The Ultimate Evolution

When Sheyan took out the device, the rest of the Dark Templars were still looking at him vigilantly. More precisely, they were looking at Evil Sword Apophis vigilantly.

The blood-red glow on it….

Was so bone-chilling that they felt like their blood was going to freeze!

It seemed able to cut through anything in the world!

Even though it was currently sitting in Sheyan’s hand without doing anything, it still appeared so arrogant and unyielding under the strong oppressive pressure of the Keystone. The mighty Dark Templars, all of whom had experienced hundreds of battles, could not help fearing it!

A Dark Templar bizarrely emerged from the empty air, took the ping pong ball-sized communicator from Sheyan’s hand, and displayed it on his spread palm. His palm that was encased in metal gauntlet suddenly glowed. Having been infused with psionic power, the tiny communicator floated up until it was about half a foot above the palm, then started spinning.

The blue flame that flew down from above flickered a few times and turned into a human figure made of flame. He walked over slowly.

“Be careful, Lord Rogue!” The Dark Templars nearby warned him one after another.

(TL: Rogue is his name.)

But the human-torch-guy turned a deaf ear to all the warnings. When he was 10 meters away from Sheyan, Sheyan suddenly felt a very gentle force pushing him back. The force felt like a repulsive force between two magnets of the same pole.

Sheyan was not alarmed at all, but was secretly glad instead. This action of his was enough to prove that even the leader of this Protoss tribe who was in possession of the Keystone was wary of his existence! Otherwise, why would he deliberately force him back?

Rogue stared at the round communicator in front of him. The device began to disintegrate, as if several invisible hands in the air were rapidly dismantling it.

Suddenly, Rogue said in that low but melodious voice of his, “This method of joining the parts together looks very much like our own unique technique. That bunch of conceited idiots could never make such a clever and simple thing.”

In but a few seconds, all the parts in the communicator were separated, and were now floating in the air.

Sheyan marveled in astonishment at the spectacle. The tiny little device could actually break down into so many bits and pieces. It was the same feeling as watching a magician pull a pigeon out of an egg, then a chicken, then a duck, then a goose, and finally, a whole pig….

Rogue turned to Sheyan.

“Can you describe how the person who gave you this thing looks like?”

Sheyan had no reason to hide anything, so he described the appearance of Ol’ Kido in detail. He was surprised to find that, while he was describing the old man, a 3D image of the person he was describing had appeared next to him. When Sheyan was done, the 3D image was completed too.

“Is this him?” asked Rogue calmly.

“That’s him,” Sheyan nodded.

Rogue remained quiet for a moment. The communicator was quickly reassembling again, and was then activated. Under normal circumstances, Sheyan could only activate the device after completing a mission, but Rogue surprisingly could do it at will.

Following a mysterious resonance, the 3D image of Ol’ Kido sitting down next to a table appeared before them. In his hand was half a broken liquor bottle. He was snoring loudly, and there was a pool of vomit beside him.

Rogue suddenly extended his left hand. The hand was originally made of fire, but it immediately solidified into a strange hand that had a metallic texture! The joints of the fingers were thick, and the nails were sharp and slender.

His left hand rested on Ol’ Kido’s 3D hologram, and then… Sheyan felt a distortion in the surrounding space. The distortion was hard to describe. It was as if his soul and his physical body were stretched several kilometers long, then restored to their original form in an instant. There was no pain, but the feeling was clearly engraved in his mind.

When Sheyan came back to his senses, he found that Ol’ Kido and his holographic projection had actually switched places! In order words, the holographic projection had been moved to the other side, while Ol’ Kido himself was now in this hall!

In truth, this ability was not that advanced a technology for the Protoss. It was something had long been perfected. The powerful Arbiter aircraft could even transmit an astonishing number of Protoss troops to somewhere light years away!

However, to perform a spatial displacement with personal power was a level so terrifying that it was beyond imagination!

Ol’ Kido was originally sleeping while leaning on a pillar. Logically speaking, he should have fallen very badly after he was suddenly teleported here, but the truth was, he was sleeping just as soundly as before. There seemed to be an invisible force in the air holding him up.

