After Lailah departed, Michael slowly backed off from the mutated beings to use the teleportation scroll. Meanwhile, the presence from the surroundings was currently approaching where he was.
Michael kept the mutated beings around him busy all by himself. He constantly dealt terrifying sword wounds to them, but these injuries did not affect them at all.
They battled for just a few seconds, and five of the seven mutated beings were already diced up by Michael. However, their bodies rebuilt themselves immediately, they were completely indestructible.
"Time to escape kid" the old man's voice sounded from behind.
"System, use the scroll now!" The very next moment he shouted, a golden light instantly covered Michael before a mutated being threw a punch aiming at his chest. He immediately moved his body to save the baby dragon from getting punched to death and took the punch directly on his left chest.
Currently, the violet-dressed Lailah stood several kilometers away, staring in Michael's direction showing mixed expressions on her face. She could clearly hear the noise of intense battle, which then gradually faded away.
"I hope you come back alive" Lailah murmured gently. Afterward, she went off quickly into the distance with her veena, slowly disappearing into the darkness.
**************************
Somewhere far away in the Treacherous ocean, a golden spacial hole in the mid-air appeared. In a flash, the golden hole disappeared but one could see a black figure screaming and falling from the sky.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuck"
Thud!
The black figure hit the ground producing a loud thud noise.
the black figure was no one but Michael who's right hand now looked weird and bones sticking out because of the fall.
Michael spurted out blood, his chest was aching like he was being hammered alive. He was experiencing excruciating pain in his abdomen and chest and he could tell, he had broken a couple of ribs.
Gritting his teeth in pain, he willed the system to give the healing potions he brewed from the system storage. The healing potion appeared on the ground as he slowly reached out his left hand to pick it up, fighting the pain inside of him. The fall broke his arm, but the punch he received from the mutated being just before activating the teleportation scroll messed up his inside. Luckily, there was only a milliseconds difference between the punch and the end of the golden healing potion's effects.
Cough!
Cough!
He coughed out a mouthful of blood again while checking to see the baby dragon's condition. His last-second dodge thankfully saved the baby dragon, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"You better come back to life stronger" he nudged the sleeping dragon with his bloodied fingers. Shockingly, the corners of the baby dragon slightly, very very slightly like it could still understand what he was saying.
This little act of the baby dragon put a smile on his face and momentarily gave him the strength to overcome his pain to swallow the healing potion.
Crack!
"AH!"
The very next moment he gulped the healing potion, he cracked his right arm to set the bones in the correct position so the healing potion would heal his wounds much more quickly and efficiently.
After getting fully healed, he did not go anywhere, sitting back down on the ground and slowly closed his eyes. He waited silently for dawn, as he always remained vigilant of any activity in the surroundings.
Originally, he wanted to return and rendezvous with Lailah. But traveling in the night in The Treacherous Ocean truly was a bad idea, and Lailah probably had probably left the region before long ago. It would be extremely difficult to search for her with a limited range of only a few hundred meters.
'System, show my stats' ' he ordered the system in his mind as the familiar stat window appeared in front of him.
System version 3.0 [Safe Mode]
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Strengthening stage, level 7
Experience Points: 30000/300000
Badass Points: 29000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Responsive Shield - LVL 3
Environment Scanning - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Lightning Dash - LVL 2
Energy Devouver - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 2
Techniques: Swords of Destiny - 89% Mastery
Occupation: Core Disciple of Sunrise Sect
The Guardian of Sunrise Sect
Lord Lucifer of the Abyssal
Status: Recovering
Goals: Control the world
Rebuild the Order of Death
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 3 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 10 badass point(s))
Wealth: 1,670,000 Gold
Special Trait: 5-Star Alchemist
Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 95%)
Base of Operation: Sunrise Sect
The Abyssal
"At this rate, I will be a Core Formation warrior in no time, this is exciting," Michael thought.
"I hope you come out of the safe mode system," Michael said, staring at the greyish interface.
[...]
