Chapter 503: Chase 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a few days..
On the black plains, behind a black, giant, stone pillar.
"I'll fight with you!!"
Demon Phoenix shouted and leaped over. Suddenly, a fierce, strange, purple halo lit up. Numerous purple, one-eyed shadows slowly lit up behind her.
Chiiii!!
Before the shadows could completely materialize, they were punctured by a cloud of black air, like a balloon being poked.
Demon Phoenix who leaped over was grabbed by the face by Garen. She was tossed onto the ground with a bang. A few meters long pit directly opened up on the ground, swallowing the two people. Lots of smoke rose up, forming grey clouds instantly. The situation within couldn't be seen clearly.
"Your body structure is interesting. I won't eat you for the moment. Don't worry." Garen retrieved his hand and coughed. Blood flowed out from the corner of his mouth. He continued to close his eyes and rest.
Nowadays he didn't even skin the creatures. He ate them whole. Every day, he needed to eat more than ten gigantic creatures like the black elephants, as nutrients for the Nine-Headed Hydra to regenerate limbs.
Demon Phoenix and the rest got more and more scared. They could roughly guess the reasons Garen brought them along. On one hand, maybe he needed someone to serve him. On the other hand, most likely they were there as backup rations for him.
After being in emotional turmoil for a few days, finally, her hopelessness caused her to muster up the courage.
Under the plans of her three subordinates, Demon Phoenix finally found an opportunity. Garen came back today severely injured as usual. The left side of his body was completely gone. Demon Phoenix took advantage of this opportunity for a sudden attack. And then, she was still unexpectedly suppressed...
Naturally, the decision for Garen to capture Demon Phoenix wasn't a casual one.
In the midst of the battle between the Nine-Headed Hydra's will and the Cthulhu King, he used the aura of the Black Water True Technique to sense the area. He unexpectedly noticed the presence of several unique lives. One of the unique ones was the Demon Phoenix.
After careful investigation, the blood in the Demon Phoenix's body contained an ancient aura similar to the ancient Nine-Headed Hydra's will. This surprised him. Since it wasn't much of a burden, he caught the four of them as he left.
As expected, Demon Phoenix was a creature with a long lifespan. This was definitely a good news to him.
Although luminarists had different methods to lengthen their lives, according to the royal records, the longest lifespan of the strongest totem user was about 400 years. Although different methods were used, one of the most effective methods was converting life force into totems. This was the method that the Cthulhus of the Cthulhuism Society used to become Cthulhus. However, even the Cthulhu totems had a limit to their lifespan.
It was the number 400.
This was the limit of one's lifespan.
After Garen felt Demon Phoenix's ancient aura, he immediately captured the four of them for research on the secrets of longevity.
After a moment of silence, Demon Phoenix crawled to her feet. The courage that she had had completely disappeared. She and her three subordinates squatted at one side, feeling discouraged. They began sewing simple clothes for Garen using animal skins, bones plus some long feathered birds that they caught recently. To make simple disposal clothes weren't difficult.
Demon Phoenix had been enduring for more than a thousand years. No one was stronger than her in carrying a burden. It was the same when she met Sage Osaka previously. Once she couldn't defeat him, she instantly repented. Since she had a long lifespan, as long she lived longer than others, time would help her defeat her strongest enemy. She never thought that before his death, Osaka would seal her for thousands of years.
But that was before. Previously, she wasn't good with her mind. After thousands of years of hard work, her mind was much more active than before.
Demon Phoenix's eyes were glowing. She was thinking how to escape that monster's claws. The man was as strong as Osaka during the old days. But no matter how strong someone is, they would still have weaknesses.
"My Lord! I have an idea!" The purple-armored girl whispered.
"What's your plan? Say." Demon Phoenix quietly walked towards her.
"As long as we obediently listen to the man, he might not eat us. After a few hundred years, after he dies of old age, we can regain our freedom. As long as we perform better this time and don't get sealed, the Osaka incident won't repeat!" The purple-armored girl said with certainty.
