37 Feeling Stifled

Lord Turnbull hesitated for a single moment as his eyes alternated between the golden medallion with the symbol of Bull's horns and the mystical formation barely visible in the sun-lit sky. Initially, he had not planned to use the island formation just to take care of a few minor disciples. After all, this medallion was a single-use item that granted limited control of the island formation; stated by many formation masters to be second only to the legendary protective formation of the Lyonnesse Kingdom itself!

But despite his intention, those disciples had revealed themselves to be a hard metal plate that he couldn't take care of by himself. This was extremely unusual especially considering that his own cultivation was superior to all three of them. He could only assume that all three of them were abnormal geniuses strengthened by an equally abnormal Master, especially considering that sea-fortress formation. He had previously neglected their Master but now he was definitely wary of him. But it was now too late to back down and his only choice to get rid of them easily was using the Island Formation.

However, this means that the Turnbull family would lose the ability to wield the formation for themselves and hence lose a fraction of their authority. On the other hand, Lord Turnbull was confident that if he didn't take care of these three disciples there was a very high chance that the Turnbull family would lose the appraisal competition.

Although the appraisal competition was only a competition between the junior members it would decide the family that owned the monopoly of trade decisions for the next several years. Since the Turnbull family lost the last time, losing once more would be disastrous for the future expansion of their power. Even the founding families will be present and the results of the competition will greatly influence their decisions on who to support for the post of chief manager.

Thus with no other way to ensure the prosperity of his family, he threw aside his uncertainties and instantly crushed the golden medallion.

Instantly the island formation within the sky became tangible and more visible while exerting and oppressive aura upon the entire island, with the focus being the battlefield where Lord Turnbull was facing off against Zhen Shi and the others.

Instantly, the entire crowd who were merely spectating lost control of their body and collapsed on to their knees while struggling for control. Laura would've followed in their footsteps had it not been for Hao Lei who prevented her from falling while sweating under the pressure himself. Even Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale had to exert great effort to remain standing. On the other hand, Myne and Vivienne seemed completely fine while standing on the sea-fortress walls. However, both their faces were painted in worry and concern.

Lord Turnbull stared at Myne who had revealed himself only a few moments earlier and spoke angrily, "So you must be the one who actually insulted me..."

Myne grimaced at this misunderstanding while staring at Zhen Shi in accusation. Zhen Shi, however, proceeded to ignore his accusing stare and calmly whistled a tune, after all this matter was 'completely unrelated to him'. Seein Zhen Shi do the exact same thing that he had done before, Myne almost collapsed on the spot thinking, 'Where did he learn to be so shameless?'

Ignorantly Lord Turnbull continued speaking with a cunning glint in his eyes, "I will deal out the necessary punishment for you unruly fellows. However, even I might have trouble controlling the power of this formation. As such, even though you are criminals, I implore you to be careful." This was a clever statement. He could now get away with injuring or even killing them with only minor punishment.

Hearing his words and glancing at the formation above Myne heaved a sigh and spoke mentally to Zhen Shi, "I had hoped that he wouldn't resort to using the formation. But I guess this Turnbull is determined to win the competition. My sea-fortress formation is the only a lower grade 3 formation based on some personal conceptual magic, but this is a Grade 6 formation that is based on a unique type of Island Magic. Fortunately, this guy is too weak and hopefully will only be able to bring out the strength of a lower Grade 4 formation."

Zhen Shi was intrigued by all the sudden mentions of magic and formations. But remained silent allowing Myne to talk first.

Myne continued hurriedly, "I'm going to go all out now. I'll leave you to take care of the matters that'll arise after..." and finished as such.

Just when Myne was about to step forward after his speech, Vivienne grabbed onto his shirt and held him back while chewing her lips in reluctance and worry.

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Zhen Shi, on the other hand, was suddenly reminded of the fact that he had accumulated enough points for another divine boon. Excited at the prospect of helping Myne he hurriedly checked the system status and noted, Otaku Points: 215.

"System grants me a divine boon with the added requirement of being as helpful to Myne as possible," he shouted mentally.

Ding!

Divine Boon gained.

Once again that familiar piece of white paper with the word ~IOU~ appeared along with the deduction of 150 OP from his total. Zhen Shi paid no heed to this as he immediately used up the divine boon.

Zhen Shi might've been worried about this taking too long but with his experience from the previous instance of obtaining a divine boon, he definitely was not.

