Novel Full Chapter 941: Shojo
Chapter 941: Shojo
Michael didn’t know how long it took, but when the lightning stopped enveloping Beginning’s massive figure it faded away along with every sign of the tribulation.
Beginning sank back into its smaller size and lay motionless at the center of the ruined clearing.
After a brief hesitation Michael appeared beside Beginning, and a moment later a smile emerged on his face.
"I’m pretty lucky today, aren’t I?" he couldn’t help but say.
Whether it was Jester’s transformation or suddenly gaining four Rank 4 undead in quick succession, each development was quite significant to the current Michael. Though there had been a few surprises along the way, it had ended well.
"You levelled up as well? I wonder if it has something to do with devouring that Rank 4 Amarazi elder."
Thinking about it, Michael felt it was quite a coincidence that both of his titans had, one way or another, devoured something above their class to cheat their way up to Rank 4, with side benefits following along in each case.
However, if possible, Michael sincerely hoped a repeat of either method would not happen again.
At their current stage, if Lily followed her previous path and ate someone’s belongings without permission again to ascend to Rank 5, Michael would rather fight to the death than carry a debt of that scale on his head.
As for Beginning’s method of devouring someone above his rank in an all-out life and death battle, if he had any choice in the matter, Michael really did not enjoy courting death.
"Whatever. At least it ended well."
With the foundation provided from devouring that Rank 4 Amarazi elder, Beginning had been able to level up to level 80 immediately after ascending. Michael could tell this was just the surface benefit Beginning had gained from his previous actions, much like Lily, but he could only look deeper into it another time.
The current location was not suitable.
Just after Michael placed Beginning into the coffin space to stabilize his ascension, his eyes suddenly narrowed as he turned to look at the sky.
At some point his two other Rank 4 undead had appeared by his side. The three of them stood together and stared upward without speaking.
Two tribulations in succession had cleared the immediate area of everything that breathed. The usual ambient sounds of a deep forest at night were completely absent. The night sky above the ruined clearing was exceptionally clear as a result, unobstructed and dark, with nothing moving across it.
Except for the figure far above them, staring down.
Michael’s eyes stayed narrowed as he tried his best not to lose composure.
The aura coming from the figure was the first thing that registered. The feeling it produced was no less heavy than what radiated from either of the two undead standing beside him, which meant whoever was up there was at a level that put them firmly in the same category as his strongest.
The second thing Michael registered was their appearance.
They were completely naked. Not a single piece of clothing anywhere.
A few seconds passed in silence.
The figure spoke.
"Could you stop staring at my privates?"
The voice that came down from above was unhurried and carried no particular embarrassment behind it.
"I do not particularly care about covering myself the way humans and certain other races do. But I still appreciate not being stared at down there."
Michael’s gaze snapped upward immediately. "Senior, I apologize. I couldn’t help myself."
A brief pause followed from above.
"You couldn’t help yourself," the figure repeated back to him without inflection. Then, after a moment, "You couldn’t help yourself from staring at a naked man?"
Michael opened his mouth. Then closed it.
He had no response to that which would improve his situation in any meaningful way, so he chose silence as the most dignified available option and kept his eyes firmly fixed on the figure’s face instead, or at least on the general region of the face, which at this distance and angle required some effort.
The figure did not seem particularly bothered either way.
Michael took the opportunity to observe more carefully, and a guess came to him immediately. Rank 4 superpowers were not common in the surrounding regions, and there was only one place something like this could appear from so quickly and in such a manner.
"Senior, are you from the inner regions of the forest?" Michael inquired carefully.
"Yes," the figure said without denying it.
Though there was no hostile feeling coming from either side, Michael immediately felt a wave of worry settle over him.
He had known the tribulation couldn’t be hidden. What he had not quite anticipated was gaining the personal attention of a Rank 4 entity from the deeper regions of the forest.
This indirectly confirmed that the rumours about the Everlong Forest concealing something monstrous in its depths were true. But what concerned Michael more than the confirmation itself was what this attention meant for him going forward.
His territory sat just outside the edge of the forest. That was not a meaningful distance for something operating at Rank 4.
Would he be able to sleep in peace from this point forward? Would he need to keep a Rank 4 undead following him everywhere he went just to feel secure in his own territory?
Michael exhaled slowly through his nose and kept his expression neutral.
"Senior, is there anything I can help you with?"
He kept his tone carefully neutral as he asked.
The figure looked down at him. The silence stretched for several seconds.
Then the figure spoke.
"Would it be possible for you to allow me to devour you?"
Michael’s expression twisted immediately.
The twisted expression lasted only a moment before a neutral expression settled over Michael’s face.
He didn’t know why this particular entity had its attention fixed on him specifically but Michael was not the same person he had been even a week ago.
He had four Rank 4 undead. Two of them were standing beside him right now.
If it were before this, the moment he heard something like that he would have switched to Wisdom’s state already and ran as fast as he could.
Michael had no problem with running to live another day.
Michael’s eyes moved briefly to the two figures flanking him.
Then back up to the naked entity floating above.
"I’m afraid that won’t be possible," Michael said eventually.
"Okay."
The figure said when both sides moved at the same time.
*
The heavens were truly equal to everything and biased toward only a few chosen ones.
Regardless of whether it was monsters or intelligent races, the heavens gave everyone a chance based on their own fortune and fate to challenge what it. The path might look different depending on what you were, but the opportunity existed for all things with sufficient that were willing to reach for it.
Monsters received their advantages in the form of bloodline and longevity. A powerful bloodline meant a stronger starting point with capabilities that intelligent races would have to cultivate for decades to approximate. And time. Monsters lived far longer than most intelligent races by default, which meant that even a creature of middling talent had centuries to accumulate strength that a shorter-lived being could only match through effort,talent or opportunities.
AIntelligent races, by contrast, received something different. Most could not rely on bloodline asTheir bodies were not built with the same inherent advantages. What they had instead was wisdom.
Shojo was a beast, and though at Rank 4 it had wisdom no less than some intelligent races, it was still a beast in the end. Its path was different from theirs.
A thousand years ago, Shojo had been nothing more than an ordinary deer.
Not a remarkable one. Just a deer, existing in the way deer existed, until the day an opportunity descended on it that had no particular reason to have chosen it over anything else in the vicinity.
That was the heavens’ equality in its most honest form. It did not always choose the worthy. Sometimes it simply chose.
The opportunity had granted Shojo the ability to devour other creatures and convert what they carried into its own strength.
The path that followed was not gentle.
But the heavens had given it something precious, and it had used that something to the fullest extent available to it.
More than five centuries ago, Shojo had settled here and turned the Everlong Forest into a farm.
It cultivated monsters within its borders, nurturing them with the patience that only something with its lifespan could sustain, and when they reached a level worth harvesting it devoured them. The cycle had fed its growth for generations of creatures that never understood what the forest they lived in actually was.
A while ago, when Lily’s ascension had split the night sky open and sent its pressure rolling outward through the deep forest, it had woken Shojo from a long period of stillness.
He thought it was one of his crops ascending, but he did not rush to devour it.
This was not unusual for him. Shojo had learned centuries ago that patience produced better results than haste. A newly ascended creature still carried the turbulence of its breakthrough. It was better to wait, let things settle, allow the new rank to be absorbed properly. The flavor improved and the yield was higher.
What it hadn’t expected was that almost immediately, a second one of his crops ascended to Rank 4 as well.