Metals, coils and springs floated in the water, mixed with an eerily sticky green liquid.
The intensity of the battle had reached an all-time high and Zilan was on his last legs. He had avoided the battle by sneaking around and timely dodging the explosions of metal but unfortunately, once the green blood-like liquid started flowing about, Zilan knew that avoiding notice would be too hard.
Once that sticky stuff attached itself onto him, he would absolutely be unable to continue using the [Survival of the Rain Dragon] Divine ability.
After all, being invisible didn’t mean that his physical body also disappeared. If something could outline his body then being transparent didn’t matter.
Just as Zilan was cursing these idiotic creatures that only know violence. A sudden shrill cry that shook the entire world, sounded out.
The ghouls immediately stopped their fight upon hearing this. They quietly stared at each other before scattering into different locations. It was obvious that they were fleeing but that weird pause they spent staring at one another was like they had come to a tacit agreement that it was, ‘every ghoul for himself.’
Zilan didn’t know why the ghouls acted in such a way nor did he particularly care. At this point in time he was just thanking his lucky stars that it happened.
According to his calculations, a little over five minutes had passed since the test officially started. If he could remain in the water for a little longer, avoiding the gazes of these mechanical monsters, wouldn’t that be great.
“This is working out better than I’d planned.” He laughed.
As if hearing Zilan’s internal excitement and laughter. An unexpected tremor that shook the domain to its core suddenly occurred.
Of course, the lake was also affected and as a consequence a large amount of sand from the floor of the lake flew upwards, encasing Zilan’s figure.
The tremor only lasted a moment but its effects almost caused Zilan to spit out a mouthful of blood.
“Something like this can also happen?” He lamented.
Currently, his entire body was completely outlined. The sand covered every nook and cranny of his figure, it even went up his nose. If anyone saw him like this, then needless to say, he would definitely be noticed.
Flustered, Zilan looked upwards just to make sure that the ghouls hadn’t noticed him.
“Phew~ Thankfully, they’re too busy escaping.” He sighed.
It was at this moment that one of the smaller ghouls slowly turned around. Coincidentally, the first thing it spotted was a human like statue of sand.
However, as it examined closer with its spinning blue eyes, the ghoul was shocked by the fact that the statue was moving.
“Yi!?” It cried.
The sand statue was actually looking at it with a shocked expression.
Just like that the two stared at each other for a long time.
“Just go away. Just go away. You saw nothing. You saw nothing.” Like a prayer Zilan recited those words in his mind as if doing so would send a telepathic message to the small ghoul to just ‘f**k off’.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way.
“Yiiiiiiii! Yiiiiiiiii! Graaaah!” The small ghoul shrieked and growled as it pointed towards Zilan with an enlightened expression.
“Isn’t this the food us was told to hunt?” It excitedly thought.
Zilan on the other hand wanted to slap that bastard ghoul thousands of times. That annoying screech made him all the more angry.
He hurriedly moved to wipe off the sand so that he could reclaim his invisibility but like the old saying, ‘bad things happen to good people’, it was already too late.
The group of ghouls that were hastily swimming away suddenly all stopped. They only turned around because of the little ones cries but once they saw the figure of a sand human, they all enthusiastically let out shrieks and growls of joy that spread far out of the lake.
“Haha, kid you’ve done well to hide for this long. Now let’s have some fun.” Little red’s sinister voice reached the whole domain, alerting Zilan.
The domain once again began trembling but this time it wasn’t because of any earth quake or storm. Instead it was caused by the sounds of running and galloping from all of the many mechanical creatures within the domain rushing towards Zilan’s position.
“Not good!” thought Zilan as he speedily swam out of the lake.
Thanks to his stream lined body he was able to swim much faster than the metallic ghouls. However, once he reached land, Zilan honestly did not know what to do.
What could he do? There were hundreds upon hundreds of ferocious mechanical creatures who’s ultimate and only goal was to tear him to pieces.
He was surrounded, didn’t know the terrain well and lacked sufficient time as well as power to think of a perfect plan.
Thus with no idea as to what to do and the closing in creatures on his mind. Zilan first needed to buy himself time. As for how he was going to do that?
He would rely on the second level of the [Survival of the Rain Dragon].
Before activating the ability, he first took of his robes, remaining with just his inner shorts. Then he used his water attribute powers to clean away the sand on his body.
Finally, he sat cross-legged in between a few trees and concentrated. A sweat like substance started flowing down from his forehead, down his back, his chest, eventually it covered his entire body.
An illusion suddenly flickered into existence. His body now resembled a red medium sized tree, identical to the ones around him. The ground beneath his feet was the same, it became riddled with roots and trunk protrusions.
Just as his preparations were complete, a flock of fire covered birds were the first to arrive by the lake. An acid-like black liquid oozed out of their razor sharp teeth as they screamed and cried out unpleasant sounds.
The fire on their bodies burned fiercely with the occasional spark flying out, resulting in the incineration of an entire tree.
The ghouls came second after. They finally climbed out of the lake.
Not long after, the entire lake region was sealed off and the mass of ferocious creatures began their rampage.
Conflicts broke out as they fought amongst themselves whilst searching for Zilan.
Things quickly became even more chaotic when the more powerful monsters arrived wanting the weaker ones to disperse. However, with numbers on their side, a huge wildly violent battle ensued.
Countless creatures like the ghouls all perished in a myriad of ways. Burned, drowned, shredded, smashed, devoured and so on.
Baring witness to all this was the strangely calm Zilan who inwardly was anxiously trying to think of a way out of this situation.
Even if they failed to locate him which was unlikely, it would still be impossible for him to use this Divine technique for the full period of the test.
Unfortunately, he was too weak and lacked the sufficient Blood Force reserves.
As he was stuck in his thoughts, something happened that forced Zilan’s concentration to waver almost causing him to lose control of the divine ability.
That same shrill cry that shook the world, causing the ghouls to retreat from the lake echoed out once again.
Only this time, it was obvious that it was getting closer.
Zilan’s heart fell as he looked around at the scenes of carnage around him, wondering if he would be next.
