Jack was on the Trampling Ram, shuttling through a familiar region of space. The first time he was here, heâd engaged in guerilla warfare and managed to earn levels in the D-Grade. The second, heâd fallen into a trap and been chased into a nearby black hole.
This would be the third and final time he visited Hell, and hopefully the last one.
âWeâll be waiting here,â Nauja said as the ship slowed to a crawl. âIf you need anything, just give the signal. Weâll arrive in seconds.â
âDonât worry,â Jack replied.
This wasnât the first planet he attacked. He was stronger than everâunless Eva Solvig showed up, he was confident in handling things.
He left the Ram and flew forward by himself. Hell was several hundred thousand miles away, so he had time to observe it before he arrived. He saw its many continents separated by lines of seaâits gargantuan size, many times larger than Earth. He could not identify the continent on which heâd spent some months once upon a time.
Weirdly enough, heâd never actually seen Hell from space before. He hadnât witnessed its grandeur. Though it seemed wild and pure, it emanated a certain majesty, making him realize just why the Kingdom had taken this planet as part of its core.
He arrived before the planet unnoticed and gazed down at it.
The original plan had been to destroy Hell as he had Earthen Gemini. That would give him the most levels. On Brockâs insistence, however, theyâd dropped that plan.
Like Earthen Gemini, Hell was mostly occupied by D-Grade disciples of the Animal Kingdomâsoldiers of the enemy. Unlike the other planet, however, Hell was habitable. It contained forests, plains, oceans, and jungles. It was filled with animals. If Jack destroyed it, he would be reaping trillions of innocent lives, and thatâs not even including the scattered prisoners of the Kingdom roaming the planetâs many continents.
Even for a good cause, he wouldnât do that, so he couldnât destroy the planet. Heâd do the next best thing.
Jack flew around Hell, taking care to remain undetected. His eyes scanned its surface. He knew from last time that the administrative center of Hell was a large prison from which the Warden ruledâit was the greatest building on the planet, the size of a town itself and surrounded by an Animal Kingdom city. Most of the cultivators should be gathered thereâdestroying it would give half the benefits of destroying the planet.
He soon discovered what he was looking for. A towering fortress, unpainted and undecorated, emanating an aura of brutal cruelty. Flags of the Animal Kingdom flew above its walls, portraying a roaring lion, while a city spread around it. Just by looking at this ugly fortress, Jack could imagine the inhumane conditions inside.
His lip twitching, he zoomed in. The atmosphere heated him up into a crimson comet. His cloak fluttered. Without slowing in the slightest, he plummeted through the upper layers of the atmosphere and descended towards the prison.
He did not plan to taunt and grandstand. Hell was littered with teleporters. He couldnât destroy them all, so there was always the chance of Eva Solvig arriving if she was nearby. Jack needed to strike swiftly, then depart.
Protective barriers appeared as he fell from the sky, but he broke right through. Glass-like fragments filled the air. Alarms sounded from the prison, but Jack was already in the air above it.
âDie,â he muttered, shooting out his fist. He borrowed his fall to increase its momentumâa purple meteor blossomed into existence, parting the air as it crashed downward at tremendous speed. More barriers appearedâmore shattered. A few attacks flew at the meteor from below but they were like toothpicks thrown at a giant. The meteor crashed into the fortress, breaking through its roof and nailing into the ground. A large shockwave spread from the point of impactâthe fortress was demolished, the houses upturned, the cultivators sent flying. A wave of dust rose to submerge the city, and the flags of the Animal Kingdom were ripped apart by the wind, fluttering wildly in pieces.
The entire city was destroyed in the blink of an eye. Most people hadnât even realized there was someone attacking. Hundreds of D-Grades were instantly killed.
Jack knew that, while this place looked like a city, it was actually the Kingdomâs main training area for D-Grade cultivators. There were barely any innocent people down there, all soldiers of the enemy. The only exceptions were the prisoners held inside the fortress, but Jack had made the conscious decision to strike regardless.
The prisoners here werenât manyâmost were running around the planet as animals to be huntedâand, even if he didnât kill them directly, he wouldnât be able to save them in the little time he had. They were doomed to stay here and be tortured by the Animal Kingdom for some time more. Therefore, he believed their sacrifice was worthyâby greatly accelerating his leveling speed, he could save many more of the millions of people dying to the Kingdom every day. freewebnĂžvel.com
Level up! You have reached Level 343.
Level up! You have reached Level 344.
Level up! You have reached Level 345.
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Level up! You have reached Level 346.
Only four levels⊠he thought, sighing. It was less than heâd hoped for. The average C-Grade would be happy to get four levels in a decade, but to Jack, this speed was much too slow.
There wasnât much he could do about it right now.
It had been less than ten seconds since Jack entered Hellâs atmosphere, yet the prison was already destroyed. He didnât have much time leftâhis job was done. He instantly turned around and flew back into space, teleporting rapidly to escape faster.
No matter how quick their reaction was, even if Eva Solvig was waiting right by a teleporter, there was no way she would arrive within the first minute. However, to ensure success, Jack had resolved to stay here for half a minuteâgo in, destroy the city in one strike, rush out. Simple and clean. It would be impossible for anyone to catch him unless they were already waiting here.
Jack rushed in the direction of the Trampling Ram.
