
"Another batch of baffling bumbling fools" a cold voice

reverberated in the classroom.
The students saw professor Lane walking out of the door

connecting the classroom and his personal office. Professor Lane
Voldigard was a tall thin man with pallid skin, a large, hooked
nose, and a pearl white set of teeth.
He was dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble

"an overgrown bat". He had shoulder-length, smooth black hair
which framed his face in curtains, curling lips, and dark,
penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels.
When he entered the classroom, the already gloomy classroom

turned gloomier.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of alchemy.
As there is little fancy spell casting here, many of you will hardly
believe this is sorcery. I don't expect you will really understand the
beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering
fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through the veins,
bewitching the minds, ensnaring the senses. I can teach you how
to bewitch minds, turn water into gold, and even stay young
forever if you aren't as big a bunch of fools as I usually have to
teach" he sounded more like hissing than speaking. He had a
waspish tongue that subtly spewed so much venom toward the
students. In the very first class, he started to pour water over the
students' fire to learn more.
"On your table, there is a list of ingredients. You have thirty

minutes to concoct the pill. Whoever concocts the least bad will
get to use the classroom after the class. I know it will be hard for
you but try not to make a mess"
The students rushed to all corners to collect the required
ingredients. No one stopped for a second to look around the
classroom to locate the ingredients instead of rummaging through
all the jars and plants.
"Let me show you kids how it's done"
He was in dire need of badass points which pushed him to show

his greatness to everyone. When he first came to Mazeroth, he
planned to stay anonymous, find the dark elf, and get some allies.
Everything changed after he talked to Elidyr. He was neck-deep in
enemy territory. Although it was risky to show his true prowess,
this was also a great place to earn thousands of badass points.
Lane misdirected the students by saying concoct the pill. In reality,

it was a potion. He wanted the students to figure it out. Looking at
the students running around the classroom like headless chickens
having no clue, he was disappointed but didn't seem surprised. He
seemed as though he expected this.
Among the headless chickens, Lane noticed Michael who calmly

walked around the classroom collecting the right ingredients using
the correct methods.
His blank face literally turned green when Michael conjured his
alchemy flame in the middle of the class. The gloomy dark
classroom was lit green by the fuming emerald green flames
hovering over Michael's palm.
"What the hell are you doing?" one female student who dropped
her ingredient in shock shouted at Michael.
Ignoring the girl, he threw the first ingredient into the alchemy
flame.
Professor Lane fixed his eyes on Michael. Unlike the students, he

could see the control Michael had over the flames. The flames
danced according to his will. One by one Michael threw the
ingredients into the alchemy flames. He walked towards Professor
Lane, brewing the potion.
The essence extracted from each ingredient hovered over the
flames in the shape of glowing pearls. Finally, the sweet sound of
notifications continuously rang in his mind.
"Whoa"
"Who is he?"
"He's not even using a cauldron"
"Look, he's almost done"
"Where is he from?"
The students were dazzled by Michael as he wanted. Even

Professor Lane who had a face void of emotions looked a tad bit
surprised.
When he reached Lane's table, he held the flames and the

essence balls in one hand and took a vial from the table using the
other hand. The green flames slowly dissipated as the beads of
essence flowed into the vial blending together into a sparkling
blue potion.
"Here you go, Professor. 90% Pure healing potion" Michael placed
the vial on the table with a proud grin.
"The classroom is yours. Others leave" Professor Lane left the

room carrying the vial of healing potion Michael brewed.
The students looked like fools with some ingredients in their

hands. They did not even start their cauldrons yet Michael finished
brewing the potion.
Their first potion class ended quicker than they thought. After
Lane left the classroom, all the students stared at Michael.
"Big brother" the girl who shouted at Michael approached him

wearing a seductive smile,
"That trick doesn't work on me sweetheart" Michael put an end to

her flirting before it even began.
"If I heard the professor correct, he said every one to get out of
here"
By giving the classroom to him, Lane saved hundreds of badass

points. He could take advantage of the ingredients around the
classroom to brew the potion to lure the fire giant to the ritual site.
Seeing how coldly he handled the girl, the other did not dare to
start a conversation with him. They branded him as the most
arrogant one in the class within a few seconds.
Michael couldn't care less about what they think of him. Most of
the students here would serve the Skyhall or any one of the Great
Clans. Sooner or later, he might meet them on a battlefield. The
last thing he wanted was to share his knowledge with his potential
enemies.
The ingredients to brew the bait potion were quickly found by

Michael.
He quickly started to brew the potion before Professor Lane

returned. While collecting the herbs, he also collected seeds from
the rare herbs professor Lane had in his classroom.
Michael did not linger in the classroom longer. As soon as he

finished brewing the bait potion and some other potions and pills,
he left the classroom. He had combat classes and spell casting
after alchemy. However, since he finished the alchemy class
within five minutes, he had some free time.
The class was profitable as he earned almost 50,000 badass

points.
"Still not enough" Michael sighed,
He took a loan of 100,000 and before he could start spending the

points, he wanted to settle his debt.
"I should go see how Nightmare is doing" when he stepped out of

the classroom, he remembered Nightmare. The dragon was
having his own classes with the magical beasts professor in the
arena.
With the help of a few markers, Michael made his way to the
arena. The corridors and the courtyard were peaceful and
captivating. He would hate to destroy this place if Mazeorth chose
to go to war with him. Somehow he felt they would stand in his
way to domination.
The path to the arena was adorned with yellow maple trees. The
paved path was blanketed by the golden leaves and looked as
though they were covered in pure gold.
Michael was enjoying peace and tranquility. The arena was an

oval-shaped pitch with hundreds of seats raised in stands around
the pitch so the spectators were high enough to see what was
going on. In the middle of the arena was something that
resembled a cricket pitch. Currently, when he entered the arena
through one of the many gateways, he saw countless creatures
flying in the sky and running around the grassfield.
A group of students occupied the seats at the north end of the

arena. Michael's face turned cold when he looked closer at them.
Instead of flying in the sky or running around like the other
dragons and the familiars, Nightmare was chained to a pole with a
bunch of sphynx cats. Besides Nightmare and Sphynx cats were a
few first-year students. The first-year students seemed to be
swimming on the ground.
The group of students was adorned in the robes of House

Warriors. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the first-year
students and Nightmare were being bullied and ragged.
Chapter 449 Spellcasting
Class
Although Michael saw Nightmare being bullied, he didn't

intervene. He just turned and left the arena but not before taking a
long look at the bullies. Four guys and one girl. The one who
seemed like the leader of the group had wavy red hair, tanned
skin, a lean body, and a cobra tattoo from his neck to his left ear.
Leaving the arena, he went to the spellcasting class which was

conducted by Professor Neil. The spell casting classroom had
three rows of desks, all facing the teacher's table, behind which
sat a large throne-like chair with a high back. Two blackboards
flanked the teacher's table, and behind them was a small shelf
with books and other objects, beneath a pair of windows.
The spell casting classroom was smaller than the Alchemy

classroom but brighter in lighting and atmosphere. Students were
happily chatting with their friends and looking forward to their first
spellcasting class.
Considering all the students had to take the spellcasting class, all
the alchemy students were present in the class. When Michael
entered the class, all their eyes fell on him. The Alchemy house
mostly consisted of humans and orcs as well as a few elves. The
elves who were sorted into House of Alchemy were deemed
inferior by the elves who got sorted into House Warriors or House
Runemasters.
Unlike the humans in the Alchemy class, the orcs looked at him
with a sense of respect. The orcs who sat on the last bench
moved aside to make space for him.
Edith noticed the change in the alchemy students' faces when

Michael entered the classroom. Her train of thought was stopped
as Professor Neil suddenly appeared in the middle of the class.
Professor Neil was the polar opposite of gloomy Professor Lane.
He was wearing a neatly pressed coat suit that was tailored for
him by the best tailors in the Akilan realm. He looked charming
and lively wearing a bright grin from ear to ear.
Though he had a few strands of gray hair among his raven black
short hair, his vigor and liveliness blanketed his true age.
"Welcome to your first spellcasting class dear students. Why so

serious?" Professor Neil's voice softened,
"Say good morning like there's no tomorrow"
"GOOD MORNING!" the students cheered thunderously.
His Fusion Stage level 8 cultivation earned him instant respect

from the students. Professor Neil waved his hand as the
blackboards flanking the teacher's table merged into one
longboard.
"All of you have cast spells in your life at least once. You're
familiar with them right?" Professor Neil looked at the classroom
as the students nodded their heads,
"So tell me, what is a spell?"
Edith quickly raised her hand,
"Yes Miss 45,"
The whole class including Michael stared at Edith,
"A spell or an incantation, a charm, an enchantment or a

bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical
effect on a person or objects using energies found in the world.
The spell can be spoken, sung, or chanted"
"Wonderful" Professor Neil bowed towards Edith as the whole

class chuckled while Edith just bowed back embarrassedly.
"As Miss talented 45 said, a spell can be spoken, sung, or

chanted. But what about this?"
Professor Neil swirled his fingers as a mini cloud appeared above
their heads. A streak of lightning flashed across the classroom
and hit the table on which Edith was sitting behind. Edith almost
jumped back in shock. A beautiful blue ross emerged from the
place where the lightning hit.
"Look at that, a pretty flower among gorgeous misses" Professor

Neil winked at Edith and Victoria. Edith returned his wink with an
awkward smile but Victoria outright ignored him.
Anyone with two eyes could see Professor Neil was extremely
flirty. With his cultivation stage and handsomeness, it was obvious
he had been with more ladies than bees in a hive.
"I didn't speak, sing, or chant but still I cast a spell"
"It's a chantless spell" an elven girl raised her hand,
"Another beauty with a knack for knocking down my questions"

Professor Neil kissed his palm and blew it as rose petals
materialized in the air and flew towards the elven girl.
"There are two kinds of spell casting. The ones we cast by

speaking, chanting, or singing have no special name, it's just
called spells. But the ones we cast without doing the above
mentioned has a special name, chantless spells or chantless spell
casting" Professor Neil wrote the word 'Chantless spell casting' on
the board in stunning handwriting,
"But you might be tempted to say my Fusion stage cultivation

allowed me to cast chantless spells. That's not true, any one of
you could cast chantless spells if you are talented enough which
brings me to my next question, what did I mean by talent?" He
looked at the classroom for a few moments but none answered,
"All of you are extremely talented, that's why you've been selected
to enroll in Mazeroth. But what made you different from those who
did not get into Mazeroth? The answer is, your soul and body's
ability to process the energies within you. That's what made you
different from the others, that's what talent is. Your body and soul
take in a higher amount of energy compared to the others. The
more energy you take in, the faster you climb the higher stages of
cultivation. Yet, one's soul remains a constant but the body is the
variable"
In a few blinks of an eye, Professor Neil drew the anatomy of the

human body perfectly on the board.
"The soul cannot be polluted, unlike the body. If you don't take
care of your body, your ability to absorb energies from the world
will be hindered. This is the reason why most of the cultivators
avoid eating meats, drinking booze, and bed run of the mill
strumpets" some of the male students chuckled winking at some
girls
"The more talented you are, the higher the chances for you to cast
chantless spells. Make no mistake, you can cast any spell without
chanting if you mastered the chantless spell-casting except"
Professor Neil paused as his voice turned into a whisper. He
moved his hand to write two words on the board 'Elemental
Manipulation'
"Until recently the concept of Elemental manipulation was kept

hidden from the outside world due to various safety reasons. I
don't know what changed but I was asked to give an introduction
to elemental manipulation though even I know only a little about it"
Michael's interest in the class just got piqued by Neil's words.

Every time he controlled the darkness, he wondered what kind of
power it was. He hoped the system would give him an explanation
but the only explanation he received was how he should focus on
upgrading the system to the next version.
"Elemental manipulation is just as the name suggests, the ability

to control one of the five elements, water, fire, earth, wind,
lightning, and light" Michael frowned as Professor Neil did not
mention the element of Darkness.
"Professor?" Edith raised her hand,
"What about darkness? Isn't that also an element?"

Michael appreciated the girl's question. He noticed an acute
change in Neil's face,
"Darkness is not an element Miss 45. Where there is no light,

there is darkness. Darkness cannot exist without light and unlike
light, there is no source for darkness. In simple words, darkness is
just the void of light"
Michael wasn't very convinced by his explanation. It sounded like

Professor Neil was reciting the answer he got from someone else.
However, it was neither his place nor the time to prove that
Darkness is indeed an explanation and he was the source of it.
"The scholars in Skyhall believe that when you learn and focus on
spells of a particular element, for example, fire spells, you might,
the keyword is might. You might grasp the concept of elemental
manipulation. However, it's just a theory and it will remain as one
until we find someone who could manipulate an element"
Michael was sure that Noah would be able to manipulate light and
something told him that the girl who killed the mountain troll might
be able to manipulate an element, namely water.
"Now let's move on to the categorization of spells. Who can tell

me how we can categorize the spells?"
Yet again Edith raised her hand,
"Yes Miss 45"
"Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary"
"Right again. Miss 45, are you gunning for my job?" Neil laughed,
making Edith blush,
"Now most of you might think that Legendary spells are the top
dogs. But it's not always true. Let me give you an example, think
of a perfectly healthy baby and a weak old man. No matter how
hard the baby tries, the baby won't win a battle against the old
man even though he's weak. What's the connection you ask" Neil
asked the class,
"In this scenario, the baby is a starting stage cultivator with a
Legendary spell and the weak old man is a later stage cultivator
with a common spell. The power of the spell depends on the
cultivator and the cultivation stage. Many rich people go crazy for
Legendary spells and pay millions but they don't understand that
they should invest that money to climb the higher stages of
cultivation. Without a strong cultivation base, even if you have
several Legendary spells in your arsenal, a cultivator with a strong
base could defeat you with a simple common spell. By strong
cultivation, I meant you must be at least at the Soul Refining stage
to unleash the full potential of a Legendary Spell"
Professor Neil then went on and on explaining each category of

the spells to a great extent. Michael almost felt sleepy. After forty
minutes, except for Edith and a few girls, almost the entire class
was droopy.
"With this, we will wind up our class. In the next class, I'd try not to
make you all sleepy. Now run along before Professor Steinmeyer
starts to look for you. Trust me that won't end well" Professor Neil
chuckled before waving his hand. The next moment, he
disappeared from the classroom.
Michael had a feeling that Neil got a taste of Gaya's attitude. He

was the first to leave the class and on his way to the combat
class, he contacted Gaya to do him a favor.
Chapter 450 Bullying the
Bullies
The combat class was changed from the combat classroom to the
arena where Nightmare was bullied an hour ago. The students
made their way to the arena in groups or couples. Only Michael
walked alone until Elidyr joined him.
"Do you have any idea why we are having the class in the arena?"
Elidyr asked though he seemed to have guessed Lucifer had
something to do with this.
"You will see"
While they were on their way to the arena, the students looked up
at the sky to see flocks of various magical beasts descending
towards them.
Not all the magical beasts were able to fly as there were several
magical beasts running towards them too. One of the familiars
among the familiars in the sky was Nightmare.
Due to Wilkas's poor status, he did not have a familiar. Only a few
students lacked families when they reached Mazeroth. Even
among countless students, Nightmare located Michael and landed
on his shoulder.
"How was your training Nightmare?" asked Michael pretending he

didn't see Nightmare earlier.
He kept his face straight,
"Anything special happened Nightmare?" he asked Nightmare.

Even Elidyr who was several thousand years old did not notice the
cold intent in his eyes,
"No" Nightmare lied. For a moment Michael felt extremely
annoyed and aggravated by the lie but when he saw the eyes of
Nightmare, he calmed down. He understood why the dragon was
lying to him.
Nightmare would rather face his own problems than adding them
on top of Michael's.
Gaya was standing in the center of the arena sharpening the long
sword in her hand. She and Nightmare bickered and fought
almost every day but both of them loved the other dearly. Hence,
when Gaya heard about Nightmare being bullied by a bunch of
humans, she was royally pissed.
If it wasn't for Michael who convinced her to stay put, she would
have kicked the life out of the bullies in the name of punishment.
"Line up!" her shout sent chills through their spines. They quickly
formed a line,
Gaya flicked her wrist as a stack of silver coins materialized

beside her. With another flick of her wrist, she sent a coin towards
a student and their familiar.
The students gawked at the floating coins in front of them with

bewildered faces.
"What the fuck are you looking at? Take them"
The students and the familiars grabbed the coins,
"At the end of this class, whoever has the most coins will get this "
a silver parchment appeared in her hand,
"A Rare level spell" She threw the parchment on the ground,
"That's it?" a cocky human student from House Warriors

snickered,
"You can rob, attack, do whatever you want. And House Warriors"
she looked at the students who were in warrior house robes,
"If you get your asses kicked, don't even bother coming back.
Now shu" She gestured at them to go away but not before taking
a long look at where Michael was looking at the bullies.
The students immediately scattered in all directions. Most of them

chose the black forest as their destination. The black forest would
provide them with much-needed cover for them to safeguard their
coins. Many who were not warriors knew they would be decimated
if they went against the warriors or runemasters. Hence, hiding
was their only choice.
Victoria dashed in the direction of the black forest. She wasn't

running but chasing her prey.
"I thought you don't care about stuff like this" Edith asked while
running behind Victoria,
"I don't but I'm not gonna be bested by a bunch of clowns either"
She said, targeting a dwarf who was running as though his life
was depending on the coin.
Boom!
The dwarf was extremely unlucky as he was targeted by Victoria.

Like a cheetah that pounces on its prey, Victoria leaped at the
dwarf. The dwarf barely looked up when he felt a sharp pain on
the back of his head.
Victoria took the coin off of the dwarf she just knocked down. On
her way to the black forest, she collected several more coins.
Edith might not be fighting like Victoria while running but once she
reached the black forest, she was confident that she could trap
the students with her runic traps and collect more coins.
A forest like the black forest was a natural playground for a

runemaster like her. She was a 4-star Runemaster and according
to her big sister, Lailah Alden, she was just a few years training
away from reaching a 5-star level.
It took the duo fifteen minutes to reach the border of the black
forest.
They entered the woods cautiously. Edith touched the trees as

she followed behind Victoria. Every time, she placed her hand on
a tree, a palm sized chakra appeared on them and disappeared
into the tree.
"Shh" Suddenly Victoria stopped on her path,
"There's someone ahead and he was getting surrounded by five"

