Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  Whoosh!!

  Moon-white bands of light floated around Edin quickly, forming a large white ring.

  The blood mist was covered by the ring. Inside, the sound of countless blades piercing and rubbing against each other could be heard.

  It seemed as if countless blades were continuously piercing through the blood mist at every second inside the bands of light.

  "Inside my halo of Silver Flowers, at every second, there are a thousand knives piercing through, equivalent to my maximum attack strength." Edin murmured, as he watched the blood mist become thinner the more it was sliced.

  "Goodbye then…… Nine-Headed Dragon Garen."

  Tch!!

  A bloody arm stabbed through his chest suddenly.

  Edin’s pupils widened instantly.

  The air seemed to have stopped moving……

  His surroundings stopped moving as well.

  Startled, Edin bowed his head, and watched the arm poking out of his chest, and noticed that the blood on the arm was as warm as his body.

  His hand loosened its grip on the large sword immediately.

  Crash!

  "Edin!!!" The shadow of the girl behind him screamed immediately, and outstretched her arms to catch his body, but disappeared quickly instead.

  A bloodied figure stood behind Edin, with three bloody glowing birthmarks on his forehead, and an armor-clad body that was dripping with a thick layer of blood.

  Garen’s arm poked through Edin’s chest slowly, causing a large pool of blood to form. The armor and flesh rubbed against each other, and let out a horrifying squeaking sound.

  Silently, the two large swords and the white moon halo exploded completely on their own, and turned into countless white rose petals, before being blown by the wind, and dancing around Edin and Garen endlessly.

  The ruins seemed to be immersed in a shower of flowers for a brief moment.

  Edin’s vision became blurry, but he could still see the hole in his own chest, and the color of the blood that flowed out.

  It was a bright red color, tinged with glistening black accents. He could smell the weird scent that wafted from his blood, and although it was not a fishy smell, it was a strange stench that contained undertones of rotting.

  "It seems that…… I was poisoned from the beginning……" said Edin as a bittersweet smile appeared on his face.

  "Five lives!" Garen’s voice rang out behind him. "You destroyed five of my lives. During the battle at Snowy Peak in the beginning, even God Cloud hadn’t killed me so many times……"

  He paused, and continued speaking in a more solemn tone.

  "Unfortunately, you only paid attention to my Nine Lives, and forgot that the Nine-Headed Dragon was actually a terrifying, toxic ancient creature."

  "I never expected that…… after serving Ivycius my whole life, that I would die in a place like this……" Edin raised his head painstakingly, and looked towards the moon in the sky, with a feeling of loss caused by his sudden epiphany.

  "Dead?" A strange expression appeared on Garen’s face. "For a strong individual like yourself, I wasted lots of time and energy to hurt you, not just so I could kill you so quickly."

  Edin was slightly shocked, and was about to open his mouth.

  Suddenly, he felt a sinister icy foreign matter pouring out of his chest.

  When the watery foreign matter touched his flesh, it melted and seeped into his internal organs rapidly.

  He felt as if his life force was being frantically sucked out by this foreign matter, as his reasoning became weaker, while his awareness become blurrier.

  Pfoo.

  Edin knelt on the floor immediately, as his whole body was completely out of energy.

  Garen stood where he was, clad in his black armor, as he looked at the messy palace in his surroundings, and noticed that the initially magnificent palace had completely turned into a rubbish dump, filled with rubble and residue.

  The night wind blew over, and the air was still filled with traces of flowery parfum.

  "Ivycius…… I should have known earlier, that this bastard was actually the White Rose Juggernaut Ivycius."

  Actually, the last thing that he said to Ivycius, was not true.

  The Nine-Headed Dragon’s poison was not mainly used to kill one’s opponent, as the main purpose, was actually related to Secret Techniques.

  After witnessing the moment when Edin strengthened his sword techniques, Garen had finally understood the parts that he could not see clearly before.

  Secret Techniques could aid the evolution of Totems and could unearth the body’s inner blood flow, meanwhile for Totem evolution, it would form natural Secret Technique Roadmap exercises.

  However, this was only one of the uses of Secret Techniques.

  In this world, and the previous world, most of them were not blood flow Secret Techniques, but were rather life transforming, life evolving Secret Techniques!

  Ivycius presented unprecedented sword techniques that seemed to be able to defeat Rose Totems, by integrating sword skills and Totem abilities, to achieve an incomparably powerful, yet new and different sword techniques.

  "If it weren’t for that sudden breakthrough, perhaps this fight would have become a prolonged battle." Garen exhaled. "Wouldn’t you say so? Ivycius."

  Ivycius’ corpse blinked mysteriously. His skin and body had blackened slightly, and he had apparently stood up again.

  "No matter the reason, a win is a win, and a loss is a loss." He smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I lost, thinking I would die by your hands, but I never expected to lose my freedom instead."

  "It’s always better to have hope."

  "That’s true." Ivycius nodded seriously.

  Garen walked around Ivycius.

  This was his sole Demon Dragon quota.

  Because his evolved Nine-Headed Demon Dragon was incomplete, because his ancient Nine-Headed Dragon lacked blood, he was only able to forge one with Demon Dragon abilities.

  The Demon Dragon was actually a parasitic life form, because after it killed its enemy, it would preserve a large part of its opponent’s corpse, and within fifteen minutes, it would place its parasitic seeds into its opponents flesh to reanimate it, and turn it into the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon’s war tool.

  As for the Demon Dragon’s self-beautifying exterior, that was merely an additional characteristic. Moreover, the beautifying aspect was something that was slowly perfected over time, and not something that could be achieved quickly.

