Chapter 20: Controlling the Heavenly Aura

Azaroth gave 5 Elemental Crystals with the Wind, Lightning, Fire, Earth, and Water elements to Brynn Gaynor.

Brynn Gaynor's face lit up as he continued to stare at those Elemental Crystals with a loving gaze.

Now that Azaroth had officially taken those herbs and could begin working on them, he took his leave soon enough.

He didn't want to waste his time anymore and immediately headed for the Alpine Gerbil Woods.

'Are those guys waiting for me at the Alchemy Division? Well, I did anticipate that someone will come to the conclusion that I hold some super-secret formula to success. Right now, the logical decision would be to go to the Alchemy Division. But since I won't go there, their plans have already been ruined.'

He sped up as he headed into the forest. His quick speed was that he was using the Lightning element to increase the speed of his body. However, this had the side-effect of making his muscles numb for some time.

But this was not without its benefits. Currently, in the entire encampment, no one could catch up to Azaroth no matter how hard they tried.

'I should use the Humanely Ardor Flames to make the pills. If I use the Demonic Ardor here, then those Wood Elemental Warriors will know that I can use Demonic Ardor. Now, that would be quite troublesome.'

After running for nearly 50 miles or so, Azaroth finally stopped and took a rest.

He used his sensing skill to find if there were any beasts around him. And it seemed as if the area around him was clear.

Azaroth sat on a stone and used the Heavenly Demon Meditation Technique to recover his Ardor.

It took him 20 minutes or so to be back at full strength. Moreover, the Heavenly Demon Meditation Technique also strengthened the muscles that had become numb due to the Lightning Element.

Azaroth stood up and pulled out all the herbs he had bought from Brynn Gaynor.

As those herbs were essentially thrown out of his rings, Azaroth used his Triquetra Ardor to control those herbs and made them float around.

Nearly all the herbs were moving around, grouping up with some other herbs.

As Azaroth had stated earlier, he was making 5 types of pills. And 20 pills of each type. However, because of the increase in quantity, he would make 40 pills of each type, leaving behind a few herbs for some emergency situations.

Meanwhile, streams of Azure Flames began to leak out of Azaroth's right hand.

Soon enough, Azaroth covered all the groups of herbs flying in the air and started melting them.

Making 200 pills simultaneously was taxing on his mind as Azaroth had to control the flame temperature differently from all the five types of pellets.

Because he had to keep his attention on every single one and refine the pills rather carefully, he took it slow and steady.

After nearly half an hour, he had finally succeeded with his mission. There were about 200 pellets. Most of them were of the top grade, while a few were of the perfect quality.

Azaroth wasn't surprised to see this. After the Hell Flames were used with the Humanely Ardor, they lost the destruction ability and gained the refining ability. In contrast, if these flames were used using Holy Ardor, Azaroth could heal himself or others. But healing with the flames used a lot of Azaroth's Ardor compared to when he was refining something, and the least when he was using it for destruction.

It was easy to explain this since these flames were originally Hell Flames found in the Purgatory. They were most attuned to the Demonic Ardor and least attuned to the Holy Ardor.

This Azure Hell flame was the main reason why Azaroth could form top-grade pills or those of perfect quality. His own skills were naturally not sufficient to create perfect or top-grade pills.

During his time as a Demon God, he hadn't really studied the Alchemy profession that deeply. It was mostly because he never had the time as he was doing one thing after another.

There was just no time to focus on Alchemy or any other profession.

In the Alchemy World, he could at best be considered a grandmaster. Far below the great grandmasters or Supreme Grandmasters of Alchemy.

Naturally, if it was in the killing, Azaroth would be considered among the Supreme Grandmasters of that art.

Anyway, now that he was finally ready with all these pills, Azaroth took some minutes of rest and then rushed into the Inner Area of the Alpine Gerbil Woods.

As he dashed into the Inner Area, he continued to use his sensing skill to find the beasts.

Surprisingly, just 30 or so miles ahead, he sensed a herd. Judging by their aura, Azaroth was sure that they were a herd of Wild Bisons.

Moreover, Azaroth further analyzed them as he ran ahead, and most of them were at the 2 Star Rank, a dozen of them at the 3 Star Rank while one of them was at the 4 Star Rank.

Azaroth didn't fear this herd. However, after some time, he sensed some more beasts here.

There were snakes, vipers, wild boars, Pandas, Hyena, Horses, Scarlet Butterflies, Vigorous Apes, Dark Pigeons, Owls, Thunder Hawks, and so on…

All these beasts were so close to their position as if they had packed themselves in the Inner Area.

Many of these were territorial beasts, and to think they were sharing their territory with other beasts was quite surprising.

This told Azaroth that the Beast Lord of this forest was quite well respected.

He had no idea of the secrets he was going to unfold here.

~~

Meanwhile, Brynn Gaynor took the Elemental Crystals he had received from Azaroth to Sophie.

"Tell Miss Sophie that I wish to meet her urgently." Brynn Gaynor spoke to Sophie's guard.

The guard soundlessly nodded and then went to Sophie's cabin before speaking those words to her.

