Chapter 1960
‘It’s very likely that Navaldrea will find these useful.’
All the artifacts that Lord brought back from Trauka’s treasure trove were of great value. It was clear that they could be sold for a sky-high price if sold on the trading post.
However, Grid didn’t really need the money. The two artifacts he took were for others. One of them was a bracelet with a red bird painted on it and the other was a pendant that exuded scorching heat. These artifacts contained a powerful fire attribute, and Grid thought they would be a valuable gift to Navaldrea, whom he would meet soon.
‘I’m glad that Kraugel has safely secured Navaldrea. Now I just have to wait for news that Eligos has found Judar’s soul.’
Grid knew what he had to do. Just then, he received a notification window that his clone had received the t.i.tle of ‘Inspired by the G.o.d of Magic.’ It seemed that everything was going well. Even the update which he didn’t initially like was making him feel hopeful.
Grid wished everything would work out in the end. But his expression darkened. He stopped himself from getting too excited too soon, and got up from his throne.
He mumbled, “This isn’t the time to be thinking of such things...”
After making several trips, he arrived at a cemetery on the outskirts of the city. He stood in front of the tombstones of the people and soldiers who had been killed a few days earlier. The heartbroken family members guarding the tombstones were shocked by the emperor suddenly showing up. They nodded solemnly while Grid bowed deeply and made a vow to the tombstones.
“The empire will take responsibility for your family. Be reincarnated in peace...”
There were a lot of eyes on him. People would laugh at Grid for becoming too immersed once again. Nevertheless, he didn’t care. He had felt genuine concern over the people of this world ever since he met Khan.
A guild notification interrupted Grid’s meditation.
[Guild] There is a request for help from Siren. They said that the outer barrier is being destroyed, though they do not know what or who is causing it. They hope that someone powerful will come to their aid.
[Guild] Aren’t there a lot of named-grade sea animals roaming those waters? I heard that they constantly break barriers. Even so, this is surprising.
[Guild] Given the current situation, we should probably be prepared for anything. One high ranker should go. Doesn’t matter who as long as they achieved transcendence.
Lauel made a request but, unsurprisingly, no one answered. Currently, the main force of the Overgeared Guild was either on the open sea on newly built sea vessels or exploring dangerous areas.
There were a lot of areas to investigate because the update had just dropped. Plus, there were very few high rankers in Reinhardt, and they were busy dealing with monsters that were frequently appearing in the mines.
Just as the members who fell short of becoming high rankers were going to offer to form a party, Grid disrupted his moment of silence and said, “I will go.”
The guild window was buzzing. It made no sense for Grid to step forward in a situation where it was unclear if an enemy had even appeared in Siren. The guild members didn’t want their leader to waste time on trivial matters.
[Guild] No. I would rather send Asmophel...
“We don’t know when the cultivators will be available. The knights should remain here to protect Reinhardt. Didn’t you say that we need to secure the sea animals that live deep in the sea? I have to go so that the king of the water clan will personally cooperate with me on that.”
Grid headed straight for the warp gate without caring about any other opinions. The magicians waiting there were about to enter the coordinates of Siren when Sticks rushed over.
“I will personally serve His Majesty.”
“Why are you doing this yourself when you are so busy?”
“The world is in turmoil and I don’t feel at ease. Siren might be remote, but it is unusual for their king to personally ask for help.”
It wasn’t common for accidents to happen to Siren’s outer barrier. The fact that the king had an ominous foreboding about such a common occurrence meant that things were different from usual. He hadn’t exactly figured out what was going on, but his intuition had instructed him to call for help.
“How is the research on the spiritual roots going?” Grid asked.
“There is nothing to research. The spiritual root condensation method that the prime minister obtained is pretty good. I am just annotating it to make it easier for students to understand.”
The gate coordinates had been entered. Several spells were casted, like one that granted Grid a s.h.i.+eld, protecting him once he teleported.
“Have a safe journey.”
Grid flashed a smile in Sticks’ direction, who looked at him with worry. “I will be careful.”
He disappeared into the gate.
***
“This is a Warrior who possesses immense strength. The martial arts here are truly amazing, like they are defying heaven itself, if even a mortal who hasn’t acc.u.mulated spiritual energy can become this powerful.”
The old man came to a conclusion. He tsked. The awl that pa.s.sed by Zik stopped and spread out like a net.
Zik drew his sword and released sword energy. His sword cut through, but the net was still intact. Surprised, Zik carved runes with the meaning of ‘acceleration’ on his lower body and escaped from the range of the net. The rock caught on his heel was used as a springboard to shoot forward. Before he knew it, he was already right next to the old man.
“Hmm.”
The old man’s eyes widened as he blocked Zik’s sword. The color of the shaking s.h.i.+eld flickered, sending a chill down the man’s spine. “The power of words? You have the ability to use the power of words?!” he asked, astonished.
Dozens of daggers poured out from the old man’s mouth. Zik reacted immediately but he was still cut by a few blades. However, the old man’s protective s.h.i.+eld was shattered, unable to withstand Zik’s sword strikes, who kept swinging his weapon despite his wounds.
A new voice could be heard. “Elder Bai, what type of humiliation are you suffering against a mere mortal?”
Four flags fell at the same time and impaled the ground around Zik, emitting a golden light. The light rapidly formed a barrier by connecting the flags.
Zik combined the rune words ‘nullify’, ‘stop,’ and ‘escape,’ escaping the barrier and leaving the four people who had just thrown the flags shocked.
The old man called Elder Bai snorted. “He delayed the completion of the barrier and escaped?”
“He is capable of using the power of words. Why else would I have suffered such a humiliating defeat?”
“That’s right. I’m very unfamiliar with the letters he uses. Is it an alien language?”
