Chapter 113 - Exposed And Pursuit
“Thank you, sir,” the centaur struggled to sit up and said. “Only a few of our brethren managed to escape. Sir, didn’t you say that the higher-ups will send reinforcements to the north of Town Leia? How come I didn’t see anyone?”
Barnacle could not help but gnash his teeth as Yach mentioned that. Now, he fought desperately for half a day inexplicably, but he still did not know which evil bastard planned this insidious scheme!
“That was not me; it was an imposter. We all fell for it!” Barnacle said with a sullen face, “However today’s battle was not a total loss. I gained a vague understanding of the power of the Demon King. If a Great Demon does not have a mutant bloodline, generally Higher Demon would be their limit. This opportunity is very hard to come by. If I can reach the level of the Demon King, even if there is no room for me at the Red Spirit estate, I can defect to Blue Lava estate. Yach, you should follow me; I will not treat you badly.”
“Of course I will follow you, sir.” When Yach heard Barnacle briefly mentioned the mechanics of the Demon King’s power, and strange light shone in his eyes. He looked curious , “Sir, are you very familiar with the Blue Lava estate? If we go like this, wouldn’t we be looked down upon by those guys?” “No, we won’t” Barnacle’s tone was very firm. “I have interacted with Lavat, the vice captain of the Blue Lava estate’s Twin-head Dragon Legion before. He revealed that the Blue Lava lord had intentions of recruiting. The Twin-head Dragon Legion is a secret elite force that is directly under the Blue Lava lord. If I can grasp the power of the Demon King, the Blue Lava lord will definitely make me someone important. Who knows, I could even become the leader, deputy leader or some other important position.” Lavat? Twin-head Dragon Legion?
The real Yach was currently being held at the mayor’s mansion. This hero who stole the gale horse in front of him was of course Chen Rui after using <Camouflage>.
Barnacle’s words suddenly reminded Chen Rui of the blue badge with a twin-head dragon in the storage warehouse. The badge was seized from the black-market merchant Silva in Dark Moon City that day. Silva smuggled people to the Blue Lava estate several times. When he encountered bandits, as long as she showed this badge, he could safely pass through the bandits’ territory. Additionally, the name Lavat coincided with Silva’s statement.
It turns out to be the secret force belonging to the Blue Lava lord. No wonder even Gauss could not identify the origin of the badge!
This was another unexpected piece of information.
“Stop spacing out. Fix this place up. We will rest beside the woods tonight,” Barnacle was dissatisfied seeing the way “Yach” was staring blankly ahead.
“Yes, sir.” The centaur snapped out of it and began to get busy, clearing a piece of land that was relatively clean.
After working hard, the centaur took a bottle of wine from his waist. Just as he was about to drink it, he suddenly thought of Barnacle next to him and quickly handed it over to flatter.
Barnacle accepted it and opened the cork. Suddenly, his heart raced. Centaur loves wine, so it is normal for them to carry wine around. However, this bottle iss made of porcelain instead of a portable leather bag. How did this centaur, who was running for his life, store this wine bottle in perfect condition? Could an ordinary centaur also own expensive storage equipment?
“You drink first,” Barnacle passed the bottle back to him.
Chen Rui knew that Barnacle had become suspicious, and he immediately put on a delighted expression. He took a swig of wine right away. Just as he was drinking, he suddenly felt a sense of danger. He could no longer impose as Yach. He moved his body slightly to dodge a deadly knife to his chest.
“You can no longer keep imposing right...” Barnacle said scornfully, looking at the unusually calm centaur.
Just now Barnacle was not only testing him, but he really had the intention to kill. Whether this centaur was fake or not, bringing him along was a burden anyway. It was better to get rid of him.
Unexpectedly, with this strike, he discovered a problem.
“Just who are you?” Barnacle’s pointed at “Yach” with his long-handed scythe.
This centaur is really a terrifying schemer. Something must be wrong about the bottle of wine just now; if not for my quick wit earlier, I might have fallen for it already.
Actually, Chen Rui could not do anything about it. The wine bottle was filled with wine... and the poison dragon Paglio’s strongest poison. An ordinary leather bags would not be able to hold it at all. Even this porcelain would corrode after a while, unless it was a magically enhanced high-grade medicine bottle used by pharmacists. Using that medicine bottle would be clearly telling the other person that this was a bottle of poison.
Barnacle’s cautiousness exceeded Chen Rui’s expectations. Knowing that this battle was now unavoidable, he secretly gathered Star Power and said mildly, “I am someone who wants to kill you.” “Based on your power, you must be a Higher Demon. Otherwise, you definitely would not be able to dodge that strike.” Barnacle’s eyes flashed a glimpse of coldness. “This is not your true form. Is it necessary to continue imposing at this point?”
The Great Demon actually guessed it right. He really did use <Camouflage>, but this <Camouflage> form of expanding into a centaur was not suitable for combat. Therefore Chen Rui returned his body to its normal state, but he changed his face into another one. The other Chen Rui; the one with the ordinary otaku face living on earth.
