Chapter 86: Strange Vine
Seeing Emperal nod and accept so early surprised Zeratheil a bit, but he didn’t pay any attention to it.
Emperal’s gaze dropped on the thin line and the receding light. Turning towards Zeratheil, he couldn’t help but ask, "Can I even enter there at this point?"
"You can leave it to me. Also, take this."
Saying that, he waved his hand. Emperal felt a cool sensation on his left hand. Looking at the back of his palm, he couldn’t help but be surprised.
"This...Royal Elven Insignia?"
"Yes and no, that mark is indeed Royalty. But this one is my personal mark, it will help other Elves recognize you and, well, not be outright hostile."
Emperal exhaled. "I understand."
Saying that, he walked past Zeratheil with a flat expression. Taking one last look at the sky, he came in contact with the light...vanishing in an instant.
Zeratheil looked at Emperal’s vanishing back with a mysterious light shining in his eyes. A moment later, he shook his head and chuckled.
"The boy sure is cautious."
...
Emperal’s eyes blurred for a moment before clarity returned to them. When the light reflected, he found himself on the top of a large tree.
Whissss~
The wind blew past his face. Without hesitation, he spoke.
"Infernal Dragon, can you suppress his mark?"
"Normally, you wouldn’t be able to. But you are in a different dimension, and the Spatial Laws here are...out of his authority."
Emperal nodded. He, of course, knew that it wasn’t just a free pass for him among the elves. There was no way a man who had been alive for thousands of years would be so...lax.
Without hesitation, he willed his Soul Power. A milky white energy burst from him and went straight at the mark.
Tremble!
The mark glowed for a few seconds before dimming down. It was not erased but suppressed. After all, he didn’t want to antagonize his new ’master’ so early.
Looking ahead, he finally saw the EverHeart Realm. The sky was still and held the glow of evening sunlight, despite there being no sun above.
The light wasn’t as bright as the afternoon sun, nor as dim as the light of dusk. It was warm, gentle, and a bit...golden.
"This..."
Emperal was speechless when he saw the realm. It was, of course, a massive forest. But unlike Greenveil or even Aelvorn, the forest here seemed much older, much more ancient.
The terrain stretched in low, curving hills, covered in dense vegetation and packed with herbs.
Their ancestry even predated the Great Verandis itself. The root systems were more complex, and the bark of the trees shone with bioluminescence. And yes, it wasn’t just Verth concentrated here.
"The amount of Soul Energy here...is just a bit less than the Soul Space."
He was speechless. It wasn’t the Soul Energy present in the Verth, which was required to break down, but a separate energy in itself, albeit in a bit less quantity.
His eyes reflected the countless herbs that were visible. There were clusters of them growing in natural clearings between large trees with a vivid coloration of authentic cultivation resources at their peak!
"Damn, these would sell for a fortune."
"Mhm, that’s because the energy isn’t entirely Verth concentrated. There will be some things that can only be found in this realm."
The Infernal Dragon hummed from inside, making Emperal curious.
"Is this realm that special?"
"...More than you think, so make full use of it and...do not forget why we entered here."
The Infernal went silent after saying those words. Emperal merely nodded.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped down.
"T-The fuck!? Was I so high up?"
Emperal cursed out loud, looking down at the endless spiralling space.
The tree...the tree he was standing at the top of, was at least a few miles high!
Yes, a few miles.
Of course, that was just a momentary outburst. His eyes shifted. The veins on his legs flickered in amber lightly.
BOOM!!
Like a jet, Emperal ripped through the air at a breathtaking speed.
Whooshh!!
He dodged the trees seamlessly, like an expert who had already done this multiple times.
"Ah~ What an amazing feeling of using an overpowered ability and not running out of fuel!" Emperal smirked as he burst through. He was at least seventy miles per hour.
Yes, after gruesome months of training his Soul Energy, he finally moved on to the next stage. Aside from using it to turn into weapons, Emperal figured out a way to convert the high-quality Soul Energy into fuel. Just like Verth.
But a far, far better version of it.
And he had more than enough Soul Energy to sustain it. It was basically a cheat code. He had massive reserves of the Soul Energy wandering in Soul Space.
It was as if he was having double the amount of Verth of a Stage Three Verth Seeker!
FWSSHHH!
SHRRRAAK!
Emperal’s pupils dilated as a thick vine was already between his brows.
Sling!!!
Just as the tip was about to go through Emperal’s temple, a glowing white light flashed!
The thick vine was severed in an instant. A bead of sweat dripped down Emperal’s chin.
"That was...close. Even Varath’kal’s hardness wouldn’t have been able to protect me in time."
Emperal took deep breaths and, without hesitation, dived down. The air was way too dangerous.
Thud!!
The ground cracked as Emperal’s foot kissed the soil. He turned his head a few times, carefully inspecting the surroundings.
"For now...that vine seemed to hold back."
He exhaled, his expression turning confused.
"Where the heck did it come from?" He looked around once again. "These trees...they aren’t the ones that attacked me."
The glowing white sword in his hands slowly dissipated as he clutched the Stormvein Sword.
Drawing out the sword, he leaped towards the source of it, while of course admiring the massive trees that made him look like an ant.
Emperal’s sprint finally came to a halt after a few minutes. His dark eyes glowed slightly when he looked at the scene in front of him.
"That vine was...the thing’s?"
Emperal muttered speechlessly.
