Chapter 93 – The First Test Conclusion

AN- I know it’s been a while since the last post but this chapter is 4 times as long as other chapters making it the longest chapter I’ve ever written. Hopefully you enjoy it 🙂
*****
Within the crumbling protective screen, something exceedingly strange was happening.

“This……”

Zilan marveled at the feeling of his injuries rapidly healing as well as his Blood force being replenished. Such an outcome although naturally welcomed was still majorly unexpected, if not bordering on miraculous.

What triggered this change? Surprisingly, it was none other than the worn out black glove that Kifo’s ‘Grandmama’ had gifted to him.

(AN – First appeared in chapter 60!)

Something he had taken out only because all other routes appeared extremely bleak, shockingly turned out to be his saving grace.

Despite knowing his current circumstances were anything but good even with his injuries healing, Zilan still felt happy enough to heartily laugh.

“Phuu..”

Taking a deep breath to calm his heart, Zilan then began studying the black glove on his right hand. Its outer appearance didn’t stand out at all, in fact one could even go as far as to say that it was unappealing. Something that was more along the lines of what a beggar would adorn or a cloth that a nobleman wouldn’t even dare to use as a dust rug.

However, once he injected a portion of his Blood force into it, a whole new world opened up to him. Its master, the spirit of the divine elemental tool known as the black glove, amusingly greeted him in a rather arrogant manner. Of course, it did not use words nor did it have a distinct appearance, but for some reason Zilan could feel its presence as well as understand exactly what the spirit wished to convey.

“Barely acceptable!” were its first and last words.

Immediately after, a stream of knowledge flowed into his mind. It included but was not limited to, a set of restrictions the most notable of which limited him to a single Divine ability out of a total three. Then there was the conditions of use, which simply consisted of cultivation levels and date deadlines. Failure to reach certain levels of cultivation within the time given would result in the spirit of the tool cutting off all connection with Zilan forever. Furthermore, blatant laziness or if he disappoints the spirit in any way, it not only has the right to deny use of the tool but it is also allowed to bestow punishment.

Initially, Zilan was appalled by the spirits way of doing things however that quickly changed once he explored the available Divine ability. For others who obtained the black glove, the ability may seem somewhat lacking but for Zilan who possessed a wealth of knowledge, it was basically a match made in heaven. If there was ever a person who could bring out its full potential, it would be him.

………………………

Moments later,

The protective screen finally shattered however, the weak prey the mechanical creatures were expecting was no longer present.

Smilingly looking upon the many monsters, an almost fully healed Zilan relaxedly waved his hand saying,

“You may not understand what is about to happen next but I promise you it will be anything but pleasant!”

The rainbow mastiff as well as all the other Beasts puzzled, stared at him before suddenly erupting in anger. “How could food act so leisurely and arrogantly before them?” they thought.

Unfortunately, before they could act upon their anger a shadow stretching far beyond them abruptly appeared beneath their feet. The sunshine was blotted out leaving only darkness to prevail across the encirclement.

Stunned, the Beasts simultaneously turned their heads towards the sky, only to be left terrified.

Unbeknownst to all of them, a giant tidal wave popped up from ‘god knows where’, and was currently looking over them like ants. The smartest of the creatures all broke out running exploiting many interesting means to do so. As for the more ‘challenged’ ones, they were stuck in a stupor or more accurately were simply scared stiff. Granted, there were some exceptions among the mechanical Beasts. These were the strongest amongst them who possessed absolute confidence in their abilities to weather the storm.

Zilan lightly shook his head as he waved his right hand which was now covered with a glowing black glove that was projecting a strange blue rune on its back.

Almost immediately after, the colossal wave came crashing down sweeping away everything from trees, earth, rocks and of course a large number of the mechanical Beasts that had encircled him.

Expectedly, not a single drop of water touched Zilan even going as far as the water moving around his figure, instead of through him.

