Cthulhu Gonfalon

This world consisted of countless small worlds called planes, and the size of each plane varied greatly. The small ones could be used as a warehouse, while the big ones were large enough to contain a mountain, a river, the earth, the sun, the moon or the stars.

The shadow plane was a big plane where there were mountains, water and various living creatures. It was similar to the main plane where most of the living creatures inhabited and multiplied, but the shadow plane was much more dangerous than the main plane since the energy of shadow, that was restricted by the Law of Nature in the core plane, fully permeated the shadow plane.

The energy of shadow itself would not bring about any serious consequences, but it would pose a great danger to adventurers who crossed between different planes. The energy of shadow was very abundant and strong, so there were many dangerous, powerful, ruthless and cunning creatures in this world. There were also many precious and rare resources in the plane, and it was considered a forbidden area where few would dare to enter without advanced preparations.

When Gerrard was thrown into the shadow plane, he coincidentally fell into a withered forest where a old treant lived. To sustain it’s life, the old treant devoured the vitality of the whole forest. It was very hot-tempered, and as soon as it saw Gerrard, it initiated an attack.

The treant was frighteningly powerful. Compared to it, the Granny Dryad in the movie A Chinese Ghost Story was basically nothing. Gerrard used all of his skills to fight against the treant, even so he couldn’t defeat it. He ran like a wolf and dashed around madly like a pig, but he still could not find his way out.

He could not find the real body of the old treant that was hiding in the countless withered trees. Thanks to the amazingly strong body Sui Xiong had made for him, he managed to withstand the attack of the old treant.

The attack was becoming more and more fierce, but he managed to last until Sui Xiong came to his rescue.

By relying on the telepathy with the doppelgänger of his soul in the bracelet, Sui Xiong projected his will and power into the shadow plane. Since he had analyzed the magic energy of the “gatekeeper of the Night Gods,” he had a great understanding of the energy of shadow. He made a doppelgänger with the energy of shadow and dust and fought the old treant.

This time, Sui Xiong was met with a well-matched adversary. The old treant was the most powerful creature in this area, it even repulsed the God which intended to kill it and made it into his treasured object a few times. Facing Sui Xiong, it became furious and exerted all its power.

When the two extremely powerful opponents fought with each other, both the heaven and the earth shook and the wind and the clouds changed their colour. All the monsters around them, no matter if they were strong or weak, hurriedly ran away yelling. Some powerful creatures who had been wanting to kill the old treant stepped back to avoid being dragged into the fight.

Sui Xiong finally managed to find an opening. With the help of the coordinates obtained by locating Palin, Sui Xiong successfully opened the portal to the main plane and sent Gerrard back.

Then he stopped fighting with the old treant and absorbed all the power in the doppelgänger. The doppelgänger turned into a pile of ash and dust. Then Sui Xiong came back to his real body and left the old treant fighting with the pile of ash and dust.

This big fight had made the already old and weak treant weaker and more angry. In the creature’s view, the old treant was on its last legs, and it might not take long, fifty years to a century, for the old treant to die. When that time came, these creatures could finally stop waiting and kill the treant and make it into their treasured objects.

Sui Xiong did not get any benefit from this fight. He had consumed a great amount of his energy by projecting his will and power into the shadow plane and having a big fight with an impressively, powerful legendary monster. After he had been transported into this world, he did not feel tired, but this time, he was so exhausted that he felt asleep.

He slept for around five seconds.

When he woke up and projected his will into the cave with the help of the bracelet, Gerrard and Palin were still in shock after knowing he also felt tired.

“I am fine now. Why are you two not moving at all? Have you met problems?” Sui Xiong asked curiously.

Gerrard and Palin looked at each other, and neither of them knew what to say.

Satan who was on his hands and knees began to pray to Sui Xiong.

“Your Majesty, I, Satan who studies the profound mystery of the spell, give my respect to you! Hereby, I would very much hope to be your faithful servant, and with my humble life, I want to devote myself to the great career of carrying forward your honors! Please allow me to do so!”

Sui Xiong was in a daze. He projected the phantom of a jellyfish into the cave and stared at the wizard who called himself “Satan.”

Honestly speaking, he did not dislike the wizard. When facing a strong figure like Gerrard, Satan could not possibly pull his punches. He could defeat Gerrard who was so much more powerful than him with clever ideas and the right spells. This was already enough for Sui Xiong to accept his request.

There is an ancient saying: “A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree.” Likewise, brilliant talent would often get together and work for a wonderful boss. Being able to attract more talents proved that Sui Xiong was a wonderful boss!

But there was only one thing he was not comfortable with.

“Satan… this name sounds familiar,” he muttered. “You do not have six pairs of wings, you are neither noble nor have pride in your blood. You also have no horns nor the character of six written in the Arabic Numerals… You are neither the most powerful man nor have a hairstyle of a mushroom…”

He thought for a while, sighed and asked, “Satan, are you interested in practicing martial arts?”

