Blood leaked out of Caspian’s mouth.

He looked down.

A hand, ended with claws, protruded out of his chest, piercing flesh and bones alike.

He was supposed to already be at a safe distance—far away from danger, and yet that turns out to also be a false illusion. It was only then that he realized he was not dealing with an ordinary group. As if fate now hated him and pitted him against something that he could not win.

Anomalies that were far beyond his abilities.

Rex pulled his claws out of Caspian’s chest and watched his body buckle and fall to the ground.

One strike aimed at the heart. Aimed to kill.

And to make sure that he wouldn’t come back up again, Rex grabbed his head and tore it out. Skull and spine were pulled in a grotesque manner. Fortunately, there was no one around to see except the old trees around him.

<Killed a one-star Awakened Demigod!>

<Obtained a massive amount of experience and 13,000,000 gold>

<Level up!>

Rex threw the gore aside and looked at his own hands.

It was still his first experience of using both powers from the Spirit Realm and Mortal Realm together, and perhaps he wasn’t used to this combination, but that drained a lot of stamina and energy. However, he couldn’t deny the result.

Earlier, he combined the Primordial Step and the Voidal Moonflow Acceleration together.

He used three energies at the same time to make that combination, and the result was incredible.

Rex covered a massive distance with a simple dash—and reached Caspian in an instant. Even the poor Godling couldn’t react in time despite having a relatively similar speed to him. At this moment, he was overflowing with newfound excitement at what his new body could do.

“I’m used to using multiple energies at the same time. All thanks to having multiple elemental affinities and being a werewolf,” He clenched his fist as his lips curled into a smile. “I never thought much about it, but it’s paying off now. But it’s not enough. More. I need more power.”

His enemies are many.

Despite his incredible growth, he must grow even faster.

Moments later.

Once the two Godlings were dealt with, Rex and the sisters went back to meet with Zev.

Zev had been waiting for them to return, or at least he looked like he had been waiting, and was surprised to see that the three of them returned with no sign of the other two Godlings. Not to mention, the three don’t look like they had trouble dispatching those two, which should be impossible.

’People from the Spirit Realm actually could get this strong?’ He swallowed harshly.

He was expecting today to be the same day as usual.

But it seemed chance had another thing in store for him.

“Gather your Gardeners,” Rex instructed, glancing at the tree lines where a few Gardeners were stealing a peek at them. All of them heard and felt the commotion—and were curious as to what was happening. “Gather all of them now.”

“What are you planning to do?” Zev asked with a stern tone.

No matter from what angle he looked at this situation from, this is nothing but trouble for him.

Davina and Lilliana even applauded that he hadn’t run away yet.

“Must I repeat what I asked?” Rex’s face remained neutral, but this calmness was a threat on its own.

Zev has no choice but to comply.

He gathered the Gardeners under him, and have stand in line. They looked to Zev for answers. Any answers. But found only a nervous glance in return. Their master’s face, usually unreadable, now wore concern like a mask that didn’t fit.

And that alone told them everything.

Rex scanned each one of them, and as he realized earlier, all had the Curse of the Cavity.

An Oustification is the essence of the universe, much like the Law that Spirits have—but a more extreme version of it. A Minor Oustification is the essence of lower beings that are tied to a certain God, which was the reason why the Rastrikan Demons could no longer pose a threat to him.

For them, Rex is a part of their being, and harming him is the same as harming themselves.

Going by that logic, a normal Oustification must be the essence of a higher being.

Perhaps that’s what truly separated mortals from Demigods and Gods.

And it should be the same for the Curse of the Cavity. It must be a fragment of a higher being, which in this case should be the Overseer of Realms’ fragment. Rex couldn’t rely on the System to know exactly what this Oustification meant, but since it’s tied to the Baby-blue Periwinkle, he has a theory.

Gardeners are solely tasked with harvesting these flowers.

Rex had scanned the flowers earlier and found they contained divine strands.

Coupled with what he knows and how fast the Godlings knew that they were from the Spirit Realm, the bigger picture became clear. Based on what I gathered, the Primordial Meadow must be the overseer’s power source. A place that kept generating divine strands.

And the only ones who could pluck the Baby-blue Periwinkles must be the Gardeners. The Curse of the Cavity must be the reason why they can harvest the flowers, as none of the Godlings have it. And since it’s a curse, I doubt it only gave them that ability.

Just finding that out alone made it easier to really understand how things work in the God Realm.

Godlings like Zev are a part of the people responsible for keeping the Gardeners in check.

I don’t really know how these Baby-blue Periwinkles bloomed, but it must be tied to the Spirit Realm. Rex looked around, taking in the endless meadow. Or maybe this area is tied to the Spirit Realm, which answers how these Godlings knew our origin instantly.

Hmm, does that mean—?