Strangely though, if one were to look closely around the battlefield, they’d notice that all of the water golems had seemingly vanished into thin air. Why was this? Well, to answer that question a series of other queries needed to be answered first. For example, how did Zilan become capable of suddenly producing so much water? And what exactly is the divine ability of the black glove?

To be honest, the divine ability really didn’t have a name. All Zilan was given was a detailed breakdown of its functions and how it was to be used. Thus, taking matters into his own hands, he decided to bestow upon it the name, “Elemental law manipulation!”

As its name suggested, the divine ability allowed Zilan to command/manipulate Elemental laws. However, as everything in this world had its limitations, the ability also was not all powerful. To elaborate, only the Elemental laws that the user has comprehended or mastered to a certain degree could be manipulated.

In normal circumstances, the ability would not be of much use to the majority of people since even the most accomplished people in this small plane would probably have mastery over only a single law. As for mastering others without the guidance of Supreme existences from greater planes, that would be akin to living within a dream.

Luckily Zilan was anything but normal! With the Book of Path by his side coupled with some of his own insights, the gloves ability was essentially tailored for him. It goes without saying that he, of course, did not master these laws but he could use the knowledge left behind by Zaum to substitute for some of the deficiencies. The power would obviously only be less and definitely not more than someone who’d fully mastered the laws. However, for his current cultivation level, this amount of power was many times more than sufficient.

As for why exactly, he was suddenly able to produce so much water now? The answer was beginning to reveal itself.

“Water Manipulation.” He whispered. The rune on the glove responded by glowing with an even brighter intensity.

“Why was the will of the Elements divided into laws by the Universe?” Continued Zilan, enjoying the chaotic view. “Because, laws are unbreakable! Because, laws must be obeyed! And because laws are absolute, second only to the Truths, Ways and Secrets of the Universe! The rest of existence is governed by many different, mysterious laws.”

“No need to worry though, for I’ll make sure to give you a real good look at the laws of water.”

Finishing saying that Zilan slowly raised his right hand before forming a seal. The blue rune on the back of glove, appeared to have received some sort of order since it swiftly changed to a different one.

“Law : Water Density Manipulation.”

In a commanding tone, Zilan’s voice burst forth prompting a reaction from the vast amount of water that was eroding the land.

“From golem to water and now water to weapons. ‘Truly water is the element of change.’” He said, recalling a verse from the Book of Path written by Zaum.

It didn’t take long before the large amounts of water had fully transformed into a myriad of dangerous weapons of varying size and strengths.

Needless to say, this control of vast amounts of water was only possible through the interference of the black glove. Without it, Zilan may be capable of controlling a small portion of a water body but never would he be able to replicate this scene. That is also one of the reasons why he previously opted to use his own blood force to forge water weapons since it gave him better flexibility. Now that he possessed the black glove though, controlling water bodies, not to mention golems under the command of another, not only became possible but it also exhausted significantly less energy. To be more precise, if he decided to manipulate laws using his own Blood force produced water and not natural water, then the energy consumption would be multiplied many times over. Therefore, with water near, the glove was great, but in dry areas, its advantages would take a hit. To get around this, Zilan would need to get another attribute but this was understandably not going to happen anytime soon.

“VHOOoo..”

Swords, halberds, katanas, pikes, spears, hammers, axes, arrows, chains as well as all manner of different weapons decisively fell from the sky. Their target surprisingly was not the many mechanical Beasts but rather the numerous golems who in his opinion were the more dangerous lot due to their perverse numbers.

“BANG! CRASH!”

Explosions of earth and rock shook the area however, Zilan just calmly observed. One who did not know the full story would probably take him for a bystander with the way he was currently acting.

“Sigh~ Things play out in such…..interesting ways whenever I get involved.”

Just as he was thinking that, vibrations coming from beneath the ground alerted him to action.

“So you’ve come.”

Without panicking, he simply flicked his wrist and with a glow from the glove, his body instantly imploded dispersing into hundreds of water droplets.

“BOOM!”

