"Look! The Ground Spitting Snake had already been defeated. What should we do?" said the young woman in a fearful and nervous tone.
"Don't worry. If things have come to this, it just mean that the person who is fighting is strong. Right now, we could try approaching him and expressing our goodwill" saying this, the man gestured the woman to come out of hiding as he came out and greeted Cylius.
"Greetings. Mister...?" noticing his mask, Mathew asked in an amiable yet careful tone.
"Laplace" Cylius answered while looking at them from the sky, still not going down.
"Ah, right! Mr. Laplace. We are the Luther Twins. My name is Mathew Luther and her's is Ithim Luther and we would possibly like to team up with you..." saying this, he stole a glance at him.
"No" the voice of Cylius rang out. There were no emotions contained within, as if the person speaking was a robot.
"Yes! Yes! Of course, we would of course understand Mr. Laplace if he's not interested in teaming up with us but we could offer you a deal... Would you be kind as to listen to it?" although he was disappointed, he didn't show it on his face as he continued approaching him like a sly merchant, trying to bootlick a noble.
"Looking on at the two of them, the Luther Twins felt that a powerful force had locked on them and kept them in place.
After some time, Cylius left in a space tear, without saying anything.
It was better not to mingle with them, they would only be trouble and as for the deal they promised? He wasn't interested in it at all. They had probably offended some big shot and was seeking cover.
What he had to do now was to find the snake egg and convert it into a yin creature, not to waste his time with them.
"Damn it, so full of himself. How did he dare ignore us? We are the proud twins of the Luther Family, yet he dared to ignore us! Even if he's the son of Marquess Spirit Giant, he has to show us respect!" the woman complained as he turned to look at the place Cylius was in.
Hearing this, the man didn't respond at all as a glint flashed through his eyes.
Just as the woman had finished her ranting, Cylius appeared at the same place he was in before.
Suddenly surprised by his presence, the woman jolted in surprise as her expression suddenly turned pale.
"Watch your actions, they may cost your life in the future" saying this, Cylius pointed.
Upon hearing it, the woman turned even more pale as she closed her eyes, expecting pain. But what appeared wasn't pain but the scream of a male's voice.
Confused by the situation, she opened her eyes and saw in surprise that her twin was kneeling next to him, holding the place his arm was supposed to be.
Blood was all over as it painted the ground red, but the arm was nowhere to be found.
"I- I under- I understand" with a painful voice, Mathew muttered.
Hearing that, Cylius snorted in dismay as he left the area.
.....
It wasn't the insult that the woman gave. Instead, it was that Cylius discovered that the man had secretly recorded his aura. He may have wanted to use it to find out who he was.
This was dangerous. If they had really found out who he was, then he obviously wouldn't have met a good end. So he handled this matter by destroying the crystal ball that recorded his aura along with the right arm of this man, as a punishment.
As for the insult, he didn't care.
They could talk or insult him behind his back at any time. He was sure they wouldn't be able to become a threat to him due to their petty nature.
They could at most become puppets.
Although he wanted to kill them, he couldn't due to all the fourth-tier lords supervising this area along with the protection measurements their family may have assigned them.
Putting this matter at the back of his mind, he finally sensed that he was close to the nest of the Ground Spitting Snake.
Looking around the void he was in, he suddenly poked at one place before tearing a hole through it. As if a peaceful lake had been disturbed, a ripple spread to the surrounding void as a crack the size of a door was created.
Although ghosts could travel through dimensions without tearing the space, since Cylius wasn't one yet and only have half evolved, he could only adopt the measurement of tearing through space.
Walking through that crack, Cylius encountered a dark and gloomy environment with no lighting. The place was surrounded by rock on all sides.
On the right side, there seemed to be a body of water. The lake was abundant in spiritual energy as every droplet of it seemed to be infused with spiritual energy. Even for a second-tier like Cylius, the water was precious.
Although it seemed to be rich in energy, there seemed to be a kind of seal that was concealing its aura.
