Being a Saint since the age of myth

Elsewhere, Wuxin and Tenma, making their way through the downpour, soon noticed something amiss as well.

"Senior, there seem to be more and more underworld guards on patrol!" Tenma said uncertainly.

"It doesn't just seem that way. There really are more!"

Wuxin sighed softly and continued, "I imagine the First Prison has guessed we've entered the Second Prison, so they've stepped up patrols here."

"Unfortunately for them, they'll never imagine we've disguised ourselves as Specters and are hiding right under their noses."

"If they really search for you based on your usual appearance, they'll never find you!"

After saying this, Wuxin could not help looking a little pleased with himself.

No wonder Sasha and the Pope had specifically chosen him to enter the Underworld and rescue Tenma. Anyone else really could not have managed it so easily.

Simply evading the searches by those Specters and underworld guards would probably have given anyone else more than enough trouble.

"Yes, with you covering for us, Senior, our journey really has been much easier! It's just a pity that we've also missed so many chances to fight Specters because of it!" Tenma said regretfully.

"Hey, hey, hey, aren't you getting a little too cocky?"

Wuxin shook his head, caught between laughter and tears. "This is Hell in the Underworld, the Specters' home base. The commander of every level of Hell possesses at least the strength of the Seventh Sense."

"Have you thought about what would happen if you fought Specters here?"

"Once our whereabouts are exposed, an endless stream of Specters will come rushing over. By then, we won't be able to leave even if we want to!"

"Uh, I forgot about that!" Tenma scratched his head awkwardly.

With Wuxin covering for him, the journey had gone so smoothly that he had not fought a single Specter, and this had made him lower his guard.

Wuxin looked ahead and said gravely, "There will be plenty of chances to fight Specters. There's no need to rush."

"Hades has begun to awaken, and the Holy War has already started. From now on, our clashes with the Specters will become more and more frequent."

"But I think that when the time comes, you won't be looking forward to chances to fight them anymore!"

"Why is that?" Tenma was puzzled.

"Because fighting means sacrifice!"

Wuxin sighed and continued, "Whether you acknowledge it or not, people always die in war."

"Even those as powerful as Gold Saints will face the day of their death!"

"When you see your friends and companions fall on the battlefield one after another, you won't be as eager to fight Specters as you are now!"

As he spoke, he turned back and gave Tenma a long look.

The poor fellow still did not know that his teacher, Dohko, had already died in battle, becoming the first Gold Saint from Sanctuary to fall in this Holy War.

To avoid causing unnecessary trouble, Wuxin had chosen to conceal it for the time being and had not told him.

Hearing these heavy words, Tenma did not know how to respond and fell silent for a while.

Wuxin said nothing more and quickened his pace through the downpour.

Elsewhere, Heavenly Beast Star Pharaoh was leading countless underworld guards and Specters in a thorough sweep of the Second Prison.

Unfortunately, neither the underworld guards nor the Specters had found any clues related to Tenma.

"Could that fellow Lune have made a mistake?" Pharaoh sat on a rock, lost in thought.

As a fellow commander of a level of Hell, he held Heavenly Heroic Star Lune's strength in considerable regard, but he did not trust Lune's subordinates.

To him, they were nothing but a bunch of trash.

It was perfectly normal for a bunch of trash to overlook something while doing their jobs.

Otherwise, he should have found at least something on his end.

A considerable time passed, and still no clues turned up. Pharaoh began to grow anxious.

He had already exchanged messages with Lune and confirmed that there was still no trace of Tenma in the First Prison.

The absence of any trace of Tenma in either level of Hell was undoubtedly very abnormal.

At this point, however reluctant Pharaoh was, he had no choice but to direct his suspicions toward his own men.

"You useless trash, have you actually been putting any effort into this search?"

"Why is there still not the slightest word?" Pharaoh furiously berated his Specter subordinates.

"My lord, we really have been doing our best! But we truly haven't found the slightest trace!" the Specters replied miserably.

"Trash! Trash!"

Pharaoh was in no mood to hear any more excuses and plucked the harp in his hands.

Twang!

As a note rang out, the sound waves instantly shattered the Specters' Surplices and sent them flying, their fates unknown.

Cerberus, who had been lying behind Pharaoh, brightened at the sight and immediately pounced forward in excitement, gulping several of them down.

