Chapter 89: Smith Falls

It was not that he didn’t want to kill Smith, as he came to know too much about most of his secrets during the short time they battled with each other. But Smith was a fellow student of the White Deer Academy and the Academy would take the deaths of any student very seriously. He was just a little kid right now at the Second Level Condensation Realm. With his current strength, there was no way that his words would have enough weight behind them. He couldn’t even protect his own secrets.

And it was not like this world had an elaborate law enforcement mechanism with courts and lawyers that would argue with words over endless hours. Even if that would be the case, it would be the same as back on Earth, where the rich would have top level lawyers at their beck and call to bail them out of any unexpected situations, while the poor or the noninfluential people would have to suffer through the entire ordeal without any backing.

Right now, this was a dog – eat – dog world where the one with the highest strength behind his fists would be the king! And he was currently the weak and poor kind of person with no formidable strength behind him.

Not only that, the companions of Smith’s group saw Smith chase after him because of the Spirit Core of the Demon Mountain Ape. If the news that Smith had died while he returned without a scratch on his body, there would be no way where anyone would believe his words, even after considering the fact that Smith was three levels above him in cultivation base. According to the texts he read in the vast library, in this world, there exists countless artifacts and forbidden methods that would let a cultivator explode with all his potential to jump levels and kill a person with higher cultivation base. Such methods may not work at the higher levels, but its effects would be very prominent in the lower levels of cultivation.

Azalon’s mind churned with all possibilities and scenarios that he could come up with. He had already decided that even if the two of them teamed up, it would not be possible to escape from this encirclement of hundreds of Spirit Beasts.

“Master, Capacitor Array is at 0.2 capacity. No energy traces stored within.” He had even tried to activate the Capacitor Array for that weird energy from the drop of blood but practically the entire energy stored within was already used up previously. It would take a lot of time before he would have the same level of energy stored in the Capacitor Array that would let him use the previous method to influence the Spirit Beasts.

Suddenly, Azalon’s eyes turned cold as he watched Smith’s pale face as he was surrounded by hordes of numerous Spirit Beasts roaring at him. If he couldn’t personally take out Smith, then maybe he could use the Spirit Beasts to really help him to deal with this unexpected problem. He could even shift the blame from himself to the Spirit Beasts that attacked Smith.

The more Azalon thought in this way, the more he felt that he can pull this off. He just had to be sure to not to have any slips in the story he had to spin of the entire encounter.

“Oye, kid! Help me! This is a beast horde. Help me! We have to get out of this and report to the Academy Elders. Oye, what are you doing? Come down and team up with me. What are you waiting for?” Smith looked up at Azalon who was standing on the branch and yelled with a panicked voice. Even an idiot could tell that he had no chance of escaping these many Spirit Beasts on his own. But it would be a different matter if he teamed up with Azalon. Even though Azalon was three levels beneath him in cultivation, he could be a good cannon fodder to clear a path in front while he provides support from behind! After all, he was the star disciple of the Blacksmith Hall while Azalon was simply worthless when compared to his own.

But his words fell short when he saw a cold smile surface on Azalon’s lips. He felt a chill crawl down his spine and a very ominous feeling rose up in his heart. That cold smile and the apathy in Azalon’s eyes compared to the berserk and malicious red eyes of the countless Spirit Beasts surround him, he was suddenly filled with a feeling of impending death.

“You… You are the reason for this?” Smith pointed at Azalon with a trembling finger. But before he could speak any further, Azalon flicked a finger in his direction. The Lightning Wolf Emperor that was hidden previously and mixed into the beast horde jumped towards Smith. It transformed into a glaring purple streak of lightning that struck Smith from behind immediately electrocuting him and paralysed his entire body.

When the other Spirit Beasts saw one of them take the initiative, they roared and pounced onto the paralysed body of Smith. The Spirit Beasts were practically jumping over one another as they strove to take a bite out of Smith’s body. Some of the powerful Class 2 and Class 3 Spirit Beasts pulverised other weaker Spirit Beasts into meat pastes as they joined the fray. The surroundings were immediately filled with excited roars and howls of the Spirit Beasts and the heart – wrenching cries of Smith, who was being literally eaten alive, were drowned in the cacophony of the Spirit Beasts.

Azalon watched all this happening from his vantage point from above the branch. His face was a little green but his cold eyes never wavered as he watched a fellow human being torn into pieces by the countless jaws of the Spirit Beasts. It was because he had seen the greed that manifested in Smith’s eyes that seemed to grow higher and higher the more he came to know about him during their battle. He knew that if he was the one at the mercy of the other person’s, he wouldn’t even be left with his life even if he surrendered every secret of his.

It was this kind of world that he was now living in. It was the same back in the simple and crude Blue Wind City but Azalon never really cared about all that. He was more interested in living out a simple life where he could explore whatever he wanted to. But now seeing a prominent figure like Smith with his position as a disciple of the White Deer Academy, whose position was like a god to people back in the Blue Wind City, become greedy over his possessions was a complete let down to Azalon.

It was this incident which planned the seed in Azalon’s heart to really pursue strength. It was until later, after a long time until he met her that this seed planted in his heart would be transformed and bloom into an obsession to pursue the peak of cultivation.