  Of course, Garen was not hoping that the beautifying would have any additional effects. He definitely did not harbor any longing for the ancient Nine-Headed Demon Dragon’s aesthetics, and as long as it maintained its current state, he would already be very satisfied.

  Looking at Ivycius in front of him, Garen felt that they had some blood relations, as if they were close brothers, and moreover, he could now control his opponent’s body the same way he controlled Silver Totems.

  "Do you feel anything?"

  Ivycius shook his head.

  "Looks like you’re using this type of ability for the first time as well."

  "Of course. The Nine-Headed Demon Dragon has possessed this ancient parasitic Demon Dragon ability since ancient times." Garen looked at his opponent with a pitiful gaze. "I have two kinds of news that I’m about to tell you, one is good, while the other is bad, so which one would you like to hear first?"

  Instantly, Ivycius realized that something was not right.

  "Tell me the good news first, being happy under a burdenless situation is not a bad feeling."

  Garen shook his head.

  "The good news is, the current state of your body is much stronger than before, especially your regenerative abilities, one of the special abilities that I possess as the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, Swallowed Lives, is something that you can share as well."

  "I understand, the strength that you gain from consuming flesh, can also be used to revive me?"

  Garen nodded certainly.

  "The bad news is that your body will be changed by the Demon Dragon parasites, and I’ve heard that it will make you more beautiful…… Of course, this version of beauty is defined by the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon…… Don’t look at me, I don’t know the aesthetic values of the Nine-Headed Dragon either."

  Ivycius’ face twitched, beauty in the eyes of the Nine-Headed Dragon……

  During ancient eras, God knows what kind of beauty standards the Nine-Headed Dragon would hold. In the rare chance that it was a large backside or extra chest hair…… What if he suddenly noticed an extra mouth growing below his penis, that would truly be bisexual reproduction.

  Ivycius’ strong associating abilities clicked suddenly, and chills spread through his entire body.

  "If that day really comes…… I will kill you, before killing myself!!" he said, grinding his teeth.

  To him, who loved vanity more than he loved his life, it was definitely more agonizing than death.

  Garen was speechless.

  "Try being more honest with yourself." He lifted Ivycius in one go. "Still trying to resist even after being captured by me? Looks like you’re not awake yet. Currently, your Totem is heavily damaged and your body is seriously injured, and you’re not much stronger than a little chick."

  "Release me!!"

  "If you shut up I might help you think of a plan later, if you keep talking, I’m just going to ignore you!"

  Ivycius became honest suddenly.

  At this moment, the flower garden on the side became messy as well.

  When Garen carried Ivycius and brought him over, the entire flower garden had turned into a pile of wreckage after being burned by the large fire.

  The corpses of more than twenty Black Fire Guards lay on the ground, while the Beckstone trio was nowhere to be seen. There were only traces of pools of almost dried up blood on the floor.

  "Here!!" Garen looked over at the desolate and quiet ruins of the flower garden and roared loudly.

  After waiting for a few minutes, frantic footsteps could be heard vaguely from far away.

  A group of Black Fire Guards ran over from the borders of the ruins and bowed respectfully before Garen.

  There were almost two hundred guards at first, but all that was left were the forty guards that stood before him.

  Garen suddenly understood the tragedy of the current war, which involved him and Edin as well.

  All of these elite guards were ranked at peak Form 2, and their scariest ability was self-explosion, and this self-explosion could be overlaid, and under the command of the Form 3 guards, was apparently strong enough to take appropriate revenge on the Beckstone trio, and was truly amazing.

  "You’re probably very proud by now," Ivycius interjected suddenly. "Beckstone has two Form 4 professionals with him, and although you had to protect the Eleventh Royal Daughter, it must have been an amazing record to have been able to hurt them."

  "Two Form 4? Does this mean that Beckstone has finally entered Form 4 already?" Garen asked quietly.

  "Yes. Although I’m not familiar with them, as they were always lurking in the palace, I’ve heard that they were geniuses that have been cultivated from the society during these past years. However, I was always trying to break through to Form 5, and never had any intentions to return. But this time, someone came looking for me and wanted me to obstruct you for awhile, and since we were members of the same society, I grudgingly agreed."

  "The person who came looking for you was a woman, right?" Garen interrupted.

  Ivycius blushed, and stopped speaking.

  "Breaking through Form 5? Well did you find any opportunities?"

  "Before the battle with you, it would probably take at least a year or so. But after this fight, I have started to feel this threshold loosening?" Ivycius said proudly.

  "Form 5…… Perhaps, I’ve seen a sliver of hope……" Garen’s gaze drifted towards his Attribute Pane unconsciously.

  In the Attribute Pane at the bottom of his vision, there were now Earth-shattering changes.

  A clear blood-red symbol appeared at a far back position in the Attribute Pane. The Colour Changing Butterfly Totem that he had almost forgotten about had now disappeared completely, while the Neon Butterfly that he had gotten from Teacher Emin, which he later evolved into a Totem, was now completely nowhere to be seen.

  Meanwhile, strange changes had occurred in Garen’s Attribute Pane.

  ‘Strength 14. Agility 10. Vitality 10. Intelligence 10. Potential 22117%. Obtained Luminarist qualifications.’


  Secret Technique ——

  Myriad Water Jasper Technique: Hallucination Toxins have been strengthened to the next level (Originates from the Color Changing Butterfly Totem)’


  "Apparently…… It’s exactly as I guessed……" A bout of sudden realization flashed in Garen’s eyes.