Nightmare’s Call

Xylond frontier, in a wooden hut of an abandoned manor.

Sunlight shone through the faint black mist onto the ground, forming bizarre twisted lines.

The cabin’s wooden door opened with a creak.

Adolf looked haggard, his beard unshaven as he walked out of the room and looked up to the sky.

As the Ashen World’s encroachment already reached such a severe stage?”

He sighed again.

Even though the Ashen World and the Blacktide’s encroachment were getting more and more serious, those with the Sacred Vessels of Destiny were not affected by them.

Their powers were enough to shield them from the surrounding ash and black mist.

After learning they have the Sacred Vessels of Destiny, they would sooner or later be found by the terrifying foes from the Ashen World.

Adolf pondered for a long time, before coming out with a lousy lie before leaving Sherminton, the city where he was born.

Leaving Lin Sheng, his master whose grace to him was high as a mountain, leaving all of the loving elders and friends from the Holy Sanctum.

Upon learning that the enemy was strong to the point that he would shudder, Adolf knew that his future would see him go solo.

He could not involve anyone else in this. For others, it was just too dangerous.

Adolf reached out to pull out a letter he had just received and the fine handwriting on it clearly recorded how the Faldt the Underworld Declaimer had massacred the Palatinates, how he froze tens of thousands and sent them into the icy grave at the bottom of the ocean.

“By combining the powers of everyone, we will be able to call upon the ultimate power, and reshape everything? What are these Sacred Vessels of Destiny…”

Adolf sighed as he put away the letter, and put on a wide-brimmed round hat and pulled down the front as he left into the distance.

This trip, whether he came back dead or alive, it should at least achieve something.

If he succeeded, then everything would return to how it was.

If he failed, the worst outcome would be him dying outside, and not dragging his friends and family together with him.

This was Adolf’s determination.

…

Lin Sheng had never thought he would get to where he was today.

Sitting in the rough stone hall of the Darkspirit Palace, a cup of piping hot tea was before him and faint white steam was piping out of the hot tea.

The stone hall was not big, about the size of a basketball court. There were round entrances at the front and back of it, while the armor and weapons taken from the giant king’s treasure trove were on display on the left and right side of it.

A huge crystal chandelier with candles hung overhead.

The ground was carpeted with red carpets, and a tall statue of him riding Gorefiend was erected at the center.

Lin Sheng gently stroked the crystal ball.

The surface of the sphere was smooth and cold, and within it was a silver nebula rotating slowly, radiating light.

The entire orb was silver-blue in shade, its base was made out of an unknown pale-red wood that exuded a fresh fragrance.

“Now that my dark powers have basically reached the Oppressor-class, it would not be easy to climb up further. My goal was to use my dark powers to enhance my holy power, and to stimulate it. But in fact, now that I’ve entered the ranks of the Palatinates, dark powers are not that useful now.”

Lin Sheng pondered about the powers that he had within him.

He had mastered a lot of powers, but they were a hodgepodge and unpure.

“Dark powers, Dragonblood powers, Holy powers, Soul powers, all of them will affect the further enhancement of my powers. If I want to increase the quality and purity of my powers, I would need to make a choice.”

Lin Sheng was very clear that his body was, in fact, a massive compressor. Only by concentrating on the purity of single energy that he could speed the process up and reach a higher level of quality.

Ever since he broke through the ranks of the Palatinates with the help of his holy power, he felt that his strength was improving ever slower.

It would take a long time for him to accumulate the dark powers needed to go beyond Oppressor-class.

While his holy powers had just recently broken through and had yet to stabilize…

On the other hand, the strength of his Dragonblood powers was fixed. That was dependent on chance and the purity of his blood. Right now, he was already at a rather saturated stage for his Dragonblood ratio.

If he wanted to continue further, he could only improve the purity of his Dragonblood.

However, purity was not something that could be increased willy-nilly, it had to undergo similar compression and purification.

“The powers within my body is just too much a hodgepodge, there isn’t an environment for purification. So I need to make a choice.”

Lin Sheng picked up the cup of hot tea and gently sipped it.

The faint aroma of the tea refreshed his heart and soul, and he could not help but feeling refreshed.

“For me, the dark powers can be given up first. I don’t have the talent for it, and learning it was just as a bypass.”

He first crossed out dark powers.

“Next, the Dragonblood abilities. This has to depend on the type of bloodline. The Dragonblood was originally used to strengthen my body to store more holy power.

“Now that I’ve broken through the ranks of the Palatinates, in theory, I can continuously communicate with the Tidal Gates and draw the chaotic souls from the Soultide, and convert them into pure holy power.”

“So, I can temporarily put it aside.”

“Third, chaotic souls… This was an accidental power I’ve gotten after making contact with the Soultide. While it is limitless, but there’s no system to it, and advancing through it would be difficult, and there are no clear directions either.”

Lin Sheng mused.

“I cannot put this aside for now. The essence of holy power is the soul, after all. I should use my soul as the core, constantly strengthening and purifying it.”

The core of everything was the soul.

Lin Sheng finally thought things through, and quickly decided on what to be his core focus.

“My soul power is my root. Both holy and dark powers are just derivatives of it.”

He then finished the cup of tea and stood up.

Picking up the crystal orb, Lin Sheng slowly walked into the inner hall.

This Darkspirit Palace was built together by the Darkspirit and Fairy artisans ordered by Djall Demonhand and the Fairy King.

At first, it was built by the Demonhand tribe.

Then the high echelons of the Fairy Kingdom, aside from the Fairy King, in order to butter Lin Sheng up, began to take turns to handle things around him.

The increasingly luxurious and glorious palace interior was one of them.

This was the most fascinating part of power.

“With power, everything else will come naturally.” This sentence flashed across Lin Sheng’s heart.

He walked under the plaque in the inner hall and looked up at the plaque with ‘Hall of Yin and Yang’ engraved on it, before walking it in large strides.

Guarding the inner hall was two powerful half-human half insect Darkspirit Generals.

They had the form of a human male for their upper body, with a centaur-like giant insectoid lower body.

Dozens of pairs of dense black arthropod legs kept them steady as they stood.

These powerful warriors, covered in black oily carapace knelt on one knee and saluted Lin Sheng silently as they saw him coming.

Lin Sheng did not pay any attention to them but looked straight toward the mysterious blade stuck to the ground in the middle of the hall.

After a long while, the Dark Wheel had undergone another unknown change.

The blade itself had shrunk a lot, and even its shape was thinner now.

“Now I have the third fragment… Come, show me what you will turn into once all three fragments are merged…”

Lin Sheng held his hand out, and gently held onto the hilt on the blade.

Then, with another hand, he held the crystal orb and gently pushed it upwards.

*Hiss…*

Then, something incredible happened.

The crystal orb became like a softened liquid as it floated while being gently absorbed, fusing into the surface of the blade.

In just a few seconds, the crystal orb had completely disappeared from Lin Sheng’s hand.