Soon the sky had turned dark and the palace halls were as silent as the grave.
The guards patrolling the palace gates were fully alert since they were working on a shift based system, so that they wouldn't get tired or sleepy during their shift.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew past them as they swiveled their heads wondering why there was a sudden burst of wind. But nothing else happened and they shrugged it off thinking that the night was windy.
A hundred meters away in an alley, a boy with a hooded cloak was on his knees panting heavily out of breath.
"Ha…ha…I...I c-can't breathe….."
Luna spoke mentally, "How pathetic. I told you not to overestimate yourself. Using the Mirage of Myriad Phantasms to its fullest for more than a hundred meters is not a child's play at your cultivation level. I am surprised you didn't die from running out of breath." She gibed.
Damien drew in long breaths and slowly absorbed and circulated the ethereal energy from the air through his ethereal core points.
Finally he got up with a jubilant smile, "I can't believe this skill is so awesome! My speed was so unbelievably fast that I thought I was flying. The energy I exhausted was worth it. At least I was able to sneak out without even the guards' knowledge. Wew, that was quite risky."
Those guards were at least at the Spirit Ethereal Realm but they didn't feel suspicious at all when the gust of wind passed by them. In fact, it was Damien speeding through the space between the guards. But if their cultivation was at least at the Earth Ethereal Realm, they would have noticed a jet black lightning streak speeding through the gap between them.
Damien had suppressed his aura and executed the second stage - Mirage of Myriad Phantasms to move at an inhuman speed!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Unless someone with a soul cultivation of Soul Transformation Stage or higher spreads their senses with utmost concentration, they wouldn't be able to trace Damien's trails or sense him at all. If he was able to fully comprehend the second stage, then one would be considered lucky if they could find even a whiff of Damien's trails.
"Of course, it is the ethereal arts I gave you. The least you can expect is it to be awesome." Luna's lofty tone sounded in his mind. "But you just had to take a detour to steal a lousy cloak. Hmph, using my godly ethereal arts for stealing." Luna was a bit annoyed to see her ethereal arts being used for petty thefts.
On his way to the alley, Damien passed through some residences where he found a black cloak lying around. He didn't even stop and just took it. If there were people who witnessed it, they would think that the wind stole away someone's cloak.
Damien chuckled and then looked towards the north where the Dark Forest was located.
'Time for some hunting.'
——
The moonlight filled the entire sky but Damien could barely find his way in the dark surroundings of the forest. The Dark Forest was so thick and dense that it forbade the moonlight from bathing it with its light.
The weather was cold and the forest was so silent that one could hear a droplet falling on the ground. Damien could even hear his own heartbeat and his breathing. He was slowly making his way inside the forest in order to not lose his way and also to not go too deep inside the forest where there might be powerful ethereal beasts he wasn't yet ready to take on.
His senses were totally spread out along a 125 meter radius but he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain it too long as it depends on his soul energy reserves and requires him to stay still with utmost concentration if he wants to find any wolves hiding in the dark.
Meanwhile, a few meters behind Damien, as the bushes parted, a brown furred wolf as tall as a man appeared from within the bushes slowly moving towards Damien.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})But Damien seemed unaware of the lurking danger behind him and was moving forward slowly.
*Whoosh!*
Just as the brown wolf got closer to Damien, it shot out from the bush like lightning with a tremendous speed. Even if it was a practitioner at the Spirit Ethereal Realm, they would find it nearly impossible to avoid its attack.
As its prey got closer and closer to its line of sight, its teeth were already aimed at its prey's throat, preparing to ferociously bite it down!
*Thud!*
However the brown wolf was caught off guard since it expected its teeth to bite into Damien's throat, but it had instead passed through Damien's body as its body hit the ground!
It stood up in fury after recovering itself, but its eyes shrank as it saw a jet black lightning bolt filled with chilling ethereal energy tearing through the air, closing in on itself. The jet black bolt passed through the head of the brown wolf leaving behind a charred gaping hole!
*Thud*
The brown wolf lifelessly dropped dead on the ground as it died without even realizing what happened.
Damien dusted his hands as he slowly walked towards the partially charred carcass of the brown wolf. His eyes narrowed when he saw a bigger version of the Brown Claw Wolf he saw in the slave market.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})'First Level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm…A matured Brown Claw Wolf!' Damien screamed in his mind.
"It died just like that?" Damien muttered to himself.
Damien couldn't believe he easily killed a Brown Claw Wolf at the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm. Even though he was at the tenth level of the Initial Ethereal Realm, he was still a realm lower than the wolf in cultivation.
"Of course, even without considering the prowess of your ethereal arts, the Pseudo-Origin Laws behind your lightning is too overbearing for a mere wolf at that cultivation to handle. At your current level, you can hold your ground easily against opponents two to three levels higher than you with your ethereal arts. As for opponents four or five levels above you, it won't be easy." Luna calmly said.
Damien had managed to leave behind a single afterimage by executing the second stage of his Elysian Lightning Of Retribution — Mirage of Myriad Phantasms.
After that he appeared behind the wolf and used the Searing Strike Rendering Worlds skill from his ethereal arts to deal a killing blow to the wolf.
Damien didn't have any weapons with him, not even a small blade. He was prepared to rely only on his ethereal arts and fists.
But he didn't expect to face a Nascent Ethereal Realm beast right away. He thought that only Grey Wolves roamed around the border and expected the Brown Claw Wolves to be located a bit deeper into the forest.
The Dark Forest was located at the northern part of the Imperial Capital with an area of 300,000 square kilometers. It was the biggest and most dangerous forest in the Rong Empire. Damien had barely crossed five hundred meters into the forest and he already met a Brown Claw Wolf.
'A rogue one it seems…without belonging to any pack.' Damien mused.
A rogue Brown Claw Wolf was even more menacing and troublesome than the ones who usually travel in packs. The rogues are more bloodthirsty and too proud to be in a pack to follow an alpha or a leader. They would travel around the forest wherever they like and kill whomever they want to if they feel like it.
Luna could not help but state, "Seems like you have also comprehended the second stage well enough to leave behind at least a single afterimage. Your mastery of the first stage is also good enough considering your cultivation and Lightning laws comprehension."
Luna thought that Damien would still need more time to learn how to leave behind afterimages using the second skills of his ethereal arts. But it seemed like she had underestimated him yet again. She thought that one day if he could draw out the true potential from that skill, he could virtually be at multiple places at the same time!