Satan was in a daze, and hesitated for a long time, and began to shake his head while smiling bitterly.

As a wizard who was determined to pursue the most profound mystery of the spell, he would never abandon his dignity as a wizard even if he was going to die.

“Then I do not know what I should do with you… What a pity,” Sui Xiong said. “You could have become a superstar, but since you have rejected my request, you are bound to become a man that is selling esoterica along the street.”

“Ah?” Satan had no idea what Sui Xiong was talking about.

“In a word, you could have become a Golden Costar if you began to practice martial arts as I have suggested. Since you have refused, you can only show your face occasionally at the beginning of a story, which means your appearance rate has dropped significantly,” Sui Xiong explained.

Satan finally understood a bit, “Your Majesty, you want me to perform in an opera? To be honest, I do not know too much about the opera…”

“Your Majesty, Mr. Satan is a very talented wizard,” Palin could not help saying. “He was born in the Commonwealth of Mifata in the south of the continent, which is called the Kingdom of Wizard. A common wizard is no match for a wizard from the Kingdom of Wizard in either aspect of great knowledge or power of a certain spell! It is such a waste to make a talent like him perform in an opera!”

Seeing Palin’s nervous face and Gerrard’s concern, Sui Xiong could not help laughing.

It seemed like the wizard called Satan was really something, in such a short time, he had managed to bring Palin into his submission, and even Gerrard who had almost been killed by him began to admire the wizard.

A talent like him was really rare!

Then Sui Xiong said, “Did I mention the opera? You three are thinking too much. Satan, you are a wonderful wizard, but I wonder do you know how to deal with government affairs or governing a manor?”

Satan thought for awhile and said, “A little bit, but this is not my speciality. If Your Majesty needs a talent in this area, I can recommend one for you. When I was studying in the Commonwealth of Mifata, I knew an aristocrat who had lost his manor. He was living a rather poor life and made his living by transcribing books and teaching the children how to read. If you need to make your own manors, I think he would be the perfect assistant for you.”

“Then please bring him here. It will take a long time to walk from the south of the continent to the four towns in the northwest, and during this time, we can build the framework of the manor first,” Sui Xiong said rather calmly.

Gerrard was so excited that his whole body was trembling and he exclaimed, “Your Majesty, have you made your mind to build your own church now?”

“Yes, I have three subordinates now. I can see that there will be more in the coming future. If I do not have a manor, everyone can not settle down properly,” Sui Xiong said. “Let’s call it a day then. We should leave here.”

“Your Majesty, what about the treasures…” Gerrard hurriedly warned.

“Do not worry, it won’t be lost.” Sui Xiong smiled, “When we get out, move away the metal plate on which a transportation array was engraved. When we settle down, I will adjust the space coordinates so we can be transported into this cave from anyplace.”

“Then we will have a secret warehouse!” Gerrard eyes lit up.

“It is also a secret laboratory where we can do anything we want without being found!” Satan’s eyes lighted up too.

Palin shrugged his shoulders, feeling rather apathetic about his two peers’ behaviour.

It took them some time to get the sleeping bandits out of the cave. When the rest of the bandits saw Gerrard in the forest, they were shocked. Luckily, the vice chairman of the Association of Thieves restrained them so they could not run away.

If they had run away and abandoned all the goods and materials, they could not possibly get through the terrifying night in the Ashes Forest. He would be greatly regarded if he could manage to bring one out of ten back to the Pyroxene Town.

The vice chairman whose nickname was “Gray Eyes” knew this too well. He was already so nervous that his legs were trembling, but he still acted rather bravely. He warned the bandits that running away would not help at all, and it could even be worse than dying. If they chose to stay, they would probably survive. Hearing this, the bandits finally plucked up and stood in front of Gerrard, trembling with fear.

Soon, all the bandits that had been transported into the cave had been brought out. Seeing this, the remaining bandits were a bit relieved. They thought that since the bandits who went inside the cave had not been killed, just hypnotized, they would probably still be alive.

They guessed right. Sui Xiong and his followers didn’t intend to kill them. Satan was quite ruthless but rather smart as well, when he realized that Sui Xiong was a Good God, he immediately stopped thinking about killing these bandits and supported His Majesty’s decision.

Besides, he really did not think a group of bandits living in a poor area would be able to cause them any trouble.

While Sui Xiong, an advanced wizard of the middle rank and a incredibly powerful giant, would already be enough to wipe out a small town in the border area. Therefore, he had no choice but to give up the idea of killing these bandits.

Sui Xiong was a good man, but he had his own principles. He could let these bandits who had just followed their head’s orders off, but he could not let off the culprit.

This culprit was the chairman of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town, the dirty dog, “Quick Hands” Ryan!