The roars and howls of the Spirit Beasts died down after a short time and was occupied by light chomping sounds. Even they eventually died down and complete silence reigned the area while a bloody scent permeated the area. The redness in the eyes of the countless Spirit Beasts gradually receded and they looked around with confused gazes. The first to leave the area were the Class 3 Spirit Beasts followed by the Class 2 Spirit Beasts. The Class 1 Spirit Beasts which were terrified into obedience because of the presence of these powerful beasts immediately scampered into the wilderness the moment the Class 2 Spirit Beasts retreated.

For a short time, Azalon stood on the tree branch and looked down towards the gruesome remains of what once had been a powerful and influential young cultivator with his own dreams and ambitions as well a boundless future. But now what remains of him were some blood patches and tattered clothes as well a few remaining bones of his skeleton. Azalon’s eyes flickered with unknown emotions as if he was thinking of something and he heaved a sigh in the end.

He jumped down and a small grey tiger landed on his shoulder when he touched the ground. When Smith died, his Soul Spirit also died with him and was scattered into Spirit Essence that was absorbed by the ground. Azalon’s eyes flickered gold and he watched a wraith looking thing rise up from the remains of Smith. Its hatred filled eyes looked at him before it scattered into thin air.

Azalon sighed once again as his eyes returned to his usual black eyes. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he saw something at the edge of his vision among one of the blood patches. It was a small pouch looking thing and once Azalon saw it, his eyes lit up with joy. He picked it up and looked at it with some interest. There was a small thread tightly bound around the neck of the pouch and no matter how hard he tried, Azalon couldn’t even open the pouch.

“Ah right. This seems to be a spatial storage artifact just like my Void Ring. But why do I have the feeling that this pouch is countless times inferior to my ring?” Azalon injected his Spirit Energy into the pouch and runes started lighting up on its surface. This item was bound to Smith but after he died, naturally his imprint on this item would disappear as well. When Azalon injected his Spirit Energy, the pouch was immediately bound to him.

A space that was the size of a small room appeared in Azalon’s mind and he realised that this was the storage space of the pouch. The pouch was basically empty other that some items that were floating in mid air in the room. There were three scrolls that were placed in the middle of the room along with a small box the size of his palm. Scattered around them were another large box that was the length of his entire arm as well as a myriad of other useful items like food and water as well as barrels of wine. There was even a silver dining set tucked in a corner. But what caught Azalon’s attention was the small fist sized pale blue Spirit Core. This was the Spirit Core of the Netherlake Basilisk with its soul refined and compressed within it. Azalon’s eyes lit up with joy as he patted the side of the pouch and the Spirit Core appeared in his palm. An ice cold travelled up his arm the moment the Spirit Core in his hand and he felt that his fingers were almost frozen solid! He could see the small image of the Netherlake Basilisk within the blue swirling vortex of Spirit Essence in the Core!

Azalon flicked his hand and the Spirit Core was stored in his Void Ring. He also transferred everything in the pouch into his Void Ring, including the food, water and wine! He then threw away the empty pouch into the place he picked it up from. He cocked his head and his eyes were locked onto the long spear that was embedded into the trunk of a tree like a nail. His eyes flickered with indecision for a moment but he didn’t retrieve the spear but instead left it where it was. According to him, it would be too much hassle if he kept the spear as he can’t use it anyway without giving himself out. It would be nothing more than a long stick that he could only keep hidden. Obviously, it was almost of no worth to him.

If the other cultivators in the Academy could hear Azalon’s reasoning, they would immediately fly into a rage. That spear was an Earth Grade Spirit Weapon! It was the dream of countless students to have a weapon like that in their possession, even though they can’t use it. It would be wonderful just to have it in their hands! But to Azalon, none of that mattered. If he can’t use it, what would he do with it? Attach a cloth to its end and sweep his room or something? It would be better to leave it and not have any liability to the incident that happened here.

He moved through the forest and delved deeper into the wilderness. He came across a mountain after travelling for another half day. He found a cave on the side of the mountain and went into it after making sure that there was no Spirit Beast residing within. He sat cross-legged in the cave and released LILY and Merup out. Merup immediately transformed into a purple streak of light as he explored the interior of the cave with eyes full of interest. Raka curled into a ball in a corner and immediately drifted into sleep. LILY sat in her usual position on his shoulders, leaning against his neck.

“What is your plan, Master? How do you plan to deal with this situation?” LILY asked with concern. Azalon hadn’t even bothered to erase the traces of his presence at the site and that was truly unnecessary in Azalon’s mind. In fact, those traces of presence played a very important part in the story he was spinning.

Azalon smiled at LILY and two Spirit Cores appeared in his palms, one brown and one pale blue. Thick Earth and Water Spirit Essence drifted out from the Spirit Cores and immediately filled the entire cave.

“Its time to get us more companions, don’t you think so LILY?” Azalon asked in a low voice as his excited gaze was fixed on the two Spirit Cores he held in his palms. He flipped his hand and stored the pale blue Spirit Core of the Netherlake Basilisk back into the Void Ring. The Netherlake Basilisk was not a powerful Spirit Beast and neither did it contain any bloodline of the Ancient Beasts. Its only strong point was the purity of the Spirit Essence it cultivated to form the gem like Spirit Core. Hence Azalon was not sure whether its soul and Spirit Essence would be enough to Awaken his dormant Soul Spirit. The Demon Mountain Ape, on the other hand, was a Class 5 Spirit Beast! And it even had traces of its ancient bloodline its race inherited countless ages ago! It was a perfect thing to Awaken his Soul Spirit with!