While Noah was helping injured Oscar get back to his feet, Gaya heard footsteps. She slowly moved into the dark corner of the room, not to avoid a battle but to see what else Noah could do.
"You…you…have…no idea…what you've…done"
"You're dead"
Few of the men Eric captured muttered. Eric did a number on them by breaking several bones including the jaw. Hence, they had a hard time talking.
"You're simply seeking death by killing the men in my stronghold!"
Boom!
Right at this moment, a loud shout sounded out from afar as the room's door exploded into bits and pieces. The next moment, a figure emerged through the dust produced by the door. The man who stepped into the torture room was a man in his early thirties. He had an oval-shaped face like the full moon with two round eyes as though someone put eggs in his head instead of eyes. His body was draped in blood-red robes that swept the ground as he walked. One would expect a man capable of such cruelty would look cruel too yet this man looked gentle as a flower. However, standing in the dark corner, Gaya could see the murderous intent in his eyes. Eyes were said to be the windows to one's soul, she could see his cruel soul through his bloodshot eyes.
"Young master!"
One of the men apprehended by Eric looked at Murdoch as if he had just found his savior. Their faces brightened up immediately.
They had witnessed Murdoch's strength before and they knew that no matter how strong the young man in front of him was, there was no way he would be a match for Murdoch. After all, Murdoch was a Core Formation level 8 cultivator while Noah was just at the Core Formation level 2.
Murdoch turned around, looking at the dead bodies scattered across the place. Blood was still leaking out from many of his subordinates. In an instant, fury filled his eyes.
"You did all this?"
Murdoch stared angrily at Noah.
Noah didn't answer Murdoch's question. Instead, Noah just stared at him with a clenched fist.
"So you are Murdoch?" Noah asked as he threw an examining look onto Murdoch.
"Young master, these guys are guardians. They ambushed us like cowards they are"
The man who tortured Oscar was called Kai. He had a frightened expression on his face, and he was unable to pull himself out of his panicked state. He couldn't say he and his men were beaten up by two youngsters in a couple of seconds.
"Hmph! I will deal with you weaklings later. I have these two Guardians to torture and kill"
Murdoch let out a cold snort. It wasn't easy to cultivate a group of men in Hell City. All these men had pledged loyalty to him and worked under his command. He would always send them to hunt for monsters in the depths of Fire Realm, and he would be able to get a share of their harvest. Put it this way, as long as he had a group of men working for him, he would be able to enjoy good wealth and benefits without doing anything himself. In Fire Realm, monster cores were the currency, the more people he had working for him, the more monster cores he would get. He accumulated an amassed amount of monster cores over the years. Hence he was living a lavish life in Fire Realm. This was why he never left Fore Realm even though he had every chance to leave this place.
Now, all his men had been injured and apprehended by guardians in such a short period of time. This was no different than messing with his life in Fire Realm. Therefore, Murdoch had every right to be pissed off.
"Murdoch, a genius from Aragoth who turned into a warlord, quite a career change. But too bad, you've offended someone you shouldn't have; you hurt my friend, you messed with a Guardian. Today, I'll bring my friend justice, and that's the reason why I want to throw everyone in this stronghold into the deepest dungeons of the Guardian Guild, except you"
Noah slowly walked forwards with his eyes locked on Murdoch,
"You will regret messing with a guardian until the end of your days"
Noah said without hiding the cold murderous intent in his heart. Gaya was watching the scene unfold from the dark corner. To this moment, Murdoch was unaware of her existence in the room. As far as he was concerned, he only had two Guardians to deal with.
"Don't think I dont know why he's here. Once I sell the information I know along with him, I'm gonna be freakin rich everywhere"
Murdoch burst into laughter without giving a damn about Noah's threat.
"Only place you're gonna sell any information to is the prison you're going"
Noah shrugged. He remained standing in the same spot. Gaya saw Murdoch flicking his wrist as a round-shaped lock that glowed in a dark light appeared in his hand. There were numerous mystical symbols carved onto the lock itself. She looked closer to see the symbols were actually patterns that resembled ancient beasts.
"Flaming Gorilla, come out now!" Murdoch suddenly shouted out loudly as he yanked the lock.
Ding-ling!
The black lock vibrated violently before letting out a dinging sound. In a blink of an eye, a ground-shaking roar suddenly sounded out from the depths of the stronghold. After that, a flaming figure suddenly jumped out of the lock.
It was a gorilla with a body that looked made of volcanic stones, and its entire body was emitting a flaming red light. The fire ape was over 10 meters tall, and it resembled king kong. When the fire ape saw Murdoch, an intense hatred emerged in its eyes. But when it saw the black lock in his hand, the intense hatred was turned into fear and meekness.
