Chapter 96 - The Golden Lion, Eferot

Chapter 96: Chapter 94: The Golden Lion, Eferot"How can a mere human possess the royal bloodline of my kind?!" The lionheart beastman’s surprise gradually turned to anger as he fully unleashed his bloodline power.

The lionheart beastman’s golden hair wildly danced in the air, his entire body cloaked in a soft layer of lion’s fur. He lightly stepped forward, instantaneously appearing before Lu Hong, "Tell me where you stole your bloodline from!"

"Steal your mom’s coins!" Lu Hong, still shaken by the earlier Lionheart’s Roar, cursed without thinking.

"Uncultured swine!" The lionheart beastman unleashed a whip kick, which Lu Hong blocked with his arm, only to be sent crashing into the palace walls by the immense force.

"Second-tier bloodline? You actually possess a second-tier bloodline!" The lionheart beastman sensed the power contained within Lu Hong. Although it paled in comparison to his own, this second-tier bloodline was evidence that its origin wasn’t transplant. Among all living members of the lionheart royal family, none had a bloodline lower than third-tier. If it had been extracted from a hybrid of a collateral line, it wouldn’t have had the ability to advance.

"Are you a member of my lionheart royal family?" The lionheart beastman’s tone softened upon feeling Lu Hong’s second-tier bloodline, after all, lionheart royals were far too scarce in the world.

"Get lost! I’m not a freaking beastman!" Lu Hong burst out of the shattered palace and launched a furious assault at the lionheart beastman.

But no matter how Lu Hong attacked, every punch he threw was effortlessly neutralized by the opponent.

"Enough, stop making a fuss," the lionheart beastman said, looking at Lu Hong as one would at a mischievous child.

Lu Hong obviously couldn’t accept the lionheart beastman’s words and kept trying to find a weakness in his defense. Unfortunately, under the crushing force of the fourth-tier bloodline power, his speed and strength were nowhere near his opponent’s level.

Who knows how long they fought, but even the ratmen who had collapsed on the ground were so bored that they fell asleep.

The lionheart beastman, unfazed by Lu Hong’s final punch to his chest, asked with a smile, "Had enough?"

"Not... not yet." Before he could finish speaking, Lu Hong collapsed from exhaustion, his Lionheart’s Descent state dissolving. An overwhelming sense of fatigue almost sent him into unconsciousness.

"To maintain Lionheart’s Descent for a full seven hours, you’re quite impressive," the lionheart beastman squatted down, becoming fonder of Lu Hong the more he looked at him.

"This mission was carried out on my father’s orders. I didn’t expect to come across such an immense surprise. You truly are a gift from the heavens to the Beastman Empire." He said as he hoisted Lu Hong onto his shoulder, "Don’t worry, I won’t let you wander alone in the Holy Divine Empire. Hiding here and there must be rough. I’ll take you back to the Beastman Empire now."

Lu Hong, completely drained, managed only to curse weakly, "Take your mom back!"

"Heh." The lionheart beastman wasn’t offended by Lu Hong’s backtalk. Instead, he introduced himself, "My name is Eferot, my title is Zhen Luo King, but most people prefer to call me the Gold Lion. What kind of king should I ask my father to name you when we get back?"

"Right, it just so happens that the peacock king’s daughter, Kong Xuan, just came of age last year. She’d be a very good match for you. When we get back, I’ll ask my father to decree Kong Xuan as your bride."

"Hmm... Is one wife too few? I remember the Hundred Spirits Bird King’s daughter, and the Black Magic Snake King’s daughter, and..." Eferot was counting potential wives for Lu Hong when suddenly, a shadow darted out.

"Caesar is coming, we need to move!" A hoarse voice hurriedly called out.

"Caesar? Who is he?" Eferot obviously recognized the shadow but had no memory of Caesar.

"There’s no time to explain, come with me!" The shadow grabbed Eferot, ready to flee, "Why are you carrying someone? Put him down! Otherwise, none of us will get away!"

"You can’t escape now!" Caesar’s voice carried anger through the air toward Eferot, "I can’t believe someone hid a little lion cub under my nose."

"So you’re Caesar?" The Gold Lion, though recognizing Caesar’s strength, showed no fear and met him head-on.

As Caesar got a clear view of the person carried on the Gold Lion’s shoulder, he cursed inwardly, "Put that person down from your shoulder."

"Heh." Oh, so you want to eradicate one of our descendants? The Gold Lion scoffed coldly, "Dream on."

"Seeking death!" Caesar’s eyes turned cold, and a killing intent spread over the area like a giant net, enfolding the entire rat den and chilling to the core.

The Gold Lion finally changed color; he admitted he had underestimated his opponent. Judging from his aura alone, the opponent’s power seemed almost comparable to that of his father. There was no point in fighting!

"Retreat!" The Gold Lion was adaptable; seeing the tide turn against him, he immediately turned tail and ran, aiming for the spatial passage that the Rat King had built with his life.

"You won’t get away!" With a motion of his hand, Caesar summoned an endless killing intent that formed a Reaper’s Scythe, which plummeted from the sky.

