Chapter 17: Where Shards of your Blazing Dream Once Gleamed, Lie Ashes of Echoes, By an Old Star Deemed (2).
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Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
"According to our information, the rulers of the Red Night Forest are the Flame Beast Ghoul Tribe. Directly beneath them are the Rising Night Ghoul Tribe and the Shield Wolf Ghoul Tribe, with smaller tribes serving as slaves..."
Grrrr! Grrrr!
Behind him, a pack of hyenas ran, but they couldn't catch up.
Loki was simply too fast, and he paid these animals no mind at all.
"Hooooooowwwl!"
While running, an armored wolf appeared before him.
The wolf's fur was hard, with a solid shell on its back bearing blue inscriptions.
Most likely, this wolf had been exiled from its pack.
When the hyenas saw it, they immediately retreated in fear.
Upon closer inspection, various wounds could be seen on its body, and its face looked old.
Such situations were common.
When a pack's numbers exceed what can be fed, the weak and old are exiled.
When an individual can no longer serve the group, sacrificing them for the rest becomes necessary.
Thus, the healthy young of the pack remain to serve the group.
This is the law of the society.
No matter your dedication and service, when you lose your usefulness, you will be discarded.
The wolf's claws enlarged and it pounced towards its prey!
Loki sneered coldly: "Hmph."
With a wave of his hand, the air turned cold.
Swoosh—!
A small snowstorm appeared from nowhere, swallowing the wolf.
It didn't even have time to escape. It died!
Bam!
Loki kicked the frozen wolf's body, shattering it!
All this while not stopping his run for a moment.
Usually, he would hide the corpse to erase his tracks, but...
"I feel that Leon specifically sent me to this burning forest because of the nature of my power."
If his guess was correct, it was better to leave traces, namely ice.
"If I provoke the Shield Wolf Ghouls, their forces will be divided and the balance with the Rising Night will break, giving the Rising Night Ghouls room to focus on their hostility with the Red Frost Sect."
Being the third faction alongside Black Sand and White Lake, the Shield Wolf Ghouls were the weakest among the tribes dominating the Red Night Forest.
The Flame Beast Ghouls held a status and strength equivalent to mid-tier sects, so they were outside the equation.
They could only use a tribe weaker than themselves as pawns in resource conflicts; otherwise, neighboring sects would intervene.
As for the Rising Night Ghouls, they had an irreconcilable enmity with the Red Frost Sect, and the Flame Beast Ghouls could not use them, otherwise their interests would be harmed.
Thus, Leon decided to provoke the Shield Wolf Ghouls.
If the Shield Wolf Ghouls attack us, we will have sufficient justification for an attack.
As long as Lucas declares Black Sand Village's past enmity with them, we can attack them before the Forgotten Flame Sect's delegation arrives.
Regardless of time and place, any conflict between organizations needs a legitimate reason and justification.
Only by giving people a belief in the purity of their cause can they slaughter enemies and defend their homeland with strength!
Provoking a stable power requires a strong slap, so random killing wasn't suitable.
Action must be precise without leaving gaps.
Fortunately, Loki had a plan.
When the Shield Wolf Ghoul forces come to attack Black Sand Village to absorb their resources, using their forces' attack on them as justification, a temporary void will remain in the forest.
That void must be maintained.
The resulting power vacuum will cause greed among the two sects, leading to conflict with the Flame Beast Ghouls.
Whoever wins will take all the benefits.
Of course, that depends on whether we eliminate the monster tide before the Hollow Moon Night.
"The higher a warrior's level, the greater the suppression of the Hollow Moon Night on them, meaning their rank declines to Dawn, and they need several days to recover it!"
Recovering rank after the Hollow Moon Night requires resources and time, so people are extremely cautious about it.
"With our strength, the suppression will be immense. We'll suffer severely. With the monster tide threat, fighting other factions, trying to hide our movements and gain benefits? Difficult, so very difficult!"
And if we eliminate the monsters before nightfall?
The conflict with other factions remains.
We can gain allies and defeat enemies, also inciting them against each other, weakening everyone.
