Right after Jino managed to find his former Master, Gall Farion, his mission became several times easier.
Before that, he had to personally search for clues, observe the actions of adventurers, and listen to several useless conversations to get the information he wanted.
It was a slow, exhausting, and extremely inefficient process. There was too much information circulating throughout the enormous Oasis and the surroundings of the Ever-White Labyrinth, but the vast majority of it had no real value.
Now, he had only one target.
Even so, Jino remained extremely cautious, keeping what he considered a safe distance while still being able to investigate.
Which, for him, a Beast God, meant several hundred meters, and in open space, probably kilometers.
And really, that was an excellent decision.
In preparation for dealing with the Beast God Style, Gall Farion and Randolph had detection methods capable of bypassing most forms of concealment, no matter how complex they were.
Rygar's philosophy of extreme caution greatly influenced Jino, so even though he considered himself superior in combat, he still did not lower his guard for even a single moment.
And with that, he more or less achieved the objective of his mission.
He discovered the great objective behind the Ever-White Labyrinth.
Ironically, it was the same reason thousands of adventurers stormed the Labyrinth every day, the most obvious reason:
Resurrection.
They wanted to revive a person who apparently would be very useful in some way to their plans.
But no matter how actively he tried to overhear something about it, Jino still did not know much about who the person to be revived was.
He only knew that this person had died many, many years ago, certainly hundreds of years — so long ago that the Resurrection Stone needed to revive him was almost inconceivable, or at least that was what Gall Farion said.
Jino also confirmed his darkest theory about this Labyrinth in the meantime.
The deaths of the countless adventurers invading the Labyrinth were, in fact, feeding a Resurrection Stone on the final floor.
That sinister Labyrinth was indeed capable of absorbing the life force of every being that died within it in order to generate a special Stone that could only be born in the heart of the Labyrinth.
Jino also discovered, after a few days, that Hitogami's apostles' main base was on the final floor, hardly accessible to ordinary people. The Final Boss seemed to be dead, or under the apostles' control.
Surprisingly, the Treasure Mage Kensai was a direct apostle of Hitogami.
Now.
You must be wondering: if everything was going so well, how did it get to the point where Jino was being relentlessly chased through the desert?
After all, Jino never got close or lowered his guard.
Well... more or less.
Yeah, almost certainly.
Because there was a single moment when Jino had not been so cautious.
And that was when he found them for the first time, killing the Immortal Barbarian Troll.
The Nether King Vita was just as paranoid, if not even more so, than Jino. After being relentlessly hunted by the former Death God Laxus, he was forced to be paranoid if he wanted to survive.
Hitogami's advice that day was very simple: go to that place and get that item. Be careful of the Troll that will be there.
Right, where was the Troll?
It could be nearby, it could have wandered away, right? After all, it was a large Labyrinth.
Jino masked the Troll's traces so perfectly that there was no way to even suspect it had been killed. Hitogami could see nothing about Jino thanks to the amulet, and because of that, he gave no further instructions.
But out of sheer paranoia, Vita began parasitizing some Trolls.
That was dangerous, since controlling the Technique God severely limited his movements, but he still did it.
He found nothing for several days...
But at a certain moment, luck smiled upon the Nether King.
Jino, simply wandering through the Labyrinth, found a Troll and, as usual, killed it with the Nine Flying Heavens.
Yes...
Until he saw a dark blue slime coming out of the huge Troll's eyes...
—---
Looking at the nine devastating cuts Jino had made, Gall Farion whistled in praise as he walked toward him.
"You've improved a lot, brat! Was it Rygar who taught you that move?!"
He observed one of the deep fissures as he walked beside it.
Jino smiled calmly and lowered the tip of his blade, Storm Tremor, toward the collapsing ground.
And said:
"That was one I created myself. You could say this is my signature technique..."
He watched as the enormous fierce Ogre arrived. The ground trembled when he landed, staring at Jino as if he wanted to swallow him alive. A huge laceration across his torso was bleeding profusely.
That was the result of attacking Jino, a Water God, just like that.
Malta learned the hard way how dangerous a counterattack was.
And soon, Randolph — or rather, Vita — also appeared, slowly walking with his sword in hand. His stance looked completely unprepared, but the more Jino sensed that ease, the more he doubted his own perception.
The famous Sword of Bewitching of the Death God.
Gall Farion laughed and said:
"So you created it, huh? Impressive, worthy of the title of Martial God, no? Hahaha! What do you think?"
Gall Farion's tone was clearly mocking.
In his view, mastering all styles did not make someone truly powerful.
Jino's smile deepened as he confirmed:
"Yes, actually I do think I'm worthy."
Gall Farion stopped smiling and said:
"Oh, please, brat, you still can't even react to my sword! I'll praise you for reaching such a level, probably if it were me years ago, I'd lose to you, but that's exactly the point! If you had truly focused, you probably would've surpassed me!"
Gall Farion pointed his sword at the wound on Jino's neck.
Although superficial, it was a small proof.
He had still surpassed Jino in speed. His training with the Technique God had not been in vain.
But, to his surprise, Jino did not seem very concerned.
Vita said while looking at Gall:
"Is there any point to this conversation?"
"Tch! What fun is there in simply killing him? This is a reunion between master and disciple here! Have some sensitivity!"