The head of an earthen yellow Hydra’s head, crashed through the ground but unfortunately not a trace of its target could be found.

Thinking the food was ignoring them, it had chosen to move in but never would it have thought that the food would actually vanish.

“Whoooo..” The rainbow Mastiff howled depressingly, it was directing the Hydra to look at a certain direction where currently, water droplets were converging and forming a human’s frame.

“I don’t want to do that again.” Whispered Zilan as his body was finally pieced back together.

It went without saying that he’d never tried to disperse his body to any extent let alone to such an extreme degree. Thankfully, he had now learnt that despite its advantage against physical attacks using such a tactic against elemental attacks especially fire would be akin to delivering himself to the netherworld. Plus, he couldn’t even begin to describe how uncomfortable the process was.

The Hydra’s nine heads along with the rainbow mastiff and some other strong Beasts all dumbfounded, just unblinkingly stared at him. The prey that was previously so easy to capture had now turned into something that was hard to even just pin down.

Seeing this, feelings of strength as well as some accomplishment couldn’t help but surface. Along with them though also came an idea.

He’d only seen it once so replicating it was probably impossible due to the intricacies involved but looking at the Hydra before him, who most likely required a simultaneous attack in order to vanquish it, Zilan’s thoughts became more and more enamoured with his new idea.

“If fully replicating it is impossible then I’ll just have to create a variation of it.”

With a smile on his face, he then slowly stretched out his hand before saying,

“My Ancestor spoke of an incredibly wise sage who once said that ‘There is nothing softer and weaker than water and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. For this reason there is no substitute for it.”

“I guess you should blame yourselves for being hard and strong then.” Laughed Zilan. “Water Manipulation : [Endless Flow]”

(AN – First appeared in Chapter 17)

Soon after water droplets around him suddenly burst out covering an area of a hundred meters.

“Bloop.”

One by one, a few dozen Beasts were hit by the droplets but strangely, there was no large impact. Instead, the droplets were absorbed into their bodies. All nine heads of the Hydra were included among the monsters hit.

A few seconds passed by yet nothing had occurred. Feeling tricked, the Hydra as well as some of the smarter creatures chose to charge towards Zilan but predictably, disaster struck them on their way.

“BAM!BAM!POP!”

The first Beast to be affected was a wild boar whose body abruptly enlarged to an exaggerated degree before exploding sending fluids and ‘guts’ flying everywhere. And just like explosives once the first one goes off, it triggers a chain reaction causing the others to ignite then explode.

“Increase the water content in your body and take control of it using law manipulation. At least that was the idea but involuntarily causing the fluids in your system to aggressively flow in reverse…is a welcomed surprise!” He thought.

Using its Beast force, the Hydra tried its level best to struggle. It hoped to reverse the effects of whatever was happening to it through sheer force, but fortunately for Zilan, all nine heads simultaneously imploded before that could happen. Luckily, it was not a true Hydra’s body otherwise, the ‘fake-immortal’ aspect of its body would have been much more difficult to deal with.

“Hahaha…” Baring witness to how the monsters that he previously had to expend so much energy to defeat were now falling like flies, Zilan couldn’t help but laugh in delight at the power he now held.

“One step closer to my goa..l…_” An unbelievably dangerous presence suddenly shocked him into silence. He hurriedly extended his senses outwards however, nothing came up. His instincts though, were flaring up to the point that cold sweat was beginning to flow down his forehead.

“What the hell is going on?” He wondered.

Not taking any unnecessary chances, he immediately withdrew at his fastest speed and just in case he created a giant shield of water to surround himself. “Tch!” Still feeling that this wasn’t enough, he quickly re-inscribed the black screen inscription for increased protection.

*Silence*

Despite remaining on high alert for a few moments nothing out of the ordinary took place. Choosing to trust in his instincts, Zilan continued to remain on edge.

Fortunately or rather unfortunately, he had made the correct decision to protect himself.

“SCREE!”