Victoria sent waves of Cosmic energy to scan her surroundings.
She cautiously moved in the direction of the six students. With a

swift leap, she landed on a nearby tree branch to get a good view
of the scene. Edith bent her hips drawing a symbol on the ground
beneath her feet. Then when she jumped, the symbol glowed,
boosting her leap.
When she landed beside her friend Victoria, she saw a familiar
face standing in the middle of the forest. A crimson scaled forest
dragon was resting atop his shoulder.
"That's our train neighbor"
"My my, what do we have here?" all of a sudden a cocky voice

reverberated in the forest.
Edith and Victoria turned their gazes away from the alchemist to
see five students of house warriors step out of the shadows one
by one. They flanked him in all directions.
"Hey look at that, it's our toy" the red wavy haired youngster
pointed the stick in his hand at Nightmare,
"An Alchemist? This is pathetic" Edith saw a pale skinned girl lick
the tip of her blade,
"I think we should let the dragon see its master getting the end of
our boots" another youngster coldly said,
"How low can they stoop?" Seeing five warriors surrounding an
alchemist put a frown on Edith's face.
"I'm going to help him" Edith took a step forward only to be

stopped by Victoria,
"That's not our business. If he can't save himself, he should have

been at least good at hiding"
"I can't stay here doing nothing when someone's being bullied in
front of my eyes" Edith's whisper turned colder,
"As expected" Just as she was about to jump down, they heard
the alchemist calmly speak,
Nightmare who was resting atop Michael's shoulder began to

shiver. He was struck by nervousness. When they began to bully
him, he could have simply told either Gaya or Michael and they
would have dealt with them. But he restrained himself from doing
that to avoid causing them an extra problem as Nightmare knew
they were dealing with enough problems as it is.
However, sensing the cold intent in Michael's voice, Nightmare

realized that he might know everything.
"Bullies stick together huh" Michael cracked his knuckles one by

one,
"If there is a forest" Edith heard him and was surprised by his
calmness despite the tricky situation he was in.
"Lion, tiger, dragon will prowl to hunt for their prey. The prey will
run for its life" Victoria looked him in the eyes and saw no fear, not
at all.
"But if the sun sets and darkness descended by then, the animal
which will survive to watch a new dawn would be decided only by
the nature" he rolled up his sleeves gradually as he spoke,
"But in this jungle, when the darkness falls, when, where, and who
will watch the daybreak won't be decided by nature"
Finally, Michael cracked his neck. This time, the murderous intent
in his eyes was visible to everyone including Edith. The aura he
radiated rendered the warriors speechless.
"It's ME"
Victoria was surprised at the speed of his dash toward the red
haired youngster. The warrior barely had time to move a muscle
when he received a punch that sent him flying onto the tree
behind him.
The rest of the warriors were stupefied by his speed. Before they
could react, Michael had once again dashed at the red haired
student. He was growling on the ground,
"ARRHHHHHHHHHH" suddenly his growl turned into a scream of

agony because Michael mercilessly stomped on the bully's
kneecap, shattering it into pieces.
While the youngster was screaming, crying, and growling beneath

his feet, Michael turned back. The other four warriors were
dashing at him put a sudden brake when they saw his cold gaze
landing on them. An unexplainable fear clutched their hearts.
They were warriors and they shouldn't have felt afraid in front of
an alchemist but they did feel afraid. He made only a few moves
but they were enough to reveal his battle prowess to Victoria. He
didn't seem like a normal Alchemist to her. For the first time in her
life, she slightly felt curious about a guy.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the red haired

youngster screamed yet again as this time, Michael stomped on
his other kneecap. Although the student could be healed with a
healing potion, the pain he was feeling right now would be
ingrained into his brain forever. If he felt an urge to bully again,
this pain would kill that urge.
"What have you done?"
"YOU!"
The girl stood closer to Michael, shivering. Their leader was just
crushed in a few mere moments. If they could use spells, they
would fight fearlessly. Since that was not the case, they all started
to tremble and the red haired youngster's cries didn't give them
any courage.
Regardless of her gender, Michael picked her as his next target.
Plap!
Edith closed her eyes the very next second after he slapped the
girl with enough force to create a mini shock wave. Unlike the red
haired youngster, she immediately lost consciousness as well as a
few teeth.
Nightmare supposed that he should feel pity for them but he felt
nothing for these bullies.
Michael tilted his head, grinning at the three remaining students,
"I thought bullying the weak got you off"
Victoria was looking at the alchemist beating the crap out of the
three warriors with mild interest. The trio ganged up on him still
they could not even lay a finger on him. Each of his moves was
precise, deadly, and straightforward.
Except for the girl, he broke several bones of the others.
"Hrgh"
The girl forced open her eyes gradually at the wrong possible
time.
"Arms or legs, you can only pick two bitch"
Nightmare wanted to stop but looking at the murderous look in his

eyes, he knew it was too late to stop him.
He was just a few meters away from the girl when Edith landed
right between the girl and Michael.
"It's enough" Edith stomped the ground.
Chapter 451 Gaya is fired
Just like Victoria scanned her surroundings, Michael also

performed the scanning. The only difference other than the
obvious energy difference was Michael sensed the two girls'
presence way before Victoria sensed him.
He let them see the one-sided brutality to earn badass points. As

he expected, he earned quite a lot of badass points. Since every
single one in Mazeroth was either genius or celebrity, his
badassery earned tons of badass points. Because of this theory,
he didn't think deeply about the two girls' identities.
"Miss 45" Michael lowered his sleeves down,
"Something tells me you are not here for my coin" Edith was
stunned by the sudden change in his demeanor. A few moments
ago, he was coldly breaking the bones of his fellow students and
now, he was smiling warmly.
"I was foolish to think you needed help. How could you do this?"
Edith's eyes watered looking around. Their cries and agony
softened her already soft heart.
"Thank you for your kindness Miss 45. Now if you step aside, I
have a bitch to deal with"
Michael looked at Nightmare standing atop his shoulder and saw

his worried face when he was being bullied. That scene kindled
the rage in his heart.
If he was outside, he would have killed the five by now. The least
he could do was break a few bones and that was letting them off
easily.
"No" Edith stomped the ground again. This time, the ground
beneath him trembled as translucent chakras appeared behind
her. But the chakras quickly disappeared as soon as they
appeared.
"Human we have a problem" To his surprise, he heard Gaya's

voice in his head.
"You can't take their coins but I won't let you harm them any more
than you have already" Edith's voice turned colder,
"I couldn't care less about these coins" Michael took the two coins
from his pocket before throwing them at Edith's feet. It was him
who asked Gaya to
Assign them this task so he could follow these bullies and teach
them a lesson. He had no interest in winning.
"For their medical expenses" With a snicker, he turned his back on

Edith,
Before leaving the scene, he looked up at the tree Victoria was

standing on. Victoria felt his gaze on her for a second. She was
sure that he looked directly at her. She was hiding her presence
as well as her body yet he sensed her through all the foliage,
darkness, and the trees. She was surprised by him.
Quickly Nightmare jumped down from his shoulder while

transforming into his real form. With Michael on his back,
Nightmare took off into the sky with a powerful flap of his wings
like a bullet from a gun.
The arena was just a few minutes flying away from the black
forest. With Nightmare's speed, they reached it in two minutes. As
he landed in the arena, he saw several students, as well as a
silver horse with two feathery wings, protruding out of its back
slacking on the ground.
A youngster who looked like the embodiment of the word warrior

was talking to Gaya and by the redness and the stiffness of
Gaya's body, it seemed like they were having a heated
conversation. To be more precise, Gaya seemed to be having a
heated conversation while the youngster looked calm and
composed.
"Elliot Watson" Michael recognized the youngster as the head

prefect. When he first came to Mazeorth castle, he met the head
prefect along with three other students. He wondered why he was
here and what he did to make Gaya's face become as red as a
ripe tomato.
Soon he noticed a golden parchment in her hand,
"Two classes and you've put the students' life at risk in each class"
"I heard you the first several times. What made you fucking
qualified to tell me how to do my fucking job?"
Michael joined the group of students staring at the ruckus to hear

her shout. She noticed Michael but didn't acknowledge him due to
obvious reasons,
"I'm qualified and have the authority to take back your job"
Michael was stunned,
"You have endangered the lives of the students enough and the
way you've been treating them is not the way a house warrior
teacher should. You have a week to vacate the premises, good
day Miss Nayla Steinmeyer"
Elliot adjusted his spectacles before jumping back on his horse

and flying away.
"What's happening?" Elidyr came to his side with a grin. In his

hand, he had a pouch and by the clicking sounds coming from the
pouch, Michael could see they were coins.
"Class dismissed as well as the professor" Few elves chuckled

among the group. Not only the elves but also the students of other
races too looked happy and wore bright smiles on their faces. The
Alchemists were the ones who seemed most relieved.
"Ex-professor"
The elves continued to laugh among themselves. Gaya left the
arena before she lost her patience and broke the faces of those
who were laughing.
Back in Michael's room, a seven feet mirror had erupted. In front

of the mirror stood Elidyr, Michael, and Nightmare.
"So these Spyders capture the feed in real-time and project it

through mirrors?" Elidyr was curiously staring at the Spyder on his
palm.
"I can enhance them by increasing their speed, durability and

prevent them from getting detected by some of the powerful
arrays. Although they were made of junk metal, there are some
arrays that could still detect their presence"
"Is this thing working?" Gaya appeared in the mirror while Elidyr
was fiddling with the Spyder. She was poking the Spyder and
seeing her face up close put a smile on Michael's face. It was
funny. She was currently standing in a cozy room with a fireplace
and comfy sofa. There were several portraits of the founders of
Mazeorth hanging on the wall behind her. The room however was
a mess and he noticed the broken table lying in pieces.
"Yes I can see you, now if you step back, you will be able to see
us too" Michael talked to the Spyder floating in the air in front of
him.
Since meeting Gaya in person would raise unwanted suspicions,

he used the Spyders as web cameras and initiated a video call
using the devices he built.
"Tell me, what happened?" asked Michael.
"Didn't you see? I was fired. That son of a bitch evoked some
idiotic rule to fire me out of my job. We are less than sixteen away
from starting the ritual and I have already lost my job. What are
we gonna do about it?"
"Hmm, I do vaguely remember something about in the event of a

professor abusing his or her power to endanger the lives of their
students, a secret vote can be held by the head prefect and if the
vote passed against the professor, they will be stripped of their
job. But to evoke the rule, take the vote and fire you from your
post within two days is quite a feat, Dark Queen"
Gaya rolled her eyes seeing Elidyr praising Elliot.
"We will proceed as we planned. It's too late to back off now. After
we make my soul whole again, we may not even have to be here.
Elidyr, you sure you can modify the teleportation scroll to teleport
us out of here?"
"Already finished it. Just say the word and the four of us will be out
of here before one could say cheese"
Michael wanted to say he was surprised but he expected this from

a 6-star Runemaster who was several thousand years old. He had
the knowledge and skills to open the gates to Earth and for a
Runemaster with his caliber, it would be simple enough to modify
a teleportation scroll.
"The girl, will she be there? Our whole plan depends on her
showing up to battle the fire giant" Gaya asked. She didn't give a
damn about being a professor. The only thing she cared about
was the ritual that was supposed to happen tomorrow.
No matter what happens, they have to go through with the ritual.

The sooner his soul becomes whole, the better, Gaya knew this.
The ritual was extremely important and that was why she was
royally pissed at Elliot for getting herself fired.
"Don't worry. She will come"
After discussing their plan for a few more minutes, Michael cut the
call. He then took out a muddy brown potion from the system
storage.
"Nightmare" He called Nightmare as the little dragon came flying

to him,
"Take this" he handed over the potion to Nightmare.

"It's your task to spray this potion in the air and lure the fire giant
to the ritual site"
They picked up a secluded site in the middle of the black forest as

their ritual site. It was far from the Mazeroth castle yet relatively
closer to the fire giant. According to Elidyr, the ritual might last
from one hour to three hours.
The first step of the ritual was to extract the soul piece that
Michael named as the third persona. The second step was to
cage the soul into the fire giant's body thus giving the soul piece a
physical manifestation. Then the third and most difficult step of the
ritual was letting Rowena defeat the fire giant but not kill it. She
had to weaken the giant so Michael could absorb the soul back at
its weakest state.
In its weakest state, it would be merged with the other two soul
pieces and if everything went according to their plan, his soul
would be whole once again.
As they were finalizing their plan for tomorrow, Gaya's doors were
knocked on by an unexpected guest. Gaya was irritated by the
fact she got fired and moreover, the guy who was responsible for
it was stronger than her. It was embarrassing for her.
After diligent cultivation, she just reached Core Strengthening

stage level 4. However, Elliot was at Soul Refining Stage level 2.
"Only if I went through my metamorphosis. Damn it"
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Her train of thought was interrupted by a knock on her door. She

cast a quick spell to spread her senses. When she sensed the
one who was knocking on her door, she was surprised. It was an
extremely powerful presence, a presence of a Fusion Stage
cultivator.
She was surprised and startled more than she was annoyed. With
utter caution, she slowly approached the door.
When she opened the door, a man clothed in dark robes

resembling an overgrown bat stood at her doorstep.
"Professor Lane?"
Chapter 452 The ritual has
begun
Professor Lane entered Gaya's room without bothering to ask her

permission. He gawked at the mess in the room but didn't seem
like he gave a damn.
"Yeah come in" Gaya rolled her eyes,
"How do you like your job back Miss Steinmeyer?" Professor Lane
asked in his waspish voice,
"Huh?"
Gaya was confused,
"I have a task for someone with your caliber, Miss Steinmeyer.
Accomplish this and you will be Professor Steinmeyer"
Before Gaya could say anything, she had a feeling that she
should hear him more. After all, she needed to pretend as she
cares about this job to avoid raising suspicions.
She was really lucky whatever spell was cast on her when she
took the identification card of the real imposter of Professor
Steinmeyer was powerful enough to fool even the Fusion Stage
cultivator such as Lane. Otherwise, she would have probably
ended up in the deepest dungeons of Mazeroth.
"I have a week to get out of here Professor Lane. So whatever's in

your mind-"
"If you depart now, you can finish it before tomorrow night"
He stared at Gaya wordlessly asking for her answer.
"What's the job?" Gaya asked, sighing.

"Escorting a student in and out of a dungeon"
"A dungeon?"
Gaya's curiosity was slightly piqued because dungeons are rare

but every dungeon would contain a priceless artifact or a relic
worth risking their lives.
If a dungeon was found, it would cause a ruckus among

cultivators. Soon, the dungeon would be filled with adventures,
rogue cultivators, sects to loot everything inside. Anything that
could be found in a dungeon would be extremely valuable.
However as much as the dungeons contained valuables, they also

contained danger in every corner. If a hundred people entered the
dungeon, only a few would come outside fully intact.
"The task seems extremely dangerous Professor Lane, especially

for the student. If you tell me more about the dungeon and what it
contains, I might take the task. After all, I want all the information I
need before risking my life. Being alive is more important than
being a professor"
"Fair enough," Professor Lane nodded. He almost looked like he

was expecting everything Gaya just said,
"Primordial fire"
A single word that came from Lane's mouth was enough to make
her shudder. The last time she witnessed the power of a
primordial fore was when she was in the Fire Realm. Noah used
Heaven's flame to save the old man from House Fisher. The flame
was powerful enough to obliterate even the extremely powerful
poison miasma in the Fire Realm.
According to the texts she read in the Nagaland library, the

primordial flames would grow stronger with time and enhance the
spells and skills one possessed.
She also heard from Michael that he needs a Primordial flame to

reach the 6-star Alchemist.
"That's what's inside the dungeon along with skeleton soldiers"
"Wait a minute. If that's what's all in the dungeon, why didn't

anyone get it? So what's the catch?"
Gaya was not dumb enough to believe that there was primordial
fire sitting in a dungeon but no one in the Akilan realm had taken
steps to get the fire for themselves.
"The dungeon is protected by a void array. Even a half immortal

would be rendered powerless the moment he or she steps into the
dungeon. Which means, only a battle-hardened warrior can get in
and out alive"
"Something tells me countless battle-hardened warriors had

already tried that and didn't live to tell the tale" Gaya emphasized
the word 'battle-hardened', crossing her arms.
Lane was annoyed by all the questions but he never showed his
emotions on his face. After all, he needed her to do his bidding.
With a flick of his wrist, Lane conjured a purple flame above his
palm.
"Unlike the normal flames, Primordial flames have a mind of their

own. If the primordial flames deemed you unworthy when you try
to absorb them, you will be reduced to nothing but ashes" he
threw the purple fire onto the broken table behind him. In mere
moments, the oak table turned into ashes as he said. Gaya was
surprised by his theatrics as he had no need to turn the table into
ashes.
"I assume you want to know who is the student you have to
accompany"
Gaya nodded in curiosity. She derived a bunch of plans to get rid

of the student and sneak Michael into the dungeon instead.
"The student has the id sixty-six, weirdly he chose to go by the

name 'Ghost' in where he came from"
Gaya received yet another shock from Professor Lane.
"He is an Alchemy student, probably a prodigy. He may have a

chance to absorb the primordial flame without being obliterated by
it"
She sensed no remorse or nothing at all in his voice. What if he

was deemed not unworthy by the flames which she didn't believe
would be the case. If anyone was worthy of the primordial flames,
it was him.
"I can get him in and if he survived the flames, I can get him
outside"
"Great. Use this when you are within three feet of him. You will be
teleported directly into the dungeon's entryway. He will have no
choice but to see it till the end" he talked while walking towards
the door to leave the room,
Just before stepping out of the room, he handed over a golden

teleportation scroll to Gaya. He did not even bother to ask if she
was going to agree or not as he knew she had no choice.
"What if that head prefect asshole tried to get me fired again?"
"Next time, not every professor will sign the petition"
By the time his voice reached her ears, he already vanished into
thin air.
Then she realized that if what he said was true, all the professors
signed the petition including him. This meant he manipulated the
entire scenario just to get her to agree to the task.
She even doubted he may have been the person who initiated the
plan to get her fired in the first place. However, instead of
punching something to vent her anger, she burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha"
Professor Lane may have felt like the mastermind, but only she
knew who was the real winner in the situation; Michael. Lady Luck
was on his side, that Gaya knew for sure.
The only thing that bugged her was in less than a day, they had
the ritual to put his soul back together. Although they were talking
about the ritual and how to perform it, they had no idea how it was
going to go. To be honest, she was worried sick but she didn't let
Michael see her anxiety.
In the serenade of the black, the stars were a choir; they were
lights that sing in infinite patterns. Sometimes eyes needed music,
and the darker the night the sweeter the song. Amid the starlight
was the ever glow of the moon, that mother of the sky who
watched over every beating heart, steady and true.
Despite her angelic moonlight that bathed the planet with sapphire
light, the black forest remained dark. The thousands of years old
tree-shaded the ground with their ever-expanding canopy,
preventing any light from cutting through them.
Nothing was audible except for the sound of snoring in the

distance. In the middle of a large glowing chakra stood Michael,
Gaya, and Elidyr.
"The fire giant is still sleeping I guess," said Elidyr,
"When should we do this?" Nightmare flew back to Michael after

surveying the surroundings.
"I just need your blood"
Michael walked towards Elidyr and took out a dagger from the
system storage. The next moment, he cut open his palm as blood
gushed out dripping onto the glowing chakra. When the blood
touched the chakra, the glowing blue chakra turned crimson red.
"Step to the center and the ritual will begin" Elidyr's voice turned
serious. The usual calmness in his voice was nowhere to be
found. Gaya was slightly shaking seeing Michael taking steps
towards the center of the chakra.
"Nightmare now. Lure the fire giant here" Elidyr ordered
Nightmare. The dragon quickly nodded his head before flying in
the direction of the fire giant as fast as he could.
Gaya threw the bait potion into the air which was caught by
Nightmare in mid-air.
Boom!
When he flapped his wing, it produced a quiet booming sound.

