Chapter 6: Blade Island
Blade Island spanned nearly ten thousand miles in circumference. On the island stood a towering mountain peak, the top of which, at first glance, resembled a blade, steep and perilous. Hence, it was named Blade Island.
Blade Island was also a gathering place for a powerful band of bandits. Anyone traveling through the Misty Sea of Stars would actively try to avoid it. Yet even so… the forces of Blade Island would still scatter to scout, and once they spotted a target, they would lead a group to swarm in.
"Boom!" The sea roared as waves crashed against the island's shore.
A bolt of lightning struck down, and as the electric light dissipated, a man stood on the coast. It was the cold-faced man carrying the warblade on his back.
His sharp gaze fell upon the distant peak piercing the sky. He murmured, "Blade Island… the second one!" Then, the man strode forward. With each step, his figure flickered, covering hundreds of meters in an instant, and he quickly entered the mountain of the island.
The mountain was home to a large number of bandits and robbers.
The cold-faced man, clad in a black robe, strode forward boldly, showing no regard for the bandit force before him.
"Who goes there!" someone shouted from within the forest.
Since many bandits and robbers lived on Blade Island's mountain, it was natural for someone to spot the black-haired man. But the black-haired man didn't even glance at the one who shouted; he simply took a step and crossed hundreds of meters.
The bandit's face changed, and he immediately roared, "Someone's invading the mountain!"
"Someone's invading the mountain!"
The loud shout echoed throughout the mountain. The bandits, who had been resting or training, were all jolted awake. The entire Blade Island erupted into chaos. Many bandits immediately rushed toward the source of the sound. Naturally, some encountered the black-haired man.
Yet the black-haired man remained completely indifferent and continued on his way.
"There he is!" someone spotted him.
"Halt!" others shouted.
But the black-haired man still advanced hundreds of meters with each step, steadily moving up the mountain.
"Kill!" Without hesitation, a large number of bandits had already gathered around. This group roared and brandished their weapons savagely. Attacks imbued with the laws of fire, earth, and various other elements began.
The black-haired man's expression didn't change at all.
"Ssshhh---"
With a strange sound, the black-haired man maintained his speed, covering a thousand meters in just two or three steps.
"Huh? Why doesn't this guy react at all?" Many bandits were puzzled.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, over thirty bandits' bodies exploded violently, flesh and bones flying everywhere, and divine sparks fell to the side. The surviving bandits turned pale with fear. They finally realized that their opponent had already acted.
It was just that… the speed was too fast. They hadn't seen a thing.
The laws of wind, lightning, and light all had aspects specializing in speed. Who was faster depended on individual achievement.
To achieve a speed so great that even these mid-level gods couldn't perceive it—that was truly terrifying.
From the foot of the mountain to the entrance of Blade Island's castle, he took a total of twenty-eight steps and killed six hundred and twenty-eight people. With such chaos, the three leaders of Blade Island naturally emerged. The elites of Blade Island were now on the castle walls.
Blade Island had three leaders, nearly a hundred high-level gods, and over ten thousand mid-level god bandits. Among bandit groups, it was considered a superpower.
At this moment, the nearly one hundred high-level gods were flanking the three leaders, looking down from the castle walls at the black-haired man below.
"Who are you, and why do you come here to slaughter wantonly?" a silver-haired, cold-faced man on the wall said in a harsh tone. He was the great leader of Blade Island, Akz, and also its strongest fighter. Akz could sense that the black-haired man below was not to be trifled with.
"Why is this guy coming to provoke me, a bandit?" Akz didn't understand.
In hell, supreme experts generally didn't bother with bandits.
The black-haired man slowly raised his head. His pale face and eyes were like knives as he stared at Akz. "I am Lumiere Bolnorsen."
Akz frowned. Lumiere Bolnorsen?
He had never heard that name.
The black-haired man said calmly, "I heard that Lord Akz, the leader of Blade Island, was once a six-star demon long ago. Today, I have come to Blade Island for two purposes. The first is to challenge Lord Akz!" Akz squinted his eyes, sizing up Lumiere like a venomous snake.
He had been a six-star demon before becoming a bandit. Over the years, whether he had reached the level of a seven-star demon was unknown to many. This was why no one dared to provoke Blade Island. No one wanted to offend a possible seven-star demon.
"This guy dares to challenge me, so he must be confident enough to challenge a seven-star demon," Akz calculated in his mind.
In an instant---
"Brothers, together---kill!" Akz immediately transmitted his thoughts to the nearly one hundred high-level gods around him, including the other two leaders. Almost simultaneously, this group of high-level gods produced their weapons and unleashed their strongest attacks.
"Whoosh!"
The black-haired man shot into the sky instantly.
"Akz, you truly disappoint me!" A cold voice echoed through the sky. At the same time, countless bolts of lightning appeared in the sky. Countless electric serpents swirled into a vortex, their dazzling light illuminating the faces of everyone in the castle below.
Akz and his group were shocked.
"Big brother, this looks like a Misty Sea Storm," said the second leader, Daiman, in alarm beside Akz.
It was indeed the scene of countless lightning bolts swirling in a Misty Sea Storm.
"Big brother, what do we do?" the third leader, Niris, asked worriedly.
Akz's face darkened. He knew that once the massive lightning bolts struck down, over ninety percent of the nearly one hundred high-level gods would die. These were the elites of Blade Island. Akz immediately shouted, "Lumiere, since you challenge me, then come!"
With that, Akz suddenly produced two deep cyan short awls in his hands.
