Chapter 950 The Deluge of Illumination
Lei Cang was the Captain of Squad Thunder and Xiao Jianfei was only his deputy. Under usual circ.u.mstances, Li Mu was supposed to hand the Map of Cosmos to Lei Cang if he was going to surrender it to Squad Thunder. But his offering of the Map to Xiao Jianfei caught everyone by surprise.
The Joker’s eyes twinkled with marvel and the lazy grin on his face evaporated as the corners of his lips curled into a wry smile.
Ye Ying, the stern yet beautiful female captain of Squad Bra.s.s snorted frigidly, showing her unmasked disapproval.
“What’s the meaning of this, Li Mu?!” Lei Cang roared.
“Like what I said,” Li Mu responded facetiously. “So, Lieutenant Xiao. Do you want the Map, or not?”
Xiao Jianfei might be straight and honest all his life, but he was by no means a fool. He immediately caught Li Mu’s gist and answered, “Very well, my friend. I shall remember well your generous gesture today.”
He took the Map of Cosmos from Li Mu.
Leaving Lei Cang seething beyond words.
He would have as much chance as plucking the moon off the sky in getting the Map back from Xiao Jianfei and much of the credit for recovering that Map would go to the lieutenant, not him. “d.a.m.n you, Li Mu!” he hissed to himself.
Li Mu did not neglect to flash Lei Cang a mocking wink before he extracted the Blazing Pearl this time. “I guess this should go to Captain Lin.”
Lin Jingxin’s beam only spread broader. “Hahaha! Li Mu, eh? I’ll remember you well. In fact, I’m beginning to like you.”
Li Mu tossed the Pearl at him, scowling, “Um, I’m not into men.”
Lin Jingxin found himself tongue-tied.
Although that did not prevent him from feeling impressed.
Li Mu rummaged out the Lunar Pearl this time. “Captain Ye, I know you’d like this.” He was certain that the soft and pure glow of the gla.s.s-like sphere, its gossamer silvery luminescence, would surely captivate the hearts of females.
Ye Ying took the Lunar Pearl reticently without any remark.
At last, Lei Cang could no longer hold back his irritation. “Where’s the Spectral Pearl, Li Mu? That’s mine, right? I’m sure both Captains Ye and Lin won’t object to that, especially since all four treasures should have been Squad Thunder’s in the first place.”
“In the first place? Says who?” Lin Jingxin reb.u.t.ted nonchalantly, “It’s our friend here who found the treasures first, not you. Understand that our friend is handing us the treasures out of goodwill, so let’s not mistake his generosity as a given and take his good gesture for granted.” That was a clear sign of him taking Li Mu’s side.
Ye Ying did not even have to articulate anything. The disdainful look she gave Lei Cang was an obvious sign of whose side she was taking.
She had little to like in a man who had been rapidly climbing the ladder of preferment in the military only because he had the help of the Roll of G.o.ds.
Nevertheless, both Lin Jingxin and Ye Ying did not show any concrete objections to the Spectral Pearl falling into the hands of Squad Thunder. They had arrived late and with two of the three Pearls already in their possession, there was little reason for them to sow dissent against Squad Thunder over a matter as trivial as the final Pearl.
“Hand it over, Li Mu! The Spectral Pearl,” Lei Cang spat venomously.
He might not be able to claim full credit for the Map of Cosmos, but with the Spectral Pearl, plus the forty crates that Squad Thunder had recovered, he would be rewarded enough for him to gain advancements in both his power and prestige.
“How about a question first?” Li Mu said suddenly.
“What question?” It was all Lei Cang could do to keep his boiling anger in check.
“Those wooden crates,” Li Mu motioned at the stacks of wooden boxes, “What are the contents inside, and why are they sealed?”
“As if it’s any secret at all,” Lei Cang smirked, “These are Lunar Gems, the wealth of the Children of the Moon of old.”
“What good are these Gems for?” pressed Li Mu.
“Forging, crafting, conjuring and strengthening of wards, and whatever! It’s the best magical catalyst ever!” snarled Lei Cang, the rage in him burgeoning beyond control, “Now enough piffle! Gimme the Spectral Pearl!”
