Chapter 744: Uninvited Guest (1/2)
Zac looked back and forth for the source of the voice, but no matter what method he used, he couldn’t pinpoint the source. The voice belonged to a man, but Zac couldn’t place him at all. The stranger's ability to analyze his situation so easily was extremely disconcerting though, but Zac had thankfully activated the array hiding his Duplicity Core the second he sensed something amiss.
His mind went through all kinds of possibilities. Was it perhaps Ykrodas who had finally managed to track him down? Zac wouldn’t be surprised if the Havarok Princeling had set his sights on him, considering that Ykrodas still hadn’t managed to pass him on the ladder to this day.
But his instincts told him it was someone else. Ykrodas belonged to a proper B-grade force that no doubt possessed all kinds of methods, but it still felt extremely unlikely another E-grade cultivator would be able to track him down to this extremely secluded spot. And even if they knew where he was, could they even reach him? He was in the middle of a Twilight Crystal Mine, and they'd explode from the energy density before getting close.
There was someone else who might possess that ability though. Someone far more dangerous than some E-grade scion.
“It wasn’t easy to track you down,” the voice continued. “But I guess it is time to discuss reparations.”
It was him.
There was no hesitation any longer, and Zac immediately took out his most powerful escape talisman and infused it with Miasma. However, it just turned to dust as the surrounding cave shuddered for a bit. The talisman had completely failed, and worry turned to fear upon realizing that the energy in the area had turned extremely turbid and lifeless. He was already infusing energy into [Abyssal Phase], but nothing happened.
Without that skill, Zac couldn't even leave the room. He was stuck.
”Who's there?!” Zac shouted, though he already knew the answer.
“You know,” the man continued as though he hadn’t noticed anything. “If you had been smart you wouldn’t have answered me when I spoke to you earlier. That way I might not have actually found you.”
“What?” Zac blurted with wide eyes, which prompted the man to boisterously laugh again.
“I’m just kidding. The Twilight Chasm is my domain. It’s not so easy to elude me. To answer your question, I’ve gone by many identities. My current one is the Twilight Lord,” the voice answered. “It’s quite impressive. Millennia of preparations, thwarted by a Draugr not yet of age. You have no idea the cost of your actions.”
“I think there has been a misunderstanding,” Zac slowly said as he grasped for a way out of the situation. “I have no interest in working against you or the Twilight Harbor. I am just looking for opportunities as I pass through this sector.”
Should he try to fight his way out? Zac discarded the idea as soon as it appeared. The walls around him were hundreds of meters thick, and he didn't even have any target to attack. Besides, he had already been discovered once in a forgotten corner of the Mystic Realm, proving that the Twilight Lord had far greater control over this place than Zac previously thought possible.
Not only was the Twilight Lord able to nurture that monstrous snake that had surpassed the limit of what should be permissible in this trial, but he was even able to send his consciousness into the Twilight Chasm. This went against everything he knew about Mystic Realms controlled by the System, and there was only one possibility that he could come up with.
The Twilight Lord was inside the Twilight Ocean.
Nala had already said that the Twilight Lord hadn’t been seen for tens of thousands of years, and he knew that the last C-grade trial took place 20,000 years ago. Had he somehow found a way to stay inside the Mystic Realm after it closed at that point? But for what purpose? And more importantly, just how far did the Twilight Lord’s grasp extend?
Even if he was inside the trial somehow, there was no way that the System would let him run amok in a sanctioned E-grade trial. And the Twilight Lord should definitely know what had transpired eight months ago, which hopefully meant he would tread more carefully going forward. After all, only a fool would risk drawing the ire of the Heavens after already having been given a warning.
That was his way to survive this encounter, so he slowly relaxed and stowed away his axe.
“Misunderstanding? Just passing through?” The Twilight Lord snorted. ”Sometimes you can get swept up in grand events even without intending so, a victim to the torrents of fate. I know that feeling all-too-well.”