Suddenly, space solidified before him, interrupting his series of teleportations. Jackâs danger sense acted up. Without thinking, he flew to the side, barely dodging a spear which appeared in the space he previously occupied.
âHmm,â an elderly voice rang out. âGood reflex.â
Jack tensed up. He hadnât sensed anyone nearby. A figure stepped out of the void ahead of himâas easily as a child stepping through curtains.
It was a leonine Jack hadnât seen before. He reeked of age and death. His fur had fallen off, leaving only white patches, and his skin was so wrinkled it seemed fake. He was small, too, shorter than Jack, as if old age had shrunk up this once majestic leonine into the size of a child. Gazing into his eyes, Jack found them pale and muddiedâlike he could barely see.
This person, whoever he was, gave off the impression that he just barely clung onto life. Yet, he didâand despite his appearance, there was nothing weak about him.
Jackâs danger sense acted up. His hair rose. Something inside him screamed to be careful because this decrepit old leonine was a genuine threat to his lifeâa feeling he hadnât experienced since he faced Eva Solvig.
âItâs just like the young to be overeager,â the leonine said. âAttacking Hell⊠What wonderful recklessness.â His voice was weak, yet it easily spread through the vacuum of space. He sounded joyfulâand partly bitter.
âWho are you?â Jack asked. He scanned him at the same time.
Leonine, Level ??? (B-Grade)
Faction: -
No faction? Is he not with the Animal Kingdom?
The level wasnât visible, as it never was for people of a higher Grade, but Jack could still use his Dao perception to gauge the old manâs strength. It was tremendousâeven greater than Eva Solvigâs, though shriveled up by old age just like his body. At his peak, he was probably at the peak B-Grade tier. Now, he possessed the strength of a normal late B-Grade cultivator.
But even a late B-Grade wasnât someone Jack could necessarily match.
âI guess you could say Iâm nobody,â the leonine replied, chuckling. âIf my name still existed, I would be Travelus Lonihor, pioneer of the Milky Way and one of the founders of the Animal Kingdom. For an old man like me to return just to deal with a boy like you⊠It is a bit unsightly.â
Jack was dazed. Founder of the Animal Kingdom? As far as he knew, the Kingdom had been founded shortly after the System arrived at the Milky Way, almost a million years ago. Was this old man claiming to have lived that long? B-Grades could only live for a hundred thousand years at most. What was going on?
Wait. He mentioned he has returned from somewhere⊠Could it be he was revived!?
Jack was unfamiliar with the concept of cryogenically-maintained Supreme Ancestors. It wasnât something people tended to share. He naturally arrived at wrong assumptions, but whatever the case, he didnât dwell on it too much.
There was no time to chat. He needed to escape quickly. His mind quickly analyzed the situation: This old man had solidified space to stop his teleportation. Their Daos of Spacetime were at similar heightsâor, at least, the old man wasnât too far off. Jack could probably outrun him, but that didnât mean he could escape. Heâd already approached the Trampling Ram. If the old man discovered that, Jack would be placed in the same conundrum as last time, when he needed to protect the ship or let it leave alone. There would be no time to teleport away.
He needed to defeat this old man quickly.
Jack no longer bothered with speaking. His aura rose. Waves of purple whipped at the surrounding space. His cloak fluttered wildly, and a condensed aura hugged his body, making him resemble a devil warrior. He didnât know if he could win, but he was ready to go all-out from the very start.
Facing this display of power, the old man was unbothered. âPretty good for a C-Grade,â he said. âLet me stretch these old bones.â
The void split above him. Divine radiance rained down, an amount tremendously vaster than anything Jack had ever witnessed. It hugged the old man, completely hiding his appearance, and the silver light morphed into shiny plate armor. A lance appeared in the old manâs hand. His aged face seemed to recover a hint of vigor, while sets of wings unfurled from his back one after the other.
Eight white wings flapped majestically, showering the world in radiance. Even a fifth pair of wings was faintly visible, just a shadow which hadnât yet materialized. Meanwhile, a dozen divine warriors appeared around the old man, each possessing strength at the early B-Grade.
This was the Lonihor familyâs angel battle formâthe same technique every single member of the Lonihor family had used so far. By now, Jack knew this was a cultivation technique originating from the Black Hole World, but this old man seemed to comprehend it to a greater extent than anyone Jack had ever fought before.
Jack had read the description of this techniqueâwhose original name was Art of Divine Providenceâat the Black Hole World. The practitioner could manifest two wings at the E-Grade, four at the D-Grade, six at the C-Grade, eight at the B-Grade, and ten at the A-Grade. There was even the theoretical level of twelve wings when one became an Archon.
This old man hadnât reached the A-Grade even in his prime. Yet, he could manifest a shadow of the ten wings. That was a testament to his great talent, unfathomable power, and deep understanding. It drove home how this decrepit old man was one of the greatest talents to ever grace the Milky Way galaxy, the founder of a B-Grade faction and interstellar empire, a pioneer of cultivation whoâd ushered his entire species into a million year-long era of prosperity. This was a hero returned from the deadâand Jack was asked to cross an entire Grade to fight him.
Jack was fighting for his life. There were many weights on his shoulders. Yet, despite all that, he found himself fired up at the prospect. The man before him was a legendâhe was late-game material. And Jack was about to take him down.
âI have half a minute, old man,â he growled. âBring it on.â His aura erupted, and he charged.