Chapter 2301: Sudden request I |
Daekol was in no rush as he worked on the barrier around the human’s body. If anything, he preferred to take things slowly so that he would not make mistakes. Laws replicating the effect of the Dao were something he had actually never encountered before, and he wanted to study them thoroughly.
The fact that these laws could even disregard his commands meant that they were of a higher authority than his own, which at this point could only belong to Dao Lords. Yet the human was far from reaching the Dao Lord realm. In fact, he wasn’t even a Celestial Immortal yet.
It was quite intriguing, to say the least. He wanted to thoroughly study the application of these laws. Moreover, he dared not be too aggressive in breaking it. He had no idea if the human had contingencies in place, but based solely on the calmness depicted in his eyes before he fell asleep, the human clearly felt like the situation was redeemable.
Thus, to avoid any lingering traps, and more importantly, to avoid accidentally harming the human’s body, soul, or system, he could only take things one step at a time.
Besides, he had found himself an incredibly convenient location to lay low within the dome covering him. Like this, it would be impossible for anyone to determine his location, and it wouldn’t be easy to get to him either. He could work on retrieving the human’s system all the while focusing on strengthening himself simultaneously. This was a win-win situation for him.
No sooner had he had that thought that something changed. The human’s body started to grow stronger for some random reason, and with it, the barrier around him grew as well.
Daekol paused, and his expression fell. Although it was difficult to ascertain the actual cause of the issue, this was not a good sign. He looked around the dome, and decided to add his own measures into the mix, completely isolating them from the outside.
There was no reason for the human to grow stronger randomly on his own, which could only mean he was getting some kind of feedback from the outside. He would need to improve the isolation to prevent any such instances from happening again, just to be safe.
Upper Battlefield
Their identities seemed to have been leaked even before they arrived, and they were imprisoned by the elves on their very first day in the Upper Battlefield. They were stripped of all their belongings, including the ring that contained some kind of immortal inheritance, with the necklace being the sole exception.
It was almost as if the elves weren’t able to see the necklace at all. In comparison, though they took the ring, they found nothing unusual about it. That was because Pearl had already learned how to disguise it from Cliff long ago.
They were naturally being held to lure out Karev Sunborne. It was only then that they learned that the immortal inheritance tokens Karev got his hands on seemed to be more valuable than any of them had previously guessed, so much so that there were rumors that even other immortals had exerted their influence within the Upper Battlefield to get it.
Since then, they had conducted a daring escape, retrieving the ring in the meantime. They built their own reputation, fought for treasures, built connections, and completed many quests.
The duo barely got any time to rest, but as a result, Pearl was now nearing the peak of the Golden Core realm.
Cliff made fewer and fewer appearances of late, but the duo only assumed that he was hiding since they were interacting with stronger cultivators. Previously, they used to think that he was a Golden Core cultivator.
Now that they had entered the realm themselves, they knew that he was much stronger. They even silently suspected that he may be a Nascent Soul cultivator who got his hands on some immortal inheritance. Or maybe even... an Earth Immortal who had encountered a terrible enemy!
The very thought of such a thing filled them with trepidation, as well as awe. The trepidation was caused by the thought that even an immortal could be brought down to this state. The awe was because they might have been receiving the guidance and tutelage of an immortal.
Currently, River and Peal were hiding on a ship, wearing disguises to keep their identity hidden as they traveled across a great sea. The captain of the ship was a Nascent Soul cultivator, so getting this close for this long was quite dangerous.
If it hadn’t been for Cliff’s marvelous technique that no one else could see through, they would have been exposed. They were on their way to pursue rumors of an item that could fulfil one of their quests when, suddenly, Cliff appeared as usual - on the head of the strongest person around.
Instead of wearing his usual casual attitude, Cliff’s expressions this time varied between confused and solemn, then back to confused and so on.
That was not an expression they had seen before from him, so they weren’t sure how to interpret it, though it was clear neither of the couple could guess what was on his mind.
"I need you to do something for me," Cliff said, not turning to look back at the two. "Naturally, since this request is so abrupt, I’ll reward it like the highest level quest. I need you to go in that direction and investigate something for me."
Cliff pointed out into the sea, towards nothing specifically. There were no visible landmarks anywhere in sight, and they were far from any kind of landmass. If they ventured off the ship now, even if they ignore the countless monsters that inhabited the sea, they might not be able to find their way back so easily. To suddenly go off would be akin to a deathwish.
Then again, it was not everyday that Cliff made such an abrupt request, so they were also curious about what it was about. Moreover, they were no longer the inexperienced amateurs that they once were.
It didn’t even take long for them to decide. Asking the captain to stop was impossible, so they quietly slipped off from the ship, stealing a rowing boat by hiding it in their spatial ring as they did.
No matter what, swimming in this sea was too dangerous, so a boat or ship of some sort was absolutely mandatory.