That all too familiar screech that caused the earth to tremble sounded out again. Only this time, it was so close that the volume of the cry made Zilan’s ears ring, temporarily taking away his hearing.

“What….”

He was just about to voice out his suspicions when without warning an unexpected pillar of fire, much larger than the gigantic sword he had previously created, suddenly descended upon him.

His vision was covered with nothing but red while thanks to ringing in his ears, the rumbling that he expected was nowhere to be found. Interestingly, this ‘silence’ made the already scary attack even more terrifying.

“BAM”

The tower of fire struck the black screen but the result Zilan was hoping for or more accurately predicted, did not occur. In fact, the sturdy shield he thought could at least hold for a short while was instantly destroyed. It was almost as if his screen was paper and the pillar of flames was a never before seen, astoundingly sharp sword.

Next was the wall of water that naturally stood no chance against the powerful attack.

Zilan understood that wanting to get away scotch free was most likely out of the question thus he decided to use some of his blood force and blast himself away using a jet of water. It went without saying, that his speed would not completely outrun the fire, therefore gritting his teeth, Zilan carried out his plan flying away with some minor burns around his body.

“Kuh! What did this?”

Looking back where currently a sea of flames raged across the area, Zilan was both curious as well as exceedingly wary of the thing responsible.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out though since it appeared the other party was quite eager to ‘meet’ him.

………………………..

At an unbelievable speed, an indistinct blur dropped down to the ground, raising clouds of red dust upon its landing.

“SCREE!” It cried. Zilan wasn’t caught off guard this time as he swiftly covered his ears. He also made sure not to take his eyes off it’s shrouded in dust figure.

With a light blow of the wind, the unknown, formidable existence’s appearance was finally revealed.

Taking in a deep breath, Zilan eyes were glued to the huge creature before him.

“….How did you do it?”

This question was not necessarily addressed to anyone specific however, if one insisted on narrowing it down, then this question was largely meant for the mysterious Chairman.

“Griffin……..”

The body, tail and hind legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and an eagles talons as its front feet. This was a Griffin! However, its species wasn’t the main reason Zilan was surprised.

“Capturing a normal one is understandable but… how? How did you manage to not only extract the soul of a Dual-Attributed Griffin but also build a body that could house the two attributes as well as allow the creature to control them as if it were natural? How? How did you do it?”

The mechanical Griffin stared at Zilan not as food but more like a long time enemy he needed to destroy. Why this was so, probably had something to do with little Red.

“Hahaha, were things going too well for me? Sigh~ It doesn’t matter, this is my path after all.” He thought.

“Water Manipulation: [Endless Flow]”

Pointing towards the Griffin, dozens of droplets flew quickly flew towards it. Some of them were successfully absorbed while most were easily evaporated by the monster.

Smiling, Zilan felt that that amount was enough however, his thoughts were cut short once again when a serious back lash struck him causing blood to flow up his throat.

Horrified, he turned to look at the Griffin who was coincidentally also staring at him. Both of them had the look in their eyes that their opponent was not to be taken lightly.

“How?” They both thought.

“How could water droplets cause such damage?” wondered the stunned Griffin. “How did it defend against it? Ah! Could it be a Divine ability?” questioned Zilan.

Without waiting for him to think anymore, the Ancient Beast hatefully opened its mouth before sucking in a large amount of air.

“Wind Elemental attack?”

Thinking up to there, Zilan immediately prepared his own offense. Of course, in his current state there wasn’t much his physical body could do but once the gloves ability was brought into the equation, the situation also changed.

“Law: Water Manipulation.”

With a simple wave of his hand the water all around the battle field began gathering. It then started to transform into six foot puppets that loosely resembled Zilan. Their base strength was naturally nothing to write home about, barely equal to the earth golems. However, with the laws of water in his hands, this was something Zilan was going to change.

“Law: Viscosity Manipulation.”

Viscosity could be described as the resistance of fluids to change shape. For example water is ‘thin’ having a lower viscosity while honey is thick having a higher viscosity. In essence the less viscous the fluid is, the greater its ease of movement.

