Escape! Entering the Twilight Again

Escape! Into Twilight Again

Bang.

The heavy city gates slammed completely shut. Diya stopped and looked back, a faint smile appearing on his face. He stood where he was and panted for a while before finally letting his breathing settle.

"Little Li, what's the plan next?" Seeing that Diya had successfully escaped, Diablo spoke up and asked again.

"I'm going to search for the Hell Fragment. Do you have any way to sense Hell Fragments? Otherwise, if I really have to search bit by bit, that'll be incredibly troublesome. Who knows when I'd ever find it?" Diya asked.

"I don't have that ability," Diablo replied.

"Uh, then what abilities do you have?" Diya was speechless. Was he really supposed to search like fishing a needle out of the ocean?

"Knowledge transfer. Everything I know can be transmitted directly through the soul into your soul, including everything I remember from Earth," Diablo said smugly. "I've got a huge stockpile of movies here. Want me to get you a few classics to watch and broaden your experience?" His tone was unbearably sleazy.

"No thanks," Diya said, utterly uninterested. "Looks like searching for the Hell Fragment really isn't work meant for a human."

"Don't worry. I don't have that ability, but Radish does. Let him tell you himself." As soon as Diablo's voice fell, he abruptly went silent. Then a cold, emotionless voice rang out, making Diya think of a robot. "Current Hell Fragment sensing range: ten meters."

"Current ten meters. In other words, there's room for improvement," Diya said in sudden understanding.

"When your mental strength increases, the sensing range will expand with it," Radish said.

"Got it. It's tied to my mental strength. That's direct enough." Diya could not help knocking his own head. It seemed that during this period, his mental strength had only increased by a tiny bit, nothing obvious.

"A large number of people are gathering inside the city gate," Radish suddenly said. Diya froze, then instantly knew what was going on. It had to be the City Guard gathering, preparing to leave the city and pursue him. Sure enough, the city gates opened quickly, and Diya turned and ran.

"There he is!"

"Quick, catch him! Don't let him get away!" Shouts rang out behind him, and the sound of a great many footsteps rose in a chaotic mass. Diya glanced back, and was immediately startled. Over a hundred City Guards in armor, long spears in hand, were chasing after him like starving wolves, each of their faces vicious and savage, their teeth clenched as though they wished they could flay Diya's skin and carve out his flesh.

Unfortunately, aside from a longsword, Diya carried nothing else, and after his body had been modified and trained, it had strengthened greatly, far surpassing the City Guards. The City Guards were also wearing armor, so naturally their speed could not match Diya's.

"How is that piece of trash running so fast?"

"It doesn't matter. The city lord has already contacted the lord of the next city. They'll arrange an interception."

The discussion behind him startled Diya. Originally, he had planned to charge straight toward the next city, but hearing this, going there would be the same as walking right into a net. Seeing the distance between himself and the City Guards growing wider and wider, Diya suddenly turned and rushed onto a smaller path.

"What are you planning to do?" Diablo popped out again.

"Enter Twilight Rainforest. Once I cross Crouching Dragon Ridge, I can reach another city," Diya said calmly. He had once read all of this in the continent geography books in the library.

Before long, Twilight Rainforest appeared before him once more. Diya no longer knew how many times he had come to Twilight Rainforest. At the outskirts, Diya knew it as well as his own home. The City Guards, however, were the opposite. Usually, they stayed in the city to train and patrol, nothing more. Therefore, after Diya entered Twilight Rainforest, the City Guards stopped and all turned their gazes toward a man wearing armor with a longsword at his waist.

"The rainforest is far too dangerous. If we enter recklessly, not only will we fail to catch the fugitive, even we will be in danger. Squads One and Two, stay here and guard the area. If the fugitive runs out, kill him on sight. The other squads, return with me."

The guard captain led several squads back into the city and reported the matter of Diya fleeing into Twilight Rainforest to the city lord.

"City Lord, look at my Porter. Look what he's been beaten into. Three ribs broken, and he's still unconscious," a middle-aged man said to the city lord. He was, astonishingly, Porter's father—Bourbon.

"Have you had a priest treat him?" Clarena's father, who was also the lord of Carlos City, said in a deep voice. "The fugitive has already run into Twilight Rainforest. I imagine you know very well what kind of place Twilight Rainforest is. Can a useless wretch with no battle aura and no magic survive in there?"

"But, my lord, Porter already has the strength of a Guardian Rank swordsman, yet he was still beaten into severe injury," Bourbon said.

