“Fantasy!”
Unexpectedly, Garen did not give chase but simply flung out his right arm to catch Tu Lan from afar.
Weirdly, his right palm slowly became bigger and wider, and an odd feeling that the sky was being engulfed shivered through the crowd.
As the surrounding environment was distorted, the entire hallway felt like a twisted glass tube that was churning and shaking violently.
Tu Lan was stunned by the sudden loss of balance but only for an instant, and she resumed fleeing at a speed that looked to be unaffected by gravity, rushing straight for the nearest theatre exit.
Bam!!
A large hole suddenly opened at Garen’s position, and one could directly see the space within it.
His entire body tilted slightly before he disappeared in the blink of an eye. He was definitely hot on her heels.
What was left was Quentin, Isaros, and co, who had only reacted only moments after the two had disappeared and dense footsteps could be faintly heard from the outside.
“Let’s leave immediately!” Quentin could barely stand upright, with one hand pressing onto her abdomen. A sizeable wound should have broken open there as blood kept oozing from it, but it wasn’t as terrible as before; she compressed the blood vessels with muscle contraction, preventing more blood from oozing out.
Arisa and Vivien had just recovered from the shock. Both of them wanted to help Quentin but were gently pushed away.
“Let me do it!” Isaros carried Quentin with a stern expression and fled while leading the two other girls.
“With Teacher here, that person would never return, but I’m afraid this is a trap. Go to the parking lot and immediately inform the allies outside and have them leave first, we will be in contact soon,” even though Quentin had suffered heavy injuries, she was still conscious enough to plan ahead.
“I know. Your injury looks bad,” Isaros looked at the wound the size of a fist and her eyes couldn’t stop twitching. While Quentin was speaking with relative ease, if it had been anyone else, this injury would be enough to cause a blackout or death by shock.
Soon, a group of people in black uniforms ran into the suite in a trained manner, and carried the heavily injured Quentin and escorted them up to a vehicle that was specially prepared for them.
“Brother… was that…. Brother?” Vivien asked after boarding the car, as she felt a strong sense of disbelief when recalling the golden silhouette. “Was he actually this strong? For that man to run without even attempting to combat.”
“That’s just the first time you’ve seen Teacher in action…” Quentin’s face was pale, but she seemed to reply with a relatively easy smile. “With Teacher here, that person won’t be able to flee. It’s obvious that Teacher took a trip here just to pursue her.”
As she spoke to the end, her expression seemed to turn cold.
******************
“Black Dragon!!”
In the rural forests, two silhouettes of black and gold were toe-to-toe in their chase.
As the black colored silhouette roared in front, her speed increased explosively and a thin layer of black smoke seemed to dissipate from her entire body, looking like a long tail. Her speed, however, was leagues above her previous speed.
Under the blazing sun, the golden silhouette behind didn’t seem to be alarmed; he created crater after crater on the ground under his feet with help from a terrifying explosive power to continue his pursuit.
Suddenly, a large tree trunk beside him exploded and the blazing flames halted his momentum, creating a great distance between the two silhouettes.
“Oh? That’s a lot of nifty toys she’s got there.”
In the high-speed movement, Garen squinted as he observed the fleeing silhouette. That explosion just now wasn’t anything special; it was just a simple technological tactic, but such a pressurized explosive bomb would still somewhat affect him in his usual condition.
Bam!! Bam Bam Bam!!!
Suddenly, a series of thunderous explosions coupled with an orangy-yellow flame formed a vortex around him, the tremendous impact and heat completely engulfing him.
Taking advantage of the instance Garen was stopped, Tu Lan took a few larger leaps forward and hid within the dense forest on her right. A thick white smoke began propagating behind her out of nowhere, which seemed like an obvious escape plan.
She actually had zero plans to return to engage in combat.
The flame vortex engulfed the woods in the radius of tens of meters, and under the intense combustion, the smoke rose thickly into the sky and was observable from afar.
From amidst the flames, Garen walked out without any damage. Oddly enough, whether it was the flame or the smoke, they automatically dispersed from him within a ten-odd centimeters radius, as though there was an invisible protective barrier around him.
As he walked out of the areas affected by the flames, Garen waved his hand to disperse the smoke. He raised his head to find out that Tu Lan was nowhere to be found, even though he could still sense the remnants of her aura nearby.
With Garen’s arsenal of Secret Techniques, peerless physique, and extra-sensitive sensory abilities, he could easily locate traces Tu Lan’s scent within the forest. The scent was as clear as a guide, leading towards the direction that she’d escaped towards.
Jii!!
Garen disappeared instantaneously and gave chase while he followed the scent.
From that devastating explosion which was supposed to be powerful enough to demolish an entire skyscraper, Garen had walked out of it without harm, without even minor injuries.
That devastating explosion had completely razed the woods and shrubs of the forest in a twenty to thirty meters radius from the detonation point, creating a charred dome-shaped area, but other than greatly reducing his speed, Garen was unaffected.
****************************
Tu Lan’s high-speed fleeing had caused her to pant heavily, but she’d taken the chance to place multiple traps and bombs which were activated by Garen who was behind her. Terrifyingly, his speed was never reduced to a halt.
In the heat of the moment, she planted the rest of her miniature high-concentration explosives in one spot, behind a large tree and set a timer of detonation. Finally, after the incredible explosion, complete with a few smoke grenades and poison gas grenades, she finally managed to flee from Garen’s pursuit. After changing directions a few times, she soon came to a halt with a bergamot forest ahead of her.
