Chapter 497: The Duke

"DAMN IT!" laying on a bed, the Dragon Warrior struggled with all his power in an attempt to leave, but unlike Adrian, his bloodline was practically fused entirely with his Metal Qi, so the extraction of his bloodline caused the frame of his power to collapse.

Most likely, for the foreseeable future, he's going to be crippled.

As they were cooperating with native forces, Xu Yao and the other Apostles didn't take this chance to kill him, and instead took care of him.

However, he didn't want any of this at all. What he wanted was immense power that would surpass all obstacles, but unfortunately, he was the loser.

Is this the end of my life's ambitions?

[ Your life's ambitions haven't ended just yet ]Negary suddenly appeared next to the Dragon Warrior with a slight chuckle: [ If you must ask the reason why; it would be because I have arrived ]

"That is..." the Dragon Warrior was naturally drawn to the sudden voice and noticed the crow on Negary's shoulder.

Although the size and shape weren't quite correct, the crow's presence was similar enough that the Dragon Warrior recognized it.

Then, could this person be the 'Master' that it mentioned earlier?

"What do you mean by 'it still hasn't ended'? If you can heal and allow me to obtain the bloodline power that I've lost, what kind of price would I have to pay?" after the initial shock, the Dragon Warrior calmly asked. He had also made an assumption about who the individual in front of him was.

[ I am not the King of Evil Spirit, even though your guess isn't wrong either ]Negary recognized the Dragon Warrior's thoughts at a single glance and immediately told him: [ Your obsession with power is very similar to your ancestor, which I appreciate, so I'm willing to grant you power ]

[ Naturally, that doesn't mean that this power doesn't come at a price ]Negary slowly reached his hand towards the Dragon Warrior: [ I've once hunted a real dragon in another world, then extracted their soul and blood to conduct my research, taking on the sins they've caused to this world in order to complete a different form: the Dragon of Eternal Sin. Now, you shall be bestowed all of it, that is, as long as you can survive! ]

The Dragon Warrior's body instantly tensed up. While his mouth was opened wide, he couldn't even utter a gasp, let alone a scream. He no longer had the mind to think about Negary's words, as his consciousness had been completely swarmed, having no choice but to passively accept this new knowledge.

As the information flowed into the Dragon Warrior's mind, a picture slowly formed.

A three-winged dragon that eclipsed the sky with a total of three golden eyes. This sense of pressure that surpasses humanity and even the world itself caused the Dragon Warrior to feel like the 'Dragon Pressure' he had manifested in the past to be nothing but a child's toy.

When the Dragon Warrior regained his senses, the one he suspected to be the King of Evil Spirit was already gone without a trace, while he was currently in the middle of a forest. He could sense the immense power within his body, but also how difficult it was to actually utilize this power.

At the same time, a new [Bone Forge Art] appeared in the Dragon Warrior's mind, which was simply called [Reforge]. The essence of this technique was to repeatedly complete the Burning Soul Tempering process, each time forging a different Metal Qi before breaking it down and keeping only the refined essence, then perform Burning Soul Tempering again.

If one had ample resources, this method was the best way to break through the limit of first-rate Pugilists.

"So that power is the 'resource' I was provided with?" the Dragon Warrior gained a sense of understanding towards the nearly unending power flowing through his body, but then swiftly moved his weakened body to the side to dodge something.

Numerous insects had started crawling towards the Dragon Warrior from the ground below, there were also a number of wild beasts rushing towards him. Thanks to the heightened senses that he gained when he became a first-rate Pugilist, he noticed that those creatures, no, that the world itself was going after him.

To ensure that he didn't utilize the power of other worlds, Negary had bestowed the Dragon Warrior with the power of the dragon race's Sin that originated from this world. Through Negary's improvements, this was a vast and overwhelming amount of power, but it was also a type of power that the world hated.

Due to the Flame world's Misfortune characteristic, it lacked a world spirit and could only operate following the world's foundational rules, so those who carry the power of the dragon race's sin would naturally become an entity rejected by the world itself.

