The Burning Fiend

Reynolds smiled and looked calmly at the strange white mist that seemed to block everything in sight, he took a crystal orb and collected as much white mist as it could hold. Thinking that his previous experience of analyzing every step of the soul essence refinement allowed him to understand the 'soul refining' technique, and he hoped to find clues from this new decay mist to increase his understanding of the Edict of Death.

He kept paying attention to the mist to see if he could find something useful from it, but even after reaching a place where the mist has turned completely gray he was not able find any insight, he shook his head and filled two crystal orbs noticing that the mist in this area started to disappear leaving him exposed. He frowned and moved deeper into the grassland while paying attention.

Reynolds had not found any 'Death Orchid' on the white mist area, but found one on the first layer of gray mist area. The strange plant sent vines in his direction as he observed curiously while feeling not treat at all, still he turned the plant into ashes with a single look and frowned as he found no Demigod spark. 'What kind of creature could reach the Demigod level without insights on either laws or edicts?' He thought as he examined the ashes founding nothing useful.

He sighed and keep moving deeper into the grassland finding many more of this strange plants but the mist seemed to be exactly the same, and he decided to go deeper. As he advanced, he finally noticed that the mist turned slightly darker. Reynolds smiled and filled another orb to the brim with the new type of decay mist and moved forward while paying attention to his surroundings.

The Death Orchids in this area seemed to be stronger, perhaps even comparable to a God level creature, but they showed the same lack of sentience than the one he had found before, they wee guided only by instinct. He killed a couple of them just to see if they were any different, but they all turned into ashes without leaving anything behind.

He repeated the experiment in another two layers where the decay mist darkened a few shades in each, obtaining another two crystal orbs of mist, the strength of these plants were slightly above the ones he had killed before, but they still turned into ashes without leaving anything behind.

After nearly two hours since the Fiend Trial started, Reynolds finally entered a zone where the mist was almost black, and he felt that his protection made of divine power was suffering a slight but constant erosion. Reynolds calculated that it would take around 15 minutes before it collapsed if he did not add more divine power to it, he frowned in surprise as he started collecting a new mist sample on his last crystal orb and advanced for a while longer looking for anything useful or interesting.

Suddenly, several thick vines erupted from the ground and tried to bind him only to be burned by the protection layer of divine power he had prepared before entering the Death Mist Grassland. But this attack was enough for him to identify a new level of 'Death Orchid' and focused his Godrealm forcing the strange plant to float from below the ground. It struggled madly but again it seemed to move only by instinct, a Highgod level creature without sentience. 'How terrifying'. He thought as imagining what would be of the Yulan Continent if a grassland were to be invaded by this strange creatures.

He burned the plant to ashes, but this time he blinked in surprise as he found a purple seed that survived the incineration. Reynolds used his divine power to examine it and found no danger with it, he collected it within his interspatial ring and decided to return to the metallic life form to end his participation in this trial. Even though Reynolds found the trial entertaining he was slightly disappointed on how easy it was, the only exciting moment was when he was attacked by the last 'Death Orchid', he shook his head reminding himself that the Fiend Trial was to be performed on the very first layer of gray mist, it would have been completely bored if he had not decided to explore the Death Mist Grasslands.

A bit more than two hours had passed since the start of the trial, and he imagined that a few Gods should have already completed the mission, he noticed that three Gods were waiting ahead as he floated leisurely on his way back, and he smirked wondering what treasures he might find on his interspatial rings.

Suddenly three Gods flanked him while smiling amicably. "Friend, since it seems that it was easy for you to collect the gray mist... why don't you give us the crystal orb and return a couple more times until all of us can complete the task?" A blue haired man said while the other two nodded their support, Reynolds just shook his head while the three people turned to ashes, and he collected their divine sparks and interspatial rings before continuing to float leisurely towards the metallic life form while whistling a happy tune as if inviting more people to rob him, but strangely no one else approached him.

He sighed in disappointment as he returned to the metallic life form where 4 Gods were already waiting to return to Silver Grass City, he took a seat ignoring them and waited for the moment of departure. After a couple of hours another 3 people returned and took their seats, but another 3 hours passed and no one else returned making Reynolds frown.

