“Hurry up, come up with a solution. My little Zin’ro is still suffering from the plague at home! If anything happens to her, you voodoo doctors won’t get a single piece of your annual contribution from our Zan’gu tribe.”
The only ones that could gather here were the leaders of the various tribes. At the same time, these tribal leaders were also mighty Third Grade troll warriors. Still, they were all helpless against the sudden plague. They could only furiously shout and holler at this leader of the voodoo doctors.
Ye’ke, Third Grade voodoo doctor and the only Third Grade voodoo doctor throughout the troll empire!
He was seven hundred years old now.
He had seen countless disasters and calamities throughout his long life. As such, he had not lost his cool when faced with this fearsome plague, as all the other trolls had. Instead, he remained calm and composed.
“Silence! All of you bastards, shut up.”
Ye’ke stared at the impatient, angry trolls around him and tapped his staff against the ground. A violent current of air knocked them back and caused them to stumble backward. At the same time, the silhouette of a massive Feathered Serpent appeared behind Ye’ke.
It was a powerful creature with unusual, feathered wings and golden scales. A ferocious light gleamed in the two emerald-like eyes on its flat, full hide as the serpent seemingly glared at everyone present.
The entire room instantly fell silent.
All the trolls got down on one knee and placed a hand over their chest, respectfully offering their devotion and worship to the Feathered God.
“The enemy approaches.”
“Due to Ka’no’s inability, a trace of my origin power has fallen in the enemy’s hands.”
“I require that you retrieve it.”
The Feathered God hissed, its unusual voice reverberating in the air and so sharp it could tear the eardrums off of a lesser being.
The troll commanders couldn’t help but look at each other when they heard the Feathered God’s orders.
Finally, a troll mustered the courage to speak.
“O’ Great Feathered God, where are the enemies located, exactly?”
“The west…they are close. I can almost smell the stench they give off. They propelled the plague that has spread throughout Muri’var. The plague cannot be fully cured unless my origin power is retrieved.”
The Feathered God gave clear orders. Naturally, this left no room for the troll leaders to negotiate.
They hurriedly acknowledged the order and left the voodoo doctor’s place, hurrying back to their tribes to gather their forces.
The projection of the Feathered Serpent did not immediately disappear once the troll leaders left. Instead, it communicated with Ye’ke for a brief moment before dissipating into the air.
…………
This place was an unusual space in Seawoods Plane.
It was no more than a hundred thousand square meters in area.
However, similar to Muri’var, there were gray and white stone all over this place. There were also forests of magnificent statues and many, many trees.
At the center of this unusual space, through a path covered with moss and several tiny swamps, was a massive den built out of huge boulders.
The air here was humid and warm like tropical forests tended to be.
A massive, one-meter-tall egg was placed on a small stone platform within a pile of ash-white bones. The Feathered Serpent coiled silently by the egg, caressing it with its tail while blowing golden lightning at it.
The destructive lightning of the past now appeared to be gentle and soft. It circled the egg, splitting into smaller, thinner spars of electricity that were then slowly devoured by the egg.
Once it had eaten enough of the golden lightning, a mental fluctuation of satisfaction emanated from within the egg. When that happened, the life inside the egg stopped consuming and instead fell asleep to digest this golden lightning that contained traces of the planar origin’s aura.
It was only when the egg was asleep that the female Feathered Serpent could rest for a brief moment. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, waiting for the male Feathered Serpents to feed her. These male Feathered Serpents served as both her servants and her guards.
The only things in this kingdom of Feathered Serpents were the beasts used as livestock and the Feathered Serpents themselves.
There were twelve Feathered Serpent guards in total, all of whom were male. They were all at Second or Third Grade. The only female Feathered Serpent was Zuka, the totem god worshipped by the forest trolls.
After several thousands of years of nourishment from the power of faith, Zuka had managed to grasp an understanding of some divine powers. Her strength had also advanced to beginner Fifth Grade.
However, out of her instinct as a magical beast, she had still exhausted a phenomenal amount of faith power and divine power to give birth to a descendant. During this process of hatching the egg, her ability had also fallen from beginner Fifth Grade to advanced Fourth Grade. She had to face a long, three-hundred-year period of weakness.
Zuka, the Feathered God, had to breathe golden lightning for three days and three nights before the life in the egg was finally full. Thus, when it eventually fell asleep, Zuka let out a breath of relief and coiled up at the egg’s side, closing her eyes to rest.
However, every time she tried to go into deep meditation to recover her powers, her mind would be disturbed by an unusual energy flux, leaving her with no peace.
“Bastards…these damned invaders! I will tear you to pieces and scatter your ashes!”
Having been roused from her slumber by this strange flux, Zuka became increasingly impatient and angry.
Her loud and sharp screech instantly filled the land, causing the entire space to tremble.
All the magical creatures that heard this screech cowered in fright, unable to move on the ground.
Even the Feathered Serpents lowered themselves out of fear and flared their wings, unsure of how they had angered their mistress.
