Book 7, Heaven and Earth Turned Upside Down – Chapter 9, Interspatial Ring
“Get it back, quick!” Clayde was so frantic that his face and neck were both beet red with rage. He roared, “The ring, get it back, get it back! A million gold coins to whoever gets it back!”
When the members of the Wildthunder Regiment heard the words ‘a million gold coins’, a hint of greed appeared in their eyes. All of the mighty knights began launching group attacks against Linley, and the leader of the Wildthunder Regiment, Kaiser, was the first to charge at him.
“Ring, eh? Looks like it really is valuable.” Seeing how crazed Clayde had just become, Linley couldn’t help but laugh coldly. With a powerful leap, he shot backwards at high speed, retreating. While retreating, Linley quickly pulled the ring off the severed hand, and then put it on his own finger.
“Linley, this is an interspatial ring!” Doehring Cowart said excitedly. Given his powerful soul, Doehring Cowart could instantly sense what was so special about this ring. An interspatial ring was a priceless treasure! Linley was shocked as well.
He had thought that this ring was something akin to an ancestral heirloom of the royal clan of Fenlai. He didn’t expect it to be one of the fabled interspatial rings of legend. Interspatial rings were extremely rare. Even just two of the five Cardinals of the Radiant Church were in possession of interspatial rings.
No one was stupid enough to sell an interspatial ring.
And once these interspatial rings were imprinted and bound by the blood of its master, there was no way anyone else could use them. This was the best place to store treasures. Of course, there was one way to open an interspatial ring; kill the owner. Once the owner died, the interspatial ring would revert to being an un-bound item. At that point, one could imprint and bind it to one’s self and gain access to the treasures within.
“Whoosh.”
Greatsword in hand, Kaiser stared fixedly at Linley as he suddenly pierced through the air. Carrying an explosive force that seemed capable of shattering mountains, the greatsword shattered the air and howled terrifyingly as it swung towards Linley. Linley could clearly, visibly see the red light flowing on the surface of the sword.
This power couldn’t be blocked head on!
“Swish!” With another leap, Linley sent himself dodging in another direction again.
“Bam!” The wall Linley had been standing on was struck by the terrifying force of that sword, and an entire section of wall exploded outwards with the sword at the epicenter. The walls within a hundred meters of that blow all crumbled and collapsed.
“So powerful!” Linley was secretly amazed.
Far away, under the protection of his remaining guards, Clayde couldn’t be bothered about the pain from his severed hand. He shouted loudly, “Quick, get the ring back for me, quick!” Clayde was about to go mad. Although he knew that Linley wouldn’t be able to open the interspatial ring despite having it, if the ring remained in Linley’s hands, then he, Clayde, wouldn’t be able to access the items within it despite being its master.
2.2 billion gold coins! What an amazing, enormous sum of money that was.
Thousands of years of accumulated royal wealth. For these treasures and wealth to be taken away was more painful to him than being killed.
“Bam!”
A section of wall collapsed. An enormous magical beast was walking in the middle of the palace grounds, passing through walls as though it were walking on flat ground. One wall after another collapsed as though they were made from mud. This enormous magical beast had already noticed Clayde and Linley, and it roared in excitement. “Grooooooooowl!”
“Violet Tattooed Bear!” Seeing that familiar figure, Linley wasn’t too frightened. Perhaps it was because he could still remember the terrifying power of the Saint-level Violet Tattooed Bear in the Foggy Valley. In terms of size, this Violet Tattooed Bear was about the same size as the Saint-level Violet Tattooed Bear in the Foggy Valley, but Linley felt this bear’s aura was not as formidable.
This Violet-Tattooed Bear was the one which had killed Duke Bonalt and his family. By now, he had begun to attack the palace.
Having seen Linley and Clayde’s group, it was now gleefully charging through the palace towards them, roaring happily.
“Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”
The Violet-Tattooed Bear was a machine bred for war, with a body the size of a three-floor building and massive, sturdy bear paws. Even the sturdiest of walls would be shattered by a single blow of those paws. And right now, the bear’s target was Linley and Clayde’s group.
“Clayde, you want the ring? If you have the ability, come and get it.” Linley shouted loudly while moving around at high speed.
“Bebe. You deal with those other warriors. This Kaiser, I’ll handle.” Linley said mentally.
