Chapter 18: Making Use of an Opportunity

Sengorath, a rainbow dragon, the guardian of the Magic Crystal Jungle, the master of magic, and the supreme being of the Aemera world.
The Chapters of Sengorath are texts recording magic techniques outside the Glorious System. Long ago, top warriors from various races who sought to restore their traditions and glory, after passing trials, copied these techniques from the rainbow dragons.
Since they were limited to copying their own race’s techniques—and compared to what Sengorath safeguarded, they only covered one chapter—this name came into use. Some joked, “All magic comes from Lord Sengorath!” This shows the significance of the Chapters of Sengorath.
After the great betrayal by the Glorious Angels who turned against their gods, the rainbow dragons traveled everywhere to retrieve the Chapters of Sengorath. Because of the “true knowledge” involved, the races that copied the techniques might not have the ability to master them right away, while the kings of demons could become even stronger through them.
Nio had also heard rumors that four chapters of the Chapters of Sengorath were lost and not recovered, two of which fell into the hands of demons, giving rise to the infamous Dark Undead and Dark Puppet schools.
Rumors and unofficial stories are untrustworthy, so Nio had always treated them as mere idle talk. But today, as Thelres uttered the name of the Chapters of Sengorath before dying, Nio was forced to take these claims seriously.
“Even if there’s a grain of truth in these rumors, it would still be a huge problem for me!” His mind was in turmoil, mixed with a faint excitement—desire for adventure, desire for victory. That was the nature of wolves. Once, many powerful wolves, even in their old age, would choose a battle, no matter how hopeless, as a grand finale to their lives rather than dying in some cave or bed.
Gently laying Thelres down, Nio stroked his face and closed his eyes, still filled with a pleading expression. Standing up, he turned his gaze toward Karonper, imprisoned in black iron, and said in as calm a tone as possible, “It’s rare that you haven’t said a word in your defense, Brother Karonper.”
Karonper, with disheveled hair and thin, fragile bones, slowly raised his head. The light in his sunken eye sockets shone like a lamp oil flame in the darkness. After humming a few times, he said slowly, “I have no way to prove that a guy who’s been imprisoned for hundreds of years yet still alive is innocent.” His voice was hoarse, like the sound of a leaky bellows, and he clearly lacked strength, pausing frequently to catch his breath.
Nio didn’t lower his guard because of Karonper’s frail appearance. With a sneer, he said, “Well, at least the charges against Bloodthirsty John weren’t false. If it weren’t for forbidden techniques like ‘life theft,’ you wouldn’t have survived this long.”
Karonper twitched his slack, lifeless lips and chuckled. “I really doubt your lineage. After just a few hundred years, wolves have even learned to use their brains!”

“Do you want to provoke me? It seems I was right—you still have the strength to fight.” Neo said as he picked up Thelos’s magic rifle and took out a small bag of bullets from him. “The advantage of a gladiator is to satisfy the audience’s interest, so one must master various weapons. This magic rifle is truly a great weapon. It still has 15 units of energy left—firing 30 shots should be no problem. Let’s conduct a small experiment to see if bullets fired into the forehead can affect the casting of spells.”

“What do you want?” Karonper’s face darkened, his voice sounding agitated.

“Monk, your combat strength is so formidable that such strict restraints are needed to contain you; your will is tenacious, allowing you to endure for hundreds of years. But clearly, you lack the talent of an actor.” Neo bluntly pointed out that Karonper was still acting. “If you gave in so easily, how could the people of the Holy Church still not have gotten what they wanted? Monk, let’s skip the unnecessary preliminaries and get straight to the point. What do you say?”

Karonper snorted coldly, essentially agreeing.

This time, Karonper truly recognized this young werewolf—not only was he different from other werewolves, but among young members of other intelligent races his age, he was also top-notch in terms of calmness and composure.

Karonper also understood that since Neo was willing to talk to him, killing him wasn’t his first choice.

“Hmph, perhaps it’s because this young wolf has keenly realized that with his current strength, even if he wanted to kill himself, he would have to pay a huge price—hence his choice! After all, the demons are always at his heels; maybe they’re already on their way here…”

Karonper’s prediction was not far from the truth. Neo indeed feared Karonper’s deadly strike. Having lived for over 500 years, that alone was enough to make anyone highly vigilant.