However, time passed by with no news from the system. Zhen Shi began to worry as valuable moments passed by with no notification or even a reply to his questions on how long it'd take. He grimaced as he mentally complained and threatened, "System, this is really bad customer service... Answer me or I'll put in a complaint with your manager!"

System: ಥ_ಥ

In the end, despite his words, he had to continue to be patient and wait until the system notified him...

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Myne turned to look at Vivienne and spoke with a single raised eyebrow, "Wife, don't worry. You know of my capabilities the best. I'm sure you know that this tiny formation can't kill me." Vivienne stared at him with indignant eyes and whispered, "But it'll come very close..." Myne shook his head with a reassuring smile, "Don't worry. Just trust me, this time." Vivienne's eyes widened at his words and let go with a slight nod.

Myne nodded back and turned towards Lord Turnbull who was suddenly covered and protected in a surge of black qi from the formation that was gathering energy from nature ravenously.

Ignoring the odds stacked against him, with unrelenting eyes, he brought out a golden globe and threw it into the air allowing it to explode in a surge of colorless qi forming an uncountable number of formation talismans. In addition, the sea-fortress formation dissipated into even more formation talismans.

With the sea-fortress gone, Vivienne dropped down gracefully and joined Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale on the sidelines.

With a flick of his fingers, Myne made the formation talismans dash into his own body one by one. He gritted his teeth as sweat began to fall profusely and veins popped visibly all over his body. But the formation talismans continued to disappear into his body leaving barely glowing marks on his skin.

Zhen Shi's meager understanding of formations could only allow him to conclude that these formation talismans formed an extremely complex strengthening formation; but instead of being used to defend or produce an artifact, it was being used to forcefully improve Myne's strength and physique. A biological application of something that was not meant to be used for that purpose...

Moments later, Myne's body was completely covered in glowing white tattoos that inexplicably linked together to form an unbelievable body strengthening formation. Fortunately, besides Zhen Shi who barely sensed the profound nature of this formation, no one else in the crowd thought too much of it and assumed it to just be a random body strengthening art.

Myne calmly raised his hands and lightly whispered, "Falcon Cloak."

Instantly a pitch-black deadly aether manifested into a dark black feather cloak covering his body. With his grim eyes revealing killing intent and the falcon cloak leaking death aura, his body radiated the aura of a predator. Nevertheless, Myne ran his hands through his hair with heavy breaths, almost as if he was over-stressing his body.

Almost immediately the formation finished gathering energy forming a clear glass-like dome. All the people within the market area would notice the sudden activation of the Island formation and stare at this rare sight in awe and dread.

Lord Turnbull raised a fist with a sneer from within the protection of the defensive energy and shouted, "Island Eradication!"

Instantly dark black clouds gathered above the island and the sound of thunder rang about. For the first time, the peaceful lake surrounding the island was in turmoil. The water broiled and raged as if it was waging war with itself. The trees rustled and creaked under strong gusts of wind.

Despite the nature surrounding the island signaling the arrival of a storm not a single raindrop fell on to the ground. But lightning flickered ominously in the sky...

Lord Turnbull continued to gaze upon the 'final moments' of these poor fellows who had made the mistake of angering him and calmly flicked his fingers delivering their 'sentence'.

Crack!

Suddenly spikes made of jagged rocks struck out from the earth just below where all four of them had standing. Myne was the first to react and his black cloak flapped like the wings of a bird as he easily disappeared and reappeared in another location. But his eyes were focused on how the others were faring.

The moment the attack had begun Zhen Shi had sensed the distress of the aether and hence easily dodged with plenty of time to spare. Vivienne too easily moved aside with movements as graceful as flowing water. However, Will O'Dale had been completely ignorant of the attack and had stayed rooted to the spot. Had it not been for Zhen Shi who had hurriedly pulled him aside he definitely would've been skewered on the spot.

Will O'Dale stared at the earth spike that was now occupying his previous location and gulped in fear. He turned to Zhen Shi with eyes filled with gratitude and respect and hugged him for the second time while thinking, "Ai, I truly regret getting angry at this wonderful person. His character is a miracle of humanity. This must be the true trust between humans!"

On the other hand, Zhen Shi had just casually pulled Will O'Dale to the side and saved him. But now noticing that Will O'Dale was hugging him while staring with the eyes of a suspicious uncle, he hurriedly broke free of the hug and pushed William away. Vivienne couldn't help but smile at this ridiculous situation despite her worries.

