Chapter 521: Stone Dragon Village
The moment he stepped into the small village, the people there immediately noticed him. But most of them didn’t seem to welcome him; instead, they grew alert.
Apollo noticed this, as they seemed not to like outsiders or, for some other reason, were agitated. But he didn’t stop and calmly moved towards the old man, who was the strongest here at the late-stage eternal god realm.
The old man, seeing this, also came forward while trying to remain calm, but he was able to see the anxiousness and fear in his eyes.
Stopping several metres away, the old man spoke cautiously.
"Who are you?"
"What do you want?"
His voice remained steady, but everyone behind him wore the same tense expressions, silently waiting for Apollo’s answer.
Apollo sighed in relief, as their language at least was the same, and they wouldn’t have problems communicating.
"Don’t worry, I didn’t come here to harm anybody. I am just lost and wanted to know where I am and where the nearest city is." His voice was calm and gentle, intentionally avoiding any hint of hostility.
His voice wasn’t loud, but everyone heard it, and a surprised expression appeared on their face. For a brief moment, many of them sighed in relief. Even so, none of them lowered their guard.
The late-stage eternal god who also seemed to be the village chief answered after a second of hesitation.
"This is the village of Stone Dragon, and the nearest city is Silver Lake City. It takes roughly one week’s travel."
The village chief answered.
Apollo nodded. He didn’t know anything about this place, so he made up his mind to visit the city. As the villagers seemed to be on guard against him, it would be better for him to leave and mind his own business.
"Then can you tell me the way? I can give you divine crystals," he said, as the divine crystals from the beginning had been used as currency, although their preciousness varied; they were the fundamental currency throughout times.
Even though this world was rich in divine energy and would have many times larger deposits of divine crystals than Rion, it would still be the fundamental currency, for being below transcendent.
Hearing this, the village chief was surprised and even started to believe that he might have really lost and accidentally arrived at their village.
"Okay." The village chief agreed and started to tell him the way to the Silver River City.
Apollo listened carefully, and after knowing the way, he immediately took out divine crystals. A storage ring appeared in his hand, which he gave to the village chief.
He didn’t know how much he should give. Normally, a few thousand Divine Crystals would have been sufficient for such a small favour.
However...
This was an unfamiliar world. Without understanding the local economy, he decided to be generous. He directly placed one hundred thousand Divine Crystals into the storage ring before handing it to the village chief.
To Apollo, this amount was insignificant.
But for an Eternal God cultivator... It should be more than enough.
Seeing the storage ring, the village chief was a bit surprised, as he didn’t expect to receive Divine Crystals.
Curious, he looked within the storage ring and was surprised when he saw the number of divine crystals. He couldn’t believe what he saw and looked again to be sure and looked at Apollo with surprise.
Village Chief already counted that there were about a hundred thousand divine crystals within the ring, which was about the same as his entire savings throughout his life. But now such an amount was given to him just for asking directions.
"Aah! Thank you, young lord." The village chief immediately thought that Apollo was some young master and had genuinely lost his way. The last thoughts of doubt immediately disappeared.
The other villagers also quickly calmed down as the Village Chief told them how much Apollo gave him. If he truly intended to cause trouble, why would he reward them so generously?
Apollo nodded.
Seeing everyone’s attitudes soften, he asked a few more questions about Silver Lake City. After thanking the village chief, he prepared to leave.
But just as he was about to step out of Stone Dragon Village, several figures suddenly appeared outside.
In an instant, they sealed the surrounding void.
"Haha, today no one is leaving the Stone Dragon Village." A loud voice rang throughout the village, and immediately all the villagers’ expressions seemed to turn pale in fright.
Apollo’s expression also changed, not because of the voice but because he wasn’t able to sense them until they arrived quite close to the village.
There were about forty people, mostly at the eternal god realm, and the strongest one was only at the first order transcendent realm, which was frankly nothing to him, and yet they were able to hide their presence to such a degree.
This immediately made him more alert, as it seemed he needed to be more careful from now on.
The Village Chief, who was just feeling great after receiving a generous reward, immediately changed his expression.
"How dare you return!"
"And you even brought outsiders with you!"
He glared at the guy furiously, who looked like a young man with the aura of a late-stage eternal god realm equal to the village chief.
"Old Man, I told you that you should have given the treasure, but no, you utter some bullshit of some chosen one. So naturally, I have no choice but to choose another way." He said with an evil grin.
"Enough of chit-chat; where is it?" The transcendent warrior stepped forward and stopped their small talk.
Boom!
A terrifying transcendent aura descended upon Stone Dragon Village. The pressure instantly enveloped the entire village.
The strongest villagers were only Eternal Gods. Under the might of a true Transcendent, even breathing became difficult.
One after another, the villagers started to collapse to the ground under the overwhelming pressure, except for one.