Cthulhu Gonfalon

Along the Tundra Wasteland towards the southeast, the scenery was getting more prosperous and luxurious.

There were fewer algae, and more bushes and weeds; the number of living creatures among the bushes was increasing in variety and strangeness; the number of times one came across northern people was increasing; the scale of herdsmen’s domestic animals, too, was expanding.

When the soil underneath his feet was no longer frozen soil, Sui Xiong saw a clear line: the border between grassland and tundra.

It was a magical sight. It was as though there was an invisible hand between the sky and land that separated the wasteland into two. The north was Tundra Wasteland that was infertile; the south was vast grassland. The distance between wasteland to grassland was merely a few steps.

Sui Xiong flew into the sky and gazed upon the magnificent spectacle. He felt so much better.

He randomly grabbed a handful of weeds and turned them into paper with magic. Then, he turned shrubs into wooden charcoal and started drawing on the paper.

He drew for half an hour, and a scenery portrait was already vivid on the paper.

The scenery that Sui Xiong drew was, of course, the sight before his eyes. Due to his increased power and sensitivity of perception, his drawing skills improved tremendously without him realizing it. He didn’t feel so when he was concentrating on drawing, but when he looked at it when he was done, he shocked himself.

“I think this drawing could be printed in the model textbook in school…” Looking at his own work, he couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “If I could return to Earth, maybe I could really become an artist straightaway.

“By then, I will have specialized in various scenes, and each drawing will be sold at the price of 2,000,000 dollars!”

He thought and shook his head. “It would be impossible to be $2,000,000. I don’t know anyone who is wandering in the league. They wouldn’t hire me to launder their money, so why would they throw such a huge amount of cash at my drawings? But if it couldn’t be sold at $2,000,000, it should be able to sell at $200,000, right? No matter how bad it is, it should at least be $20,000…”

Then, he suddenly recalled a joke.

Back then when he was in university, there was a classmate that wrote novels online. He was an author, and also a reader. One day, this classmate told him indignantly that there was an author that he liked that stopped updating the novel for a few months.

“I wrote 400,000 words. No matter how much he wanted to refine it, he should have written 140,000 words, right? If there weren’t 140,000 words, he could at least have 40,000 words; if he didn’t produce 40,000 words, he might have 4,000 words, and could at least update one or two chapters. When I checked, he didn’t even update one! I couldn’t help but inquire him. Only then did I find out that the b*stard was busy playing games, eating and drinking. So, he only wrote four words in total!”

Recalling such funny incident, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but shake his head and smile. He then missed his hometown a little bit more.

Keeping his drawing papers, he stepped on the soft herbage and walked towards the depth of grassland.

The grassland was called the “Desolation Grassland” by the bards and scholars, but the commoners and adventurers referred to it as “huge wilderness.” It was where the Orcs and half-Orcs lived, and also the one and only empire that existed in the main dimension.

Orc Empire.

Someone holding sway over a region could be called a King; one seizing control of a tribe could be called a God. The main dimension was very huge, and there were many tribes, but there were only two who qualified to be called “God.”

One was the King of Dragon tribe. All giant dragons would at least submit to him in name, a semi-God expert, Emperor Golden Dragon. The other one was the King of Orcs, the one that ruled the entire wasteland, legendary expert, Emperor Wilderness.

There were at least 70% of Orcs in the entire main dimension, and more than half of them were half-Orcs that stayed in the wilderness. It was the only place where they had their own country. The one who ruled the huge wilderness was the Orc Empire. Every so often, these barbaric bastards would face a lack of resources, or merely feel a desire for brutality and fresh blood, and launch an attack towards the east or south.

The Holy Angels Kingdom was on the east of Orc Empire. It was quite a strong country and their national religion was the Sun God. The number of pastors in the country itself was terrifying, and they possessed unusual tenacity in battles. No matter how the Orc Empire attacked them, they could guard against the line of defence strongly, never once being taken advantage of by the Orcs.

On the south of Orc Empire was the Eagle Kingdom, the oldest country of humankind in the history of the main dimension. Martial arts skills were popular and prosperous in the country, so there were experts all over. It was one of the very few countries that believed in the God of Knights. The Mainland Knight Championship that was held every three years attracted knights from all over the place in the Mainland. Regardless of performing noble knights or actual battling adventure knights, they could obtain the honor relying on their talent. Many people gained fame overnight there, from an unknown potato to an expert whose name was well known all over Mainland.

Different from the Holy Angels Kingdom that would only be on the defensive, the Eagle Kingdom was not willing to be outdone by Orc Empire. They would take turns launching attacks. Basically, every three to five years, they would wage a war against the Orc Empire. It was to eliminate hidden dangers and also to make a conspicuous show of their power.

