CHAPTER 817 A TRICK

There was a boom as a dark gold torrent burst into the still air.

It was headed straight toward Finley.

Not a second later Darren was moving, positioning himself before Finley.

He gathered the power of Shura Force until his body was suffused with a red glow.

'Huh!' thought Finley. 'It seems like Darren thinks I'm somebody else. He's more hostile to me than he'd

be to the Fire Kylin or the monkey! Well, this is the only way I can test the real limits of my strength.'

With his mind made up, Finley smiled, knowing he would get what he was after. He felt his opponent's

brutality and strong fiendish nature. He made a move which was identical to the one he'd made before.

Its result, however, was different.

A ripple of golden light, formed by many rings of energy, flew toward Darren.

The dark gold internal force was surging inside the ripples, but it was unable to penetrate them.

Frustrated, Darren had his scarlet blade and sword slice through the air toward Finley.

Finley extended one open palm. Simultaneously, a massive, glowing golden shadow of the same

shape flew out at Darren.

A thunderous sound came with it, like a voice from the heavens chanting in Sanskrit.

When the palm shadow closed in on Darren, Finley bent his fingers inward. The shadow mimicked his

movement, its fingers closing around his victim.

Then, Finley murmured a few words, perhaps an incantation.

A giant hieroglyph, meaning "suppress," ejected from his mouth and landed on Darren's immobilized

form.

Pain surged into Darren.

He thrashed and strained against the uncanny grip, screaming uncontrollably.

Blood flecked and splattered from his mouth.

But as he continued to struggle, the agony only increased.

When he was certain it was about to become unbearable, it began to ebb.

The "suppress" glyph and the palm shadow gradually faded away.

"Whew!"

Darren shuddered and gasped in relief.

"What a strange force!" he murmured. "The more violent I am and the harder I struggle, the more

powerful it is.

The pain is almost equal to the soul attack."

"You are right. My cultivation method aims at creatures with strong fiendish nature.

In other words, it's designed to suppress the fiends," Finley explained. At that moment, he totally

understood the skill he had cultivated.

"No wonder the bald man said he wanted to suppress a fiend after he had a sudden 'epiphany'," Darren

remarked, nodding in agreement.

"It's very effective," Finley went on. "If I can attain more levels, I might be able to deal with the Fire

Kylin."

Although the Fire Kylin was not a fiend, he was much more ferocious and had a stronger fiendish

nature than Darren had just demonstrated.

Fighting him with this skill would truly be something to witness.

"Then you need to make sure that you cultivate hard," Darren urged him. "That way, you'll really be

able to help the clan of the Water Kylin."

"Well, in that case, I'm going to go cultivate right now. Come get me if you need any help." Saying this,

Finley flew away.

With that done, Darren returned to the place where he lived.

A few days later, Darren, who was practicing in the cave, was suddenly interrupted by a shout.

"Master Darren, please help my brother!"

As he turned toward the voice, a bloodied and shaken kylin burst in and threw himself at Darren's feet.

"What happened?" Darren asked immediately.

The stranger struggled to keep his composure and explained, "Today when I went out with my brother

for hunting, we were attacked by a few members of the Fire Kylin Clan. They caught my brother and

started torturing him."

With that, he burst into tears for a moment.

Darren was silent, seemingly deep in thought. Seeing this, the kylin was even more perturbed and kept

kowtowing to him. "Master Darren, please come and save my brother."

"All right, let's go. Lead the way," Darren replied at last.

"Thank you, Master Darren. Thank you so much!"

Without wasting another moment, the kylin and Darren flew out of the chaotic space passage.

Outside the space passage

Time wore on, though, and they flew such a considerable distance under the sea that Darren began to

grow uneasy. "Where exactly did your brother get caught?" he asked his guide.

"Just up ahead. Not too far," the kylin answered.

This answer did nothing to put Darren at ease, and he came to a sudden stop.

"Why did you come out to hunt at this critical time? And another thing, why did they only capture your

brother but allow you to escape?" he asked coldly.

The kylin paused for a moment before he said, "Master, are you suspecting me? I didn't lie to you.

Please help my brother. We may be too late to save him if we don't hurry!"

But Darren was having none of it, and the kylin's evasion made him even more suspicious. "Answer my

question," he demanded.