Even so, Will O'Dale continued to stare at him while singing his praises.

In the end, Zhen Shi decided to ignore this idiot and sent out mentally to them, "Be careful. Who knows when that shameless cow will decide to sneak attack us again."

Only a single moment passed since he said this...

Crack!

Golden yellow light flashed within the dark sky and struck down lightning at all four of them. But due to Zhen Shi's warning, Will O'Dale was not caught off guard this time. Hence all of them easily dodged the initial lightning strikes.

Despite this, the lightning continued to rain down mercilessly from among the dark stormy clouds. Myriads of lightning arcs crackling and writhing like serpents dashed down towards them; making it impossible to dodge. Each of them would definitely be struck down now...

Immediately, Myne jumped to the very center of the formation of lightning and proceeded to dodge and weave about. He thrust his arm forwards causing the vague black shadow of a falcon to appear and swallow the lightning bolts; like a bird swallowing worms.

Since Myne was closer, the majority of the lightning bolts focused on him mercilessly considering him to be easy prey. But every lightning strike disappeared soon after into the beak of the falcon shadow, and so the prey became the predator.

Even with his help Zhen Shi and the rest had a difficult time dodging the lightning strikes. After all, Myne was being empowered by both his strange body-strengthening formation and the falconic magic spell.

Under Lord Turnbull's control, the lightning struck down only at the four of them while leaving the crowd and the spectators completely unscathed. The crowd continued to stare in wonderment at the power of the legendary island formation. Even more unbelievable was how four young fellows were continuing to hold on against it!

Although they were fine for the most part, there were multiple instances where Will O'Dale came close to being struck down by lightning and only barely survived with lightly singed hair. Even so, he continued to stare deeply at Zhen Shi with eyes filled with gratitude and ardor.

Why? This was because he would've been caught off guard by this lightning just like that earthen spike, had it not been for Zhen Shi's timely warning. As such, the respect and gratitude in his heart towards Zhen Shi only grew even further.

Zhen Shi sensed eyes staring at him causing him to pause in wonderment and look around, 'Hmm? Have my suave and heroic actions garnered the attention of the ladies in the crowd?'.But fortunately, before he could realize the truth of this matter and vomit blood... he was distracted by the ongoing battle.

Myne suddenly thrust both hands towards Lord Turnbull and shouted, "Falconic Death!" Instantly the cloak on his back partially dissipated into streams of terrifying pitch-black qi that rearranged to form a herd of falcon-like birds that flew around him like a tornado. In the next instant, these black falcons screeched in an ominous manner and slashed towards Lord Turnbull like the scythe of the grim reaper.

Slash! Slash!

The sound of beaks tearing apart the defensive qi rang about as the falcons ran amok destroying the energy protecting Lord Turnbull, causing him to grimace in displeasure. Each time the falcons dived in, a part of his defense was lost. Nevertheless, he flicked his fingers causing the defensive qi to gradually reform.

Even if Lord Turnbull was still fighting, Zhen Shi couldn't help but grin at the sight of Myne gaining the upper hand. But suddenly his grin grew even wider as he heard a familiar sound...

Ding!

Divine Boon received. Do you accept it?

Of course!

Instantly the item appeared and dropped down into Zhen Shi's hands radiating an ancient and mystical aura. Strange enough no one else paid any attention. Zhen Shi eyed the unassuming appearance of this item and at the same time a system notification rang out introducing it. Instantly his eyes widened as he gawked while thinking, "This-- It can't be... It looks like I truly hit the jackpot this time!"

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In the divine realm, there was a towering and majestic pyramid mystically floating thousands of kilometers above the ground. Countless creatures were entering and leaving through a grand opening at the base of the pyramid. This entrance was guarded by two terrifying baboons wielding spears and radiating incredible auras giving rise to respect and order in all those who passed by.

And completely disregarding the nature of the surrounding area within a radius that extended thousands of kilometers and the space of a sphere of the same radius, the land was completely covered in perpetual darkness. The only source of natural light was a moon roughly a tenth of the size of the pyramid. Strangely enough, this moon was not in the sky and instead was rotating at the edges of the dark sphere with the pyramid at the center.

At the very peak of the pyramid was a brightly lit room with an impossibly wide space compared to the dimensions when observed from the outside. The room was filled with books, strange trinkets, and other items.