For the first time, he appeared in the Demon Realm in this appearance.
Barnacle’s brows wrinkled slightly. The opponent has a very fascinating transformation ability. If I did not see through him by chance just now, even with my top-notch Higher Demon vision, I would not be able to see any flaws.
Barnacle’s was a quick thinker; he reacted quickly. The expression on his face becoming even more shocked. The power, the plot, and the transformation ability that this person showed, could he be the person who imposed to be me in the midst of today’s unexpected events...
“Who in the world are you?” Barnacle shouted. “It was you stirring up trouble in town today right?! Who sent you!”
In Barnacle’s line of thought, the man behind the operation was insidious and sinister. He would not be so unwise to put himself in danger, but this person in front of him must also be a key person. If he could capture him, then there might be room to remedy today’s fiasco.
Barnacle’s reaction was somewhat out of Chen Rui’s expectation. However, he didn’t speak much nonsense. His hands trembled, and with a surge of strength, the wine in the bottle shot toward Barnacle like a cannon. Barnacle cautiously teleported away, only to see the ground the wine spilled onto was burnt black and the plants and trees nearby instantly dried up and even evaporated. Barnacle was shocked.
He was stunned for a moment. The opponent had already leapt over, landing a punch. Although the opponent’s vigour seemed a bit weak, Barnacle did not dare to put down his guard. His whole body was burning with demonic fire and he blocked the attack with his sword.
Chen Rui felt a rush of strong energy. This simple block was like a solid shield. It was as if his fist landed on a mountain; it was unshakable at all. His entire person recoiled so hard that he flew back. He did a flip in midair and landed on the ground.
It seemed that Barnacle’s defensive ability was still above expectations. Just now he could defend flawlessly against the joint attack by Larks and Baoliu, two top-notch Higher Demons, and he could even launch a surprise attack to kill one of them. It was not at all by chance.
Barnacle was experiencing a different feeling. He felt that the power of this punch was like a raging wave which was boundless and surging. It passed through the scythe’s parry, rushing wave after wave toward his body. Although it did not push him back, his feet had already sunken into the soil. Fortunately, he managed to knock back the opponent in time, otherwise the delayed effect might be even stronger.
This exploration of each other’s abilities made both parties alert. Besides the poison dragon and Roman, not counting the time Arux spliting <Aurora Shot>, Barnacle was by far the strongest enemy Chen Rui had ever faced.
In Barnacle’s point of view, the enemy’s clearly had intermediate Higher Demon level powers, a long way from the peak. However the majestic power he showed almost made him, a top-notch Greater Demon who was close to reaching the level of a Demon King, suffer a loss. He should not be underestimated.
Although Chen Rui tested Barnacle’s strong defense, he did not show the slightest hint of fear. He let out a shout and launched an attack. The power of a raging ocean surged out of his fist, one wave after another, unreservedly attacking Barnacle. Barnacle’s defense was completely different from Culia’s, who defended using his own body. His was a combination of strength and skill. While slashing his knife, even though it was more defense than offense, but he remained steady as a rock the entire time.
In this powerful clash of attack and defense, Chen Rui faintly felt something new. It was like the sparks produced from sharpening a blade. Although it was fleeting, the more times the blade was sharpened, the stronger its power, the hotter the flickering sparks got.
If he could grasp and master this new feeling, he might be able to break through the initial bottleneck, it was a crucial step toward realizing the difficult situation.
However, the battle was interlacing and pacing between life and death, rather than holding back the skill of oneself. While Chen Rui’s great, surging power was strong, but it was extremely Star Power consuming. Even if his <Astral Form> had a special recovery ability, the rate of regeneration needed to greatly exceed the rate of consumption.
Barnacle’s was very experienced in combat. When he felt that his opponent’s attack power was beginning to weaken, he prepared to launch a counterattack. He didn’t expect the other party did not fight back with force, but turned around and fled.
Barnacle pursued all the way, circling the woods several times. He then saw Chen Rui went to the tree where the gale horses were tied to, getting on to the horse and escaping. Initially, Chen Rui wanted to kill the other horse, but Barnacle was right behind him. He could not do it in time; he immediately urged the horse to flee. The gale horse started running at a very high speed. Although its endurance could not compare to land dragons that could trek long distances, it was stronger than an ordinary demonic beast after all. Even though it had been running for half a day, it could still run as if it was flying.
Barnacle knew that he had to catch this person, otherwise he would not be able to report back once he returned to the Red Spirit estate. He quickly got onto the other one, urging the horse to catch up. To the surprise of Barnacle, he was originally a master of beast taming, but the bastard in front of him was even better. If he did not use the power of demonic fire to provoke and spur the gale horse to accelerate, he might be left in the dust.
What was even worse was that the bastard fled while frantically drinking medicine. He didn’t know how much medicine was stored in the storage equipment. Anyway, an unending number of bottles were being thrown backward at him.
Could he be carrying a whole potion pharmacy with him? Barnacle gnashed his teeth and pursued him closely.