She had never seen Nightmare fly so fast. Everyone was nervous
including Elidyr despite his calm demeanor.
"Please come back to me in one piece human" she whispered to

him. She prayed to her mother with her hands against the chest.
Regardless of the situation, when he warmly smiled at her, she

calmed down.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
All of a sudden a thunderous roar echoed through the forest

almost breaking their eardrums. The shout was soon followed by
thunderous footsteps. The ground beneath them shook.
[Manual soul extraction is initiated…]
[Arch energy flow has been stopped…]
[Prepare to go through an extreme amount of pain…]
[System offline in three…two…one]
"ARGHH!"
Michael's outcry in pain sent a chill through Gaya's spine. She

dashed towards him in instinct to save him only to be stopped by
Elidyr.
"The ritual must not stop"

Elidyr and Gaya saw the blood gushing out of Michael's nostrils
and mouth as he collapsed onto his knees. He howled at the sky
like a wolf in pain.
His soul was literally being stipped out of him. The pain he
suffered could not be described in mere words.
Everything in his being hurt. His head hurt, his chest hurt, his feet
hurt, and every single fiber in his body screamed in agony. The
pain subsided at times, only to flare up several times more intense
than before. He held his head tightly trying to fight through the
pain. It was difficult to focus between the moments of pain and the
voices telling him to stop what he was doing, but he pressed
onward. But he felt sore all over, the ritual was taking its toll on his
entire body more than he initially expected. However, his anger
and pain in his heart offered him the strength to bear the pain.
His mind and body told him to give up but the anger of being
abandoned and caged for something he never even did fueled his
willpower to get through the ritual.
Gaya's worried look took a turn to worse when she witnessed a

smokey figure emerge from Michael. It was appearing and
disappearing from his body as though it didn't want to leave his
body.
The figure was screaming but she never heard the screams.
"The broken piece of the soul," Elidyr explained in utter shock. As

a scholar specializing in souls, this was the first time he had seen
such a phenomenon. Witnessing the power being radiated by the
soul piece truly frightened him.
Chapter 453 The possessed
fire giant
Even when his pain was killing him from within, Michael's brain
still functioned, telling him not to scream no matter what. If he
were to scream before the fire giant reached the ritual ground, it
would prematurely attract the girl or worse, a professor.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" the fire giant's scream sounded

closer and closer. He could feel the ground beneath him tremble
violently.
"How long does he have to go through this?!" he could vaguely

hear Gaya's outcry
"RUN!" Nightmare shout sounded in his mind. With great difficulty,

he looked up. His vision was not as clear as it used to be a few
moments ago. The X-ray vision, the arch energy, and the strength
he possessed were nowhere to be found.
It made sense as the system informed him that his arch energy
flow had been interrupted. He was in a most vulnerable position. If
anyone chose to attack him, he would be defenseless. Even a
Foundation stage cultivator with a dagger could end his life let
alone a fire giant of Soul Refining stage level 8.
The girl who slew the mountain troll was at Fusion stage level 2. If
his guess was correct, the Fire giant would reach the Fusion stage
after merging with the third piece of the soul.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!" he felt a scorching hot smoke

brush past him. The splitters came flying from the broken trees
causing several cuts on his face. His blood slowly painted his face
red. What stood before him was a fire giant standing over five
meters tall. It was a thick limbed humanoid with deep crimson red
skin.
Its eyes were sunken into their sockets, glimmering in golden
yellow. The giant's hair resembled fire, disorderly with streaks of
orange and yellow, whereas its claws and teeth resembled fire-
blackened steel.
Despite their physical form, fire giants possessed the intellect of a

human. Hence, when it saw glowing crimson red chakra, the giant
realized that it stepped into a trap.
However, instead of backing off, it charged forth targeting Michael.
"NOW RELEASE!" Elidyr shouted the moment the giant stepped

into the chakra. The shout was directed at Michael and he knew it.
"ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" His scream was ear

piercing. The sound-absorbing array Elidyr absorbed the scream
and prevented anyone from the castle from hearing it.
The human part of his scream quickly turned demonic.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" A demonic voice shouted within

him.
It rendered everyone including the fire giant stunned. Powerful

sound waves shot out of Michael and pushed everyone around
him several steps backward.
Elidyr was dazed by the power. Something little such as a shout

contained enough force to crush a Body Refining stage cultivator.
He could not even fathom the power he would possess after
reaching his full potential.
Steady herself, she saw an ethereal figure resembling Michael's

Lucifer form arising from within.
"GET"
Michael grabbed his head as blood started to seep through his

eyes.
For the first time, he saw the third persona manifest. A ghostly
chain was still connecting the both of them. Michael grabbed the
chain as his lips curved upwards.
"OUT!" He crushed the chain, finally releasing the third persona

out.
"NOW!" Michael vaguely heard another shout from Elidyr. But this
time, it was directed towards Gaya. The longbow and arrow
materialized in her hand and both of them glowed brighter and
brighter, radiating immense power.
A web of tiny symbols could be seen on her bow and the arrow.
The runes Elidyr placed on the arrow would boost the arrow's
power. Although the arrow wouldn't be able to kill the fire giant, the
arrow would temporarily weaken it.
In the weak state, the third piece of the soul would be sent into the
fire giant's body relatively easily. Otherwise, the fire giant's body
would explode due to the power of the soul.
"YOU IMBECILE!"
Gaya saw the ethereal figure scream at Michael trying to reach

him whereas the glowing chakra began to rotate faster and faster.
Boom!
The arrow fired from Gaya's bow broke the sound barrier. In a
blink of an eye, the arrow went straight through the fire giant's
chest.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!"
The fire giant's shout sounded quieter than they expected. From
the wound caused by the arrow, a bubble of blood dropped onto
the chakra.
The next moment, a powerful gust of wind knocked down all the
trees in the five-meter radius. It didn't stop with a gust of wind but
the rotating chakra created a mini typhoon. Every tree, splinters,
log, and object in the vicinity got pulled into the typhoon.
Nightmare felt the pull but he managed to fly to Gaya using all of
his strength.
Gaya on the other hand held onto a tree with all her might. Elidyr
managed to stand still without being pulled by the typhoon using a
rune.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The third persona screamed again. Little by little, it got pulled

towards the fire giant. Michael's vision gradually blurred until he
saw nothing but darkness.
"HUMAN!" Gaya shouted when she saw Michael collapse onto the
ground,
On the other hand, the fire demon's golden eyes turned pitch
black.
"AWAY!" Elidyr raised his hand at the fire giant. A golden chakra
shot out of Elidyr's hand and flew towards the fire giant. When the
fire giant and the golden chakra clashed, a bright beam of golden
light exploded. Their eyes were made to close by the brightness.
When they opened their eyes, the fire giant along with the crimson
red chakra on the ground and the typhoon disappeared.
Gaya finally fell to the ground. The moment she hit the ground,
she rushed towards Michael. She slid through the mud and
splinters to reach him. She picked up his head and put it on her
lap. Nightmare landed beside him with his two eyes welled up with
tears.
"He's not breathing!" Gaya shook his body,
"Ghosty" Nightmare scratched his arms with his mouth,
"Now it all depends on the girl," Elidyr sighed, looking at the

distant horizon.
**********************************
Somewhere else in the Akilan Realm, a giant palace was floating
above the clouds. The palace was basking in the light of the full
moon. This was the residency of the Holy Maiden, The Ice Palace.
As the name indicates, the palace was made of nothing but pure
ice. Only the Holy Maiden could inhabit such a harsh environment,
In the center of the palace where the snowy mist was covering as
far as an eye could see, Rowena was meditating. Her eyes
opened abruptly as they twinkled like sapphires.
"Fire Giant"
She mumbled. In a few moments, another figure came running to

Rowena,
"Holy Maiden, a fire giant has appeared in the black forest" Bai
Ning exclaimed.
Rowena already stood up, the icy swords attached to chains

materialized in her hands. There was no door in the palace. She
just walked towards a wall but the wall split open as she
approached
"Holy Maiden, we need a plan of attack" Bai Ning tried to stop

Rowena from blindly rushing into a battle.
At first, when Bai Ning sensed the fire giant, its power was over
the roof. The fire giant was unusually powerful and that was what
made Bai Ning worried.
"I have a plan, attack" Rowena shot out through the hole breaking
the sound barrier.
Her figure disappeared into the clouds while Bai Ning followed her
behind. The old woman could barely keep up with the Holy
Maiden.
"Order Mazeroth to stay away from the fire giant"
It was the last thing Bai Ning heard before Rowena's figure
completely disappeared from her sight.
Rowena was flying like a bullet towards the black forest. She
spread her senses to locate the fire giant and it only took a
second to pinpoint its location.
The fire giant was wreaking havoc in the black forest. It was
destroying every tree and everything in its path. Rowena
increased her speed. She had sensed the unusual power
radiating from the fire giant yet it didn't stop her.
The arch energy radiated from the fire giant was fluctuating. One
time, it was at Fusion stage level 2, and another time, it was at
Soul Refining stage level 10.
"YOU!"
She was slightly stunned in mid-air when the fire giant directed its
gaze at her and talked like a human. The fire giant now
possessed by Michael's broken piece of the soul threw its fist at
Rowena.
Covering her fist with chilling ice, she met the fire giant's fist with
her fist.
Boom!
The moment their fists collided, it produced a powerful shockwave

that decimated everything in a twenty-meter radius. The ancient
trees exploded into million pieces.
Rowena landed on the ground comfortably while the fire giant

stumped back several steps.
Rowena cracked her knuckles,
The fire growled angrily before steadying itself. There was at least
ten meters distance between them. For a few seconds, neither of
them made a single move as they just stared at each other.
Regardless of her puny form, the fire giant did not dare to
underestimate her. After all, the soul piece posing the fire giant
was part of Michael and inherited his intellect.
Therefore, instead of rushing into the battle like big dumb, it
looked around, planning in its mind. In Rowena's mind, she had
gone through hundreds of scenarios of their battle.
Although she won the battle in many of the scenarios, she still
didn't underestimate the fire giant because of two reasons; first,
she had no clear idea about the fire giant's abilities. Of course,
she studied about the fire giant but something told her that this fire
giant was different from the ones she read about.
The second reason, the energy being radiated from the fire giant
wasn't purely arch energy, it was something much much more
powerful.
After several moments of staring at each other, they finally started

to run toward each other.
From the distance, Victoria and Edith were looking at the fire giant
along with all the other students. Every single one was woken up
by the sound and came to the balcony to witness the battle.
Unfortunately, they could only see the head of the fire giant but
not Rowena due to the physical forms.
"Let's dance" with a battle cry, Rowena jumped into the air raising
her fist.
Chapter 454 The Cold Flames
A trail of icy mist could be seen appearing around Rowena. On

the opposite, the fire giant left a trail of blazing fire. It was not only
the fight between Rowena and the fire giant but also the battle of
ice and fire.
The frost blades disappeared from her hand as she threw her fist
to meet the fire giant's fist.
Boom!
The shockwave shot out from the collision of their fist destroyed
everything around them. The fire giant was pushed back several
feet but Rowena remained still. She cracked her knuckles and
then her neck, just like Michael.
"Something is controlling the fire giant" Rowena mumbled,
The oversize of the fire giant put the third persona at a

disadvantage. To harm Rowena, it needed to land a hit on her but
before the giant could raise his fist, she could hit the giant several
times. Therefore, the third persona changed the battle tactic.
Just like before, the fire giant moved toward Rowena, seeming not
to have any battle plan. Rowena remained still, waiting for the fire
giant to punch her. However, when she was waiting for the fist, a
beam of light shot out of its eye.
Rowena was caught off guard by the sudden beam of fire. It was
so quick, lightning quick. Many students watching the giant from
the castle didn't even see the beam of fire. THey only witnessed a
sudden flash of light.
The fire giant stared at the cloud of smoke and the crater created
by the beam of fire. The scorching hot beam turned everything
into ashes. Gradually, the mist cleared. The fire giant was stunned
as it could see Rowena's figure in the mist.
The blue robes she wore were burnt to a crisp by the flame
despite the protection runes placed on them. This time, pure frosty
ice materialized on her body forming an armor.
"The prophecy" standing in her office, Kayla was witnessing the

fight through the window.
"We have entered the age of darkness" She recalled the words
Wulfric spoke a couple of months ago.
"Headmistress" Gilrine entered the room,
"I placed the talismans you gave me around the forest"
Kayla sighed,
"Make sure no one ventures into the black forest. From now on,
the black forest is forbidden for everyone including the staff" she
said without moving her eyes from the fire giant,
"Headmistress" Gilrine had a bewildered look on his face. He

scratched the back of his head,
"You can spit out what's in your mind Gilrine"
"Why aren't we deploying our forces to black Forest

Headmistress? Our forces can subdue the fire giant without
destroying the forest"
"The forces in play are beyond the mortals Gilrine. Our forces are
nothing before them"
Gilrine nodded without uttering any word. He trusted the

Headmaster and Headmistress with his life. Whatever decision
they made, he knew it would be the best.
"Frost Storm"
On the battlefield, Rowena raised her hand, casting a chantless

spell. The black forest became darker as the storm clouds
blanketed the moon and her dazzling light.
The students gasped in shock. 'Storm' was an understatement.
The howling wind and the size of the tornado arose connecting
the ground and the sky frightened every single one. Even Victoria
was stunned by the sight of the storm in the black forest.
The tornado swirled towards the fire giant,
"OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH" the fire giant breathed fire into the icy

tornado.
The dance between ice and fire created a phenomenon no one

had ever seen.
Kayala, who knew the storm was created by the Holy Maiden, felt
a chill. She knew this spell could destroy an entire city within a few
minutes. Even a spell-like that caliber couldn't kill the fire giant.
Rowena shot into the tornado and the moment she reached the
tornado, the tornado swirled faster and faster, and the power of
the first storm multiplied by several folds. She pushed away the
fire coming from the giant's mouth.
Little by little, the frost storm moved towards the fire giant through
the stream of fire.
"Arctic Arrows!" she shouted in her mind as hundreds of six feet

arrows shot out from the tornado like bullets. The fire giant raised
its hand to defend its eyes from the arrows. Step by step the fire
giant moved back,
"ARGHHHHHHHHH!" The fire giant screamed but the scream was

not of pain, it was a shout of anger.
BOOM!
All of a sudden, the fire giant punched the tornado. Rowena's

body was thrown into the swirling force. Before she could steady
herself, the fire giant embraced the tornado.
The fire giant tightened the embrace as the tornado began to form
cracks.
"ANNOYING BUG" Rowena heard the fire giant speak to her in a
demonic voice,
Slowly the tornado turned darker and darker. The white frost took
a turn to the opposite and transformed to pitch black,
Rowena raised her hand, trying to move the tornado forward while
dispelling the dark energy invading her spell. Her nose bled as her
skin became pale as a paper.
"Holy Maiden" Bai Ning who was witnessing the battle from a
secluded room in Mazeroth murmured under her breath,
She could see the dark energy weakening Holy Maiden's energy.
It felt as though the fire giant was drawing the blackness around it
to get stronger. She could vaguely see unknown dark energy
being absorbed by the fire giant from the sky itself.
Rowena stopped powering the tornado. Within a few moments,

the stormy clouds perished from the night sky. Yet again the full
moon showered the ground with her light. Unexpectedly when the
light was shone on the fire giant, it grew weaker.
Rowena noticed this by seeing the flicking eyes of the fire giant.
When the tornado evaporated, the giant lost its balance. It
stumbled forward only to receive a giant fist made of ice to its
face. The icy mist enveloped the area and when Rowena
emerged from the icy mist, her eyes were glowing.
The students were able to see Rowena now as she was floating
and her figure was growing in size rapidly. The armor covering her
body enlarged. In a few minutes, she was in the center of a giant
made of ice. Thus, the battle between a human and a fire giant
turned into a battle between two giants.
Only a few minutes passed when the ice giant grew to the size of
the fire giant.
"Ice Mirrors," Rowena noticed the fire giant's weakness to light. So

she cast a spell that formed hundreds of mirrors made of ice
around them. All the mirrors appeared in the angel to reflect and
focus the moonlight onto the fire giant.
Even in the face of hundreds of mirrors shedding light onto it, the
fire giant stood still. The third piece of the soul was the soul piece
of the Dark Lord after all.
The fire giant began to smash the mirrors in the sky. The power of
the moonlight was the reason Elidyr chose this particular day. On
any other day, defeating the fire giant would have been near
impossible. The fire giant violently smashed the mirrors faster
than Rowena created them.
Looking at the fire giant getting close to her, she yet again raised
her hands towards the sky. Then, she called for the most powerful
weapon in her arsenal.
"I call forth thy coldest flames in the universe!" a gush of frosty
wind immediately surrounded Rowena's body. An invisible force
pushed the fire giant and put out the flames around them.
Then, a layer of frost layered everything within a mile radius. From

the sky itself, a stream of blue flames flew to Rowena taking the
shape of a winged woman.
"Primordial Flame" Victoria immediately recognized the

phenomenon as the Primordial flames while the other students
were gawking at the sky startled.
"The Cold Flames" Edith mumbled.
For the first time, the fire giant's pitch-black eyes flickered and
Rowena sensed an aura of distress from whatever possessed the
fire giant.
Victoria never believed the Primordial flames possessed a mind of

their own but when she saw the flames escaping from her and
now it had chosen an extremely powerful cultivator as its master,
she believed the tests were true. She thought having Cosmic
Energy would let her absorb the Primordial flames.
"DESTROYER"
Directly above the fire giant, a giant sword that was triple the size
of the fire giant materialized. The frost-covered sword hung above
the fire giant as the primordial flames coiled around the sword like
a dragon. The sword gradually grew in size to the point it made
the fire giant look puny as an ant.
"Shit" the fire giant mumbled as the sword descended on itself.
BOOOOOOOM!
When the sword landed on the ground, it created a mushroom

cloud as though a nuke went off. The shock wave shook even the
castle as many students were thrown off balance.
Rowena lost all her strength. Hence, she fell from the sky. She
slowly lost consciousness. The battle took everything in her and
before she closed her eyes, she saw a golden light flash across
her eyes.
Bai Ning teleported to where the battle was happening. She

caught the Holy Maiden in the mid-air before she hit the ground. A
deep dark line formed on Bai Ning's forehead as she saw no signs
of the fire giant.
She spread her senses to locate the giant but found no living
beings in the near vicinity. The vital signs in Rowena's body
started to diminish so Bai Ning didn't dare to linger around or go
search for the remains of the fire giant. Her first priority was to
make sure Rowena was alive and well.
After the battle between Rowena and the fire giant concluded, the
desolate mountain where Elidyr was imprisoned received guests
again.
"Keep him still"
Michael's body was violently trembling. Gaya's clothes were

drenched in the blood gushing out of Michael's mouth, ears, nose,
and eyes. The fire giant was lying beside him badly mutilated. Its
hands and lower half were missing. They were evaporated by the
Cold Flames. Elidyr was quick enough to save the fire giant before
the Cold flames destroyed the soul piece.
He never expected Rowena to possess a Primordial flame. Each

piece of the soul was connected. Because the Cold flames
damaged one piece of the soul, the others resigning within
Michael began to respond to it. One-piece couldn't survive without
the other. Therefore, the other soul pieces tried to leave his body.
In simple words, he was dying and he would die unless Elidyr put
his soul back together again.
Chapter 455 Michael, Lucifer
and Abras
Michael was dozing in a place where golden reeds expanded as

far as one could see. A golden ray of light shone down, piercing
through his eyelids. His eyes as well as the tip of his index finger
slightly moved. He couldn't open his eyes with ease as it felt as
though his eyelids were glued together.
Little by little, his consciousness returned to him. The darkness

before him slowly shifted towards a golden light. Everything that
happened before he lost consciousness returned to him. The last
thing he remembered was the face of Gaya. The memories
abruptly awakened him. Suddenly the breath of life returned to
him as he sat up.
As far as he could see, there was nothing but golden reeds.
"Is this heaven?" he thought in his mind while getting back to his
feet. He tried to summon the system except there was no sign of
the system within him.
"I wish"
A kind voice sounded from behind. Michael turned back in a flash

to see a black-robed youngster who wore a gentle smile on his
face.
"Abras"
The one standing in front of him was none other than Abras.
Michael and Abras looked alike except Michael's current self was
more mature, tall, and muscular.
"Michael" Abras smiled,
"Beautiful isn't it?" Abras looked around the golden reeds,

"What's happening?" Michael stepped towards Abras and joined
him in the sightseeing.
Countless questions wreaking havoc in his mind.
Where am I?
What is this place?
How am I seeing Abras?
Why does this feel so real?
Is this a dream?
Am I dead?
These were some of the questions he asked himself.
"Are you confused Michael? When I learned we are the same

person, I was confused too" Abras spoke in a calm manner,
"But I made peace with you, we became one and we were one
until you chose to become the Dark Lord"
"I…we didn't make that choice, it was made for us. Otherwise, we
wouldn't be here, would we?"
It was extremely difficult for Michael to accept that Abras and he

were the same person. It didn't feel that way.
"Until you make peace, we will remain as pieces," Abras said as

he read Michael's thoughts.
"Peace? Peace with what?" asked Michael. He turned his head to

see Abras still looking at the ocean of golden reeds in front of
them,
"You and I are the same"
The moment these words escaped Abras's mouth, the golden

scenery lost all of its lusters. Everything became dark and gloomy,
Following the change in the scary, the familiar demonic voice
echoed through the golden reed fields.
"FOOL!"
They both turned back to see Lucifer, in his complete form

enveloped in a shroud of dark smoke and crimson red eyes
emerging from the ground beneath.
Unlike Michael and Abras, Lucifer stood almost towering eight feet
tall.
"Lucifer, the last piece of our soul" Abras introduced Lucifer to

Michael as though Michael did not know him.
"Finally we meet face to face, Michael" Lucifer's eyes flared up in

red flames.
"I am confused as fuck. We are supposed to be the same person

yet it feels nothing like that" Michael sighed as he tried to make
sense of this situation.
"System"
Michael called out the system in his mind,
"Don't bother, the system cannot help you. It's probably sick of you
two losers" Lucifer growled,
"We received such a powerful weapon and yet, we are still getting
our ass handed over to us by puny humans. You are unworthy of
such power" Lucifer completely ignored Abras and vented his
anger at Michael.
He then dashed at Michael and punched him,
"Argh!"
The punch landed on Michael because Lucifer was too fast.