What Zilan was going to attempt was to turn the numerous water puppets into something more solid yet still able to retain their flexibility. Of course, in order to increase their offensive prowess to a level where they could slow down the Griffin, more still needed to be done. And Zilan intended on doing much more.

“Law: Ice Manipulation.” The rune on the back of the black glove transformed once again.

By reducing the kinetic energy of atoms, it was possible to make things colder for various effects and combinations. One particular combination he intended to bring forth was the creation of strong icy armour to cover the now gelatine like puppets.

Drawing a peculiar looking rune in the air, Zilan’s plan quickly carried out. Granted, the amount of Blood force he expended to do so, also sky rocketed.

In his mind though, it was worth it. After all, clashing head on with the Beast was beyond impossible. All he could do was keep it at bay, slowing it down as he slowly whittled away at it from a distance.

Seeing the army of water puppets, the Griffin was slightly alarmed but regardless, once its eyes landed on Zilan, it knew that retreat was not an option. He needed to destroy the hateful enemy otherwise…..

“Kraaa!” Screeching out to the heavens the giant Griffin, was finally done preparing its blow.

A green radiance converged at its location from all corners of the domain almost as if it was drawing power from the environment. Zilan was at a loss for words seeing this but that did not mean that his feet were slow. Manipulating water to surf across the land, he immediately began fleeing, changing direction almost every few seconds. It obviously went without saying, that he did do this without first commanding the puppets to attack.

“Hong!”

The Griffin stretched its neck forward blasting a seven foot wide spherical ball of wind energy towards the numerous puppets that were charging towards it. Regrettably, despite the adjustments Zilan had made to make them stronger, almost a quarter of the total were destroyed upon impact with the sphere.

“This…..”

His opponent was unbelievably strong therefore yet again Zilan employed the use of the second level of the Gift of love. He needed to remain calm as well as one step ahead if he was to survive three more minutes with the Griffin.

Yes, that is correct. In just a few clashes, he had concluded that defeating the Griffin was highly unlikely but his objective in the first place was to survive. If he could do that, he would be more than relieved.

Fleeing towards a random direction, Zilan suddenly noticed a blindingly red streak of light come down from the skies and strike the Griffin.

“Don’t tell me he…”

Unfortunately, his suspicions were right on the money. Little red had interfered!

Why, you ask? It’s simple, the test although mad and chaotic was designed to push Zilan to the absolute brink. To the point that he was almost about to break. However, what was currently transpiring thanks to the glove was beyond both the expectations of both Old Blue and Little Red. The ‘test’ had become too easy, it was no longer about survival but had instead turned into ‘how long till he clears it.’ Seeing this, understandably drove the red squirrel to become annoyed, and for some reason he felt that he was being mocked thus with Old Blue’s consent, the difficulty of the test had risen. Not by a lot, but enough to bring back normality.

“F**cking Bastard!” cursed Zilan.

He didn’t even care to look at the Griffin anymore. “Three more minutes. Just need to run as far as possible.”

“SCREE!”

From frighteningly close behind, the cry of the Griffin entered his ears.

“Ice Manipulation.”

Drawing a rune in the air triggered the area around him to suddenly reduce in temperature. He had basically reduced the kinetic energy of the atoms thus lowering the temperature.

He did this because he wished to set up something else.

“Freeze.”

Pointing at the now completely red Griffin flying in the air, liquid from all around him zipped towards it.

“Pah.”

A slapping sound reverberated through the sky because of the liquids clinging onto the Griffin’s body, rapidly expanding around one of its wings. Then came the freezing which quickly turned to frostbite. Zilan knew giving the Griffin the freedom to traverse the air would put him at a disadvantage therefore he decided to freeze its wing to the atomic level, making it so fragile that any simple attack could shatter it.

“Kchah.”

A spear from of ice pierced right through the left wing of the Beast sending it falling. It was not disturbed though because once it spotted Zilan, a red light as fast as lightning flashed out from its eyes, right through his chest.