But the most eye-catching was the area filled with test tubes and beakers filled with mystical energies in various forms, complex machinery with various types of materials, herbs, and creatures in them, and even multiple floating screens showing scenes of various instances ranging from people sleeping to actual wars along with tables and charts filled with ineligible readings.

All of this machinery was being carefully utilized by strange chimeric creatures with the bodies of humans and the heads of animals. But among them was an individual who stood out like a sore thumb. He was a middle-aged man dressed in only a pair of pants while revealing his bare chest, and upon his head was a head-dress of an Ibis with beak, feathers and all.

Despite his strange appearance, his every motion was mystical, like the strokes of a master painter. However, in such a scenario, only the world would be worthy of being his canvas.

Currently, his eyes were resting upon a strange device composed of two distinct glass-like spheres connected to each other by a narrow tube. In one sphere was a type of lively aether manifesting itself in the form of lush trees, mystical creatures, and beautiful sceneries, and in the other was a terrifying aether manifesting as unstable cracks in space. Suddenly the device lit up with purple sparks of lightning causing these two types of aether to meet at the central tube. Instantly the two different aether combined to form a single fiery aether; it manifested with a vision of a world in chaos and burning in fire.

Instantly the middle-aged man observed this new aether for a moment and tapped a small but fairly thick book placed on a nearby table. This book seemed rather old with yellowed pages and a faded red leather cover with only the barely visible symbol of a vertical rectangle within a circle.

But suddenly the book began to flip its pages by itself and stopped at a page that revealed words which were shifting around in an incomprehensible manner.

However, the middle-aged man with the Ibis head-dress easily read through its contents and spoke with a hint of awe, "Amazing! Old Man Heka has outdone himself again! Unlike before the book can now give detailed information about any type of magic. Even this random destruction magic formed by the combination of nature magic and unstable spatial magic is clearly explained here."

Just as he finished his words, the fiery aether within the glass equipment and manifesting visions of a world of chaos began to show signs of destabilization. Instantly it expanded and exploded out with a terrifying release of energy that spread throughout the entire room. Space itself cracked apart unable to withstand this power leaving unstable spatial nodes all over the wide room.

As the energy gradually cleared, the room was revealed to be in tatters and filled with items eviscerated to dust along with the occasional chunk of chimera corpses here and there.

On the other hand, the man with the Ibis head-dress was completely unscathed; without a single piece of dust or even a misplaced hair.

Ignoring the explosion he continued to go over the contents of the book. Only moments later did he finish and finally raise his head to notice the destruction of the room. Seeing this he heaved a disappointed sigh whispering, "This is why I hate Destruction Magic."

Nevertheless, he placed the book aside and drew a circle of white energy in the air. Instantly the world shook and nature obeyed; the room seemed to pass through a rewind of time causing the destroyed items, books and even the dead corpses to reform. In an instant, everything returned to exactly how it had been, minus the glass device with the destructive magic aether that exploded. Strangely enough, that was not reformed... The moment they were reformed the chimeric creatures got back to what they had been doing.

But suddenly the middle-aged man twisted his head towards where the red leather-bound book had been placed with a growl of anger, only to see that it was being covered in mystical white energy. He snorted in annoyance and flicked his finger covered in white energy, causing nature to heed his command once more. But nature ignored his command as the white energy immediately disappeared with the leather-bound book in tow.

Despite this event, he paused in contemplation for several more moments while staring at the spot where the book and the strange energy had been. He was reminded of some interesting news that he had come across recently; a certain new god going by 'this handsome and scholarly self' that had received a weapon from Hephaestus and even stolen from Lord Odin.

'Could it be that I am a victim of that junior thief as well? His ability is praise-worthy... but I will make him regret messing with me.'

Suddenly, he shouted out, "Prepare to visit Lord Heka. I have some important matters to discuss with him!"

Instantly a dozen of the chimeric creatures walked forwards and bowed deeply simultaneously speaking out, "Yes, Lord Thoth," and began to follow his order.

Thoth raised his right hand revealing a single minuscule spark of the mystical white energy that he had captured by accident when it was stealing the book. This energy spark was still struggling to escape from his grasp but was failing to do so. While observing it, he fell into thought, "I was fortunate enough to capture this... But what is this magic? A sub-category of creation? No, it seems much more complex, but also strangely familiar. Either way that old man Heka will definitely know, and the thief who dares steal from me will be caught red-handed..."