"I've already investigated. Over these past few months, that trash has been training his body like a madman, and he often went into Twilight Rainforest to hunt fierce beasts. That's why his physical strength improved so much, and his battle experience is also richer than Porter's. As for why Porter was injured, it was entirely because he underestimated him. He simply wasn't on guard at all. I asked Clarena and Frank, and both of them confirmed that the trash has not cultivated battle aura. His body merely became better. But however good his body is, what use is that in the depths of Twilight Rainforest? Others may not know, but as the commander of Carlos City's City Guard, you should understand, shouldn't you?"

"My lord, are you talking about that monster in the center of the rainforest?" Bourbon could not help shuddering. "That monster truly is terrifying."

"Although I don't know why that monster can't leave the depths of the rainforest, with its strength, anyone who enters will come to no good end."

"City Lord, even with your strength at the upper General Rank, you still can't defeat it?" Bourbon asked.

"No. That monster's true strength isn't high, but its methods are far too terrifying. Even I can't withstand them."

"Ah. Hmph, hmph. That piece of trash is finished. It's just that I can't destroy him with my own hands, so I still feel unwilling," Bourbon sneered a few times, then said viciously.

"Enough. Go and see Porter."

The incident of Diya beating the eldest son of the City Guard's commander and imperial baron, Bourbon, into severe injury and unconsciousness quickly spread through Carlos City. At once, all of Carlos City boiled over.

A piece of trash publicly recognized by the whole city as someone too weak to truss a chicken, someone who would be half-dead from exhaustion after walking a few steps, had actually beaten a Guardian Rank swordsman into severe injury with his bare hands, and even left him unconscious. It was as shocking as a ten-thousand-year dead volcano suddenly erupting.

All sorts of guesses appeared one after another. Some people thought Diya might have encountered some extraordinary opportunity, such as obtaining some kind of thing that changed his body all at once. This sort belonged to the fantasy faction, though it was, of course, the guess closest to the truth.

But this explanation was not accepted by people. If there really were such extraordinary opportunities, why had they not encountered them? On what grounds had that piece of trash encountered one? And so the second guess emerged: Diya had been hiding his strength all along. Everything before had merely been a facade, a facade meant to mislead others and make them think he was that kind of trash.

If that were the case, then Diya's scheming was far too frightening. Thus, this guess triggered even more speculation. If it was true, then why had Diya hidden his strength for fifteen years, allowing himself to be bullied all that time without fighting back, only erupting now?

He was a spy sent by another country, one who had infiltrated the empire to steal its secrets. But this did not hold up either. Carlos was nothing more than a remote little city with nothing in it. If he really were a spy from another empire, he should have infiltrated the imperial capital instead.

But if he was not a spy, then why do such a thing? What was there in Carlos City worth him doing this for? Everyone spoke in their own forum of opinions, and one guess after another appeared, gradually drifting farther from the truth.

After this news spread through the academy, the degree of shock surpassed the previous rumor incident. The entire academy boiled over, and everyone began guessing endlessly as well.

Those who had bullied Diya before felt uneasy, fearing that Diya would return to take revenge on them. He even dared to beat a noble's eldest son into severe injury and unconsciousness, let alone commoners like them, who had not the slightest title.

After Christiana heard the news, she was suddenly startled. She skipped her lessons and ran straight to Diya's home. By now, this home had already been searched once by the City Guard, destroyed into a scene of devastation and utter chaos.

Christiana walked into the empty courtyard that was like a ruin, looking at everything around her. It had all been destroyed, but what worried her even more was Diya's safety. She had originally planned to come find Diya in two days, but she had not expected them to part like this, without even a word of farewell.

But Christiana did not blame Diya. Having already begun to feel affection for him, she had learned a great deal about Diya, especially about his past. She knew Diya had always been bullied, and at the same time, Christiana also believed that Diya was not a spy or anything of the sort. His body had been trained by himself. Although Christiana still found it somewhat strange, she maintained immense trust in Diya.

Silently praying for Diya in her heart, Christiana left this dilapidated house and returned to the academy. Her mood was so heavy that she actually, for once, got lost. Thinking about things subconsciously, she returned to the academy, and she was also praying that within three years, Diya would definitely go to Tax Academy to find her. Otherwise, she would leave the academy district to search for Diya.

"I forgot to tell Christiana. She probably won't blame me. Within three years, I must raise my strength to a certain height, then go to Tax Academy to find her," Diya swore inwardly.

At this moment, he was inside Twilight Rainforest, but he had not yet reached the center. This place was merely farther than where he usually hunted. Because of that, Diya was not sure which direction he should walk. According to Diya's deduction, outside Twilight Rainforest, there should be City Guards waiting for him to go out and throw himself into their net. If that was the case, then he had only one road left: cross Twilight Rainforest and climb over Crouching Dragon Ridge.