The fire ape let out an angry roar as it descended from the skies. It slammed into the ground with massive force, causing an explosion to sound out, the entire stronghold to shake, and countless cracks to appear on the ground. It unleashed tremendous Arch energy combined with scorching flames, enough to send fear deep into one's heart.
"Guardian Noah, be careful, this is a Flaming Gorilla. It's a bloody level 10 Core Formation stage beast. I don't know how Murdoch managed to make this Flaming Gorilla obey his command. That thing somehow makes him control the wild beasts"
Eric's expression changed, and without any hesitation, he explained to Noah. Normally, ancient beasts all had violent tempers, and considered humans their mortal enemies or simply food, even more so for beasts who had broken through to the Core Formation stage. All of them had their own feelings of pride and dignity, and they would rather die than be controlled by a human. This Flaming Gorilla had reached level 10 of the Core Formation stage and just a few months of cultivation away from breaking through to the Core Strengthening stage, yet it was still being controlled by Murdoch. Gaya was both intrigued and confused.
Looking at the lock made Gaya feel something wired. It was like the lock was pulling her close and commanding her to get close.
"That's a Demonic beast tamer" It took Gaya a few seconds to recognize the lock. She had read about this artifact before but never had the chance to see one until now. According to the texts she read, these locks were forged by a 6-star human blacksmith who had deep hatred towards other races. He forged the locks to tame and enslave anyone except a human.
The seven locks were said to be lost in time except she found one today.
Murdoch smiled as he raised the Demonic beast tamer in his hand and waved it towards the Flaming Gorilla, then he gave out an order, "Flaming Gorilla, kill this man for me." Murdoch pointed at Noah.
Roar!
The Flaming Gorilla was furious, and flames were shooting out from its eyes. As a beast grew up in the Fire Realm, it had its own pride and dignity, that's why it felt extremely enraged upon being controlled by a human. However, because of the Demonic beast tamer, it was forced to obey Murdoch's command. The appearance of Noah had given it a target to release its anger on. It wanted to vent all its anger on Noah.
Bang!
The Flaming Gorilla punched a huge hole in the ground, then it jumped into the air, forcefully throwing its majestic body which was covered in scorching flames toward Noah.
Eric's expression changed dramatically. With his cultivation level, he could handle a fire Core Formation level 2 or 3 warriors, but not a level 10 beast like the Flaming Gorilla. A brutal opponent like this was really frightening.
"Pathetic" Noah snickered. Despite the Flaming Gorilla that's flying towards him in rage, he remained calm. It reminded Gaya of Ghost.
"Light Range"
Noah calmly uttered the two words as Gaya saw the torture room suddenly gets brighter and brighter. The Flaming Gorilla stopped rampaging towards Noah as it started to feel threatened by the human in front of it.
"Release!"
Instead of unsheathing his words, Noah just raised his finger towards the lock and shouted. The very next moment, a bolt of bright light appeared out of Noah's finger. The light bolt soared through the Gorilla without harming it but when it touched the lock, the lock trembled.
"What the?" Murdoch was stunned to see the lock trembling in his hand like never before. In a few seconds, the lock exploded into tiny bits and pieces.
The very next moment, a vortex appeared in the room that pulled the Flaming Gorilla into it.
The Flaming Gorilla let out shrill cries, all of its furs were standing up. It tried to run away from the pulling force yet its efforts were in vain because, in a few seconds, the Flaming Gorilla disappeared from the room into the vortex.
The blast force produced by the destruction of the lock sent Murdoch flying into the wall behind him.
"Young Master!" Murdoch's men shouted.
"Argh (cough)" Murdoch coughed up thick blood while Noah walked towards him.
Murdoch could vaguely see Noah through his blurry vision. He tried to stand up but he failed to do so due to internal wounds.
Gaya watched Noah putting his hand on Murdoch's head,
"Break!"
If Ghost was here, he would have killed Murdoch by now, Gaya knew that. However, Noah didn't seem to be interested in killing Murdoch. He just put his hand on Murdoch's head as a bright light enveloped Murdoch in a blink of an eye.
Gaya's eyes widened in shock, seeing Murdoch's cultivation level gradually becoming lower and lower. In a few minutes, Murdoch hit rock bottom as he became a commoner.
"He crippled him" Gaya muttered in shock because it didn't seem like typical crippling, rather, it seemed like he locked away Murdoch's ability to cultivate or use Arch energy completely.
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