The Ogre God Malta snorted impatiently; he seemed to agree with Vita.
"Well, it is interesting that they have another method besides Magic to conceal Divine Vision."
Vita analyzed Jino from head to toe with interest, but Gall Farion laughed:
"Ha! At this point, what can't hide from that?! I really keep hearing more and more about some new method to conceal this so-called Divine Vision! How divine can that even be?"
Jino replied:
"I have to agree with that, it doesn't seem that special from the outside..."
He looked at Gall Farion and added:
"But I have to say, Master, I didn't expect you to have evolved so much in these past few years either..."
Gall Farion looked at him with interest.
The first curious onlookers were approaching and watched the confrontation in silence, waiting to understand what it was about.
Gall Farion laughed loudly.
"Hahaha! My own disciple is underestimating me!"
At that moment, the huge Red Ogre spoke for the first time, with a guttural voice:
"Enough. Talking."
Gall Farion looked at him with scorn.
"Are you eager to be cut in half, Malta? Hahahaha!"
Even as he said that, his Battle Aura suddenly flowed, moving Windpipe, his sword, at a superhuman speed.
At the same time, the entire battlefield moved.
Jino suddenly disappeared, at the same time as Gall Farion.
In the next instant, halfway between them, their blades — Windpipe and Storm Tremor — clashed with a resounding ring.
The ground around them cracked in every direction like a spiderweb, trembling from the collision of two God-level swordsmen.
In the first exchange between them inside the Labyrinth, Gall Farion had been faster than Jino, managing to wound him on the neck.
But this time, he was surprised to see that Jino was clearly faster than him, and by a wide margin!
And he was even more surprised when he noticed a warm sensation on his neck, while a thin line of blood ran from a shallow cut.
In the exact same place where he had wounded Jino before.
When he looked at Jino's face, he could see a smile.
Only one thought crossed his mind in that fraction of a second:
He had been holding back before!
Gall Farion had no time to process that information, because the Ogre appeared at Jino's flank, delivering a powerful punch capable of crushing mountains.
At the same time, Jino's senses covered the battlefield, and he clearly felt a follow-up attack from Randolph.
He vanished from his position, dodging both attacks like a lingering flash, and once again focused on his most familiar technique.
And then, he swung his sword, using the technique that consolidated his title as Martial God:
"Nine Flying Heavens!"
The three attackers, upon seeing the nine flashes, scattered like flies.
And once again, the oasis was mercilessly sliced into pieces under that unstoppable power.
The adventurers around them ran like cockroaches, screaming as they saw the ground being torn apart before them.
"AAAAAAH!"
"Who is that monster?!"
"Run!"
All kinds of voices rang out.
But this time, Gall Farion responded in kind.
"Supreme Light."
Overlapping the desperate voices, and the nine devastating lights for a moment, a single silver light cut diagonally toward the source of the silver lights.
For a moment, all sound disappeared.
And then, the Oasis of the Ever-White Desert was cut in half.
A violent shockwave swept through the desert as a consequence of the strike, throwing the already dazed adventurers nearby like rag dolls.
And right behind the enormous fissure that split the Oasis in two, stood Gall Farion.
The technique Supreme Light was the personification of all his training over the past five years, the pinnacle of power, speed, and might, all imbued into a single strike.
Its extremely destructive and lethal result made Gall Farion name it Supreme Light, as a symbol of surpassing the Longsword of Light.
He was smiling, observing the scene before him.
But then, an appreciative whistle sounded.
Sitting on one of the few intact trees, Jino observed the consequence of the strike.
"It's a beautiful technique, truly. It's very similar to Eris's ultimate technique."
He jumped down from the branch and looked at Gall Farion.
And, suspiciously, assumed the exact same stance Gall Farion had taken moments earlier.
Gall Farion, who was somewhat uneasy at how easily his strike had been avoided, called out:
"What are you doing, brat? If you want to learn it, I can teach you."
At that moment, he felt a chill run down his spine.
He could not see the Touki, but he could see Jino's muscles and nerves contracting in an extremely familiar way.
After all, that was the form he had trained the most for years.
How could he not recognize it?
At that moment, a voice sounded beside him:
"Absolute Empty Eye!"
In the distance, Randolph's Red Eye glowed, and a red barrier began to form in front of Gall Farion.
At that exact moment, before Gall could complain, Jino's voice sounded amused:
"How did it go again...?"
He paused, and saw the barrier forming, but did not care, and spoke loudly enough for Gall Farion to hear:
"Supreme Light!"
He swung his blade.
At that fateful moment, Gall Farion understood what a true Genius was.
News of the battle spread across the Begaritt Continent like fire through dry straw.
Four monstrous warriors had engaged in a chaotic battle at the Oasis of the Ever-White Desert.
Although the lone swordsman was superior to all three of the others, he was not able to win a fight at a disadvantage, and in the end retreated.
The reasons were unknown, but everyone seemed to naturally accept that it had been a clash over an extremely powerful Resurrection Stone.
----
Hello! If you want to support my writing, check out my subscription P@treon
By subscribing, you will get access to up to 20 advanced chapters of the Webnovel and polls to decide various things about the story.
Your support will encourage me to continue writing more chapters! Check it out here: p@ treon.com/DaoistJunkYard