"What did you just say?" Asked Aeron with doubt, thinking that he had heard wrong.
Daniel turned to look back at him, and said "I said that maybe a group called Garden of Death has something to do with it."
When Aeron had seen the window appear in Daniel's mind, from the standing point of a mental warrior, he had felt extremely curious about it. He had never seen such a thing happen before, and therefore, he was curious about what it was. Nevertheless, he was respectful about Daniel's secrets, and had decided not to pry into his mind any further.
He had decided to keep quiet, until finally, he heard the words Garden of Death come from Daniel's mouth. "That's a name you don't hear often anymore.." muttered Aeron while trying to remember a few details from the past.
After what seemed like a whole minute, his red eyes opened wide in horror. He then said "Wait! You can't give them the poison immunity pills.." He then started to explain to Daniel the method which the members of the Garden of Death used to become elites.
"So that is why.." muttered Daniel before taking a small pause, and adding "Well, I already knew they had a use for those types of pills. They are poison masters. They poison people, and therefore it would have been odd for them to need a poison immunity pill.. But I didn't expect that I would be aiding an entire faction.. That is for sure." Of course, Daniel never had any intention of giving the higher level immunity pills to the poisonous rose. He only wanted a place to hide for awhile, a method to get rid of all of the bad karma that Sewah had left him with, and a way to gain a bit of crystals.
He wanted to escape the very moment he would have obtained a mid level immunity pill, and even if the Poisonous Rose would have tried to stop him, he would have found a way thanks to his system.
Daniel had already given the recipe for the partial poison immunity pill to the Poisonous Rose, but he was not bothered by that. Even if the Garden of Death managed to make all of its members immune to low level poisons, and make them able to pass the first obstacle to become elites, the rate of success would not change. The people whose body was not able to resist mid level poisons before, wouldn't be able to defend against them even if they ingested one of Daniel's pills. So, at best, Daniel had increased the numbers of the low level warrior of their faction.
What the Garden of Death needed to switch from one of the weakest, to one of the most powerful factions in the known universe, was for Daniel to create a permanent and total immunity. If he managed that, the Garden of Death would be able to create elite warriors out of each and everyone of their members.. Turning from a few hundred strong faction which virtually any other could defeat, to a billion, or even trillion strong one, against which only the universal government would be able to compete.
Daniel had no intention of turning the universe into the playground of a ruthless faction. So he immediately started to think of a long term plan.
The first part, was to prevent the Poisonous Rose from knowing what the ingredients of his mid level poison immunity pills were.
—–
Differently from Daniel's world of origin, Ton Bes had a much further distance from its sun, and a slower rotation. That was the reason why a common day and night cycle lasted more than ninety hours.
Daniel and Aeron left the city early in the morning, and went west at the fastest speed they could manage. They then stopped a few hundreds of thousand kilometers out of the city, and waited in a forest of purplish, and yellow trees quietly.
It was only after more than one hour spent sitting on a couple of black tree stumps, that Daniel turned towards an area that was apparently empty, and said "Is there anything we can help you with?"
There was no response.
Neither Daniel or Aeron could feel any form of presence around them, and if Daniel didn't have the specific optional objective of preventing people from following him, he would have never known that someone actually was tailing them.
Standing on a tree branch, completely invisible to the naked eye, was a young woman with tight black clothes that covered her entire body, leaving only her eyes uncovered. She hadn't moved in the slightest ever since the two had stopped in this forest. Not even when Daniel had talked to her directly, asking her what did she want.
From the perspective of the spy, there was a very high possibility that Daniel could be bluffing. That was why she hadn't moved. Her clothes were covered by multiple layers of soundproof and light proof formations, and her mind was protected by a barrier way beyond what Aeron could break through. Theoretically speaking, she shouldn't have been found out.
"As long as you stay here, I won't search for the objects I need. You'll have to go back with empty hands." said Daniel while looking around.
It didn't matter what Daniel said. She was trained in the art of stealth and espionage. She wouldn't admit to be a spy even if she was caught red handed. Even if Daniel could see her, she would claim innocence, and pretend that she was there for research, or any other random excuse that would suit the moment better.
"Alright then.. Let's do it your way. I'll go back.." Said Daniel with unwillingness before standing up from the black tree stump, and dashing back towards the city along with Aeron.
The girl looked at Daniel with confusion. She was impressed by the fact that Daniel could actually feel her presence. Especially since she was of a higher cultivation, and had many means to keep herself hidden.
The moment the two left, as per her job, she followed right after them.
