Chapter 97: The System Must Be Smoking It!
...…..
"Touche."
As soon as the generationally devastating attack was going to touch base with the two dangling fruits, Lucifer's body faded into nothing like he was never there to begin with…
"???"
Darting his stern gaze around in bewilderment, the Head Brigadier quickly realized that it was all an illusion!
"Spread out and find the Weasel! You all know very well what will happen if the Ancestors ever find that we were unable to complete this mission!"
FWIP! FWIP!
Heading in five different directions, the only five members of the Fire Brigadiers scoured the lands with their absurdly long-ranged divine senses!
They had to quickly kill the older brother and then move on to the little sister!
Tap. Tap.
Softly landing in the middle of a deep and wide cavern, Lucifer sat down on a large, cracked boulder. Swiftly activating 'Clone Sight', he switched views with a few of his Late Nascent Soul Realm Clones.
After making sure that the Fire Brigadiers were not on the trail of the goth midget, Lucifer put the next step of his plan into action.
FWIP!
Disappearing from his spot, he flew in the direction of the weakest of the attackers.
Being in the earlier stages of the Peak Nascent Soul Realm, Lucifer stealthily stalked behind Fire Brigadier #5.
As her name implied, she was the 5th strongest among the Fire Brigadiers. Furthermore, she was also the 11th strongest person in the entire Fire Nation!
But for Lucifer, she was merely the weakest of the lot…
'Food is always best when it's free or cheap, and the same principle can be applied to loot. For in the end, easy loot will always be the best loot!'
Evil thoughts swirled around inside Lucifer's head as he summoned forth 30 of the clones he kept in storage for emergency situations.
'With my strength and the strength of my Clones put into the equation, we are individually about as strong as the weakest of Peak Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators in the Elemental Nation area. But altogether… Heh…'
Noticing that his prey had stopped to better search her surroundings, Lucifer and his clones made their move!
Barrelling through dozens of sonic booms, 12 clones phased right beside Fire Brigadier #5. Then, with sharpened blades in the Late Sky Rank, they slashed them from 12 different directions!
"!!!"
Making use of her quick reflexes, Fire Brigadier #5 blurred through all of the incoming sword strikes. After which, she unleashed the full immensity of her aura and pressured the 12 hooded figures who missed their attacks-
Or did they?
Spurt!
"What!?" Glancing down at her arm with a pained expression, Fire Brigadier #5 saw a large, bloody gash that traveled from her fingertips all the way to her shoulder!
Without her having fathomed the speed of one of the attacks, it slipped past her defenses and created the gash that now scarred her right arm!
Normally, a woman or even a man would be enraged about such damage being inflicted on their skin. But for Fire Brigadier #5, she was born and bred to kill. Thus, all it took was a biting down on her tongue and a cast of minor healing magic for her lucidity to return in full clarity, 4K Ultra HD.
Ignoring the stinging pain coming from her arm, she lunged at the closest clone and used her other arm in order to rip out the clone's throat!
Spurt!
Just like that, one of the clones had half his throat and half his life vanish without a trace!
FWIP!
Moving preemptively, Fire Brigadier #5 swiveled her head toward the next closest clone and bounced off the air like a springy leopard!
SHING!
The clone attempted to thwart the vicious attacks of the woman, but it took no more than three consecutive claw slashes for the clone to have his body ripped up into a hundred different pieces!
Just as the woman was going to strike out and ultimately kill another clone, she looked down at her stomach and saw a massive gaping hole!
"H-How!?"
Shifting her face behind her, she saw an extraordinarily handsome, raven-haired man with an outstretched bloody arm.
"Well, you did pretty well in killing two of my clones, beautiful lady. But in the end, you are just a walking Loot bag. And as loot, you should be more aware of where you are." Pointing down toward the ground, a mischievous smirk formed on his face.
Following his finger, Fire Brigadier #5 saw…
"The surface…? But we were just in the sky… How did th-" Suddenly, she remembered an odd pull-in force when she slashed the second clone.
