Chapter 224: Challenge

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“Everything is the result of karma. Even simple acts, such as eating and drinking, are predetermined, and one’s actions will be one’s downfall…”

“Roland, talk so that we can understand.”

“No zuo no die! [1] 1 …Fine, don’t look at me like that. I’ll be more direct. It means that you won’t die if you don’t deserve to die! If you deserve to die, then you’ll die!”

The scene before us caused countless exclamations, as the undying Emordilorcan met his scariest opponent ever. When the Brothers of the Gourd [System: Are you sure that you’re going to call them by this name?] …Fine, when the unnamed Divine Sins locked on to their father, the destined battle began explosively.

Or should I say that it was a suppression rather than a battle…

If Emordilorcan had been in his top, uninjured condition, perhaps this battle would have been more equally matched. However, he had been heavily injured in the mortal plane, and he had just gone through the baptism of ice and fire. The destruction of his clone children had also given him quite a bit of damage. Just maintaining his physical body and preventing it from collapse was already getting difficult for him, not to mention he had to deal with the incredibly dangerous Divine Sins.

On the other side, the seven rebellious children had just been revived, and their powerful hatred gave them limitless motivation. Their natural talent to absorb the earth element was the natural counter to all earth elemental creatures, and since they were Emordilorcan’s cloned children, they also had Emordilorcan’s battle experience and techniques!

These souls had been within Emordilorcan’s body just earlier, but they now began fighting with him. This time, even the strong Emordilorcan had a look of despair flash in his eyes when he discovered that his heavy punch, which could tear even the dimensional fabric, now became his opponent’s technique.

“Ahhh! If you want my head, you’ll have to take it with your lives!”

Still, Emordilorcan raised his head and shouted angrily to the skies before exploding with the viciousness of a warrior.

But, no matter what he did, it was still meaningless. What happened next showed that this battle had a foregone conclusion from the very start, or perhaps I should call this a dinner rather than a battle.

Emordilorcan’s attacks had all become ineffective, and any contact caused his body parts to be stolen through earth element absorption. What could he do? With just a single exchange, Emordilorcan was pressed down onto the ground, which was followed by an early Armageddon, just for him.

“Ahhh!”

The seven Divine Sins opened their mouths wide and began chowing down on their father’s flesh and bones. They instinctively began completing their incomplete selves, weakening Emordilorcan by stealing away his earth element. Emordilorcan could only pitifully scream as he watched his own demise. After Emordilorcan devoured more than thirty of his own children, it was time for his children to devour him.

[Divine Sins: Unnamed. The Divine Sins were created from the Earth Elemental God Emordilorcan. Currently undergoing evolution. Already known abilities: earth element absorption, negative divine power. System Assessment: If you can’t find any method to deal with them, then just run away. This isn’t shameful as well. I’m being serious. In the Earth Elemental Plane, most likely not even a True God will be their match!]

The system’s assessment was very appropriate. Even the forbidden spell’s casting behind me had ended. Kaid had preferred to take the elemental backlash and escape with his team.

Seeing the Earth Elemental God receive the punishment he deserved, I hesitated for a moment before coming to a decision.

“We’ll retreat as well…”

“Um, everyone wait a moment…”

Just as I made the decision to retreat, Reyne suddenly spoke up with an awkward expression on her face. She never expected things to end up like this.

“…I think I can control them.”

“What!”

“What!?’

Everyone’s faces were filled with shock. Controlling Divine Sins? This was unheard of. If Divine Sins could be controlled so easily, they wouldn’t be existences that gave even True Gods headaches. The only way to deal with them was to repeatedly seal them.

Seeing our expressions of shock, Reyne started panicking as well. Everything she did just now was when she was in a daze, and even she was unsure of what it was.

“When I was making a connection with them earlier, there was a line like ‘I, Reyne Qin Mist, representative of Chaos, shall give you all one more chance. Become my slaves for a chance at revenge’ in the incantation. They answered my summons, so a contract should have been formed. I should be able to control them, I think.”

“Can you control them now? Make them listen to your commands? You’re certain?”

Although there may have been a contract, Divine Sins were far too dangerous—it was to the extent that even demons wouldn’t dare to deal with one, which was unbelievable. Even when I possessed “Shadow,” it was the same for me—I barely dared to use him. Apart from fearing that the Gods would notice and simply kill me with a flick of their fingers, I also feared the possible backlash from him.

“I’ve researched Divine Sins as well before. They’re basically impossible to communicate with. Are you certain that they even understand what a contract between master and servant is? When you approach one, just see if they’ll treat you as a passing snack.”

Reyne sunk into meditation as she closed her eyes and lowered her head. She was inspecting the contract connection she had with them and was trying to see if she could control them.

But she quickly opened her eyes with an expression filled with fear.

“…These creatures have no sense of reason at all. They instinctively hate everything, and they want to tear everything apart. At most, I can control them to have them destroy someone, but I can’t control them to not destroy someone.”

Whelp! That was the result, after all. But it was already much better than what I expected.

“Can you order them to hibernate?”

Judging from my experience in controlling Shadow, Divine Sins all acted based on instinct. Commands that were similar to instincts such as eat, sleep, and attack were all commands that they could understand.

“Let me try.”

Reyne closed her eyes again, and this time she revealed a jubilant expression.

“…Not currently, but it should work once they’ve eaten their full.”

