Death… And Me

Chapter 3654: Sudden Start

Of course, it didn’t happen straight away. Pardikan’s group still had a long way to go and many risks to deal with before reaching the location where Roan and the others waited for them.

Celis looked at that, annoyed. He was taken away from his Starlight Energy, so he wanted nothing more than to finish it now. ”Let’s just take the initiative and prepare a trap to kill them fast. Every minute wasted here is a minute without the Starlight Energy.”

Roan agreed with him. ”That’s why the idiot is working.”

”Obviously,” Rean commented. ”I’m not as useless as a certain block of ice. Hmph!”

What would be the best trap? Obviously, it would be a formation! Everyone who got up here had already left upwards, so Rean didn’t need to worry about affecting anyone else with his formation. But then again, he wasn’t very happy with simply attacking straight away. ”But, should we really do it? Maybe they aren’t enemies and are as lost as us about all this chosen thing.”

”Do you wish to leave it up to chance?” Roan looked at Rean.

Rifindio thought about that for a moment. ”Should we test them? With Rean’s formations, it should be possible. It’s not like I also want to kill anyone just for the sake of it.”

Rean was happy to hear that. ”Right? Don’t worry; I have just the right thing.”

Roan didn’t complain as he knew Rean wouldn’t stop bothering him if he forced the issue. Besides, he knew Rifindio was right. Rean’s formation would definitely be enough to guarantee their safety. In fact, even without the formations, Roan was pretty sure they could win a fight since they had unlimited supplies of Starlight Energy.

They waited patiently, making sure their energy reserves were filled. That made Celis even more annoyed, but you couldn’t really expect other groups to climb the tree like they did.

It wasn’t before another three hours that the other chosen group made their way up, gathering near the branches but not stepping on them. They couldn’t stay there much longer, though, as the shower of celestial bodies would only stop targetting them once they stepped on the branches.

Pardikan stayed there, only dodging or destroying the projections falling down. Meanwhile, three of his companions, including Citchi, went around the trunk. Only four experts remained in that position with Pardikan.

The truck of such a tree was obviously enormous, and so the other side of the trunk was many kilometers away. Citchi and the other two experts who separated from Pardikan were intending to use Pardikan as bait while they stepped on the branches from the other side.

Of course, only an idiot wouldn’t consider such a possibility. In fact, the celestial bodies’ projections falling were divided into two areas, making it obvious that not everyone continued to follow the chosen.

Citchi knew that, and it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she and her two companions could reach the branches and that not all the enemies would be waiting for them there. No doubt, most of the enemies would focus on Pardikan due to his ’chosen’ status.

Yet, she didn’t expect what happened next.

*Zush, zush, zush!*

Citchi stepped on one of the gigantic branches with her two allies. They looked around and spread their Divine Senses as far as they could. Their attention was also on their Natural Spatial Perceptions. They were looking for traps, enemies, or any other kind of danger... just to be met by absolutely nothing!

”Uh?”

”No one is here?”

”No traps either.”

”Didn’t they see that we separated from Pardikan?”fre ewebnove l.com

”They obviously did, or they would be blind.”

Citchi and her companions commented, looking around with puzzled expressions.

Citchi quickly recovered, though. ”Alright, let’s not waste time. We are going around. Send the signal!”

On the other side, Pardikan’s group kept a more or less safe distance, just in case the twins’ group above decided to attack them from there. They continued to dodge the Celestial Bodies or destroy them until Pardikan noticed a bright red light coving his way. He didn’t dodge the red light, though. Instead, he caught it with his hand and saw what looked like a tiny insect. ”It’s Crohei! They got to the branches! Let’s go up!”

His companions sighed in relief, as their Divine Energy reserves weren’t very good. They had to at least keep some in case they needed to flee. They sped up while Citchi’s trio went from branch to branch around the tree trunk. The idea was to arrive where the twins’ group was at the same time.

Citchi’s trio was the first one to spot Rean and the others, seeing there were actually only five experts there. ”Just this?”

They landed on the same branch as the twins’ group, their Divine Senses spreading once again. At first, they were just looking for some kind of ambush or trap, but they soon noticed something else. ”What?! Elemental Space Realm? Space-Time Realm?”

Soon, Pardikan arrived with the other four, joining Citchi back into their group of eight members. ”What the hell is this?”