“Fine. Boss, just watch me!” Bebe excitedly scurried towards that group of warriors.
Those combination attacks practiced by the warriors were all meant to be used against human-shaped opponents by attacking their vitals. They were of no use at all against a magical beast like Bebe which was physically small, extremely fast, and astonishingly durable.
Bebe stretched out his vicious claws and gave a nasty swipe. “Snick!” He slashed directly through half the neck of a warrior of the eighth rank, causing blood to spurt out wildly. That warriors’ head directly swung down, only remaining connected to his body by a thin layer of skin.
“Hmph.” Kaiser’s eyes turned red, and with an angry shout, he chopped at Linley with his greatsword.
With a leap, Linley dodged, while at the same time his legs spun like a tornado. Carrying the power of a pair of sharp knives, Linley’s legs chopped towards Kaiser’s neck.
Kaiser leaned his head backwards while launching a counterattack, and Linley’s kicks just barely brushed against Kaiser’s face. Just a little closer, and he would’ve been able to kill Kaiser. While Kaiser was leaning his head back, he too launched a powerful kick at Linley, but Linley, who was in mid-air, didn’t dodge at all.
“Swish!”
Linley’s long, iron-whip-like tail suddenly pierced through the air, thrashing viciously towards Kaiser.
One attack after another!
If Kaiser was to continue his attack against Linley, then clearly this attack of Linley’s would hit him as well. “Hrmph.” Kaiser kicked the ground hard, sending himself flying backwards as he retreated at high speeds while at the same time, slamming the greatsword in his hands against Linley’s tail. Kaiser’s speed was so fast that he had retreated roughly a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
“Whoosh!”
Kaiser once more charged forward at high speed. The greatsword in his hands was actually vibrating now, transforming into six illusionary swords, causing Linley not to know how to block.
“Ah!” Bebe killed another warrior, this one of the seventh rank, by crushing the warrior’s skull with his fangs. This was Bebe’s seventh kill.
These deaths only further enraged Kaiser, who had trained and taught these Wildthunder Regiment soldiers. But Linley was simply too hard to deal with. Not only could Linley attack with his hands and his feet, the attack power of his tail was also extremely terrifying. And Linley’s durability was astonishingly high as well.
Fortunately...
In terms of both combat experience and tactical acumen, Linley couldn’t compare to a true warrior of the ninth rank who had trained for over a hundred years.
“Quick, quick, get the ring back!” Clayde was at the verge of losing his sanity.
Right now, the situation was totally not in his favor. If this continued, they wouldn’t have any chance of recovering the ring at all. Within that interspatial ring was thousands of years of accumulated wealth by the royal clan. Even if he died, he couldn’t allow that ring to be lost.
“Roaaaaar!”
The Violet Tattooed Bear had finally arrived, and all the warriors nearby scattered in its wake. No one dared to fight with it head on. To engage in battle against a powerful magical beast of the ninth rank required one to be a warrior of the ninth rank at the very least. And given that magical beasts were naturally more powerful than humans, most likely even a warrior of the ninth rank would only be able to guarantee that he wouldn’t die.
That Violet Tattooed Bear actually came to a halt and glanced at the group of people present. The intelligence of a high-rank magical beast wasn’t inferior to that of humans at all, and a magical beast of the ninth rank might actually be even more intelligent than some humans. This Violet Tattooed Bear could easily tell that these people in front of him were divided into two groups. On one side, there was a man and a magical beast. The other were the knights who were led by the man with only one hand.
And that man with one hand seemed to be quite concerned about a ring.
The Violet Tattooed Bear could understand the human tongue. Although he couldn’t speak in it, he could understand it. A hint of excitement appeared in the eyes of the Violet Tattooed Bear.
“Wooo, wooo!”
The Violet Tattooed Bear clapped its massive paws together excitedly, then charged directly towards Linley and Kaiser. Upon encountering any warriors in its path, it simply waved its massive paws, mercilessly batting them aside.
“Ah!” A warrior of the eighth rank tried frantically to dodge, while at the same time a jade-green light appeared from his body.
But although the Violet Tattooed Bear didn’t move that quickly, its paws were able to attack at a terrifying speed. “WHAP!” The massive paw slammed against the warrior of the eighth rank. A sickening crunching sound could be heard as the man’s head was instantly shattered. The warrior’s battle-qi aura was shattered as well, and his body was reduced to nothing more than ground meat.