"Good idea!" Demon Phoenix knocked her fists. Although not using her brain for thousands of years made it slow, but she didn't think so.
"We shall compete with him to see who lives longer!" The two others gathered around as well. "All elites also need subordinates. As long as we are obedient, we definitely wouldn't be in danger!"
From the other side, Garen opened his eyes and glanced at the four of them. Without uttering a word, he closed them again.
Removing the aura of ancient elites, the four of them were lunatics. Most likely they used to rely on brute force to solve problems. Since brute force couldn't solve the problem at hand, they were completely clueless.
After resting for a moment, a mild tremor came from the distance.
Garen glanced at it then raise his hands. Large amounts of black gas were emitted, surrounding all of them.
"Let's go!"
The five of them leaped to the sky, forming a bundle of black cloud, then headed towards the wave in the distance.
The mutated creatures that were kept captive on the ground quickly ran away like they were being amnestied.
*************
Another few days passed by.
On the grassy plains, the stars in the night sky were glittering silver. The jade-white crescent moon quietly glowed in the sky, surrounded by lingering clouds.
Garen's party started a campfire on the grassy plains. They could clearly be seen, like a yellow chess piece on a black chess board. White smoke billowed upwards. The smoke swayed after being blown by the wind. It dissipated then disappeared.
"What is this place?" Garen sat beside the campfire. He casually asked as he was fiddling with the fire. As soon as he asked, he realized that it wasn't probable that Demon Phoenix would know their current location. Hence he kept quiet.
"Not...Not sure…" Demon Phoenix answered carefully. She had already accepted her fate. After making sure that Garen wouldn't eat her, she used her ultimate technique - endure.
After enduring for thousands of years, enduring another few hundred years wouldn't be a huge problem. Compared to before, she could still see new sceneries around. It was evident that the current treatment she received was much better.
Garen gave her a glance.
"Do you know how to retract the parts of your body that are not human-like?"
"I know! I know I know!" Demon Phoenix quickly nodded. After these few days, she was afraid of being beaten up. She obediently listened and accepted herself as Garen's servant.
After some adjustments, Demon Phoenix and the rest retracted their abnormalities. All of them looked like normal humans.
Her three subordinates, two men, and a woman dispersed their armor. They reformed the armor to become clothes like ones Garen wore. They also revealed their faces that they had previously hidden.
The purple-armored girl changed into a purple robe. She was Demon Phoenix's top general, called Phantom. Her looks and figure were indescribable. She was an absolute beauty. Her appearance was gentle. It was only her strange, heavy, voice that could give anyone a scare.
The other two men looked about the same. They were beautiful and pure, with long purple hair. From their appearance, it was difficult to recognize that they were men. They didn't even have facial hair. If it wasn't for their Adam's apple or the lack of a protruding chest, just by their beautiful face and graceful figure, no one would know that they were men.
Their two names were relatively strange, Lata and Tala.
Demon Phoenix explained that initially, her main criteria for choosing subordinates had been beauty.
After the four of them joked around for a few times, they could be considered obedient. Since they were free while pursuing the Cthulhu King, Garen asked Demon Phoenix about the situation of the place she was from.
"Osaka used to be a region of chaos. There were a total of five countries. We lived there since we were born. The people there consecrated us and worshipped us as gods. After that, Osaka appeared and killed many of my servants and subordinates. After defeating us in the end, I do not know why she didn't kill me. Before her death, she sealed me up until now. I think after the death of Osaka's man, she herself no longer wanted to live. I am not very sure of the reason."
Demon Phoenix illogically talked about her past.
Her subordinates were carefully barbecuing some food. They also used some roots of plants that they had dug out to make soup.
The grassy plains were abnormally quiet. They only sound that could be heard was the faint wolf howls from the distance.
