Chapter 1019 Gather [1]



'They look...awfully pale...'

Both because he'd been fighting so intensely and because he himself was powerful enough to avoid it, Su Ren had completely forgotten about the early signs of calamity he'd sensed days earlier.

Now, seeing these girls walking as if they were drunk, it dawned on him.

'It has already started!'

He sent his senses into the earth, immediately coming in contact with the powerful suction force.

'This isn't good. The natural aura is being corrupted by evil, and the realm's nature is changing. Is this the doing of those Nox Worshippers?' He wondered.

While they didn't cause the world's situation, they were some of the main contributors to it. If it wasn't for their skirting of the realm laws that led to such a massive accumulation of blood, the change couldn't have taken place.

Yet, on the other hand, this change only displayed another face of the Holy Light Realm. If it was truly the realm of purity it was advertised as, it wouldn't have had the capability to exhibit such a change in the first place!

"Can you fight?" Su Ren asked the girls.

They had seen how the previous course of events panned out, and Su Ren was currently both their savior and protector.

Looking at each other, they came to a collective decision.

Now wasn't the time to act tough.

"We may not be able to fight on our own, but we will still be able to provide support," the eldest among them stepped forward and responded.

"Have you taken into account the mana you need to use to protect your vitality?" Su Ren asked again.

The woman nodded in affirmation.

"Good," Su Ren said, "then let us begin immediately. We must regroup with the rest of the geniuses and form a united front against this enemy."

He took off after gaining the girls' approval, supporting their movement with his mana so they could focus on survival.

As they made it several tens of kilometers away from their starting position, they were finally greeted by the bloody flora spawned by the corrupted world.nOVεlusb.com

"Hmm..." Su Ren muttered as he sent his awareness sweeping through the space in front of him.

In this large stretch of bloody forest that covered a good portion of Holy Light Star, thousands of Nox Worshippers lurked and prowled on the hunt for prey.

There were several geniuses spread through the area, either hidden or fighting against the enemies, but none of their situations was good.

'First I must establish a base camp, and the next most important step is to find the geniuses from Pill Emperor Holy Land.'

The top disciples of the universe's leading alchemy sect were known to have excellent qualifications. To make pills that could contain and replenish vitality shouldn't be a hard task for them as long as they had the materials.

'As for finding materials...that can be handled at a later date.'

"Wait here and protect yourselves. If trouble comes, use this Sacred Heart Mirror to hide until I come back," he said to the girls, passing them the mirror and rushing into the forest before they could respond.

The four watched his back with complex expressions, unknowing of how they should treat this man, but the only reaction they could let out was a collective sigh.

In the current situation, their power wasn't useful to him at all.

As he thought, the best they could do was survive, using all their mana to protect their internal bodies.

For these Holy Land geniuses who always held themselves in high regard...

...this kind of "damsel in distress" status was extremely humiliating!

***

After leaving the Prismatic Sun Holy Land geniuses, Su Ren was able to act much more freely, using his strength to plow through the bloody forest and save the geniuses he came across.

At this time, there was only one concern he had.

'Xiao Yue is with Damien...'

He didn't doubt Damien's character, so he was sure Xiao Yue was safe, but he didn't know how Damien was doing at the moment.

Since he didn't come back from the sinkhole after falling, it meant he either found something down there or he was trapped, with both being situations where Su Ren couldn't know when the next time he'd see Xiao Yue was.

'Is this what Master was talking about? You truly never know the value of something until you lose it.'

He sighed as he realized that the little girl had managed to carve herself a place in his heart before he even realized it, but he couldn't help it.

As someone whose only family was his master, Su Ren was a bit weak to affection like Xiao Yue's.

'Nevertheless, if I wish for her to be safe, I must clear this scourge from the realm.'

It was just as Damien said.

Was there ever a route that wasn't to kill until there were no enemies remaining?

Su Ren showed power, power that inspired the geniuses who watched him cleave through the thick bodies of those Nox Worshippers and provoked them to join him in his tirade.

The crowd behind him started small, with only a few people willing to come out of their safe hiding places, but once they realized the threat of vitality, more and more geniuses joined his ranks.

Perhaps the Nox were trying to scare these geniuses into submission, or perhaps their goal was something entirely different.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Because before they could accomplish anything, they would be slaughtered!

This was the oath made by each and every member of Su Ren's group.

***

The bloody forest Su Ren attacked actually took up almost half of Holy Light Star, so it wasn't a stretch to say many important battles were taking place there, but it wasn't the only place of importance.

Whoosh!

A figure broke through the edge of the forest and ran through the flat barren land outside its reach.

BOOOOOOM!

The red organ-like trees exploded as tens of Nox Worshippers tore through the barrier they created and chased that figure.

The Nox Worshippers were fast, but they weren't nearly fast enough to catch their target.

She weaved from left to right, jumped up in the air and flew behind them just to taunt them, and maneuvered the flat land as if it was a complex terrain of hills and valleys.

The bulky Nox Worshippers were built for strength and defense, so their speed suffered. They could, at most, barely keep her at the edge of their eye line!

As they became more and more furious, the figure suddenly came to a stop in the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust as she abruptly broke her flow.

The Nox Worshippers didn't plan to miss the chance. They flared their mana and leaped into the sky, arcing through the air and slamming down in front of the woman.

Yet...

All she did was smile.

"Thanks for the extra force. I thought we were going to have to fight a bit first, but you did the hard work early."

Rumble!

The earth rumbled, following her words at the most perfect timing.

And as had happened several times already in the mystic realm, the ground collapsed.

The woman and the Nox Worshippers who chased her were dragged into the depths of the subterranean world.