Translator: SumTLMan
As they set off on their journey, they encountered a swarm of tiny flying fish in the sky. The slightest movement from these fish would cause them to explode. It was a dense mass of at least tens of thousands. They were everywhere, like a dark cloud hovering above everyone’s heads.
“I’ll handle this,” Cherie said, taking out a lantern with a flame in her hand.
But Angel stopped her in time: “Let me do it. You should conserve your magic power.”
With that, Angel used a spell he had learned upon entering the Purification Garden. He set up a basic illusion and lured one of the small fish to explode. The other fish, believing they were under attack within the illusion, began to explode as well.
In an instant, there were continuous explosions and a rain of blood.
Angel then maneuvered the Gondola out of the range of the exploding fish.
However, as soon as they left the range of the exploding fish, another crisis emerged. Luna was meowing non-stop, and Nausica was frowning with a heart scale in her hand: “Angel, I can sense thirty presences within a hundred miles, coming at us from all directions.”
Cherie nodded in agreement: “That’s right, Luna can sense them too.”
Although there were thirty presences, Nausica could only sense those apprentices who had heart scales. If these apprentices also formed teams and some of the apprentices in their teams didn’t have scales, the number of people attacking them might be more than thirty, perhaps even higher.
“How many presences are there in the direction we’re heading?” Angel asked.
“Six! Two from the southwest, one from the southeast, and three from the south!” Nausica quickly reported the numbers, then roughly reported their current distance.
Angel nodded, analyzed the information in his mind, and calculated whether to stop or continue moving forward.
“Keep moving. Cherie and Hilary, be ready for battle. I’ll help you create illusions. Nausica, you control the Gondola; Coral, protect the hull,” Angel quickly arranged their battle preparations, then took out a revolver and a wrist-mounted crossbow, handing them to Nausica and Coral. The ammunition in the weapons had magic runes inscribed on them, capable of causing significant damage even to ordinary second-level apprentices.
After the Gondola had traveled several dozen miles, they encountered the first wave of attackers.
Five ordinary apprentices, two of which were bloodline apprentices riding on vehicles. The battle was decided almost instantly.
Angel hadn’t even released his illusion yet when Cherie’s raging flames froze the attackers into ice and sent them plunging into the sea.
“There are two more presences together, about ten miles away from us,” Nausica said, steering the Gondola while monitoring the fluctuations in the presence transmitted by the heart scale.
As Nausica finished speaking, Angel and the others saw two people in mid-air in the distance.
“It’s ‘Grave Digger’ Monroe, and ‘Peak Dance’ Donna!” said Coral, quickly introducing the two people’s identities as everyone looked puzzled: “Monroe is a second-level apprentice, while Donna stepped into the third level of apprenticeship thirty years ago!”
Those who could be called out by name by Coral were naturally elite apprentices, one of whom was a third-level apprentice.
Coral’s face looked somewhat unhappy, but Angel, Cherie, and even Hilary had no significant expressions. Cherie said indifferently: “They’re just people with empty reputations. Just kill them.”
“Who is it? It turns out to be ‘Shadowflame Witch’ Cherie, and… I see, this is not Lord Sanders’ new apprentice?” The speaker was the mature-looking witch, Donna, who appeared much older than her age.
“Tsk tsk, there are also a bunch of unknown kids. You guys can actually get so many Swords of Mer. How about giving us two?” After saying that, Donna turned her head to look at the thin and hunched Monroe and whispered: “Monroe, are you confident?”
Monroe’s mouth curled up, and when he smiled, deep wrinkles appeared on his face: “A bunch of nobodies and an overrated alchemist, no problem at all!” Despite saying this, Monroe’s expression was slightly fearful when looking at Cherie.
Donna nodded: “Don’t worry about Cherie. We’ll go after the first-level apprentice with a silver arm and the curly-haired female apprentice. Grab the Swords of Mer and leave!”
The two communicated secretly and then rushed towards the Gondola.
“There’s no need to stop. Keep moving forward at full speed.” Angel saw that Nausica seemed to have a tendency to slow down and immediately said.
Nausica nodded, no longer hesitating, and sped up, rushing out like splashing waves.
Angel stretched out his hand, creating an illusory realm. Cherie sneered and raised the flames.
However, before they could get close, Hilary suddenly said: “Water Curtain.”
Walls of water immediately rose from the sea surface, but they seemed to only obstruct the view. Donna and Monroe found that the Water Curtain had no attack and went straight through it.
But as soon as they passed through the Water Curtain, Hilary said in a voice that only those on the boat could hear: “Lava.”