Zac suddenly sensed a small surge of energy, and he swirled around as an illusory shape took form at the edge of the cave. The man looked like a human, except his skin had an odd greenish-golden hue. He was almost completely covered in scars as well, and he both had the aura and disposition of a warrior of a thousand battles. He exuded an air of confidence and drive, his eyes seemingly piercing straight through Zac’s soul.
The appearance of the Twilight Lord’s avatar was startling, but Zac was even more shocked that he actually recognized the man. And it wasn’t that he had seen images of the Twilight Lord since arriving to the harbor, but rather from a missive he had bought back in the Zecia sector. The man in front of him looked a bit older and his skin tone was completely different, but the main features were the same.
It was the Eveningtide Asura.
The true appearance of the man behind cataclysmic events back in the Zecia sector wasn’t widely circulated. In fact, none of the information houses in Zecia dared carry much information about him out of fear he’d one day return. The intelligence read more like tales of heroics and bravery rather than proper information missives, and any factual information such as appearance, class, skills, and strength was notably missing.
But Zac had been extremely curious about the Eveningtide Asura since he was almost considered the second coming of him, and their backgrounds were pretty similar. The fact that no one dared to sell intelligence on him through the Mercantile System couldn't stop Zac with his nigh-unlimited access to every corner of the sector.
One of his followers had managed to procure a proper missive from a declining information house that had lost its Mercantile Licence. The way it described the events 980,000 years ago was completely different from the public information.
Rather than a heroic lone wolf, the Eveningtide Asura had been described as a ruthless opportunist who skirted the edge of unorthodoxy without ever completely leaving the embrace of the System. He never cared about right and wrong in his pursuit of power, and his hands were already drenched in blood long before the more well-known events where he slaughtered dozens of peak clans upon his return took place.
Both Zac and the man in front of him had come up in the same way, being progenitors of planets integrated into the Zecia sector. However, while Zac had somewhat stumbled onto the path of supremacy, Alvod Jondir had firmly embarked on it through murder. Every threat to his supremacy on his home planet, foreign or native, had been butchered, after which he essentially turned his home planet into a furnace for his own cultivation.
By the time the planet had been assimilated, only a broken F-grade planet remained, with Alvod having extracted the essence of the World Core itself. It was this very ability to absorb the power of the planets themselves that had eventually sparked a manhunt, because not only was it an extremely powerful method to cultivate, but it was also a huge threat to most clans.
What if the Eveningtide Asura appeared on their planet one day, slowly siphoning off the power of the World Core?
So while the man standing in front of Zac appeared like a straightforward warrior with the aura of a hero, he knew that it was just an image hiding a ruthless cultivator that made the Great Redeemer seem as harmless as a baby chick. A cultivator who was also famous for being extremely thorough in his acts of revenge.
Zac felt beads of sweat rolling down his back, but he controlled his aura and facial expression to not give away the fact that he knew the true identity of the man in front of him. Meanwhile, his thoughts were a confused jumble as he simply couldn’t understand what was going on. Most people thought that the Eveningtide Asura was long dead for hundreds of thousands of years after having angered some powerful force, yet he stood right in front of him, seemingly doing just fine.
Was the Eveningtide Asura actually the Twilight Lord, or was he simply pretending? When had the change taken place? Because one thing was for certain; the current Twilight Lord had reigned for over six hundred thousand years, which made it impossible that Alvod had been him from the start.
“Lord Twilight, it's an honor,” Zac said with a bow, working hard to keep his face impassive. “I apologize if my actions inadvertently caused any problems to the trial. My masters will provide recompense for any damage.”
“I am pretty certain there is no clan called ‘Black’, they have better taste than that. Who are you? Who are your masters, and what interests do they have for this trial?” the man snorted.
Zac hesitated for a moment before he made a decision. He had never managed to trick anyone when lying through his teeth, and he wasn’t so arrogant as to think he could suddenly outsmart an old monster who had lived over a million years. He would need to expose some of his secrets, but leave some things vague.