"Lionheart Shake Heaven!" Feeling the threat to his life, Eferot had already gone all out. A gigantic blood lion roared forth from within him, charging towards the descending scythe.

"You won’t get away with him!" Just at that moment, a shadow figure that had remained silent since Caesar’s arrival took advantage of Eferot’s distraction to fling Lu Hong from his shoulder.

"You!" Eferot, boiling with anger, just about to pull Lu Hong back, was interrupted as the explosion from their clash in the sky, like a nuclear bomb, sent the entire rat nest soaring into the sky.

"We need to move, now or never!" The shadow figure forcibly suppressed Eferot with his power and dived into the transportation portal with him.

"Damn it!" Caesar, despite the blast, rescued Lu Hong, yet he missed the chance to intercept Eferot.

"How much longer do we have to wait? We’re starving," complained the mercenaries, who had been waiting outside the mine, lounging on the ground and occasionally grumbling dissatisfaction to Lois.

Lois ignored them, walking up to the front of the mine, speaking directly to the ratmen still on guard, "Would you mind hurrying them up inside? The sun’s already up; why hasn’t Tulu come out yet?"

"Squeak squeak, squeak squeak!" Sadly, these ratmen hadn’t reached the level of speaking human language.

"..." Alright, Lois admitted she didn’t understand this foreign language and had to back away.

At the very moment Lois turned to leave, the energy released from the clash of Caesar’s and Eferot’s skills surged forth from beneath the ground, shooting straight up into the sky.

Although Lois luckily escaped the force of the explosion, she was knocked dozens of meters away, unprepared.

Dusting herself off, Lois climbed out of a pile of grass, gazing bewilderedly at the brilliant column reaching to the heavens. What on earth had happened beneath the mines?

"Do you realize what you’ve done!" Eferot, having successfully escaped, furiously lifted the shadow figure from the ground and roared, "He’s a member of my Lionheart clan!"

"Lord Golden Lion, please show some respect," the shadow figure, mustering strength to free himself from Eferot’s grasp, spoke sternly, "I don’t care about any Lionheart clan, and I only cooperated with you for a reason. If I hadn’t dropped him, the spatial portal, which was not yet fully stable, couldn’t have supported three people escaping. In front of Caesar, none of us would’ve survived!"

Fuming, the Golden Lion glared at the shadow figure, "If he dies, you’ll eventually have to give your life in return!"

"Well, let’s wait until you ascend the throne and become the Beast Emperor," retorted the shadow figure, undaunted by the threat of the Golden Lion, then asking, "Now that the spatial portal experiment has been discovered, where do you plan to go?"

"Humph!" Eferot composed himself and said, "My Emperor father sent me out specifically to find a stable passage to the human empires. Now that the ratmen’s nest plan has failed, I have no choice but to explore the wasteland domain."

"You’re going to the wasteland?" the shadow figure asked with some surprise, "If that’s where you’re heading, then I cannot accompany you. I will wait for your return outside the wasteland portal."

Eferot scoffed, "What’s the matter? Afraid your power will plummet from its peak?"

The shadow figure ignored his taunt and asked with curiosity, "Even if you snatch a coordinate point leading to the Holy Divine Empire from the wasteland, do you dare to enter? You do know that the Holy Divine Empire’s formation to the wasteland is in Haifeng City. There is an imperial garrison there."

"No matter, you need not trouble yourself with these matters," responded Eferot, clearly unwilling to reveal any secrets of the Beastman Empire.

Seeing that the other party wouldn’t speak, the shadow figure didn’t press further and vanished eerily as a breeze passed by.

The Golden Lion stood on the plains of the Beastman Empire, looking towards the towering stone castles in the distance. At that moment, a group of guards riding level-five spirit birds galloped towards him.

Approaching Eferot, the guards all dismounted and kneeled on one knee, with the captain respectfully saying, "Subordinate Paxi greets the Zhen Luo King!"

"Rise," commanded Eferot, "Send someone back to inform my father that the rat nest plan has failed. Now activate the secondary plan. Contact the people from Cangfeng Fortress; I need to borrow some troops to enter the wasteland." Eferot mounted the level-seven Demon Beast lion-tiger beast brought by his subordinate and sped off to the north.

After the Beastmen followed Eferot away, the shadow figure once again mysteriously reformed on the spot.

"The wasteland..." the shadow figure murmured hauntingly.

Was the Beastman Empire planning to take advantage of the internal chaos within the empire to bypass the Sacred Empire’s border garrison and strike at the Sacred Empire from within?

That didn’t make sense either. Although the empire was too preoccupied with its own turmoil to care about the wasteland realm, the families rooted in the wasteland were not easy to handle. Even if he belonged to the strongest race favored by divinity, once in the wasteland, he would be a plucked bird that couldn’t soar very high.

The more the shadow figure thought, the less it made sense. Even if Eferot led a great force into the wasteland, given the exclusionary nature of the wasteland realm, it was highly possible they would face attacks from all the families of the realm. Besides, with level suppression at play, Eferot couldn’t manage the feat of one man standing against a million.

The Beastman Empire must have other plans afoot!