Chaos will increase, hiding our movements even more!
A cold mist surrounded Loki's feet as he ran at immense speed.
He could fly, but it would attract unnecessary attention, so he preferred ground movement.
In this world, there are countless means and paths to ascend the ranks of power.
But there is a foundation and pattern for everything, even within these infinite ladders.
The foundation of a warrior in this world for survival is simple yet profound and requires precise calculations: methods of attack, defense, means of movement, ways of healing.
The rest complements the foundation, such as storage, detection, support, refinement, deduction, concealment, and so on...
Palaces are not built on weak foundations, and complexities cannot be understood without grasping their foundations.
A true genius does not neglect the small details; rather, he makes them part of his consciousness and builds upon them.
Only through foundation can the general outline be built, and only by completing it with details does it become perfect.
There are all kinds of paths, and the world contains mysterious and unique energies.
There are the common ones like flame and ice, the mysterious like dreams, and the complex like space, time, song, silence, and the four seasons.
The strange like emotion, the specialized like detective, poet, logician, and many others...
Those who choose the path of ice must develop their movement arts.
Whether in absorbing ice and snow energy, developing their path, or integrating their attack types and various Egos, they must not neglect their movement arts.
Why?
During the process of integrating core energy saturated with ice, their blood flow changes and their bones transform.
In that process, the body faces the risks of rigidity and freezing.
Movement arts rely on circulating energy through the veins to generate heat in the body, resulting in immense mobility.
This is the essence of the matter.
Balancing cold energy and circulating it to keep the body resilient is the foundation of the ice path.
Accordingly, choosing the appropriate movement arts is important.
Several people refining the ice path doesn't mean their arts are the same.
Creativity lies in their methods, inclinations, and circumstances, resulting in various ways to use their arts and Egos.
Loki's capabilities were very profound, and the air's momentum did not hinder him.
A cold aura surrounded his body, preventing the wind from touching him.
In the sky, a giant hawk flew.
"..."
Loki's face showed no emotion, as if what others said would never affect him.
This young man had a strange obsession with falling snow and birds spreading their wings in the sky.
When he was nearly dying of hunger in a snowy forest, crows flew overhead, watching his death throes.
When he became an Ego warrior, wounded near-fatally, a golden sparrow circled around him as its feathers fell.
On the day his sect was annihilated, snow fell heavily from the sky, and he heard nothing but the cry of a hawk weeping over his dead family's bodies.
From getting lost in the forest as a child, to training under a sect and being branded with devilish titles, through war in a world isolated from the outside, where the passage of time never moves towards tomorrow.
Encounters and partings, enemies, family, allies, witnessing incomprehensible wonders and geniuses who shape history.
One day, they were heroes, their names engraved in the hearts of many.
But after crossing time's currents, nothing remained.
Belonging, names, and achievements—whether near or far—everyone forgot them.
Their existence was erased from the world as if they were never born.
The coming future is full of darkness, thorny without end, and difficult beyond description.
In this vast world, these five brothers are destined to face the darkness and eternal solitude.
Does regret come?
The young man smiled, his white hair fluttering lightly.
Words never came.
His only answer was his smiling expression, running across the vast grasslands.
Compared to the calamities and opponents I have tasted, my strength is but a mere mirage in a scorching desert.
Loki felt no pride; rather, he felt urgency.
His level before the Fifth Moon was nothing but an ant, let alone the Sixth.
The path is but fleeting steps upon the snow.
No matter how deeply one steps, their traces will vanish with subsequent snow, leaving no evidence of their journey ever existing.
Such was life's cruelty.
Loki somersaulted in the air, avoiding the fallen giant tree, and using it as a foothold, he leaped into the air.
Across the horizon, red clouds surrounded a forest before him.
The crimson trees looked like rubies, as if they were red ice.
The luster reflected within the leaves, fluttering with the faint winter wind.
Some leaves had bloomed flowers, some bore strangely shaped fruits: blue honey apple, white crystal pineapple, mirage wine banana, dancing worm plum...
The remaining snow melted upon touching the red grass.
