The journey to Crystal Valley wasn’t in a carriage but on a griffin. The griffin was mutated. It had great speed, but it was still slightly inferior to the wyverns. Surely, their combat power was still far from comparable to the wyverns.
This time, Sabrina and her daughter also came along. The potioneer’s manor in the Bloody Vine City was only a temporary stronghold. The real base camp should be in this Crystal Valley.
Even the mutated griffin took almost seven days to arrive. The endless swamp in front of him was simply a harsh area. It couldn’t be matched with the wonderful name of “Crystal Valley”.
According to previous information obtained from Fatilu, it should also be Fatilu’s first time being here. Manu and Sabrina were both at ease. Manu was walking at the forefront, and he specifically told Chen Rui and Fatilu to walk according to his footprints. Sometimes, they even had to change their posture to avoid accidents while Sabrina followed at the back.
When Chen Rui was in Town Pascal, he specially studied the map of Bloody Vine Estate. This swamp had a vast area, which was probably a misty swamp in the northern Black Iron mountain range. The area of the Black Iron mountain range was very larg. It was far bigger than the Xilang mountain range, and it was already close to the Bloody Empire.
There were a lot of creatures in the swamp, such as mutated crocodiles and giant lizards, but he didn’t see any high-level demonic beasts like wyvern and hydra. In contrast, the number of draconic flies were shocking. These draconic flies seemed a little different from those Chen Rui saw at the Silent Night Wetland. They seemed to be a lot stronger here. Also, their body even flashed in a faint light. In [Analytical Eyes], they were shown as a mutated breed.
Chen Rui followed Manu’s footsteps and the familiar feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger. Dragon Inscription!
Under the misty swamp are Dragon Inscriptions!
The power of inscription is only slightly inferior to the inscription near Paglio’s treasure in the Silent Night wetland!
Could this place be another secret treasure spot left by a dragon?
After walking for a long time, Manu stopped on a high hill. In front of it was a large pool. The water was green, and it was bubbling from time to time. The air was filled with a rancid smell. It was obviously poisonous. A highly toxic demonic beast like hydra was probably hiding in it.
“Here we are.”
“Grandpa Manu, are you kidding?” Fatilu asked in surprise, “This is the Crystal Valley? No matter how I look at it, isn’t it just a poison swamp reek of rotten smell?”
Chen Rui immediately replied, “Magic circle! This must be the effect of some kind of magic circle! This magic circle should be a composite type, which is much more complicated than what we encountered on the way. It seems that this trip is worth it. My curiosity about the Crystal Valley is even stronger now!”
Actually, he was very clear that it was a triple-layered Dragon Inscription made up of [Illusion], [Imitate] and [Fixed-point Teleportation].
Manu applauded, “You are indeed a talented genius master in magic circle! I believe the things inside won’t let you down!”
After he finished talking, Manu jumped straight down into the poison swamp, the water splashed high and his figure disappeared instantly. Fatilu couldn’t help but exclaim.
It’s just a [Imitate] inscription! Chen Rui secretly despised Manu’s move when entering water. The difficulty factor is too low. He didn’t even have the technique to reduce splashes. 10 marks deducted!
Behind him, Sabrina comforted her daughter, “Don’t be afraid, Fatilu, just jump down.”
Chen Rui had already jumped in without hesitation. Surely, after a dazzling teleportation, he had arrived at a strange place.
It was a beautiful place. The surrounding tall mountains wrapped around a narrow, long green area. It was narrow and long only relative to the huge mountains. The narrowest area had at least dozens of scattered houses. There was a clear river flowing at the center. In the distance, he could also vaguely see a waterfall.
The beautiful scenery of the green mountains and clear waters was like a paradise. As compared with the harsh muddy swamps, they were a world apart. This is the real Crystal Valley!
The figures of Sabrina and Fatilu soon appeared beside Chen Rui. Seeing the surprised expressions of Chen Rui and Fatilu, Manu smiled slightly, “Let’s go. There’ll be time for you to appreciate the scene.”
Manu led the three of them walking down. There were many guards along the way. When they saw Manu, they looked respectful, but there were also some who turned a blind eye like a mindless puppet.
Chen Rui was paying attention to an odd creature. This creature had the form of an ordinary demon or human and its body was covered in clear crystal. Its movements were relatively rigid which were somewhat similar to robots.
After deliberately getting close into the effective distance, data appeared in his [Analytical Eyes]. Race: Crystal Man (Puppet). Comprehensive Strength Assessment: C. Physique: C+; Strength: C+; Spirit: F-; Agility: D.
Purely strength and physique. Spirit is almost negligible, and its agility is a weakness. However, physique and strength at the peak of Demon King cannot be ignored, especially there are more than one of them.
These puppets… could it be that they are made by Kia’s father, Azgalor? Although their strength isn’t as good as Glorfin’s strongest Demon King-level spirit-devouring demonic fly, Glorfin’s spirit-devouring demonic fly is limited in number and the crystal men in front of me is almost equivalent to a small troop.
