Nightmare's Call

Lin Sheng bent down as he picked up another rock. Just as he got up, his eyes met the Night Lord’s amethyst eyes. It radiated a faint purple glow, as a silvery object within his eyes struck out.

*Bam!!*

His movement froze as the entirety of his sacred powers surged out to block the attack.

Before that overwhelming power that transcended space, the sacred power within Lin Sheng’s body was but a candle in the wind, lasting no more than two seconds before it was snuffed out.

And then the familiar darkness descended upon him.

He died again.

...

“Hehe.”

Lin Sheng opened his eyes as he lay still on the bed.

“I’m such a fool. A bloody fool.” Lin Sheng grimaced as he thought himself a fool.

“When I faced the gray angel, I found a way to kill it, and I did the same with Khadula as well as the Steel Lord. In my arrogance, I thought that all of these leader-level monsters had area restrictions, heh.”

Lin Sheng self-reflected. He had indeed been getting a little over his head lately, especially now that the preparatory Holy Sanctum in the real world had already accumulated over a hundred units of sacred power and things were going smooth sailing. That allowed him the delusion of him being able to easily take down a councillor-class elite.

“I should have known that there is a hierarchy of power within the council...” Lin Sheng let out a defeated breath. “The Steel Lord was only a recent addition to the council and even at the lowest possible rank, he was still a top-end Six-winger.”

As for what the rest of the council entails, he did not need much prodding to understand.

“A Level 11 is a councillor; so is a Level 13. And based on my memory, the Commander of the Blackfeather City Guard, Ostenrhein was a Level 12 Shield Barrier. All of them are part of the council.”

Lin Sheng was clear as to where he went wrong.

“Being a councillor only means reaching the apex of the Blackfeather City’s hierarchy, but that does not determine the limit of once strength. It is just a mere demarcation of the strong.”

As he got up from the bed, he quickly washed up and went downstairs to buy soybean curd and fried fritters for breakfast.

Adolf had intended to arrange for someone to serve as his butler but Lin Sheng flat out rejected it. He was not the type who enjoyed being served by others. Plus, with his personal secrets, he could not afford to let it be discovered by anyone else.

After breakfast, someone came over to Lin Sheng’s place.

It was Maier.

The man looked slightly panicky as he held his phone in his hand without making a call, all the while standing awkwardly before Lin Sheng’s place knocking on his door.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Sheng opened the door to let him in, as he closed the door behind him.

Maier was covered in sweat and his breathing heavy. Clearly, he had rushed over at top speed. As he sat on the chair, the wooden furniture creaked.

“We have a problem!” He exclaimed as he wiped his sweat off with a piece of tissue.

“Your disciple, Adolf has run into trouble, big trouble!”

“Trouble? Explain.” Lin Sheng was calm, there was nothing shocking to him now that he had a dozen times in a row.

Maier put things succinctly. “I’ll keep things short, you know that there’s something wrong with Adolf’s body, right?”

“Hmmm? Something wrong with his body? What are you on about? I actually find that he’s particularly gifted in learning how to use sacred powers,” Lin Sheng said impassively.

“I’m not sure about that. I only know that last night, two people from the Astral Mere came out to look for him, seemingly to investigate something,” Maier quickly continued.

“The hell is the Astral Mere?” Lin Sheng frowned. While he had gone through some of the materials that he had borrowed from Maier, it was the first time he had heard of the Astral Mere.

“If there’s one thing that has to do with that godforsaken place, it has to be the Paragons of Destiny! They are an organization that specializes in the retrieval of the Paragons of Destiny!” Maier explained. “They will normally perform a covert investigation before stealthily retrieve the Paragons of Destiny, they are able to do it to the point that no one was any wiser.”

“Wait up, what’s this Paragons of Destiny thing?” Lin Sheng held his hand up to stop Maier. This sort of disjointed explanation confused him.

“A Paragon of Destiny can be understood as the Palatinates of treasures. Even if the owner of one is a crackpot, he would still be able to obtain all sorts of unimaginable powers. And each of the paragons has its own unique ability. They have been the focus of countries and powerful factions.”

“As long as one owns a Paragon of Destiny, they will be bestowed with powers?” Lin Sheng was stunned. “That broken?”

“It is!” Maier nodded. “The Darksiders may be extremely powerful, and even the Palatinates that run rampant will be wary of a Paragon of Destiny as no one knew what sort of powers that thing might bring.”

“Alright, what does this stupidly broken thing have to do with my disciple, Adolf?” Lin Sheng asked.

“It’s like this, most of the time the people from the Astral Mere would not reveal their identities, especially to a government staffer like us. And we have gotten word that they purposely looked for the TSSF and requested our cooperation!” Maier was incredulous.

“And? What happened to Adolf?” Lin Sheng asked.

“Ugh...” Maier was stumped.

“So you came running to look for me even when nothing’s happened to Adolf?” Lin Sheng sniggered.

“...I just feel that Adolf must’ve gotten involved with a Paragon of Destiny, or else the people from Astral Mere would not have gotten us to authorize protection for him.” Maier rebutted.

“Alright, alright. Since Adolf himself hasn’t contacted me or come to look for me, that means he thinks he can handle this himself. Go get some rest. You don’t need to panic. Oh right, weren’t you training in the sanctum under Khadula?” Lin Sheng suddenly recalled.

“Ugh...” Maier’s expression changed.

To be honest, he was rather happy when he saw the pretty girl, even if he had no luck with her, she was still eye candy during training.

Unfortunately for him, Khadula was extremely brutal when she got hands-on.

Every time he saw Khadula disciplining some disobedient disciples, she would be whipping and laughing happily at the same time. That filled him with a sense of peril.

Maier was a normal person, and he had no intention of being a masochist!

“So in the end, you have not told me what sort of ability that Paragon of Destiny has?” Lin Sheng finally asked.

“Absolute Recovery!” Maier answered, his face serious. “No matter, how bad the wounds far, how close to death’s door you are, as soon as you activate that ability, you would fully recover!”

“Any limitations?”

“Once a day, and you can heal any broken or torn limbs without the need of any prerequisite. Even if you are close to death by starvation, it will heal you to back to full health.”

“That broken?” Lin Sheng was astonished.

“That’s why it’s called a Paragon of Destiny. We believe that the paragon is inside Adolf, but he doesn’t realize it,” Maier added.

“No matter.” Lin Sheng shook his head. While he was intrigued by the power, it was Adolf’s luck, and he would not take it from him.

“Alright... since you, as a master aren’t fazed, then I’ve just been sh*tting myself silly for nothing for a good part of the day.” Maier was speechless.

“Just so you know that the allure of a Paragon of Destiny is beyond what you can imagine, so you better prepare,” he reminded.