Looking down at his chest moments after, a tiny hole going right through him, inches away from his heart could be seen.

Zilan wordlessly spat out some blood due to the residual energy that was rampaging around him chest, disrupting his energy flow.

“O..Okay then.”

“Law: Viscosity.”

Pointing at the Griffin again, Zilan exhausted a lot of energy in order to thicken some of the liquid within the joints of the Beast.

“SCREE!”

“Puh!” Another mouthful of blood was vomited out by him because of the unknown Divine ability the Griffin possessed. However, he was not the only one to take damage.

The monsters feet trembled for a short while before all of a sudden glowing with a blindingly red radiance. Once the light faded, Zilan looked at the creature only to find that not only was it not trembling anymore but the previously shattered wing had been entirely repaired.

“Two more minutes….what can I do?”

Some of the ideas he had, required too much energy that he currently did not possess thus left with no good ideas, Zilan shut his eyes for a few seconds, ravaging through his mind for a good idea.

“That one!” He said, finally opening his eyes. “It’s extremely complex and very risky but with that sinister fellow’s personality, I doubt there’s something else I can pull out that gives me a chance of walking out of this with my life.”

“SCREE!”

The Griffin took the skies, flying towards a Zilan who had no intention of running far away. He hurriedly waved his hand about, drawing many runes, sometimes simultaneously. The black glove constantly flashed between laws and it came as no surprise that blood continued to trickle down his mouth. The amount of energy as well as mental strength he was using was overwhelmingly taxing on his body.

The Griffin roared out, covering its already red body in flames. It then quickly flew at Zilan with only one objective, to tear him to pieces.

Zilan didn’t stop drawing runes however with his free hand he inscribed a strange inscription into the ground. The result of which caused his legs to become unsteady.

“Shaman’s depression.” He whispered.

An instant later and the flames all over the Griffin instantaneously turned blue. It neither fell from the sky nor did its power appear to have taken any kind of a hit however, the Beast appeared confused and lost. This was precisely Zilan’s aim, he used a forbidden technique to temporarily sever the connection between the Griffin and whoever/whatever was controlling it. To achieve this outcome though, he needed to sacrifice a small chunk of his life span. After all, there was a reason forbidden techniques were not used.

“This should make it angry.” Bitterly smiled Zilan.

Finished laying down his rune formation, he then started to send his puppets to surround the now docile Griffin. They did not attack but he did make sure that they were closely packed together, even going as far as to pile them on top of each other.

“Now my turn.”

Zilan did not wish to suffer the backlash of the forbidden technique being forcibly broken by little Red therefore without much suspense he decided to undo it, but at the same time not failing to anger the monster.

Using the power of Viscosity he thickened both the Griffins blood and cranial fluid but as expected, the blinding red light shone yet again, restoring the hurt Beast. Zilan did not see the point of this since he wouldn’t be able to do much damage to it in the first place. Why heal everything? Maybe it was to make him despair? But too bad for little Red, he no longer had any intention of playing this game.

“SCREE!” The Beast awakened.

Noticing the horde of water puppets around it, it immediately became incensed.

Flames fiercely burned across its huge body and while flapping its broad wings it was able to do away with many of the puppets. It did take some time but with the help of its wind attribute, the flames only grew larger, effectively destroying their natural enemy, water and ice, causing them to evaporate into the air. This way Zilan was left without any more natural water to control.

However with a smile, he welcomed the Griffins rage.

“Come at me!”

The monster took Zilan’s provocation very seriously. Its body without notice began shrinking, becoming much more compact. It was as if it was concentrating its strength into a smaller area in order to destroy him.

“You can even do that?” marvelled Zilan. For some reason he pretended to look unconcerned.

“Puh!”

The smile on his face could still be seen but what he’d failed to notice or more accurately was unable to notice until now was that currently in his chest, in the place where his heart was located, one of the talons of the now smaller Griffin had pierced through.

