Chapter 861: Trivar’s Change in Attitude (2/2)
”Shall I kill Yulian?” Yuric asked.
”Leave him be for now. It won't be easy to kill him without manifesting your Spiritual Incarnation. But doing so would leave too many traces for our trackers. If we play our cards right, we can make use of the Spirit Awakener Guild's strength to deal with our enemies.” Trivar smiled as he replied. ”That's why I included Krune in this mission in the first place.”
”What shall we do now, brother?” Vardin transmitted the message to Krune's mind. He was hesitant to continue the mission any longer. They were willing to risk their lives for their objective. Though, after seeing Trivar's attitude, they didn't wish to continue the mission any longer, even if it meant that they would lose the mission reward and would be stranded in the middle of nowhere, having to find their way back to some city.
”Did you know about the bandit groups occupying the safer routes?” Krune replied with a question of his own. Everything was communicated through their mind to prevent a third party from listening in on their conversation.
”Yes.” Vardin nodded as he elaborated. ”It was posted in the Mercenary Guild on the day we set off. It seems to be a thing of recent. I'm surprised Trivar was able to get hold of the information beforehand and prepare a route accordingly.”
”Alright.” Krune sighed. ”We'll just stick to our mission. In any case, if it looks like our lives are at risk, we'll abandon this caravan and escape. Are your demon beast forms fast enough to run away from the Zenith Pluggers?”
”Yes.” Vardin nodded. ”For a short time, we can outrun them easily. We can also burrow into the ground and completely erase our tracks.”
”That's for the best, then.” Krune nodded, slightly satisfied with the response. ”My demon beast form is inconvenient in such cases, so I'll be relying on you to escape. Leave the defense to me. As long as I put my mind to it, they won't be able to breach it that easily.”
The place the caravan had halted wasn't anything unique. After some rest and some inspection on the conditions of the Zenith Pluggers, the caravan set off on the next day. This time, their arrangements were slightly different.
Two Zenith Pluggers were attached to one carriage that seemed to be heavier than before. Also, for some reason, the carriages seemed to have changed in size. They were 20 meters in length and 10 meters in width before. But now, they were 30 meters in length and 20 meters in width.
Krune wasn't paying attention to them since he was busy making plans with the Silver Winged Mouse couple, so he hadn't noticed when they had made the changes. Though, upon entering their respective carriages, Krune noticed a certain formation glowing. It seemed to be a formation that altered the size of the caravan.
The alteration wasn't limitless and was only possible by designing the carriage accordingly for expansion and contraction. With just a single touch, Krune realized that the carriage was thinner than before. To increase in volume, it had simply expanded. In exchange, the thickness of the walls had reduced.
With a bigger carriage, came a bigger balcony. Unwilling to be caught off guard alone, Krune and the Silver-Winged Mouse couple sat in the same balcony, meditating as they conversed through their minds.
A week passed in such a manner as Krune made a breakthrough to the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Immediately after that, he stopped cultivating since he was running out of Rank Two God Stones.
He didn't have a lot of them at the start. Plus, after the current cultivation session where he also shared a bit with the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, he didn't have enough to sustain a breakthrough to the Third Stage of the God Foundation Realm. And so, he decisively stopped.
He had shared some with his teammates because if they became stronger, they would help him out when things turned awry. Besides, it wasn't as if earning Rank Two God Stones was anything difficult for him. He was, after all, a Spirit Awakener.
”This!” Vardin let out a gasp of shock as he stared into the surroundings. What appeared at the far end of his vision was a large plain that looked as if a deity had bit off a large part of the land. It was situated 10 meters below ground level and continued to proceed deeper and deeper into the ground.
Rock pillars were occasionally scattered across the land while the bones of humans and demon beasts filled the area. As they were closing in on the region, Krune felt a restriction of sorts placed on his cultivation base, making him feel weaker all of a sudden.
”W-What is this place?” Krune was shocked to see that his cultivation had regressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. He had regressed by an entire realm. He looked at the Silver-Winged Mouse couple to see if they too were at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm.
”Trivar's crazy!” Diana bellowed in her mind, transmitting the content to Vardin and Krune. ”Why the hell is he entering the Immortal Severance Zone?”
”Immortal Severance Zone? Is this place related to what's happening to our cultivation bases?” Krune frowned as he asked.
”Yes, it is.” Diana nodded as she explained, ”Everyone below a certain cultivation base would be suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm here. That's why this is one of the most dangerous places since lower realm cultivators target higher realm cultivators to snatch their belongings. This happens here all the time. Only those short on time choose this path since there's no natural danger in this region except for a drop in cultivation. Also…”
Her expression collapsed as she continued, ”The longer we stay here, the slower our cultivation bases would recover once we escape. Moreover, if we remain here beyond a certain duration, our cultivation would stagnate at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm forever.”