Chapter 466: Departure 2
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Following that, reports of minor matters flooded in. The management of the palace grew increasingly complicated and troublesome along with influence and power.
Garen would rather wash his hands off at this point, leaving these administrative matters to Ivycius’ three apprentices, fully utilizing all the manpower he can get.
After settling those, he could put his mind at ease for a good amount of time. Even the plans for the next two years have been laid out.
His main goal was to improve his own abilities, not to expand his influence, so these were all secondary in comparison.
After a week, three out of four elders from the Glittering Pool returned, leaving Elder Wukang alone to guard the pool.
In the battle at the Glittering Pool, Elder Wukang used seemingly limitless clouds to engulf the entire region surrounding the Glittering Pool, forming a Wukang area of over ten kilometers in radius. No light was able to penetrate. In that area, Wukang’ totem abilities increased threefold, his vision unaffected by the mist. Also, any enemies who entered his realm without his permission would fall into a limbo realm, where they couldn’t use their totem abilities.
This ability lasted 20 minutes, but within these 20 minutes, Elder Wukang subjugated thirteen Form 4 experts and monsters, taking down all the miscellaneous external influences who are there to take the Glittering Pool.
All the subtler forces around Kovitan, and the Form 4s that were vanguards of those organizations had all been killed by her alone. Among them was even an Obscuro Elemental General who was accidentally engulfed in that radius.
The monster lairs in the surrounding had also been subjugated by him.
In a few short days, Elder Wukang single-handedly established himself as a vicious killer, and was given the honorific of Master Wukang.
Perhaps, aside from the three great forces, there was no one else who would challenge the Black Swamp Palace in the Caeserton region.
The remaining three forces did not try to fight for Black Swamp Palace, as they lacked the understanding of the nature of Glittering Water, staying at the sidelines. In their opinion, it was unwise to go against so many other organizations for a medicinal water that possessed healing properties.
Soon, the negative consequences of Elder Wukang’ monster ma.s.sacre resurfaced.
The Glittering Pool was not within the area of protection for Ivycius. A large horde of monsters came swarming, among them were a few stronger leader of the lairs. They had already possessed some form of primitive sentience and had the capacity for vengeance, heavily surrounding the glittering pool.
After a single long war, the three elders mobilized and exterminated all the creatures, turning them either into treasures or resources. That war had completely restored the land around the Glittering Pool.
After a week, at the same time the three people returned, Grand Duke Benoc also launched a land reclamation operation. His White Rubber Tree Corps had grown swiftly, and reclaimed most of the mining locations outside the area of protection.
The remaining two forces began mimicking each other, starting to expand outwards. Since they had Caeserton as their backbone, they could always retreat if they were rendered ineffective.
Whereas for now, the leaders of the monster lairs were disbanded, and the density of lairs had also decreased. So long as the numbers didn"t grow too large, these monsters will never be a threat to people.
After all, the high level monsters have already been controlled by the underground Elder Senate, while the ma.s.ses were fighting due to the high density of monsters, most of them lacked basic food and water, and so was unsustainable.
In this period, the entire Kovitan spurred with enthusiasm, all wanting to reclaim the land for their empire.
After the three elders returned, Garen b.u.mped into them, and after a small meeting, they pa.s.sed a series of civilian development plans.
Among them was the most important clause; reproductive encouragement.
War and the creatures had made the original populous civilization lose a vast majority of its size, and a vast amount of doc.u.ments were lost, along with the destructions of many tactics crystals. Civilization had lost more than half its heritage. Mankind had been largely exterminated due to the many bodies which weren’t duly disposed of in recent times, causing many forms of epidemics across the region.
Large amounts of hospitals and disease control centers were set up, Forgers and Luminarists were widely recruited, and the entire Kovitan have seemed to have forgotten about the struggle of internal power. Instead, they were busy consolidating the nation’s resources; whoever could rebuild more of the city’s mines, the more that person’s base income and power grew.
The inner conflicts have swiftly turned into a race of external resource collection.
On the other hand, after Garen’s arrangements, he left the kingdom and rushed over to the Glittering Pool.
He wanted to see for himself the source of his headache. As he brought his Flash Screen, his safety has gotten the largest guarantee, especially if it was Ivycius who was the one attacking, After condensing a piece of exploding crystal, there should be even fewer problems.
He had tried for himself the power of the exploding crystals. It was equivalent to a full power attack by the current Ivycius, who were in pseudo-Form 5; its power was immense. Safety was definitely not an issue. Garen could let loose and go out.
********************
In the morning, a swarm of blackbirds spanning over ten meters across their wingspans flew high above the kingdom, pulling a house-sized horse carriage below them.
Amidst the white sea of clouds, the black birds which carried the carriages looked like ink stains on paper; clearly visible.
The wheels on the carriage went round and round, and if one looked from afar, it would appear like the carriage had a bunch of golden bells attached.
