42 Chapter 42: Darkness Comes

"No way..." Dylan was at a lost for words when he saw the table of contents! Because he now discovered that the Cosmic God Manual was a path! A path for him to become a supreme being like his master who was also the creator of this manual.

"A Legendary Core and the Ancestral Veins? What is that? A level higher than the Spirit Core and the Spirit Veins?!" Dylan's blood boiled at the thought of this. He was granted access to a manual that hethinks would be able to strengthen himself even more! He knew his strength was already invincible in the Soaring Cloud City but it was only above average within the capital so he needed this type of boost to be able to compete head to head with the geniuses of the younger generation.

Although he was uncertain to what extent are those geniuses stronger compared to the practitioners of the Soaring Cloud City, but he was sure that there would be a great disparate between the two. Theoretically speaking, he would already be as strong as the three giants but he felt that it wasn't​ the case.

Dylan felt like that each of the three giants would be able to crush him if they were to take Dylan on seriously. Dylan felt that he should not base his strength in theory because if a mismatch happened and he fought someone on the level of Pavilion Head Galagher, Guild Master Blood Wolf and Garden Owner Elmer, he would be slaughtered. So, he started regulating his standards of strength. He felt that he had enough power to at least fight a 13th level Awakened Spirit Realm who would already be using his Avatar. So for now, the number of levels in which he could jump levels would be three.

But if he were to be able to unlock the other sections of the manual, he had this hunch that he would be able to fight 5 levels higher than him without the support of anyone else! Dylan was smiling because of his domineering thoughts.

"HAHAHAHahahaha..." Dylan was laughing loudly at first then it gradually died down and turned to disappointment which slowly became apparent in his face.

Because the reason for this was a thought that struck his mind. On careful thought, the pages were not so easily acquired as the Primal stones, because he needed to be able to create an update or improvement on the establishment, Gardenford Restaurant. So to be able to unlock it, he must be able to open up branches of his company.

Dylan was uncertain how many branches he had to be able to set up but he thinks that it should at least be 5 branches for him to be able to unlock the first chapter of the Cosmic God Manual.

"Oh, man. Getting a chapter is this hard already?But it is still manageable though a bit hard even for me." Dylan dejectedly utter.

Dylan was holding the second page and he called forth the cover to place it inside. When the Cosmic God Manual appeared on his hand, he opened it but he was forced to close his eyes because there was a blinding light that was emitted. When the light dimmed, the second page that he was holding disappeared and was now attached on the book but there was more. There were 10 more additional pages!

"Additional pages? What else did I do to~ Ohhh, the contract with the three giants. A business contract is considered as an improvement of a business because it enables the business to have benefits with the transaction and to have more business allies to rely on. Thus, I should have expected this already. But 10 pages is quite a big sum. Well, according to my experience, every time I discover another function of the mansion for the first time, it handsomely awards me so 10 pages is really worth it! Hahahaha." Dylan self-contemplated and felt greatly relieved knowing that he was able to gain 10 pages of the cultivation technique of Cosmic God.

"Huh? What is that?" Dylan's​ eyes caught something floating in front of the mansion. When Dylan noticed it, it slowly floated towards the gates and passes through it as though the gates did not even exist. The floating object slowly descended onto Dylan's hands. It was a cubic box like thing and on closer look, it was wrapped and decorated like a gift? A gift? Dylan opened the "gift" and he saw a small black and white bead.

Dylan wondered why the mansion gave him this "gift". But in careful consideration, the thought of a gift was something which he received from his employees so he speculated that this gift was from the kind intentions of his employees who wished to repay their debt of gratitude to Dylan. But he wondered why was it in the form of a bead?

"A bead? What is this for?" Dylan reached for the bead with his right hand as he spoke.

When his finger came into contact with that bead, the bead dissolved as it entered the surface of Dylan's finger and flowed until it reached the center of the back of his right palm. It formed a tiny black circle on the back of his palm. Dylan found this peculiar because when he checked his palm there was a tiny white circle on the center of the palm. The two were in complete in opposite of each other and this caused Dylan to have a headache about these two dots because he was clueless as to what the functions of these two opposite are?

But at least he knew that this was a gift that he received because of his employees' kind-heartedness and goodwill. That was why he thought that at least it should not been something that would cause him great affliction and harm. He was unable to think of what kind of functions did these black and white circles have to offer to him. Being unable to think of what abilities he received from these circles, he dismissed it because he thought that he would be able to find its function sooner or later.

After dismissing that thought, Dylan prepared to train and switched to his cultivation mode. After several cycles of circulating the Cosmic God Manual. He picked the book once more and read the first chapter.