"This is a slash I just comprehended. If you can withstand this slash, I will spare your life!" The cold voice came from the vortex of swirling lightning in the sky. Hearing this, Akz merely snorted, and a faint cyan-green light began to emanate from his entire body.
At the same time, Akz's body became strangely blurry, and a mist enveloped him.
"Not bad strength," the indifferent voice came from the lightning vortex above.
"Boom!"
The vortex formed by the massive lightning suddenly spun, and the countless bolts of lightning converged into a single point. From that point, a sharp lightning blade emerged, carrying immense power, tearing through the air and slashing down directly.
Akz was shrouded in mist, and above the mist, a spinning wind wheel appeared, rotating madly.
"Crackle!" Space itself began to tear apart, forming countless fissures.
"Big brother's ultimate defense," the second leader Daiman and the third leader Niris retreated to a distance, watching nervously. Their big brother cultivated the law of water, and its defensive effects, combining hardness and softness, were among the most formidable of all laws.
"Pfft!"
The lightning blade struck the misty wind wheel.
"Bang!" The wind wheel exploded, turning back into two deep cyan short awls that fell to the side. The mist dispersed, and Akz's body was covered in a faint cyan light, like a membrane protecting him. He tried to dodge, but the lightning blade was too fast, striking him directly.
There was a brief hesitation.
But the lightning blade still managed to cut through the membrane with difficulty.
"Bang!" It then exploded. Akz's entire body burst apart, and three divine sparks fell to the ground, along with a spatial ring. The lightning blade then transformed back into a warblade, and the black-haired man, Lumiere Bolnorsen, finally appeared.
"Spatial ring!"
The second leader Daiman and the third leader Niris immediately stared at the spatial ring.
Akz had controlled over half of Blade Island's wealth, and all of it was in that spatial ring.
The black-haired man Lumiere reached out and collected the spatial ring. This scene made the muscles on the faces of the surrounding bandits twitch. Lumiere looked at the three divine sparks and said, "A six-star demon? He did have the strength of a six-star demon. If I hadn't broken through a year ago, killing you today wouldn't have been so easy."
Lumiere then turned to look at the others.
Daiman, Niris, and the other high-level gods were filled with fear. Their leader Akz was dead; who could defeat Lumiere? And for an expert of Lumiere's level, a group attack by a hundred high-level gods posed no threat at all.
"Lord Lumiere, my big brother is dead because he was weaker than you. You should leave now," Daiman said, forcing down his anger.
The black-haired man swept his gaze over the crowd and continued, "I said I came here for two purposes. One was to challenge Akz, and that's done. The second purpose---" The black-haired man's lips curled upward. He smiled.
This cold man actually smiled, and it was a handsome smile. But the bandits felt a chill in their hearts.
"The second purpose is to destroy Blade Island!" The black-haired man Lumiere's voice suddenly turned icy.
"Run!!!"
A shout rang out almost simultaneously. The two leaders and the group of high-level gods immediately scattered and fled. The massive number of bandits on Blade Island also scattered in all directions.
"Boom!" A massive burst of lightning erupted.
Of the nearly one hundred high-level gods, fifty-two corpses fell on the spot. Of course, most of those fifty-two had high-level god avatars that had escaped.
"They sure run fast," the black-haired man Lumiere sneered. By now, all the bandits on Blade Island had fled, leaving only corpses behind.
"Second task complete! Time to start the third target…" The black-haired man once again transformed into a bolt of lightning, shooting straight into the sky.
The second leader Daiman was now leading thirty-six high-level gods and several thousand mid-level god bandits, riding in ten metal lifeforms, advancing in a grand procession. To avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop, the second and third leaders had each taken a portion of their forces and fled separately.
"What bad luck! Out of nowhere, some freakishly strong bastard shows up?" Daiman was furious.
"All that accumulated wealth!" Daiman was most pained by the spatial ring that had fallen after the great leader Akz's death. The wealth in it exceeded the combined total of his and the third leader's.
The surrounding high-level gods also had grim expressions.
"Second leader, there's a metal lifeform ahead," a subordinate reported.
Daiman glanced outside through the transparent metal. Bandits usually robbed passersby anyway, and with his current foul mood, he was full of pent-up anger. He didn't dare vent it on the black-haired man Lumiere, but he could certainly take it out on these travelers.
"Kill! Kill them all! Leave no one alive!" Daiman said viciously.
And so, they continued their plundering spree, heading toward another island.
Linley and his group were relaxing inside their metal lifeform. Aichi chuckled and said, "We've detoured a full ten thousand miles around Blade Island. There shouldn't be any danger."
"Is Blade Island that formidable that you're so scared?" Bebe asked.
"Blade Island has nearly a hundred high-level gods alone. I heard their leader was a six-star demon long ago, and legend has it he now has the strength of a seven-star demon. Tell me, is that formidable or not? Even the other two leaders are only slightly weaker than the great leader," Aichi said with some fear.
Linley was secretly shocked. Could a bandit force also produce a seven-star demon?
"Huh?" Linley looked outside through the transparent side wall. "Why are there ten metal lifeforms, and each one is so huge? It seems like each one has several hundred people inside. Ten of them together would be several thousand. In the Misty Sea of Stars, is there such a large merchant convoy?"
Suddenly---
The ten metal lifeforms scattered, and their speed surged. In an instant, they completely surrounded Linley's group of just over twenty people. Dense crowds of people flew out from each metal lifeform.
Linley and the others were momentarily stunned.
"Even if they're here to rob us, sending several thousand people for just our small group is overkill," Linley thought, feeling dazed.