Destiny
Memphis struggled and wanted to get up. But immediately, the spider made of dark aura on his chest let out a hiss. His face went pale, and he fell back down as large beads of sweat rolled down his face.
*Shuffling*
Baelin suddenly heard a mild, yet periodic rumble.
“It’s coming from the town! Did someone survive?” Baelin beamed with delight.
In contrast, Memphis’ face suddenly changed. “It’s the footsteps of the Underground Winter Spiders! They have caught up with us!”
A short while later, the silhouettes of five Underground Winter Spider Knights appeared before Baelin’s eyes.
“Memphis! You’re really here!”
“That’s great, we actually found you!”
“His head will definitely give us some merit!”
The knights started chuckling, talking in their language. Jenny only managed to understand a few terms, whereas Baelin had a blank face as he could not understand it at all.
Very quickly, the blank look on his face turned into one of horror.
This was because the knights were sharing the backs of the Underground Winter Spiders with groups of severed human heads, which were still dripping with blood!
He could even see a few familiar faces amongst them.
“Unc—UNCLE VEEYA! What did you do to them!?” Baelin’s veins popped out with anger, and he unsheathed the cross sword on his back.
“Haha...” Although the Underground Winter Spider Knights could not understand Baelin’s reproaching them, they could infer his fury from his body language. One of them used a spear to pick up a head and started taunting Baelin
At the same time, another knight held a spear and rushed forward.
“Aaaaah… I’m going to kill all of you!” Baelin’s eyes were bloodshot, and he too rushed forward.
“Secret technique! Cross Star!” Baelin’s life force abruptly exploded and formed an illusory armour around his body.
“Kill!”
Cross blade and spear collided, and Baelin and the Underground Winter Spider knight both retreated a few steps.
Underground Winter Spider knights were the pinnacle of an army whose regular soldiers each matched human Grand Knights. Combining their own ability with runes and their mounts, their strength vastly surpassed that of the average Grand Knight.
However, Baelin himself was no ordinary Grand Knight and could fight him evenly.
Unfortunately, Baelin had to fight not one opponent, but five!
After seeing the life force explode out from Baelin’s body, a few knights looked at each other, shouted a few words Baelin could not understand and rushed forward.
*Pew*
A black ray shot through the sky and landed on the shoulders of an Underground Winter Spider Knight, piercing into the knight’s shoulder with some difficulty.
Jenny stood on the carriage, bow in hand. Her face was calm whilst she shot arrows non-stop.
Naturally, she could see the situation clearly. Under present circumstances, the only way to survive was eliminating this small party.
The problem was that they were badly outnumbered, and each of their opponents was stronger than Grand Knights; exterminating them would not be easy.. Jenny smiled bitterly in her heart.
As was to be expected, Baelin was slowly surrounded by the knights and seemed unable to endure any more attacks. The illusory armor around him began to appear as if it would explode any moment.
*Creak! Creak!*
One of the Spiders, under its rider’s commands, leaped past Baelin’s resistance and arrived before the carriage
The black spear pierced forth, and the resulting winds caused Jenny’s face to change.
“Ouch!” Nearby, Baelin let out a groan. His armor had disintegrated, and blood was gushing out from all of his wounds.
*Buzz! Buzz!*
Suddenly, Jenny felt a strong energy wave explode violently next to her. She turned her head and saw Memphis struggling to open a scroll in his hands.
A grey ripple swept out, the ring of light seeming to be a spirit avoiding both Jenny and Baelin as it reached the Underground Winter Spider Knights. It was like a halo that bound the knights and their mounts.
The knights that had been bound by the halo immediately felt the enormous power they were proud of dissipating. Even their mounts began trembling as if they could not stand under their own weight.
“A Weakening Imprint! Retreat!” A knight immediately shouted.
But at this time, Baelin lost all self-restraint. “Die!”
“Cross Blade!” He violently used the last bit of his spiritual energy and executed the killing stance of the cross sword technique.
A blade of light in the shape of a cross mercilessly slashed through the four surrounding knights.
Their faces became lifeless, and in a few moments, they disintegrated along with their mounts.
*Whoosh* Jenny seized this chance and used a single arrow to pierce through the neck of the last escaping knight.
Memphis let out a smile, but abruptly spat out black blood, after which he fainted.
Half a day later, on the carriage, Jenny looked at the defeated Baelin, and Memphis beside her, and was speechless.
“Why? Why must we kill? Why must there be war?” Baelin muttered under his breath, the world having lost all colour.
“This is an answer that I’ve been looking for, but unfortunately I have not reached a conclusion!”
