Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 14: The World of Snow
Olivier’s face was currently very pale. Just then, he had used all the power available to him, but the price of tripling his speed was not a low one. And with the loss of both his legs...Olivier was currently in very bad shape.
“Why aren’t you leaving?” Olivier raised his head, staring at Linley.
Linley just stood there, in no hurry to leave. He could tell that at present, Olivier’s strength had dropped dramatically. With his legs gone, Olivier’s movement ability in any battle with enemies would drop greatly as well. Although he could fly...flying while lacking two legs would make one’s agility drop by half.
“Thank you.” After a long silence, Olivier said these two words. And then, he focused on healing his wounds.
Linley’s heart was in great pain right now. He turned back to look at the third floor. “Barker...if Barker truly died, then if in the future, his wife Leena, their two kids, Gates, and the other brothers ask me...” Linley felt helpless.
In front of the divine beast, Ba-Serpent, he had been lucky to even stay alive.
There was no way Linley could have saved Barker at all.
“I hope that Barker’s luck was as good as mine. Perhaps he will enter the fourth floor, or flee back to the second floor.” Linley stood there without moving, partially to help Olivier protect against any creatures from attacking him, and partially because he wanted to wait...
Wait to see if Barker would come out into the fourth floor as well.
After a long while...
“I’m done.” Olivier stood up and glanced at Linley, not saying anything else. He immediately transformed into a blur as he flew high into the sky.
Linley stood there for another half hour. In the end, he finally let out a long sigh before flying into the air as well.
The frozen ground was blanketed with white snow, and it was also dotted with many large, proudly standing trees. The snow covered these trees with a layer of silver decoration. After flying for a while, Linley saw a familiar face. It was Clay, who had sparred with him at War God Mountain.
“Linley.” Clay laughed as he flew over. “I thought that you had already...below...”
“I just entered the fourth floor. The person after you let out a scream of pain, and the Ba-Serpent woke up.” Linley shook his head. “I was only lucky, but my good friend Barker...”
Clay said consolingly, “Don’t be too sad. Soon after I entered the fourth floor, I discovered Olivier with his legs severed. From him, I learned that the Ba-Serpent had woken up. I thought that all of you had been killed by the Ba-Serpent. It’s already very lucky that you survived. Your friend would feel happy for you as well.”
Linley nodded.
The two flew side by side, and Clay cautioned, “Stop thinking about your friend. This fourth floor is extremely dangerous as well. If you are distracted and die as a result of it, that would be a terrible waste.”
Linley suddenly came to himself. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head a few times. “Got it.”
“Fain told me that in the past, they had retreated to the fifth floor. This Necropolis of the Gods has eighteen floors in total. In the top eleven floors, every five floors represents one ‘layer’. The first four floors aren’t too dangerous, while the fifth floor is actually the least dangerous of the entire layer.” Clay explained.
Clay had been alive for much longer than Linley. He knew many more things as well.
“Oh? The fifth floor is the safest of the first five floors?” Linley was surprised.
“Right. From what Fain told me, according to the War God, every five floors is a layer. The danger from the first to the fifth floor is fairly average, while the sixth to the tenth floors are extremely dangerous. Even Fain could die at any time.” Clay reminded.
Linley nodded. In the future, he would be extremely careful.
“The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth layers are all extremely dangerous. Compared to these four floors, the tenth floor is actually less dangerous by comparison.” Clay laughed.
Linley memorized these words. This was all information which Fain had no doubt received from the War God.
The War God had definitely passed through the first ten floors. Naturally, he knew the situation in these floors.
“Five floors a layer, with the fifth floor being the safest floor of the first layer, while the tenth floor is the safest floor of the second layer.” Linley suddenly had a strange feeling. “It seems as though the safe level is to allow everyone some time to prepare.”
Clearly, the sixth floor would suddenly rise greatly in difficulty and danger.
The eleventh floor was a place where there were corpses of Deities and divine sparks. As long as one wasn’t a fool, one would understand...the eleventh floor was most likely far more dangerous than the earlier floors.
