Choosing a Target
"Why did Lord Rog suddenly rush out? He's not going to leave us and never come back, is he?" Inside the Metallic Lifeform with its purple tulip pattern, the other Fiends immediately felt a little uneasy without an expert like Rog there to hold the fort.
"Don't worry, everyone. Lord Rog just had a sudden insight. He'll definitely be back." Angelina, their employer, wasn't worried at all. After all, Rog's companion was also undoubtedly an extraordinary expert. He was someone formidable enough to withstand a Seven-Star Fiend's ultimate attack head-on and emerge without a scratch.
"Everyone, since Miss Angelina has said so herself, let's put our minds at ease." Since Angelina, their employer, had said Rog would return, the other Fiends, though still somewhat skeptical, set their worries aside for the time being.
Before long, a full half-day had passed, and Rog finally returned to the Metallic Lifeform. Only then did the other Fiends fully relax.
"Lord Rog, you're back."
"Lord Rog had a sudden insight amid the sea of lightning. Your strength must have improved greatly again..."
Although the Fiends were flattering him at random, they had indeed come close to the mark. He had made great progress in the Lightning Law this time. He had found the points of compatibility between the Profound Mystery of Thunder and each of the four profound mysteries he had previously mastered, and could now begin fusing all five together.
However, judging by the time he had spent cultivating in the latter part of the second stage of the fusion law, the fusion of these five profound mysteries would likely take a very long time as well. Even without counting the time needed to break through the bottleneck, simply cultivating to the bottleneck would probably take tens of thousands of years.
Before long, the Metallic Lifeform passed smoothly through the Star Mist Sea and entered the region of the Zijing Continent.
"Lord Rog, why not stay here a few more days before you leave? Our clan leader would surely be delighted to meet an expert like you."
Angelina fixed her crystal-like eyes on Rog, doing her utmost to persuade him to stay.
Rog smiled faintly. "No, Miss Angelina. I have my own affairs to attend to, so I won't trouble your clan leader."
Angelina chuckled. "How could you call it trouble? Our clan leader loves nothing more than meeting unrivaled experts like you."
The Julie Clan she belonged to could be considered a first-rate clan, and its leader, Bob Julie, was a long-established Seven-Star Fiend. But he was the only Seven-Star Fiend in the entire clan. If they wanted to expand their influence, they would naturally try to recruit other Seven-Star Fiends.
But what Seven-Star Fiend wasn't proud?
Who would be willing to join a clan for no reason?
"Thank you for your kindness, Miss Angelina, but I really do have matters to attend to. Farewell." Rog shook his head and declined repeatedly before finally leaving the Julie Clan's residence.
"Master, I think Angelina has taken a fancy to you. Why not stay? Haha..." Dimont had long since seen what the beautiful employer had in mind, but unfortunately, Angelina was destined to have her feelings go unrequited...
"Heh, she only wanted to recruit me." Rog strolled down the street, recalling the strong desire to win him over implicit in her words, and shook his head inwardly.
The Julie Clan could be considered a major clan in the Infernal Realm. It had quite a few experts, as well as a Seven-Star Fiend to hold the fort.
Even so, it was still far from being comparable to the Four Divine Beasts Clan or their sworn enemies, the Eight Great Clans.
In the Infernal Realm, only clans with several Seven-Star Fiends holding the fort could be considered truly major clans. Those with dozens of Seven-Star Fiends, or even an Asura-level expert holding the fort, were top-tier clans.
The Julie Clan was merely one of the better first-rate clans.
For precisely that reason, if they wanted to rise into the ranks of the major clans, they had to recruit Seven-Star Fiends.
"Master, do you really have something to do next?" Dimont walked through this city on the Zijing Continent with an excited expression. Each continent in the Infernal Realm had its own distinct customs and character,
and some of the Zijing Continent's novelties really were eye-opening. "Yes. I need to complete the required number of missions as soon as possible and take the Seven-Star Fiend challenge." The Zijing Continent did indeed have a few opportunities, but they were basically all meant for Linley.
