Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 45, Vicious Acts
This sculpture was one which Linley had just finished not too long ago. Given Linley’s current skill, his stonesculpting was at an extremely high level as well. This silver-haired young lady carefully examined the sculpture from every angle.
“Wonderful. Just wonderful.”
After inspecting the sculpture with great care for a while, she turned her head to look at Linley. “Big brother Ley, I sense that this sculpture of yours is better than those of my master’s, but I don’t know exactly how to describe it.”
Despite such an adorable girl looking at him like this, Linley only felt irritated.
“Miss Danlan, I need to train.” Linley said tactfully.
The silver-haired girl nodded. “Okay, I’ll leave right away.” As soon as she said these words, Linley let out a sigh of relief. But then the silver-haired girl continued, “However, big brother Ley, after you finish training, you need to teach me how to stone sculpt.”
Linley hardened his face. “Stone sculpting is one of the top tier artistic forms. How can I so easily transmit its secrets to others?”
Indeed, most master-level sculptors would not easily accept disciples.
“Oh.” The silver-haired girl lowered her head in disappointment, beginning to walk to the nearby wall. And then, with an easy leap, she jumped to the other side.
“She’s finally gone.” Linley let out a long sigh.
But then, the silver-haired girl’s head popped out from over the wall. “Big brother Ley, have a good training session. After you are done, I’ll come and find you.” After speaking, she disappeared again.
Lyndin returned to her own bedroom. Sitting down on a chair, her face returned to its usual coldness, and her eyes were as icy and merciless as ever. If Linley saw her, he wouldn’t be able to believe that someone was able to act so well.
“This Linley is suspicious of everyone, and won’t let anyone easily get close to him. This is rather troublesome.”
As a Descended Angel, Lyndin actually truly did not wish for her and the other five Angels to die alongside Linley.
However, as an Angel, she could not disobey orders.
One step at a time.
If she could easily kill Linley somehow, wouldn’t that be better than sacrificing her life?
“Given the amount of care Linley has shown towards Jenne and Keane, it makes no sense that he would be so suspicious towards me.” Lyndin had come up with this plan after learning about how Linley had treated Jenne and Keane.
As long as Lyndin could get into close physical range with Linley, given her power as a combatant of the ninth rank, she could suddenly ambush him from close range in his human form. She had a 90%+ chance to kill him in that sort of situation.
“Perhaps it was because he sensed my power.” Lyndin shook her head. “This Linley has no sense of curiosity. I mentioned my ‘master’ several times, but he still didn’t ask me who my master is.”
Lyndin actually had prepared an entire chain of lines to fool Linley.
Although Lyndin appeared very young, in reality, her actual age was most likely far greater than that of Doehring Cowart. Only, the ten thousand years she had spent in the divine realm of the Radiant Sovereign hadn’t been as impactful to her as the decades she had spent here.
.....
“From her personality and her attitude, that silver-haired girl seems like an unreasonable little princess.” Linley frowned. “But her power...”
In truth, Linley was continuously wary of the Radiant Church’s forces.
As far as Linley was concerned, the Radiant Church’s forces should have already located him here by now. And now, all of a sudden, a young female warrior of the seventh rank appeared? Even if she appeared to be lively and cute, Linley wouldn’t easily trust her.
Before he trusted someone, he would take their strength into consideration.
If she had been a weak little girl who didn’t have the strength to kill a chicken, Linley’s attitude probably would have been much better. After all, even if you gave such a girl a weapon, she wouldn’t be able to hurt him at all. But this young lady was different.
If she were to suddenly attack him from a near distance, it would be very possible for her to heavily injure or kill him.
“Could it be that the assassin the Radiant Church has sent after me this time is this young lady?” But thinking back to the innocent, pure look in the silver-haired girl’s eyes, Linley found it rather hard to believe.
That night.
The silver-haired girl came again, but this time, she came pushing a hotel food cart from the front gate.
“Big brother Ley, I took the place of the servant in delivering dinner for you.” Lyndin’s clear voice rang out. Her face was covered with smiles, but Linley, looking at her, only felt a headache coming.
“You again?”
“What, is there a problem?” Lyndin pouted, then tittered, “Big brother Ley, I brought you dinner, so you teach me stone sculpting, okay?”
“No.” Linley refused.
