Chapter 180: Chaos Enters The Fray

It's been a few weeks since we entered the Treasure realm; over the past couple of weeks, Elaine and I have mainly been flying west in search of entertainment while occasionally helping some cultivators in need, but as we flew more west, heading deeper into the realm, we encountered less and less cultivators; it's been roughly a whole week since we've seen a single person. Currently, we are rather deep inside the treasure realm, and right now, I've engaged in battle with Shadow Panther. It is not a very physically powerful enemy, but it specializes in staying hidden from sight, allowing it to catch unsuspecting victims, swiftly killing them as it injects poison into its prey system by stabbing them with its three tails.

Dodging its poison-laced tails, I swiftly backed away while launching several Heavenly scars that were amplified by my sword aura from Hokori, which I've long since unsheathed since the opponent before me was rather powerful. The significantly injured shadow Panther tried to dodge the rain of purple sword waves, but thanks to one of my earlier attacks of wounding one of its legs, hampering its incredible agility, it wasn't able to evade all of my heavenly scars as some of them dug into the beast's skin while slicing off chunks of its body, causing it to roar in pain as it fell to the ground.

Seeing the beast being overwhelmed by attacks, although it looked like it could die any second, I didn't let up; engulfing my blade in ethereal purple flames, I extended Hokori to its original size, causing the blade itself to be about as long as me, before swiftly appearing just beside the Panthers neck. Without giving the beast any time to react, I brought my sword down as the blade entered its flesh, slicing through its bone, before exiting from the other side, separating the beast's head from the rest of its body, effectively killing it.

"Haa, haa, that fight was too close for comfort; it seems fighting opponents three full realms above me is my limit." Muttered Elif in utter exhaustion as he propped himself up with Hokori, covered in sweat, blood, and various deadly wounds while the panther's potent poison coursed through his body and wreaked havoc.

Feeling the painful poison course through my veins, I stopped myself from grunting as I collapsed beside the corpse of the panther while heavily panting; I had used the last of my Qi in those attacks, which meant I no longer had anything to keep the poison at bay as it swiftly began destroying the inside of my body, thankfully my physique was relatively strong, at least for an Elf, so I still have a few minutes before it forfeits my life.

As I began to lose strength in my arms, I was forced to drop a bloody Hokori onto the ground, though before I allowed my body to continue to weaken, I summoned forth two pills; one was something I always had with me, although I hadn't used yet, a poison dispelling pill, the other was a rejuvenation pill, of course, both were five-star pills of the God rank.

Floating them to my mouth with the minuscule amount of Qi I managed to absorb from the surrounding atmosphere, I swiftly swallowed them, allowing them to work their magic; not even a few moments later, I could feel the poison in my body was quickly being eliminated, my injuries started to heal, and my Qi reserves were quickly filling back up. Given my very injured state, it would be best to command the pills Qi manually, but I wasn't in the best of places to do so; after all, I was still in the forest, and I'm sure my fight with the Shadow Panther, which had lasted for more than an hour, had attracted unwanted attention; within a few minutes, I'm confident several powerful beasts will visit this place.

'Ugh, as much as I would love to just sit down while my body recuperates, I need to leave this area; with my condition, I can't engage in battle with another beast as strong as that Panther.' Thought Elif with a sigh as he grabbed Hokori from the ground and stood up despite his injury-riddled body and took to the sky, leaving behind a massive scene of destruction.

Knowing it would be stupid to head further west, I headed back toward where I originally came from, east, and intended to find Elaine since she obviously wasn't with me. A week ago, we decided to split up, mainly because while Elaine was powerful, she wasn't nearly as powerful as me; the most she could fight was an opponent two entire realms above her cultivation base, which would currently be an early Divine King, and about roughly seven or six days ago, we began encountering Divine King beasts; at that point, every beast we fought was forcing Elaine to use everything she had.

I, of course, was still having a relatively easy time, and it's been quite a while since I've faced an opponent besides Illumia that could push me to my limit, so I was quite interested in engaging in such a fight, though Elaine wasn't really excited about that.

