Chapter Ninety-Six: The Bloodstained Stone Tablet

There were indeed many more adventurers beyond Outing-Again Town. Some had come from Surge City, others from Frostedge City, and most were heading for the Evil Lands of Ibo.

A dazzling variety of carriages and fine horses filled the road, yet one mount stood apart from the rest.

It was a young man in a black silk shirt, handsome of feature and arrogant in countenance, seated with folded arms on the shoulder of a troll.

Yes, a troll, one a full three meters tall.

It should be known that while trolls were not a particularly powerful race, they had always looked down on humans, harboring deep hostility and contempt for them. To tame a troll was harder than killing a hundred.

Yet this haughty youth had done exactly that.

“Gerandon of the Blood Panther family from Frostedge City. Rumor says he ranks among the top ten of the younger generation there. He’s come too.”

Along the way, Ye Ran had seen all manner of remarkable people, but only a handful truly stirred his curiosity. Gerandon was undoubtedly one of them.

Frostedge City and Surge City were not far apart. Surge City lay in the southwest of the Goat Horn Continent, while Frostedge City was in the southeast. Surge City was famed for its thriving commerce and was a city of trade; Frostedge City, by contrast, was renowned for force of arms. The masters of its three great clans, Golden Lion, Jackal, and Blood Panther, were ranked among the best throughout the entire Goat Horn Continent.

By comparison, Surge City was rather shabby. In years past, Surge City’s foremost expert, Diving Dragon, had challenged the six Duma of the Golden Lion family, but before he had even reached the gate he was blocked by the “Little Lion Dog” Zar. The two of them had unexpectedly fought to a standstill.

One should know that “Little Lion Dog” was, in Surge City, essentially a nobody, yet he had managed to trade blows with Surge City’s number one expert, Diving Dragon, on equal footing. Diving Dragon could not be bothered to seek further humiliation and turned back before even entering the Golden Lion family’s gates.

This incident had long been a joke in Frostedge City, which had never held Surge City’s so-called “experts” or their “martial rankings” in any esteem.

Seated on the troll’s shoulder, Gerardon looked down on the world with self-satisfied pride, making no effort to conceal his disdain for the carriages passing by from Surge City.

“That boy is quite proud indeed. Two years ago I went to the Blood Panther family to invite him to study at the Sixth Celestial Shrine, and he refused me. They say that among the continent’s first-rate nobles, the nobles of second rank enter the shrines, and those of third rank stay home all day; but the Blood Panther family is different. They have their own trainers,” Charlie said.

The troll beneath Gerardon soon quickened its pace. The three-meter giant’s feet pounded the ground with thunderous force, and before long it kicked up a cloud of dust and disappeared into the distance.

Ye Ran said, “So the people of the Blood Panther family are even stronger than the shrine?”

Charlie shook her head. “Not necessarily. The elite of the Silver Fighter Hall and the Martial Hero Hall may not be any weaker than the younger generation of the Blood Panther family. It’s just that their paths of cultivation are different.”

“Ye Ran,” she suddenly called to him.

Ye Ran turned his head, lowered the curtain, and looked at her.

“Do you want to enter a shrine?”

“If you had asked me nine months ago, I would have said yes without hesitation. But now, I can’t enter a shrine.”

He then told her about Freya.

Charlie could not help but exclaim in wonder.

“A second-generation god who is only nine years old, with her divine power sealed? I’d very much like to meet her.”

Ye Ran shrugged.

He did not understand what a divine envoy meant to the god race.

“If possible, maybe in the future we could even help her establish a shrine. Though I don’t know what abilities she has,” Charlie said after some thought.

“A shrine?”

Ye Ran lifted a brow. A shrine like Athena’s Sixth Celestial Shrine, or Thor’s Thunder God Shrine?

He had never even dared to imagine such a thing.

Charlie smiled. “A second-generation god should of course have a shrine. But it still depends on the extent of her divine power. At the very least, she must possess the ability to awaken your origin power.”

“After all, divine envoys are best at guiding gods. Ye Ran, meeting me is truly your good fortune.”

Charlie’s words suddenly filled Ye Ran with anticipation for the future. He had originally thought that, in this lifetime, he would inevitably be “ruined” by Freya. Who had told him to be so blind as to become her chosen one? Yet who could have known that fate would suddenly turn...

The carriage sped onward, and three days later they arrived amid a sparse thicket. They had traveled slowly and were already far behind the other adventurers.

By then night was nearly falling. Above the sparse, low brush, several crows circled, their harsh cries echoing through the air, cloaking the whole thicket in an ominous atmosphere.

Beyond lay a marsh. It was not large, but a layer of black mist drifted above it, making it look sinister and foul.

Charlie said a few words to the coachman, and the carriage turned back the way it had come. Then Charlie came trotting over with a money pouch in her hand, brimming with delight.

“Borrowed more money again?”

Ye Ran stepped into the thicket.

Charlie followed behind him with a smile. “I didn’t ask for it. He gave it to me on his own. It’s at least eased our immediate troubles. The Evil Lands of Ibo don’t exactly care what a divine envoy has to say.”

Ye Ran did not reply. He quickened his pace into the depths of the brush.

They still had not been able to contact Sinclair, Meng Qi, or Freya along the way. In a place like the Evil Lands of Ibo, even Diving Dragon had to tread carefully. If the three of them rashly entered, it would be disastrous.

“Caw, caw.”

Behind them, the crows circled unhurriedly, trailing the two of them at a measured distance. Both Ye Ran and Charlie found it deeply unsettling.

“Hateful crows.”

Charlie rolled up her trouser legs and condensed her force beneath her feet to walk atop the marsh. Ye Ran did the same. After the battle at Westside, his force had improved significantly, and his control had become much more proficient. Still, the marsh was full of rotting bodies of men and beasts, and the stench was overwhelming.

Ye Ran and Charlie both could not help covering their noses. Moonlight stretched their shadows long behind them.

“Ye Ran, look—the Bloodstone Monolith.”

Charlie had excellent eyesight. From afar she spotted the ancient stone stele set at the far edge of the marsh.

Ye Ran’s skill was nowhere near hers. In the darkness he could only make out a faint red glow in the distance, and only after another half hour did he finally see the monolith.

A red stele, as tall as a man, stood at the edge of the marsh. By rights, something of that weight should already have sunk into the mire, yet this stone stele stood unshaken.

A layer of dust coated its surface, but crimson light still swirled around it. In the center of the stele were carved ancient characters, graceful as grass, like ink flowing elegantly from a quill.

The entire marsh was a chaos of red and black, strewn with corpses and thick with stench, but here it was entirely different.

Within ten meters of the Bloodstone Monolith there was not a single corpse, not a trace of odor, not even a hint of blood aura. Even the surrounding marshland seemed clear.

Ye Ran fixed his gaze on the black characters on the stele. He did not recognize them, yet a strange haze seemed to cloud his mind. Soon, visions appeared before his eyes. The black strokes seemed to lengthen and spread, each line extending outward until they covered the entire stone stele.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. When he opened them again, the Bloodstone Monolith had returned to normal. But all at once he saw that at the ends of both his shadow and Charlie’s, black dots had appeared.

Ye Ran was struck with alarm and whirled around.