That was right. As expected, the crates of Lunar Gems had nothing to do with the fragments of w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s psyche and soul being here. But what? What could be the reason that the fragments were trapped inside the Spectral Pearl?
Li Mu needed to know why.
Because understanding why would be crucial for his search for the remaining fragments of w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s psyche and soul.
At the same time, he was careful to not let his emotions show. His expression altered into one of mocking apology. “Well, what a shame. I’m afraid I can’t give you the Spectral Pearl.”
“What?!” Lei Cang uttered before his bewilderment contorted into a rage, “What is the meaning of this, Li Mu? That you wish to keep the Spectral Pearl for yourself? Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ll get away with it. You can’t!”
“You’ve been to the cabin at the bottommost deck,” said Li Mu, “Did you not notice the white powdery stuff on the marble desk?”
“W-What the—” gasped Lei Cang, the swelling dread growing inside him robbing away his voice.
“I’m afraid that I have accidentally smashed the Spectral Pearl,” said Li Mu lackadaisically, “It fell on the marble desk and shattered before it became the white powder that you saw on the desk.”
“What?!”
This time, it was Xiao Jianfei, Lin Jingxin, Ye Ying, and Lei Cang who uttered the one-syllable exclamation in unison.
“I didn’t know that the Pearl could be so valuable,” Li Mu shrugged, “It just slipped out of my hands.”
Disbelieving gazes and incredulous stares from every armored Trailblazer around them fixed on Li Mu at that instant.
“D-Do you even realize what have you done!?” Lin Jingxin gaped with eyes so wide that they were about to pop out of their sockets.
“Do you know just how important is the Spectral Pearl?!” Ye Ying almost swore that her ears were deceiving her.
“T-That’s too grave a joke to make, my friend…” stuttered Xiao Jianfei.
Lei Cang fell into a momentary stupor as he struggled to process what he just heard before the fact registered and he fell into a delirium of denial and anger, “This is one of your ploys, is it, LI Mu?! I don’t believe a word of that! Enough with your tricks, Li Mu! Hand over the Pearl! Give it now or I’ll make sure that you’ll never step off the Lunar Specter forever!”
“So what if it’s a ploy?” Li Mu responded with frost. “As if I need to depend on ploys to deal with the likes of you.”
“I’LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!” Lei Cang bellowed with purplish electricity dancing all over him in resonance with his wrath. Malice swirled in his gaze. “I’ll butcher you and strip you from head to toe myself if that would yield the Spectral Pearl!”
Li Mu did not even need to defend himself. “Wow, that’s high and mighty words from you, Captain Lei,” interjected Lin Jingxin coldly. “Since when does a Captain of the Eighteen Trailblazer Corps hold the authority to put a Chosen One to the sword? Or are you laboring under the delusion that you are an agent of the Inquisition?”
“I— Um—” Lei Cang found himself speechless as he realized that he had misspoken.
The Chosen Ones such as Li Mu enjoy unique privileges among the human civilization of the Battlefield of Chaos. Before the ident.i.ty of a Chosen One is fully ascertained and verified, no one, not even an officer with the highest field authority, is allowed to mete out judgment upon the Chosen One. Only the Inquisitors, specially handpicked members of the mysterious body known as the Inquisition who directly take their orders from the Conclave of Ten, the supreme council that governed the entire military, hold that power.
“But if it’s true that he had destroyed the Spectral Pearl, then dying is too light a penance for that sacrilege!” Lei Cang was not giving in just yet.
“Be that as it may, that is not within your power to decide,” Lin Jingxin retorted.
“How dare you!” Lei Cang glared at Lin Jingxin darkly. “What do you expect to gain by protecting this scoundrel, Lin?”
“Nothing,” Lin Jingxin remarked in jest, yawning casually, “I find this chap a likable fellow, unlike a certain filth who speaks only honeyed words with his forked tongue and struts around with his nose in the air just because he has powerful connections.”
