Chapter 1914 - 1914. Chance

It wasn't hard to understand the nature of King Elbas' creation. The dust had the properties of a disease meant for creatures that carried Heaven and Earth's influence. The expert had even made it hard to dispel since the symptoms fed on the rulers' power to intensify.

The middle tier flying cockroaches saw the dark-golden runes becoming bigger until they filled their entire bodies. Some of them would fuse with them while others would directly die.

Something strange happened after a few middle tier specimens managed to stabilize the disease. Faint golden shades fused with the white light radiated by their bodies before spreading into the glow of the magical beasts nearby.

That different halo changed the nature of the pure white light and transformed it into its own copy before affecting the other magical beasts. Even the weaker creatures stopped dying at that point and developed dark-golden runes on their bodies. Those inscriptions covered them before making them radiate the pale golden glow.

It seemed that some winged cockroaches had naturally developed antibodies against the disease and had even spread them on their own. The tainted auras worked as a trigger that altered the nature of their structure and allowed them to resist King Elbas' terrifying technique.

The winged cockroaches were weak, frail, but also simple. They barely required energy to mutate and transform into a version of themselves that could resist special adverse conditions.

King Elbas snorted when he inspected the middle tier specimens that had survived the disease. His attack had killed many magical beasts, but the swarm still counted thousands of members. He needed something different now, but his normal methods couldn't do much against that vast mass of rank 9 creatures.

The dark-golden sphere that had remained in the sky during the spreading of the disease, but it shot back in King Elbas' grasp when he summoned it. The jelly-like material lost its dark shades before another tiny piece of its structure separated and transformed into a lens that flew before the expert's right eye.

The mutated cockroaches resumed their descent while King Elbas was still busy using his item to study the army. They recreated the shining gales that converged toward the dogs, but something was clearly different from before. The matter didn't involve only the pale-golden glow that they radiated. They appeared slower and weaker.

The mutation didn't necessarily make them better than their previous version. That was almost impossible when it came to King Elbas' creations. The expert had built his disease after testing its efficiency and ability to hurt even creatures that developed immunity. He had made sure that tainting a living being with his runes would weaken them even if they were resistant to the other symptoms.

The creatures' weakened state didn't stop them from remaining fast, but King Elbas didn't move. He stood still as his fingers tapped invisible buttons that made the sphere change shades again as he gathered information through the lens.

Scarlet shades quickly appeared on the sphere before another tiny piece separated from its structure. The gales of winged cockroaches were almost about to overwhelm King Elbas, but the small chunk of the jelly shot toward before exploding into a sea of golden waves that carried red lines all across their surface.

The sea expanded quickly and forced all the gales to pass through it. Nothing seemed to happen, but the winged cockroaches suddenly started to die again right before reaching King Elbas.

Tiny corpses rained from the gales before exploding into small puddles of blood. None of them developed immunity, but the rank 9 cultivator high in the sky forced creatures to stop before all of them could cross the sea.

The winged cockroaches regrouped and tried to fly around the sea, but King Elbas waved his hands to make it follow the creatures. The expert didn't leave any path open, and that forced the cultivator to call back the army.

King Elbas showed a proud smile, but a heavy aura suddenly filled his surroundings. A white halo spread right under the golden sea and revealed the rank 9 cultivator once the light dimmed.

Everyone could inspect the woman's features at that point. She had long brown hair and dark eyes. Her skin was dark, but it naturally radiated a bright glow capable of making the golden waves above her pale.

The rank 9 cultivator inspected the sea, but a frown appeared on her young face when she failed to understand its nature. The event confused her beyond reason, and her pissed eyes eventually fell on King Elbas.

"What is this thing?" The woman asked. "This isn't higher energy."

King Elbas' smile broadened, but an intense coldness filled his eyes. The knowledge of Heaven and Earth's followers was scary. No secret could last against that force as long as it existed under the sky or in its range.

"Are you my challenge?" King Elbas asked in a firm voice as the sphere in his grasp floated toward the center of his chest. "Are you my stepping stone for the ninth rank?"

King Elbas' chest transformed into flames that started to rotate around the sphere. The jelly-like item lost its scarlet shades and regained its pure golden color as the expert enveloped it around his fingers. The lens on his right eye flashed as it started to inspect the rank 9 cultivator. He was ready for the battle.

"I don't know what your group has started to believe after the hybrid's breakthrough," The woman scoffed, "But you can't be farther from the truth. Power must come from inside."

The woman raised her hand and touched the sea with her fingers. The structure started to shatter right away as cracks spread over its surface. Golden shards that carried scarlet shades fell from the sky and created a beautiful rain, but King Elbas wasn't in the mood to admire that spectacle.

The woman kept her eyes fixed on King Elbas as his technique fell apart, but she frowned again when she felt that something was off. She quickly raised her head and noticed that some of the pieces of the sea were stable enough to remain in their place.

The event shocked the cultivator. Her technique should be matchless inside the gaseous stage, but King Elbas' creation was too strange. The dense energy that he used was different from the higher energy, but it carried even more power. Moreover, it had an innate resilience that its new form shouldn't have.

That wasn't a matter of fairness. King Elbas and the others were already past the limits that Heaven and Earth had imposed on the world. The problem was with the nature of his jelly-like material. It seemed stronger than the higher energy even when deployed to perform specific tasks, which shouldn't be possible.

King Elbas laughed before waving his hand and preparing himself to give a long bragging that explained how he was the best in everything he did. However, a wave of silver energy suddenly cut through the remaining sea and landed on the rank 9 cultivator.

The attack had been so fast that even King Elbas struggled to recognize its nature. Still, the energy that came out of the blow belonged to one of his companions.

"Did you really have to do that?" King Elbas asked while shaking his head.

"I'm sorry," Sword Saint announced while materializing next to him. "I can't let this chance go."

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Author's notes: It should take less than thirty minutes for the second chapter.