On the other hand, Dantestine, who had been deceived by false information and led to an underground hall in the noble district of Solis City, was no longer as relaxed and graceful as usual. Her pretty face now showed menace, becoming even more ferocious.

Just a few seconds ago, she had crushed the skulls of two ineffective demons. Now, all the demons were timid, not daring to breathe loudly, let alone look up at Dantestine.

Licking the red and white substances on her sharp nails, the witch spoke in her magically charged voice, “Explain everything from start to finish in detail!”

Her voice was shrill, and the demons felt as if needles were piercing their brains. It was both a punishment and a warning—next time if there were problems, death would be a relief…

Snow continued to fall heavily. The Dark Blood Woman, now following Neo’s trail, had arrived at the back courtyard of the church. Although she found ashes in the storage room, she lost the clue to continue her pursuit.

“The smoke camouflage can only last for a short time…” Though she said that, the suspect could be anywhere, and the radius might exceed 400 meters, even 600 meters. Searching such a large area for clues would be extremely difficult.

Boom! The artillery fire in the south grew more intense, sounding extremely loud in the night. The Dark Blood Woman was now considering whether to continue tracking the young werewolf, as her status wasn’t high enough to freely control her time during such an operation.

In the hall directly beneath the temple, Neo said bluntly, “I won’t allow the demons to get you alive. To be more precise, not even your head can remain, to prevent them from manipulating your soul.”
Karumpo replied, “Hmm, discussing borrowing your head so directly—this is quite unusual after hundreds of years.” Then, changing the subject, he asked, “Do you believe Thelos?”
“The Chapter of Sengorlas?” Neo shook his head gently. “If this were a prison cell of the Holy Inquisition, I would be willing to believe it. Given the significance of The Chapter of Sengorlas, such treatment is absolutely justified.”
“Hahahahah…” Karumpo laughed loudly, his voice shaking the hall, even causing the flames in the torches on the pillars to tremble. “How ridiculous!” After laughing until he was out of breath, Karumpo said, “Hundreds of years! Those so-called wise fools are not even as clever as a young werewolf!”
“Although The Chapter of Sengorlas is likely just a fabrication, and your continued imprisonment may be due to inertia in handling affairs, I believe you must possess something enviable here. Otherwise, they wouldn’t risk hiding the truth and keeping you alive to this day. The Holy Inquisition has always been strict, both toward outsiders and insiders.”
Karumpo was surprised and took a while before saying, “You can actually figure out that they’ve been hiding the truth about me—quite impressive.”
“Hmm, but I still stick to my decision. I’m not at ease with you alive.”
Karumpo didn’t seem particularly concerned about his own life and said jokingly, “What’s that enviable thing? Perhaps endless wealth, or legendary texts that can make one powerful quickly…”
“I’ll get what I want myself!” Neo interrupted Karumpo calmly, his eyes filled with determination and confidence.
Karumpo watched silently for a while before saying seriously, “If it weren’t for these damned shackles, I would applaud you.”
Neo smiled slightly. “It seems you realize them too—those damned shackles. They’re so sturdy, and their locking mechanism is so unique that even if I cut off your limbs, I still can’t take you away from here.”
“So, what do you plan to use to persuade me to lend you my head?” Karumpo asked, picking up on Neo’s words.
Neo took out the thought crystal he had obtained from the Evil Flame Puppet from his backpack and gently threw it onto the ground in front of Karumpo.
“…” Karumpo understood, but he was speechless.
Neo said, “That’s why I said earlier that I might start believing in fate.”
“You actually managed to kill a Black Butcher—no, an Evil Flame Puppet, one amplified by a demon master himself.”
“It was a close call.” Neo wasn’t modest either; defeating an Evil Flame Puppet was already an honor in itself.
“How do you know I can host my soul in a thought crystal?”
“I don’t know. If I couldn’t, then there’s really nothing left to discuss.”
“What an stubborn guy. Or maybe it’s because of a sense of justice or mission?”