But ever since the “Bloodstained Eagle Head” prince rebellion incident happened 18 years ago, Eagle Kingdom had many high-level knights that died and were injured. Even after a generation, the loss had yet to be made up entirely. In recent years, their wars against the Orc Empire had always been at a disadvantage, and very passive.

According to Sui Xiong’s plan, he would only pass by the Eagle Kingdom on the way back; he was only passing by Orc Empire then while he advanced towards the Holy Angels Kingdom.

It was interesting to walk along the grassland, especially when the night fell. The starry night was like huge cover embellished with stars, locked onto the vast land. The border of the night sky and earth could be clearly seen, like a horizon of a sea’s surface.

The night belonged to various ferocious nocturnal creatures. Between wild beasts, magic beasts or Orcs, there wasn’t much of a difference.

Anyway, no matter what they were, slaughtering was their main occupation.

Sui Xiong lied down on the grassland and looked upon the starry night. He compared the starry night before his eyes to the one on earth that he could remember, trying to look for a similarity. However, he couldn’t find anything significant. So, he could only let out a sigh disappointedly. He grabbed a grass blanket by his side that had already started to turn yellow and wrapped it around his body.

He wasn’t afraid of cold, but it was nice to sleep with a blanket.

He didn’t sleep for long until he suddenly felt a very strong creature getting closer to him in the middle of the night, and woke up with a start.

He could feel a pang of strong insecurity feeling coming from a lightly armed warrior: an Orc. Accurately speaking, he was a human-lion. His golden mane was shimmering underneath the night sky and reflected the light around him. He was carrying a huge sword on his shoulders. His sword wasn’t decorated with any complicated embellishments but the sword itself gave out magical light that proved that it a non-commoner item. It was just that the creator didn’t like luxury.

Sui Xiong was feeling the aura of the human-lion doubtfully. He felt that he might have seen the person elsewhere.

When the person got closer, he suddenly realized what he was and shouted with a smile, “Steel Lion, good evening!”

“Steel Lion” was Morani’s nickname, the main Gods of the Desolation God system. The God was originally an Orc and a well-known knight-errant. His favorite thing to do was wander around and perform justices for the weak. He was similar to the God of Justice; it was just that the way he did things was more reliable than the God of Justice, so he was more popular.

Back when Sui Xiong had stepped foot on the land, he once received His favor. If He didn’t bring him under His wing, dealing with the patron saint of Night God system with no sleep, Sui Xiong would most likely be the one at a disadvantage.

Sui Xiong was someone that paid debts of gratitude and took revenge against enemies. Ever since he received a favor from Morani, he had been wanting to repay Him, but Steel Lion didn’t stay at any one place permanently and liked to wander around just like the God of Justice. As Sui Xiong had yet to be promoted to God, he couldn’t contact Him through the Patheon Temple, so he could only wait for an opportunity.

His luck was not too shabby; it was a great chance then!

But what made Sui Xiong a little disappointed was that Morani had already forgotten about what happened back then.

All those years, He roamed from place to place, and did many things to uphold justice, and helped many people who suffered injustices that needed assistance. He fought against many various wicked things. A little favor that he did in a small village in Ashes Woods really wasn’t worth putting in his heart.

But, in fact, it would be impossible to forget it entirely. Even a commoner could remember everything that they had seen in their entire life subconsciously; Gods could remember even more things.

Sui Xiong reminded him anyway, and He remembered what happened back then. He smiled and greeted Sui Xiong.

After they chatted for a while, the God became Sui Xiong’s friend.

He was a free spirit and he was very straightforward and forthright. Although there was a lack of manners, there was an innocent charm that made the things he said easily believable. He never asked for repayment when he bestowed favors on the people; he didn’t even remember. Such virtuous qualities amazed Sui Xiong.

Morani didn’t mention the unlucky jellyfish that He saved back then and the nature God that attacked two strong Gods in one breath. Although the two were jellyfish, their distance was too vast. It was simply like a wooden sword and a metal sword: they were different intrinsically.

When they talked about the experience Sui Xiong had been through all these years, He couldn’t help but get a shock.

When Sui Xiong said that he was running a theme park, He was even more shocked and had an interesting idea.

“The underground maze in your theme park equals to the training base of an adventurer, doesn’t it?” He asked enthusiastically. “Why didn’t you use the training base to nurture the knight group of your church?”

Sui Xiong was stunned and realized that there really was a blind spot in his thinking. He laughed dryly.

“I’ll do it when I return… Luckily, the matter is not rushed.”

Morani nodded faintly; Sui Xiong was right. To Gods, there wasn’t ever a need to hurry.

“If you don’t mind, could I send my believers down to the maze to accept training?” He said. “My believers always get into trouble with the b*stards that hang around underground. Some professional training would be helpful.”

“No problem! Let me take care of this!” Sui Xiong patted his chest confidently, “I’ll include training, food, and accommodation, and ensure definite understanding!”