"Illusion and Hypnosis Magic… You convinced my brain that we were still battling it out in the sky, when in reality, we were already on the ground surface…
After getting me to the ground, you waited under the dirt and struck upward the moment you noticed any vibrations. So as to not alert me to your presence, you had to prohibit the use of your Divine Sense…
To have such precise control over the Elements, just what are you, Lucifer of the Devildukes…?"
Falling from a few meters in the sky, Fire Brigadier #5 lost all her previous bravo and collapsed to the ground with a face emulating the extreme amount of exhaustion she felt.
Thud!
Landing on the area right next to the heavily breathing woman, Lucifer slowly clapped his hands and said, "Good! You were indeed worthy of being the first Peak Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator I ever killed!"
Visibly pleased with the astuteness of the woman, he decided to give her a quick and painless death.
"..."
With a flickering gaze and blurry eyesight, Fire Brigadier #5 watched as a flash of silver plummeted from what felt like the infinite heavens above…
'Lucifer… An existence possessed by the devil… He might even have what it takes to… kill the masters…'
With the last thoughts of the woman remaining inexplicable and filled with untold mysteries, her head was cleanly severed from the rest of her body.
SHING!
Sheathing his sword in a refined manner, Lucifer observed the incoming system notifications.
BLING!
[Ding! You have killed a Peak Nascent Soul Realm Fire Brigadier member of the Fire Nation. The reward is 630,000,000 CE²]
"Ho!? That is a shit-ton of Clone Essence!"
Even though Lucifer had lost two clones before being able to take down that woman, the rewards far outweighed what he had to pay!
Furthermore, the extent of the rewards didn't end with just the Clone Essence Acquisition…
FWAZIP!
Shooting out a black, slimy tendril, Lucifer speedily absorbed the cultivation base of Fire Brigadier #5. After which, he watched as his cultivation took a huge leap!
WAAA!
"From the 'Middle Core Formation Realm (Initial)' to the 'Middle Core Formation Realm (Middle)', I would say these higher-level loot bags are where the true goodies hide!"
Feeling the immense strength coursing through his veins, Lucifer felt that the Peak Nascent Soul Realm Battle Power level was right on his heel. Therefore, he opened up his simplified system interface and took a look at what was close to helping him make that final jump.
BLING!
—-------
{[Lucifer]}
[Qi Cultivation - Middle Core Formation Realm (Middle)]
[Body Cultivation - Late Silver Rank (79.2%)]
[Mind Cultivation - Peak Bronze Rank (98.6%)]
[Battle Power - Late Nascent Soul Realm (Absolute Peak)]
[Late Nascent Soul Realm Clone cost - 1,000,000 CE²]
[Maximum Amount of Clone Essence so far - 857,900,000 CE²]
[Current Clone Essence - 857,900,000 CE²]
—-------
"Ah… My Mind Cultivation is about to breakthrough into the Silver Rank, so I can just wait a couple seconds for that to finish going through."
After waiting a couple seconds like a good puppy dog, the breakthrough finally came!
OOOM!
Feeling a wave of mystical energy wash over his mind, Lucifer could definitely tell that a major qualitative change just occurred.
Taking one more look at his system interface, he confirmed that he had indeed reached the 'Initial Silver Rank' and he was approximately '0.45%' of the way through that stage.
However, what was far more important for him was the fact that his Battle Power finally broke through into the Peak Nascent Soul Realm!
Almost immediately after realizing this, Lucifer honed in on the price of each Peak Nascent Soul Realm Clone-
"Holy Shit!!"
If he had coffee in his mouth, he for sure would have spit that shit all over the place, because what the fuck!?
"1-1… 1 Billion CE²… You have to be on hard drugs, you fucking scammer!"
[Ding! The system can confidently deny those accusations; after all, the system is far too smart to go through with the act of intaking drugs! The host, on the other hand, well… the entire Boundless Verse is abundantly aware of his addiction to drugs…]
"System, like usual… fuck you!"
Flipping up a single middle finger, Lucifer walked away from the pop-up screen, making his way toward the second weakest of the Fire Brigadiers.
After a few minutes of travel, he ultimately came into contact with Fire Brigadier #4. And with a few seconds of intense battle, Lucifer came out on top!
...…..