CHAPTER 985 THE COMING OF THE AVATAR

"Enough of this charade," declared the old man. "No matter what else happens today, I will kill you, you

bastard!"

"All right," Talon replied lightly, calming down all of a sudden. "From this day forward, I'll never need to

care about you—or be grateful to you for raising me up."

For the span of a heartbeat, there was dead silence.

It was shattered by a boom as two powerful forces burst out again.

The old man didn't want to waste time. Straightaway, he began to gulp the Dark Force in his hand.

A small strand of it passed through his nose and then into his elixir field.

"Condense!" the old man shouted.

He knew that as long as the two energies were gathered together, they would form one very powerful

force—the Shura Force.

Prior to this fight, the old man had performed countless tests and found that the Dark Force and the

Primitive Fighting Force would merge together, after opposing each other at first. But all his tests had

taken place outside his body.

When the two met inside him at that very moment, only then did he realize his mistake.

The old man's eyes widened, and he roared with a sudden pain.

Meanwhile, Talon was watching him with a knowing smirk. "What's this? Suddenly you find that you

can't merge the two forces, right? My dear master, do you think that I never once tried to refine two

Emperor Characters at the same time? Now you understand why I only chose one."

While listening to Talon, the old man was staggering with agony as his heart thundered within him. The

Dark Force was not joining with his Primitive Fighting Force, as he had assumed it would. Instead, they

were violently attacking each other!

Fortunately, the old man had swallowed only a small strand of the Dark Force. Otherwise, things would

have gone much worse for him. His Primitive Fighting Force was at the emperor level. Had it fought

with a greater amount of this Dark Force from a dead Shura, his elixir field might well have exploded. ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Seeing that his efforts to merge the two forces together were useless, he relented and gave up trying.

Gasping and groaning, the old man swayed, but managed to stay on his feet.

Talon looked at him with something approaching pity. "Master, I hadn't wanted to kill you after all these

years. But you've shown your hand today; you are too dangerous. And besides that, my debt to you is

paid. I hope you will rest in peace."

With that, he began to arouse his momentum sharply.

His face hardened and the air became cold as power flowed out of him.

The space windstorm appeared, swirling fiercely with Talon at its center.

The old man frowned in dismay, sensing that something terrible was coming into being.

In a distance, the god's soul felt shocked too.

The aura that was emitted from Talon's body seemed to be that of the Shura Force. However, after

observing it more carefully, the god's soul could tell that was not exactly the Shura Force—at least, it

was not pure Shura Force.

But at any rate, it was certainly powerful enough to shock everyone.

Standing rooted and motionless in the center of the windstorm, Talon's eyes gradually turned red, and

brilliant red light burst out from his body.

However, this energy was visibly different from the Shura Force that Darren used. Rather than being

colored a simple, bright red, it looked more like cinnabar.

"You! You have successfully cultivated the Shura Force!" the old man stammered. As a holy emperor,

he was not quite frightened, though he was surprised.

Talon's reply came in a flat tone. "Exactly, Master. Now you must admit that I am much more talented

than you. I have been studying this force ever since I refined the Emperor Character. In fact, I

succeeded in condensing the Shura Force ten thousand years ago. I kept running away not because I

was afraid, but because of the debt of gratitude I owed you. But that debt is nothing more than a

memory by now. You understand what I mean, don't you?"

Hearing this, the old man felt a pain in his heart quite unlike what he had experienced moments ago.

He believed Talon wasn't lying about having been grateful to him.

"Then why did you kill the fellow villagers? They were elders who watched you grow up!" he exclaimed,

close to shedding tears.

It was not easy for a holy emperor to be so emotional. Indeed, he too had an old affection for his

disciple.

"There was no reason. I simply wanted to," Talon answered nonchalantly.

"You bastard! Do not lie to me! Why did you do it?! Why?!" the old man shouted, quaking where he

stood.

Talon had been cruel enough to kill the older villagers seemingly on a whim. Yet after obtaining the

powerful force, he had remembered his master's favor and seemed reluctant to kill him too. It almost

drove the old man mad.

"Fine, I will show you mercy once more today," Talon said, avoiding the question. "You should leave

now."

"No!" Suddenly the old man's voice was like steel. "If you don't give me an answer, then I will kill you or

die trying!"

Talon raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if you're so eager to die, then that's your choice."

He raised his hand, and a dark red force roared forth from his palm, ferocious as any wild beast.

As the attack surged at him, the old man drew a long spear and drew on his own Primitive Fighting

Force in its entirety.

Fearless as a God of War, he charged straight toward the dark red force.

"That old man is by no means match for his opponent. The younger man's force is equivalent to a

transformed version of Shura Force.

It is not as powerful as the real Shura Force, but it is still more than a match for the simple Dark Force,"

the god's soul murmured from a distance.

"Then how do you think this battle will end, Master?" asked Yahya, who had been watching the

confrontation with great interest.

Meanwhile, in the Primitive Tribe

Darren had returned to the tribe with grave news and a heavy heart. Upon learning that their family

members who had followed the patriarch had all died, the tribespeople could not help but weep and

wail aloud.

However, none of them blamed their patriarch.

It was not that they were afraid to do so. The fact was that they chose not to blame him, because they

understood clearly that the many deaths were not the patriarch's fault. Rather, the enemy they had

faced was too strong.

For a long time they wept together and tried to console one another, but in the end everyone fell silent

and returned to their own house.

Darren, too, headed back to his own residence, just as restless and sad as any of them.

'Alas, what a miserable tragedy, ' he mused to himself. 'But I can't just sit around; I'd better cultivate

more. I came to this ancient region for the ultimate purpose of passing the test, killing Yahya and

ending all this as soon as possible...

Still, I wonder how Hailey is now.'

Darren had been with the tribe for a long time, so he guessed that Hailey must be very anxious by now.

Therefore, he was a little worried about her.

It wasn't that he had any special feelings towards Hailey, though. He simply thought it coincidental that

they happened to be taking part in the test at the same time. As such, he didn't want anything bad to

happen to her.

"Just forget it for now; worry about it later," Darren mumbled to himself and shook his head. The best

use of his time would be to cultivate.

He was just about to get started in his room when a strong, subtle wave of force began to stir without

warning.

Darren was taken aback.

There was a strange buzz that filled the air.

Every surface in the room began to vibrate and hum with energy, making Darren's eardrums itch.

"What is this?! Who's there?!" Darren shouted, looking about. He was on full alert.

Moments passed, and as Darren looked about, his surroundings began to shimmer and ripple, like the

surface of a lake after a stone has been thrown in it. From the center of the ripple, a fair palm

materialized and stretched forth.

Then a handsome, powerful-looking man emerged.

He was dressed in white, and his long hair writhed as though tossed about by a wind. His breath was

strangely cold, and there was a terrible fluctuation of rule power in his body.

The man spoke. "Long time no see, my real body."

At once Darren understood. This could only be the Rule Soul Avatar.

"My avatar! It's you! You're finally here!" Darren exclaimed, overjoyed. Forgetting himself, he took a

step forward, his arms outstretched as though to hug the avatar. But at the last second he remembered

that the avatar was himself, so it would be somewhat strange to give him a hug. Feeling a bit

embarrassed, Darren stopped himself.

The avatar didn't seem to notice. "Yes. The rules of this tomb are very special, so it took me a lot of rule

power to break through."

"You come at the right time. I have something important to ask for your help," Darren said.

He decided that he would get straight to the point. He would ask the Rule Soul Avatar to kill Yahya.