The Messenger of Death

It didn't take long for Al to reach the area that was shrouded in the aura of the Midas petal. The familiar aroma of the petal pervaded his nostrils and Al subconsciously took in a deep breath to appreciate its mouth-watering scent.

Al didn't need to look at the Skin crawler's interface to figure out how far away he was from the Midas petal, but out of fervor, he glanced at the Skin crawler's interface.

2.03 Kilometer, he read in his mind.

['Almost there.'] Alex mentioned excitedly.

Al stopped dwindling and sped up.

After crossing over half the distance that was left, the QI around Al became denser, so much so that there were slight obstructions in the atmosphere that reduced Al's speed. His brows knitted in response to this abnormality.

Just by breathing in this aura, Al felt his cultivation base increasing quickly. ['Woah! This is by far the most concentrated QI that I have ever come across. We are getting stronger just by being here.'] Al exclaimed.

A while later, after Al had gotten much closer to where the Midas petal had been stored, a frown appeared on his face as he started sweating.

"What is happening?" Al muttered.

At this point, Al had exerted double effort to make a little movement. "Is this my bad Karma manifesting once again?" He asked. Although he was benefitting from this dense QI, he felt as if it was trying to stop him from getting his hands on the Midas petal. Other than his bad Karma, he had nothing else to put the blame on.

Naturally, Al was directing this question at Mr. Guardian.

"You are not entirely wrong. Your bad Karma is still in play here." Mr. Guardian replied. "However, your good Karma is also at work here."

Al's rapid speed plummeted until it looked as if he was just jugging. Now he had to exert thrice the effort he had been using to run to move this fast. It was consuming the QI in his core rapidly.

Mr. Guardian continued; "As you are already aware, the Midas petal is the most precious treasure here on this island. Originally, you had been heading the wrong way, even with the assistance of your treasure, but while fighting, your good Karma took effect, and you were thrown towards the right direction, ahead of everyone else."

Al grunted as he was listening to Mr. Guardian's explanation. His discomfort came from the exhaustion that he was starting to face. Beads of sweat started to gather on his face and other parts of his body. The air got thicker and it was almost hard for Al to breathe.

['Fuck it!'] Al thought and activated his fire bloodline QI to support himself.

With his bloodline activated, to an extent Al felt relieved, however, it wasn't enough to ignore the pressure that he was feeling.

"Hmm!" Mr. Guardian reacted.

"What is it?" Al asked as he kept on struggling.

"I am curious at this point, what sort of wrong have you done? For the universe to dislike you this much, almost as if you were an abomination."

Hearing the word abomination had Al's brows twitching. Although Al and the rest trust Mr. Guardian enough to tell him that he is indeed an abomination, they all preferred to keep that information a secret for a while longer. Who would want to announce to the others that they're freaks of nature?

"Who knows!? The universe is probably bitching about a few of its favorite people that I might have killed." Al replied.

"This is probably more than that. I would have insisted that you are an abomination, but beings like that are not capable of owning good Karma, which you do possess. The universe refuses to bless an entity it doesn't recognize."

"Re-really?" Despite the pressure on Al, it didn't stop his face from revealing a surprised expression.

['What do mean that abominations are not capable of having any good Karma! I am living proof!'] Al screamed in his mind. He was without any doubt that he is an abomination, the Dragnel brothers and Grace confirmed that.

His weird innate bloodline struck every doubt he had in his mind about his status of abnormality.

['Perhaps we are missing something?'] Lex thought.

['Perhaps, but there is no doubt that we are an abomination. Yet, we are capable of having good Karma.'] Xander chipped in.

['Tsk tsk tsk, I think the universe is afraid of our existence and is trying to curry our favor.'] Alex joked.

['Fucktard, curry our favor indeed. Do they try to curry your favor by almost killing you several times and putting in bad situations in where you come from?'] Al rolled his eyes at Alex's comment.

Alex chuckled, ['It still doesn't matter. What matters is that we have the good Karma despite everything.']

"Where there is good, there is also bad, and where there is misfortune there is indeed fortune. Alexander, if you can get this particular petal it is equivalent to possessing two of the Midas petals. With the convergence of QI here, the petal is absorbing more than it needs to mature and it is mutating as we speak. Furthermore, there will be no side effects after absorbing… or in your case consuming the petal."

In response to this good news, a smile crawled up Al's face, but the smile disappeared when his sweat entered his eyes, reminding him that he would have to get to the petal first before anything is set in stone.

"This petal will surely be mine," Al muttered to himself as if he was trying to encourage himself to exert more energy. Although he couldn't see the Midas petal anywhere, Al could tell that he was very close to it. The Midas petal was floating in the middle of where the convergence of dense QI was coming from.

It was as if the petal was invisible and yet visible. This is as a result of it going through a mutation.

"It will if you can get to the petal before the rest of the competitors arrive here." Mr. Guardian started. "The density of QI here is too abnormal and has alerted everyone on this island. Everyone is making their way here as we speak."

"Fuck!!" Al exclaimed in frustration. He felt a tingle on his scalp as if something bad was going to happen to him. "How much longer until they reach?" He asked.

"The fastest person will arrive here in 4 minutes." Mr. Guardian replied.

['4 minutes!? With this speed, I should be able to reach the Midas petal in about 7 minutes… minimum. Why does everything involving us have to be like this? You know what, forget I asked that question, I'm tired of doing that.'] Al fumed a bit.

…

A few kilometers away from where the dense QI was coming from, the prince that had blasted Al away felt like vomiting blood. His whole face turned red in anger when he realized that the dense QI was coming from where he sent Al off to.

"I'm going to kill that bastard if he touches what is mine!!" The prince raged as he activated his bloodline QI and blasted off with his explosive movement technique.

Everyone that obstructed the path of the prince, whether intentionally or not, got blown away by him.

He wanted to scare others away and reduce the competition for the Midas petal, however, all of this only slowed some people down, it wasn't enough to stop them from heading towards the Midas petal.

In a fit of rage, the prince started to burn everything and everyone on his part.

…

Over at the Severance academy.

"Amitabha." Shi Li whispered as a wicked smile crawled up his face.

He turned his head to the side and glanced at Desire as she continued to Pace around. It was clear that she was getting nervous, and even doubting the effectiveness of the formation that they were about to use in the vicinity of the Severance academy.

And who could blame her, she's right to feel nervous. At the moment, the Severance academy is literally filled with powerful individuals and groups from all around the lower plain realm.

Even if the formation works as it is expected to, who's to say that there aren't people with treasures or artifacts that could protect them from the effects of the formation.

Desire felt like they were on a suicide mission, but she couldn't bring herself to stop at this point. For years, she and her comrades always had a bone to pick with the Severance academy and this is a chance to retaliate. A chance that they might never get again.

So despite her worries, she was determined to go through with this operation till the end.

It took Desire a few seconds to notice that Shi Li was staring at her, and when she finally noticed that Shi Li had stopped doing what he was doing, she stopped pacing and faced him.

"What happened?" She asked nervously.

"It is done. Once the signal has been given, I can activate the formation and this operation will officially begin." Bloodlust leaked from Shi Li as it was starting to get hard for him to control his urge to kill.

Desire closed her eyes for a few seconds and by the time she opened them again, there was an undying determination in her gaze.

"Give out the signal," She ordered.