IDOLIZING CHAOS

Hidden Scheme

Old Ghost, Tell me everything about this Time Monster" Aeries looked flatly around Plaque with calm eyes. 

  "Old Ghost, Old man, Old Plaque. Have you ever called this man only by his great man? Why must you ever add Old as a prefix." Knowing he was caught red-handed, Old Plaque blinked rapidly in Guilty conscience and acted strangely Meek. Too meek it gave Aeries goosebumps. Aeries wondered how this scene had changed from him being a scared bunny to him valiantly questioning the 'Boss' of this Place. 

  "Whatever, just quickly tell me in perfect detail. Add any and every important information on that." 

 "Listen carefully, I'll be brief okay. There are Time monsters and Space monsters. These monsters are everything a Demon Beast can be, but not quite. 

  First, their Size can stretch out to several thousand meters or be smaller than 6 inches. But just like Demon Beast, they have different Species and Families. Some love the Void while others are mainly found traveling aimlessly through Space-Time, they mainly suck off The remaining World Energy from desolate planets, as with Space monsters, or glide freely in this River as with Time monsters.

 Oh, and they feed on Energy too, and are fond of meat."

  Aeries nodded grimly and proceeded to make strides outside. "Have you met any of them as you transverse through the Starry sky?"

  "Of course, with this Artifact here, this old man was unstoppable and invincible. None could enter even a 500m radius near here. Only, I don't know exactly what happened but I seem not to be able to converse with it again. Now there's only just a thin Barrier separating us from it."

  So that's how it was, because I had refined this artifact it cut off all connections with him. He he he. 

  "Don't think too much Old Plaque, But if it wasn't somebody who did some shady kinds of stuff at my back then none of this would have happened."

   Aeries finally stood outside the entrance and the view from front shocked him to no end. 

  HUGE! That was the only word that best describes this monster. It had a distinctive figure like the Leviathan of old but larger, with its size ranging from a thousand meters or more. It freely swam through the river and bashed its head on a thin barrier that weakly held still. 

   'Could this Barrier become so weak because of the new owner, me? ' with this in mind he asked Plaque. 

"No, it wasn't always this weak. In fact, before now its Width stretched through some 20meters and a godly halo was radiated from it." those words affirmed Aeries' thoughts.

  BOOM!! BOOM!!! 

  The sounds continued furiously but Aeries looked unbothered. He closed his eyes and communicated with the System. But the result made him frown,

'Seems thing won't be that simple, I had wanted to ghost immediately with the barrier still on, But a rift can't be formed in an enclosed space. I have to open the barrier and also find a way to move out of this temple first.'

  Aeries groaned angrily and wondered why his life couldn't go smoothly. His life couldn't be more miserable. He was still a Virgin with very low cultivation and lots of troubles. Right now the Capital was still a dreadful place with internal and external fighting. He had to save his mother and every other citizen in the Krieger City and also completely defeat the Three Chosen.

  He needs to grow stronger, and quickly. But damn, things had just been weighing down on him causing him not to have the chance to even meditate quietly.  

 "Good, Good! Old Ghost, Does this Artifact have any weapons?" His eyes never left the Time monster as he inquired.

    "Of course it does, more than one, Don't tell me you want to..." 

"En, I got fortunate and succeeded in Refining The artifact." After Aeries said this, he noticed Old Plaque keeping quiet and got confused.

 "Brat! so it was YOU! You wasted all my hard work these 10,000 years! I had already partially refined it and with the strength of my soul, I could move free and unfettered throughout this place. but you... How could you be successful on your first try? And your soul is still as powerful as before. how?"

  "Although I don't know, I might have some idea about it. It seems like there were some harsh requirements that you, unfortunately, did not possess, so instead of taking the Test, you tried to forcefully refine the Artifact only with the strength of your Soul" Although Aeries did not openly say, His mouth was culled up in a condensing smile. 

  "All my hard work, Sigh... Since you have already refined the Artifact, the next step should be natural as breathing, see if you can link your sea of consciousness with it,"

  Aeries nodded and closed his eyes, Almost immediately, his inner vision enclosed all of the Artifact and proceeded to merge with it, He shook with excitement at the size of it, It turns out there were 6 levels on it, and the level he had been all this while had only been the first one. But although he could sense it, There seems to be a barrier that stopped him from freely entering the other halls. He innately knew that it was because he was too weak to completely unlock all the stages to it. 

  ' Kind of like the system right? '

   He fully concentrated in his mind, and after few seconds, a huge cannon the size of a door to a Bank Vault shot out from his side while making large Clanking sounds.