Nobody spoke. All of them stared at Ol’ Kido in silence. The latter seemed to sense all the eyes on him; he woke up stretching his body, and then froze. His gaze swept past the faces of all the people there, and for some reason, his started trembling violently. A moment later, tears filled his eyes….

Sheyan was watching all this with utmost interest, but Shadow quietly came over to him and told him coldly, “Please follow me, Brigadier General.”

Sheyan shrugged, but two more Dark Templars then surrounded him, so he had no choice but to do as he was told. But this time, instead of being brought back to the quiet room he was previously in, he was led to a very spacious place.

From here he could see a window. Surging red magma beat crazily on the window from the outside like a raging tide, then slowly slid down. Even someone like Sheyan, who had seen his fair share of awe-inspiring sights, could not help feeling dumbstruck. He instinctively took a step back to dodge.

Shadow’s eyes flickered, obviously feeling a little smug about Sheyan’s reaction, but he quickly calmed himself. Sheyan sighed, sat down on a nearby seat, and asked nonchalantly, “I’m hungry. Can the almighty and all-powerful Protoss race treat me to a meal?”

Shadow’s expression turned cold. “It’s unfortunate, but we don’t have any food suitable for the inferior digestive system of the humans.”

Sheyan feigned a stunned look. “But I thought the Protoss are very hospitable, at least that was the case when I was in Lord Uraki’s base. They gave me a really good reception….”

The Protoss were proud, and Sheyan’s words hit them right on their weakness. The other Dark Templars immediately had looks of anger on their faces. Shadow took a deep breath, then said, “Fine! What do you want?”

“Do you have…a menu?” asked Sheyan, “Okay, fine, I’ll just have a sandwich and a glass of water.”

***

After Sheyan had hastily filled his stomach, another Dark Templar came in from the door and enquired, “I heard that your purpose in coming here is to find another human, Brigadier General?”

Sheyan nodded. “You heard right. My friend had to join the trial of the Dark Templar under a very special circumstance.”

“I’m sorry, but there are seven places in the universe where the Dark Templar trial can take place. You might be in the wrong place,” said the apparently much older Dark Templar.

“But I heard that the Dark Templars produced here are the most powerful,” Sheyan immediately replied.

Such a tactful compliment immediately eased the atmosphere. The old Dark Templar said, “According to the latest information we have, yes, eight days ago, there was indeed a human who came to us with a token we could not refuse to undergo the Dark Templar trial, but we were already making a huge exception by letting him undergo the trial, so we could not provide any other protective measures…”

Sheyan listened to all this quietly, then asked, “You mean, he’s dead?”

“Our trial is a little different from the trials in other places, in that the participant can choose to teleport outside at any given time as long as they’re in non-combat state. But the longer they stay inside, the stronger they will become. That’s why the Dark Templars in other places are merely trash produced by standardised procedures, while the Dark Templars we produce are generally much more powerful,” the old Dark Templar answered skillfully.

Having heard his explanation, Sheyan finally understood. The Dark Templars here were no doubt much stronger in terms of individual combat prowess, but the mortality rate of such a trial would certainly be very high. However, from a practicality point of view, only the places that could mass produce Dark Templars could meet the cruel consumption of warfare.

‘Seems like there’s a good reason why these guys were driven to this pathetic place for so long despite having a powerful godly artifact like the Keystone,’ mocked Sheyan in his mind, but he was still more concerned about the whereabouts of Ronnie, so he asked, “So how long did your strongest Dark Templar warrior stay in the trial?”

“Fifteen days,” the old Dark Templar coughed in a hoarse voice and replied with a hint of arrogance.

The Dark Templar next to him immediately interrupted, “There’s no way a mere human can compare to you, Sir Blackedge.”

Sheyan’s eyes narrowed as he smiled. “Yes, I think so too, but although fifteen days may be a bit difficult, I believe my friend has no problem staying in there for ten days or so.”

“A human staying inside for ten days!? How’s that possible?” Another Dark Templar exclaimed in disbelief. “Sir Blackedge is someone who’s unanimously recognised as the one who will inherit milord’s title. After him, no Dark Templar has been able to last for more than 10 days in the trial ground!”

Sheyan kept smiling and said, “I have confidence in my friend, just as I have confidence in myself.”