Death… And Me-Novel

"Well then... to think it would be this easy..." Rean could not help but say as he got the fragment found from the store. In fact, there were quite a few of them bunched together since just a single one wouldn't be enough to be seen. "There's a total of seven fragments here, so it'll be four for me and three for you since you got the first fragment back in the city. Is that fine with you, Hurio?"

Hurio immediately nodded in agreement as they had agreed to do it this way from the start. "Sure thing. The fact that we already started with so many fragments makes me incredibly delighted." Following that, Hurio jumped down from Kentucky and said, "Alright. This time, I'm distancing myself, as we've talked about before. That way, we can cover more space at once."

Hearing that, Roan jumped down so that he could follow Hurio. With him there, he could use his connection with Rean to instantly communicate. After all, Divine Sense was somewhat useless in this realm.

"Oh, right!" Hurio remembered something else, telling the others, "In the ruins, the restriction of going above twenty meters doesn't exist. Well, there's still a restriction, but it's far, far above the highest buildings here."

Naturally, Kentucky was happy to hear that. "Cool. If that's the case, I'll keep an eye on the things from above and let you guys know if I find anything."

Rean agreed with Kentucky and jumped down as well, saying, "Alright. You and Lilia can stay in the skies, then. I'm going to stay on the ground since it'll be easier to feel the presence of Fallen Light Star Fragments that way."

With that said, Kentucky brought Lilia up high in the skies while Rean and Hurio greatly distanced themselves from each other. They also decided in which direction they would walk while looking for them.

They weren't the only ones in the ruins' site, though. More cultivators of the top ten powers had arrived, as well as the cultivators who just followed them. Because the ruins were enormous, they all entered it from several different locations. In just a few hours, at least half of the groups that entered the second level had already arrived at the third one.

Rean's group just so happened to bump on one of those groups, a few people from the Didatico Sect. They were the holders of the turtle marks. At the moment, it was possible to see the blue turtle limbs, as well as the red shell. The only part remaining for them to acquire was the head and tail. Sure enough, all the marks followed the same pattern of acquisition.

'Rean, head to where Roan is located. We have company,' Kentucky said, watching as that group approached Roan and Hurio. Sure enough, Kentucky's high altitude and amazing vision made things a lot safer.

Hearing that, Rean didn't waste time and met Roan and Hurio halfway. At the same time, Kentucky landed on the ground on their side with Lilia, telling them, "It seems like they can detect our location. Even after you guys changed direction, they kept coming at you."

Roan nodded in response. "It's the marks' aura. We can also feel their marks, albeit faintly." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ (f)ir(e).nᴇt

"Why would they come for us, though?" Rean wondered. "They were supposed to think that we were simply another one of the top ten powers' groups. Can they tell the difference?"

Hurio shrugged his shoulders after that. "Well, we'll find soon enough, won't we?"

A few moments later, the group Kentucky talked about appeared on the other side of the road. This one, however, didn't have an elder following them. As mentioned before, each power came with twenty disciples below the Late Stage of the Transition Realm to make full use of the second plane. However, the elders that followed them weren't many. The only top ten powers that sent one elder for each group was the Lanqueas Sect as they had more resources available.

It was then that a fat guy from the group noticed the attires of Rean and the others, prompting him to say, "Eh? You guys don't seem to be part of the Dragon Tail Brotherhood." His name was Gigo, an Early Stage Transition Realm cultivator. In his group, there were two more Transition Realm cultivators, while the remaining two were at the Late Stage and the Peak Stage of the Elemental Transformation Realm, respectively.

Rean nodded at Gigo's words, replying, "We aren't. We just so happened to find these marks ahead of them. However, whether we have these marks or not doesn't explain why you came here. We spotted you guys coming here from far away with the help of our flying demon beast. Is there something you need from us?"

Gigo and the other members of his group looked at each other after that. Obviously, they were communicating with each other about this situation. Eventually, Gigo turned back to Rean before saying, "You don't know how the Lost Star Selection really works, right?"

Rean immediately shook his head. "I don't. All I know is that I need the three marks. At the moment, we're looking for the last Dragon Pool."

Gigo nodded in response. "Indeed, you need all three marks to form the complete dragon mark. For us, we need the full turtle. By the way, do you only have four dragon marks, not five?"

Rean narrowed his eyes after the guy specified the number of marks they had but nodded nevertheless. "Our last companion wasn't considered someone worthy enough to receive the first mark. Well, you probably already guessed that anyway." Obviously, he was talking about Lilia, who didn't have the Dragon Mark.

"That's quite unfortunate." Gigo couldn't help but sigh in response. "Only four of us will be able to get a second stage mark to complete our own."

Gigo and his companions then began to head towards Rean's direction. Naturally, Rean's group had never heard about this 'second stage mark' requirement. With that said, he couldn't let the opportunity pass up and immediately pretended to be worried as he took a few steps back, asking, "What do you mean by second stage mark?"

Roan and the others naturally noticed what Rean was doing and did the same thing.

Another Transition Realm cultivator in Gigo's group, a guy named Klinfan, laughed in response, telling him, "Hahaha! For the third and last mark, just finding the beasts' pools isn't enough. To gain the recognition of the beasts in the pools, you have to let your mark absorb someone else's mark from another beast. Also, it has to be a mark in the second stage, which means you guys are just perfect. It's quite unfortunate that you only have four instead of five marks. In any case, we won't complain about the free meal."

Roan couldn't help but coldly smile after hearing that.. "Oh, is that so? Indeed, we really can't complain about the free meal."