Chapter 1144: Sweet Bargain

"Brat, I'm being serious here. If you dare kill Hrook, I'll make you regret it for the rest of your life," the voice resounded when a couple more echoed along.

It was apparent that the immortals were transmitting their voices from above since they couldn't interfere personally.

"Then, why don't you convince Hrook to stop attacking me?" Krune said while pointing at Hrook charging at him with a crazed expression. "This is war! Do you expect me to chat him up while he's trying to kill me?"

All the voices turned silent, unable to refute. After all, Krune didn't even care about their threats while he countered their persuasions with grounded logic. So, they were at a loss for words.

Suddenly, an ethereal voice filled with grace said in response, "Krune, was it? Name a price for allowing Hrook to kill you. We'll complete the transaction."

"Well, why don't you quote the price yourself?" Krune replied, controlling himself from smirking. "You can give a value to Hrook's life yourself."

With the way he put it, if the other party quoted a small price, it would seem like they were just being stingy. That'll make it like they didn't attach much value to Hrook's life.

The ethereal voice remained silent for a good minute before giving a proposal. "How about 1000 Rank 6 God Stones?"

'A Rank 6 God Stone contains energy equivalent to a God-Trial Realm cultivator. So, the one that's forking out such wealth should be someone at least in that realm or above,' Krune thought, shaking his head as he told the one who offered him the proposal, "God Stones are useless to me. Whatever I need, I can earn them on my own. Give me a different offer."

Even though Krune had slowed his actions, it seemed like Hrook didn't wish to relent in his attacks. On top of that, it seemed he wasn't even paying attention to the voices of those trying to calm him down. He had lost himself due to anger.

With that, he was losing strength, taking more than ten seconds to reform his body when attacked by Krune. So, the ethereal voice quickly answered, "Since it seems like you wish to travel, I'll gift you a treasure accordingly."

Suddenly, a tiny disc appeared before Krune, visible only to himself. There were two circles on it. Embedded between these circles were 36 spheres, looking like tiny pearls.

The moment it manifested before him, Krune understood that it was safe for him to use. After all, the immortals were prevented from attacking the mortals fighting below. So, the fact that the disc appeared here without any fluctuations was enough proof that it wasn't tampered with.

The ethereal voice then explained, "This is my 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic. It's a treasure that allows you to travel to the places you've recorded in it. In my younger days, I visited many continents and recorded interesting locations on them. With that being said, you can use this to travel anywhere. What do you say? I've proved my sincerity with this, right?"

"Yes, you have." Krune nodded, placing the treasure in a storage ring before chucking it into his subspace. He then replied to the ethereal voice, "Alright, I'll allow Hrook to kill me."

Saying so, Krune suddenly stumbled on the ground, acting weak as if all the injuries he had sustained until now had accumulated enough to finally take effect. Moreover, he retracted all Godly Energy, causing his clones to vanish one after another, a sign that his ability had run out of time.

"Haha! I'll be the one to win!" Hrook shouted before condensing all his remaining power to hack at Krune's neck, noticing his sword stopping right after touching Krune's neck, failing to even scratch his itch.

"Boss, he can't even injure me in my current state." Krune transmitted to the ethereal voice. "Is it my fault that I'm too strong?"

"..."

The ethereal voice acted like it hadn't heard his claims. It was probably sighing in embarrassment somewhere else.

Since he was already bribed...shown sincerity, Krune wanted to keep his end of the bargain. So, he suddenly bellowed, putting on an act, "My ability might have run out of time, but I can still kill you before I lose all my strength."

Suddenly, Hrook was caged by ice as dense mist wasted out from the attack. Using this chance, Krune let out a weak clone while entering the subspace.

"Hah!" Hrook bellowed as he shattered through the cage of ice, grunting as he wheezed for air, noticing a weakened Krune looking no different from him.

In fact, it seemed Krune had lost a lot of weight, being a lot weakened.

Laughing, Hrook seemed to have regained his vigor, shouting, "Your Spiritual Incarnation turned your body strong. But it seems it has a duration limit. Now, you'll be the one to die for playing around all along."

Saying so, Hrook condensed an energy blade, hacking into Krune, only managing to inflict a small injury, thinking, 'This bastard's body is still this strong.'

Thinking as such, he put more effect into his attacks, dodging Krune's retaliation using the last vestiges of his power.

'Indeed, reviving him is cheap. However, his death would damage him mentally too much. And the cure to that isn't easy to achieve even after expending countless resources. He might probably even fail to become an immortal,' Krune thought, understanding the reason for the immortals contacting him in the first place.

After a last-pitched battle cry, Hrook hacked Krune's head, noticing his body plop to the ground while his eyes lost all signs of life in them, bellowing with maniacal laughter, "I finally killed you! Hahahaha!"

But, his laughter was short-lived as an energy blade severed him at the hips, causing him to plot to the ground as the figure of a handsome man appeared before him, crouching while smiling.

"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Such a classic scene, right?" The man laughed, saying, "The both of you are strong, but now, I've ended up as the winner."

"Bastard! I'll kill you next!" Hrook emitted killing intent as his eyes lost all signs of life.

Seated high up in the sky was an immortal, gazing at the countless immortals battling before it, smiling as it muttered, "Well, it seems Hrook's fighting spirit has been reignited to enact revenge on the one that sneak attacked him. This is good enough. He'll become stronger as a result."

"It was worth giving you that treasure, Krune." It laughed. After all, the one who killed Hrook was actually a clone of Krune that had transformed into someone else.

This was to prevent Hrook from moping about his battle with Krune and lamenting his helplessness.