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Zhen Shi was still staring in awe at the mystical item that was within his hands, this was the Book of Thoth! A Legendary Item mentioned in mythology rumored tp contained divine knowledge of the gods. Excitedly he grasped the cover and flipped the page. But... he couldn't.

He momentarily gave up his attempt to question the system. But unlike the last divine boon, the system wasn't even willing to explain the item and remained silent. While holding back himself from complaining about the horrible customer service once more he noticed that the battle was continuing.

He hurriedly checked if the book would react to his qi or any of the different types of aether. Having failed in that attempt, next he activated and continued to attempt to pry apart the book with his full power while growling in rage... While Myne and Lord Turnbull continued to battle with death hawks and lightning serpents at the edges of death, Zhen Shi was working just as hard... to flip open a book!

After all, he had a chance to help Myne with an actual divine mythological object sitting in his hands. So how could he just give up? He even noticed that several people in the crowd were staring at him strangely, but ignored them since it was possible that they had sensed the divine aura of this item. So he dived right back into his attempts of opening the book.

Moments passed yielding no results to his effort. By now he had reached the limits of that he could exert in public but was still unable to open the book.

Under the eyes of the crowd, he halted for a moment and instantly shifted to a horse stance like position while holding the book in both hands raised to chest level.

With a new posture, he continued to exert his full strength and even strained his body with his full strength while growling out in rage. He even began to sweat profusely and his face grew red under the effort...

More and more people turned to stare at him with strange looks even going so far as to whisper amongst themselves. However, Zhen Shi proceeded to ignore them. So what if they realized some of the power of this divine item? How could he give up on Myne just to protect a treasure?

But on the contrary, Zhen Shi's conclusion couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, no one besides Zhen Shi had even seen the Book of Thoth or even sensed a speck of its aura. In other words, only Zhen Shi could see it. But instead of the book, the crowd had definitely seen something else...

They had seen Zhen Shi growling and straining with great effort. After doing so for a while he had then proceeded to move into a half-squatting position and continue his previous efforts. His effort was so serious that he even began to sweat and his face grew red! But without the book in his hands in their eyes, Zhen Shi's actions were open for interpretation.

The crowd continued to stare and whisper,

"What is he doing? Is he trying to force himself through hardship to cheer on his senior fellow disciple who his still battling Lord Turnbull?"

"No, that doesn't make much sense. Perhaps he is on the verge of breaking through a bottleneck in his cultivation?"

"Are you crazy? Who breaks through bottlenecks like that? I think he is suffering from some sort of sickness..."

"Yes, you're right. I have worked for several years helping a healer. If I'm not mistaken, he seems to be suffering from a severe case of constipation!"

"That makes perfect sense considering the half squatting posture, the excessive grunting and growling, the sweating and the reddened face. The only problem is why is he doing it right now while standing in public?"

"That's why I mentioned that it was a severe case. Perhaps the stifling feeling was too much and he decided to throw away his face and decided to do this shameless act even in public just to make himself feel better..."

And the more the crowd thought of this conclusion, the more they found themselves agreeing. After all, it made a fair amount of sense...

But if Zhen Shi hadn't been totally focused on opening the book and had heard their whispers he would cough up blood and faint on the spot.

By now even Vivienne and Will O'Dale had noticed his strange actions and had even heard the whispers of the crowd. Vivienne frowned and asked mentally in confusion, "Little Bro what are you doing?"

Zhen Shi mentally replied on his topic of 'opening a book' with a sad smile, "I'm just embarrassed at being unable to do even this everyday task. I'd continued to feel stifled if I couldn't even do this simple task and help out Myne!"

Vivienne gasped but nodded in understanding. However, the way that she had heard those words were completely different. Phrases like 'Embarrassed', 'Everyday task', and 'Stifled feeling' completely made her 'sure' of the situation. Even if she wasn't sure how this would help Myne she now 'understood' the matter.

She herself was feeling helpless in being unable to help Myne and was sure that Zhen Shi was feeling the same. She could only imagine how horrible it would feel if one had annoying ailments such as constipation at the same time. As such, she answered back kindly, "Little Bro I have a spell that can help you out. Would you like me to try?"

Zhen Shi was overjoyed at the prospect of making the job easier and was about to agree when Will O'Dale who had also been listening in spoke out suddenly, "Forget the spell. I have a special medicine that is passed down in my family and I guarantee that the moment you drink it, any type of constipation will run away in fear!"

Zhen Shi gawked in disbelief and muttered, "What constipation?"

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