The radiant grass revealed water flowing through the soil.
There were small red water pools, in which various creatures swam: green flame worm, toothed-beard frog, burning poison fly, flowing water spider.
Some insects, upon touching the water, burned completely, leaving ashes.
"...This forest, its environment might suit Ragna's research. He said yesterday he needs samples for his new arts. Since he was born in the north, he has extensive knowledge of taming monsters."
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Although he slowed his speed, Loki didn't appear slow at all.
Even a cheetah wouldn't match this speed.
He stared right, left, up, higher, then repeated.
He found what he was looking for among the tree branches.
As far as the eye could see, white monkeys crouched.
They had three eyes, no mouth on their face, but rather on their chests.
Each monkey was one and three-quarter meters tall, with broad shoulders and narrow waists, each leg hiding sharp claws.
Some monkeys had one tail, a minority had two tails, and only one had three tails, measuring three meters long, with the females gathered around him.
Some of the female monkeys around the large monkey spat something from their chest-mounted mouths.
Those were eggs. Some small, some large, some brightly colored, some white.
One of the females took a deep breath, then exhaled forcefully!
Flames erupted from her giant mouth and struck the eggs!
But unexpectedly, the eggs did not burn.
The eggs absorbed the red flames, then the young hatched from them.
From each egg emerged between 3 to 4 baby monkeys.
They were very small, about the size of a human fist.
Strangely, the number hatched was small compared to the egg's size itself.
The appearance of these baby monkeys was simply magnificent.
Large red eyes, pure white fur, small hands, their small mouths on their chests gleamed with a blue light.
The young stared at the large monkey and understood instinctively.
He was the strongest.
He was their leader.
He was the one and only, their king.
Unlike the other monkeys, he had red stripes, fur on his head resembling a crown, and a mouth on his face instead of his chest.
On his chest area, strange crimson inscriptions, and a word written in human language: "Flame."
An orange bird sat on the large monkey's shoulder.
The bird's feathers were ablaze, its beak strange, cone-shaped with yellow and red circles.
Each time the bird opened its mouth, a small fire emerged.
The large monkey held a circular tree branch with his fingers, bringing the branch close to the bird's mouth.
After the branch was sufficiently ignited, he brought it to his mouth, inhaling the smoke.
"Aaaow! Hooo!"
This monkey was actually smoking the tree branch!
After the dose, he was intoxicated, making strange sounds, while the females around him showed admiration.
These were the Profound Ecstasy Monkeys.
These monkeys had strange customs. When fighting over territory and pack, the competing monkeys would pluck a tree branch, smoke it, then seek to kill the rival monkey or extinguish his branch.
If one finished his branch before the other, he would win and take the other's family and tree as a prize, and if he wished, make him his slave.
During their time inside their eggs as fetuses, they would eat each other until 3 to 4 remained, usually, to be born fully formed.
What determined the Profound Ecstasy Monkeys' right to life was their color.
If their color was pale, they couldn't withstand the burning fire of their bodies and would most likely be eaten by their mothers to become food for their remaining siblings.
White is life and status, black is destruction and humiliation.
Some fetuses weren't fully white, determined by the food they received from their mother.
If their food wasn't sufficient?
Then they must absorb it from a creature that has sufficient food!
The number of tails indicated the monkey's level and wealth: Zero Fang has one tail, two tails are First Fang, three tails are Second Fang!
If the monkey has red stripes, that means it's about to reach the Third Fang.
"Ragna is very knowledgeable about the wondrous forest world; in this regard, he's better than the four of us combined."
Four years ago, Ragna gave Leon and the others an Ego containing detailed information about the creatures of the Moon Island.
The encyclopedia was vast, direct, and easy to understand.
It contained information not only about creatures but also their habits, hunting grounds, combat methods, environments that weaken them, and their natural enemies...
Violet sparks surrounded Loki's eyes, and his pupils became draconic.
With his awareness surrounded by energy, his sight revealed the hidden and mysterious things around.
A transparent energy field surrounded the area, and it was clearly a formation of the Ghouls of this forest.
