Death... and me
chapter-2024-04061300

As the twins talked with Luman, Librao finally managed to return to his home in the ruins. Naturally, he didn't waste time to go talk with his mother and told her everything that happened until he came back.

"He dares!" It went without saying that Librao and Abelha's mother got furious, especially with the idea of Luman forcing himself to impregnate her daughter.

*Brommm...*

Decaying Dark Energy began to leak out from the coffin she was inside, showing that it hadn't been open for a very long time. Her cultivation, as well as her children, required a constant infusion of Dark Element from the Swamp, so the coffin was made to help with that. To let it all out now was the same as throwing away several years of effort. She would have to spend a lot of time accumulating that much again. Of course, she didn't care about that now.

Following that, she grabbed Librao with her Divine Energy manipulation and disappeared from the area. She lived close enough to Luman's settlement to know where to go, after all.

Back in the settlement, Luman finished telling the story about how his Lakure Race to the twins. "So, it was pretty much that. Now the only thing I can do is to make sure the Lakures I have here in the Swamp of No Return stay alive."

Rean found it strange. "The sheer amount of Dark Element in this Swamp is ridiculously high. How come you and your Lakure Race members are not being affected by it?"

"Because of my disguising technique," Luman explained. "It not only can make us look just like Devils, but it also uses the surrounding Dark Element to keep the transformation going. Since the technique itself is absorbing the Dark Element that reaches us, it doesn't affect our bodies."

"I see..." Rean had to admit Luman's technique was also quite good in its own right. "But that will make it very hard for your Lakure Race to reproduce then. After all, the babies who are born will not be able to use the technique."

Luman then pointed at his head. However, Rean, Roan, and Kentucky Understood. He was pointing at his own Pocket Dimensional Realm. "When a Lakure Female gets pregnant, I send her into my Pocket Dimensional Realm. There she will give birth to the child and not have to worry about the Dark Element in the surroundings. The child will obviously grow and cultivate there until I judge that he or she is strong enough to come out."

Luman then looked through the window, watching the several Devils and Lakures walking around his settlement. "The numbers of my race got quite a lot bigger in the past hundreds of years. When I built this settlement, there were only 21 Lakures, including me. Now we are a few hundred."

"No wonder you keep insisting on this thing about reproduction all the time. It is not that you were a pervert but that your entire group understands that you have to reproduce if you don't want your Lakure Race to disappear."

"Hahaha!" Luman laughed out loud in response. "That's definitely part of the reason. However, I am indeed a pervert. A cultivator has to have fun, too, you know?"

Roan then returned to the previous topic. "So, Luman, what can you tell us about this Swamp?"

Luman pondered a bit and began to talk. "As you probably noticed, we can't find our way out. However, within a certain range, it is possible to locate oneself. We made a few tests using puppets and found out that around 20000 kilometers, it is still possible to find your way back to a specific location. Abelha and Librao's mother just happen to live around 13000 kilometers from here, so she knows how to find us."

He continued. "Any puppet that went past this distance couldn't find its way back. We wondered if it was because they were attacked by Demon Beasts at first. However, after several more tests, we understood that it was basically because they got lost, never to be seen again. We used tine sleeves of soul, the same used to know whether someone is alive or not, to confirm if the puppets were still intact. Even though a lot of them were indeed destroyed by the Demon Beast, quite a few did go further away intact. So, keep it in mind, to be safe, try to stay within 15000 kilometers of the settlement."

"The Dark Element here has high decaying power. However, if you use it for cultivation, like the Devils, it is extremely beneficial for your progress. As long as you can deal with the decaying factor, that is. The decaying power is so high that even Devils have a very hard time dealing with it. It goes without saying it doesn't have much use for our Lakure Race, though."

Roan nodded. "I noticed that already. It has helped me quite a bit."

"So you do have Dark Element Affinity. No wonder it was so pure when I felt it during your battle." Luman was surprised to hear that. He looked at Rean right after. "So, was it like I saw? Do you truly have Light Element Affinity?"

Rean nodded. "We were born like that."

Luman looked at them as some rare breed. "Truly unexpected. You are the first humans I've seen with such affinities. It is your Light Element that helps you against the Dark Element here, right?"

"Yes," Rean confirmed his words. "And it is pretty effective against the creatures of this place. Of course, I can't gather as much Light Element as I want due to the environment."

"It is still pretty good," Luman was quite jealous. "Anyway, another thing you need to pay attention to in this Swamp is the Dark Tide."

"Dark Tide?" The twins' group hadn't seen it before. "What is that?"

"Since you haven't seen it, you haven't been in this swap for long." Luman began to explain. "It happens once every fews years, but there isn't a precise time between occurrences. A huge accumulation of Dark Element washes the entire Swamp, killing everything in its path that doesn't have resistance to it. The true danger is how fast it moves. It is even faster than me at full speed. From what I could see, the flow of space and time in this Swamp is what carries this tide forward every time."

"How do you defend against that?" Since Luman's settlement was here, they obviously had a way.

Luman shrugged his shoulder. "What else can we do? We hide and create barriers to withstand the wave. Worst case scenario, I bring everyone into my Pocket Dimensional Realm and wait for it to pass. However, I wouldn't recommend that."

"Why is that?" Rean and Roan thought that the Dimensional Realm would be a pretty safe choice.

"I told you, didn't I? It is the flow of space and time in this Swamp that causes the tide. The tide itself carries really strong spatial distortions. Suppose you leave the entrance of your Dimensional Realm exposed by going inside. In that case, it will get damaged and might cause your entire Dimensional Realm to collapse. I learned it the worst way."

[He is right,] Sister Orb suddenly spoke to the twins through their soul connection. [The Flow of space and time here can truly cause harm to the Dimensional Realm. It's just that the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm is very resistant, so it can withstand the flow while you two are inside. However, if this tide makes the flow even more powerful, it might cause some problems for the Dimensional Realm. It is basically the same as you two hiding inside the Dimensional Realm while the enemy knows where the entrance is. It is a truly bad idea to leave it exposed.]

The twins nodded in response. 'Alright, Sister Orb. We will pay attention.'

However, the twins weren't that concerned. After all, Roan is the epitome of the Dark Element. It didn't matter how powerful the Decaying Ability of the tide was. It simply wouldn't have any effect on him whatsoever. That meant he could keep the dimensional realm entrance within himself, and nothing would happen.

Still, Rean asked Luman to be safe. "How do we protect ourselves against the tide in case we are outside?"

Luman was just about to explain when suddenly, a powerful Divine Sense washed over everyone in the settlement. That Divine Sense wasn't trying to stay hidden at all, making even those with lower cultivations feel it in its full might. Luman, however, just smiled as a result. "Oh, she was quite fast."