Chapter 102: Take the Initiative! Change of Plan
After the training at the surfy sea, Chen Rui clearly felt the improvement of power. It wasn’t only the kind of surge that appeared by certain chance but also the increase of <Aura Blade>’s damage. <Aura Blade>’s power was more concentrated and “sharper” than before, like a sharpened legendary weapon. Just now, he could even “break” the sturdy demonic body that even Athena’s greatsword couldn’t break.
Surely, it was undeniable that Chen Rui didn’t kill Culia at “full HP”.
Culia first fought a battle with Athena, then he was seriously injured by Roman. Later, he was deceived by the disguised “Robin” to drink the Tearing Potion, so his strength was greatly reduced. If he were in excellent health, Chen Rui’s <Aura Blade> might not be able to produce such an effect.
However, battles were like that, whoever that won was lawful. Although the stronger ones were more likely to win, the last one standing was the true winner.
Culia had a storage bracelet with more than 20,000 black crystal coins and some other items. However, for Chen Rui, these were just extra income. The biggest gain was to kill Culia and obtaining two extremely valuable information simultaneously: First, it was certain that the Red Devils that interfered with the Dark Moon Estate at the west was assigned by the Red Spirit Lord. For the so-called balance, the backbone of the bandits group consisted both Kanita’s and Joseph’s forces. Culia and the leader, Snowden should be Kanita’s men, whereas Barnacle should be on Joseph’s side. Sully and Yagus who were killed should also be. Both sides fought openly and secretly and refused to give in to each other.
Second, the Red Devils had a magic communication tower that connected Town Leia with the Dark Moon.
It was built at the rocky area of Mountain Tuolan. He must destroy the communication tower to cut the connection between the Red Devils at Mountain Xilang and the outside world.
The value of these two information wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Chen Rui pondered for a long time, and a bold new plan gradually formed in his mind. He looked at Culia’s corpse on the ground and he had already deposited it into the storage of Super System with just a thought.
The “shelf life” in the storage warehouse seemed to be very long. Culia’s corpse should be of great use later.
After a while, “Culia’s” figure appeared in front of the 2 escaped bandits. The two bandits were still frightened from escaping the the evil spirit dragon. They quickly saluted when they saw “Culia”, “Sir!”
“Why are you panicking! Two useless guys!” Culia panted like he hadn’t recovered from his injuries. He scolded, “Both of you immediately find your scattered brothers and gather all of them here!”
The two quickly responded and followed the order. After a while, the Red Devils’ members gathered gradually. Culia looked at these ashamed guys and laughed secretly about the strong intimidation of the spirit dragon that Dodo posed. Yet, his face was still extremely serious. He said, “All of you saw that the scary spirit dragon came out of the main pit now, we shouldn’t go back for the time being. Let’s station at the nearby Mountain Walan. I’ll rush to Town Leia to contact our leader to report these emergencies.”
“Remember, don’t harass the miners before I return.”
“If I find out that someone disobey my order, I’ll kill him when I return!”
The bandits agreed immediately. Actually, Sir Culia’s order was reasonable. The scary spirit dragon had already come down from the main pit, so staying at Mountain Xilang was suicidal.
As for the mining office, with powerhouses like Lennon and Athena there, even Culia was seriously injured today. Who dared to look for troubles?
This Culia was naturally disguised by Chen Rui. After “settling” the bandits, he returned to Mountain Xilang to meet up with Dodo and Mengda. With the help of the magic map, they flew toward Mountain Tuolan. The rocky mountain that Culia mentioned wasn’t difficult to find. However, the magic communication tower did take a lot of work to find, and it was thanks to Dodo. It turned out that a carnivorous, hallucinating tree was cleverly planted outside. It could hallucinate the living things around and prey on them. No wonder Culia said it could not be destroyed.
The hallucinating tree belonged to a very rare carnivorous plant. It had a strong predation ability. The most valuable thing was the fruits it bore. If the fruit is cut, even withing eating, the smell alone could cause strong hallucinations. It was usually used to make top-level Hallucinating Potion or aid in casting illusions.
Yet, although the hallucinating tree was powerful, for a plants’ natural enemy, it was just a rather troublesome delicacy, especially a slime that had a great mutation in strength and appetite, like Dodo.
The main body of the communication tower was a special piece of magic stone. The higher the quality, the more advanced the magic array it could engrave and the greater the effective distance. The magic arrays of each communication tower were different to avoid “interference” of signals.
What made Chen Rui happy was that the magic stone was actually aura-convertible material. The quality of this magic stone was obviously high; it provided 40,000 auras. Dodo was also very happy as the hallucinating tree was rare. Only a few stalks of this “food” could find even in the Dark Rainforest. He never thought he could eat it in a mountainous area like Xilang mountain range.