Rean, his hands on his back, smiled at the newcomers. ”Good to see you all. We have been waiting for quite a while. Hey, Zirconio, come here.”

Rifindio was still under his fake name from the looks of things. ”Which one of them is it?”

”The guy with a green skin,” Rifindio pointed out. ”Well, this entire group has green skin, so the leftmost one.”

”I see.” Rean nodded. ”Hello, friends. We came out here to ask a few questions. It seems like our companion can feel your friend’s presence somehow. Do you know anything about it?”

Pardikan and the others looked at each other. It felt weird. Pardikan, Citchi, Crohei, and everyone else were in the Peak Stage of the Divinity Realm. Yet, Rean and the others ahead didn’t seem the least bit worried.

But then again, they noticed something else. ”Wait,” Pardikan stepped forward. ”Are you not going to attack us?”

Rean shrugged. ”Do we look like to have the strength to attack you?”

”Hmph!” Citchi wasn’t that naive. ”Do you take us for fools? There is no way you got this far if you didn’t have the strength or methods to back yourselves. I don’t know what is this thing about your cultivations being this low, but no one here will underestimate you.”

*Tch...*

Roan cliqued his tongue. There would be no idiots underestimating him today... or was that truly so?

Rean bitterly smiled, but he didn’t deny Citchi’s words. ”Well, we have our ways indeed. By the way, are you, instead, not going to attack us? Have you perhaps heard something about a bunch of chosen ones?”

Citchi put a hand on Pardikan’s shoulder. ”As your friend already noticed, Pardikan seems to be one of those chosen or whatever. What do you know about it?”

Rifindio shook his head. ”I’m also at a loss here. I only found out about this chosen issue after entering the Golden Palace. But from the looks of it, the chosen ones seemed to be made to fight each other... I think? I’m not too sure what are the rules behind this process.”

Pardikan nodded. The twins’ group might be lying, but if they are not, then they are in the same boat as him. ”The same goes for us. Have you been attacked because of this chosen thing?”

”Yes,” Rifindio didn’t hide that fact. ”Not only did someone do it, but we ended up killing them, and I got what seemed to be a special power from that other chosen. It looked like an image of a forge when it appeared.” Rifindio spoke the truth because he wanted to lure the other side to attack. If they were after these special marks, saying he has two might be enough to force the other group’s hands.

Pardikan then turned to his group, and they seemed to discuss a few things through Divine Sense. Finally, Pardikan spoke as well. ”In my case, I was attacked by a Demon Bird of Universe F955... and we managed to kill her and her group. I, too, got her power, which had the form of an Oil Drop when it appeared.”

”You can obviously see that I’m from F953 due to the blue color on my chest and that of my group. The same way I know your special power is in the form of a stone projection, you most likely guessed my own has the projection of a gear.” This group had a medallion, and they knew about the other medallions too. So, they reached the same conclusion as the twins’ group before.free.web(n)ove(l)(.)c(o)m

”Yes,” Rifindio didn’t deny that either. ”So, what will it be? I’ll be honest. We don’t want to fight anyone. We use Starlight Energy for cultivation, and we intend to cultivate here until the Golden Palace closes. As long as your group doesn’t cause trouble for us, we won’t cause trouble for you either.”

Citchi and another three experts who used Starlight Energy nodded. ”A few of us also use Starlight Energy for cultivation. But, as you can see, there is plenty of Starlight Energy Fruits to go around. How about this: we will stay on one side of the tree, and your group will stay on the other. Does that sound fair?”

Both sides measured each other up and down. In the end, an agreement was reached. ”Very well. We don’t care which side since it is all the same. Where do you want to stay?”

Citchi finally smiled. ”We will go to the branches on the other side of the tree. Who knows if you prepared some trap or such here? Hehe!”

Roan nodded. ”Then that’s about it. Let’s go back!”

Roan turned around, and Rean and the others followed. Since there was no fight to be made, they didn’t need to stay here either.

Citchi obviously did the same. ”We are also leaving. Let’s make sure to use this time well... keep your guards up... just in case.”

Yet, before both sides could get far from each other, Rifindio and Pardikan shot backward, attacking each other as killing intent flowed like rivers!

”What?!”

”Rif- Zirconio, what the hell are you doing?!” Rean shouted.

”Pardikan, are you crazy?!” Citchi did the same.

For some reason, a battle started between these two chosen ones...