The life in the egg was also obviously stirred awake. It hissed and let out a mental fluctuation of frustration.
The furious Zuka hastily cast away her anger and used her gentle lightning to coddle the egg once again.
Zuka straightened her body and looked through this unusual space. She could see from the temple atop of Muri’var, her gaze directed west.
“Those damned invaders have obtained a part of my origin power. They are using some unusual methods to attack me with it now. Hmph! When I am finally free to move, I will teach you a lesson!”
Chapter 1174 - Voodoo Ritual
Inside a forest somewhere near the troll capital.
A voodoo ritual was being held in a hidden underground cave.
The host of the ritual was Remi’s old witch subordinate. Remi himself stood to the side and watched the entire process with Mary.
The cave wasn’t very large, the ground was uneven, and there were some ashes left on the ground from a burnt-out bonfire.
It might have been the den of a giant carnivorous magical beast in the past. Unfortunately, its home was far too close to the troll capital. Consequently, this place had obviously been turned into a crude camp for the trolls.
There were public living areas, rest areas, armories, and many small storerooms below the cave. A party of seven trolls had been stationed here. However, they were now part of the voodoo ritual and could never return to their homes.
An area had been cleared in the camp, and the bones and skulls of countless beasts and trolls had been piled together as fuel. Their souls and flesh were stripped by the array beneath them and had been reduced to a single sickly-green ghost fire. The flame silently licked at an unusual crystal hovering in the air.
There were far too many tragic souls bound up in the ghost flame. They cried and howled and cursed. The array gathered their powerful hatred and resentment and turned it into a terrifying voodoo curse that was directed at the
power crystal.
The power crystal called to something somewhere within the troll capital due to the resonance between the origin of its powers. This incredibly powerful voodoo curse followed the crystal’s unbreakable connection to its source and slowly corrupted it.
Through the voodoo ritual, Remi could even hear a furious screech reverberating through the principle layers.
Clearly, the origin of the power had discovered the curse and was expressing its fury.
Sadly, its anger was not only unable to incite any fear on Remi’s part but even made him increasingly excited.
Cursing a god–no, cursing a divine creature–was a profound experience. Any curse adept would be more than proud to talk about such an adventure!
That was why Remi had accepted this ‘scary’ task without any hesitation when Mary produced the power crystal in front of him. This task was scary because there was no doubt that this ritual would deeply infuriate the Feathered Serpent.
When she went on a berserk rampage and exacted reckless revenge, nothing would stand in her way. Only a few of the vampire expedition army could escape alive.
“How is it working? Are you able to spread the plague to that beast?” Mary knew nothing about voodoo rituals. She did not understand anything, even after watching for the entire day. She had no choice but to ask patiently.
Remi rolled his eyes when he heard Mary’s question.
“Lady Mary, you overestimate our abilities! The opponent is a divine creature! We can’t even cast a mere Weakening Curse on it, let alone a plague. A slight mistake, and this place just might—”
Just as he spoke, Remi shuddered and turned to look in the direction of the voodoo ritual.
The dark space above the ritual abruptly distorted and shattered. A blinding bolt of golden lightning shot out from the rift in space.
The old witch hosting the ritual was caught unaware. She screamed out loud as the blast of lightning struck her.
The clothes on her body instantly turned to ash. Her dirty, messy, short hair stood on end, and her skin was scorched black. There was even black smoke rising out of her open mouth.
Fortunately, the old witch had already been turned into a Third Grade plague creature. A bolt of ‘divine’ lightning wasn’t enough to kill her.
As she struggled to get up from the ground, Remi opened his mouth and blew a thick cloud of yellow poison mist at her.
The poison smoke quickly seeped into the witch’s body, rapidly healing her and undoing the damage done by the lightning strike.
However, the divine energy left behind by the lightning was not so easily dispelled. The old witch’s aura was unavoidably weakened.
At the sight of this, there was something different in Mary’s eyes when she once again looked at Remi.
“You are very smart!” Mary calmly said.
“Thank you for your praise!” Remi still had a playful smile on his face, just like always.
“Earlier, you said that you couldn’t even transmit a curse onto the serpent. What’s the point of continuing this voodoo ritual, then?”
“Lady Mary, the voodoo ritual might not be able to curse the Feathered Serpent, but it can corrupt and affect its mind. Between a smart and sly Feathered God, and a Feathered God driven mad by her own emotions of anger and fury, which would you choose?”
“Obviously, the second one. That creature possesses absolute power against us; we cannot face her head-on. However, should she ever lose control of her power, our chance will have arrived! Are you…sure you have a way to make her lose her rationality?” Mary asked doubtfully.
“If her mind were truly impenetrable, I wouldn’t be wasting time here.” An expression of thought appeared on Remi’s face. “Ever since we built a connection to the Feathered Serpent’s origin through the ritual, I have been somewhat confused. She…doesn’t seem to be as powerful as the trolls describe her to be.”
“Oh? What have you discovered?”
