Chapter 65: Guinevere and Leader Luo Hao
The woman with the dignified voice slightly moved her slender legs, leaving footprints on the beach with her fair, jade-like feet. She possessed features as exquisite and refined as jade and a posture as delicate as a mimosa. Her silken black hair was styled into three braids. Judging by her height and youthful appearance, she seemed to be around seventeen or eighteen years old.
Yet, who could have known that she had traversed several hundred years in this world with this beauty that seemed to grant eternal youth? For an ordinary person, that was a vast span of time enough for several generations to flourish and fade.
The girl's surname was Luo, her given name Cuilian, and her courtesy name Hao. She was the one who reigned at the pinnacle of martial arts, the Leader of the "Five Sacred Mountain Cult," the Martial Arts King of Jiangnan, China, and the mortal enemy of "Marquis" Voban.
Thirty percent of all martial artists and Daoist sorcerers who studied Chinese arts had sought refuge under her banner, swearing absolute obedience to this Leader Luo Hao.
Although she was a Campione who had existed for over two hundred years, her outward appearance remained that of a peerless beauty in her late teens. At this moment, she was dressed in a white hanfu, and her silken black hair was braided into three strands and tied up. Taking a slight step forward, she arrived before the blonde young girl, looking down at the witch with a stern gaze.
"I understand, Leader," the girl named Guinevere nodded, then called out softly toward the sea. "Come here, Ancilla."
Accompanying Guinevere's call, and behind the girl she called "Leader," the third woman appeared from the sea amidst the sound of the rising and falling tides. The waves carried her heavily injured body, depositing her onto the sand.
"This is the witch known in Los Angeles as the 'Ancestor' Ancilla. She was defeated by the Campione from the United States, John Pluto Smith."
John Pluto Smith was a Campione active in America. To this day, no one knew his true identity beneath the mask; one could only judge by the sound of his voice that he was likely male. The name "John Pluto Smith" was almost certainly a pseudonym. There were grounds for this belief. This gender-neutral, ever-victorious Campione—who ran through the darkness, manipulated sorcery, and transformed into an invincible giant, a magic marksman—would give perfunctory aliases like "John Smith" or "John Doe" when asked for a name early in his career. Therefore, the subsequent use of a name like John Pluto Smith made it difficult to believe it was his original name.
In short, after learning of his legends, citizens who caught a glimpse of his shadow granted him the title of "Pluto," and thus John Pluto Smith was born. All practitioners of evil arts feared this Campione, while the informed populace revered and worshipped him.
"John Pluto Smith..." Hearing the name, the "Leader" fell into a slight contemplation. She was unaware of this person's existence. It should be said that, aside from her mortal enemy "Marquis" Voban, she did not deliberately pay attention to the Campiones of other nations.
Casting aside these complex thoughts, Luo Hao ceased thinking about the matter. Then, the dignified girl known as the "Leader" looked toward Ancilla, whose small limbs were covered in dark-red scars and who was riddled with wounds. At this moment, this "Ancestor" could only manage weak, agonizing gasps.
She was the witch who controlled a society of evil sorcerers. By storing the essence of water and earth, she could transform into a "Heretic Snake" equal to a Campione. After changing from a monstrous cultist into the "Snake God" Leviathan, she was defeated by the "Great Magician," the first transformation of John Pluto Smith's Authority, [Great Metamorphosis].
The initial Authority possessed by John Pluto Smith was one usurped from the Aztec "Demon God" Tezcatlipoca: [Great Metamorphosis]. This Authority allowed John Pluto Smith to transform into various forms, but it required an "offering" to be used. While using an incarnation, he could switch back to human form or the incarnation at any time, but once an incarnation was finished, it could not be used again for seven days, though repeated transformations were possible within a short duration.
There were five transformation forms in total:
[The Great Magician] [The Jaguar] [The Magic Bird] [The Flame of Annihilation] [The Serpent Bearer]
It was by using the strongest transformation, [The Great Magician], that John Pluto Smith had defeated the "Ancestor" Ancilla. This form was a giant who manipulated lightning. Upon transformation, the skin became as black as the night, the face was painted with horizontal black and yellow stripes, and the right foot became smooth obsidian—an appearance identical to a primitive religious shaman (the image of Tezcatlipoca).
For this Authority, he had sacrificed a cruise ship over a hundred meters long during the battle with Ancilla to transform into a fifty-meter giant, defeating the deified Ancilla. This was the reason the Ancestor was currently so heavily injured.
"...I see. This is indeed the lineage of an Ancestor. Furthermore, the divine aura floating about her... the seal of the Dragon-Snake has also been broken." Leader Luo Hao's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes. She had to do so in order to fight your peer, John Pluto Smith," Guinevere said respectfully as she looked at Leader Luo Hao, who stood with a beautiful countenance and a graceful, curvaceous figure, looking down at the dying witch.
"Does such a name exist among the Campiones of my rank?"
"He is the Campione of North America, Leader."
Luo Hao merely nodded at Guinevere's explanation. Two hundred years had passed since she first usurped the power of a god. She had never investigated the peers born during this interval, nor did she have the interest to do so; if a name was reported, she would remember it, but that was the extent of it. In Luo Hao's eyes, only Marquis Voban of Eastern Europe possessed the strength worth remembering in this world. As enemies, they knew each other well and desired to kill one another at every moment. As for the others... there was no need to display her majesty to them; such trivial matters were of no concern to her.
"She looks as if she has been scorched by purgatory... That man named John was truly foolish not to kill her; that this girl can still live until now. Did you do this?"
Luo Hao inquired without turning her head, carefully examining Ancilla's wound-covered body. What had been burned was the body of the monstrous snake; now, what remained on the witch's body were detailed, unidentifiable scars.
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