Chapter 846: Card Culprit
Chapter 846: Card Culprit
Sigh...
Vaan couldn't help but sigh after learning about the first eighteen years of his present life.
If he had not overcome multiple challenges and glimpsed into his myriads of reincarnations, even he wasn't so sure he could keep his sanity regarding Valefor's childhood experiences. Such a hellish childhood would certainly shape the future course of Valefor's entire life.
As such, it was also easy to imagine how Valefor lived his life after awakening the system. His witch hunts would no doubt attract people to kill him, but also people who would aid in his witch hunts.
From joining a witch-hunting dark organization to becoming a general under one of the Seven Great Devils of Gehenna, Valefor's life was filled with blood and slaughter.
However, his merciless slaughter and rapid improvement made even the Great Devils feel threatened.
'Despite joining Gehenna, Valefor still ended up fighting the Great Devils of Gehenna, huh? Not exactly surprising...' Vaan mused as he went over Valefor's memories.
After all, not all Great Devils desired blood and killing; there were also those who pursued human resources and development, such as Hecate.
However, the first Great Devil to bear their fangs at Valefor had unexpectedly been Abaddon. Moreover, it was over a very simple reason - Valefor's rapid growth and path of power threatened his position.
In other words, Abaddon sought to eliminate Valefor before the latter usurped his authority.
Unfortunately for Abaddon, he ended up seeking his own demise. Furthermore, his divine blood became further fuel for Valefor's rapid growth, alarming the other Great Devils.
'To think Valefor also killed Helcan and Astarte and seriously injured Hecate and Mephistopheles before Thanatos intervened...' Vaan thought with surprise.
In his opinion, Thanatos had acted quite late.
Furthermore, in Valefor's memories, Thanatos had actually failed to put a stop to Valefor's rampage. The Death Law was unable to kill Valefor's body and soul due to the power of the Blood Law and Eternal Soul.
With Thanatos's greatest power being ineffective against Valefor, Thanatos was beaten terribly, over and over again, for his transgression. Valefor had repeatedly destroyed his body and soul.
However, Thanatos was able to come back to life like an undying fourth-dimensional being. Even so, being reduced to a punching bag dealt a serious blow to Thanatos's mental state. He was actually beaten so badly that he developed trauma over it and never came out of his dwelling place again.
As a result, Valefor became the new Realm Lord of Gehenna.
However, not long after, Valefor started a Realm War with Nightmare. Or rather, Nightmare started a Realm War with him due to the countless witches who died at his hands.
Nevertheless, it surprisingly took a hundred years to reach that point.
Although Valefor had grown rapidly in the beginning with the system, he had also become overly reliant on the system to improve. As a result, his advancements became much slower in the later stages.
Moreover, there was also a lack of opportunities in Valefor's timeline. It almost seemed like the Red Dragon Clan didn't exist in his timeline.
Valefor never encountered the Ten-Thousand-Year Stalactite Milk in the underground cave of the Blackmoon Region nor the Divine-rank Stalactite Milk in the subterranean region beyond the moon's dimensional crack.
Even the Great Ratholos Empire's Black Mountain didn't exist in that timeline.
-
Vaan couldn't help but sigh again.
It became clear that all these opportunities were quite possibly a result of the Lord of Chaos's excessive meddling.
He was practically spoon-fed these opportunities.
'You seal away my knowledge to higher-end cultivation techniques and arts, but you bless me with various opportunities? What exactly are you thinking, Lord of Chaos?' Vaan wondered.
He couldn't help but shake his head.
If the Lord of Chaos truly wished to let him develop on his own and open up a new possibility, he shouldn't have meddled with so many changes.
Otherwise, it was no different from being guided.
'I thought I could find some answers in these memories... But while I did find some answers, I've also gained many more questions...' Vaan wryly lamented.
Shortly after dispersing his subspace and returning to the solitary void of space near the moon, Vaan pushed his Fourth Dimensional Sense to the limits.
However, he couldn't discover anything out of the ordinary.
"Lord of Chaos, are you there?" Vaan decided to ask.
Vaan's question was greeted with silence. At first, it seemed like his call didn't produce any results.
However, his Fourth Dimension Sense did, in fact, pick up something - The world itself seemed to have shuddered ever so subtly as if some outside force had nudged it. Whatever it was, Vaan figured it might have been related to the Lord of Chaos.
Perhaps the Lord of Chaos heard his call but decided not to respond to him or meet him. Whichever was the case, Vaan also believed he wasn't ready to meet such an apex being. After all, if the Lord of Chaos actually emerged to meet him, his action could attract the unwanted attention of other powerful beings who might wish for his death. In this case, the Lord of Chaos would have no choice but to rewind time again or bring him away.