*Cough! Cough!* “So fast.”

Hemming and haughing as buckets of blood poured out of his body, Zilan actually started softly chuckling.

“I’ve got you!” As he said that, his hands reached out, grabbing hold of the Griffin with all of his strength. “I’ve tasted yours so how about you try mine?”

Unbeknownst to the monster, a strange thunder cloud currently floated above their heads. Sounds of colliding ice causing electrical currents echoed throughout the domain but to the exhausted Zilan this was music to his ears. “Finally done. 3…2…1…LIGHTNING!”

“Bzzt..BOOM!”

From the sky a purple bolt of lightning flashed down to the earth in an instant. It target was none other than the currently held in place, Griffin. Struggle as it may, Zilan stubbornly refused to let go, smiling throughout the process.

A white light then blinded him and then in the next moment he’d lost all feeling.

……………….

In another place.

“Little Red, time is up.”

“Did you see what I just saw? Tell me, Old Blue, have you ever seen something so interesting? Hahaha, he died together with that soul-compression stage toy. Hahahaha….._”

“Haha, he was indeed impressive but that child is not yet dead.” Smiled, Old Blue. “I’ve taken a liking to him.”

“Hey, what do you mean?” Pressing down on his pipe, Little Red shocked, as well as slightly annoyed could not help but ask.

“His body is quite special. At the last moment the position of his heart shifted.”

(AN- Some snakes are capable of this, look it up.)

“What!?”

“Although I say he’s not dead, that’s likely all that’s going in his favour. His current situation will surely deteriorate if he isn’t tended to. Just this once, I’ll lend a helping hand.” She said.

However, before she could even move, a frightening aura, out of the blue, spread out from Zilan’s unconscious body’s location. The air of overbearing might that surrounded him was enough to make even Old Blue, a being of extraordinary strength hesitant to even take a step forward.

“Who!?”

Unfortunately, before she could identify exactly where the aura was coming from, it completely disappeared. All that was left around Zilan was a black screen similar to the one he’d used in battle. Scribbled, on the ground was a note saying, “Healing! Do not disturb this genius!”

Seeing this, Old Blue hesitated but in the end chose to wait. If only she knew how right her decision was. That seemingly normal looking black screen, if used to attack would probably be enough to severely injure her.

Why was that? It was because Hihi had stepped in not for any other reason other than that Zilan was about to go through a necessary cycle in the growth period of Dragons.

“Of all the times to happen, did it have to be when Hihi wasn’t feeling well?” complained Hihi.

An,

Hey guys, I am overjoyed to announce the completion of the very first book of Path of Blood. It’s been a somewhat bumpy journey but its been my pleasure to write it and I am extremely thankful for all the support you readers have given me. Needless to say, without you there’d be no story so thanks J

(Now, before I go into anything else I’d first like to clarify for anyone wondering “How the hell did a thundercloud come about?” Well, to keep it short, it basically follows the principles of the rain cycle or the water cycle. Evaporation, condensation etc…)

Ok, with that over with, I’d like to announce that I will be taking a short break in order to clear my head as well as plan Book 2 (Don’t worry, I know the story till its completion. This isn’t a ‘make it up as you go’ novel). The second book you’ll be surprised to know will be at least double the length of the first if not longer, that’s why I need time to get the pacing right.

Secondly, some of you may know that I have a Patreon page where readers can support me in exchange for some rewards. During this ‘break’ of mine, I’ll be doing some early Book II chapters there and for every new patron there will be an extra chapter. I don’t know how much support I will receive but I’m grateful for anything since I am committed to keeping Pob free to read 😀

Finally, if you have any thoughts, questions or anything you’d like to say then feel free to leave a comment because I will be replying to all of them. Also leave a like on this final chapter of Book 1, just to put a smile on my face.

Once again, thank you for sticking with me from the Novelsnao days, to my site and now at Fantasy-Books. I don’t take for granted the fact that I have such loyal and amazingly awesome readers lol.

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