"All of you go out of the metallic life form!". The voice of the 4-star Fiend that had given them instructions commanded them and all of them started moving towards the voice while Reynolds's frown increased slightly.

"Only 8 God remaining... this might only help us get another Purple Death Orchid seed, and they might even turn into a blood pool before a Purple Death Orchid even notice them." The 4-star Fiend say to the one Reynolds imagined being Jored while the other 3-star Fiends remained quiet and waited respectfully a few meters away from them.

"You are right Kenec, we only managed to gain three Purple Death Orchids seeds while the request was for five and even using these fools as bait we would not be able to complete the mission." His voice was annoyed and unwilling, but Reynolds frown had already disappeared as he realized that he would most likely ending killing the whole expedition before returning to Silver Grass City.

The other Gods participating on the trials were trembling and a couple of them even tried to escape only to found themselves trapped by the Godrealm of one of the Highgods. "What? Did you think that the trials were going to be that easy? It is not rare that for the trials to end with all the participants dying... so why not use you as bait and complete our own mission?" Kenec's voice was sinister but his amus.e.m.e.nt was clear to all.

Reynolds sighed and asked. "I would like to know it gathering the mist was just a waste of time or does that really count as a 1-star Fiend mission?" His voice was calm and completely devoid of fear making Kenec frown, but he smirked and replied. "Well, yes... if you manage to survive and return you will really be a 1-star Fiend, but what of it?" He was completely amused by the idea of a God escaping him.

"Does that mean that the Fiend Castle knows about what you are doing? Or perhaps they simply don't care at all, right?" Reynolds was starting to annoy the 4-star Fiends and the other Gods started to distance themselves from him.

"Both, they don't know... but they don't really care either". This time it was Jarod who answered clearly annoyed while looking at the other 7 Gods. "Hey kids, this fool is too annoying. If you give him a good beating we might use him as bait first... who knows, maybe most of you would end surviving". He chuckled while the other 7 Gods charged at Reynolds with crazy eyes, but they all turned to ashes in a moment making the 6 Highgod blink in surprise.

Then Reynolds turned to look at them and asked. "What is the use of the Purple Death Orchid seed?" His voice was calm but his mischievous smile seemed diabolical to them. Jarod frowned and said. "Who the hell do you think you are? You even kill our bait and now you think you can..." But his angry voice was interrupted as he lifted his arms as if protecting his head while screaming in agony. His screams only lasted for a couple of seconds before he turned into ashes and a Highgod spark along with a ring floated towards Reynolds.

He looked at Kenec smiling kindly. "Well?" The 5 remaining Highgods found themselves in front of a demon and started trembling in fear. One of the 3-star Highgods said hurriedly. "Lord, the Purple Death Orchid seed could be refined into a poison that once used to coat a blade would kill a Highgod with a mere scratch turning him or her into a pool of blood". His trembling voice was hurried as if afraid another one would finish explaining before him.

Reynolds smile brightened as he said. "I see, I guess that could be valuable. Thank you for answering me and... good bye". His calm voice never changed during his speech and a moment later the 5 Highgods screamed in agony for a couple of seconds before turning into ashes as well scattering on the air by a passing breeze.

During the Fiend Trials Reynolds had killed 10 Gods, 4 Highgods that were 3-star Fiends and 2 Highgods who were 4-star Fiends. He smiled thinking that the harvest might not be bad and stored the divine sparks while collecting the interspatial rings taking a moment to bind them, but he ended frowning as one of the rings belonging to a 3-star Fiend rejected his blood signifying that he had a divine avatar or a saint body in another place. He sighed in frustration and returned to the metallic life form while the stupefied clerk that belonging to the Fiend Castle looked at him in terror.

"We should be heading back I guess". Reynolds said smiling with an amicable voice as if he had not killed all his 'companions' a moment ago. "R-right, we will depart immediately sir". The clerk appeared to be an old man with gray long beard and commanded the metallic life form as they moved towards Silver Grass City.

Reynolds started checking the items on the rings and spent a few hours organizing his loot. 6 Highgod sparks, 5 Highgod attack artifacts, 5 Highgod defense artifacts, 10 God sparks, 10 God attack artifacts, 6 God defense artifacts, 10 million inkstones and a few other things he did not recognize.