“You don’t even know where this place is. How can you recognize the text? I think he’s human. However, don’t let your guard down. It seems he has mastered a powerful body refining technique.”
“A powerful body refining technique...”
Elder Bai and his four companions became very cautious. They didn’t attack hastily, instead choosing to slowly close the distance between them and Zik. They were all extremely strong people in the core formation realm, but they had no intention of neglecting the transcendent physical ability of someone who had succeeded in body refining.
Just then, huge drums or pots appeared in front of the elders, quickly increasing in size. Those were treasures that were effective for both offense and defense. Each one had a different attribute and released things like fire, ice, or poisonous smoke.
Zik felt his body becoming heavy under the pressure of various spiritual energies and smiled. By focusing on the battle, he forgot everything that had been plaguing his mind.
“Thank you,” Zik mumbled before releasing a small amount of divinity he had taken from King Sobyeol. The elders’ treasures quickly lost their l.u.s.ter and weakened.
“Absorbing spiritual energy?”
Alarmed, the elders swung their sleeves to retrieve the treasures. The new treasures that emerged from their fluttering sleeves were offensive ones, such as knives and spears. They possessed a superior killing power than the ones before and quickly rushed at Zik.
Zik’s sword became incandescent, resembling a thunderbolt. The spiritual energy that he absorbed from the elders’ treasures was replaced with aura and wrapped around the sword.
"Kuaaaaack!"
The bodies of the elders shattered in exchange for the increased wounds on Zik’s body.
After drinking a potion and catching his breath, Zik carefully searched the corpses of his enemies. His driving force was his desire for revenge. He had little interest in anything. Naturally, he did not care for anything material. Still, he took all the treasures and pouches that the elders had dropped.
The pouches were full of things he had never seen before. Among them, the most interesting ones were gems that resembled magic stones.
Zik smiled, pleased with himself. ‘I have something to offer to Grid.’
He was glad to have the opportunity to give back to Grid in a small way. At this moment, he wasn’t aware that the demons that had been curling in his heart for so long were starting to fade. He didn’t know yet that finding new happiness was one of the ways to let go of revenge and guilt. No, he might’ve turned a blind eye to it subconsciously.
He needed more time. However, Heaven didn’t seem to want to allow him time.
An unfamiliar voice spoke to him. “Interesting. Did you kill the five elders all on your own?”
Zik was shocked. Green fog surrounded him. The corpses of the elders, which had not turned to ash, wriggled every time the fog touched them. The fragmented body parts stuck together and rose up as zombies.
Cultivators were gathering at the scene one after another. There were dozens—no, hundreds—no, thousands of them. There were dozens of powerful people on par with the elder who had just been killed by Zik. The figure handling the green fog in the air seemed to be their leader.
“If a man as powerful as you is turned into a Steel Jiangs.h.i.+, your performance will be excellent.”
The smiling leader winked. All of the cultivators rushed to attack Zik.
***
“Haha! I didn’t expect there to be so many fish people here! There must be hundreds of thousands.”
Above Siren, a woman glanced at the water clan members. She seemed delighted. She had noticed that the scope of the barrier was very large, but it was still more than she expected. Excitedly, she made some hand gestures. Dozens of blades slammed into the last remaining internal barrier.
Siren was in a state of great turmoil, just like when an undersea volcano erupted. The king of the water clan looked up and cried out, “It’s like a polymorphed dragon.”
The soldiers who had been set out on sharks had been exterminated. Their dantians were being pulled out, flowing into the woman’s mouth. Most of the water clan members were discouraged and terrified.
‘This is serious...’
The king of the water clan was haunted by regrets. He had asked the prime minister of the empire to send reinforcements, but at that time, he wasn’t fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. He asked for only one Warrior of moderate prestige to rea.s.sure the people, but that had been a big mistake on his part. At the very least, a Transcendent was needed to confront this monster.
He wasn’t even sure if reinforcements would arrive in time. The intruder had already nearly broken the barrier.
“I’ll buy you as much time as possible, so the princes should lead their troops and evacuate the people!”
Just as he shouted those commands, the barrier was broken. The woman’s eyes turned red.
“Buy time? Against me?”
The woman snorted and made another hand gesture. Dozens of blades multiplied into hundreds. She sent them raining down toward the fleeing people.
The woman was already ecstatic. She was very excited to consume all the dantians of the soon-to-be dead fish people and quickly advance her realm.
Just then, the great ring in the center of the city flashed, showing a black-haired young man.
The woman was surprised by the sudden event and examined the young man’s well-trained body in an alert manner. She soon turned around and snorted. She didn’t know who this young man was, but his cultivation level was so low that she didn’t look twice in his direction.
“It has been a long time since I’ve received a reaction like this.”
The black-haired young man raised his chin arrogantly. He was grinning. Hundreds of black-gold hands swarmed like bees around him, and they were all headed toward the woman’s blades.
“Dealing with so many treasures while you’re still in the qi refining realm? You use strange tricks. Even so... Wait.”
The woman gasped in shock. Her blades, which were about to strike the fish people, had been caught by the black-gold hands, and were now stuck. She tried to control them by making a series of gestures, but it was useless. The grip of the black-gold hands exceeded the power of her technique.
The blades twitched and were eventually crushed into bits and pieces.
“No!” The woman let out a piercing scream and red blood poured from her mouth. She was suffering internal injuries as a direct result of her treasures being damaged.
Grid used Shunpo, appearing right beside her. He swung a fist. The woman hurriedly chanted something and infused a defensive orb with spiritual energy. Surprisingly, a two-story pavilion floated and wrapped around her.
Baaaaang!
Grid’s fist knocked down the pavilion. The woman’s face turned pale. A fist that hadn’t lost any of its momentum crushed her chest.