After the nest leaders recruited large amounts of strong monsters, the ones that remained outside were stupid or weak ones. Even the nest leaders did not consider them as one of their own.
For fifth form elites, if they were willing, as long as they didn't hide their presence, it would be sufficient to scare away almost all the monsters. But this was a little tricky for Garen. He couldn't replenish sufficient potential points without sufficient strong creatures.
Fortunately, he already had some rough ideas about the path of the Cthulhu King's martial arts.
The key reason he was superior to the martial artists of this world, was his understanding towards martial arts. With the support of the level of the previous world, he was able to reach terrifying heights.
This had nothing to with the realm that he was in. It was merely based on experience.
He had studied large amounts of martial arts in the martial arts world. At this point, his progress of deciphering the Cthulhu King's Sun-Sealing Demonic Wheel was faster than the Cthulhu King expected.
One he could derive the complete demonic art, absorbing the Cthulhu's Origin would no longer be a problem.
After casually chatting with Demon Phoenix and the rest, he ordered them to be on guard. They would inform him once they notice something going on with the Cthulhu King.
He laid on the grass and gradually fell asleep. Even though his Black Water True Technique had strong stamina, the terrifying consumption due to two months of continuous battles and pursuit with no rest in the middle has pushed him to his limit.
Once he closed his eyes, he no longer wanted to open it. HIs weariness flooded him instantly like a tide.
He slept for an unknown period of time. As he opened his eyes, it was bright.
The sky was too bright. A rich, potato soup-like fragrance entered his nostrils.
Garen felt his brain hurt as he slowly sat up. He saw Demon Phoenix and Phantom busy cooking soup, while Lata and Tala were squatting on the ground. They were washing some leafy plants.
The sky was white and the wind that blew by was a little cooling.
As he stood upon the grassy plains, Garen looked towards the Cthulhu King from afar. There was no movement over there. It was obvious that he was also getting a little rest for one night.
He relied on the attribute bonuses of his body, his incredible martial arts realm, in addition to the Troll Grip and others, to be able to imitate the battling ability of a peak fifth form although he was merely at the lower level of fifth form. In actual fact, he was competing all these while.
Garen also had a clear positioning of his full strength.
Among peak fifth form, he was the weakest. In his battle with God Cloud, not to mention that God Cloud was already injured beforehand. After such a long pursuit, the other party managed to escape so far away although he was bringing along another person with him.
After that, the Cthulhu King was even more extreme. Everytime his attack hit, it would mean injury or even death. If the Black Water True Technique didn't gather on the surface of his body, he couldn't even break his defense, not to mention heavily injure him. Gathering the Black Water True Technique on his hands and legs like before wouldn't work at all. It was too weak.
Until today, although the Cthulhu King had an Immortal Body, he didn't even die once. In other words, by merely injuring him, the consumption of Cthulhu's Origin for the other party was not even worth mentioning.
Meanwhile, he himself had died for more than twenty times and been severely injured for more than thirty times. If it wasn't for his nine-life talent which could be replenished with potential points, in addition to the terrifying regenerative ability of the Nine-Headed Hydra, he simply did not qualify to fight his opponent until this stage.
Although by successfully suppressed the temperament of the Nine-Headed Hydra, he'd managed to increase his strength significantly, he was still much weaker as compared to the Cthulhu King.
After giving more thought, the Cthulhu King was oppressed by Phiroth. Without the glittering water, he would flee once he saw Phiroth.
Garen was making the comparisons in his mind. Finally, he positioned his strength on the level of the Lord of Royal Star Court. The Lord of Royal Star Court could hold his own against God Cloud with the Distorted Beads. Although he was slightly disadvantaged, he was still a true peak fifth form.
As the boss of the Geometry Service, his abilities were among the top three strongest in the Three Departments. Even if the Elder Council was included, he would still be top five. The Elder Council was a giant force across the East and West Continents, gathering all the top-notch elites.