However, when he punched Michael, he shouted and so did
Michael and Abras.
"We are the same," Abras groaned. The punch pushed the three
of them in a separate direction. When each stood up, they noticed
they were standing in a triangle.
"Your focus on mortal pleasures and inability to get stronger has

brought this upon us" Lucifer clenched his fist as the surroundings
became darker and darker,
"Instead of putting all the blame on me, why don't you take
charge? After all, we are the same right, why are you talking to me
like I'm the one controlling the both of you"
"Because when our soul was shattered, the largest piece of the
soul went to earth, you" Abras sighed as he began to explain,
"That's why you always remain in control and I feel like a different
person to you"
"It should have been me" Yet again lucifer growled,
"Makes sense" Finally something made sense to Michael. In his

mind, he simplified Abras's explanation. In mathematical terms, he
was 50% of the soul while Abras and Lucifer were only 25% each.
Thus, he remained in control of the body as well as the other
pieces of the soul.
"I was on earth, you" Michael looked at Abras,
"You were in the sanctuary,"
Then he turned to look at Lucifer,
"But where were you?"
"Within both of you fools, experiencing both your pathetic lives. Do

you know how it feels to be caged and do nothing? When both of
you died, I thought I would be finally free but no, I got caged
again. This time, I will end both of you and take the system for
myself. With that ultimate power, I can conquer this world and
everything in this universe"
"And then what?" Abras asked,

"You will bring nothing but death and chaos to the world. Michael
doesn't listen to him, we don't have to walk the path he would
choose. We have everything a man needs to be happy, a job, a
woman who loves us dearly, and people who would shed tears for
us. It's enough"
"You are pathetic. A woman betrayed you and put a dagger

through your heart. A job and a woman, humph. We are born to
be a god and gods must bring their wrath upon the mortals to get
their loyalty and undying devotion. Give me the system and the
control of your being to me. It's time the system had a worthy
user"
Michael was stuck between Lucifer and Abras. If Abras was one
extreme, Lucifer was another extreme. Lucifer hated him and
wanted to go on a killing spree with the help of the system while
Abras wanted to settle down and live a peaceful life. Both of their
wishes were unrealistic.
"You wasted the system's potential. We were supposed to be the

overpowered god walking among mortals. But you chose to
indulge yourself in mere mortal pleasures, care for humans and
recruit weaklings as your subordinates. Gods don't need
subordinates, gods don't need plans, gods don't need alliances,
we only need power and you are too weak to get stronger" Lucifer
walked towards Michael step by step,
"Our old enemies are getting stronger by the day. New powerful
enemies are emerging from the darkest corners. You being
cautious, making alliances, and living a fake life as Ghost will only
let us get killed. Surrender yourselves to me"
"No" Abras stepped forward,
"If you listen to him, he will turn us into everything and prove the
Skyhall and the guardians are right. Leave everything behind you
Michael, we can live peacefully in a corner of this world, the
system can hide us, we can be normal, for the first time in our
lives, we can have a family"
"THIS IMBECILE!" Lucifer lunged at Abras and before either of
them could react, Lucifer punched Abras in the chest.
Yet again the trio was sent flying like kites in the storm. Michael
felt an excruciating pain in his chest but no blood came out of him.
"We are not killers and bringer of darkness Michael" Abras

groaned as he picked himself to his feet,
"We are not a weakling and a beta like him" Lucifer shouted from
the other side.
Stuck between the both of them, Michael just closed his eyes. The
words they spoke to him flashed across his mind once again.
When he opened his eyes, the darkness disappeared as the
golden luster came back to the scenery.
"You are both right and wrong" Michael let out a deep breath,
"Lucifer you are right when you said I'm not using the system to its
full potential, you are right when you said living a fake life as
Ghost will only get us killed"
The dark cloud shrouding Lucifer slowly started to fade away as

he was making peace with the Lucifer soul piece.
"But you are wrong about needing no subordinates, no alliances,

and mortal pleasures. You yourself said we have new enemies
appearing and old enemies getting stronger day by day. We
cannot defeat them by being alone. I am not a God yet and even
gods need subordinates to do their bidding"
Lucifer tried to essay something but raised his hand as no sound

came out of Lucifer's mouth. As the majority soul holder, Michael
started to fully realize his power and exerted his power over
Lucifer.
He then turned his gaze at Abras,
"You are right, we are not bringer of darkness, I found a girl who
loves me more than anything. But you are still naive Abras, we
can't live peacefully, not now, not soon, not ever. You did nothing
wrong and look what happened to you, you were betrayed, your
mistake cost you everyone you ever loved. When I'm done, no
one will be in our way to a life you've dreamed of. Both of you will
get what you want"
Michael exerted his power over both of them. He raised his arms
at both of them as a powerful force pulled Lucifer and Abras
towards Michael.
"If we don't come to peace with each other, neither of us will live
long to get anything we want"
"I only want a peaceful life" Abras was the first to speak. The
gentle smile on his face returned and he looked to be at peace,
"I want our enemies to suffer, this world to fall on its knees before
us and everything we desire" Lucifer's tone was more demanding
rather than requesting. It made sense, after all, he was more of a
maniac and devilish.
"We are the same. No more broken pieces. WE ARE

MICHAEL….WE ARE ABRAS…WE ARE THE DARK LORD!"
Michael screamed at the sky, his voice became the mix of Abras
and Lucifer. Soon, the cloud shrouding Lucifer abandoned him
and began to envelop Michael.
"WE ARE ONE"
This time, both Lucifer and Abras said in unison. The very next
moment, Lucifer and Abras turned into an orb of light and flew
straight into Michael.
"Human…Michael…please wake up…don't leave me…"
"Ghosty…Ghosty…"
Michael heard the voices of Gaya and Nightmare in the distance,
"Argh"
Back on the desolate mountain where Elidry was caged, Michael
sat up.
"Human!" Gaya's scream nearly broke his eardrum and her hug
broke his rib cage. Elidyr squatted before him before putting his
hand on Michael's shoulder.
"You did it… your soul is now whole again"

Chapter 456 The Dark Flames I
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Core Strengthening stage, level 6
Experience Points: 0/600,000
Badass Points: 60,000 (40,000 badass points loan)
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 6
Ignitia - LVL 8
Soul Eater - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 3

others


more powerful, and if activated in darkness, the host's cultivation
level will be boosted 4 levels up regardless of the stage barrier.
The Dark Lord
King of Bradford
Status: Healthy
Utility Function:
Runic Teleportation
4-Star Inventor
Raylene - 5-star Chef (loyalty level 99%)

The Abyssal
The Crypt
Kingdom of Bradford
Elemental Manipulation: Wind (10% Mastery) Fire (10% Mastery)

(Lightning 15% Mastery) (Darkness 20%)
The moment he woke up, he was taken into the system interface
and presented with the status window where he noticed a couple
of changes. He leveled up by two levels. Previously he was a
Core Strengthening stage level 4 cultivator but at the moment, the
status window showed level 6.
Reading through the status, he saw an entirely new row.
"Elemental Manipulation"
As the name suggested, Elemental Manipulation was the power to

control the elements themselves. In this world, only a few could
control elements including Michael. It was a power that belonged
to the most powerful Ancient Gods. Their existence was hidden
from the rest of the world by Skyhall as the existence of new gods
would cause chaos among the religious institutes and alter
everything the people believed.
"So system, what's your explanation for what just happened?"
[The system level is-]
"Thought so" Michael interrupted the system before it could finish

its annoying answer,
"Victoria you bitch" He suddenly remembered the massacre of the

sanctuary. Since the soul piece was merged into one, Michael
didn't feel like Abras was another person.
In addition to the changes in the status window, Michael also

sensed changes in his mentality. For instance, he craved to
control the world more than he felt before. This world lacked Gods'
intervention and Michael wanted to fix that.
Gaya was still embracing him with all her might with Nightmare
stuck between them. His vest started to feel wet by the tears
gushing out of Gaya's eyes,
"Why are you wasting those precious tears? They should come
from our enemies' eyes before dying" Michael lifted her head
gently,
He cupped her face, wiping the tears with his fingers,
"Smile" he smiled at her,
"You scared me bastard"
"Sorry for the inconvenience caused by my broken pieces of the

soul," he said sarcastically,
"Ghosty are you fine now?" Nightmare looked up at him. Michael

never thought a dragon's face could show such a clear-cut
expression. Seeing the dragon worry about him warmed his heart,
"I'm whole again, just like Elidyr said" he looked at the half-elf
standing obediently a few meters away from them.
Michael let go of Gaya and Nightmare to thank Elidyr,
"You served me well Elidyr. I will grant you a wish for what you
did, ask"
As he said to Elidyr, Michael exerted his power over the

surroundings to make everything darker. The storm clouds
blanketed the sun according to his will.
"I wish to serve you as your subordinate and accompany you in

your journey to make this world better my lord"
Elidyr knelt on his one knee, lowering his head,
"Darkness is not evil, it's portrayed as evil. Remember Elidyr,

darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not
always bring good" said Michael,
"I bring darkness so everyone can see the real light. Anything
better than the current world will be a paradise and I will transform
this world into a paradise opposite to Skyhall's and Guardian
Guild's vision"
Michael saw the concern in Elidyr's eyes. It was obvious to

Michael. He wasn't willing to serve him because of loyalty but to
try to deviate Michael from transforming the world into a realm of
darkness which was seen by Qin Jiu in the future.
[Does the host wish to accept Elidyr as a subordinate?]
"Yes"
Michael accepted Elidyr as his subordinate to see his 42% loyalty.

He didn't mind the low loyalty level as he knew better than to
expect 100% loyalty from an ancient elf who he knew only for a
couple of days.
"Rise" Michael gestured at Elidyr as he stood up,

"We should get out of here" Gaya wanted to ask more about how
he merged the soul pieces but before that, she wanted to leave
this pocket dimension. Otherwise, someone might notice him
missing and start investigating.
"I'm not done yet" calmly said Michael,
"Huh?"
"Give me the teleportation scroll, I want the primordial flame"
Since Michael merged his soul with the third piece, the battle
between Rowena and the fire giant that was controlled by him
replayed in his mind. He was stunned by the power of the
Primordial flame.
Coincidence or not, he was presented with a rare opportunity to

acquire a primordial flame to himself through Professor Lane.
Gaya saw the resolve in his eyes and realized there was no use in
arguing with him. Therefore, she took out the parchment from her
space ring with a flick of her wrist,
Michael didn't open the scroll but threw it at Elidyr,
"You're coming with us," said Michael
It took Elidyr a couple of minutes to make changes to the scroll to

teleport four instead of two. Surprisingly the location of the
destination was relatively closer to the gateway to this pocket
dimension.
"Here you go my lord"
Elidyr now started to address Michael as my lord instead of

Lucifer as he used to. Although Elidyr sensed an aura of a god
when he first met him, it had never been as strong as the aura he
released after the ritual. He couldn't get himself to address Lucifer
by his name.
Michael passed the scroll to Gaya as she sent a sliver of Arch

energy into the scroll. The scroll began to glow brighter and
brighter and in a blink of an eye, a golden light enveloped them.
After being teleported away from the pocket dimension, they

noticed that they were back in the black forest. Before the four of
them was a minor fallen tree in an overcast morass marked the
entrance to the dungeon.
Beyond the fallen tree lies a modest, clammy room. It's covered in
dead vermin, ash, and moss.
Elidyr conjured a bright orb of light to light the path before them.
The bright light revealed the rusted weapons racks and opened
crates, wasted and ravaged by time itself.
As they went further through the dungeon, the pathway split into
two paths.
Michael retrieved two drones from the system storage and sent
one to explore each path. The path on his right had countless
traps installed. But the drone activated none of them because the
traps were not designed to sense arch energy. Whoever built the
dungeon placed a void array and never expected one to use arch
energy inside the dungeon. Several minutes later, the drone
reached the end of the path where there was nothing but a dead
end.
"Left" Michael entered the path on his left
Its twisted trail leads passed long-lost rooms and tombs.

Everything was cleaned up and there was nothing valuable that
attracted Michael's attention. Since the drone was exploring
ahead of them and sending live feed, Michael knew the path and
traps in place. They avoided the usual pressure traps and
tripwires by floating above the ground. As they traveled further
and further, they began to notice countless broken skeletons on
the ground. Moreover, there were bloodstains on the walls and the
ceiling above them.
"Is it me or do they look fresh?" Gaya pointed at the bloodstains

on the wall.
"The smell…is also fresh" Nightmare took a whiff of the air and
said,
They cautiously proceeded onwards, deeper into the dungeon's

expanse.
Despite the various passages opened up to them, Michael led

them through the correct one thanks to the drones. The various
passages all looked so similar as this whole place was a maze.
They eventually made it to what is likely the end. Only a ground

filled with skeletons, broken limbs, and dead bodies could be seen
between them and a single room at the end of the hall.
Elidyr sensed countless runes all around, somehow untouched by

time and the elements. Gaya on the other hand waved her hand
as the remains of skeletons soldiers floated towards them from
the ground,
She inspected the deep cuts on their bones as well as the

scorched marks that almost burned the bones to ashes.
"The Primordial flame" her inspection was abruptly interrupted by

the words that came out of Michael's mouth. The drone he sent to
explore the room at the end of the hall was destroyed the moment
it entered the room but not before sending him a millisecond feed
of the room where he saw something magnificent, Pitch Black
Flames. The flames, their beauty was beyond any words. They
danced in the air as though they were waiting for someone to be
partnered with. It was weird of him to feel like the flames were
calling for him.
"Someone's been here recently, someone powerful" Elidyr

frowned after seeing the countless limbs of mountain trolls lying
around. Defeating one mountain troll without using arch energy
was extremely difficult if not impossible. But whoever ventured into
the dungeon before they slaughtered so many.
The only explanation Elidyr could come up with was either they
used arch energy or something much more powerful because
there was no way one could survive this dungeon without
cultivation power.
"Maybe the Holy Maiden?" asked Gaya,
"Whoever it is, we will meet them soon," Michael said before

slowly floating towards the room to claim the primordial flame to
himself.
Chapter 457 The Dark Flames
II
The closer they got to the room, Gaya felt an immense amount of
pressure crushing them. It was as though an invisible mountain
landed on their shoulder. Nightmare gasped for air in Gaya's
hands.
"Stay here" Noticing the hard time they were having, Michael
decided not to take them with him into the chamber.
"I'm not gonna argue" Gaya agreed with him and so did Elidyr with
a nod,
When Michael entered the chamber, he saw the black flames

dancing above a pillar made of marble. Like the flames had
sensed him, they leaned in his direction.
Michael slowly reached out for the flames as they advanced

toward him.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Extreme level of radiation detected!]
The system went crazy in his head. He ignored all the red warning
poppings that were blocking his sight. As he was getting closer to
the black flames, the warnings and the shoutings of the system
vanished.
[Does the host wish to absorb the Dark flames?]

The system asked when he was just a few inches away from the
flames.
"Yes"
Michael touched the flames and the moment the flame and his
fingers met, a wave of energy surged over him wave after wave.
The flames seeped through his hand into his very being. He felt
like he was being struck by thousands of lightning bolts
simultaneously. But instead of pain, it was a feeling of comfort.
[Absorbing the Dark Flame...]
[Activating the Energy devourer…]
The energy devourer continued to transform the excess energy

into experience points. Micheal thought it would stop in a few
minutes but on the contrary, it lasted until he began to level up
rapidly.



His excitement was going through the roof. He bottled his

excitement when he reached Core Strengthening stage Level 9 as
he thought his leveling up would stop there.
[Congratulations to the host for reaching the next stage, the Soul
Refining stage!]
"Oh my god, he's breaking through" Gaya sensed the violent

energy fluctuations in the surroundings.
The Celestial energy descended from the realm of angels creating

ripples in the night sky. The last time Michael witnessed the
Celestial energy descending was when he traveled to the
Rainbow island where Layla's disciples prevented Christopher
from reaching the Soul Refining stage.
The system regulated the Celestial energy through Energy

devourer. Hence, the jumping from the Core Strengthening stage
to the Soul Refining stage was so much smoother than the rest of
the cultivators in the world.
His skin turned darker and darker to the point he looked downright
black except for his crimson red eyes. But soon, the red fire in his
eyes was too invaded by the dark flames and transformed from
red to black.

Soul Refining stage Level 1!]

Soul Refining stage Level 2!]
The leveling up spree finally stopped at Soul Refining stage level

2. The Dark flames now completely merged themselves with
Michael's soul, strengthening every fiber in his body.
[The Dark Flame absorption is completed]
[All of the host's spells and skills has strengthened by the Dark
Flames]
[The host is now immune to all the attacks under the Soul Refining
stage except attacks powered by another Primordial flame]
[The host's mastery over the Darkness element is increased by
5%]
[The host's mastery over the Fire element is increased by 5%]
[Potions and pills made using Dark Flames will have 94% purity ]
[The spell Responsive shield has merged with Dark Flames and
transformed into Dark Shield ]
[The spell Ignitia has merged with Dark Flames and transformed
into Dark Ignitia]
[The spell Wind Blast has merged with Dark Flames and
transformed into Dark Blast]
[The spell Ring of Fire has merged with Dark Flames and
transformed into Ring of Dark Fire]
All these spells were powered up by the dark flames and became
much more powerful. All these changes transformed him from a
mortal cultivator to a god like existence. Anyone under the Soul
Refining stage would have no chance of defeating him even if
they used Legendary spells. He could kill them with a single spell
in his normal form and if he was in his full Lucifer form, it would
only take him a punch to destroy his foes.
Moreover, in his complete Lucifer form, he could defeat anyone in

the Soul Refining stage and had the chance to defeat cultivators
under Fusion Stage level 3.
The Dark Flames was one of the power seeds of darkness. Every
time he obtains a seed of darkness, his power would grow
exponentially. No one in this world knew the existence of these
power seeds and just like the seeds of darkness, there existed the
seeds of light.
In the race to get the seeds, Noah already obtained Heaven's

flames. By absorbing the Dark Flames, Michael now equalized
odds. However, compared to Noah, Michael was on the next level
in terms of power because Michael obtained the Primordial flames
of his source power; Darkness. Noah on the other hand absorbed
Heaven's flame, not the Light flame. Hence, he didn't go through
the change as Michael did.
"This feels good," Michael grinned as he conjured the dark flames.

The majestic dark flames danced over his palms. Then in a blink
of an eye, the flames turned emerald green. He could now change
the flames to his will.
"Human"
Just as he was about to see what else he could do now, Gaya

called him.
He walked out of the chamber only to see the skeletons as well as

the dead bodies reanimating again.
In a couple of minutes, hundreds of skeleton soldiers and almost

twenty mountain trolls stood in front of them. The dungeon
expanded in size to accommodate all the trolls and the skeletons.
Gaya could crush the skeletons no problem but the trolls were the
real threat. Even with her cultivation, if the trolls managed to get
their hands on her before she cast spells, she was as good as
dead.
Edlidyr felt the same except he had no Core Strengthening stage

cultivation. If he were to fight the army of skeletons in front of him,
even with his runes, he could survive the dungeon for a few
minutes top.
Due to the army of skeletons and trolls in front of her, Gaya had
no time to be stunned by his breakthrough into the Soul Refining
Stage.
The sight of hundreds of skeletons and trolls didn't scare him the
slightest. On the contrary, it put a grin on his face.
"Stay back"
Michael said calmly before walking towards the skeletons and the
trolls. Immediately the skeletons standing in front rushed at him
waving the rusty swords in their hands.
"Dark Blast"
Gaya witnessed a dark crescent wave shoot out of him, blasting

the skeletons to pieces. Everything the dark wave touched burned
to oblivion. With a single spell, Michael decimated at least thirty
skeleton soldiers and he didn't even use his full power.
"Lightning Dash" in a flash, he dashed to the center of the army.
"Ring of Dark Fire"
Before the skeletons and trolls could react, he cast another spell.
A circle of dark flames shot out of him scorching everything
around him in a five-meter radius. It didn't stop at that as the ring
continued to send towering waves of dark flames. The flames
burnt the trolls to ash like dried sticks.
Unfortunately, these skeletons and trolls had no arch energy in

them. Otherwise, he would have earned enough experience
points to level up yet again.
Still, Michael wasn't disappointed. They proved to be good

dummies to test his evolved spells. The display of his power left
Elidyr in a daze. Each of his spells had the power to rival the most
powerful Legendary Spells. They were not as fancy as some but
deadlier than most.
In a few minutes, he had burnt almost two hundred skeletons and

twenty trolls. The most powerful spell in his arsenal turned out to
be Ignitia. Merged with Dark flames, the golden lightning bolts
turned into bolts of black lightning. Each bolt blasted through the
skeletons and burst open the trolls' heads into red mist as though
they were melons.
Half of the army had been reduced to ashes. At this point, Gaya
wasn't even surprised by his power.
"Now time for my full form" Michael willed the system to equip his
Lucifer armor, activate Cloud of Darkness as well as Eyes of
darkness which flared up in black due to the Dark flames instead
of crimson red.
The dungeon fell dark all of a sudden. The remaining skeletons

and the trolls rushed at him mindlessly. They had no strategy or
fear as they were just animated corpses that had a single
purpose, killing the intruders.
"Death Range"
The dungeon became darker as Elidyr noticed a black circle