<Yes. A lower realm is tied to a higher realm or more that belongs to a specific God or multiple Gods>

Rex’s eyes flashed at the notification.

Seems like the System acknowledges his deduction and decided to fill in the obvious blanks for him.

Since that was the case, Rex now knew for certain that the Mortal Realm must be tied to multiple Gods that aided the Supernatural races and perhaps even the Ancient Humans. And that means Kaiser and the other Lunirich Gods also generated divine strands from the Mortal Realm.

It was probably the werewolves who kept generating divine strands.

I’m glad I came to this realm.

Just entering the God Realm allowed him to learn more than what he could in the lower realms.

He now understood how Gods exactly work.

And like a dam breaking, ideas on how to hurt the Lunirich Gods flooded into his mind.

One that made him unable to wipe the smile off his face.

“All of them are stronger than you. How can you keep them in line?” Rex asked, curious as to how the Godlings could even keep these Gardeners oppressed. “Don’t answer me with words. Show it to me. I want to know.”

Zev summoned the whip again, and almost instantly, the Gardeners shuddered at the sight.

More importantly, Rex also saw their auras drastically drop in the presence of the whip.

“We have this mass-produced artifact that was passed down through generations,” Zev’s gaze lingered on the whip like it was something sacred. An heirloom, maintained and inherited, again and again, even until the present day. “It suppresses anyone bound by the Curse of the Cavity. An Oustification—that kept them tied to the meadow’s cavity.”

Rex nodded.

His guess was more or less on the right track.

Huh… This is interesting.

Davina stepped forward and inspected the Gardeners one by one. She was sizing them up, taking in the fact that each one of them seemed to be from a different race. One is human. Another is humanoid. And another is an outright beast.

Then, without even saying anything, she flared her claws and stabbed one through its heart.

“Krrghk?!”

A Gardener’s eyes widened as it was taken aback by the sudden attack.

But Davina was ruthless with it.

She carved out the heart, killing it almost instantly without any shred of mercy.

“What are you doing?!” Zev’s scream tore through the air, eyes bulging at what he saw. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! The Curse of the Cavity… Do you know how long it took to develop it in them?! And you just… You just killed him like that?!”

He was flabbergasted.

Forcing him to lure the Godlings is one thing, but sacrificing his Gardeners is another.

It was harder for him to do the latter.

“Didn’t you say we have to finish this soon?” Davina turned towards Rex. “Tell him what you wanted already.”

Rex stared at Davina and smiled at himself.

He knew that she was someone who couldn’t be underestimated, considering that she spent most of her life training and fighting at the front line. But to think that she could read what was in his mind like this is still quite surprising.

And it still surprises him.

Davina is incredibly sharp.

Even though he has high standards for her, she still surpassed that standard. It was rare for him to feel see-through, and Davina is one of the few people who could make him feel like this.

“Lure more Godlings here, Zev,” Rex went to the side and sat down against a tree. “Lure more if you value your Gardeners.”

“Are you serious…?” Zev sucked in a cold breath and then ground his teeth in anger. “This is not what I signed up for! We have a deal. Our deal was for me to lure a few into my territory, and I already did. Now, you have to keep your end and leave my territory.”

“Yeah,” Rex reclined his head against the tree. “I said a few. And two are not going to be enough. I’ll let you go once you help me at least get ten.”

In order to complete the sudden quest, Rex needed ten.

And that’s exactly how many he wanted Zev to lure.

“Ten…?” Zev was at a loss for words. “Ten?! That’s too many! If ten of us went missing, it would involve the enforcers. And if they are involved, we—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Rex raised a hand, stopping him from blabbering further. “All the complexities are your concern. My only concern is whether you can deliver ten or not. If you can’t, then these poor Gardeners would be for the world.”

Zev clenched his jaw at the predicament.

He simply couldn’t lure ten even if he wanted to.

“You gave me your word…” He muttered.

“Yes, I did. And you also gave me your word that you’d comply,” Rex’s crimson eyes drilled into him, and there was meaning behind them. “But you didn’t really comply, did you?”

Rex wasn’t talking about right now.

He was talking about earlier.

As he and the sisters dispatched the two Godlings, Rex sensed Zev trying to slip away—likely to warn his people, or worse, the enforcers. He kept on running until he sensed that Caspian had been killed by Rex, even after activating a life-saving measure.

It spooked him so much that he returned and acted like he never tried to escape.

But Rex sensed what he tried to do.

“Lilliana,” Rex looked at her and gestured towards Zev. “Take the whip from him—please. We will be keeping it safe while he’s figuring out what he needs to do.”

Lilliana chuckled at his request.

She went over to Zev and reached out her hand, asking him for the whip politely.

Having no other choice, Zev handed it over despite his reluctance.

“May luck be on your side, Sir Zev,” She accepted the whip and gave him an encouraging smile. “Do make it quick. I’m not fond of being in the wilderness like this.”