After being forced to appease her for nearly half an hour while telling her she couldn't follow me, we finally separated, and that's essentially how I ended up in that situation.

"Haa and I'm glad she didn't try to foolishly follow me; I'm confident in protecting her against beasts with a middle Divine Emperor cultivation base and below, but anything above that, and I can't be for sure. Especially that Shadow Panther, if he decided to ambush Elaine and poison her instead of me, ugh, I'd prefer not to think about it; speaking of poison, I no longer feel it damaging my body." Remarked Elif lightly with a sigh and a shake of his as he scanned his body with his divine sense, discerning not an ounce of poison was left, though the damages they did were still present and very painful to boot.

Thankfully, the flight to find Elaine was mostly quiet. I did happen to see a few large birds, but they didn't really seem interested in fighting me, which was a relief since If they did, as humiliating as it sounds, I would've been forced to flee, something I've never done before and something I never intend to do.

While the flight was boring, it did give me some time to reflect on the battle and search for areas to improve or where I was possibly lacking, which weren't much; in all honesty, I may be a Prince, but I take my training very seriously, after all, I may have been blessed with immaculate aptitude, but if I didn't train as hard as I do, I would've even been half as strong as I am.

'Besides, if I didn't train to my limit, Illumia would beat me, and as embarrassing as it is, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it; Mother and Father would just scold me for slacking off during my training.' Mused Elif with a slight smile while remembering the time when Illumia beat him so severely he was forced to spend three days in Ms. Lynda's office.

Shaking my head at such thoughts while making sure to get my revenge on her for that sometime in the future, I focused on getting to Elaine safely, and since I was still in a dangerous area, I wasn't able to freely spread my divine sense, unless I wished to deal with numerous angry beasts with a cultivation base of a Divine Emperor.

So for the next several hours while my body healed, I continued flying through the sky and even into the night in search of Elaine, which did get easier since once I was no longer in an area where Divine Emperor beasts lived, I, without any restraint spread my divine sense; I may still be injured, but my powerful aura will prevent any beast from foolishly attacking me, and if a few did, I'd still be able to deal with them, after all, I was injured, not defenseless.

'Now then, where are you, my cute and adorable little sister?' Mused Elif with a smirk while searching the seemingly endless forest for Elaine, who, at this point, could truly be anywhere.

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Far, far off to the south of the treasure realm, the same area where the abyss-like formation was created, after a couple of weeks, that exact formation has grown to a tremendous size, reaching the very heavens as it blocked out a part of the southern forest, completely dwarfing its previous size.

However, no longer was the abyss-like formation pitch black; now, there were various cracks atop its beautiful yet eerie surface that leaked dangerous red Qi, capable of corrupting any living being with Qi into chaotic creatures that move purely on instinct. For the next few hours, the formation hovered there in place without any reaction, though all of a sudden, another crack formed, and not even a second later, the pitch-black surface suddenly shattered like glass, revealing an eerie red sky with black clouds that was accompanied by a wasteland of a realm from its dry ground, and slight gusts of wind.

Although that's what one would usually see, the instant the black surface shattered, thousands upon thousands of terrifying beasts rushed out from the formation and entered the treasure realm, blocking anyone from viewing the other side of the realm. Like beasts without any form intelligence, they attacked and destroyed everything they came into contact with, whether it be living creatures, like beasts, trees, or even inanimate objects like rocks; nothing was safe; however, the worst was that the red Qi that escaped from the formation destroyed the surrounding realm while any living or dead creatures that were bathed it's it Qi were turned into mindless, bloodthirsty creatures as they quickly joined the horde of chaotic beasts.

While the beats were moving relatively fast, it would still take them a few days before they encountered any cultivators, though; unfortunately, a certain three-women group was heading south.

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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, [https://discord.gg/TGc9yymDJP]

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Elven Legacy (Chapter 195: Elif's Demise) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 76: Alexander & Lily) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 127: Mael Join's The Frenzy Pirates!) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]