“Stingy.” Lyndin wrinkled her nose. “When I cook for my teacher, my teacher will do anything I ask him to. You are a stingy fellow.”
“Your teacher is your teacher, I am not.” Linley simply wouldn’t agree.
This stranger was at least of the seventh rank, and perhaps even higher. Linley would not permit this female warrior to draw close to him, while teaching someone how to stone sculpt would definitely require them to be in close physical contact.
After all, this period of time was the period when he was expecting the Radiant Church to act against him.
“Remember. I don’t want you delivering my dinner.” Linley said coldly.
Lyndin’s face changed, and she glared angrily at Linley. “You bastard. You don’t know when someone is being good to you. I’ll definitely go tell my master. He’ll come over here and kill you.”
“Kill me?” Linley looked at the angry expression the girl’s face.
“Of course. My master is very powerful.” The silver-haired girl said arrogantly.
“Who is this oh-so-powerful master of yours?” Linley asked.
The silver-haired girl said arrogantly, “I’ll tell you. The name of my master is Haydson [Hei’de’sen].”
“The Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson?” Linley was startled.
In the entire O’Brien Empire, if the War God was considered the number one expert, then without question, the second highest expert would be the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson. This Monolithic Sword Saint had been at the peak-stage of the Saint-level for many years now, and he had never lost a single duel against any Saint-level experts.
He was flawless in terms of both offense and defense.
In addition, he was a very cold and remote person. Virtually nothing was capable of impeding his developments. A flawless, perfect Saint-level expert who towered above all others, his very perfect was the reason why others dubbed him the ‘Monolithic Sword Saint’.
“So now you know that you should be afraid?” The silver-haired girl laughed arrogantly. “But don’t worry. So long as you teach me how to stone sculpt, I won’t tell my teacher.”
“No wonder.” Linley looked at the silver-haired girl. “What rank are you currently at?”
“The eighth rank already.” The silver-haired girl said proudly. “What do you think? The entire Empire doesn’t have many experts of the eighth rank who are younger than me.”
Linley glanced at the silver-haired girl. “Miss Danlan, you can go back and tell your teacher that I am unwilling to teach you stone sculpting. I want to see if he will come over and kill me.”
The silver-haired girl started, and then her attitude softened. Begging, she said, “Big brother Ley, I’m begging you, just teach me, okay?” As she spoke, she walked closer to Linley.
Linley directly took three steps back, retreating into his main hall.
“Miss Danlan, I need to rest now. You should go back.” Linley shut the door to his manor.
“Hrmph.”
The silver-haired girl let out a snort, then left.
The next two days, the silver-haired girl would try all sorts of things; she would buy beautiful clothes to bring to Linley as a gift, or pretend to be very pitiable and just watch Linley. It was as though she absolutely refused to accept the fact that Linley wouldn’t teach her how to stone sculpt.
The fourth day.
This morning, Lyndin came to Linley’s courtyard once more, as she had every day past.
“Big brother Ley, I’m leaving now.” Lyndin said in a somewhat lost voice.
Linley glanced at the silver-haired girl with some surprise. These past three days, Linley had been tormented by this girl to the point of getting a headache whenever he saw her. What’s more, Linley was still uncertain as to who this girl really was.
Someone belonging to the Radiant Church?
Or the disciple of the Monolithic Sword Saint?
But the longer he had interacted with Lyndin, the more Linley came to feel that this silver-haired girl really was the playful, active type. He didn’t really think she belonged to the Radiant Church.
“If she is an assassin of the Radiant Church, then I am truly in awe of her acting abilities.” Linley secretly said to himself.
Lyndin glanced at Linley helplessly. “Big brother Ley, I’ve always worshipped my master, and my master also likes sculpture. I really wanted to carve a good sculpture for him, but you aren’t willing to teach me.”
“It is useless if you do not have enough time and not enough talent.” Linley shook his head.
Lyndin’s eyes lit up. She quickly said, “I have both time and talent.”
“Are you an earth-style magus?” Linley suddenly asked.
“No.” Lyndin shook her head, then asked questioningly, “What does this have to do with being an earth-style magus?”
Linley shook his head. “If you are not an earth-style magus, that means you do not have the talent necessary to learn stone sculpting from me.” Linley was telling the truth. The Straight Chisel School of sculpting required the sculptor to be an earth-style magus.