Chen Rui purposely made Dodo keep a few cores, which were the seeds. He entered the galaxy garden and tried to put it into the soil. Notification: Unknown Plant; Maturity: Today; Able to Mature Repeatedly; Consumption: 10 magic dust/day; Current Status: Immature.
Seeds were different from available plants. It didn’t require aura to be transplanted, and it could be planted directly. Unfortunately, the devil fruits had no cores or seeds of somesort. If not, he could plant it on a large-scale…
If the poison dragon knew Chen Rui’s thoughts now, he’d certainly criticize the human’s greed. For the precious fruits that mature one every hundred years, you can harvest it in 2 months, yet you’re still not satisfied?
However, the Super System’s galaxy garden and the pivotal fairy were the lowest level. It seemed that only 5 of the same plant can be planted at once. Later, he could upgrade with the “refined dust”. The ordinary dust was called energy dust in the system. It should require some other function to “refine”. It should be a function that could only be acquired after breaking through the Mizar state, so he shouldn’t bother thinking about it for now.
At present, the connection between Town Leia and Mountain Xilang had been cut off, at least the speed of communication was greatly reduced. Unless someone went to Town Leia to report, Barnacle wouldn’t know what happened in the mines. Even if there were bandits that reported to Barnacle before the magic communication tower was destroyed, it didn’t matter because “Culia” would really go to Town Leia.
If he kept staying in the mining office, it was like fighting openly with the enemies who were hiding covertly. Even if he killed Culia, Sully and others, stronger enemies would appear one after another. Not only it was dangerous, but it also put him in a passive situation.
The Red Devils’ forces weren’t small and their strengths were also great, but they couldn’t have no leader. So, the most effective way was to kill their leader. Now, the main members of Mountain Xilang’s Red Devils, Culia, Sully and Yagus were eliminated. Although there were a few hundred remaining bandits, they were restricted in the Mountain Walan by Chen Rui that pretended to be Culia. Thus, they shouldn’t be a problem. At present, the main force of the Red Devils was stationed in Town Leia. Their leader, Snowden, had just returned to the Red Spirit Estate; he wouldn’t return for the time being. Now, there was only the Deputy Leader Barnacle left.
Chen Rui’s first plan was to take the initiative to attack and eliminate Barnacle while Snowden wasn’t around!
If he continued to wait passively at the mines, even if he destroyed the magic communication tower and delayed the transmission of the information, he was still not dealing with the root cause. Stronger enemies would appear one after another. If Barnacle or even Snowden rushed back, Chen Rui didn’t think that Athena and him would have a chance of winning.
Therefore, he wanted to take the initiative to attack. First, eliminate Barnacle. When they were “leaderless”, he’d try to collapse the Red Devils’ main force. By then, even if Snowden came back, he would be left alone. Then, at the right timing, he would cooperate with Princess Shea’s military power from the Dark Moon. That should clear a path to the west.
Surely, the tiny details of the plans were far from being so simple. Plans were usually far from keeping up with the changes. “Culia” before his eyes should be a very good identity to take advantage of.
Before that, he had to go back to the green leaf forest. One reason was to let Athena feel at ease and another reason was to truly “sleep” for the “grand master’s inheritance”. Today, during the fight with Culia, he won mainly because of luck in reality. This also made him more aware of the gap. To face a Higher Demon at its peak like Barnacle, his current power was definitely not enough. Besides, Town Leia might have more unknown dangers. So, the priority before implementing the plan was to seize this precious free time to concentrate on improving strength.
Not just Barnacle but the duel with Arux was approaching.
After Chen Rui made up his mind, he mounted mengda and flew to the green leaf forest with Dodo, who was satisfied with the food.
After a while, the wyvern arrived at the green leaf forest.
At the meeting place agreed in advance, Chen Rui didn’t see Athena, but he only saw Kegu, and… a simple cabin that was almost done.
“It must be that the sickness previously isn’t fully recovered, and you are not used to live in a tent. I might as well build you a cabin!”
The previous sentence sounded again in his ears.
Chen Ru was slightly shocked. His initial physical exhaustion and even the planning and arrangement in his heart were all blown away by a sudden feeling, which quickly occupied every part of his heart.
Looking at this cabin that could only be described with the word “simple”, he felt it was much more luxurious and magnificent than villas and palaces.
Precious.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps from the woods behind him. Chen Rui turned around slowly and saw a familiar figure appearing in his sight.
Compared with the few huge pieces of wood on her shoulders, her slender figure seemed a little “small.”
“You’re back!” Her voice contained a few surprises and she walked faster.
It could be clearly seen that there was dust on her pretty face as well as her purple hair at the forehead that was wet because of her sweat.
At first glance, she might seem ridiculous, but Chen Rui didn’t feel that way at all. He only felt warmth, as if the chilly sunshine of the Demon Realm behind her was warming up in an instant.