Finding this, Cylius was of course joyful. By tracing the fluctuations of a normal egg that seemed to have mutated, he was able to find such a treasure trove. This was basically a godsend.
With this, he was sure that he could complete his core.
After some studies, he found out that the illusion realm could grow through absorbing spiritual energy. However, the required amount was monstrous so Cylius had put it aside for the time beginning.
If he still chose to invest in it, he would end up being weak without any power. So when other people notice this precious artifact of his, he would be unable to defend it and might even end up losing his life.
So his choice was not using it or even disposing of it in the near future.
He was defenseless against divination after all. The uses for the realm were many and it could also boost the owner of it drastically. Countless powerhouses would be contesting for it.
So even though he was reluctant, he had to do it.
"Plak" his body entered the water inasmooth motion as he swam towards the light at the bottom.
As he was swimming towards the light, on his way, he saw the egg which made him come here.
It seemed that it had only mutated due to the lake after all. Since it was from a foreign factor, Cylius wasn't interested in it now but was more expectant towards the mysteries of the lake.
Maybe the Ground Spitting snake had only found it coincidentally and after finding the mysteries of the lake, it decided to put its egg here.
Swimming and swimming, Cylius just felt like traveling through dimensions but it was wetter? The dimension was a dry place where your body will just feel to be covered in liquid. The liquid however won't feel like water or anything. It will feel dry.
Void surrounding you, with darkness all over. No one would be there for you. And since time was distorted and twisted there, just a fraction of a second may feel as if years had passed by. If one didn't have the mental fortitude, they could easily go insane and go through a mental breakdown.
This though only flashed through Cylius's mind as it was also quickly discarded as quickly as it came.
Just as he was swimming, he was swept in a dense fog? A large amount of fog was ahead, blocking his vision. As it was also blocking his vision, it seemed to be sucking the surroundings in, just like a vortex.
It existed within the water as it existed peacefully. This was the strange part. Metaphorically speaking, it was like the water was the air and the fog was the real fog that existed within air.
He couldn't describe it at all.
Raising his hand, he put it into the dense fog but a powerful force repelled it back as Cylius was forced to step back. Seeing the results, he knew that if he wanted to break through this dense fog of protection, he would have to use his full force.
Taking a step out of the water, he flew to the air before placing his foot firm into the cave ceiling.
"Crack!" right now, his foot was firmly placed in it as the ceiling cracked a bit.
Preparing his body, he jumped down with full strength resulting in a faint tremor, causing more debris to fall down. Entering the water with full force, it caused a huge splash.
His body reached the fog in no time but when he came in contact, a sudden force struck him.
With a powerful force, he flew out of the water as his body hit the cave ceiling hard. Pieces of debris and rocks fell down as Cylius coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The force of it was so strong that it injured Cylius's body heavily.
However, right now, his expression was calm. Even though he was injured, Cylius now know that the fog would counterattack the same force it was approached. If he approached it with just a gentle touch, it would repel weakly but if he approached it in a hard and forceful way, then he would also be delt with the hard way.
Seeing from the situation, it was obvious that his current powers wouldn't be sufficient to breakthrough this protection.
However, he still had a few things he wanted to try.
First, he tried approaching it in a semi dimensional state where his body was both in the empty void and the material world. This method failed but the repelling force was weak which gave hope to Cylius.
So the next time, he tried to fully enter the void and travel. Although there were still some kind of fog that was obstructing his path, its power was low compared to the one in real life.
With his power, he was able to break through quite easily. So when he got out of the void, he was met with the same lake. But this time, the fog was behind him which meant that he had successfully passed.
Swimming for some time, he finally reached the light at the bottom of the cave. Seeing the source of light, it seemed to be a rectangle token with a gray color. It was made out of stone and seemed very ancient. There were many cracks at its edges.
Approaching it carefully, Cylius examined it with his spiritual sense. There was nothing wrong detected so he slowly put his hand on it and grabbed it. Upon grabbing it, he immediately felt a huge force coming out of the token as it entered him.
Things slowly turned to black as Cylius could only mutter a single word.
"Shit"