Because they had passed through the Water Curtain, Donna and Monroe were covered in wet seawater, but they didn’t realize it until Hilary said the word “lava,” and the water on their bodies instantly turned into orange-red, high-temperature lava.
Caught off guard, the two screamed in pain.
In an instant, their skin was soaked by the lava, and within less than a second, their bones were exposed.
However, their reactions were also quick. Upon realizing that the seawater on their bodies had turned into lava, they immediately activated their bloodlines. Although their bloodlines could not completely resist the high temperature of the lava, they managed to buy themselves some time. They used various means to finally cleanse their bodies of the lava, but their bodies were already pitted and hollowed, with white bones visible in many places, and their faces were too horrible to look at.
“My hair, my face… my hands! These are not my hands! No!” Donna trembled as she reached out to touch her face, but seeing her skeletal hands, she erupted with emotion.
Donna glared at the drowsy Hilary with resentment and fury: “It’s you, isn’t it! I’ll kill you!”
Monroe, covered in wounds, desperately used healing spells. He blocked Donna’s impulsive advance: “Donna, calm down. Change your target, don’t act impulsively.”
Though Monroe hated her as well, he knew that in their current state, they couldn’t even take on Hilary alone, let alone Cherie.
For now, they could only retreat and try to find others.
Having practiced for many years, Donna understood this and suppressed her anger, slowly retreating to the sky. However, her eyes were fixed on Hilary: “I’ll remember you. We’ll admit defeat this time, but next time, I’ll definitely kill you.”
Seeing them back off, Nausica launched the Gondola at full speed, heading into the distance.
At that moment, a faint voice emerged from Hilary’s mouth again: “Poison.”
As soon as the word fell, two screams of agony sounded from behind.
Everyone looked back to see Monroe and Donna turned blue, dissolving into bones and dying.
Witnessing this terrifying scene, everyone fell silent.
Cherie looked at Hilary with more caution, her body subtly on guard. Although Angel didn’t consider Hilary a threat, he was also full of emotions.
Angel had fought with Hilary before and learned some information about her from Sanders. He knew that Hilary belonged to the mysterious branch and possessed an extremely enigmatic “Water Trait” talent. However, what Angel learned before was that Hilary could change the nature of water, like turning water into poison… but he never expected her to create magma unrelated to water.
That meant that as long as it was a liquid, she could change it, even oil and magma.
This ability was too terrifying, even for Angel, who couldn’t figure out how to counter such power.
At that moment, Hilary suddenly yawned and fell asleep on the ship’s railing.
“This is the side effect of Hilary using her ability. The more she uses it, the faster she falls asleep,” Coral jumped down from Gank and opened a pouch around Hilary’s waist. She took out a pill and stuffed it into Hilary’s mouth: “This is a pill specially made for Hilary by her mentor to enter the Purification Garden. It can forcibly awaken her.”
As expected, once the pill was given to Hilary, she slowly woke up. Apart from her dark circles getting worse, there were no other symptoms.
Angel saw Hilary waking up and sighed slightly: “Your power is getting stronger and stronger, no wonder Jiebo was completely defeated by you.”
Coral and Nausica nodded with lingering fear, they naturally knew Hilary was strong, but they didn’t expect her to be this powerful.
Hilary paused, didn’t say anything, and just buried her head in apparent embarrassment.
However, she was puzzled in her heart. Another person mentioned Jiebo in front of her, but only she knew that she had no impression of Jiebo in her memories.
Could it be that she really had a split personality? Was there another personality hidden in her body? But why hadn’t it appeared before? Or had it appeared without her knowledge?
A series of questions plunged Hilary into deep thought.
As Angel mentioned Jiebo, Coral also shared an interesting observation: “However, it’s strange that Hilary doesn’t have the after-effect of falling asleep halfway through a battle when she encounters Jiebo. I don’t know what the mystery is behind it.”
Angel raised an eyebrow, perhaps Hilary and Jiebo were indeed a natural counter to each other.
After Hilary’s strength was recognized, their journey became much smoother. After all, they were on the sea, which was Hilary’s home turf. They encountered several waves of attackers in a row, and many times, Angel and Cherie didn’t even have to lift a finger; Hilary could handle them all by herself.
It took them more than half an hour to cover more than half the distance.
At this point, Luna meowed again.
“Within a hundred miles, there are fluctuations again,” Nausica furrowed her brow: “And there are more than a hundred fluctuations.”
After a pause, Nausica suddenly exclaimed: “However, it seems like there’s only one fluctuation right in front of us!”