Cthulhu Gonfalon

In the dark gray Gobi desert, there was gravel everywhere. From time to time, one could see some weeds and shrubs among the gravel. They looked like people lying prostrate, as if they had been burdened by their harsh life and could no longer stand up.

Looking into the distance, Sui Xiong saw that the magnificent Wasteland had become a long black shadow along the northwestern horizon. Looking in the other direction, he saw nothing but blue sky and black earth. When he looked further, the blue of the sky and the black of the earth faded into each other until both had turned gray, and Sui Xiong found it hard to tell which was the sky and which was the earth.

This was the Gobi Desert, one of the three big deserts in the Main Plane.

In the continent called the Main Plane, there were many deserts of different size, and among these deserts, there were three that were extremely big: one in the northwest, one in the northeast and one in the southeast.

The desert in the northwest was the Gobi Desert. What made this desert different was that there were many stones here. Apart from the central area in the desert, there was basically no sand in the majority of the desert, and these other areas were barren waste covered with black gray gravel. Moreover, sandstorms were constantly happening here, and there was a special one called the “Black Storm.” When the Black Storm happened, even a legendary adventurer would be scared and flee. Because of this terrifying storm, no one dared to cross the desert, so the Wasteland in the west and the Wild Empire in the east were totally separate. Only the most courageous businessman would dare to cross this desert with the help of a weather observation spell, and if they made it across, they would make a fortune— even though most of them completely vanished after departing.

In the northeast, there was a desert called the Dead Meteorite, and it was very narrow as it extended along the coast. To its north were the Dragon Mountains, and to the south was the Kingdom of the Blue Moon, which perfectly bisected the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Kingdom of the Sea. Long long ago, this desert did not even exist. At that time, the army of the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the army of the Sea Race were engaged in a fierce battle along the coastline, and the gods of both sides had joined the fight. By the time this terrible battle had ended, the few hundreds of miles close to the sea had become a grayish yellow desert. Even today, people can constantly see human remains and broken weapons, and there are many monsters lurking about. This was how the desert came to be named the Dead Meteorite.

The desert in the southeast was called the Golden Desert and was probably the safest desert among the three. There were neither scary sandstorms nor monsters. The sky was pure blue and the sand was golden and tiny, shining constantly under the bright sun. Standing at the edge of the desert and watching the sun rise and set along the horizon where the sky and the sand met was indeed a great delight.

To get to the Commonwealth of Mifata, Sui Xiong would have to cross the Wastelands first, then the Gobi Desert, and then he would need to walk south along the Graystone Mountains. He’d then cross the Wild Marsh of Ancient Woods, the Broken Cloud Mountains, and finally the Tenku Forest.

No one would dare to take this route unless he no longer wanted to live since there were too many dangers along the road. Even the most experienced adventurer would be terrified when facing this route. Normally, if one wanted to go to the Commonwealth of Mifata from the four towns in the northwest, the best way would be via ship. By sea, one could arrive north of the Commonwealth of the Gold Coin, cross the crack in the south of the Wasteland, and then they would arrive in Rye Town.

But this safe route would take far more time and there were still many risks inherent in sailing. Sui Xiong wasn’t afraid of the danger in the sea or on the land, since he flew rather than walked, so crossing the bumpy roads wasn’t too difficult for him. After contemplating his route, he chose to go straight.

After all, the shortest distance between two points is always a straight line. Taking the straight route was the privilege of a powerful man.

Sui Xiong’s jellyfish doppelgänger was floating in the sky hundreds of meters above sea level and steadily flying southeast. From time to time, he would stop and practice a spell to locate his position, and then he’d continue moving.

The place he was heading to was a small town called Golden Pagoda, in the central west of the Commonwealth of Mifata. The reason it was called the Golden Pagoda was due to the magical golden pagoda standing in the center of the town. In fact, the Commonwealth of Mifata was a federation that consisted of many towns that had been built around the magic pagoda. The residents there were either servants or disciples of a wizard of some kind. Anyone who was an official here, if he was not a wizard, was probably the relative of a wizard. Thus, this place was known as the Kingdom of Wizards.

But this was how things were when this place had just been built. After hundreds of years, the Kingdom of Wizards was no longer so pure; more and more people had become government officials and aristocrats.

For example, the relative of an advanced wizard might get some type of power or title, or the disciple of a legendary wizard might need someplace to live. So it was only natural that the next generation would inherit the power and rank of the previous generation.