After an extended period of full-speed sprinting, as well as high levels of mental focus to sense the pursuit behind her, even she would have greatly exhausted her mental energy.
As she rested upon a bergamot tree, Tu Lan felt that her scalp was still numb from the imminent sense of danger of being pursued, and it felt like it hadn’t stopped, and Garen was right on her tail.
However, following the increasingly intense sense of danger, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the Black Dragon Tao Technique had become slightly loosened.
That Serpent dragon that guarded the gate was actually feeling the same kind of pressure, so much so it let out a deep hissing sound, as though it was asking her to advance faster.
Secretively, Tu Lan turned her head around to feel that the sense of danger’s aura seemed to be concentrated the air around. Her surroundings had begun shaking and he was apparently coming towards her.
“It’s all or nothing!” Tu Lan’s entire body shivered uncontrollably under that tremendous feeling of danger, but her intents were solid. She sat cross-legged, shut her eyes, and deep dove into the Black Dragon Tao Technique as her body innately guided her Blood Core into a Holy Technique state.
In the instant she entered the Holy technique state, all of her aura disappeared instantaneously; her scent, her aura, all of it vanished without a trace in that instant, alongside every other element that could make her whereabouts trackable. It was as though she no longer existed at all.
What was even more baffling was that the remnants of her scent also soon dispersed after she entered this state
Tu Lan, who was sitting under the tree, had begun turning transparent and more illusory, as though she was transmigrating into another dimension.
In order to advance to Death Apostle rank, the largest hurdle needed to be addressed; finding her own secret dream realm, and deposit all of her, including her will to live there. If she were to succeed, then even if her physical body and Blood Core were destroyed, she could resurrect from the hidden dream realm. That was the true immortality.
Tu Lan’s biggest weakness now was that she was unable to deposit the entirety of her life and will into the Serpent Dragon Dream Realm that was created by the Black Dragon Tao Technique.
The SDDR seemed to be independent on its own and equipped with its own consciousness and abilities. In reality, the so-called hidden dream realm was actually an invisible life that possessed an odd existence, they were very much alive, and had their own life-force.
Death Apostles needed to be in unison with them and truly let their own life force combine inside an unknown area within a Dream creature, achieving a realm when they would not die.
But this kind of creature normally had their own consciousness, and it would be extremely challenging to obtain their approval, moreover, the merging would take an extended period of time as well. But for some reason, either due to the Black Dragon Tao Technique or some other reason, the Serpent Dragon Gates seemed to be fond of Tu Lan, and so in this dire situation, it had finally let up a sliver, with the intention of allowing Tu Lan to advance earlier.
Under the pressure of life and death, Tu Lan finally entered the Serpent Dragon Gates and began the process to deposit her life and will.
This process was made to separate one’s life and will and combine them with the dream creatures. The process was extremely risky, as she would be forever lost in the dream if she made a misstep, and the entirety of her existence would be devoured by the Serpent Dragon Gate.
But if she were to succeed, her gains would naturally be more lucrative; she would officially reach the Death Apostle Level and obtain everything that belonged to the Serpent Dragon Gate.
Her consciousness continued to dip lower and she became half conscious.
As the time passed, Garen who was far away was still trying to find the scent that had gone missing abruptly, making him lose the trace of Tu Lan.
Even so, his aura told him that Tu Lan was definitely not too far away, she had merely used some sort of technique to hide.
After more than ten minutes, suddenly, the place where Tu Lan disappeared at began glowing white.
The white light was about the size of a firefly, but it slowly expanded, becoming bigger and brighter, until it was the size of a basketball.
Just as the white light expanded, hints of an ancient aura began spreading from the light, as though one was walking through a historical site and experiencing an unknowing sense of vicissitudes that traversed through years of life.
As the aura spread outwards, the trees and grass began to wilt visibly, as though their time had been hastened dramatically.
Jii!!!
At that instant, a pillar of light the girth of an arm shot up towards the sky, piercing through the leaves and the clouds, looking as though it limitlessly extended into space.
The light pillar looked like an endless light rod that connected heaven and earth, and it caused the sky to grow heavy with dense clouds after it pierced into the atmosphere.
Ca-Crack!
Lightning struck down, followed by rumbling sounds of thunders as the blueish white light illuminated the entire forest.
Garen slowly stopped in front of the forest and looked up at the pillar of light.
“Is this…. Advancement?”
A surge of ancient aura was spreading from ahead of him. This aura was completely different from the usual Tu Lan; although it carried her aura, there was an additional extreme ancient, rotten feel to it. as though it was the rotten aura of a creature nearing the end of its life.
He was unknowingly right; if a dream creature’s life wasn’t nearing their end, they would never agree to combine with and be devoured by a Blood Breed. Even though this would prolong their lifespan, to be part of another’s life meant that they would completely lose their independence. Everything would be controlled by the Blood Breed host.
“This aura…. Is this the Death Apostle level?” Garen murmured as he noted this unprecedented aura. He did not take immediate actions but instead, he silently gauged the differences within.
He then slowly turned his head around.
At some point, another silhouette that was tall and slender had walked out. It was a handsome young man with short purple hair, and he was observing from behind a shrub with a cold expression. Oddly, he also had a similar ancient aura emanating from him.
“Oh? There were two?”
“Holy Fist Palace, Garen.” the man said with a deep voice, and slowly walked over. His body had an unsettling emptiness to it as if nothing but air was there. “Today, you will meet your end.”
The white light had suddenly diminished as well, and a silhouette slowly walked out. It was actually Tu Lan, and her injuries seemed to have healed completely, looking as good as new.