"What? I, uh..." The kylin was at a loss. Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

"Ha-ha, I knew it," sneered Darren. "You deceived me and lured me out of the territory of the Water

Kylin Clan because you want the Fire Kylin to kill me. Isn't that right?"

"No, master, I've done no such thing." Even as he said this, the kylin backed away, sensing Darren's

killing intent.

Mere seconds later, though, he turned around and started to flee the scene.

'There is really something wrong!' Darren thought.

He summoned his blade and sword intents, which spiraled around in the air, full of lethal power. Ready

for anything, he turned his keen eyes about.

Just then, a black figure suddenly appeared from the bottom of the water. With a wave of his hand, he

wiped out the blade and sword intents.

With one hand the newcomer caught hold of the fleeing kylin, and walked toward Darren.

"Damn it all," the dark figure complained. "You brought the wrong person!"

Darren's face turned grim and his heart sank. "It's you."

Standing before him was the ferocious monkey.

Before Darren could move, the monkey struck the captive kylin in the neck.

There was a horrible cracking sound, and the kylin's body fell limp.

"So was I right?" Darren demanded, glaring. "You wanted to kill me, so you sent someone to lure me

out here?"

The monkey grinned back at him, exposing unnaturally sharp teeth. His visage was at once comical

and hideous. "No, it's another human that I'm after. He has seen the Inner Fiend," he explained.

As a matter of fact, when the monkey had heard what Finley said about the subject, he knew that he

was the one who had met the Inner Fiend. So the monkey had caught one kylin and sent him to trick

Finley into coming out.

But this kylin had not understood the monkey's instructions and instead lured Darren out by mistake.

"Well, I suppose you'll want to kill me now in any case. Right?"

Darren asked in a collected tone. "I have a question, though. Why did you chase me after I killed that

Water Demon King?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't need a reason to kill a person," the monkey retorted arrogantly.

With that, he lifted his stick and it expanded as the runes lit up. Now, it was very large, and being struck

with it would hurt very, very much.

"Oh. Well, it may interest you to know that I've not only met the Inner Fiend, but I also know where he

is."

Darren said it unhurriedly. As always, no matter how vulnerable he actually was in any given situation,

he was determined to show no weakness or alarm.

There was a crash as the monkey dropped his stick to the ground.

"What did you say?!" he roared. The next thing Darren knew, the monkey had closed the distance

between him and had one huge, hairy hand around his throat.

"What are you, deaf and stupid? Do you need me to say it again, slowly?"

Despite his bravado, waves of dread were crashing about inside of Darren's heart.

This monkey's brutality was the strongest he had encountered besides the Inner Fiend himself. As

such, antagonizing him was not something Darren was especially eager to do, though he had little

choice.

For example, it was already taking most of Darren's strength to just remain conscious while caught in

the monkey's choke-hold.

All of the top senior holy warriors were far stronger than Darren, and this creature was one of them.

Fortunately, the monkey had some strong interest in the Inner Fiend. So as long as Darren didn't tell

him where the Inner Fiend was, he would never kill him.

At least, that was what Darren was betting on.

The monkey drew Darren closer and hissed, flecking his face with spittle.

"Tell me where he is, or I'll kill you," he snarled.

"Are you kidding me?" Darren gagged. "Without me, you'll never learn where the Inner Fiend is. Go

ahead and kill me, I dare you."

With a sound like a cannon going off, the monkey struck Darren with his other fist, then flung him away.

Darren fell to the ground in a heap and did not move for a minute.

"You dare try to bluff me?" the monkey demanded. "Even if I kill you, there will still be another human

who knows where the Inner Fiend is."

As Darren tried to sit up, he convulsed as a sharp pain went through his chest. Turning aside, he spat

up blood several times.

When he could finally speak, he propped himself up on one elbow. "Finley doesn't know," he lied. "All

you heard from him was what I told him."

"Really? Even if what you say is true, I think I still want you dead.

It might've gone better for you, if you'd cooperated. Too bad you decided to be the tough guy instead!"

With that, the monkey lifted his stick again, holding it high overhead as he stalked toward Darren.

When he brought that weapon down, it would fall with absolutely explosive force.

Darren's heart sank. Sure that there would be nothing left of him in a few seconds but a red stain on

the ground, he cursed the monkey over and over again.

But just as the monstrous creature began to swing the stick downward, Darren blurted out, "He is in the

relic, under guard by a strong man called Fris!"