   The Cannon had the look of Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) of Aeries previous world but was larger, way large with The Barrel having a diameter of up to several tens of meters. It was attached to a Sea Hawk mount which in turn, was embedded on the Artifact itself.

   Aeries gulped Audibly when he saw this, this looks so... 

    In his head, several sets of instructions appeared that caused him to frown his face periodically, enter a contemplative look, or cull his lips in a satisfied smile.

   Filtering all the gibberish, This Cannon had no Caliber or gun, It only could be fired by amassing the energy of either the owner or materials that retain energy in them. Aeries read about this and thought ruefully, how come I haven't seen or even heard about materials like that before. 

  To his surprise though, according to the information he got from Artifact and Old Plague. There was still a reserve of these materials which were either in the form of Power Stones or several potent Ores or even smoothed artifacts.

     "Let's quickly get started then -"

 "Ehm, Brat. I suggest you hold your horses, for now, okay, there are other ways to drive that beast out of here. Although it stretches for several hundreds of meters, It is a pup, As you can notice from the auxiliary growth of its external teeth and the horns on its head. They look small and undeveloped, showing that this beast hasn't lived past the Thousands. It should only be at most Hundreds of years old."

   Aeries gaped at that, although it sounds small when compared to others, Only an Aged freak like Plaque would not put such a thing in his eyes. With such Age and might it showed, The energy stored in its flesh and bones was enough to Boost him through to even the Flying Lord Realm. Thinking till then, Aeries openly drooled and reinforced his notion about gaining such supreme treasure. 

  Wasn't he just bemoaning his useless and weak state recently, this was a heaven-sent opportunity that could make him like a Carp leaping through the Dragon's Gate. [1]

   Old Plaque continues with a smile, after seeing Aeries' stupefied face, he directly thought Aeries was surprised by his means. He opened his mouth and continued " Yes, True. So Instead of freely wasting nature resources like this, I suggest we use another means."

 [1: Popular Chinese Idiom, Means having good fortune or suddenly coming onto good luck that could wholly change one's life.]

   Aeries nodded his head while hiddenly smirking at Plaque, if he hadn't tricked him more than once, Aeries would have believed him and foolishly dove right into his webs. "So, what is the other way you suggested?"

   "It's simple, first you let me take over the control of the Artifact, Temporary of course," He said with a forced smile when he saw Aeries frowning his face, he added quickly, "Look, you already have complete control over this heaven prevailing treasure, You letting me take control would not deter you in any way."

   "Old Ghost, won't you tell me why I should do that already,"

"Right, Right. Seeing as your soul is so feeble, You should understand that because of you the barrier isn't as strong as it should be, and worse, as you continue strengthening it, your soul weakens also, sometimes maybe you would just fade away. So why not Allow me instead to use the power of my soul and reinforce the barrier. After this beast idle away it would give up and--"

 "No need to say anymore Old Ghost." Aeries directly cut him off. "Why, Because we are killing this thing. With such treasure trove right in front of me, How should I willingly give it up."

    Finished.

 Aeries left the angry Plaque and walked close to the cannon. He looked at the Energy Stored and frowned. 'This has been used up till the energy reserved reduced from its initial amount that could be enough for the Countless number of firings to only 5. Although there were still some of those Power Stones he could use stashed away in the treasure room, Aeries doubted there would be time to heft all of that here to power it up.

  'Curse you Plaque, Sigh. This would need supplementary energy to fuel it to a start. Should just ask Plaque. Hmmm, that old bastard!' He suddenly found himself drawn towards the mount and couldn't help being unsettled. He battled with this Suctioning force but to no avail. 

  Things went for the worse when this particular force dragged his Soul Energy towards it too, making him pale and worn off.

    Old ghost laughed off freely when seeing his plans working perfectly. " Who told you to have your eyes at the top of your head immediately you step on gold? Because of the restrictions on you,  could it be that I can't kill you indirectly? Fool. if heavens would go against me for killing you, then I'll just go with the term, Killing with a borrowed knife."

  "Old Ghost, you dare!"

"Why wouldn't I dare. Brat, it's your fault for successfully refining this Artifact. as the saying goes, A man's treasure is a downfall, After killing you, this artifact would no longer have your will and soul brand, making it easier for me to possess it, now do you understand? Right from the start, you were just a tool this father used to get what he wanted. I had struggled aimlessly to refine it and suddenly some unknown brat Molest my wife in front of me, do you think I should be smiling?"