Kring….. Kring
Every few minutes, the faint sound of chimes can be heard from the outside of the black carriage.
Garen was sitting in the carriage, holding a goose egg that looked like red jade, sitting in a half-reclined position.
A breeze could be heard from beyond the carriage, occasionally accented by the chirps of some birds.
The carriage was decorated with a set of black tables and chairs, a red bookshelf, and a washroom that was separated, as well as a bedroom.
A portrait of Vanderman could be seen on the wooden wall, with a metal easel as a support. On top of the frame was a black vase. The green plant in it smelled like daffodils, and its fragrance wafted throughout the carriage.
Skyharp was sitting opposite him. The female elder held a cup of tea in her hands, slowly tasting it. She seemed to be at ease, as though she was enjoying the fragrance of the tea.
Garen was playing with the rock in his hand while he quietly channeled the route of his Secret Techniques without rest.
"Why are you free to come out with me? Hadn’t you just come back recently?"
Skyharp took a sip of the tea. She didn’t reply immediately, instead quietly observed the floating flower petals in her tea.
"I just felt that staying back was boring." she replied slowly after a while.
"During this trip, I hadn’t alerted anyone, and just came out quietly. Such a rare chance, I naturally wouldn’t turn back so easily. Do you have any plans?" Garen asked.
"Plans?" It seemed like Skyharp was thinking, and then she shook her head, and no longer spoke.
After observing this, Garen estimated that she had faced some issues with Ivycius, and looked saddened. He therefore held his tongue.
"I’m pregnant"
Puu!!!
Garen almost spat the tea in his mouth.
"It belongs to Ivycius…" Skyharp said, indifferently.
"Are you sure you’re not joking?" Garen was speechless.
"It is Ivycius’ child." Skyharp nodded in confirmation.
Both people fell into silence, and neither of them chose to break it.
Garen had yet to completely digest this breaking news, while Skyharp was unsure of what else to say.
After a long while.
"You guys….move really quickly.." Garen was unsure how to judge it. By Ivy’s temper, it was definitely not his initiative, then it would most likely have been…
"Indeed, I a.s.saulted him." Skyharp let out this shocking fact without much expression. "One dose of the secret summoning potion from Namus, calibrated for Ivy’s body. I could do it easily."
Yet she looked blue.
"Don’t forget, I am a bona fide potion brewer."
Garen’s heart chilled, and he now looked at this iron lady in a different light.
"Then, this journey is for you to give birth to this baby?’ Potion Masters naturally had their unique way to take out the embryo for further nurturing elsewhere. This sort of small surgery was very simple in the Luminarists’ World.
"Yes.. "
Skyharp nodded nonchalantly.
"My body is different from a regular person’s. I will take the fertilized ovum and turn it into an egg, which is what you call an embryo, so long as it is nurtured successfully, it can be grown slowly as I inject my blood in every once in a while.
Garen was lost for words, facing such a devious women, Garen could only mourn for Ivycius.
"Does Ivy know about this?"
Garen finally asked after a while.
"No." Skyharp shook her head. "Such is life, I originally planned to ruin his totem, let him be a normal person, that way he could stay with me forever and never leave. Unfortunately, he combined his life force with his core totem, and cannot be separated."
Garen was speechless again, this person had some twisted logic.
Thank G.o.d Skyharp wasn’t paying attention to Garen’s expressions; she only needed someone to talk to.
"Back then, when he came to the island in search for treasures, he was caught by me…. Coincidentally I needed a lab rat, so I kept him. Then I slowly fell in love with him over the course of the experiments, and I could see from his angry eyes that he loved me too, so we got together in Skyharp Island."
Weren’t his eyes angry eyes? How did you conclude that he loved you?
Garen was stunned by Skyharp’s logic.
"Back then, I touched all of his body, he was indeed a cute little kid…" she slumped into her memories. "He was so cute when he was young, he became less cute when he grew older…. It had only been twenty years on the island, yet he already wanted to leave. Such a lack of patience. There’s me to accompany him, what else was there to play with in the outside world?"
She mumbled alone, as though she was immersed in her own memories.
Twenty years. Anybody human enough would want to run after being experimented for so long….
Garen wanted to speak, but he held back, he also wanted to hear more of the later parts of the story between Skyharp and Ivy.
Obviously, Skyharp was just a big bully. A young handsome Ivy who just arrived at the island by accident was violated for 20 years, it was straight up the Totem User’s version of mistress keeping.
Garen had no idea what kind of face he should be showing to Skyharp, who was speaking of her past.
To Ivy, it should all be a traumatic past.
By Skyharp’s att.i.tude, it should be obvious that the story was her delusion, all the feedback and behavior of others could be twisted in any way.
It was likely that because of these years of violations, Ivy lost all hope on women, and fell in love with his own core totem