[The System can vaguely feel a sliver of extremely potent energy]
After a pause, he heard the system's voice in his mind. He sensed a sliver of excitement in the system's voice.
"What are you talking about? what energy?"
[the system level is]
"Too low to answer the host's question, figured" Michael finished the system's sentence, rolling his eyes.
[The System urge the host to be extremely careful here]
"What happened to adventure out, exploring the dangers?"
[...]
The system did not utter a word after his question. To be honest, he missed having these little conversations with the system, he expected the system to be more human-like after upgrading but contrary to his expectations, the system entered into a safe mode, returning to its previous robotic nature.
Suddenly, Michael's expression changed. He quickly exited the system, narrowing his eyes at distance. Caution flickered in his eyes "I can't stay here for long, damn it, is this just a coincidence or they are somehow finding me?"
Several powerful presences appeared faraway, quickly approaching the area.
Pushing away all his questions to the back of his mind, he carefully placed the baby dragon into his pockets before disappearing into the dark night in the blink of an eye.
Not long afterward, numerous Core Strengthening and Soul Refining mutated beings flew over from a distance. They all stopped where Michael was, mindlessly strolling around, and did not disperse even after a very long time.
Michael's figure appeared silently several hundred meters away. He stared closely at the mutated beings and thought, "Lailah said the baby dragon's aura will prevent the powerful mutated beings from detecting us but why do I still get the feeling that someone's watching me?"
"Trust your instincts kid" the old man appeared beside him but Michael ignored the old man's comments and disappeared into the dark night once again with a slight movement, silently moving off into the distance.
Visibility quickly recovered as the darkness of The Treacherous Ocean receded in the morning of the next day. Slowly, the island became fully visible once again.
Michael slowly opened his eyes in his seated position on a flat meadow in The Treacherous Ocean. He had spent the latter half of the night there and the long-awaited dawn had finally come. His vision was extremely clear again without the concealment of the night. He could clearly see several kilometers away in the open area. He did not stay here much longer, following the signs of battle from the night before to continue on his way towards the depths of The Treacherous Ocean. He hoped he could find Lailah who he had been separated from. Only by traveling together he
could survive this place and get what he wants.
He hurried on his way, but his vigilance did not decrease by the slightest. He would look around for any signs or hidden traps from time to time.
Along the way, he found many mutated beings wandering around mindlessly. They were all either Core Formation or Core Strengthening stage beings, but with no exception, Michael avoided all of them from afar, without even coming within a thousand-meter radius. After last night's events, he seriously doubted that the death-kissed aura could completely make him invisible to all these mutated beings.
A couple of hours later, he arrived at a mountain range. The forest on and around the mountain was slightly misty, covering a large portion of it. He paid attention to his surroundings as he walked, arriving at the location where he had been separated from Lailah very soon. Afterward, he continued inwards.
An hour later, he was amidst the mountain range. This was the general region of The Treacherous Ocean, sandwiched between the outskirts and the center. Only by passing through here could he directly arrive at the depths.
He took each step with the utmost caution, expecting a surprise attack, "I wonder what else I would find in the depths of this place?"
Suddenly, Michael paused, his eyes were locked with the boulder that was as tall as a man not too far away. On the boulder grew a plant half a meter long and from the stalk, there were two leaves and a blue flower. His neck hair stood straight up when he laid his eyes on the plant.
"That's a Blue Camellia, an extremely rare herb!" Michael immediately exclaimed after seeing the flower. He was overjoyed as hurried up to the plant to carefully examine it.
"This Blue Camelia seems to have grown for tens of thousands of years here. I knew there must be quite a few rare resources here, this place is fricking dangerous but it's also an untapped treasure trove" murmured Michael. Afterward, he gently uprooted the plant from the ground. Amateurs would have only picked the flower but he was not an amateur, he planned to grow the herb in his herbal garden. Others must wait thousands of years to get the absolute best of the herb as the medicinal qualities of the herb increased with maturity but he had the system, it could definitely make the herb become mature without having to wait thousands of years.