Satan had been a very talented youth with a bright future in Golden Pagoda. But he had clashed with a youth who was not talented enough to become a wizard, yet had an advanced wizard for a grandfather, so his future quickly became dark. He lived a rather tough life and finally gave up his dream of living peacefully in Golden Pagoda. So he left his hometown and became an adventurer from then on.

It had been ten years since his departure.

During the past ten years, Satan had grown from a youth to a still young but very experienced adventurer, and he had managed to reach the level of a middle advanced wizard.

Having been forced to leave his hometown, it took him only five years to reach this level of wizardry.

As Satan recalled this, it seemed as if this fact no longer bothered him. But Sui Xiong could feel that he was still holding a grudge against the young wizard from his past. After all, at that time, he should not have helped that girl and displeased the youth with good connections.

Satan didn’t tell any of this to anyone, but since he had chosen to believe Sui Xiong, Sui Xiong could see directly into his soul. When Satan suddenly recalled this unforgettable incident, Sui Xiong could see the scene play out without prying into his heart.

Then Sui Xiong secretly decided that he would help Satan finish this business while they were in his hometown. Even if Satan wasn’t his follower, he would still have helped him.

If the road was not even, one would step on it and make it even; if someone had been treated unfairly, justice should prevail, and if there was no one else to see this through, then the jellyfish god would step in.

See? This time, the jellyfish would do its part.

Thanks to the good weather, Sui Xiong managed to fly all day without feeling tired. Soon, he would arrive at the edge of the Gobi Desert. His intended route avoided actually crossing the Gobi Desert, so he only needed to skirt around the edges. Once the sun had gone down, the temperature dropped significantly. Night in the Gobi Desert was as cold as the Snowland in the north.

But the night also had some bright sides. On a freezing cold night, most of the dangerous and poisonous creatures had gone to sleep, and the most dangerous sandstorms seldom happened at night. If Sui Xiong could keep a keen eye out for the monsters that usually moved around at night, it would be much safer for him to sleep during the day and move at night.

Sui Xiong floated in the sky quietly. In fact, he didn’t need to sleep, but he’d become accustomed to sleeping when the night came and wanted to enjoy the kind of solid night’s sleep that was essential for a human’s health.

The moon was bright and beautiful. The floating jellyfish spread its body and absorbed the moonlight as much as possible while resting. Around him, a huge vortex formed that absorbed all the magic energy within a few hundred meters. If any creatures around had witnessed this magical force field, they would certainly have been shocked by the bizarre scene in the sky.

For Sui Xiong, this was his process for resting, eating or enhancing his ability.

While he was resting quietly, he heard someone approach. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of people who were running in a panic, and a man in black riding a one-horned Nargacuga was chasing after them.

Sui Xiong was in a daze, but when he realized they needed rescuing, he suddenly stopped.

He noticed that among those people, more than one person was wearing a strange necklace made of bones. There was a man standing in the center of them who was obviously the leader. He also wore a necklace which was made of human fingers!

Hunters! These followers of the God of Hunting and Holocaust were a bunch of evil guys who hunted humans. Most of them probably had a part-time job as a killer. As the most common evil group, Sui Xiong immediately recognized them. After all, the hunters’ necklaces around their necks were obvious, and anyone with experience as an adventurer would recognize them.

Sui Xiong had not been on an adventure before, but he had read something about this evil organization in the materials from the God of Redemption. They were the most ruthless group among the followers of the God of Hunting and Holocaust, and they believed the principle that they could only please their god by killing people. They were wild about killing people of the same race as them and holding blood sacrifice rituals. Their necklaces were trophies from the remains of the people they had killed. With the help of the necklace, they could trap and torture the souls of the dead, and they took pride in this, employing this ruthless practice to create a few very powerful magic spells.

Undoubtedly, even among a group of thugs, the hunter was the most ruthless and terrifying. Now that Sui Xiong had seen them, he decided to kill them all!

As for the man in black who was chasing after them, he wasn’t the nicest guy either. Although the man was surrounded by wraiths with the help of a spell called Camp Identification Eyes, Sui Xiong could see his body was surrounded by bright red. Clearly, he was also a brutal man who liked fighting and had killed countless men. With the help of Camp Identification Eyes, Sui could also see that the hunters were totally black, covered in dirt and truly disgusting!

Sui Xiong thought what he had seen was probably a dog eat dog scenario that often happened in the world of gangsters.