Just then, he seemed to discover something and suddenly stopped eating. All three heads stretched their necks out together, sniffing the air.

"Hm?"

Noticing his unusual behavior, Pharaoh stopped punishing his subordinates and gestured for everyone to remain silent so they would not interfere with Cerberus.

Then Cerberus seemed to catch a scent and slowly followed it, finally stopping beneath a huge rock a hundred meters away.

"What did you find, my precious?" Pharaoh approached and asked with a hint of anticipation.

Cerberus could not speak, but he still communicated his discovery to Pharaoh through mental communication.

He had caught the scent of strangers who had stopped there.

But the downpour here was so heavy that it had washed the scent almost entirely away.

Had he not happened to be nearby this time, he would never have detected anything unusual there.

"Good, very good! Follow the scent. You must find them, my precious!" Pharaoh told the hellhound, somewhat excited.

Cerberus nodded, then used his keen sense of smell to follow the lingering scent along the route.

Meanwhile, Wuxin, still in the downpour, felt a sense of danger arise for no apparent reason.

"Tenma, let's pick up the pace. I feel like something might happen!" he said solemnly.

"No problem, Senior!"

Tenma nodded and immediately sped up.

They did not know how long they had hurried through the downpour when they suddenly saw a glimmer of light ahead.

"What's that? The entrance to the Third Prison?" Tenma asked, pointing at the distant light.

"I don't know either. Let's go take a look!" Wuxin decided at once.

In the Second Prison, the unceasing downpour kept the sky shrouded in dark clouds, and visibility on the ground was extremely poor. It was hard not to be curious when a light suddenly appeared ahead.

As they drew closer, the light grew brighter, and the two gradually made out its true source.

It was a bright garden standing apart from the downpour, bathed in brilliant sunshine, as though it and the darkness and torrential rain outside had been completely divided into two worlds.

"That's impossible!" Wuxin was shocked at the sight.

Because this garden should not have appeared here.

The timing of its appearance was wrong!!!

Chapter 62: The pursuers arrive

Wuxin clearly remembered that the garden amid the rain in the Second Prison had been built by Hades to keep Lyra Orphée there.

But Lyra Orphée was a Silver Saint who would only appear in the next Holy War.

So this garden should not have appeared at this point in time.

Seeing Wuxin's unusual reaction, Tenma asked in confusion, "Senior, do you know something?"

"I don't know how to explain it to you! In any case, this garden shouldn't be here!" Wuxin looked solemn, but did not explain much.

"Shouldn't be here?" Tenma grew even more confused.

Just then, unusual footsteps came from the downpour behind them.

At the same time, Wuxin sensed a fairly strong Cosmo rapidly approaching.

"Watch out!"

He grabbed Tenma and quickly leaped aside.

Boom!

An enormous black shadow landed where they had just been standing, instantly smashing a huge crater into the ground.

Wuxin took a closer look and saw that it was a gigantic three-headed dog.

"Hell's watchdog, Cerberus!" He recognized him at a glance.

"Cerberus? Isn't that a monster from legend?" Tenma was extremely surprised, but faced with the three-headed dog before him, he had no choice but to believe Wuxin's judgment.

The hellhound had no intention of communicating with them. He immediately pounced again, opening all three of his cavernous, blood-red mouths.

Even from several meters away, Wuxin could still smell the extremely foul stench from the hellhound's mouths.

"A mere beast dares bare its teeth at me?" Tossing Tenma away, Wuxin immediately moved to meet him.

Judging solely by his Cosmo, Cerberus had at least reached the middle Silver level, roughly five hundred thousand times the speed of sound, putting him about on par with Wuxin.

Actual combat strength, however, could not be calculated that way.

Cerberus was only a beast, after all, without a human's capacity for thought. At the same time, his enormous body would become a major burden against the much smaller Wuxin, who was at the same level.

Boom!

The hellhound's first head bit down, but Wuxin evaded the attack with a slight turn, leaving that huge mouth to bite into the mud.

The hellhound's second head followed right behind. Wuxin leaped up and landed on the bridge of his nose, avoiding this powerful blow as well.

But the hellhound still had one final head, which lunged at Wuxin with snapping jaws.

"You won't get another chance!"