Chapter 204: Untitled
"A Garymane Mythical Cat."
"Saber-Tooth Wind Lion."
Inside a massive, brightly lit showroom in a luxurious mansion on the east wing of Reverse Scale City, voices echoed loudly.
A set of incredibly wealthy nobles could be seen scattered all over the vast, beautifully decorated room, drinking and talking.
They were each admiring the highly dangerous, high-level game that had been caught over the years by the host.
The towering stone walls were lined with enormous, enchanted glass displays containing the remains of truly powerful beasts.
Some of the massive creatures had been preserved almost perfectly, frozen forever in terrifying, mid-pounce poses by advanced magic.
Others were represented strictly by their bleached skulls, massive razor-sharp claws, twisted horns, and other highly valuable biological parts.
For the arrogant, bloodthirsty Dragon princes, this wasn’t simply a casual, decorative collection meant for a standard hunting lodge.
It was a brutal, undeniable physical display of their personal achievements, boundless wealth, and raw combat power.
Every single beast mounted on the wall represented a bloody hunt, a massive battle, or an incredibly grueling expedition.
These life-or-death struggles had all taken place somewhere within the sprawling, chaotic borders of the highly dangerous Nether Realm.
At the advanced stage of Demi God, wild beasts suddenly gained high-level intellect and frightening reasoning capabilities.
This sudden, violent evolution made tracking, capturing, or hunting them ten times harder, regardless of their type of bloodline.
A massive, magically endowed beast that could actively think and plan was far more dangerous than one that simply relied on instinct.
In fact, an ordinary Demi God dog with human-level intelligence was a serious, lethal threat even to proud, heavily armored dragons.
"This one must have been killed and dragged out from the deepest parts of the Shattered Disaster Lands."
"No... look closely at the deep, jagged lightning marks scarred directly into the skull. It’s definitely from the Thunder Sky Disaster Lands."
A few heavily armored Dragon princes commented quietly as they looked over the extensive, priceless collection with deeply envious eyes.
They spoke casually while holding their jeweled wine glasses, but each of those location names carried massive, terrifying weight.
The Disaster Lands were widely known as some of the absolute most dangerous, unpredictable places in the entire Nether Realm.
Even the strongest, most veteran Demi God hunters had to be incredibly careful when deliberately entering their highly volatile borders.
"Brother Jiao Shen, the human envoy is officially here."
One heavily armored, scale-covered guard walked briskly up to a large group standing in the very middle of the grand showroom.
He leaned in closely and spoke the military update directly into the ear of the wealthy, lavishly dressed host.
"Ahhh, this is fine. Open the main doors and let him in immediately."
Jiao Shen’s scaly face quickly lit up, smiling broadly from ear to ear with a distinct, undeniable hint of dark mischief.
Seconds later, the heavy double doors swung open with a loud thud, and Ethen confidently entered the bustling, crowded hall.
He walked smoothly alongside his towering human Dragon Knights, immediately drawing the sharp, judging attention of every noble present.
His men were dragging several heavy, firmly locked wooden boxes behind them as they approached the noble group in the middle.
"Glad you could make it to our humble gathering, Brother Ethen. I am truly honored by your presence today."
Jiao Shen stretched his bare hand out openly in the middle of the crowded group, offering a formal, highly visible greeting.
Normally, the ancient, prideful dragons saw themselves as being entirely above absolutely every other mortal race in existence.
Even certain lesser Gods were openly looked down upon and mocked by their supreme, heavily entrenched ancient bloodlines.
Shaking hands evenly with a mere human was therefore a calculated display of highly unusual, deeply suspicious public respect.
"Well, you did graciously invite me to your beautiful home."
Ethen smiled warmly, taking the offered hand and shaking it firmly without breaking his intense, calculating eye contact.
"And see? I brought more gifts for my gracious friends."
He added smoothly, directing his men to drag the heavy boxes towards the back where other expensive gifts were safely kept.
Several of the incredibly greedy Dragon princes immediately glanced toward the heavy boxes sliding loudly across the polished marble floor.
They had already personally experienced Ethen’s incredible, overwhelming financial generosity once before at the private city clubhouse.
Naturally, they were intensely curious about exactly what kind of priceless, rare treasures he had brought them this time around.
Ethen, meanwhile, simply smiled politely and kept his hands resting casually inside his deep, dark silken pockets.
He had absolutely no problem spending endless mountains of treasures if doing so actively made things politically easier for his overall plans.
.....
"We will be exclusively visiting the Wormhole Disaster Land on our hunting trip today, so I expect absolute focus."
After a few more fake pleasantries and shared drinks, the large group finally went into strict, military-grade preparation mode.
Each noble began actively picking a specific combat position to play in the highly dangerous, cooperative hunts to come.
"So I’d strongly assume we are all well equipped and mentally prepared for the grueling trip ahead of us."
The loud, party-like atmosphere in the room immediately became noticeably more serious and highly focused on the task at hand.
This wasn’t a normal, relaxing hunting trip into the standard outer ridges for low-level sport and casual entertainment.
The exact moment they entered a volatile Disaster Land, every single careless mistake could easily become instantly fatal for the entire team.
"The Disaster Land we specifically chose is a fairly new one, unfortunately, so we have to be very, very cautious."
Jiao Shen’s expression became incredibly solemn as he looked around the tight group of heavily armed, veteran Demi God hunters.
"Maintain your strict formations at all times and keep your eyes completely on the prize immediately upon our entry."
"Chi Gang, you can step up and comfortably fill the front left flank for our human friend Algar, yes?"
Jiao Shen said calmly, looking directly at a heavily scarred, massive Dragon prince standing quietly to his immediate left.