Hearing this, everyone finally heaved breaths of relief. For Emordilorcan, who was so strong, to turn into food for these Divine Sins so easily gave us a huge amount of pressure.

“We’re still going to retreat. Hurry up! We can’t guarantee that after they’re done with the main course they won’t treat us as a side dish. Reyne, when they’re done snacking, immediately order them to sink into eternal hibernation. Camdian, if the hibernation succeeds, immediately notify all the Earth Elemental Lords to not enter this area. It would be best to construct a forbidden zone here so that they can truly sleep for eternity.”

Hearing this, Reyne began to pout. It would seem that she had some objections to my plan.

“…Um, can we take one to the mortal plane? With how strong each one of them is, it could be a help to us.”

“Don’t even think about it. There’s only one possible result if we take a Divine Sin with us to the mortal plane—the True Gods descending upon us in a horde, immediately killing the Divine Sin and swatting you to death like a fly along the way. Even if you managed to hide one successfully, this type of lifeform, which only knows how to destroy, would cause a catastrophe either sooner or later.”

Reyne instantly went into a depression, with an expression just like a kid who had her candy stolen from her.

“…But just borrowing part of its power is alright. I remember that Karo has spells on partial dimensional summoning, but that will take time to research and learn as well. Right now, let’s not waste any more time and retreat immediately. Reyne, you first.”

Reyne nodded when I said this and turned around to leave, but everyone else paused in surprise, as they understood what I implied by my words.

“Roland, you’re not intending to retreat with us?”

Amelia was rather hesitant.

“I still need to go over to the Elemental Throne and gather some materials; you know about this already…”

“Let’s go together. That’s Emordilorcan’s old nest, after all. Better to be on the safe side.”

“No need! It’s just material gathering, such a small matter. You guys should leave first. Your power wavelengths are too obvious, and those Seven Brothers of the Gourd will notice you.”

Margaret stepped forth and seemed to want to say something when Adam pulled her and stopped her. He walked in front of Amelia and took charge.

“Alright, we’ll leave first. You should finish up on your end as quickly as possible as well.”

I nodded and stomped as a pitch-black shadow surrounded me, and I transformed into shadows and went ahead at high speed, no longer able to hear the argument behind me.

“Why did you let him go? It was obvious that he was lying. Roland has the habit of touching his nose whenever he lies, and you know about it as well. With his current power rank, if he meets some tough opponent…”

Margaret was filled with dissatisfaction as she questioned Adam.

“Of course I know that he was lying, but he wasn’t entirely being dishonest either. It’s true that he’s going to gather materials, but getting revenge is probably the main topic he has in mind.”

“Revenge against who? Is there some enemy of his at the Elemental Throne?”

“Of course—Emordilorcan. Didn’t we come all the way here just for him?”

Adam’s face was filled with astonishment, with an expression like “how could Margaret ask such an idiotic question?” However, Margaret was currently now glancing at the battlefield close by where Emordilorcan had been over half devoured and was deader than dead.

“You’re saying that Emordilorcan’s not dead yet?”

“Of course not. There’s no way that he’s so easy to deal with. For such a sly old fox, faking his death couldn’t be any more normal. Didn’t we meet someone who faked his death that one year, and you were even the one who saw through it.”

Margaret was instantly rendered speechless. The sly old fox that she uncovered back in the day had been Roland himself.

“Do you have any proof?”

“My instinct. As for evidence or whatever, you’ll have to ask Roland. He’s more suitable at being a brainy detective.”

At hearing this, Margaret’s icy expression started defrosting, but she was still filled with dissatisfaction. She had now deduced that these two old friends had played a trick on her again, while Amelia even directly headed towards the Elemental Throne’s direction. However, Adam blocked her in a flash.

“Get out of the way. I’m going to go help him.”

“…Don’t think that Roland’s the type to not mind anything. Actually, he really cares about the People of the Mist that had died.”

Amelia was somewhat confused to hear this, as she didn’t think it had anything to do with the current situation.

“…Since the People of the Mist suffered such great losses, and Emordilorcan is the only remaining perpetrator that’s still having such a carefree time outside, how could Roland possibly let this stand? Now, do you understand why he went by himself?”

“Revenge by single combat? That’s just too foolish.”

Adam shrugged rather helplessly.

“I apologize. Sometimes, men are such foolish creatures. Without being able to personally slay the perpetrator and serve justice for the dead, he probably won’t be able to sleep well at night.”

Amelia reflexively chewed on her fingers and showed her obvious worry, but Margaret suddenly consoled her.

“Have you ever seen Roland be on the losing end in a battle of wits? He’s such a sly one; how could he possibly go to his death so easily? Since this is a battle that Roland’s prepared for so long already, you should be worried about his enemy!”

And, right now, just as Adam surmised, I was heading for the target coordinates that Beifeng had provided me. My angry shouting reverberated through the underground labyrinth.

“Coward! I’m by myself, and you still don’t dare to show yourself? If you don’t come out, I’ll attract those Divine Sins to this location, and watch how you die!”

It seemed that my threat achieved its purpose, as a familiar voice finally sounded behind me, but it was filled with bone-piercing hatred!

“Damned Roland! It’s all because of you I lost everything! Today, it’ll be either your death or mine!”

Note:

1. According to Wikipedia, No zuo no die (Chinese: 不作死就不会死 or 不作不死) is a Chinese internet meme. The original wording of the Chinese phrase means “one would not be in trouble had one not asked for it.” The “zuo” here means asking for unnecessary trouble.

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