expand from him, wrapping everything in its path.
"Ring of Dark Fire"
This time when he cast the spell, the dungeon trembled. The ring
of dark flames was more violent like surging tsunami waves. Elidyr
and Gaya heard unearthly vibrations as well as sensed the energy
pulsating in the dungeon.
Boom!
One single wave, only one single wave. Every skeleton and troll
was reduced to nothingness. Not even ashes remained after the
dark flames brushed past them.
"This is my true power" Michael mumbled under his breath. Even

he was startled by his own power. Thinking that he only used 20%
of his power and didn't enhance the spell further with Celestial
energy made him feel sorry for his enemies.
"Ghosty is scary" Nightmare's eyes went wide open. In the corner

of his little heart, a sliver of fear emerged just like Elidyr.
Chapter 458 Pirate Heaven
Aden
Inside the Ice Palace, Rowena meditated with her eyes closed.
Her eyes slowly opened when she sensed Bai Ning approaching
her. Bai Ning waved her hand as the mist shrouding the room
faded away revealing the empty room built of cold ice.
"Holy Maiden" Bai Ning approached Rowena,
"I scoured the black forest but I didn't find the fire giant's remains"
Rowena slowly opened her eyes after hearing Bai Ning,
"That is now a problem of Mazeroth," Rowena said coldly,
"But Holy Maiden…The energy I sensed from the fire giant, was
something ominous and sinister"
"It's the Dark Lord"
Bai Ning felt a chill running through her spine the moment
Rowena said this. She suspected it, still, it was shocking to hear
from the Holy Maiden.
"I must alert the elders"
"Don't bother. I already ordered them to stand down"
Bai Ning was stunned,
"What? Why?"
"How long have you been searching for the Dark Lord?" Rowena
stood up,
Bai Ning couldn't guess what was the meaning behind her
question,
"For nearly four thousand years" answered Bai Ning,
"You didn't find him then and you are not going to find him now. If I
am right, he has covered all his tracks"
Rowena was calm, too calm despite the situation. Bai Ning
disliked the Holy Maiden taking the threat posed by the Dark Lord
so lightly. However, the old woman knew better than to disagree
with Rowena,
"What do you suggest we should do, Holy Maiden?"
"Nothing" As Rowena said, she gracefully walked toward the wall

behind her and waved her hand. The wall slowly split open
revealing the floating mountains and puffy clouds beneath them.
Rowena closed her eyes, absorbing the cold energy of the
dazzling moonlight.
"The Dark Lord won't stay in Akilan Realm for long"
"We have to catch him," Bai Ning said to herself.
"When the time comes, we will meet the Dark Lord"
Rowena would rather focus on getting stronger than wasting her

time looking for the Dark Lord. It was not her job but the Great
Eight clans'.
She approached Bai Ning and then flicked her wrist as a golden
parchment appeared in her hands. The scroll looked exactly the
same as the invitation to Mazeroth that Ghost received,
"Mazeroth has chosen Sabrina, send this to her" Rowena handed

over the parchment to Bai Ning,
"Holy Maiden, if I may, can I ask you something?"
Rowena nodded at Bai Ning,
"Your brother was also chosen by Mazeroth but why didn't he

come?"
"Because I told him not to, not yet"
Bai Ning was stunned,
"Do you remember the assassins you brought me, Bai Ning?"
Bai Ning began to sweat under her robes despite the chillness of
the room.
"An oblivious spell was cast on them"
"Oblivious spell?" Bai Ning's brows arched up. The oblivious spell
was created by Qin Jiu herself. This spell could only be cast by
someone from Skyhall. Almost four thousand years ago Qin Jiu
invented the spell to forget about the Dark Lord. It was way before
Qin Jiu mustered the courage to fight back. After she escaped
from the future, she desperately wanted to erase the memories of
the Dark Lord. Those memories were beyond horrible.
With her three best friends' help, she created Oblivious which
could erase someone's memories in part or as a whole. However,
when she realized the risk of using such a spell, she made sure
that only someone from Skyhall could cast the spell.
Before disappearing from Akilan Realm, Wulfric used the

Oblivious spell on Elidyr, erasing all of Elidyr's memories of Wulfric
as well as those who participated in the ritual.
"Yes. you know what this means right?" asked Rowena as Bai
Ning felt the room becoming colder and colder. The Holy Maiden's
eyes flickered with cold killing intent,
"Someone…someone from…Skyhall…cast it" each word of these

words could barely escape her mouth. Just by thinking about the
possibility that someone inside Skyhall may have targeted the
Holy Maiden's family rendered her body a living statue. She could
not even breathe looking at the Holy Maiden.
"You wouldn't happen to know who might be this traitor, would

you?" Rowena placed her hand on Bai Ning's shoulder as the old
woman's entire body froze for a moment,
"Ho…Holy…Maiden"
"I want everything about everyone in Skyhall. You have a week"
When Rowena took her arm off of Bai Ning's shoulder, the ice
layer covering the old woman's body vanished into thin air,
"Yes Holy Maiden" Bai Ning shuddered,
The old woman bowed deeply in fear and when she was about to
turn back and leave, Rowena called her again,
"Bai Ning"
"Holy Maiden"
"Not a single word about this to anyone" Rowena's words were

colder than usual. They made the old woman shiver,
"I swear on my life Holy Maiden. I won't speak of this to anyone"
After Bai Ning left the room, Rowena waved her hand as the wall
sealed close.
"Whoever you are, you dug your own grave"
Rowena's killing intent rose through the roof. More than anything
in this world, Rowena loved her family the most. The elders of
Skyhall advised her to cut the ties with her family as a Holy
Maiden should but Rowena outright refused it. She would destroy
anyone who dared to threaten the safety of her family, even if that
someone belonged to the Skyhall. For Rowena, her family
mattered more than the Skyhall or the elders.
*******************************
Cast on the Eastern side of a Southern Continent, the town of

Aden was home to pirates led by one of the three Pirate Lords,
Gibbes 'Blackmane' Jett.
This town wasn't built by an island by accident, as it had spiritual

significance, which was of great importance to the pirates of Aden
and its success despite the myth that pirates didn't give any
importance to spiritual well-being.
The town itself looked hideous and striking at the same time. With
its willow wood rooftops, redwood walls, and white, sandy
beaches. The main attraction was the lighthouse, which was built
21 years ago and designed by the elves.
The pirate population in Aden grew to over 2,000 residents,

quickly outnumbering the 100 or so original law-abiding citizens.
This once port city belonged to the Royal Navy of Awor had
quickly grown lawless and became an exciting mecca for
criminals, escapees, former slaves, and mercenaries.
In simple words, Aden was the safe haven for all the pirates in the
Southern Continent where they lived as freemen doing whatever
they wanted to plunder whoever they wanted.
The sea was calm under the morning sun. Everything was going
on as usual in Aden. Some pirates were sunbathing after drinking
a little too much rum, and some pirates were making their way to
the nearby tavern to drink rum after vomiting because they had
drunk too much rum. No matter where one turned, they could see
the pirates drinking, pissing, and having sex wherever they want
as though they had no idea of privacy or shame.
The place was completely lawless but for the pirates, this place
was their republic where the freemen reigned. Among the drunk
pirates, only one remained steady, this pirate was barely four feet
tall and one would hardly recognize him as a pirate instead of as a
kid.
"Finally they are here"
This little pirate was none other than Shorty. He was sent to Aden
as a scout with a few others who were lying god knows where fully
drunk.
"Hey look"
"War Frigate approaching"

"What the hell?"
"What flag are they flying?"
Some of the pirates who were not so drunk saw the five ships
approaching their island and began to wake the others. Old
Bertha was gracefully sailing in front like a formidable leader. The
name Old Bertha hardly suited her as now she was fitted with
brand new cannons, reinforced black hull, black sails, brand new
rudder as well as two mortars, one between each neighboring pair
of masts for long-range battle. Behind her were four brigades and
they were all sailing in a rhombus formation.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Shorty heard the bell sounds ring across the island, alerting the
rest of the pirates and mainly, the pirate captains.
"It's Pirate Lord Corey"
"They are flying Pirate Lord Corey's flags"
The experienced pirates quickly recognized the lips and lightning

bolt symbol on the black flag. The moment they saw the flags,
they knew the ships belonged to Pirate Lord Corey and did not
dare to fire the mortars.
The residents of Aden quickly arrived at the port to see the five
ships anchoring. Their eyes were glued to the mean-looking Old
Bertha. They had never seen a ship completely painted in black
as pirates considered painting the ships a waste of gold coins.
Shorty couldn't wait to join back on Old Bertha. He was getting

sick of living in Aden. All one could do on this island was get drunk
and since Shorty quit drinking so he could become a cultivator, he
had nothing else to do except watch others get drunk and hump.
Nonetheless, he still couldn't join his crew, not yet. Standing under
a coconut tree with a few other pirates, Shorty saw Gibson
walking out of Bertha first followed by Tiberius. Shorty was
surprised to see Tiberius with Gibson instead of Maxine.
"That's her"
"Pirate Lord Corey"
"Really? She is scary as fuck"
"Who is that crippled old man and the guy behind her?"
"Shh, she might hear you"
"Keep your mouths shut, don't you know she can kill you with a
single look?"
"She is a witch"
The pirates began to murmur. Most of them were shocked to see

Corey because she was seldom seen outside of her island. Even
Blackmane made more appearances to the pirates than her.
Hence, when she came to Aden, the pirates were astonished.
Moreover, she arrived with only four ships rather than with a small
fleet.
The pirates followed Corey and the men at a safe distance. Most
were curious to see the purpose of Corey's visit while some just
blindly followed the others.
Shorty followed the men to the west side of the island where
Pirate Lord Blackmane resided with a couple of his pirate
captains. At the moment, Pirate Lord Blackmane went somewhere
else taking a small fleet with him and the one who was staying in
Blackmane's castle was another Pirate Lord, Pirate Lord Vance.
The castle was not as majestic as the castles on other continents.

It was rather a run-down castle with five slim, square towers
scattered in a seemingly random pattern. They had been built for
an ideal defense and were connected by fortified, heavy walls
made of basalt. There many holes and remnants of siege battle
could be seen in the walls. Wide windows were scattered
generously around the walls in seemingly perfect symmetry, along
with same-sized holes for archers and artillery.
Several minutes later, they finally reached the castle gates and
were greeted by a red-haired lady with two rapiers hanging on
either side of her slender waist and a bold man in tattered golden
robes at the gates.
"Pirate Lord Corey, what a pleasant surprise" the red-haired lady

spoke in a seductive tone,
"Pirate Lord Vance is eagerly waiting for you inside" the man on
the other hand spoke in a rather cold tone but Corey ignored both
of their greetings and strode into the castle to spread the name of
their new lord.
Chapter 459 Become Lord
Lucifer’s Pirate Lord
After they entered the castle grounds, Gibson noticed barrels of

rum, hay dummies, and cannons being repaired by pirates. Unlike
outside the castle gates, the pirates inside were doing some kind
of chores instead of being drunk and lying on the sandy ground.
There were at least fifty archers atop the castle walls, all glancing
at them. If they were to make a single wrong move, hundreds of
arrows would riddle their bodies in a blink of an eye. Even if the
archers had bad aim, they had the advantage of height.
In addition to the archers, several groups of pirates sat in groups

around campfires. These groups were the pirate version of
patrolling soldiers.
While Gibson was counting the pirates, Tiberius looked at the

holes and remnants of cannon blasts in the castle walls. He could
guess how many siege battles these castle walls must have gone
through before submitting to the pirates.
In Tiberius's mind, the pirates were wasting the island's potential

by just treating it as their one super big tavern. There was no law,
order, or even basic hygiene. He remembered Lucifer saying 'if
these pirates were left ungoverned, they would not only be a
threat to others but also to themselves'
He could now agree with Lucifer's statement. He wondered why

the Royal Navy of Awor didn't bombard this island and deal with
the pirate threat.
"Why didn't we see any of Blackmane's fleet on the sea?" asked

Tiberius,
The pirates were not fond of a strict hierarchy and calling others
'my lords'. They considered themselves freemen so even the
Pirate Lord could be called by his name without any titles. Pirates
hated these noble titles.
Most of them hardcore pirates like Blackmane believed respect is

earned through power and riches, not by titles. The only titles they
allowed were 'Captain' and 'Pirate Lord'. But the title Captain gave
no immunity to the captain as the title king would. If the crew
became unhappy with their captain, they would throw the captain
off the board or hang him or her in a heartbeat. The same was
true for the Pirate Lord too but there was never been an incident
where the crew mutinied against a Pirate Lord before.
"Why? You want to test us?" the bold guy in golden robes
snickered,
"Don't mind my friend here, he's being a bitch because his ship is
under repair and couldn't go plunder as he wants" the female
pirate chuckled to calm both of these men before either of them
started a fight.
"We don't usually anchor our fleet in Aden, friend. As they say,
don't put all your eggs into one basket"
Tiberius agreed with the pirate woman as they walked past

several pirates rolling barrels after barrels into a cabin. Just the
smell permeating from those barrels was enough to make their
taste buds savor the sweetness of the rum within.
"So Vance is still plundering only the ships that carry rum?" Pirate
Lord Corey asked the red-haired pirate,
"Of course. Isn't that genius Pirate Lord Corey? We hit ships with
gold, sugar, gems, and all that will turn into gold coins and go
straight to buy rum. Why go through all that trouble when you can
directly take what you really want?"
"It shouldn't make sense but it does" Corey chuckled
At first, Tiberius thought its stupid to plunder only the ships that
carry rum shipments but after meeting the pirates, it sounded way
less stupid to him.
If anything, this was a stroke of genius because most navy ships
carried gold, gems, ores, sugar, and weapon shipments.
Plundering those ships was not only risky but would also make
them a threat to a kingdom or worse, a threat to the Awor Empire.
Rum however carried by merchant ships and plundering merchant

ships was like taking candy from a baby compared to plundering a
navy ship.
Besides, like the red-haired pirate said, even if the pirates

plundered tons of gold, their earnings would eventually be used to
buy rum and whores. By directly plundering rum and the valuables
from the merchant ships, they could easily get both without any
hassle.
Eventually, after passing several more rum warehouses, they

climbed a set of gray stone stairs to step onto the throne hall
which had been turned into a lavish tavern. Several long oak
tables were placed from the bar counter to the end of the hall. As
expected the primary clientele of the tavern was pirates and the
maids were ladies who generously revealed their deep cleavage
to their customers. Of course, some outright seemed
uncomfortable putting up with all the butt slapping and hand
grabbing.
Tiberius's nose twitched due to the stench of piss, vomit, and rum.
Despite the stench, the tavern itself was packed and lively thanks
to the singing and dancing.
"I have to give it to them, they are one happy bunch," Tiberius
thought in his mind. Building a country for the freedom fighters
and managing it was harder than he had imagined. Some days,
he would prefer to fight in the arena than to go through the
necessities they want and the gold coins they have. The task of
being a ruler was stressing him and Maxine suggested he take a
rest and spend his time in Old Bertha. 'Live a pirate life' that what
she said to him.
Living with them helped him more than he liked to admit. He had
no worries, no responsibilities. He just trained, sailed the seas,
singing with the crew, and drank and ate as hearty as he wanted.
Being a pirate was fun except the world was changing and if the
pirates didn't change with it, only extinction awaited them.
"Hey Melina, you wanna drink?" a bearded old man raised his
mug and shouted at the red-haired pirate as they were making
their way to the stairs behind the bar counter.
"Join you later" The red-haired pirate waved at the old man,
Meanwhile, some pirates noticed the tattoo-covered Corey and

recognized her. Tiberius and Gibson could hear various chatter
focused on Corey. None of them dared to raise their voice or
approach Corey because of her infamous reputation as a Witch.
Melina and the bold man knocked on the door after climbing the
stairs leading to the second floor.
"Come in"
Melina opened the room to be welcomed by a man sitting behind

a large oak table with several maps and rum bottles. He had a
pair of dark brown eyes, a tanned complexion, straight black hair
hanging over his broad shoulders, and a stubble beard. Currently,
he was sitting on a chair and drinking with his feet atop the table.
A long greatcoat was hanging on the stand near the table and he
was in a dark shirt revealing his chiseled chest and matching gray
leather trousers. He also wore a stud earring on both ears as well
as a scar that ran across his left cheek.
"What a fucking surprise? Pirate Lord Corey, here in Aden,

outside of her witch island"
Just like his look, his thick voice too had a flare of cruelty to it.
"Go entertain yourselves" Gibson dismissed the crew by sending

them to the tavern below with a pouch of gold coins. After the
crew left the room, the bold man closed the door as Corey took
the chair in front of the table while Tiberius and Gibson sat on the
chairs behind Corey. They let Pirate Lord Corey lead the
negotiation as they planned.
"What can I say? Times are changing Vance" Corey calmly said,
"I assume your sudden visit to Aden is not to enjoy our hospitality"
"Not entirely true, I heard you can't find a finer rum anywhere else"
"Whores too" Vance grabbed Melina's hands before pulling her

closer to him. She sat on the chair's arm, seductively laughing.
"I heard things too Corey. Things like the legendary Silent Reaper
resurface, one of your pirate captains leaving your side to join
another crew, and my favorite," Vance paused for a second and
went on,
"Magic wielding captain, if I was not too drunk, I heard he's called
Lucifer"
"Lord, Lord Lucifer" Corey corrected Vance and when Vance saw
the look on Corey's face, he was surprised. Initially, he didn't
believe such a rumor that someone was using magic inside the
void line. To this day, he couldn't believe Corey was able to use
magic. Imagine his surprise when his crew told him that the
captain of the black ship could cast spells and use magic.
"Did I hear you right? Melina did she say Lord? Because I heard
she say Lord" Vance asked Melina,
"Yes she did"
"So when you said times are changing, you meant you became
someone else's bitch"
Gibson quickly pressed Tiberius's feet with his fake leg to stop him
from lunging at Vance. Like it or not, they were in a pirate fortress
without Lord Lucifer or the Dark Queen. Old Bertha could give a
hell of a fight but she wouldn't be able to survive if all the pirate
ships and defenses around Aden bombarded them.
"Being a bitch is better than being dead Vance. You have to be

alive to enjoy the pirate life" Corey smiled but behind that smile,
one could see the hidden menacing look.
"If I don't know any better, I would consider that as a threat"
Vance's voice became colder,
"What I'm here to offer you is an opportunity of a lifetime Vance"

Corey leaned forward,
"Getting richer and stronger without making an enemy out of the

kingdoms and Awor, how does this sound Vance?"
"Let's just assume I'm interested in such an opportunity, what's the

catch gonna be?"
Vance did not seem to be interested at all. Instead of looking at

Corey while he was speaking, he was playing with Melina.
Tiberius's eyes twitched, he knew by looking at Vance's attitude
and the way he talked, that this negotiation was destined to fail.
"Join Lord Lucifer's ranks as his Pirate Lord"
The moment Corey spoke these words, Vance stopped playing

with Melina's lips. He turned his gaze to Corey and those pair of
eyes were flowing with murder.
"In other words, you… want… me… to… be…" Vance stood up,
"A BITCH!"
He banged the table as the rum bottles on the table blasted away.
Despite Vance's outburst, Corey was still calm.
"What if I say Lord Lucifer can grant us immortality?"
Melina and the bold man who listened to Corey were startled.
Vance wasn't interested in riches and power like many others in

this world. He would rather live his life plundering rum and
drinking than capitalize on a golden opportunity. There was
nothing much Corey could offer that would tempt him except
immortality.
Chapter 460 The all mighty
Sun Rise Sect
"That shit doesn't work for us. Your sales pitch would have worked
on those freaks who call themselves cultivators" Vance snickered,
"Sigh" Corey sighed,
"It seems like you need a demonstration" Vance saw Corey close
her eyes. Subconsciously he took a step back from the table,
Corey felt the crystal pendant on her neck warming up. The
warmth slowly spread through every being in her body.
"Crystal Dagger" she opened her eyes abruptly, raising her hand
at Vance. Melina and the bald man immediately jumped in front of
Vance to defend though they were too late. They only felt a gush
of wind blow past their faces.
"Fuck!" Vance stumbled back as a blue dagger floated in the air

just an inch away from right between his eyes. He shuddered and
without his control, he started to sweat under his shirt.
Melina and the bald man's faces lost all color and became pale.
Melina's hands on her rapier were shaking. This had heard about
cultivators casting spells and using magic but this was the first
time they had witnessed it in real life.
They couldn't stop themselves from shivering. The dagger was

still hovering in the air radiating a chilling aura.
"Argh fuck" Vance growled when he tried to grab the dagger. The
dagger's cold surface burned his palm,
"This is just a taste of power Lord Lucifer blessed me with Vance.