“Either the information was incorrect, or the serpent is currently in a weakened state. Either way, the Feathered Serpent is certainly not at Fifth Grade. It is only a Fourth Grade creature at the moment! Otherwise, the divine punishment from earlier would not have been so trivial!”
“Not Fifth Grade, but Fourth?” Mary was pleasantly surprised.
She did not have Alice’s ability to see through an enemy’s secret with just a tiny hammer and a little piece of bone. Every piece of information about the enemy had to be obtained with blood and life on the battlefield.
That was why Mary was both happy and surprised to hear Remi’s deduction. She wasn’t sure what to do now.
If the enemy was indeed Fourth Grade as Remi claimed her to be, then Mary and her vampires did have a chance at victory. As a vampire adept from the World of Adepts, she felt no fear in her heart when fighting against an opponent of a lesser plane, even if that opponent was a grade higher than her.
It was for a simple reason. Mary held the absolute advantage in knowledge, technique, equipment, and experience!
The planar natives might not know anything about the adepts, but adepts could obtain plenty of information about them through tomes or knowledge crystals. Do away with the effects of planar suppression, and adepts from the World of Adepts were superior to these primitive, lesser-plane natives in every regard.
In combat power alone, Mary’s vampire army might not be able to fight against the troll warriors that numbered in the thousands. However, with a ‘tiny’ plague, Mary had managed to force back that terrifying army of trolls without drawing a single drop of blood.
Mary and her vampires still felt no fear even as they faced the capital and its thirty thousand trolls. Instead, she was planning with all her might to capture every last troll. Moreover, their schemes included the totem god hiding behind the scenes– the Feathered God.
What gave her the confidence to do so was the difference in their homeworlds and worldviews.
As an adept from a major plane, Mary thought of herself as the predator, even if she was weaker than the opponent. It didn’t matter how strong or how ferocious the enemy was; in the end, they were no more than a slightly fatter boar.
However, while she was scheming the downfall of the Feathered Serpent, Soros stepped into the cave. He had been standing guard outside.
“Master, there is movement from the capital. A vast army of troll warriors is heading this way. It seems like they are searching for us!”
“Hmph! That damned snake must be in a hurry if she’s sending those trolls after us. Notify all the vampires. Move out. Draw them into the forest and kill every last one of them!” Excitement overtook Mary’s face. “I don’t believe that damned snake can remain peacefully in her den when she loses all these believers!”
“If she can tolerate a loss like this, that would only mean that something serious has truly happened to her. If that happens, then we will fight our away into her den. Let’s go.”
A sharp, whistling gale blew across the cave as Mary left their hiding spot with her vampires in tow.
Meanwhile, the Third Grade poison witch was still hosting the voodoo ritual. Remi would remain here as well. Any trolls that managed to make it here past the vampire’s defensive line would not be lucky, but incredibly unfortunate.
After all, they were basically walking into the jaws of death!
…………
Seawoods Plane. Somewhere in the Degu Forest.
No one knew when, but a large patch of dark substance had appeared in the skies above a clearing.
This substance bubbled in the air as if it were liquid, seemingly very active and impatient.
Finally, the planar space tore open, and pitch-black shadow substance surged out of the rift, instantly turning the clearing into a realm of darkness.
Two ghostly lights lit up in the murky shadows of the endless darkness.
Shadow Demon was a magical machine and was hardly affected by the planar powers. It had broken free of the planar suppression almost
instantly.
“Searching for Lady Mary. Protect her.”
Shadow Demon mumbled to itself in an odd, robotic tone. It quickly locked onto Mary’s position.
“Northeast. 1350 kilometers.”
With this information in mind, Shadow Demon promptly moved out.
Unlike other magical machines that either marched on the ground or flew through the air, Shadow Demon traveled in an unusual fashion.
With its Shadowstalking ability, Shadow Demon would flicker every once in a while, reappearing in a massive shadow cast by a tree in the distance. After half a second, it would disappear once more and appear in a shadow another hundred meters away.
Through this silent Shadowstalking, Shadow Demon was able to cut across the thousands of kilometers of forest rapidly and approach Mary’s location.
Chapter 1175 - Darkblood Arrives
Space, Exodar Camp.
There was a grand tower looming at the center of the camp.
The magical light shimmering around the tower was bright and eye-catching, even amidst all the towers in Exodar Camp.
The door of a private laboratory on the twenty-third floor suddenly burst open. Great Adept Ulnak coughed violently as he rushed out of the room. A cluster of strange smoke could be vaguely seen in the doorway behind him. It was gathering into a humanoid form and surging towards the entrance.
Ulnak quickly escaped the room and casually shut the door behind him.
Unfortunately, as fast as he was, traces of smoke still managed to escape. They gathered in the air, seemingly trying to manifest as something again.
Boom!
A brightly colored fireball exploded in the center of the smoke, drowning everything in a sea of fire.
Ulnak still couldn’t relax after the fireball had detonated. He threw two more fireballs and finally chose to stop once he had confirmed that all the smoke was gone.
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