All conscious living beings in this world would start to reject the Dragon Warrior, or rather, it rejected the power inside this body, swearing to eradicate it no matter what.

This was what Negary truly meant when he said that the Dragon Warrior needed to first survive.

...

On the other side, Xu Yao's group had also begun their operation. A portion of them was escorting Alkors' statue to the Duke's meeting in preparation of reviving him, while the rest was busy determining the location of Versace's skull, ensuring that Duke Slick would not destroy the dragon's bone when he was pushed to a corner.

"It's unfortunate that we couldn't contact the young lad Chris" Grandmaster sighed as he observed Alkors' statue.

The 'legendary adventurer Chris' was a name that was passed on from generation to generation. From the original [Respiratory Art - School of Firewood], it had evolved to become the [Bone Forge Art - School of Firewood]. Although they were both first-rate Pugilists, the young Chris of this generation was actually stronger than him when it came to direct combat.

As Grandmaster saw it, reviving Nala as a person would only grant them the force of another first-rate Pugilist at most, while Nala's true strength lies in her ability to rally the people.

The mysterious fog encompassing the border city of the New Royas Kingdom had grown more severe over time. Some Evil Spirits had already left the fog to start attacking normal people, but most of the people in this world still don't consider this threat in a serious manner.

To make everyone cooperate and face this crisis, Nala's reputation was necessary. It would take nothing less than the banner of the 'World Savior Saintess' for the rest of the world's forces to actually rally, considering how renowned Nala's reputation was.

Of course, their goal this time wouldn't be quite so simple. While most of the Salvation Church were worshippers of Nala, many of those who hold higher positions within the church were individuals brimming with ambition.

Duke Slick's reputation was limited to how he was a newly conferred Duke, but if it was him who had taken Nala's statue back from the Sacred Valley, then some information should already be leaked.

The Sacred Valley had collapsed following the Age of Turbulence, but what remained of the Age of Flame left the Sacred Valley's original location to be full of danger. In order to just enter that location, one needed to have the strength of at least first-rate Pugilists, not to mention the Salvation Church had managed to use a lot of residual information from the Age of Flame to benefit themselves.

It should be known that some forbidden items might be even stronger than the world's current limit of first-rate Pugilists.

So it was possible for the Duke to attack them during their journey to the gathering place and stop their plan.

...

"What's the situation?" next to a beating open flame, the flickering light of the flame was illuminating a statue. Duke Slick, who was currently dressed like an aristocrat, was casually asking a man in a black robe standing next to him.

"Our brothers who have scattered all over the world have basically all gathered here" the black-robed man respectfully reported, then was unable to help his eyes being drawn to the statue next to the flame.

Those who hadn't personally seen the statue wouldn't understand, Nala's charisma was such that she can rouse others to worship her even while being nothing but a statue.

It was as if she was the greatest, most beautiful thing in this world, exuding a power that illuminates the darkest corners of one's heart to unknowingly start worshipping her.

"Then after this meeting is done, we will set out towards the border city of the New Royas Kingdom to defeat the King of Evil Spirit, completely crushing this calamity that not many had realized yet to spread the light of the Saintess to the world" the Duke loudly declared, his firm tone full of justice caused the people around him to cheer.

"Are we under attack?" the Duke suddenly noticed a powerful presence approaching him.

Have the rallying members of the Salvation Church drawn the attention of the others?

With the sound of ripping wind, some of the sharper individuals had begun to notice something out of the ordinary and hurriedly turned towards where the sound was coming from, at which point they saw a bulky man approaching them from above while carrying a statue.

"Everyone, I am the Grandmaster, I believe everyone would recognize me. This time, we're coming without hostility, please listen to me" Grandmaster and Big Qiang both landed in the center of the venue.

Grandmaster was the most well-known among everyone in their group. He earned his moniker of Grandmaster thanks to how he frequently teaches advanced [Bone Forge Art] to those who are qualified, but no one actually knows his real name.

"They are infiltrators, fakes. Guards, attack them!"