Chapter 653: Multiple Quest Markers

’That being said though, my arms are fucking tired as hell.’

[Our bad, maestro.]

[I’ll try to dial back on stressing the artificial aether channels next time, milord.]

’Thank you.’

Zhen Liu stood over his latest victory with a slouched posture, his arms dangling out of tiredness due to channeling the power of two kaijin and two different aether arts at the same time. While this wasn’t technically his first time doing this, having practiced this trick dozens of time while training, it was an entirely different matter when it was being performed on an actual opponent.

Gao Lin’s [Regalia] was surprisingly tough, so much so that Zhen Liu had to expend significantly more aether than on the training dummies he usually practiced on.

Things he needed to bother Logos and Pathos about later: more realistic training scenarios...maybe.

’Hopefully it doesn’t involve kidnapped bandits or live aether beasts though,’ Zhen Liu mused to himself as he straightened his posture while catching his breath.

He managed to capture a few deep breaths before Jinju Ren grabbed his attention.

<<Damn, that’s a hell of a finish! I hate to imagine how things could’ve gone if we had gotten to the climax of our own match.>>

<<Thank you,>> Zhen Liu said as he turned towards Jinju Ren. <<Not going to lie, it has been awhile since I’ve actually fought like-HOLY SHIT! What the fuck?!>>

The moment Zhen Liu turned towards Jinju Ren’s direction, he was greeted by the sight of the aftermath of her battle with Gao ZhiHui, which he could only describe as looking as if several natural disasters decided to strike one spot specifically. Surprisingly, the man’s body was still physically present and not a bloodstain, although he wasn’t exactly looking too good either.

<<Is...is he breathing?>>

<<Probably?>>

<<Ah...>>

The aforementioned Gao ZhiHui was currently embedded in the walls of the Zhen Clan arena, surrounded by various markings of battle taking place. There were various claw marks, burn marks and teeth marks that covered his body like crazy, and in the stone surrounding him, that were all radiating hints of dragon force.

It would honestly take a miracle and a half for someone to survive such an onslaught of pain.

Evidently, Zhen Liu wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions, so Jinju Ren noticed Zhen Liu’s shocked expression despite being fully encased in his [Regalia].

<<What? Something wrong?>>

<<Uh...nothing. Just...that is a lot of damage...>>

<<Yeah...I was frustrated.>>

<<Frustrated is a bit of an understatement...,>> Zhen Liu muttered to himself and the kaijin.

(Un)surprisingly, Zhen Liu could feel some form of judgement coming off of the kaijin in regards to Jinju Ren, but he was misinterpreting the reason for this, just a little bit.

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[So...is it just me, or does the maestro seem to have a habit of literally flirting with danger? Because this is like the third time he’s done this,] Hurricroak asked Nepherage.

[I...wait, third?]

[I’m counting his girlfriend/childhood friend/personal maid,] Hurricroak elaborated, [I feel like that’s an ethic violation somewhere.]

[Ah...yeah, she counts,] Nepherage agreed. [Also, yes I’ve noticed our lord is a bit of a...flirty danger magnet. What’s weird though, is that I don’t think he even notices when he literally flirts with danger. It just goes...whoosh. Over his head.]

[Huh...I wonder why the maestro seems to be attracted to dangerous women?]

[Ge...ne...tics...,] Frosttusk finally interjected.

[Like...father...like...son...]

[Pfft!]

[Yeah, no, that...that scans.]

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Understanding that there was a still an active danger though, Zhen Liu was just about to ask Jinju Ren if she wanted to stick together with him for the time being and help fight off the Fallen Clan. Evidently, Jinju Ren already had this mind, so much so that she interrupted Zhen Liu before he could even suggest it.

<<Hey, Princess, do you think we could->>

<<Hold that thought, Zhen Liu, but it looks like there are still a lot of enemies around us that are actively trying to kill me and your family members, so I’m going to go and perform my Imperial duties of defending my people and allies. Don’t die until I can fight you again, okay? Bye!>>

<<I, wait, what?>>

But before Zhen Liu could even question Jinju Ren’s actions, the Imperial Dragon Princess had already flown towards her next opponent.

Zhen Liu stood there flabbergasted, getting the feeling that if he ever got into an argument with this woman, he would never be able to get in a word before she just resolve the argument herself.

’I...really can’t handle pushy people,’ Zhen Liu briefly thought to himself before bringing his mind back to the present.

Right now, Zhen Liu had a bunch of things to worry about, like the fact that everything around him was a literal war zone, there was a strange blood mist that was sapping the strength of his distant relatives, there was a zako going berserk in a prison not too far from his current location and most of his family members were currently missing, or at least not in the same area as he was.

The only family member that Zhen Liu knew was nearby was his grandfather, Zhen Shi, who was accompanying the main clan’s matriarch at this time, which was probably the safest location to be in at this time.

’That and he is an Aether Lord, which means he could probably handle most of these assholes by himself,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he looked around himself and tried to count the amount of enemy Aether warriors were in the area as of this moment.

From what Zhen Liu could immediately notice, there were more main Zhen Clan warriors than there were these weird Fallen Clan warriors, but the cursed blood mist that was still circulating around the area had been actively weakening all of the main clan warriors, including the High Elders!

From Zhen Liu’s position, he could see that the Hero, Martial, Wisdom and Spirit elders of the Zhen Clan were all airborne right now and busy fighting off enemy Aether Lords that had shown up after a majority of the enemy Grandmasters had been defeated.

Normally, they should’ve been on equal footing with such opponents, but the cursed blood mist floating around was sapping their strength bit by bit, draining them of their aether and causing their blood to thicken. If this situation persisted, then things were about to get incredibly ugly for the Zhen Clan.

’On the one hand, I could probably summon up the kaijin to go and fight those enemy Aether Lords...on the other hand...its probably better if I resolve this blood mist thing at the source,’ Zhen Liu concluded after watching the ongoing battles for a moment. ’But how the fuck am I supposed to find the damn thing?’

A part of Zhen Liu wanted to make use of his zako creation ability to make a bunch of scouts to figure out not only where this stupid blood mist was coming from exactly, but to also determine where his family members had disappeared to. Unfortunately, summoning a bunch of skeletal, metallic, and chitinous demon warriors in such an environment was just asking for trouble. Especially given the fact that there was still a zako under captivity in the main clan’s prison, so some astute members of the main clan could put two and two together once the zakos showed up.

Luckily for him, though, he still had some kaijin that were waiting to be deployed that could resolve a lot of his issues at once.

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’Archanidame. Lacerage. You two ready for a door yet?’

[In a bit, young master. Lacerage and I are about three minutes from the library. We will inform you immediately once we are ready to leave.]

’Excellent. As a reminder, I need you two to find out where my family members are and provide protection in the case that-’

[Director? We might have a problem.]

’Huh? What’s up, Razorstella, what’s the issue? You’re normally not one to interrupt like this.’

[Well, good news and bad news. The good news is we are now close enough to the Zhen Clan prison to determine that the zako we’re looking for is there, is currently in that weird half state that Logos and Pathos mentioned, and has just defeated a bunch of Fallen Clan warriors by virtue of being an unstable mess of [Chaos] and aether.]

’If that’s the good news, what the fuck is the new bad news.’

[The bad news is that she might not last long enough for us to get there, because the Fallen Clan released a prisoner that is making me nervous.]

’...how nervous?’

[Nervous enough that we’re both contemplating whether or not we get an afterlife despite not exactly having traditional souls,] Spring Brawler interjected. [That and this guy is giving off the exact same vibes as your main clan’s matriarch.]

’Oh...oh that’s bad...we might need a change of plans then...’