“You are just making that up.” Lyndin took a step forward, pointing at Linley with a finger. “I’ve never heard anyone say that stone sculpting required one to be an earth-style magus.”
“There’s many things you don’t know.” Linley laughed calmly.
Right now, Lyndin was roughly two meters away from Linley. Lyndin was calculating to herself, “Two meters distance. In his normal human form, I am more powerful than Linley. I should have the chance to kill him.”
Originally, Lyndin had wanted for the two of them to be in even closer proximity before making her move.
But Linley didn’t give her the chance.
“Big brother Ley, I know that you are lying. Big brother Ley, I just want to ask you one last time. Are you willing to teach me stone sculpting?” Lyndin looked at Linley with hopeful eyes.
Linley shook his head.
“Oh.” Lyndin lowered her head despondently.
But right at this moment, Lyndin suddenly charged at Linley, moving as fast as lightning, while from within Lyndin’s right hand, a dagger appeared.
Two meters. They were too close.
But then, a strange violet light flashed.
Lyndin only felt as though that violet sword flash flickered everywhere, changing positions constantly. It somehow wrapped around her dagger and her arm as well.
“Hrmph.”
Lyndin immediately dropped her dagger while slamming her left hand directly at Linley.
“Boom!”
Their two hands clashed against each other, and Lyndin hurriedly charged forward. But Linley moved in a strangely graceful way backwards, in the blink of an eye retreating to the corner of the wall.
“Growl.”
Haeru and Bebe were both standing by Linley’s side, but before Haeru and the others could attack, Lyndin immediately retreated.
“You want to kill me?” Linley stared coldly at Lyndin.
Raising her head high, Lyndin said angrily, “Ley, listen up. I, Danlan, have never begged anyone in my entire life like I did just now. Even when I’m with my master, I’ve never acted like this before. Three full days! I tried everything I could to beg you to teach me, but you refuse to do so. So what if I want to kill you now? Is there something wrong about that?”
“Such overbearing logic.” Linley looked at Lyndin.
Lyndin stood at the gate to Linley’s manor, staring angrily at him. “If you have the ability to do so, come and kill me. My fellow apprentices will be arriving soon. If you dare bully me, I’ll go tell them about it!”
Right now, Linley’s desire to kill had already been aroused.
Regardless of whether this ‘Danlan’ girl was really the student of the Monolithic Sword Saint, or if she was not, she definitely had tried to kill him just then.
But Linley had this strange feeling of danger.
He couldn’t clearly explain where it was coming from, but this feeling was warning him...do not pursue Danlan. If you do, it will be very dangerous.
“Hrmph, you don’t have the guts to kill me, right? Then I’m leaving.” Lyndin arrogantly pushed the door to the manor open, then began walking out. Linley didn’t chase after her, only mentally sending out an order. “Bebe, go through the underground tunnels and take a look to see what is outside.”
Right now, outside Linley’s gate.
The other five experts of the ninth rank were all outside the gate. They had taken up their positions long ago, ready to join with Lyndin in the Angel Battle Formation at any time.
When Lyndin walked out of the courtyard, she used her eyes to signal the other five.
Those five quietly followed behind Lyndin, quickly departing.
“Hrmph.” Exiting the hotel, Lyndin was very unhappy. “If just then, Linley had chased after me, the six of us could’ve killed Linley in the blink of an eye. But he kept hiding in his manor, with those two magical beasts beside him. Even if the six of us ran inside, given Linley’s speed, he definitely would be able to flee.
Lyndin knew very well that killing Linley within the provincial capital was not a wise decision. After all, McKenzie was living in that nearby castle. Given McKenzie’s speed, he could probably fly over here in the blink of an eye.
“Lord, what should we do?” The other five were looking at Lyndin.
“Execute the next strategy.” Lyndin said coldly. “As for killing Linley in a suicide attack, that is an option of last resort, to be used only if we have no other choices.” The other five nodded.
Even Angels wouldn’t be willing to throw away their lives too easily.
“Hrm?” Lyndin suddenly saw a man and a woman being escorted by quite a few guards. Lyndin had seen pictures of Jenne and Keane before. “I hadn’t gone to find them yet, but they actually delivered themselves to me?” Lyndin’s lips began to curve up in a smile.