In Front of him, we are powerless and insignificant as ants.
Imagine the possibilities of having such powers Vance, we can be
much more than Pirate Lords"
Corey put her hand down as the dagger vanished into thin air.
Only now Vance could let out a heavy breath. He just stared death
in its eyes and survived to tell the tale. His mind was slowly
digesting the fact of how insignificant and powerless he was just
as she said. If Corey wanted, she could have simply killed him
and the two pirate captains in a blink of an eye without making
any fuss. They could have walked out of the island simply as by
the time the drunken pirates notice their bodies, they would have
been long gone.
Still, every fiber in his body screamed against him at the thought
of serving someone else other than himself. He felt as if he was
being forced to bend his knees. He preferred to die on his feet
than to live on his knees like a true pirate.
"You have two weeks to give us your answer Vance" Corey stood
up to leave,
"What if I didn't?" Vance's question stopped her on her way to the

door,
"Nothing" Corey didn't even turn back,
"If you can't grab an opportunity when it slaps you on the face,
you're not the pirate I thought you are"
Tiberius followed Corey and Gibson behind leaving the pirates

stunned. He couldn't help chuckling, noticing the fear in their eyes.
"Pirate Lord Corey, is it okay to leave them? You know, they might
blabber" Gibson asked as they were climbing down the stair,
"They should" Corey smiled,
"Everything went according to Lord Lucifer's plan"
Gibson wasn't surprised by her words and neither was Tiberius.

They both knew that Lucifer was as cunning as he was powerful.
"Those pirates should be grateful they didn't come here," Tiberius
calmly said. The 'they' he meant were Lucifer and Dark Queen.
"I've yet to see someone live after saying no to him"
The trio left Aden after staying for a day. Shorty handed over all
the information he gathered in Aden to Gibson which was then
transferred to Maxine. Old Bertha started her voyage searching
for Blackmane, the last Pirate Lord.
**********************************
The Broad River sect of Kingdom Kethen was a beautiful castle

surrounded by majestic gardens and fountains magically created
out of the crystal blue lake surrounding the sect. The sect looked
very impressive despite having stood for over five hundred years.
Many buildings were being built and the existing buildings were
getting repaired. The major construction work was on the main
castle. It was believed that the magnificent fountain in the middle
of the sect's park had healing and beautifying properties.
The sect had an average reputation under the previous Sect

Leader Mathias. However, the new Sect Leader Ella raised the
reputation of the sect to one of the best in Kethen after merging
the Broad River sect with the famous Sun Rise sect of River town.
Many nobles in Kethen and the fellow sects tried to destroy the
Broad River sect by fanning the flames between Ella and Mathias
during the inner conflict.
However, the civil war soon came to an end when the majority of
the students and elders sided with Ella to merge with the Sun Rise
sect and Mathias was burnt to death by the bandits. The sect was
still investigating Mathias's death to apprehend the bandits who
killed him except many believed it was Ella who killed Mathias
with the help of Ghost, the rising star of River town who now held
the title of 'King' on top of many.
The name 'Sun Rise Sect' was hanging on the gateway instead of
their previous name 'Broad River Sect'. They engraved the golden
words on black metal. At the moment, Ella was going through a
stack of documents located on a long oak table in a spacious
room with many windows and many portraits of the previous sect
leaders. The portrait of Ella's family, a bearded man and a black-
haired lady in a red dress hung behind Ella.
There were some delicate silver instruments puffing smoke and

whirring on a table next to the big oak table. One could also see
several book racks filled with ancient books and parchments. All
of them were illuminated by the majestic chandelier right above
the crimson red rug. Any visitors could rest on the comfy black
couches given to her by Claire as a gift.
In addition to the couches, there was a wooden throne-like chair

located just before the oak table for having official talks.
Unlike before, Ella did not wear a dark cloak covering herself.
Thanks to Ghost's potions and cream, her burnt skin recovered its
natural glow. Her skin now glowed like jade so she wore colorful
clothes that expressed her joy rather than gloomy dark robes.
Despite her forty-plus age, she looked as though she was still in
her late teens. She had already started to receive many proposals
only to get rejected by her one after another. She was rejecting
not because she had no plans to get married but rather because
she was waiting for the right man.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
While she was reading all the income and expenses reports of the
sect, someone knocked on the door,
"Headmistress"
"Come in," Ella said and put down the report to take a break,
A young female disciple dressed in a long black coat with red

linings walked into the room carrying a cup and saucer.
"Headmistress, here's your tea" the young girl brightly smiled at
Ella and placed the tray on the table.
"And Headmistress, Sect Leader Olivier has arrived and is on his

way to meet you"
Ella took a sip of tea and felt a surge of sweet aromatic energy
exploding in every fiber in her body. The exhaustion of reading
through the report evaporated along with the smoke coming out of
the tea. She took a deep breath as the tasting buds in her tongue
had a small party.
"Headmistress…" the young girl chuckled silently looking at Ella's

expression,
"Oh yeah, Olivier, good. It's time I had a little chat with him. You
can go now Peggy"
The young girl bowed and when the girl reached the door, Ella
stopped her
"Peggy, Hades is reopening today. Tell Master Ricky to book a

table for two"
Just by thinking of Hades, Ella's mouth started drooling. To be

honest, she could not wait to finish the meeting with Olivier and
stuff her belly with as much food as she could. It had been too
long since she tasted Raylene's cooking. She was glad to be in
the close circle of Ghost. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to get a
table in Hades whenever she wanted. Even the princess of Royal
land and her friends had to book a table two weeks earlier.
"As you wish, Headmistress"
After the girl left the room, Ella continued to enjoy every sip of tea.
She felt the thousand she spent on getting a flask of Raylene's tea
was totally worth it. Each and every sip was sweet mind-boggling
goodness that soothed her from within. Only she hated the feeling
of the bottom of the cup.
"Headmistress is waiting for you my lord" Ella heard the guards
outside speaking to someone and shortly after, she saw Olivier, a
bald old man with a bushy white beard strolling into the room. The
old man looked to be in his late seventies and wore plain white
robes. He looked to be in his late seventies while his real age
ranged between hundred to hundred and fifty. Ella noticed the
dark circles under his eyes.
Everyone in the sect leaders circle knew the man was struggling
to break through to the Core Strengthening stage. He was stuck
on the Core Formation level 10 for more than ten and even
Ghost's revitalizing pills or cultivation enhancers could not break
his bottleneck. That didn't mean Ghost was unable to help Olivier
with his bottleneck. In fact, he left a crate of special potions just for
people who were suffering from cultivation bottlenecks.
A potion from that crate was Ella's major bargaining chip with the
negotiation she is about to have with Olivier.
"Thank you for coming to meet me, Sect Leader Olivier. Please
take a seat" Ella gestured at Olivier to take a seat. Regardless,
the current Broad River sect was much more prominent than
Olivier's White Cloud Sect and in fact, the two sects shouldn't be
compared as the current Broad River Sect had become a
mammoth in Kethen. That was why Olivier came all the way from
his sect to meet Ella when she summoned him.
Offending Ella would be like offending the Sun Rise sect.

Nowadays, they had the same influence and power to be equal to
the three big sects themselves.
"How would you like to join our Sun Rise sect, Sect Leader
Olivier?"
Chapter 461 Takeovers
Elon and Ozer were yet to recover from the Hydra's outcry. Apart
from a few devices invented by the Guardian Guild, there was no
way to gauge someone's cultivation level as they had been doing
forever.
Nonetheless, Ella needed no device to tell Olivier was still at the

Core Formation stage. The dark circles under his eyes and the
collar bones building out were enough.
"Come again Sect Leader Ella" Olivier frowned. He could swear

that he heard her asking him to join her sect.
"Drop the formalities Olivier, call me Ella" Ella giggled, waving her
hand,
Olivier was still staring at her without batting an eye as she

continued,
"Rumors claiming you're looking for a new successor to inherit

your position as sect leader. Any truth to those rumors?"
Oliver carried the torch of sect leader of the White Cloud Sect for
nearly sixty years. Until two decades ago, the density of Arch
energy was extremely low in the world. Thus, the majority of the
cultivators born before that time could not reach high stages of
cultivation like the youngsters nowadays.
So reaching the Core Formation stage sixty years ago was a

pretty big deal. Olivier was considered a prodigy and inherited the
Sect leader position from his predecessor. The stress of being a
sect leader had slowed down his cultivation speed. It took him
forty years to reach level 10 of the Core Formation stage from
level 1 and he spent millions in gold coins buying rare potions and
items. Thanks to Ghost and his potions, he was able to cultivate
much faster than he used to. Still, it was not enough to make him
break through to the Core Strengthening stage.
Since many of his friends advised him to leave his stressful sect
leader position, he was looking for a new successor except he
had been doing it under wraps.
How the hell did Ella know about this was beyond Olivier.
However, rather than focusing on how, Olivier just sighed.
"Matter of fact, I am looking for someone to take over the sect

after I enter seclusion"
Something told Ella that it might be his last seclusion. Many

cultivators who were suffering bottlenecks would go to the lonely
mountains as a last attempt to break through to the next stage.
The lonely mountain was an unhabitable place where extreme
yang and yin energy were always colliding with each other. Due to
these two extreme energies, the place only had two climates;
freezing cold and burning hot. Nine out of ten cultivators would die
trying to break their bottlenecks. If a cultivator could absorb and
survive the yin and yang energies, it would break the bottleneck.
Venturing into the lonely mountain was the last resort for any
cultivator.
"Hmm, I've been following your sect closely Olivier. You have
certainly done a good job keeping the sect from declining. But
your sect has so much potential, it could go beyond and further"
Surprisingly Olivier gently smiled shaking his head slowly,
"Ella, I lived long enough to know what you're trying to do. You
want my sect to be merged with the Sun Rise sect. You literally
said that. I've been doing what's right for my sect ever since I
became the Sect Leader. Give me one reason why I should agree
to this merger?"
She would be lying if she said she wasn't pleasantly surprised by

Olivier's directness. Wearing a smile on her face, Ella waved her
hand as a glistening emerald green potion bottled inside a palm-
sized vial appeared on the table.
"This is my reason one"

Olivier did not recognize the potion but he sensed a great amount
of energy coming from the vial. Before handing over the potion to
Olivier, she grabbed a golden parchment and slid it toward Olivier.
"And this is reason number two. Go on, open and take a look"
Olivier untied the red ribbon to read the contents inside and the
moment he laid his eyes on what was written, he was taken aback
by surprise. The parchment contained all the financial information
about the Broad River sect for the last five years. No sect leader
would reveal this to another one, especially another sect leader. In
addition to the financial side of things, the parchment also
contained the cultivation status of a number of disciples and
elders.
"You put your soul and body into your sect Olivier. It's your baby
so it's no lie that major change such as a merger would greatly
concern you. What you're holding in your hands is to reassure you
that if you agreed to this merger, it will be in the sect's best
interest" Ella paused for a moment and continued,
"Before we merged the Sun Rise sect and became a part of them,
it would be nothing but a miracle to see s disciple breakthrough to
the Core Formation stage before the age of thirty. But now, once a
month, we get a new Core Formation stage disciple. Each student
now has their own cultivation space and they get free potions and
pills, made by Ghost himself. Even the disciples of the three big
sects don't have such an advantage "
It was shocking but Olivier agreed with Ella in his mind. He also
did his research about her and the sect just as she did. No sect
would give their disciples potions and pills every month, let alone
for free. It was crazy even to think that they had been giving
potions and pills made by the 5-star Alchemist for free as though
they were candies.
His disciples and even the elders had to wait in the line for a day
to get their hands on the potions and pills made by the Ghost yet
the Broad River sect disciples were getting them for free every
month.
If it wasn't for the rule that a disciple would get only one potion
and pill of each kind, the students of the Sun Rise sect and Broad
River sect would have made a ton of money by selling them on
the side. The demand for Ghost's products was going through the
roof.
"And if I'm right, you are planning to go to the lonely mountain for
seclusion. You don't have to if I can help you" Ella slid the potion
towards Olivier,
"Have you heard the news that Ghost could reach 90% purity?"
Olivier nodded. Following the events that happened in Hades,

every newspaper including the royal newspaper had printed
Ghost's ability to reach 90% purity in alchemy products he made
and his admission to Mazeroth on their front page. At that time,
the news spread throughout the continent like wildfire. Not a
single soul was unaware of this.
"That's a 90% pure potion brewed by Ghost himself. And you can't
get this particular potion anywhere, it's one of the special potions
brewed by him, especially for cultivators such as you"
Olivier's hands trembled while holding the potion in his hand.
"In one month, you will be able to break through to the Core
Strengthening stage if you take this potion. You are welcome to
take this potion with you and appraise it for yourself"
No cultivator would blindly drink an unknown potion no matter how

pure it was. What if it was poison instead of a miraculous potion?
They would first appraise the potions using a trusted Alchemist of
their own before taking them. Although no alchemist who was
qualified enough to appraise Michael's potions existed in Elon,
one could find if it was poison or not, unless, of course, Michael
didn't want them to find it.
Despite Olivier knowing she was being so generous and trusting

to complete the merger, he still appreciated her gestures.
"What if I said no to the merger? Do I have to give this back?"

"Of course not" Ella waved her hand with a smile,
"Whether you accept it or not, this potion is yours, unless you

don't want it"
Olivier's hand clutched the potion tighter. His heart told him to let
go but his brain screamed at him to hold onto the potion. If what
Ella said was true, it finally could bring his suffering to an end and
make him reach the Core Strengthening stage.
"As I said, your sect is your child and every parent would want
what's best for their child. Don't think that if you agree to the
merger, you will be sacked, you will still be the head of your sect
who makes all the major decisions. Only your title would change
from Sect Leader to Headmaster"
Olivier took a deep breath,
"I've served my sect long enough Ella. It's time for me to step
down and a young one to take over the sect"
Ella's eyes twitched after she heard him. She refused to believe
after everything she offered to convince him the old coot wasn't
agreeing to the merger. Luckily what she heard next put a smile
on her face,
"However I will take a week's time and think about this merger. It's
a big decision nonetheless. I will make one last decision that
might lead my sect into a golden age before I leave my position"
Olivier shook Ella's hands and left the room with the potion. It was
a sign that he would get the sect's affairs in order before agreeing
to the merger.
"Two sects down, three more to go" Ella grinned. The Sun Rise
sect took over not one but three sects in total and with Olivier's
sect, the number would be four. Ella was leading the takeovers in
front. She was a ruthless negotiator and a leader. That was why
Michael chose her to take over the sect instead of Claire. Not to
be mistaken, Claire was a great leader but she was not as
ruthless as Ella. For instance, If Olivier chose not to accept the
merger, Claire would have accepted his choice. On the other
hand, Ella would have incited a civil war inside his sect first, and
then, she would have killed him and replaced him with someone
who would do her bidding.
Just as Lucifer's influence was expanding throughout the

Southern continent, Ghost's power slowly grew in Elon through
the Sun Rise sect.
The three big sects had already noticed the power scale changing
in the continent and sooner or later, one of them would make a
move to stop the Sun Rise sect from swallowing the small sects
and become one major power that could rival them in every
aspect.
Chapter 462 Holy Matrimony
Michael and Gaya were standing in Professor Lane's office. The

office was a gloomy and dimly-lit room located adjacent to the
Alchemy classroom. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of
large glass jars filled with slimy, revolting things, such as bits of
animals and plants, floating in potions and pills of varying colors.
Michael noticed there were more jars in the office than in the
classroom. The office had a fireplace. In a corner, there was a
cupboard containing Lane's private stock of alchemy ingredients.
Professor Lane was examining the tiny dot of dark flames

hovering above Michael's pinky finger.
"This is not the Hell's flame. Is this even a primordial flame?"

Professor Lane's waspish voice sounded shocked,
"What do you mean? We risked our fucking lives in that dungeon!"

Gaya stomped the wooden floor beneath her feet.
Ignoring Gaya's temper tantrum, Professor Lane brought a six feet

mirror to Michael,
"Touch the mirror with the flames"
Professor Lane covered himself with his dark robes while Gaya
took several steps back from Michael. The already gloomy room
grew darker as he conjured a ball of Dark Flames over his right
hand.
Despite the arrays placed in the office, Lane could feel his soul
aching. It was as though the heat coming from the flames burning
his soul itself.
Michael covered his palm with the dark flames and touched the
mirror.
Boom!
The mirror suddenly exploded into a million pieces and the shards
evaporated into nothingness before they could even hit the
ground.
"Is this supposed to happen?" Michael asked as the system

began to offer him thousands of badass points. For a moment,
Michale noticed Lane's eyes open wide.
"No, it's not. This flame… is much more powerful than any other
primordial flames" Lane said in a gravely serious voice,
Michael already knew this yet he pretended to be surprised.

Quickly, Professor Lane made his way to the rack where he lined
up all his personal collection of pills and potions. He rummaged
through the collection to pull out an emerald green box
"This pill will disguise the flame as the Hell flame. Take it" Lane
handed over the small box to Michael.
Michael was curious to see what was inside though he could

sense powerful radiation coming from within. He then slowly
opened the box and saw a purple pill resting on a red cloth like a
wedding ring.
Because Michael absorbed a primordial flame, he could sense

another primordial flame and he sensed the energy of a primordial
flame within the pill. However, it seemed as if Professor Lane
used a sliver of primordial energy as an ingredient to concoct this
pill.
Before taking the pill, however, Michael looked at Professor Lane

with a gentle smile on his face,
"Why help me, Professor? No offense but you don't seem like the
friendly helping professor type"
"You might only be someone worthy of my teachings" Professor

Lane simply said.
Since Michael had a plan of his own, he did not poke Lane any
further.
*********************************
Meanwhile, in their room, Victoria and Edith placed the glass orb
that enabled communication from the Akilan realm to Thusia.
Vitoria placed her hand on the orb and sent a sliver of Cosmic
energy as the glass orb immediately began to glow brighter and
brighter. Victoria and Edith took several steps back.
Soon, two figures in ethereal form appeared above the orb. The
man was in a crimson red robe that draped the floor beneath him.
He had striking crimson red hair dancing over his shoulder, blue
eyes, and a thick beard without a mustache. His muscles were
bulging out of his crimson red robes. The man possessed an aura
of an emperor and not of a kind benevolent emperor; rather he
seemed cold, iron-fisted, and powerful as a god.
The woman who remained by his side had golden hair, a gentle
smile on her face as well as a pair of glistening hazel eyes. Her
perfect structure was covered by a long gown usually made of a
luxurious tunic and contained embroidered lace and gems.
"Father, mother" Victoria immediately dropped to one knee and

bowed her head.
"Your majesty, your highness" Edith curtseyed them with a royal

bow instead of kneeling down like Victoria.
They were the king and queen of Thusia; Maxim Barnes and
Valeria Barnes. Valeria looked at Victoria with a kind look and she
was about to speak when a cold voice reverberated in the room.
"Unacceptable"
Maxim Barnes's voice conveyed authority. The voice emanated

from his six-foot-six-inch stature commands attention. It was
unmistakable. At its most pronounced it felt like a whip against
dewy skin
"You have failed to secure the Primordial flames. What have you
learned from your failure Victoria? Raise your head and answer"
Victoria shuddered like a child in front of him,
"The Primordial flames indeed have a mind of their own father.

They refused to submit to the Cosmic energy and one of them has
chosen a new master"
"One of them?" Frowned Maxim Barnes,
"Yes father, there were two primordial flames-"
"FOOL!" King Maxim raised his voice. He was furious. Along with
his shout, a powerful blast shot out of his ethereal figure and
blasted Victoria onto the wall behind her,
"Vikki!" Edith was stunned but she quickly ran to Victoria,
"No" Victoria refused to take Edith's hands and picked herself

from the ground without any help.
Knowing about her husband's anger, Valeria remained silent. She

did not even try to calm him down because she knew it would only
make him madder.
Victoria ignored the blood slowly trickling through her nostrils and
knelt before him just like before,
"Only the three primordial flames can stop the Cosmic energy.
What does that mean?" asked Maxim Barnes.
"Our enemies can use the primordial flames against us" Victoria
immediately answered Maxim without even taking a second to
breathe,
"They will, they will use the flames against us. That is why we
must secure them for ourselves before our foes. Each failure
teaches us a lesson, learn from your failures"
"Yes Sir" Victoria placed her hand on her chest and declared,
"Have you found someone worthy of you in Mazeroth?" asked

Maxim,
"No father"
She shook her head. Maxim looked at Victoria for a moment and
then disappeared leaving Valeria with the two girls. Edith finally let
out a deep breath and felt her muscles loosen up.
"Rise my daughter" Valeria's gentle voice swept over Victoria.