Lei Cang’s nostrils flared with indignance. But knowing that this internecine bickering would bring him no benefit at all, he ignored Lin Jingxin and directed his loathing at Li Mu, hissing bitterly, “This is not over yet Li Mu. Just wait. You’re only just here and you do not fully understand how the world works here. I’m a G.o.d now so there are hundreds and millions of ways I could make your life total suffering… We’ll see—”
“That’s enough,” Xiao Jianfei interjected abruptly, cutting short Lei Cang’s litany of threats. “We’ll just include this in our report and let the top bra.s.s decide on what to do. It’s been two hours since the blood moon appeared. The Deluge of Illumination will be here any moment now. We should get prepared.”
The mention of “the Deluge of Illumination” made Lei Cang’s gaze turn grim.
“So, there’s really a Deluge of Illumination here in this dimension?” Li Mu thought.
Li Mu had heard his mentor telling him before about the Deluge of Illumination. Suspected to be some mythical secretion of the moon itself that falls in rivulets down unto the earth, the shower of such divine substance could give life and sentience to floral and enhances the power of any mutant or beasts that ingest it. In fact, many believed that the Deluge of Illumination is the source from which beasts gain sentience and intelligence, allowing them to become mutants.
The legends about the Deluge of Illumination had always existed since the ancient eons. But due to humanity’s pollution of Earth, the Deluge of Illumination has become a phenomenon that would never again happen. In fact, Li Mu has always wondered if meteor rain events are incidents where Deluges of Illumination had taken place but were misunderstood by people of the past as just a harmless astronomical spectacle.
“So, tonight’s gonna be the Deluge of Illumination, eh?”
Li Mu realized amid his surprise.
“Is that why all these beasts and wraiths had come? They are gathering here around the Lunar Specter just because they predicted that the Deluge would occur around this decrepit s.h.i.+p?
“To get some of the Deluge of Illumination so that they could grow stronger and gain some form of intelligence?”
All creatures crave power.
But the substance of the Deluge of Illumination was said to have no effects on humans.
Nevertheless, Xiao Jianfei and the others looked like they were preparing for the Deluge as well. They looked as if they were going to collect some of the substance. But what for?
Li Mu looked around the Lunar Specter. As the moment neared, the beasts and the wraiths all stirred with antic.i.p.ation and unrest. Not even the presence of the four Beast Kings could keep them all restrained as the tumult intensified with more and more of the beasts and wraiths began pus.h.i.+ng and shoving forward hysterically.
High up in the sky, the dual moons overlooked the building chaos below.
The blood-red shade of one moon looked darker and more macabre by the second.
Whereas its twin’s pale radiance only seemed to wax as if in response.
Someone must have turned back the clock hands for the moons began to close right into each other, one melding into the another.
As the edges of the blood moon and the pale moon met, a tiny spark burst from where they intersected, a sprinkling flicker that turned into a huge symphony of lights showering down on earth.
Phenomenal and breathtaking.
Feng and the others all stared at the sky, awed and perplexed.
This really was the most beautiful night they had ever seen all their life.
Li Mu arched his head back and looked up as well.
“Is that it? The Deluge of Illumination?
“It really is as what Old Swindler described! Rivulets of gold scattering all over the night sky!”
Li Mu could almost feel the power emanating in each and every drop.
Below the Lunar Specter, the beasts and wraiths had long lost control. Once a neat and order rank and file of beasts had now mutated into a disorganized rabble and a complete pandemonium as the beasts all tussled and wrestled with one another just for one extra drop.
The four Beast Kings—the white silvery serpent, the red scorpion, Schwarzdrachen, and the white female wraith—all showcased their powers and abilities, using every faculty available to them to gobble up every drop they could find. With their power and ability, they were able to h.o.a.rd up most of the magical substance before any of the other beasts or wraiths could.
In the meantime, the Trailblazers each come up with myriads of ideas to store the substance.
Seeing this, Li Mu opened his mouth, like a man so parched that he needed to quench his thirst by drinking some rainwater.
“Heh, that’s a brute trying to drink some of the Deluge’s substance,” Lei Cang derided snidely as he watched Li Mu’s antics.