Immortal Kingdoms

"This is bad," said the woman in a black scarf. Although the silhouette of smoke wasn't yet complete and solid, that also meant that physical attacks, such as the long-ranged arrows, were useless…

It simply stood there motionless, barely moving enough to avoid being struck at the heart by these probing attacks.

"At least we know that the heart is a fatal weakness, and its mobility is crippled during these few moments," the man next to her answered with his brows lightly knit together. Then, his eyes focused on Maiden 001 instead, "This archer is dangerous, since when did the province have such a divinity?"

"I'm not sure either, it is possible that she's someone from a different province," answered the woman after a slight pause. However, she also realized the issue, "It's impossible for a solo divinity to cross from one province to the next as it is too expensive for one, and they can't fly, so it is also impossible to circumvent the dangers lurking within the uncharted wilderness…"

The woman realized that this divinity should either be native to this province or be supported by a powerful organization within or outside the region. If it was the former, then she did too well concealing her talents from the hidden spies of the city, barring her existence from spreading to the other cities in the province.

If it was the latter, then what kind of plans did such an organization have for the Lush Skirts Plains Province? This is definitely something to be investigated. However, she also knew that it had been too long of a time since they last reported home, so the first thing they need to do is investigate whether or not the cities around this region had registered new divinity entries, and they would narrow down the scope of their search from there.

Maiden 001 didn't know the origins of the man and woman in dark red uniforms nor did she care at the moment as her heart was burning with anxiety over Leonardo, could it be that he died?

If he did die, her life as well as the lives of the other eleven are as good as over in the most heinous of ways, but she would obviously receive the most severe of punishments. She had no time to bother with the weird looks the man and woman were giving her, but the vampire woman was astute and clear-headed enough to notice the subtle changes in the eyes of Maiden 001 and the other two.

As time went on, the vampire woman's performance became more and more discrete and inconspicuous as her firepower seemed negligible in comparison to Maiden 001 who began to dominate the long-ranged field, but she had lowered the output of her attacks in a way so subtle it seemed to indicate that Maiden 001 was simply increasing the intensity of her attacks too quickly.

Other than the vampire, only the Maiden knew how this pattern would deceive the other two into thinking that she had spent too much of her energy, allowing them to focus their firepower against the vampire when the cooperation breaks up and they drop the pretense of working together.

The vampire woman's inventions were simple, she was taking a step back now to advance and engage with the other two later, allowing Maiden 001 to take a step back and support with her archery.

It was weird how the two strangers came to such a subtle tacit agreement despite this being their first time meeting one another. Nonetheless, this would ultimately boil down to a battle between two long-ranged combatants and two close-range combatants, the only question being whether or not they survived the encounter with this silhouette.

The moment they wanted to retreat from the probing blows, the shallow waters below their feet began to bubble as countless tentacles shot from the surface, their target being the pair dressed in dark red uniforms.

Both Maiden 001 and the vampire were wondering about these tentacles of solidified smoke for a while now, not understanding why they kept dormant for so long. Now, they wouldn't be so naive as to think these were the same tentacles as before.

As expected, when the man drew out his two blades and hacked at the tentacles coming at him, although he managed to sever them each in half, the dissipated halves morphed into small projectiles that were launched at the man by a powerful swing from the solidified tentacles, almost catching him off guard.

"Be careful!"

The woman to the side noticed this abnormality and shouted in warning. However, it was a bit too late.

The man underestimated the tentacles just a bit and so he didn't use his technique, and although he managed to block most of the projectiles, a few of them phased through a curtain of smoke and stabbed into his arms and torso, splashing his blood onto the shallow waters.

The moment his blood landed on the water, his expression changed greatly as he was the only person who hadn't bled yet, but this was no longer the case.

Both Maiden 001 and the vampire hurriedly retreated, and be it intentionally or otherwise, both of them stood together to form a locked power triangle with the other pair and the humanoid silhouette of smoke.

The tentacles, projectiles, and faint mist in the air suddenly faded as though it was all but an illusion, albeit everyone present knew that it was not.

"I was careless," the man furrowed his brows as he observed the smoke retreating into the body of that silhouette, the volume and density almost equating to the body of a living, breathing creature.

Everyone was certain that if they were to launch arrows now, they wouldn't merely phase through the silhouette but it might as well simply catch them in its bare hands.

He then continued, "This should be the phenomenon of a natural treasure achieving sentience and self-cultivation after gaining its own spirituality, and it is now utilizing the blood essence of powerful cultivators to construct a body."

The woman nodded, then shook her head. "Pity… The ideal situation would be for it to cultivate enough to reach level 95, but it barely met the threshold of level 90, a peak divinity. I suppose this sudden transformation is what instinctively drew us nearby as cultivators with smoke subcategory martial intent."

The man smiled bitterly as he didn't know whether to pity himself or the natural treasure, as let alone the fact that they didn't have a single High Divinity near level 88, but even their base powers as divinities were suppressed.

They should have thought about this suppression of power earlier. If he guessed correctly, this shallow lake should be the treasure's— rather the creature's personal domain…

"A pity indeed…"

A deep, almost cryptic voice echoed in the air.

All four divinities snapped in attention to look at the silhouette that at some point in time grew three meters tall, a body of robust muscle and a face devoid of any features— simply blank.

The silhouette was currently adjusting to this new body.

Flexing his arms, shrugging his shoulders, lightly hopping in place, and clenching his fists tightly.

"Ah, this feeling…"

The silhouette muttered but it was unclear as to how since it didn't have a mouth to speak from. Nonetheless, this was the least of everyone's worries at the moment as they began to feel tense.

The silhouette then split open his own chest to reveal a beating heart, dark red with wisps of smoke intertwined along its surface. Then, the fresh blood from the man in dark red rushed directly into the heart, giving it, even more, texture and depth of power.

"Haha! You pitiful bunch thought you could use me to further grow your powers… How pitiful…"

The voice echoed again. This time, anyone could tell that this disembodied voice was conveyed through the domain, a simple broadcast of the will, though it wasn't harmful to those within the domain.

Nonetheless, this is a true predicament they found themselves in.

"Hm?" The voice suddenly stopped laughing and looked in a certain direction, an indistinct silhouette was currently approaching through the foggy mist, but there shouldn't have been anyone alive at this point in time.

Everyone seemed to have noticed this too, turning their heads to look in confusion. From the energy fluctuations, this should be the energy of a High Saint?…

But, how could that be?

"Truly pitiful…"

A voice dripping with immeasurable desolation and a thirst for blood penetrated the fog. What's more, although the power fluctuations were absurdly weak, a kind of will that exceeded that of divinity, yet wasn't borderline rebirth yet, merged into the voice…

The man in dark red furrowed his brows, this being his first time encountering such a situation.

"Energy and essence of a High Saint, yet the will is somehow bordering the realm of rebirth… Is that even possible?" The man was in disbelief.

Can someone truly cultivate an independent martial intent to the rebirth realm while their energy and essence lagged beginning?

Forget the four divinities, even the creature was shocked into speechless anger at the moment.