There was nothing but love and kindness in her eyes. She looked
and acted like the embodiment of compassion.
Victoria stood up, revealing a delicate smile.
"Your father and I have picked two young men who might be
worthy to take your hands in marriage Victoria. If you have no one
in your heart, you can select either of them and you won't be
disappointed"
"Mother" Victoria growled,
"I don't want to get married"
"No, no dear, marriage is important. To you and to our kingdom.

Your father has given you the freedom to pick a groom for
yourself. He has been very patient in this matter but you know
about your father, he is not a patient man"
Victoria could only sigh. To be honest, she did not want to marry
but she was unable to disagree with her father too. She had been
telling them she will find a man who is worthy of her yet she barely
even tried to.
"But how could I marry someone I don't even know? Every man I
met till now is weaker and inferior to me in every aspect"
"I married your father without knowing him honey and that's the
best decision I've ever made. You can't keep avoiding this matter
saying they are weak and inferior to you. No one can or will be
stronger than you Victoria, you have the Cosmic energy running in
your veins. I think the young men we found might be the best fit
for you, they are stronger than you but they are not weak either. If
they had Cosmic energy, I have no doubt they will be just as
strong as you or stronger"
Victoria was momentarily stunned by the last few words that came
out of her mother's mouth. She creased her brows, refusing to
believe that not one but two men existed who could be stronger
than her. Granted she had Cosmic energy but even before
absorbing Cosmic energy, her cultivation speed and the purity of
the energy in her body shook the entire Ozer continent. She was
deemed a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy and many even compared
her to the Hunt family prodigy.
"Who are they?" Edith's curiosity got the better of her.
"Both of them hail from the Elon continent. One of them is a

guardian, our contacts in the guardian guild have informed us he
is a rising star with unlimited potential. They believe he has
reached Core Formation stage level 10 recently"
As queen Valeria was describing the candidate, Edith's heart

started to beat faster and faster. It felt as if her heart was
pounding against her chest,
"He is kind, forgiving, and talented in both Alchemy and combat.

General Booth has accessed the battles he went through and said
he could fight with him toe to toe and might even defeat him in a
duel"
Valeria intentionally teased Victoria without revealing the identity

of the young man. She kindled the fire of curiosity within Victoria
and rubbed her ego to the point Victoria would travel to Elon to
meet both young men and pick one to be her life partner.
"Who does this remind you of?" Valeria chuckled
"You," said Victoria. When someone wanted to describe Valeria

with few words as possible, they would say the exact thing Valeria
said about the young man 'kind, forgiving, and talented in both
Alchemy and combat'
Valeria failed to notice a tear rolling out of Edith's eyes.

"Do you want to know his name?" Valeria teased Victoria. The
young girl nodded her head wordlessly telling her mother to stop
teasing her and reveal his name.
"Noah Winston"
Edith's tears hit the ground as soon as Valeria uttered the name of
the man whom Edith was in love with.
Chapter 463 Victoria chooses
her groom
Not only Edith but also Victoria was stunned to hear the name
'Noah Winston'. Victoria was caught off guard as she did not think
the young man her mother was talking about could be the same
guy Edith is in love with.
Her eyes automatically turned to look at Edith and saw the tears
gushing out of her eyes. Victoria waved her hand, sending a sliver
of Cosmic energy to the orb. Right after the Cosmic energy
reached the orb, Valeria's figure vanished into thin air and the orb
lost its glow.
As soon as Valeria disappeared, Edith collapsed down. She

closed her face with her hands and started to cry,
"Edith" Victoria knelt beside her best friend, wrapped her arms
around her shoulder, and pulled her close to her.
"I… don't know… what to do" Edith sobbed as her voice stuttered,
"Hey hey hey, you don't have to do anything. Stop crying" Victoria
tried to console her. She wasn't in her usual cold self. How could
she when her best friend was crying for the first time in many
many years?
Edith sobbed continuously for fifteen minutes and no matter what

Victoria tried to say or do, she could not stop Edith from crying.
"It's okay" Edith opened her hands revealing puffy red eyes and a
pale face. She quickly wiped off the tears and tried to let out a
smile,
"I'm used to not having things I love. You can have him, he will
take good care of you, he's really a good guy"
Surprisingly Victoria slapped the back of Edith's head,
"You dumb silly, who said I'm going to choose Noah? No offense
but I'm not gonna share my husband with you or anyone"
Looking at Edith's dumbstruck face, Victoria sighed before smiling,
"Mother said two candidates idiot. If I have to choose one, I will

choose the other one. I bet mine is better than yours" she joked to
make Edith truly smile again instead of the fake one on her face at
the moment,
"But if-"
"Shh" Victoria closer her lips with her hands,
"If I agree to marry someone else, I don't have to marry your

loverboy"
"Hrmmmmm" Edith was saying something but due to Victoria's

hand on her mouth, her words became inaudible.
Victoria removed her hand as Edith stared at her with watering

eyes,
"You would do that for me?"
Once again Victoria slapped Edith on the head,
"Idiot, I would do anything for you. Don't you know-"
Before Victoria could finish her sentence, Edith leaped at her,

hugged her, and squeezed Victoria,
"How dare you think I will join his harem huh?" Victoria asked
playfully,
"He said he will treat all of us equally. If you enter the harem, it's
goodbye equality. You will kick us out" Edith purred,
"That does sound like me" Victoria chuckled as the two girls
remained in each other's embrace for a couple of minutes. Then
only Victoria remembered that she put her mother on the hold,
"Mother is still waiting"
"Oh" Edith almost squealed when she remembered about Valeria.

She quickly let go of Victoria, stood up, and fixed her face and her
dress.
Just like before, Victoria sent a sliver of Cosmic energy to activate

the orb.
"Everything okay dear?" Valeria's figure appeared in the room and

asked,
"Yes mother, someone came to meet us suddenly"
"Aww" Valeria pouted,
"I thought you cut the connection because you were shy"
Victoria couldn't help rolling her eyes,
"Mom, have you met me?"
"Teach your friend to be shy Edith, she will need it" Valeria turned
her gaze towards Edith,
"I have a better chance of teaching a cow to bark, aunty"
Valeria burst into laughter and so did Edith who felt light-hearted
after Victoria promised not to take Noah from her. Surprisingly,
Victoria too chuckled with them,
"Now if you finished making fun of me, tell me about the other one
mom"
Valeria was surprised by Victoria's sudden interest in knowing the

brides. Before this, Victoria would either ignore her or leave the
room if she opened the topic of marriage. Valeria wasn't going to
waste this moment by pondering why the sudden interest,
"The second guy is more of your father's choice, he is rather what
the right word" Valeria rubbed her chin for a moment searching for
the right word in her mind,
"Insensitive," she said and continued,
"Not forgiving as Noah and sometimes ruthless. He is not a noble

like Noah and our spies fail to find any solid information about his
origins. However, your father doesn't seem to care about his
origins because of what this young man has achieved by himself
in a short amount of time"
When Valeria was talking about Noah, she had a bright smile on
her face. That smile was nowhere to be found on her face now,
"He went from Foundation stage to Core Formation stage level 10

within a year. You won't believe how he became a king…"
Valeria began to narrate everything from the beginning to Victoria

except one thing which she kept to herself to surprise Victoria. At
the end of the story, Edith was horrified and began to sweat
thinking about what would happen if Victoria married this guy.
Victoria on the other hand was amazed by him. He seemed to

have everything Victoria wanted in her life partner. In addition, he
also earned Victoria's respect.
"Who is he?" asked Victoria,
"We know him, dear. You may have even met him"
Valeria surprised her daughter. As a mother, she preferred Noah

for her daughter but as a queen, she picked the second
youngster. However, she was worried that if Victoria chose the
second one, there won't be a place for kindness. Victoria wasn't
exactly a kind compassionate ruler like herself. Thus, Valeria
wanted Victoria's husband to be the kind and compassionate one
when ruling over Thusia. Noah seemed to be that man, not the
second one.
She expressed her feelings about him to Maxim but as a ruthless
king, he was leaning toward the second one rather than choosing
Noah. The ultimate decision of choosing the future king of Thusia
fell to Victoria.
Whatever decision her daughter would make, she would

wholeheartedly agree and support her although she would be over
the moon if she was to choose Noah.
"Do you know the leader of our alchemy guild, the one Calvin
chose?" Valeria asked as Victoria began to recall everything
released to the Alchemy guild. She was in seclusion when they
formed an Alchemy guild of their own. Everything related to talent
recruitment had been taken care of by Calvin and because he was
competent, Maxim rarely micro-managed Calvin. Besides, they
were at war with several kingdoms so they had no time to access
every talent brought by Calvin.
Nonetheless, Victoria did hear Calvin talk about recruiting a 5-star

Alchemist as their guild leader and plan to topple the Alchemist
Guild.
"He goes by the name, Ghost. Apparently, he was also chosen by

Mazeroth at the same time as you two"
The moment Valeria said this, the images of the youngster Victoria
met in the black forest flashed across her mind.
"That's him," Victoria mumbled under her breath. Everything made

perfect sense to Victoria and her instincts told her the same.
"Aunty, I think we've met him already" Edith sighed. Just like
Victoria, she connected the dots and guessed her train neighbor
and Ghost may be the same person.
Edith began to tell what happened in the black forest and how the
Alchemy student mercilessly beat down the warriors to Valeria.
"That does sound like him"

After knowing what he did to the princess of Bredia and the fellow
competitors during the tournament, Valeria wasn't surprised by
what Edith told her. As far as she was concerned, the warrior
students were lucky they met him in Mazeroth instead of in Elon
where Ghost would have slaughtered them like cattle.
"Since you didn't find one yourself, these two are the choices you
have dear. I would choo-"
Valeria tried to persuade Victoria to choose Noah only to get

interrupted by Victoria. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that
Valeria preferred Noah over Ghost and Victoria could read her
mother like a book. At first, Victoria only wanted to choose the
other one instead of Noah because of Edith. But after hearing
everything about Ghost, she really felt like he might be the man
she hoped to be her life partner.
"I will meet Ghost"
Valeria was disappointed deep down but still, she was happy that
at least Victoria agreed to meet him.
"After I finish my studies in Mazeroth and hopefully find the

primordial flame, I can meet him"
Both mother and daughter failed to consider Ghost's opinion on

the matter, even after knowing that he already rejected marrying a
princess. And last time a king thought about marrying his daughter
to him, he ended up not only losing a huge chunk of his kingdom
but also almost his daughter.
Moreover, they had no idea that he was once their victim. They
literally killed him and everyone he loved.
************************
Mazeroth's training ground was where mostly the students of

warrior houses would train their spellcasting and close combat
skills. The grounds were flat, short-cut grassy areas and were
located near the Herbal garden. It was overlooked by the training
grounds tower and the arena.
The training grounds had countless dummies enhanced to
function as sentient beings for the students to simulate a real
battle. Each student who wants to train had to take a silver card
from the counter located at the entrance. Only through this card, a
student could change the difficulty and select what type of training
they want. The students could change the difficulty or select a
training by establishing a connection with the card. Training
grounds had a giant invisible array to enable the students to use a
portion of the cultivation power.
At the moment, all the students on the training ground stood aside
and watched Michael break hundreds of dummies piece by piece.
He was honing his close combat skills and sword skills. Since he
sought badass points to settle the debt to the system and to buy
some items from the store, he practiced in front of the students.
More than the students were surprised by his skills, it was his
emerald green robes that shocked them. They couldn't believe an
Alchemy student possessed such astounding battle skills.
Among the onlookers was a minion of Elliot's close friend. He was

watching Michael with the intention to let his leader know about
him. Michael had a plan to pick a fight with the warrior students,
beat the hell out of them, farm badass points, and get the hell out
of Mazeroth in eighteen months. Unlike outside, they wouldn't
know his identity so he had no need to worry about making
enemies.
His plan however started to work sooner than he expected.

Chapter 464 Picking up a fight
The Warriors common room was located in the dungeon a couple

of floors beneath the combat classroom. It was a long, low
underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which
round, reddish lamps were hanging on chains, giving the light in
the room a red and silver tinge.
A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece

ahead of them, and several figures were silhouetted around it in
carved chairs.
The common room had lots of low-backed black and dark red
button-tufted, leather sofas, skulls, and dark wood cupboards.
One of the wooden tables had a few daggers and scrolls on it.
The walls were decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures
of famous warriors ever to live. It had quite a grand atmosphere,
but also quite a cold one.
Currently, five students were occupying the sofas set in the middle
of the room and discussing something. One of the three men
sitting on the sofa was Elliot Watson, the head prefect of Mazeroth
and the man who got Gaya fired. He was not in his silver armor
and carrying the heavy sword, he was wearing a linen black full
sleeves shirt, black trousers, and a pair of silver boots.
On the opposite side of Elliot, on a couple's sofa, Elliot's best

friends and also lovers, Deacon Saunders and Bethany White
were cuddling. Deacon flaunted his chiseled muscular upper body
and his raven black long hair. The callouses and veins bulging out
of his tanned skin were common among the blacksmiths like him.
Bethany White had striking red hair, an oval face, and shining blue
eyes. She was Deacon's fiance and also a 4-Star runemaster as
well as the heiress to the powerful White Family in the Ozer
continent.
While Deacon and Bethany were entangled in cuddling and

smooching, a blonde girl in a loosely tied ponytail was making tea
for everyone in the room. She would remind someone of Alicia as
the girl looked cold, unsympathetic, and not at all friendly. The fifth
person in the room was Diego Carter, a messy purple-haired
young man wearing skinny black leather trousers and a rainbow-
colored sparkling jacket. Out of the five, he was the only one
standing in the corner of the room, watching them with a tinge of
jealousy painted on his face. His eyes particularly focused on
Bethany while his hands were rubbing his crotch.
He quickly took his hand off of his crotch when one of his minions
entered the room.
"Oh," the minion was surprised to see the head prefect in the
room,
"Hey…Elliot" the minion stuttered. His eyes were desperately

searching for Diego until they landed on Diego.
"Boss, you have to see what's going on in the training grounds"

the minion tried to lower his voice but all of them heard him,
"What?' Diego rolled his eyes, he was quite annoyed by his

minion's untimely entrance,
"There's an alchemist showing off by breaking the dummies"
"So?" Diego once again rolled his eyes,
"The dummies were put to hardest difficulty"
As soon as the minion said this, everyone turned their gazes at

him. Deacon and Bethany stopped smooching, Erica halted
brewing the tea and Elliot adjusted his spectacles.
"Are you fucking with me right now?" Diego bore his teeth like a
mad dog which made the minion take a step back,
"Of course not, he's still at it"
"Did I hear you correctly? Is he destroying the dummies which

were put on the hardest difficulty or is he getting his ass kicked by
the dummies?"
The minion frowned. He was sick of Diego and his attitude. Only
because being a friend of Elliot's friend had some advantages in
Mazeroth, he would have stopped putting up Diego's shit a long
time ago.
"Yeah stupid deff motherfucker, he is the one kicking ass " the
minion wanted to speak these words,
"He is destroying the dummies. Until I was there, he didn't even

get a cut from the dummies" Unfortunately he could only speak
these words,
"That's really surprising" Deacon spoke in a thick voice,
"Bullshit" Diego rebuked,
"When was the last time some tried the hardest difficulty dummies
and left the place unscathed? Especially lowly alchemists who
can't even fight a wild boar" Diego grabbed the minion's collars,
"They are not inferior to us Diego"
Elliot's deep voice made Diego let go of the minion's collars,
"If anything, they are superior to us" Elliot stood up, walked to the
minion, and fixed his robes,
"With training, an alchemist or a runemaster or a blacksmith can

become a fearsome warrior" Each word escaped his mouth clear
and sounded like a bell chiming loudly,
"Like Deacon here" Elliot looked at Deacon and continued,
"But if history has taught us something, not a single student of

warrior house specialized in a rune mastery, alchemy, or smithing"
As he was talking, he went to Erika and took the cup of tea,
"To be a warrior, one must respect another"
"Respect is earned Elliot, not asked" Diego rebuked once again,
Elliot just smiled at his snarky comment,

"Yes respect is earned but you have to give respect to get
respect"
Diego gritted his teeth,
"Why are we even talking about this? What if an alchemist is

beating the dummies? Deacon did it, Elliot did it and for god sake,
you did it so many times" Bethany tried to diffuse the situation as
usual. They all knew Diego was jealous of Elliot and hated him for
his strict principles. If it was someone else, they would have
thrown off Diego like a piece of trash but not Elliot. He always tried
to teach Diego better no matter how many times Diego failed him.
"Don't put me and a lowly alchemist dog on the same level!" Diego
snickered, raising his voice at Bethany. Deacon did not like the
way he talked to Bethany but before he could say something,
Erika interjected,
"You are overreacting Diego" Her words were like pouring fuel into
the burning fire.
"And you" Erika's cold gaze landed on the minion. He shuddered

to look at her sharp gaze.
"Get out of here, you've done enough" the minion immediately ran
away from the room.
"Can we go back to what we were doing baby?" Deacon said,

kissing her neck. Seeing the girl he loves cuddling and smooching
in front of him with the guy he hates the most made Diego's blood
pressure soar through the roof.
Ever since Deacon and Bethany got engaged, Diego lost it. Elliot
knew that Diego was in love with Bethany since they were little.
However, Bethany chose Deacon and Diego asked Elliot to break
off their engagement only to be denied by Elliot. Not only did Elliot
refuse to help Diego but also told him to move on.
"I will show you overreact" Diego growled before storming out of
the room.
For Diego who craved Bethany's attention, anger was the only
thing that earned him her attention. Hence, he voluntarily picked
up fights with fellow students. Elliot was widely respected by the
students of all houses and only because Diego was his friend,
many did not complain about his behavior to Headmistress Kayla.
Bethany was unable to continue smooching when her friend

walked out of the room furiously. She stood up to follow him
behind and so did Deacon,
After the three of them left the room leaving Elliot and Erika
behind, she came to his side,
"How long you're gonna put up with him Elliot?" asked Erika
putting her hand on Elliot's shoulder
"Until he sees the errors in his ways," He said as he walked

towards his room to wear his uniform.
"I don't think it's time sooner," she said with a cold face,
"Love is a powerful force, Erika. It can bring out the best or worst
version of one's self. In Diego's case, its the latter"
************************************
"Oh boy, you are really good at this" Michael was ripping the arms
off a dummy when he saw Gilrine descend from the sky beside
him. Michael momentarily paused the training to greet the big
man,
"They are just too weak" Michael calmly said and rubbed the
blood on his knuckles on his robes.
Gilrine was stunned. Somehow Michael's words didn't look like

boasting. After all, Gilrine could see the mountain of dummies
lying on the ground nearby.
"You finished training?"
"For now, I am waiting for someone"

Gilrine saw a light grin emerge on his face. He looked around to
see only students gawking at him bewildered. The big man
noticed several girls staring at him with blushed red faces. He
could tell they were undressing him in their minds. Even the elven
girls couldn't take their eyes off of him.
Strength, power, and skills surpassed the racial thing.
The students didn't resume training even after Michael finished his
training, at least, they thought he finished training. Just when they
thought the show was over, they saw Diego arriving at the training
ground pushing the students onto the ground who stood in his
way.
"Here comes trouble," Gilrine, who was familiar with Diego's

behavior, mumbled under his breath.
"Finally" Michael was delighted inside. The intel Gaya gave him
paid off as he expected. The troublemaker friend of Elliot had
come to pick a fight with him at last.
Sometimes he surprised himself when he could manipulate these

people so effortlessly. He hated fights with cringe young masters
like Diego. Still, the need for badass points pushed him to pick a
fight with them.
Michael's eyes of darkness enabled him to see through Diego's

cultivation level. To be honest, Michael was disappointed to see
his Core Strengthening stage 1 cultivation. So even if Diego was
to use arch energy, Michael could mop the floor with him without
breaking a sweat.
Besides, his purple hair and the sparkling jacket almost made
Michael burst into laughter. Diego resembled a clown and it was
so funny to see a clown looking at him with murderous intent in his
eyes.
"Do you wanna get out of here and have a mug of ale?" Gilrine
asked Michael,
"Hand over your training ground card" Diego ordered Michael. The
students immediately became excited. They could sense the
tension and wanted to witness Michael fight with a warrior instead
of dummies. That way they could determine whether he had real
battle skills or not.
"I am not finished yet, go back to your counter" Michael pretended

not to know Diego and treated him like a servant. Gilrine almost
spat out to see Michael shooing him away like a puppy.
Diego's anger exploded within him. As Michael turned his back on

Diego, he growled,
"Don't you know who I am?"
Michael ignored him as though he did not hear Diego. He was

intentionally pissing off Diego for amusement.
"I am talking you asshole" Diego walked towards him bridging the
gap between the two.
"Why don't we all take a deep breath huh?" Gilrine tried to diffuse
the situation even though he could tell there is no reasoning with
Diego.
Chapter 465 Sudden Duel
Sudden Duel
Those who were studying in Mazeroth since they were little knew
about Diego's latest change in behavior and expected trouble.
Those who didn't however curiously stared at the scene to see
what was going to unfold.
Diego couldn't believe a newbie was ignoring him completely.