While flying past the snowy landscape, Clay laughed, “Only in the first five floors can we rely on our personal strength to fight through those various life forms. Once we reach the sixth floor...we will have to rely on our intelligence, our strength, and our luck, all combined.”
Linley nodded.
In the past, Desri and Fain had been so frightened that they didn’t dare to enter the sixth floor. They had hidden in the fifth floor until the ten years were up.
“Whooosh.”
There was a pile of snow below. Suddenly, a creature erupted from beneath the snow, flashing at Clay like a white flash of lightning. Clay’s body instantly turned metallic, then with a furious roar, his right fist directly down towards that attacking creature.
“Bang!”
The fist slammed directly against a furry palm.
Clay was sent flying backwards at high speed, while that furry creature also landed hard against the ground.
“Such enormous power.” Clay inwardly sighed in amazement.
Linley looked down with surprise as well at that furry creature. Linley had sparred with Clay before, and he knew how physically powerful Clay was. “Clay is ten times as powerful as Haydson was, and his defense is comparable to Barker’s. But he was only on par with this creature.”
The creature below suddenly stood up like a human would.
“A bear?” Linley stared with shock at the creature below and spoke out.
That seemingly bear-like magical beast was covered with white fur, but he had a black ring of fur lining his eyes, as though someone had punched his eyes and made them swell. Actually, that made this furry magical beast seem very adorable.
“I’m not a stupid bear. I’m a Snowy Panda-Cat.” That furry magical beast rebuked.
“Swoosh!” At this moment, the Snowy Panda-Cat suddenly rose up again, this time charging straight at Linley...like a flash of white light, the Snowy Panda-Cat arrived in front of Linley. Linley couldn’t help but be shocked by its speed.
“Whap!”
Linley’s draconic tail, glittering with metallic light, struck against the Snowy Panda-Cat. The sudden attack by the draconic tail was extremely fast, not giving the Snowy Panda-Cat any chance to respond at all.
“Bang.” The Snowy Panda-Cat slammed into the snowy ground again, while at the same time, a hint of blood appeared atop its pure white fur over its chest. The Snowy Bear stared at Linley, then at Clay, before finally bending over on all fours, then scampering away.
He had fled!
Linley and Clay both couldn’t help but laugh.
“This Snowy Panda-Cat is really amusing. After a simple exchange of blows, he immediately fled.” But Linley was shocked by the power of the Snowy Panda-Cat. Its strength wasn’t one whit inferior to the Worldbear, but its speed was far greater.
No wonder why it was called the Snowy Panda-Cat, and had the word ‘cat’ in its name.
“Haha...if I had to fight this Snowy Panda-Cat by myself, it would really be troublesome. The Snowy Panda-Cat’s speed seems to be faster than mine.” Clay chuckled bitterly. “Linley, I have the feeling that at most, I’ll be able to rest on the fifth floor. The sixth floor, I probably won’t be able to break through.”
“Enough. Let’s first find the tunnel.” Linley flew alongside Clay, searching for the tunnel.
The Snowy Panda-Cats on this fourth floor were very strange. Aside from a few of the Snowy Panda-Cats that would suddenly attack, most of the Snowy Panda-Cats didn’t attack them at all. Instead, most of them were just rolled up into a ball and sleeping on the snow. At first, Linley and Clay had been worried, but afterwards, they felt more relaxed.
“Listen up, the two of you.” Suddenly, an ancient voice rang out.
Linley and Clay, in mid-flight, started, then immediately turning to look at location from which the voice rang out from.
Beneath them was a Snowy Panda-Cat that was only one meter tall that was staring calmly at Linley and Clay. Although the Snowy Panda-Cats were much smaller than Worldbears, they were usually two or three meters tall at their full height. But this Snowy Panda-Cat was only a meter tall.
“This Snowy Panda-Cat is extremely dangerous.” Linley immediately became guarded. This Snowy Panda-Cat, although physically small, gave Linley a sense of danger, not too far from the feeling which the War God and the others gave him.