The young, muscular dragon simply nodded his horned head, his face showing absolutely no surprise at the sudden command.
Disaster Lands were by far some of the most unpredictable, highly dangerous places located in the entire Nether Realm.
They were the ultimate physical testimony that this place was not just another ordinary, stable planet floating in the vast cosmos.
It was a deeply broken, highly unstable realm that was constantly, violently, and actively eating itself alive from the inside out.
The Nether Realm absolutely didn’t obey the exact same strict laws of physics or reality as the ordinary, structured mortal world.
There were terrifying places where space physically twisted onto itself, and surrounding environments completely collapsed without any prior warning.
The very land itself seemed entirely capable of suddenly opening up and swallowing absolutely anything that foolishly entered its borders.
The massive Disaster Lands were among the absolute clearest, most deadly examples of this chaotic, world-ending destructive nature.
One wrong step into an invisible spatial tear and you could easily become permanently trapped there for the rest of your miserable life.
Or, in the vast majority of historically recorded cases, you would simply end up violently dead and erased from existence entirely.
As such, only fully realized, incredibly resilient Demi Gods were legally allowed to step foot inside their heavily restricted borders.
Anyone weaker than that absolute divine benchmark would simply be taking an entirely unnecessary, incredibly suicidal risk by entering.
"I can easily handle the front left position myself..."
Ethen cut in smoothly, a perfectly polite, entirely unyielding smile plastered firmly on his handsome face as he interrupted.
There were about five full, heavily armed teams drafted for this massive hunt, and he was the only one being actively sidelined?
He was the only Demi God not being allowed to actually do anything or hold a vital combat role in the formation?
That was incredibly embarrassing, and an obvious, highly calculated political insult to his status as a recognized divine Messenger.
But far more than that, Ethen was absolutely sure they were plotting something highly specific and incredibly lethal.
The strategic positions being quickly assigned to the veteran hunters weren’t random in the slightest degree.
They were deliberately, forcefully attempting to keep him entirely away from the important, defensive parts of the vanguard formation.
"Friend, we all know you’re a brand-new Demi God. Do not feel embarrassed by this at all. We can handle it."
Jiao Shen smiled reassuringly, waving his scaly hand as if casually dismissing Ethen’s completely valid, prideful concerns.
"Plus, this highly dangerous terrain has to do with all of our lives out there in the absolute chaos."
"I personally don’t feel comfortable allowing you to take point at all," one heavily armored Dragon Clan member chimed in aggressively.
They had previously drawn lots completely fairly before assigning the actual combat positions for the upcoming, highly dangerous hunt.
Ethen had luckily gotten a very important, highly active, and prestigious role in the frontline vanguard formation.
But now that they were actually preparing to physically enter the deadly Disaster Land, they were suddenly changing the established rules.
They boldly claimed they didn’t want a newly advanced, highly inexperienced Demi God taking that critical, life-saving position.
To them, it was simply basic common sense and standard, undeniable battlefield protocol when dealing with human outsiders.
They had successfully, ruthlessly hunted together in these terrifying, twisted lands countless times before today.
They deeply understood each other’s abilities, timing, and unique bloodline powers down to an absolute, perfect science.
Ethen was a complete, entirely untrusted outsider to their tightly knit, highly experienced hunting group.
More importantly, to their deeply arrogant, supremacist minds, he was just a fragile human playing dress-up among real predators.
"My current Tier has absolutely nothing to do with it. I’ve killed Demi Gods long before I became one myself."
Ethen added coldly, shaking his head and stubbornly refusing to step down from his assigned, frontline combat role.
However, instead of reacting with shock, anger, or feeling insulted by his immense arrogance, the group merely broke into strange smiles.
They had already heard the highly classified, incredibly bloody stories and military reports about Ethen’s past battlefield exploits.
They knew for an absolute fact that he had killed fully formed Demi Gods before ascending to the divine realm himself.
But hearing him say it out loud so confidently only made their collective, hidden smiles deepen in an incredibly sinister way.
"If you truly insist on throwing yourself to the very front."
One of the princes nodded slowly, looking directly at Ethen with a chilling, dead-eyed smile that wasn’t really a smile at all.
Ethen immediately noticed the subtle, highly dangerous shift in their collective body language and facial expressions.
There was something incredibly strange and deeply unsettling about the exact way they were all looking at him right now.
They clearly, desperately expected something very specific and highly lethal to happen to whoever was standing at the front of the formation.
He was exactly where they wanted him.
He didn’t know exactly what the lethal, environmental trap was yet.
But whatever grand, deadly scheme they had carefully planned for him inside the twisting space, he would find out soon enough.
Some time later, the fully geared, heavily armored group moved towards a massive, open-air balcony securely attached to the building.
A giant, highly complex teleportation circle stretched completely across the polished, runic stone floor of the viewing deck.
The ancient, spatial formation glowed brightly beneath their heavy boots, humming with immense, suppressed magical power.
Its intricate, carved magical runes slowly began to illuminate one after another in a sequential, highly dizzying pattern of light.
The heavily armed Dragon princes gathered tightly around it, mentally and physically preparing themselves for the harsh, violent journey ahead.
Ethen stood perfectly calm among them, his expression completely stoic and unbothered by the heavy killing intent surrounding him.
He had absolutely no idea what horrific, twisted monsters or collapsing environmental hazards awaited them on the other side.
But he had already decided one undeniable, absolute truth before stepping directly onto the glowing, unstable magical array.
Whatever these arrogant, scheming dragons were secretly planning to do to him in the chaos, he would not allow himself to become their prey.