"These monkeys are annoying, loving noise and chaos. They'll attract attention. I'll bypass them..."
...Or not?
A fleeting idea appeared.
Its results were analyzed, then feeling its implications, a smile broke across Loki's face.
"Hehehe, since I'm going to provoke them, shouldn't I do it with utmost devotion? If I use them, won't that hide my movements even more?"
And thus, I can also bring samples for Ragna.
The reason for Loki's thinking was his strength first, and the volatile nature of these monkeys second.
Above the forest sky, not many creatures flew, so the Ghouls of the Red Night Forest actively sought to detect any strange movements.
It was different on land.
There were many creatures walking on the ground, so detecting suspicious movements wasn't easy.
When one uses their energy or Ego, even if their energy disappears, there are always remnants of that energy in the air, which take a long time to disappear completely.
As long as one is a detection expert, they can deduce the type of Ego and the person's energy through that residue.
Methods that hide aura or core energy remnants are extremely rare, difficult to find, let alone invent.
Concealing his energy remnants wasn't Loki's specialty, and he was somewhat lacking in this area.
That's why he didn't want to fly over the Red Night Forest, as the Ghoul tribes, being hunting experts, had deep detection methods.
An Ego's capabilities aren't always determined by its level; there are cases where an Ego performs beyond its level, and the Red Night Forest Ghouls were among those cases.
As long as there is a leak of energy remnants above the forest, the energy field surrounding the forest can immediately locate the person.
Of course, nothing in life is absolute, and no creature is invincible.
Just as strong concealment methods are rare, strong detection methods are also rare.
First and foremost, having deep concealment methods isn't necessary to hide one's traces; clever exploitation of the environment is the best way.
True concealment lies not in disappearing, but in blending naturally with the world.
The enemy does not seek what is familiar, but what is different and foreign to its environment.
Only by blending with the creatures on the ground can he camouflage himself.
With his energy mixing with the environment, they wouldn't easily detect him.
When he got close enough to the monkeys, Loki did not hesitate.
The atmosphere changed; the remaining cold of winter turned into scorching desert heat.
Fire energy in this place was high, leading to suppression of any opposing energy like ice or water.
But this suppression wasn't enough against Loki.
The white aura surrounding him prevented him from feeling the heat.
He extended his finger towards the monkeys, energy flowing through his fingers.
"You filthy monkey, come and fight me!"
After his shout, the monkeys stared at him, then exploiting the opportunity, he fired.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Small ice arrows flew through the air at immense speed, piercing the monkeys' skulls.
"...Aaoo?"
The large monkey tilted his head, staring strangely at the females around him.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The corpses fell from the trees, freezing slowly in the air.
Then they shattered upon impact with the scorching ground.
The shattered corpses began to melt, and insects and reptiles pounced to feed on them.
"Aoooo! Hoo! Hoo! Hooo—!"
The large monkey understood what happened and pounded his chest in anger!
How dare he! This damned human! How dare he kill his females!
Hoo! Hoo! Hooo!
The other monkeys grew angry.
Loki entered the forest and leaped above the trees.
"Come! Catch me, you damned scoundrel!"
Loki laughed contemptuously, heading towards the Shield Wolf Ghoul village.
Time to break the balance of power.
The soaring birds swooped towards him, and winged snakes spat venom from their fangs.
Loki drew his white sword from its sheath and slashed several times!
"Hehehe, hahaha!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The cold sword aura cut through the birds' and snakes' bodies, the venom freezing in mid-air.
"Aaaaaah ~ what joy!"
The feeling of cutting bodies, freezing them, and draining life from them.
Laughing in the face of those who attack you, watching fear slowly manifest on their faces.
"Joyful, fighting is so joyful!"
Inhaling the scent of blood and burning corpses, Loki laughed savagely.
One must be either completely rational or utterly insane to survive in this world.
Loki was obsessed with winter, loved its harshness and loved taking shelter from it, wanted to understand it and elevate it.
Loki was not rational.
"Hahahahaha! Come, come! I will relieve you of the world's calamities!"
He was insane.