The ancient voice of the Snowy Panda-Cat rang out again. “I am the clan leader of this clan of Snowy Panda-Cats.”
Linley and Clay exchanged glances. Snowy Panda-Cats had clan leaders?
“Remember. On this fourth floor, as long as my children do not attack you, you are not to attack them either. If you kill any of them, then don’t blame me for acting viciously against you.” With a flip of the Snowy Panda-Cat’s hand, a bamboo flute suddenly appeared.
Right. A bamboo flute.
“Is he going to play the flute?” Linley had never seen someone who was able to injure someone else by playing the flute.
But Linley and Clay both felt that this old fellow in front of them posed an enormous threat. They didn’t dare to say anything, and so Clay hurriedly said, “Don’t worry. Just then, when that Snowy Panda-Cat attacked us, we didn’t go full force against it either. As long as your citizens don’t attack us, we definitely won’t attack your children either.”
“The passageway to the fifth level is over there, next to that giant tree. The passageway is inside the giant tree.” The leader of the Snowy Panda-Cats pointed towards the distant tree.
Linley and Clay immediately began to fly in that direction.
Seeing Linley and Clay leave, the leader of the Snowy Panda-Cats let out a long sigh. His clan of Snowy Panda-Cats had been placed here on the fourth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, which was like being placed in a prison. As the leader of this clan of Snowy Panda-Cats, he wasn’t able to do anything about that.
Given his current level of strength, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to kill many outsiders and then exchange their corpses for the divine spark of a Demigod. But he didn’t want to do this. The reason was, only he had the power to threaten and frighten experts on Linley’s level.
“If I become a Deity and leave, then these children will die soon afterwards as well.” The Snowy Panda-Cat leader let out a long sigh.
He, too, was a Prime Saint, only a single step away from becoming a Deity. But the power of this leader of the Snowy Panda-Cats was greater than that of the Five Prime Saints. This was because the profound truths he had gained insight into were different from that of others. It was much like how Linley...trained in the Throbbing Pulse of the World. In terms of attack power, it surpassed the insights which most others had gained.
The profound truths this leader of the Snowy Panda-Cats had gained insight into was one of the rarest types of profound truths of the Elemental Laws of the Wind.
The fifth floor. The world of fire.
Linley and Clay, immediately upon arriving in this floor, felt themselves being attacked by waves of heat. This center of this fifth floor was a volcano, while the surrounding area was filled with desolate lava flows. It was an empty land...one could see off into the distance easily.
But the temperature of the lava flows here was very high.
“Boss!” A black shadow suddenly flew over at high speed.
“Bebe.” Linley could clearly feel that it was Bebe who was flying over. Bebe leaped directly into Linley’s arms, his eyes turning misty. “Boss, I arrived at the fifth floor long ago. I’ve been waiting for you here the entire time. Desri and the others said that you encountered the Ba-Serpent on the third floor. I’ve been worried about you the entire time, Boss.”
Linley couldn’t help but think back to what happened on the third floor, his heart once more filled with fear.
“Fortunately, nothing happened. Wonderful.” Bebe’s face was all smiles.
Bebe’s experience had been much easier than Linley’s. He hadn’t encountered the Ba-Serpent, and the attacks of the undead and the other creatures simply didn’t pose any threat to Bebe at all.
“Hey, Boss, where’s Barker? Isn’t Barker with you?” Bebe suddenly wondered.
Linley’s face froze. The look on his face couldn’t help but become somewhat ugly, and his eyes had a hint of pain in them.
Bebe was intelligent. Seeing Linley’s reaction, Bebe was able to guess what happened. “Boss, Barker, he...could it be on the third floor...?” Linley let out a sigh. “Right. On the third floor, the Ba-Serpent woke up. We didn’t have the ability to fight back at all. I was lucky and managed to rely on Bloodviolet to flee to the fourth floor. As for Barker...”
Linley’s voice grew low, and in the end, he wasn’t able to continue.