A Sovereign with a fairly mild temper lived in the Amethyst Mountains, but her powerful second-generation scion, Leisjing, was not an easy person to get along with. Linley had attracted Sovereign Zijing's attention because of his background, obtaining not only the treasure known as a Soul Stone but also learning the Amethyst Divine Beast's signature ultimate technique.
If Rog went to the Amethyst Mountains, there really wasn't anything he could gain apart from sightseeing.
"Let me see. Oh, this mission looks good: wipe out bandits in the Anaheim Mountains. Their leader is actually a Six-Star Fiend. A Six-Star Fiend going out to become a bandit, honestly..." Dimont browsed the mission section of the Fiend Castle for a while and soon found a mission to his liking.
Half a month later, Rog single-handedly fought his way through the once-rampant bandit gang. Nearly every bandit at the Midgod level or above was wiped out; only a few Lowgods were spared because Rog couldn't be bothered to kill them.
Three months later, Rog and Dimont took part in another bloody conflict between clans. Both of these clans were a little stronger than the Julie Clan.
Few Fiends were willing to get involved in missions concerning conflicts between the Infernal Realm's major clans. After all, they might find themselves targeted by the opposing clan someday. Rog and Dimont, however, naturally didn't care about that.
"Finally, I've met the requirements to apply for the Seven-Star Fiend assessment." Rog was in a very good mood.
There were actually quite a few experts in the Infernal Realm with the strength of Seven-Star Fiends, but not many Seven-Star Fiends officially certified by the Fiend Castle.
Just like the distinction between an "Asura-level expert" and a true Asura, there were considerable differences among Seven-Star Fiends.
Strictly speaking, only those granted an exclusive title by the Fiend Castle could be considered true Seven-Star Fiends. Most of these Fiends were quite famous, such as the Frost Sword Fiend, Iron Leaf Fiend, Purple Blood Fiend, and Snow Fiend.
As for the other Seven-Star Fiend-level experts without exclusive titles, they were still far inferior to these experts whose names were known throughout the Infernal Realm.
The reason, ultimately, was that the title of Seven-Star Fiend was extremely difficult to obtain. To advance to Seven-Star Fiend and acquire an exclusive title, one had to have killed a Seven-Star Fiend-level expert!
Only when one Seven-Star Fiend-level expert died would a new Seven-Star Fiend be born!
This unique rule meant that-
Seven-Star Fiends who had obtained exclusive titles were generally terrifying, and almost none of them were easy to provoke, because every one of them had killed an expert of the same level.
Of course, there were other ways to become a Seven-Star Fiend. For example, if the successive city lords of a city in the Infernal Realm held their posts for a combined ten billion years, they would receive one recommendation slot. Or, if one was a Paragon, the person in charge of the Fiend Castle would naturally present them with a Seven-Star Fiend medallion directly when they visited.
"The targets for these seven-star missions really are all difficult to deal with. I expect the 'soft persimmons' were picked clean by others long ago." Rog began choosing his assessment mission at the Fiend Castle in Via City.
With his strength, he wouldn't have any difficulty as long as he didn't run into a "Seven-Star Fiend" whose true strength was at the Asura level. He merely wanted to find a target who would be relatively easy to reach. After all, some mission targets might not even be in the Infernal Realm at all. Where was he supposed to find them on short notice?
Seven-Star Fiends were already qualified to venture into other Divine Planes. Although traveling to another Divine Plane was quite expensive, it was still much cheaper than going to a Material Plane, and an ordinary Seven-Star Fiend could afford it.
"Hmm? This one looks pretty good." Before long, Rog picked out a lucky candidate.
"Yiven Romison rose to prominence in Sanders City, Fengyan Prefecture. He primarily cultivates the Laws of Light and is especially skilled in speed and material attacks. His ultimate technique is..." The mission description also included several Floating Shadows, all recordings of Yiven, known as the Aurora Fiend, in action on previous occasions.
P.S. This book has passed 100,000 Chinese characters. Brothers, please give it some recommendations and add it to your collections. Monthly votes would be even better!