Manu noticed his gaze and laughed, “This is the crystal guard of the Crystal Valley. Their bodies are sturdy and extremely powerful. Magic damages on them are halvedm so they were the nemesis of mages. The scarier part is that they feel no pain. The only flaw is that they’re relatively slow.”
Judging from the data, Manu should be telling the truth. Chen Rui asked deliberately, “I’ve never seen this kind of guard before. Is it a new race in the Demon Realm? Why do I feel like they’re under control. Could it be a masterpiece of an alchemist? Is there any other master in the Crystal Valley?”
“The Crystal Valley does have other mechanic masters and potion masters, but they have nothing to do with the crystal guards. The crystal guards are created by another person. This person, I’m planning to take you to meet him. He’s very strong and he can be regarded as the true owner of Crystal Valley. I can’t even rival him.”
Is Kia’s father that powerful? Even Manu admits that he can’t rival? When Chen Rui thought Manu was going to say Azgalor’s name, Manu instead said, “The name of this person is Jacob.”
Not Azgalor! Chen Rui was shocked: Another Demon Overlord! That being said, this force has at least three Demon Overlord-level powerhouses!
Three Demon Overlords are shocking enough in any empire! Even Chen Rui’s father-in-law, the general of the Fallen Angel Empire was only at the peak of Demon Emperor! (Speaking of that, with those potions and Paglio’s instructions, my father-in-law should be able to break through the bottleneck soon and reach Demon Overlord…)
However, even if they were all Demon Overlord and at the same level, due to the difference in territory and strength, the gap in combat power wasn’t small. Paglio’s strength at that time was at the peak of Demon Overlord and he bragged that he could defeat dozens of powerhouses at the same level but, Chen Rui didn’t know whether it was true.
“Let’s go and meet Jacob. Sabrina and Fatilu will stay here for a while. However, I have more important things to do, so I can’t stay any longer. Jacob has a weird temper. He is moody, and he isn’t easy to get along with, so you better be careful. When you say anything odd, don’t say anything about it.”
Chen Rui could judge from Manu’s tone that there were different factions in the Crystal Valley. Due to the [Soul Shackles], Manu had clearly regarded Chen Rui as part of his faction.
Manu walked forward with Chen Rui. It wasn’t Sabrina’s first time here, so she didn’t follow them to meet Jacob. Instead, she took Fatilu to the residence area at another hill.
Chen Rui followed Manu to a huge manor on a mountainside. There were a lot of crystal guards along the way, but these crystal men were as dumb as puppets, as if they were only active sculptures that posed no danger. However, Chen Rui didn’t dare to underestimate these strange life forms. Other than those ordinary crystal men at Demon King-level, there were also mutated crystal men at Great Demon King-level.
These crystal men had powerful strength and stats. If they were taken out, they would definitely be the most terrifying troop. While walking, Chen Rui had already reached the manor unknowingly.
What surprised Chen Rui was that the features in the manor were much more luxurious than what he imagined. The door pillars were carved out of black crystal; the railings were made of topaz; the corridors were inlaid with gemstones. It was just that these luxuries seemed “unsophiscated” as relative to the beautiful scenery outside. It was like an upstart countryman trying to show off his stinky wealth in front of an elegant beauty. He felt an indescribable uneasiness.
This is obviously the most rustic way of showing off wealth. It’s like smiling at someone deliberately just to show his golden teeth. Chen Rui felt more odd as the more he looked. Then, he recalled Manu’s words “don’t say anything when you see odd things”, and stopped what he was going to say.
The house in this manor was ridiculously big that it could even accommodate a dragon. There weren’t many crystal men in the manor. Those that were walking around were female in maid-attire. They almost had the same characteristic. They were big, plump and even… almost muscular.
The maids bowed when they saw Manu. Manu told one of the maids, “Tell Sir Jacob that I brought an important guest to see him.”
The maid bowed and walked toward the biggest house. Soon, the maid came back and invited both of them to enter.
The facilities in the room could only be described as more luxurious and rustic. It was simply sleeping in piles of money. To be honest, if the golden bed that Jacob was lying on now was made of real gold crystal, it was indeed similar to sleeping on piles of money.
Seeing the figure of those maids, he was imagining Jacob to be tall, huge and also… Urm… have a heavy taste. However, the Jacob in front of him was thin and even short as compared to Chen Rui. He didn’t look handsome either. His skin was somewhat similar to albino patients, and his hair was also white.
What was even more speechless was that this guy was lying in the arms of a maid with naked upper body. He even played with the busty breasts of the maid in front of the two unscrupulously, while the maid uttered an ecstasy moan very cooperatively.
This scene was indeed embarrassing, but the strongest feeling in Chen Rui’s heart wasn’t embarrassment but astonishment.
Race: N/A (Crystal Dragon). Comprehensive Strength Assessment: Unable to Judge!
Demon Overlord dragon… crystal dragon… Jacob!
When Chen Rui heard Jacob’s name just now, he felt faintly familiar. Now, after associating with the information from [Analytical Eyes], he finally knew the origin of this thin, short man before him. The Crystal Dragon, Jacob, was one of Paglio’s enemies back then!
Is it only Paglio and Jacob, but all the dragons had a weird personality and taste?