Currently, Memphis was using the sap from a green plant to wrap the wounds on his chest. He laughed bitterly, “The two of you have saved me. I, Memphis, swear upon the honor of the dark royalty that I will repay the two of you!”
“Let’s not talk about that for now. The conflict you mentioned previously, is that real?” Jenny was obviously more concerned about this issue than other matters.
“It’s real! I have suffered from persecution and attempted assassination from others just because I advocated for peace!”
Memphis’ eyes glowed, and his voice sank.
“What’s our plan now?”
Jenny looked at Baelin.
“I have decided! I must do my best to prevent the war this time around. I don’t want to see more people shedding blood!”
Baelin’s voice was coarse but held an unquestionable resolve.
“You’re crazy!” Jenny was trembling: “Based on your ability alone??”
“No! There’s still him!” Baelin pointed to Memphis. “I will escort him back to the Dark Elven Empire and try my best to stop the war!”
Having made that decision, Baelin suddenly felt like he was heating up.
He ripped opened his clothes, revealing a gold coin that had a peculiar exterior. On one side of the coin was a skeleton, whereas on the other side was a lucky bird; the rim of the coin gave off a dim glow. Baelin had pierced through the gold coin, run a string through it, and hung it on his neck.
Baelin caressed the gold coin, his eyes showing signs of even more determination, “Mister Leylin! Master! You support me as well, don’t you?”
……
Eastern Twilight Zone, Nature’s Alliance headquarters.
Currently, Nature’s Alliance had stabilised its strength as a medium-scale guild and had countless hundreds of acolytes, far from what it was like in the past.
Moreover, the increased presence of Magi strengthened their defenses greatly. They were now a few ranks higher than before.
In the forbidden area in the middle of Nature’s Alliance, within a huge laboratory.
Leylin blanked out and immediately looked towards the golden crystal in his hands. Currently, the crystal was emitting a faint heat, and the golden light generated from within enshrouded it.
“A portion of the spiritual force has been received?” Leylin suddenly laughed.
“It looks like Baelin has already started walking along with his destined spiritual path! The strength of fate will accumulate in his body!”
Leylin glanced at the A.I. Chip’s progress with the recovery of the meditation techniques.
Sacred Flame, the high-grade meditation technique that Leylin longed for, the same one that could predict the future, had finally been fully recovered. There were even a few areas that were being constantly improved.
On the other hand, Kemoyin’s Pupil had not advanced at all in the past three years, remaining at halfway to completion. Leylin assumed that the lack of high-grade meditation techniques meant that advancing it to the fourth grade was exceedingly difficult.
After all, the only one rank four technique in his possession could only be cultivated by Dragons, while the others had no information that could assist in the progress of Kemoyin’s Pupil.
On the other hand, Sacred Flame had been recovered much earlier, and even went through a few modifications to remove the negative repercussions.
It was a pity that the A.I. Chip only managed to simulate it to the third rank. This meant the technique only went this far, and that left Leylin feeling slightly regretful
“Since the gears of fate have started to turn, then I can only continue to scatter more of these ‘seeds’ so as to anticipate a harvest in the future!” Leylin stroked his chin and looked towards the experiment table.
The silver-white table top had a few peculiar objects on it. Among these items were a black ring, a five-coloured pendant, and a tattered notebook.
“A.I. Chip! Begin!” Leylin’s eyes shot out a blue glow, and he picked the few objects up.
[Limited AI programming has been completed, inputting data!] The A.I Chip intoned.
After a few minutes, Leylin picked up the black ring. A ray of light shot out, and out came the figure of a scholarly looking Magus.
“I am the legendary Grand Magus Merlin, you lucky fellow! You will receive my advice and become the Twilight Zone’s strongest genius!”
Leylin’s mouth quivered. The Grand Magus figure seemed to have life, as it spoke with charm.
These were the limited Artificial Intelligences that Leylin had been designing. He had the ability to control the programs remotely, which made them very useful.
Having been pleased with himself after the adjustments, Leylin placed the few items into an empty bag and walked out of the laboratory.
“My lord!”
Along the way, no matter whether they were official Magi or acolytes, all of them lowered their heads in respect. Some acolytes would even bow from a distance, and quickly walk away.
“I can’t believe that even I would receive such treatment!” Leylin abruptly laughed.
If high-level Magi had not intentionally exercised restraint, the strong radiation that emitted from their bodies would be a type of contagion that could even be lethal to low-level acolytes.
As a result, previously in the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, there were many forbidden areas, which were actually the living areas and experimentation areas of high-level Magi.
In the past, when Leylin had seen those Magi, he would also bow from a distance before quickly avoiding them.
But now, it was time for others to do so instead.