Even the ground beneath the man had a giant hole gouged into it, with deep cracks appearing in the area around the hole.
“Why is a magical beast of the ninth rank so much more powerful than humans of the same rank?” Seeing this from afar, Linley’s heart couldn’t help but feel surprise. Kaiser, still engaged in battle against Linley, grew frantic as well. He didn’t have any confidence at all in his ability to deal with a Violet Tattooed Bear.
Violet Tattooed Bears possessed extremely thick, durable skin and tremendous power. Even giant dragons would probably be reduced to a pulp by its massive paws. Its only flaw was that in terms of movement speed, it was rather slow. Its attack speed, however, was still astonishingly high. The Violet Tattooed Bears could be considered one of the extremely powerful kinds of magical beasts of the ninth rank.
“Bam!” “Bam!” “Bam!”
Linley and Kaiser exchanged blows at high speed, and Linley’s arms, legs, and tail clashed nonstop with the greatsword. The speed of their blows was at an astonishingly high level. Linley, relying on his astonishing defense, dared to fight with seemingly suicidal attacks, but Kaiser’s techniques were effective, and he possessed both experience and powerful battle-qi.
The battle between them had no clear victor.
“Roaaaaar!” The Violet Tattooed Bear had reached Linley and Kaiser, and it swiped down with its massive paws towards the two men.
“Swish!” Linley and Kaiser both retreated backwards at high speed.
“Bam!” The sound of the bear’s paw slamming into the ground produced a deep vibration, causing the entire ground to shake, and the ground within ten meters of the blow became covered with cracks. Neither Linley nor Kaiser chose to attempt to forcibly block that blow!
A Violet Tattooed Bear’s paw was perhaps the most powerful, durable part of its body.
If they attempted to block it head on, the two of them would’ve both become nothing more than meat paste.
“Roaaaar!” With a loud howl, the Violet Tattooed Bear actually turned and charged at Linley.
“Why the hell are you chasing ME?” Relying on his high speed, Linley began to flee. After having Dragonformed, Linley possessed the speed of a warrior of the ninth rank, and a very fast one at that. At the same time, the Violet Tattooed Bear’s weakness was its movement speed. It wasn’t too hard for Linley shake it off.
The Violet Tattooed Bear continued to charge forward, and anyone who got in its way was slapped to death.
It only pursued Linley!
Linley didn’t know that the Violet Tattooed Bear had taken a fancy to that ring. Given its intelligence, and its understanding of human languages, the Violet Tattooed Bear knew that the ring was something which both parties valued.
It was actually quite common for magical beasts of the ninth rank to understand the human tongues. They understood it, they just couldn’t speak it, simply because their bodies weren’t designed to speak it. But upon reaching the Saint-level, they could break free of this restriction and speak in human tongues.
“Ring, ring!” Clayde was about to cry.
“Your Majesty.” Kaiser was standing guard in front of Clayde. “Your Majesty, it’s best we leave now. If we don’t leave, things will become extremely dangerous.”
Of the 33 members of the Wildthunder Regiment, fourteen had just been killed by Bebe. The remaining members were beginning to panic as well. The magical beast in front of them was physically small, possessed astonishing durability, and terrifying attack power. It was highly suited for dealing with humans.
“Roaaaar!”
“Roaaaar!”
Suddenly, a mighty series of draconic roars could be heard from the skies, as hundreds of gigantic dragons with jade-green scales, blazing red scales, silvery scales, and even a very tyrannical-looking Black Dragon began to fly in this direction.
Dragons possessed a very high level of intelligence. They knew that the palace held many treasures, and dragons loved collecting treasures.
“Roaaaaaar!” The leader of this flight, the massive Black Dragon, focused on Clayde and Linley. With a mighty roar, it led the large pack of dragons to charge downwards towards the palace. Those Fire Dragons and Emerald Dragons were only dragons of the eighth rank, but Silver Dragons and Black Dragons were generally dragons of the ninth rank.
Seeing this, Clayde, Kaiser, and the others were all stunned.
A single magical beast of the ninth rank was already hard enough to deal with. And now a horde of beasts was coming?
“Boss, this isn’t good. Let’s run.” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s head as well, but right now, Linley was still being pursued by that Violet Tattooed Bear who had taken a fancy to that interspatial ring.