“A sense of justice? That’s nonsense. I just want to annoy those devils; I do what I want. As for how many people have been spared from slaughter because of that, it’s just a side effect. If possible, I’d rather shift those ‘beneficial’ side effects onto this world ravaged by civilization.”
“A sense of mission? Maybe, but it’s only for my own people. As for humans, they should learn to pay for their actions… Well, I’ve explained enough. Let’s keep what comes next as simple as possible—do you choose ‘yes’ or ‘no’?”
Neo stepped forward with one leg in front of the other, his stance bent, the crosssword raised diagonally from his right shoulder. An aura of intensity surrounded him, as if some invisible energy was converging into his body. “All-in attack”—Neo’s only ultimate technique at the moment, or more precisely, a “charged energy attack.”
Such techniques were normally only achievable at level 5, but certain hidden factors within Neo allowed him to master it shortly after surpassing level 3. Of course, this was also inseparable from that life-or-death battle in the arena, which awakened a special potential within him. Without it, Neo wouldn’t have been able to survive Dantestine’s “Curse of the Evil Soul” during the day.
Compared to magic firearms, Neo trusted his sword skills more. At critical moments, he wouldn’t waste his strength by firing randomly with a gun first. A sword fighter relied on close-range combat—what mattered most wasn’t the weapon but him himself, and Neo understood this well.
Kalongper glanced at Neo again with surprise, then nodded. “I must say, you’ve surprised me a lot today. I agree to your proposal. But not completely unconditionally. I want to keep some ‘gifts’ for those devils. If not for them, how would I have been imprisoned here for hundreds of years?” His voice grew stern as he spoke, the cold hatred lurking beneath his tone making Neo shiver.
His instinct as a beast told Neo that Kalongper wasn’t lying. Though he wasn’t a good person, he certainly wouldn’t collude with the devils. Leaving aside their mutual blood feud, by nature, a proud and confident warrior like Kalongper would never submit completely to others, even if they were gods. This kind of stubborn, self-reliant spirit—often called “ungratefulness”—was actually a very important principle. Neo still didn’t fully understand its meaning at the moment, but it was his stubbornness and simple desire for freedom that had kept him out of the “dangerous period,” preventing him from rashly anchoring his beliefs to certain “towering trees.”
Kalongper agreed to his request, and Neo secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He was an outsider to magic, relying on superficial knowledge and observational skills. He might be able to deceive some people with simple talk, but in a real fight, he’d be utterly helpless.

Take the current situation as an example. If they really had to take action, even if he cut off Karonper’s head, there was no guarantee he could successfully take away Karonper’s soul. What if this guy stubbornly tried to escape from his skull at the cost of damage, waiting for the demons to arrive? Neo doubted he could deal with a soul without a physical form—he couldn’t even accurately determine whether the soul had left the head.
“We need a binding oath of sufficient weight!” Neo said. He knew that if he wasn’t played dead by this man who had lived for hundreds of years, the power of binding oaths was the only thing he could rely on.
“What a little fox,” Karonper said, his mouth missing at least half of its teeth.
“By true names, laws, and the River of Death!” Neo added.
Karonper burst into silent laughter. “Thank you very much! The three great oaths only take full effect when sworn by those at the legendary level or above. Especially the oath by the River of Death, which is meant for gods with divine status. Where did you get this half-baked knowledge to spout it so arrogantly?”
Neo’s face flushed for the first time. This knowledge came from wild historical works like the Sacred Chronicles, unverified and largely based on his own assumptions. He had treated Karonper like an ancient demon, leading to such a mistake.
Though mocking Neo’s misuse of the oaths, Karonper didn’t cause any further trouble and simply swore by true names and laws. This made Neo feel a sense of respect.
To comprehend even just one law represented a level that most ordinary people could never reach in their entire lives.
For pioneers and the strong, showing at least basic respect and reverence was, in Neo’s view, a serious and honorable thing.
And the excellent quality of Karonper—his consistency and decisiveness—was also something that impressed him. “Indeed, in the world of the strong, there’s no luck. Regardless of their ways of acting, each of them possesses outstanding qualities and has made unimaginable efforts…”
Only the ignorant and foolish would be proud enough to dismiss others’ strength. There were indeed lucky ones in this world who gained great power through shortcuts, but the incompetent would ultimately fall, unless they could make up for their lack of control at an extremely short time and at a huge cost. This law had yet to be broken by anyone in Aemera…