Soon enough, the guard returned back with that same neutral look, "You are allowed inside. But make sure you stay within your limits, or else…"

This wasn't the first time Brynn Gaynor was threatened by these guards, so he was more or less used to it.

Brynn Gaynor soon entered Sophie's cabin.

In the living room, Sophie was seated on a sofa, placing one of her legs over the other. She had a gentle smile on her face as she stared at Brynn Gaynor.

"Take a seat, Town Lord." Her tone was relatively light as if she considered herself somewhat superior to Brynn Gaynor.

Brynn Gaynor didn't care about it and took a seat. As he stared at Sophie's beautiful face, her silky black hair cascading down her shoulder, and her emerald eyes staring at him curiously, he couldn't help but think in his heart 'Such a pity that I am no longer young.'

"Miss Sophie, you were rather worried because of the lack of elemental stones or crystals here in this town."

"That is correct. Have you found some more elemental stones?" Sophie asked with a light-hearted tone.

"That's right, miss Sophie. Right now, I have acquired 5 Elemental Crystals, each one at the 5th Tier, possessing one of the five basic elements." Brynn Gaynor immediately pulled out the 5 Elemental Crystals given to him by Azaroth.

Sophie was actually shocked as she laid her eyes on those 5 Elemental Crystals. She could sense the energy within these crystals, and it far surpassed those of 4th Tier Elemental Crystals.

'Does this mean that this guy is telling the truth? Just how did he get these 5th Tier Elemental Crystals? I am afraid that even father doesn't have many of these with him.'

Instantly, all sorts of light-heartedness vanished from Sophie's face as she gazed at those Elemental Crystals earnestly.

"How did the town lord acquire these Elemental Crystals?" Naturally, she asked this question very straightforwardly.

"This was something that Sir Ashton, the branch manager of Merchant Union, sent me so that I can protect the Kloras Town." Brynn Gaynor said those words with his heart beating quickly.

Even though he was incredibly nervous internally, his face had the same stone-cold expression.

Sophie frowned slightly and began thinking 'A mere branch manager of the Merchant Union can actually bear to part with 5 Elemental Crystals for a town that has nothing to do with him? There is a low chance that he did this out of goodness… But what else could be the reason? Don't tell me the Royal Family is involved.'

However, Sophie soon internally shook her head 'No. If the Royal Family was involved, they would have sent someone more reliable than me. So who could it be?'

"Alright, I thank the town lord for bringing me these 5 Elemental Crystals. I will immediately head out and form the three arrays using these Elemental Crystals as the energy source. This is something I need to do personally as there can be no scope of error." Sophie spoke with a serious expression.

"I shall forever be grateful, Miss Sophie. Please inform me if you need anything." Brynn Gaynor was all smiles as he stood up and left Sophie's cabin.

Sometime later, Sophie called out her guard, who was stationed outside her cabin.

"What is your command, young miss?" The guard immediately bowed as he stood in front of Sophie.

"Immediately investigate what has happened in the past couple of days. Check if there has been any parcel from Wrihull Town after that initial delivery or not. Also, send someone to keep an eye on the town lord." She gave quick orders to this guard.

"As you command, young miss."

The guard soon left the room with a solemn look in his eyes.

He went to his fellow comrades and assigned them their respective tasks.

Meanwhile, Sophie got out of her cabin to create the Killing Array, Defensive Array, and Illusionary Array around this encampment, which would be attacked by the beasts.

She was planning these three arrays of a higher tier than earlier, so she had to be absolutely careful while drawing them.

~~

It had been some hours since Azaroth had been running in the Inner Area of the Alpine Gerbil Woods. It was nearly evening, but he was finally reaching the center of this forest.

The closer he was to the center, the more he sensed the presence of herbs.

'Such a large quantity of heavenly aura?! Just why have all the herbs from all this forest gathered here?' Azaroth questioned himself with a frown.

Understanding that this question wouldn't be answered by itself, Azaroth proceeded in that direction.

The concentration of the beasts was only increasing. If not for Azaroth using a special skill to hide his presence, he would have been attacked by the beasts from all sides.

The concentration of the heavenly energy from the herbs was also increasing. And once Azaroth reached a particular point… He sensed something strange.

He felt as if Heavenly Energy released from the herbs was being controlled.

'Just what is controlling this amount of Heavenly Energy?'

At this moment, Azaroth suddenly felt a strong spiritual sense locking his body. He was well familiar with such a spiritual sense and immediately shouted in his mind 'The Beast Lord already sensed me?!'

A few seconds later, a loud howl resounded in the whole Inner Area of Alpine Gerbil Woods.

All the beasts in this area were startled, and many started rushing towards the center.

For a brief period, Azaroth was entirely dumbfounded. He was too surprised that he didn't move from his position for a few seconds.

However, soon enough, he facepalmed and began to laugh bitterly.

"Just fucking amazing…" He cursed his luck as he sensed a horde of beasts charging at him.

Azaroth got in a battle posture since he would need to fight his way out of here.

"So be it. I guess this will be my battle prowess test."