Free Web NovelChapter 306: Chapter 41: Aura of the Five-Colored Divine Light
Having seen the battle conclude from afar, Bai Canglang grabbed his weapon and sprinted over from the mountaintop.
By the time he arrived, he found Garuda in a textbook American Federation surrender pose—kneeling with hands raised—obediently recounting the details about the giant black hole.
It had happened about seven years ago, during a summer when Garuda was around eight or nine.
At the time, with the help of the Pure Cyan Glaze Pearl, Garuda had just finished cultivating her Celestial Blue Glazed Heart. This was the most important milestone for a Golden-winged Roc, marking its advancement from the Initial Form to the Juvenile Form and granting it complete freedom of movement.
The Golden-winged Roc is a Divine Bird, born at the Demon God Level. It achieves Spirit Awakening at birth. By the time it can breathe and see, it reaches the Awakening Tier. Once it can move freely, it directly enters the Extraordinary realm. In its Youth Body, it can roam the world freely; aside from other powerful, fully-grown Divine Beasts, it has virtually no natural enemies.
But in the Kunlun Secret Realm, where Spiritual Qi was cut off, where would any other adult Divine Beasts come from? At that time, Garuda was already the strongest in the Secret Realm. Bored out of her mind, she had no idea what to do. So, with her intelligence still nascent, she acted on instinct and sought out the other Spirit Beasts in the secret realm to pick fights with.
Of course, no Spirit Beast could defeat her, so she naturally became the Secret Realm’s Beast King. Surrounded by her new subjects, she finally began to distinguish herself from other living beings, unlocking a sliver of her inherited wisdom and realizing exactly where she was.
After that, Garuda began exploring the palaces of the Kunlun Secret Realm, passing the time with the various books and records of ancient legacies she found inside.
Then one day, she discovered a strange palace at the foot of Kunlun’s Central Five Mountains.
This palace looked as dilapidated as any other in the Kunlun Secret Realm. But with her Divine Bird’s Eye, Garuda could tell that it was one of the newest palaces she had ever seen. In fact, it was, in a sense, from the last batch of palaces the Ancient Immortal Gods had built before leaving Kunlun.
Furthermore, the palace itself seemed to possess a strange power, one that made intelligent beings instinctively averse to entering.
Intrigued by the palace’s strangeness, she became interested and decided to go inside and take a look.
"This kid’s a little naive..." Bai Canglang whispered to Su Zhou, who was listening intently. "If it were me, I wouldn’t go anywhere near a place like that, let alone explore it."
"Mm... right." Su Zhou—who would absolutely have explored the place for the sole reason of ’You don’t want me to go in? Well, now I *have* to!’—mumbled his agreement with Bai Canglang before turning his attention back to Garuda.
Garuda knew, of course, that the stranger the place, the more dangerous it was likely to be. But her mind was still immature back then, and she had no real concept of death. Even when she encountered defensive Arrays blocking her path, she treated them like puzzles to be solved, forcing her way through until she reached the deepest part of the palace.
Before a massive Tiger Claw Seal.
"The West Mother Great Venerable’s Seal?!"
After hearing Garuda’s detailed description of the Seal’s design and aura, Bai Canglang gasped. "What in the world could it be, to warrant being sealed by the West Mother Great Venerable herself?"
The West Mother Great Venerable was at the absolute zenith of power among the Immortal Gods of her time; one could even say she was a Celestial Emperor Level figure in the Northwestern faction. The mere fact that the leader of a major power had to personally intervene spoke volumes. freeweɓnøvel.com
"I don’t know either."
Garuda shook her head. She truly didn’t know what lay behind the giant black hole, nor did she know that it was connected to the very thing that had just blown her head off. The golden-haired girl simply continued her honest description: "It was a deep, formless, black abyss. I couldn’t tell how deep it was, or where it led—and from it, a voice came, speaking directly to my heart."
Garuda’s exchange with the giant black hole was actually quite simple. The voice told her she was one of the most powerful Divine Birds, a natural-born, top-tier Divine Beast, and a symbol of strength. At the same time, it also disparaged humans and the Immortal Gods.
"They said humans are fierce, cruel, merciless, and terrifying—a species of ferocious, greedy Monsters that will devour anything."
Garuda cautiously repeated the black hole’s exact words, then fearfully watched Su Zhou’s reaction. As it turned out, both the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord Su Zhou and Bai Canglang—the man who had just sniped a little girl from afar and blown her head off—looked completely unfazed. They clearly felt the description had nothing to do with them. After all, they were paragons of honesty, courage, honor, and loyalty; this was all just slander from the black hole.
Of course, this didn’t stop the honest, brave, honorable, and loyal Professor Su from picking up the carcass of a winged Evil Beast—which had been cooked by the shockwaves of the battle—and starting to eat it with great relish right in front of Garuda as she spoke.
Eating a winged Evil Beast in front of a winged Great Demon was a perfectly normal act, devoid of any malicious intent. That’s how Su Zhou did it, and the others professed to believe him.
Of course, both Bai Canglang and Garuda suspected Su Zhou was doing this on purpose as a way to intimidate her. But in reality, Su Zhou hadn’t given it any thought at all. He had simply fought a battle, felt a bit hungry, and casually picked the most fragrant-smelling Evil Beast corpse to peacefully enjoy some roasted meat.
’Sob... the giant black hole wasn’t lying after all! Humans really are fierce, cruel, merciless, and terrifying!’
And so, in this perfectly harmonious scene, Garuda, her girlish voice trembling and thick with unshed tears, spilled out every last detail about her encounters with the giant black hole.
