'...how annoying.' Ashton mused as he watched, 'I didn't know that Diamond Dust Blizzard and Golden Sandstorm could happen at the same time.'
Within the safety and warmth of the Grand Library, Ashton sat on the couch and silently watched the absolute chaos that is happening outside.
A mixture of silver and gold particles mixed outside, bringing down the visibility to zero.
He watched as the land itself bled due to the sheer cruelty of the disastrous weather. What was happening wasn't just one but two natural calamities: a Diamond Dust Blizzard and a Golden Sandstorm.
The Diamond Dust Blizzard is a deadly calamity that happens once every five years. It replaces winter and instead of snow, it hails down Diamond Dust that's extremely lethal to all living beings.
A simple exposure during a Diamond Dust Blizzard could cause someone to disintegrate where they stood. The dust will whittle away at their flesh until there are no traces of them left.
As for the Golden Sandstorm, this is similar to the Black Fog in a sense. The Golden Sandstorm is a natural calamity that is brought forth by the appearance of Celestials, it is basically a mobile Golden Corruption, it could also strengthen any Celestials within it and make them undying so long as they remain at the eye of the sandstorm.
Needless to say, going out while these calamities rage on would be a horrible idea.
Even with Ashton's numerous life-saving methods, he didn't feel confident about staying alive in the middle of that. Thankfully, he didn't have to since he could just stay here.
It's been roughly a year since he had made contact with Hilda. Roughly a year since he had his last breakthrough in terms of his cultivation.
He had kept his promise and visited Hilda from time to time to accompany her. On top of that, he also went out on a killing spree a total of two times during the past year, making both the Celestials and Hypogeans curse him to death.
While he still remains a headache for the Celestials and the Hypogeans, Ashton's improvement truly slowed down considerably ever since.
Well, he's still a Lv.2 Warlock. And for a 19-year-old cultivator, that's already too damn fast. Besides, even if his progress seemingly slowed down, it doesn't necessarily mean that his potential was already exhausted.
At this point, his 2nd Virtue: the Virtue of Purity, is now refined a total of 9 times. This made it so that no corruption would ever have any effect on him.
Even if Ashton went and traveled the outside world buck naked, neither the Demonic nor the Angelic Corruption would claim him.
Actually, forget about claiming him. Any corruption wouldn't even dare to come close to him. With Nine Refinements Virtue of Purity, Ashton releases a force-field of 300 meters where all kinds of corruption wouldn't be purified. He can toggle this force field on and off at any time he pleases.
Now, he's just waiting for another spark of inspiration to gain enlightenment on his 3rd Virtue. So far, it hasn't happened yet.
There were a few things that happened during the past year which turned memorable for him...
The first one was the birth of 'The Core'. Even now, Ashton still couldn't believe that Aria did it. The orb's been fully charged at this point and could now be used by an entire city.
Well, there's no city yet so right now, 'The core' is temporarily useless, but it wouldn't be long until then.
The next memorable thing would be the fact that some big shots made an appearance in the Chaotic Warzone. One was an Apostle and the other was a Sin Demon.
According to what he discovered from the books back at the Grand Archives, the true big shots of Paradiso and Inferno were neither the 3rd to 1st Sphere Angels nor the Demon Princes/Kings/Emperors.
The 12 Apostles of God and the Seven Deadly Sins were the ones who hold the title of True Big Shots. They are the most powerful forces of both races. Now, one of each came here with a shared purpose in mind...
To hunt the White-Cloaked Reaper down. Oh, how flattered Ashton must've felt when he first learned about this.
Thanks to his meticulous preparations and his unpredictability, the invaders' station in the place couldn't do anything to him. Ashton freely tramples in their operations, coming and going as he pleases.
He leaves no tracks behind, nobody knows when he appears, and when he leaves, they only see the results of his massacres and it just gets worse as time goes on.
It is due to that, that they employed the help of their superiors. Inviting them to personally come here to monitor the situation.
But see...here's the funny thing.
That Apostle and Sin Demon couldn't track him either! Oh, how embarrassing.
Ashton could still remember the day when they arrived, actually. It still puts a smile on his face whenever he recalls it.
They came, carrying some semblance of absolute confidence and power on their gate. They stood at the sky, peering down like they were some kind of god or something.
Hell, they even openly mocked him, the White-Cloaked Reaper, calling him the White-Cloaked Pussy or simply White Bitch. They dared him to come, saying that if he's truly capable, then he should dare launch a massacre under their presence.
Ashton was all things...a coward might be one of those but stupid is certainly not. If they thought that those childish provocations of theirs would taunt him enough to expose himself, then he might as well forget about being Humanity's Strongest Backer.
But that doesn't mean that he would just lie down and accept it either. Of course, he tested the waters first. And when he found out that those two couldn't sense him either, and that his illusions were working on them as well...
Let's just say that stinging slaps in their faces were served.
They dared him to come. So he did.
He even left them a present — a strewn up corpses of their men, arranged in words saying: 'Bring it on, bitch.' And 'Catch me if you can.'
Oh, how their cheeks must've hurt upon seeing his present. They were so touched that they were moved to tears. Ashton's cheeks hurt too...from laughing that is.
And to further push the idea that provoking him was the worst idea they could think of, Ashton also left presents for them in their camps.
On the Celestial Camp, he mercilessly plucked all the feathers and eyes of one of the Angels he caught. Arranging them in a soul-stirring display for them to witness as soon as they returned.
At the Demon's Camp, he caught a Ram Demon, broke off all of its horns, and impaled them onto its body, chaining up the demon using magic that looked like Holy Arts that Celestials use.
Him doing this not only disrespected the Celestials and Hypogeans, but it also acted as a message that, if he really wanted to, the massacre wouldn't just be limited to the warzone, it could also extend to their camps as well.
The Apostle and the Sin Demon had been silent ever since.
With them being publicly humiliated like this despite their standing, it was understandable that they were mad. Their faces were slapped mercilessly and they couldn't do anything other than accept it.
Since then, they remained vigilant. They increased their security and issued strict orders. They were truly determined to catch him.
Yet still, even with their arrangements, nothing they do could stop Ashton from doing what he wants.
At this point, Ashton was already starting to believe that they were stupid. Forget about catching him, the fact that they're still arguing whether the reaper was an Angel or a Demon, baffled him.
They're so caught up in their racial supremacy that they haven't even thought about him being a human at all. Plus, they're using the wrong method to catch him. They already know that he can come and go as he pleases so seriously? What's the point of increasing security?
They could just simply stop the fighting and none of them would die! If they scrammed back to where they came from, then they wouldn't have to worry about him killing them, it's that simple yet none of them thought about it.
Well, their stupidity isn't Ashton's problem at all so no need to bother too much about it.
Right now, he'll just follow his own pace. So long as he remained a mystery to his foes, then there's no real risk for him. He'll continue with his operations and would become a steady nuisance to the invaders.
So long as he keeps them on their toes, they would never let down their guard. If they remain in a state of alert for too long, that will tire them out. Once they were tired, they'd let their guards down, and Ashton will strike again. That's the gist of his operation,
It doesn't matter even if they call out for their Big Boss, so long as he's undetected, what's there for him to fear?
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