Chapter 426: Impossible Line-up
While he was resting from injuries suffered against Dullin, two System Hosts had taken the chance to gain a lead.
Had he been able to train in the Temperate Refinement Zone in peace, there wouldn’t have been such a lead. But now, he didn’t obtain anything from there while his enemies were already happily ransacking the treasures of the Imperial Treasury.
That was why he was hurrying now. The longer he delayed, the greater the advantage his foes gain.
The Claw Wolf hopped over the crowd of people, eliciting numerous exclaims from the crowd as it soon entered the palace.
Near the entrance were what seemed to be golems, or at least, their shattered fragments.
Compass Carburettor noticed a hollow section in their chests, as if the golems had contained something within.
‘Is it similar to the Misty Gorge Ruins?’ He thought, hurrying along as he observed wreckage of all kinds scattered around. There were also the corpses of cultivators beside each wreckage.
Of course, cultivators died from either the golems or from the hands of fellow cultivators that tried to snatch such treasures.
The size and colour of the golems varied based on the treasure contained within. Bronze Golems contained pills, Silver Golems contained Artifacts, Gold Golems contained Origin Arts, while Platinum Golems had Cultivation Techniques.
And, the grade of the treasures was signified by their size. Golems with Trash Grade treasures spanned around 2-4 metres in height, 5-9 metres for Human Grade treasures, 11-20 for Earth Grade treasures, and finally, 21-50 for Heaven Grade treasures.
Most of the debris consisted of Golems with Trash Grade treasures. After all, they were the easiest to destroy.
Golems with Human Grade treasures already claimed countless lives before they were destroyed. Their contents created another bloodbath.
Very few even dared to aim for the Earth Grade treasures, as the Golems protecting them were not only massive, the material they were made out of was also tremendously tough, causing most attacks to not even leave a scratch on them.
Once he rushed into the Imperial Treasury, Compass Carburettor didn’t hurry, stopping at a corner as he observed a group of cultivators going against an eight-metre-tall Silver Golem. Stored in its chest behind a protective barrier was a sword emitting a powerful presence.
“Koff!” A cultivator slammed an attack into the Silver Golem, denting a joint when he was flung away from its retaliation, skidding on the ground as he stopped beside Compass Carburettor, spitting out blood while grunting in frustration, “Dammit, I was close!”
His eyes suddenly turned strange as he muttered, “Two Evil Spirits have gone deeper into the Imperial Treasury. They are Velcorn with his Heaven Martial Spirit, Putrid Crocodile and Holla with her Heaven Martial Spirit, Sonic Light.”
“Velcorn is capable of decomposing anything living he touches. He possesses a tough defence that’s hard to breach, not to mention his fish-like movements that cause most attacks to miss him. He’s always lucky.” The cultivator then spoke, “But, the one that you must guard against is Holla.”
“Both her attributes are Earth Grade. She has one of the strongest Heaven Martial Spirits. She wields both light and sound. She mostly unleashes shockwaves to attack nearby targets. There are no blind spots in her defensive Origin Art that employs her shockwaves. And if anyone gets close to her, they are blinded by the light she emits. She hasn’t used any attacks with the light attribute yet other than to blind enemies. But one thing is for sure…”
He said solemnly, “No matter what, she always takes action at the opportune moment to snatch everything. And this has happened a few times already. Any decent treasure had already been snatched by her right at the moment the cultivators vying for it let their guard down for an instant.”
‘Based on the characteristics she displayed…indeed, it’s that System.’ Compass Carburettor became serious, ‘Perfect Timing System! Always able to perform actions at the perfect time to reap the greatest benefit. Damn, she is too troublesome to fight at this point in time.’
He wasn’t too much concerned with Velcorn though. For, the other party had the Lucky Bastard System. Even though the Lucky Bastard System was one of the highest levelled among the Luck-based Systems, it dealt with pure luck.
And against that, he had some countermeasures in place.
But, the moment such a thought entered his mind, Compass Carburettor pulled a stop to all his actions, watching the cultivator turn normal and return to fight the Silver Golem.
‘Bad Luck System, Lucky Bastard System, Perfect Timing System, and then the Destiny Luck System.’ He frowned, feeling like a formless net had been cast around his neck.
Bad Luck System would rapidly shave away his innate luck, causing the Lucky Bastard System to survive numerous encounters against him time and again, staling his growth. And the moment he reveals a weakness, the Perfect Timing System would sneak attack him, crippling his growth/foundation/opportunity, etc.
Eventually, once he’s weakened, the Destiny Luck System would initiate the fated battle, resulting in his guaranteed death.
‘There’s one more here…Warktor. What System does he have now?’ Compass Carburettor frowned, ‘He’ll be the final ingredient in their plan to kill me.’
Honestly, with such a line-up against him, it’ll be pretty impossible for him to survive. And, one of the most important ingredients that formed the noose around his neck was the fifth System that has remained discrete all along.
Its Host hadn’t taken action even once until now, preventing the Sleeper Cells from gathering any data on him.
Arriving at the entrance of the Imperial Treasury was a hooded figure, a lean man with a rust-coloured rubble beard, something he hadn’t bothered to maintain even once.
Standing beside him was a teenager, possessing significant strength but sporting curious eyes as he gazed at the scattered remains of the golems within, asking, “Master, will we be fighting against him now?”
“Not yet.” The man with the rubble beard, Warktor said curtly, “Our only goal to come here is to pick a suitable weapon for you. We’ll fight him after breaking through to the Martial Origin Stage.”
“That’s when I’ll be at my strongest state.”