With an oddly slow pace, the three ran back towards the city, but the more they ran, the more odd the spy felt. She had noticed that the more they would walk, the more basic Daniel's and Aeron's motion became. They had suddenly stopped talking, they didn't stop to sightsee anymore in search of the right direction, and a few times, from the distance, it appeared that not even a single tree would be in their way. They could simply run straight without ever encountering any obstacle.
A few thoughts were starting to make their appearance in the girl's mind, until finally, her fears became true when the two people she was tasked with following, had disappeared. Not only they had disappeared, but her surroundings also changed. She wasn't in a forest anymore, but in a large swamp with purple mud bubbling all around her.
"Those bastards.." she muttered with anger before giving up stealth, and dashing with her fastest speed towards the woods to the west of the city.. But once there, she found nothing. No traces of immortal essence, no traces of spatial essence, and no physical trails to follow.
Back in the swamp, from underneath one of the pools of purple, poisonous mud, a sphere embed with pure dark essence emerged. Inside it, were Daniel and Aeron.
"Good riddance.." muttered Daniel while looking towards the direction where the spy had disappeared in.
When the two of them had stopped in the forest and sat on a tree stump, Daniel had used that moment of calm to create an illusion. With that illusion activated in the large area around them, Daniel had simulated the action of him and Aeron going back towards the city. Taking for granted that the spy would follow them, they followed their own doubles, only to make the illusion disappear once they would change area.
When the spy discovered that the couple that she was following was nothing but an illusion, she ran back towards the area were the two had originally stopped in hope to find a trail that could point her towards their direction, but the true Daniel and Aeron were right next to her.
The reason why Daniel hadn't simply left, was because he would not be able to keep the illusion for long once they got too far from it.
He also knew that the spy could have assumed that Daniel and Aeron were following the illusion just like her in order to keep it up and running, but that didn't matter, as she couldn't feel their presence regardless.
The spy went back and forth from the area where the two had stopped, the area where the illusion had ended, and the city, but in the end, she had no choice but to give up. She had lost them.
A few minutes after they managed to get rid of the spy, Daniel and Aeron appeared in front of a massive hole in the ground. This hole was about ten kilometers wide, and it was completely covered in hundreds of layers of spiderwebs. So much so, that if someone were to observe this area from far away, while squinting their eyes, they would swear that this sinkhole was filled with milk.
"I know I won't like this.." muttered Daniel while looking at the massive entrance.
"You've walked around parasites for months in the ship.. And you're scared of a few spiders?.." Asked Aeron with doubt.
Daniel shook off the shiver that was charging in the lower part of his spine "Look.. it's spiders.. They are disgusting.. And these ones are crazy big." responded Daniel with a hint of unwillingness in his face. He had always been slightly disgusted by spiders. He had never encountered one that was bigger than a fingernail, and yet, the idea of eight hairy legs that quietly lurked around the corners of his house, had always sent a shiver down his spine.
What helped him this time, was thinking that these spiders were likely smart enough to understand him, as just like the red carp, they were ancient and powerful.
"How are you not creeped out by these things?!" Asked Daniel in exasperation.
"Well now I am! Get your shit together!" Aeron barked out angrily after turning towards Daniel. He could passively feel anything that Daniel felt, and that included his irrational, and yet completely rational fear of spiders.
Slightly embarrassed, Daniel said "Oh, sorry.." He then took a deep breath, and calmed himself down significantly. His mental fortitude was one of the various things which had developed thanks to the absorption of most of Sewah's mind.
Just like Daniel was after being almost devoured, Sewah had also fallen asleep in a corner within the depths of Daniel's mind. The only difference, was that Daniel's mind did not constantly hunt for the remains of Sewah's, and instead, kept him imprisoned.
There was no much difference now from the time when Sewah was simply the karmic system's consciousness. He could only try to devour Daniel's consciousness again, but without protection, and a mind power much stronger than Daniel's, things would end very differently.
Even if Daniel kept increasing Sewah's mind power by making him evolve again and again, Daniel was now aware of his presence. He had already started to reinforce his mind through a few methods given by Aeron himself.
The easiest ones were three. To dive as deep as possible into other people's memories, to devour other people's minds, and finally, to attempt to separate his mind from his body and spirit. Through these three methods, Daniel would be able to increase the power of his mind, and prevent Sewah from managing to take over his body ever again.
"Are you ready?.." asked Aeron to a now calmer Daniel.
Daniel simply responded with a not, then formed a large ball of liquid flames which turned the massive webs ablaze.