Those were undoubtedly undesirable outcomes.
Of course, Vaan could be overthinking the matter and overestimating his importance to the Lord of Chaos. However, he couldn't help but have the nudging feeling that was the situation. "I'm not your elder brother yet. However, I won't keep you waiting much longer," Vaan
uttered.
The worldly dimension seemed to have shuddered subtly again.
Vaan was aware that he was far too weak, and his memories of Varuna were also too incomplete for him to be considered the Lord of Chaos's older brother.
However, that wasn't why the Lord of Chaos didn't come out to meet him when he called.
At the end of Valefor's ten thousand years of life, some clues suggested Chaos was divided between the Lord of Chaos and a powerful foe, who even the Lord of Chaos couldn't easily
deal with.
Thinking back on it, Vaan recalled it had been two chaos cycles since Varuna's death.
He wondered if any of the Outer Beings Varuna encountered on his journey outside of Chaos ever found their way to it.
In fact, Vaan couldn't help but wonder if the one who killed Varuna also found its way to Chaos. If there was such a situation, he couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of terrible plight Chaos had found itself in.
Perhaps the Lord of Chaos was also preparing to face such a seemingly undefeatable being.
After all, considering the Lord of Chaos had meddled so much with his memories, he would have also read through all the memories of Varuna and his past reincarnations.
Such a thing didn't seem to be impossible for the Lord of Chaos.
Nevertheless, Chaos's problem was too distant for the current Vaan to be worrying about when he had not even entered the divine rank yet.
More importantly, there were a few places in Pangea he wished to visit.
In Valefor's timeline, Golden Dragon Pangea was completely dead by the time Valefor had learned of its existence. However, the absence of spirit energy was still an ongoing problem
that everyone still had to face.
That was to say that something else was plundering all the spirit energy produced by life on
the planet.
Moreover, the source was hidden somewhere in the depths of the vast ocean.
...
When Vaan returned to the moon's core and passed through the dimensional crack to enter the subterranean region, he did not find Hecate doing anything productive with the pure mana- enriched environment she had seemed to envy.
Instead, he found her playing cards with her three Dreamcatchers.
At the same time, Hecate also spotted Vaan staring back at her with mild surprise. Her mind
briefly blanked, but it was unclear for which reason.
"Ah..." Hecate uttered.
"So, you are the reason behind the Lady Dreamcatchers' habit of playing cards, Lady Hecate?"
Vaan casually mentioned with curiosity.
"What?" Hecate blinked before quickly turning to Fourth Dream, chiding her, "See this? I told
you that you shouldn't have suggested playing cards. Now, Sir Vaan thinks little of me."
"What?" Fourth Dream's mind also briefly blanked before she cried with outrage, "But, Mistress, it was-Mmf!"
Alas, before Fourth Dream could finish defending herself against Hecate's blatant accusation,
her mouth was sealed with magic.
"What a disobedient child. How could you talk back to your Mistress?" Hecate chided half-n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
heartedly before coughing awkwardly, "Ahem, I'm sorry you had to see something like that,
Sir Vaan."
"Oh, don't be, Lady Hecate. I'm glad I did, though," Vaan softly chuckled.
"Ahem..." Hecate coughed again before changing the subject, "You succeeded, Sir Vaan?"
Vaan calmly nodded, knowing what Hecate was asking. As such, he also demonstrated his ability to control his Everlasting Blood.
Hecate sensed his blood power and was immediately stunned by his progress. However, having studied both the Everlasting Blood Mantra and the Divine Blood Refining
Art, Hecate also noticed something was different about his blood aura that didn't quite fit
either of the two.
"This... Something doesn't seem right about the aura your blood power is giving off, Sir Vaan..." Hecate mentioned with doubt.
"Oh?" Vaan raised an eyebrow before casually explaining, "That is probably because I merged
the Everlasting Blood Mantra and the Divine Blood Refining Art and cultivated it as a single
blood art, Lady Hecate."
"You... did what now?"
Hecate started hyperventilating as her chest heaved up and down due to the shocking news
she had just received.
Vaan had done something seemingly impossible and outrageous, but he had also reacted as if
it was nothing special. How could any knowledgeable person react calmly to something that shocking?
"Do you know how incredulous of a feat that is, Sir Vaan?" Hecate asked after calming herself
down.
"What about it, Lady Hecate?" Vaan replied calmly.
Hecate's chest started heaving up and down as she felt unnerved by Vaan's nonchalance
despite achieving something world-breaking.
At the same time, Vaan's gaze followed her chest movements.