Great insult.
The rule of no duel between students prevented Diego from

venting his anger on the alchemist. The giggles and chuckles
reaching his ears fanned the flames of his anger.
Once again, Diego menacingly bore his teeth at Michael,
"I challenge you to a duel" Diego exclaimed pointing at Michael,
Still, Diego's challenge was unable to draw Michael's full attention.

Being ignored in front of all the students as well as his crush did
not go well with Diego. If it wasn't for the rule, Diego would have
already cast a spell and initiated the battle.
His eyes began to twitch along with his cheeks in overwhelming

anger brewing inside. On the other hand, Michael resumed the
training as several dummies materialized before him to fight.
"Go play with someone else" Michael talked to Diego as though

he was talking to a child. Plus, he sounded slightly annoyed by
Diego which made some giggle.
"Good, at least now I know your pathetic skills are limited to

dummies, dummy" Diego snickered as he shot out a bullet of spit
onto the ground.
He meant it as a sign of hostility yet Michael remained uncaring.

Diego's anger was soaring through the roof. While the tension
between Michael and Diego was gradually rising, the combat
professor Steinmeyer made an appearance. She gracefully
descended from the sky,
"What's going on here?" Asked Gaya with a frown looking back

and forth at Michael and Diego.
When her piercing gaze landed on Diego, her frown darkened,
The students became stiff in front of her. Although Diego was on

the verge of losing his mind, he was still not crazy enough not to
give the respect a professor deserved.
"Professor Steinmeyer"
Even Gilrine took the position of standing at ease as though he

was a soldier and she was his general.
"Professor, I want to challenge him for a duel," Diego said with

gritted teeth. Gaya could literally hear his teeth gnashing against
each other.
She could have simply said yes as per the plan but she turned to
look at the pile of dummies for a moment,
"I assume you did this," She asked Michael pretending not to
know,
Michael responded with a simple nod as she turned her gaze back
to Diego,
"Let me be clear, you want to have a duel with an Alchemist?"
The students could hear the amusement in her voice,
"If he's not a chicken" Diego growled. He had absolute confidence

in his ability, he was after all a prodigy who has yet to lose a duel.
With or without arch energy, he would win, at least he thought like
that.
After hearing Diego, she almost burst into laughter. She trained
Michael in Serpent maga, one of the deadliest combat styles in
the world, and recently, she was having a hard time coping with
him. She rarely landed a punch or kick on him. Yet, the clown-
looking kid was asking Michael for a duel without having any idea
of his skills. The funny thing was Diego had the chance to back off
after witnessing what he did to the hardest difficulty dummies
which could give a battle-hardened Core Strengthening stage
warrior a run of their money.
"I will allow it under one condition"
Gaya gracefully walked toward Diego with her hands behind her
back.
"No spells, no runic armaments"
Diego snicked sowing his confidence,
"It's not fair," Michael calmly spoke. The students quickly started
to speculate and guessed he was trying to back off. Branding him
as a coward and a showoff was easier to accept than the fact an
alchemist was better than them in terms of combat skills.
"Don't say you're having cold feet" Diego revealed a menacing

grin onto to be shocked by Michael once again,
"It's not fair for you. You would have had a tiny chance of making
me break a sweat"
His words contained arrogance, dominance and confidence. For

most of the students he looked extremely arrogant but for Gilrine,
something told him that he had the means to back his words. Of
course in Gilrine's entire life, he had never seen an Alchemist
battle a Warrior student and win. Still, Gilrine believed that life was
full of surprises.
"Clear the area"
Her voice sounded throughout the training ground like a thunder

clap. For a few moments, the students stared at her with
bewildered faces. None of them expected the duel would happen
then and there.
It only took the students a couple of minutes to back away from
where they were initially standing. Soon, the students formed a
circle, and Gilrine, Michael, Gaya, and Diego remained in the
circle.
In the excitement to see a sudden duel, the students failed to

notice Elliot, Bethany, Deacon, and Erika joining them. They stood
at last as they would rather not attract any attention to them.
Besides, except Elliot, the others couldn't believe in the Alchemist.
Elliot looked into the eyes of Michael and saw a battle-hardened
warrior. In the face of a challenge, his face showed no agitation or
uneasiness. He was calm, collected, and focused which Diego
lacked.
"I hope you have better skills in combat than you have in fashion"
Hearing Gaya's words, some students couldn't hold back their

laughter. They just burst into laughter, further fanning the anger
flame of Diego.
She ascended to the sky to oversee the duel as a professor

should. Gilrine also joined her in the air as Diego removed his
sparkling jacket and threw it on the ground.
Standing on the opposite side, Michael did nothing. He didn't even

roll the sleeves up but waited for Diego to make his move.
"I don't have all day" Michael calmly uttered these words finally
making Diego dash at him. The closer Diego got, the more excited
everyone became. Many students could be seen entering the
training grounds in a rush to see the commotion but they never
expected to see a duel between an Alchemist and a Warrior.
Immediately the newcomers deemed Michael as the loser when

they saw his green robes. Even the Alchemists cursed at him for
challenging a Warrior. Outside of the Akilan realm, the Alchemists
enjoyed fame, wealth, and stardom. However, in Mazeroth, they
were treated as low class. Part of the reason was that Alchemy
students failed to come up with new potions and pills to wow
everyone for a couple of hundred years while the other students
invented new battle skills, runes and forged powerful weapons.
There was also the reason that compared to the other students,
Alchemy house contained more subpar talents. They might be
prodigies outside but here, they were considered subpar. Coupled
with Professor Lane's cold treatment and constant ridicule, the
House of Alchemy had long lost its former glory.
When Diego was just arm's reach from Michael, he threw his fist
at Michael. Despite Diego's look, his punch was extremely fast
and contained enough force to dislocate the jaw bone. Just as the
fist was a few inches away from his face, Michael easily evaded
the punch. Diego was surprised by his speed yet he quickly threw
a punch aiming at Michael's guts.
This time was no different than the previous one as Michael

comfortably and very easily evaded the punch by just taking a
step sidewards. The veins were popping out of Diego's pale skin.
He was too mad. Michael however grinned inside, bathing himself
in badass points. The constant sound of notifications ringing in his
head was exhilarating for him.
Deacon, Bethany, and Erika who had witnessed Diego fight before
were completely caught off guard by Michael's reflection and
speed. They had not battled Diego personally but they saw Elliot
and Diego train together. In their training, Diego would almost fight
head to head with Elliot. Their battle would go for hours before
always ending up in a draw. The trio very well knew that Elliot was
holding back in the duel so Diego would train harder and harder to
win him,
Meanwhile, Diego's movements evolved to be faster and faster to

the point many students had a hard time believing they were
fighting without using Arch energy. Each and every punch and
kick Diego threw at him was precise, deadly, and elegant which
revealed the fact that Diego was taught a powerful deadly close
combat technique. If Diego fought someone else, he would have
easily won. His bad luck, he met Michael who reached 98%
mastery in Serpent Maga. The normal version of Serpent Maga
was deadly enough to be ranked as one of the deadliest close
combat techniques. After the changes made to the technique by
Michael, it evolved into something far more deadlier than any
technique in the world.
Because of that, no matter how fast or quickly Diego moved,

Michael dodged without breaking a sweat. For Michael, it almost
felt like watching a slow-motion movie. He could predict Diego's
moves before even he could make them.
The battle showered him with almost thirty thousand badass

points within a few more minutes. Since the rain of badass points
was showering him with points, he decided to drag the fight a few
more minutes to maximize his earnings.
"Arghhhh" Diego growled as he felt more and more annoyed by

the fact that he has yet to land a blow on him. Almost all the
students stared at the fight with their mouths slightly opened. They
were completely stunned by Michael.
Right at that moment, Edith and Victoria rushed into the training
grounds to see the duel.
"You're right, it is him" The moment Edith saw Michael, she was
surprised.
She couldn't believe Victoria was right to tell her that it was Ghost
who was the Alchemist who pissed off a Warrior.
Victoria and Edith squeezed through the crowd to reach the front
so they could get a better view of the battle.
"If this is the best you can do, maybe you're in the wrong house"
while evading Diego's punches, Michael uttered these words.
They were not loud but loud enough to reach the ears of every
single student.
"Son of a bitch!" Diego raged after hearing those words. Bethany

was watching the battle and the thought of him getting played by
an Alchemist in front of her stabbed straight through his ego and
pride. Unfortunately, he failed to comprehend that Michael was
just getting started.
Chapter 466 Becoming a
student again
The duel was going on for fifteen minutes without either of them
landing a blow on the other. As the minutes passed by, Diego
gradually started to lose his stamina and breathed heavily.
Tiredness was visible on his face and his moves. His fighting
technique became more chaotic and less finesse. It was logical,
any fighter who couldn't touch his opponent would lose their mind
and become somewhat of a wild fighter.
Finally, Michael started to feel bored of evading the punches and

kicks. He noticed the fall in badass points so he decided to spice
up the fight.
"You really think less of alchemists right?" Michael questioned

Diego while simply evading another one of Diego's punches. He
made dodging punches look so much easier.
"When your jaw is dislocated" a millisecond after these words

reached everyone's ears, they saw Michael grab Diego's fist.
Diego quickly used his other hand and tried to punch Michael only
to get caught by him once again.
Bang!
Holding Diego's two fists, Michael headbutted him with enough

force to dislocate his jaw as said. The jaw bone let out a crackling
sound
"Ribs are broken"
Michael pulled Diego closer without even giving Diego any time to
scream in pain. Following the headbutt, Michael sent his knee to
Diego's ribcage.
"Grrr!" Diego growled, immediately coughing out dark blood.

"Nose broken" Michael bent him down before sending his knee to
Diego's nose. The crunching sound emanated from Diego's face,
"Ouch" Gilrine couldn't help raising his brows,
At this point, Diego's body almost gave up. His ribs were broken,
his jaw was dislocated and blood was gushing out of his broken
nose,
Diego's vision blurred, it took everything in him to stand on his

feet. His body and mind screamed at him to give up and the only
thing that prevented him from giving up was Bethany who was
watching the duel horrified. Even Deacon who had no good things
to say about Diego somewhat felt pity for him. Some students
thought the duel went far enough and wanted the professor to
intervene, only to see Professor Steinmeyer enjoying the brutal
fight with cookies.
"You want some?" asked Gaya looking at Gilrine. In normal

situations, Gilrine would have taken the delicious buttery cookies
in her hand. Considering it was not the case and shocked to see a
professor act so cool instead of putting an end to the duel, he had
no appetite. In fact, he lost his appetite for the ale he wanted to
drink afterward.
"Professor, shouldn't you stop the duel?" meekly asked Gilrine
"Suffering from severe concussion"
The students noticed Michael finally let go of Diego and wondered

what he was going to do next. After hearing what he just said,
they started to have some ideas. At this moment, Diego was
breathing heavily, drooling blood.
One single 540 kick…that was all it took to knock the light out of
Diego. The kick was elegant, fast and powerful. The kick literally
sent Diego flying for a few meters before he crashed onto the
ground.
"You will need an Alchemist and a healing potion" his voice was
crystal clear. It was a statement directed to every single student
who thought less of Alchemy and alchemists.
Even though Michael planned to specialize in every single

specialization there was, he had a special place for Alchemy in his
heart. After all, Alchemy was his first specialization and the first
things would always take a special place in people's hearts.
After everything was said and done, Michael adjusted his collars.
A duel with a bully like Diego may have been cringe yet it earned
him enough points to settle the debt to the system.
"Now I can stop the duel" Stuffing the last cookie in her mouth,
she informed Gilrine. Then, she slowly descended near Diego.
Bethany was standing in the front waiting for Gaya to conclude the
battle.
"Pathetic" Gaya disappointedly shook her head looking at Diego's

unconscious body,
"This is what reality looks like students except he would have

been dead right now" Before concluding the battle, she spoke to
the students around her.
"You all take so much pride in being a warrior. But let me tell you
something, out there, in the real world, you're just another young
master and young miss. If you value your lives, I'd recommend
you not to piss off any real warrior" she emphasized the word 'real
warrior' to shame the rest of them. To be honest, the students
couldn't rebuke. Many knew that if they went against Diego, they
would have lost the battle with or without Arch energy.
Her words formed a crack in their pride and ego.
"He wins" Gaya simply pointed at Michael and said. Then she
poked Diego with her toe,
"And take him away"
As soon as Gaya said this, Bethany rushed to Diego and placed

his head on her lap. She gently opened his lips, pouring the
healing potion into his mouth.
"Case in point" the smile that emerged on Michael's face made
some Alchemists proud while almost all the warriors hated him
and saw the smile as a snicker.
Michael couldn't care less about the students' opinions of him. As

far as he was concerned, this day was extremely fruitful. He
trained, earned badass points, lured an arrogant asshole into his
trap, earned badass points, beat the crap out of him, and earned
badass points.
He walked away from the training grounds like nothing happened,

leaving the crowd stunned. Victoria wasn't impressed by the result
of the fight because she knew Diego had no chance against
Ghost. However she liked the fact that Ghost did not take any
crap from Diego, he was ruthless, humiliated his opponent to
leave a permanent scar thus breaking the opponent's spirit, and
left the area like a badass instead of showing off and boasting.
What he just witnessed really made Elliot question whether he did

the right thing or not by getting professor Steinmeyer fired. To be
honest, he never expected Diego to be completely trashed by the
alchemist student. Diego should have at least put up a decent
fight yet what happened was the complete opposite.
Elliot wondered where the alchemist student hailed from and who
was his mentor. What he displayed wasn't enough for anyone to
fully comprehend or figure out what kind of fighting technique he
mastered. Elliot however was able to tell that it was an extremely
powerful and deadly fighting technique.
The following days were pretty much uneventful. As one would

expect, all the warrior students viewed Michael as their number
one enemy while some alchemists tried to be his friend. Some
students went another step and asked Michael to marry them.
Michael politely refused their proposals.
Those who asked to be his friend however received that blessing.

He would refuse marriage proposals but not friendships.
Connections were just as important as gold coins, Michael knew
this.
To summarize, Michael made quite a lot of friends in the Alchemy
house, and through Elidyr, he also made connections with
runemasters though he failed to make any friends from the house
of blacksmiths.
**********************************
In a blink of an eye, two months had passed. During these two

months, Gaya continued teaching the students the art of combat.
Everything was just a pretense to keep her job and make her look
like a great professor. The last thing she would do is teach her
potential enemies to be stronger.
Nightmare reached the Core Formation level 8 from level 5. In

addition, he also learned a few battle tactics from Gilrine and the
magical beasts professor.
Meanwhile, Michael spent almost all of his time in the Alchemy

classroom with Professor Lane. During the classes, Professor
Lane almost ignored the others and took a special interest in
Michael. Professor Lane would often give the other students the
task of concocting a pill or brewing a potion while giving Michael
the toughest assignments which Michael did with ease.
The other students were jealous but they would rather be ignored
by Professor Lane than spend their time with him like Michael.
Right at the moment, Michael and Lane were alone in the
Alchemy classroom as usual. They lost track of time and failed to
notice the hour hand and the minute hand pointing at 12 in the
clock.
"Use Chimera Strand, it will increase the potency and the purity"
Professor Lane instructed Michael,
"But it'll make the potion unstable. We could use Kelpie's hair. It's
common, and doesn't smell like rotten eggs" Michael counter-
argued with Professor Lane which only a few had the guts and
knowledge to do so.
Michael had grown to like their exchange of knowledge. At first,
Michael thought Professor Lane was just a 5-star Alchemist and
he had nothing new to teach him. However, he soon learned that
he was completely wrong. Professor Lane was a 6-Star Alchemist.
Only a few in Mazeroth knew this.
Professor Lane was the reason for Michael to decide to stay in

Mazeroth until graduation without leaving Akilan Realm.
Knowledge was power and he was learning much more from Lane
every day.
Hearing his argument, Professor Lane approached the table with

a bluish vial. He placed the vial on the table before him,
"That's why anyone with a brain should use a newt vial. It will
make the potion stable"
As usual, Professor Lane triumphed over Michael with his

knowledge yet again. Everything he was learning from Lane was
included in the next Alchemy book the system recommended him
to buy. The system required him to reach Star level 6 if he wanted
to absorb the knowledge from that book. Since he preferred not to
spend 500,000 badass points on the Elven Rune, he couldn't
become a 6-Star Alchemist. Nonetheless, he was learning so
much from Lane without spending a dime.
Moreover, he was getting close to Lane, thus, making him another

powerful ally. If he could make Lane his subordinate, he would
have a powerful subordinate under him even though Michael
knew the odds of doing so were extremely slim.
With a flick of his wrist, Lane took a crate of newt vials from his
space ring. The crate materialized on the table,
"You can use them in the upcoming talent exhibition" Professor

Lane reminded Michael of the Mazeroth version of the
tournament. Fortunately, Michael didn't have to battle young
masters but to show his skills in Alchemy.

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Chapter 985 Another Great

A faint chuckle escaped Saber's lips as he surveyed the sight

Though fear and anger mingled within them, the dwarves

"Why the bloody hell is he targeting our clan? We haven't done a

A silent understanding passed between the dwarves, their gazes

"Is the Dark Lord targeting Gondolin as well?" questioned another

A contemplative silence settled over the room as the dwarves

Saber's laughter echoed through the hall, a sound filled with

A mix of resignation and defiance flickered in the dwarves' eyes

Saber's gaze remained steady as he locked eyes with the aged

Coming to a halt, Saber regarded the dwarves before him, their

"The Dark Lord has another request, dwarves," Saber continued,

The oldest dwarf scoffed, a hint of frustration coloring his tone.

Saber's silence spoke volumes, his deadly gaze fixated on the

"It seems we have little choice but to comply," another dwarf

Saber's smile returned, though its edges held a touch of menace.

"Now, if you would be so kind as to lead me to your vault, I will

To the astonishment of the dwarves, the round table split open

With trepidation mingling with a glimmer of hope, the dwarves

The dwarves exchanged glances, their curiosity piqued as they

Saber's laughter rang through the cavernous space, bouncing off

The dwarves stopped in their tracks, their eyes widening in

Saber nodded, a knowing smile playing upon his lips. "Indeed,

The dwarves' curiosity burned brightly as they continued their

Saber, his eyes gleaming with a hint of understanding, turned to

The dwarves exchanged knowing glances, a flicker of recognition

(Meanwhile somewhere else)

"Ghost, can you hear me?"

Micheal heard the voice of a teenage girl through his earpiece.

"Loud and clear, pink"

Micheal said while adjusting the tie looking at the mirror. A

"I do look good"

Micheal grinned at his reflection.

"What was that, Ghost?"

"Nothing, has the target entered the building yet?"

Micheal looked at his Rolex and asked.

"Not yet but he will, in a couple of minutes"

Pink was Micheal's wing-woman or wingman, in case pink was

In Micheal's line of work, anonymity was extremely important. Until

"Remember, the client wants you to eliminate the target before he

Micheal would see the majority of their faces if he turned on the

"Can you get me an autograph from Dicap?"

"Not for free"

Micheal put on his black sunglasses and pretended to be the

"Aw, come on Ghost, I don't have any money to give you"

Pink didn't say anything as Pink knew that he wouldn't do anything

In the world of assassins, Micheal was a superstar and only a

"Target has entered the building"

Everyone thought Libor Barnes as the father of the free nation

"Tango two, take my position, loo break"

Don took out the walkie talkie and said.

"Copy that Tango one, on my way "

"I will reach my position in a hundred seconds"

Micheal informed Pink and opened the staff only door.

"Roger that, no signs of people around the area"

There was a row of gym lockers before him as he looked at the

"Damn, I hope these rats did not eat it"

"Tell you later, how's the parade going?"

Micheal whispered and crawled through the vent without making

"That much confidence huh? Alrighty, see you later, Ghost"

Pink disconnected the line while Micheal set a three-minute timer

The bullet was made of a special type of plastic that could

"Four minutes more"