"Let's see what this chapter about the Legendary Core is all about." Dylan smiled.

He flipped the pages and tried to read the introduction of the first chapter. After 1 hour, he still was not able to understand anything about the chapter. Dylan felt that it was written in a different language compared to the Introduction Page and the Table of Contents. But, when Dylan checked the first two pages, he discovered that they were written in the same manner but he was still able to understand what it said.

Dylan analyzed the characters to try and form a pattern to be able to decode what was in the text but no matter what he tried, he just couldn't decipher it. When he tried to read the Table of Contents, he discovered that he was only able to read the first three chapter titles but for the rest of the chapters, he was unable to read any of it.

After some time, Dylan formed a hypothesis that to be able to read the text he needs to be able meet a certain criteria. For example, if Dylan was able to become stronger, then he would be able to read more text than the text he could read now. Dylan felt that this was a feasible guess because his master must have been worried that his disciple would disregard foundation and fixate himself/herself in the rapid increase of power. Thus, affecting his/her talent and future accomplishments because of the unstable foundation he/she has.

Dylan was not so addicted to power that he would disregard his foundation in exchange for temporary power. According to all the novels he had read in his past life, all of the successful MC's focused more on​ strengthening their foundations before breaking through to a higher level. Dylan would follow these steps in order to prevent Cultivation Deviation from happening.

Since he was unable to read the text, Dylan focused on training his Battle Techniques. While he was training, he could not help but wonder whether the Cosmic God had a reward that were solely for different types of Battle Techniques like Movement techniques, Weapon-based Techniques, Martial Arts Techniques, etc. He really wished for this type of function because the only thing that was lagging behind was his Battle Techniques. His Battle Techniques might still be useful for his current level of strength but Dylan would eventually outgrow these techniques sooner or later. That was why he was in desperate need for high grade Battle Techniques.

In the outskirts of the Soaring Cloud City..

While Dylan was training, in a different location, a man with dishevelled hair, ragged clothes could be found. He was sitting near a bonfire and awaited his meal to be cooked. He was none other than Andrew Vigor.

How tragic it was that a once proud and aloof Mystical Magnate could turn into a runaway man which was in dire states. He was still unable to recover from the forceful demotion of rank in his Mystical Magnate foundation and was still extremely weakened. The after effect of the drug and the consequences of losing the Se Battre Pour Un Client combined it put too much toll into his body. After resting for a day, he was now able to kill an Spirit Veins beast because he was able to regain some strength from the medicine he possessed.

"There are only at least 2 days left before my executioner will arrive.... ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!" Andrew was feeling extreme hate, anger, and despair because his days are numbered and he was only waiting for his death to arrive while Dylan would most likely be recognized by the emissary that the Mystical Magnate Tower will send and give him proper education. He could only feel angry about it and was helpless about everything.

"Damn you, Dylan Ford! I curse you and your entire family!!! I hope you die the most gruesome death possible!!! When I become a ghost, I will haunt and curse the next nine generations of your family!!!" Andrew growled so loud that he sounded like a beast. His eyes bloodshot and filled with hate and bloodlust.

"Is that so? You must quite hate this man named Dylan." A black robed man mysteriously appeared. His entire body was covered by the black robe but it could still be inferred that he was a man by the unusual depth of his voice​. His face was only partially visible but he appeared like a middle aged man. His face carried unusual coldness and evil as his lips formed an an arc.

"What? Who's there?" Andrew became alert and prepared for battle.

"It does not matter who I am. Let us just say that I am someone who will grant you the power to realize your desires. As long as you come with me, you will be able to kill this Dylan and become stronger! If you use your hate and turn it to the world, you will reach unimaginable heights. So, what do you say?" The black robed man invited Andrew with an evil smile on his partially covered face.

"Really?! Is what you're saying true?!" Andrew could not believe what he just heard.

"Of course, just shake my hand and follow me and your wish shall be fulfilled." The black robed man reassuringly said and offered his hand.

"Then, I accept. Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, I will! Just to kill the man who took away everything from me!!!" Andrew did not hesitate any longer. He had already hit rock bottom there was no difference if he were to dive further because he was going to die anyway. This man presented him a favor that would enable him to kill Dylan, so regardless the price, he would do so just to kill Dylan. He shook the hand of this man to seal the deal.

"Great, Welcome to the darkness. Mwahahaha." The black robed man evilly laughed as dark clouds was conjured around them and consumed them.

The next second the dark clouds was drifted by the wind and dissipated. A bonfire was left burning as the curtain of the night came.