“Well said.” Boulder picked up his own cup. “Then this prince will also lay it out upfront. Once you reach the deep sea, you are this prince's man. Anyone who dares touch you is touching this prince. Although I am only the three-thousandth prince of my old muddle-headed father, this prince's name isn't just for show.”
He threw his head back and gulped down half the cup.
“However,” he slammed his cup onto the table, “if you turn out to be half-hearted, don't blame this prince for turning on you.”
Ethan nodded. “Rest assured, Your Highness. Though I am greedy, I still understand the principle of doing the job for whoever pays me.”
“Good!” Boulder stood up with his cup. “Then it's a deal!”
He walked around the low table, came to Ethan's side, and gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder.
The slap carried a hint of tipsiness, neither too heavy nor too light.
Ethan stood up, holding his cup.
The two stood face-to-face, less than two paces apart.
Boulder raised his cup, the liquid inside swirling in small ripples. “Don't call me 'Your Highness' from now on. It sounds too distant. Just call me Boulder.”
Ethan fell silent for a brief moment, then also raised his cup. “Boulder.”
“Genos.”
The two coral cups clinked together in midair, letting out a crisp sound.
They threw their heads back and drained their cups in one gulp.
Boulder smashed his empty cup onto the ground and threw his head back in laughter.
His laughter echoed through the empty altar, causing the few remaining crystals on the dome to vibrate slightly.
Ethan let out a chuckle as well.
Boulder sat back down across the low table and fished out another bottle of Coral Brew.
This was already the fifth bottle.
He unscrewed the cap, swigged nearly half of it straight from the bottle, and handed it to Ethan.
Ethan took it and took a swig as well.
Boulder leaned back in his seat and crossed one leg over the other. “Genos, what's the first thing you want to do when you reach the deep sea?”
Ethan thought for a moment. “Cultivate. And then, find a place to plant some things.”
“Plant things?” Boulder was stunned for a second, then burst out laughing, shaking back and forth. “Are all wood-attribute Wizards like this? Wanting to plant things wherever they go?”
“Just a habit.” Ethan took another swig of the brew.
“Alright, I'll allocate a section of the deep-sea forest just for you when the time comes,” Boulder waved his hand. “More than ten thousand meters below the deep sea, there's a kind of glowing coral tree with an extremely high wood-attribute affinity. You'll definitely love it. By the way, that resurrection trick of yours from earlier...”
“Oh, that? It's nothing special. It's actually just an illusion.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“Well, actually, it's...”
The two of them continued to drink and chat like this.
Boulder mentioned how he had snuck out of the Dragon Palace as a child to chase a deep-sea electric eel, only to get shocked until his scales were charred.
Ethan said that when he first entered Blood Bone Tower, an old apprentice had made things difficult for him, but that old apprentice was never seen again.
Boulder complained that he had over two thousand older brothers and sisters, and during the New Year, the Dragon Palace was as noisy as a bustling market.
Ethan remarked that Blood Bone Tower was quite quiet—so quiet that sometimes there wasn't even anyone to talk to.
The more they talked, the more they hit it off.
At the height of his excitement, Boulder slammed the bottle onto the table. “Genos, just wait. Once we return to the deep sea, this prince will take you to the Sea Dragon tribe's Dragon Abyss Forbidden Land. The concentration of water-attribute energy inside is ten times that of the outside. Although you are of the wood attribute, water nourishes wood, so it will also benefit your cultivation.”
“The Dragon Abyss Forbidden Land?” Ethan's brow twitched. “A forbidden land of the Sea Dragon tribe—can an outsider like me even enter?”
“If this prince says you can, you can,” Boulder waved his hand. “My old man, who is the tribe leader, keeps a stiff face all day, always talking about rules. Rules are dead, but people are alive. You're working for this prince, so what's wrong with this prince taking you into a forbidden land?”
Ethan picked up the bottle and took a swig.
Boulder snatched the bottle back and took a large gulp himself.
“Genos,” Boulder's voice carried a hint of drunkenness, “to be honest, this prince has recruited many people in the deep sea. But not a single one has your kind of guts. When those guys see this prince, they either kowtow or flatter. It's annoying. You're different. You drink and negotiate with this prince without flinching at all.”
“Why should I flinch?” Ethan said. “What you want isn't a sycophant, but someone useful.”
Boulder slammed the low table hard, splashing the wine stains on the surface. “Exactly! What this prince wants is someone useful!”
He pointed at Ethan. “Remember this. If anyone bullies you in the deep sea, just give them this prince's name. No matter which of my brothers they serve, as long as they aren't ranked in the top fifty, they have to give this prince some face.”
Ethan smiled. “Then once I arrive in the deep sea, I'm afraid I'll have to use your name quite often.”
“Go right ahead!” Boulder waved his hand grandly. “The more you use it, the more face this prince gets!”
...
Outside Horn Mountain, the wind on the scree slope swept past the edge of the cliff, carrying fine sand.
Dark Stream's figure silently emerged from the air.
He swept his gaze across the partially collapsed mountain ahead.
The exposed cross-section of the mountain revealed dark red rock layers, completely out of place with the surrounding grayish-green stone.
Rubble cascaded all the way from the mountaintop to the foot, piling into a slope of loose rocks.
Blood Fury landed three paces away from his side, casually stepping on and snapping a freshly sprouted blade of tender grass.
His nostrils twitched slightly, as if sniffing for some scent.
“There's a fishy smell of the sea.” Suppressed malice swirled in Blood Fury's eyes. “It's definitely the Sea Race. They have some nerve, running wild on our territory.”
Dark Stream raised his right hand and drew a circle in midair with his index finger, his fingertip dragging out an extremely thin gray trail.
The trail lingered in the air for a moment before extending toward the collapsed section of the mountain.
A very faint ripple stirred in the air.
The ripple was so thin that one wouldn't even notice it without looking closely.
“A concealment array. At least ten layers. The technique isn't very refined, but there are plenty of them.”
Blood Fury took a step forward, his nostrils twitching twice. “Can you break it?”
“Yes.”
Wizard Dark Stream raised his right hand and dug his index and middle fingers into his right eye socket.
With a soft tearing sound, he plucked out his entire eyeball. The grayish-white pupil rolled in his palm, still taking in the surrounding scenery.
Dark Stream held the eyeball in his palm and closed his fingers.
Pop.
The eyeball was crushed.
Grayish-white tissue fluid seeped through the gaps of his fingers. Instead of trickling down his hand, it squirmed, expanded, and split like a living thing into hundreds of gray threads as thin as hair.
The threads squeezed out from between his fingers and stretched toward the air ahead.
The concealment array rippled slightly at the exact same moment.
The ripple was extremely subtle, like someone breathing onto a water surface; the ripple dissipated before it could even spread.
The runic patterns on the surface of the array continued to flow slowly, showing no signs of being disturbed.
Rate on N.U.
