Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 36, One Against a Million
“Swish!”
Like a ray of light, Linley flashed towards the tunnel, his speed rising to his limit.
But in terms of speed, the Abyssal Blade Demons which were on par with Desri and Bebe were a level higher than Linley, and they began to draw near.
His eyes utterly bloodshot, as though blazing with flame, Linley was already beginning to chant the words to a spell.
“Swoosh!” Linley’s flying direction suddenly changed.
He actually turned and flew directly into a different tunnel heading downwards. Actually, there were quite a few Abyssal Blade Demons chasing after him from below as well. As Linley moved downwards, in virtually the blink of an eye, the Abyssal Blade Demons below moving upwards were now moving towards Linley.
“Roaaaaar!” The Abyssal Blade Demons below immediately began to roar loudly.
The group of Abyssal Blade Demons that were still heading along Linley’s previous trajectory immediately turned and headed down, but Linley continued to draw near those hundred or so Abyssal Blade Demons below him. Those hundred Abyssal Blade Demons simultaneously launched lightning-fast waves of blade energy, while Linley’s eyes flashed with a cold light.
Countless wind elemental essences suddenly coalesced around him.
“Die.”
“Riiiiiip.” Suddenly, a four or five meter wide, light blue ‘Dimensional Edge’ appeared out of nowhere in front of Linley, flying downwards towards those Abyssal Blade Demons charging towards him.
Seeing the Dimensional Edge, the Abyssal Blade Demons all tried to dodge in terror.
Unfortunately, the Dimensional Edge was simply too fast.
“Riiiiiiip.” Their metallic bodies were chopped into pieces. Under the control of Linley’s spiritual energy, the ‘Dimensional Edge’ moved in an arc, instantly chopping dozens of Abyssal Blade Demons into metallic pieces, while the others were dodging in terror.
“Whoosh!”
Seizing the opportunity, Linley immediately charged downwards through the corridor which the Dimensional Edge had just cut.
The Dimensional Edge was only effective against a small number of Abyssal Blade Demons. Once the Abyssal Blade Demons numbered in the thousands, how many of them could the Dimensional Edge possibly kill? This was the reason why Linley had chosen to suddenly fly downwards.
His sudden change in direction had also allowed him to temporarily pull away from the Abyssal Blade Demons behind him.
“I can flee for a while, but I can’t flee forever.” Linley, while fleeing downwards, was trying to think of a way to escape and survive. “It would be wonderful if I could instacast the ‘Dimensional Edge’. No matter how many Abyssal Blade Demons there were, I would be able to kill them all.” Linley suddenly had this wild fantasy.
Instacast a ‘Dimensional Edge’?
It was nothing more than a dream. Linley knew that it wasn’t realistic.
“Hrm?” Linley, while scurrying downwards, suddenly had a thought. “Dimensional Edge?”
Actually, Linley didn’t know too much about the underlying fundamentals regarding this forbidden-level spell, ‘Dimensional Edge’. He only knew how to use his mageforce to gather elemental essence and then form the ‘Dimensional Edge’. But suddenly, Linley thought back to the scene of him executing the ‘Dimensional Edge’.
This Dimensional Edge, accurately speaking, was the ‘Wind Blade’ spell taken to the utmost limits.
When using his spiritual energy to slightly control the direction the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell moved in, he noticed that within the ‘Dimensional Edge’, there were countless gusts of wind moving, either quickly or slowly, in accordance with a strange rhythm, and somehow forming this terrifying dimensional-cutting power.
“Either fast...or slow?”
Linley hadn’t considered this before, but now, he suddenly discovered something suspicious. “The Dimensional Edge should be the faster the better. Why is it that it also includes seemingly slow gusts of air inside it as well?”
“Not right.” Linley thought hard.
The countless gusts of wind within the Dimensional Edge actually weren’t slow; only, they applied the ‘Slow’ aspect and seemed slow but were actually fast. Different wind blades of different aspects formed a whole, the ‘Dimensional Edge’. What was the rationale behind this?
“The ‘Fast’ aspect? The ‘Slow’ aspect? The Dimensional Edge...”
Linley’s mind couldn’t help but think back to the scene of him utilizing the ‘Tempos of the Wind’. This was a technique which had Bloodviolet simultaneously generate both the ‘Fast’ and the ‘Slow’ aspects of the wind. These two opposite aspects, when combined, caused space itself to vibrate, resulting in Bloodviolet being able to create a spatial edge.
Linley once again thought back to the scene of him utilizing ‘Myriad Swords Converge’.
When developing this technique, Linley was puzzled. Why was it that when ten million swords of the ‘Fast’ aspect combined into one, it would create the effect of ‘Spatial Freezing’? Why was it that the ‘Fast’ aspect and the ‘Slow’ aspect were mutually interchangeable? At the time, Linley didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, but by mimicking the attack of the Queen Mother, he was able to develop this attack.
In truth, Linley still didn’t understand the profound mysteries behind why the ten million swords he generated using the ‘Fast’ aspect could combine and form the space-freezing attack of ‘Myriad Swords Converge’.
“Dimensional Edge...Tempos of the Wind...Myriad Swords Converge...” Linley’s mind quickly sketched through one scene after another. The foggy cloud covering one of the profound mysteries of the Elemental Laws of the Wind was currently slowly dissipating in Linley’s mind.
Linley was beginning to understand.
It was as though he had touched something, but didn’t quite understand it.
Linley didn’t even notice that behind him, two Abyssal Blade Demons were drawing closer and closer. Right now, Linley was totally immersed in that special state. The two Abyssal Blade Demons also felt puzzled. Normally...even before drawing close to Linley, Linley would come up with an idea to flee.
But this time...
Linley was flying in a straight line, not changing direction at all. The Abyssal Blade Demons flew faster than Linley! In a straight line, they would naturally be able to catch up.
“Swish!” An ear-piercing, desolate howl suddenly scared Linley awake as two blades chopped down at him.
Linley’s back was instantly matted in cold sweat, and he immediately lashed out with Bloodviolet. Linley hadn’t noticed at all that this attack wasn’t the ‘Tempos of the Wind’, nor was it ‘Myriad Swords Converge’. It was a seemingly very ordinary sword attack.
“Slash!” It was like cutting through tofu.
Linley’s Bloodviolet flashed through the two Abyssal Blade Demons like lightning, both of whom were immediately cut into two.
“This...?” Linley was shocked. Although these two Abyssal Blade Demons weren’t the best of their race, even if Linley had used ‘Tempos of the Wind’, he would still have to use a full strength blow in order to chop the Abyssal Blade Demons into two pieces. But just then...he had very easily bisected the two Abyssal Blade Demons.
“Just then...” Linley couldn’t help but think back to that sword attack he had unconsciously used just then.
“Ah!” Linley’s eyes suddenly turned round.
That fog that had still covered his mind, preventing it from seeing into the mysteries of the Elemental Laws of the Wind, suddenly disappeared like mist disappearing under the light of the sun. He suddenly understood.
“Tempos of the Wind? Myriad Swords Converge? Dimensional Edge?” Linley began to laugh loudly. “The ‘Fast’ aspect? The ‘Slow’ aspect? ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ being opposite aspects? Haha...wrong, all wrong. The ‘Fast’ aspect and the ‘Slow’ aspect are the same, the same!!!” Linley’s entire body began to shake from excitement.
A gust of wind would seemingly blow slowly, but then in the blink of an eye move a thousand meters.
“Spatial Folding? Spatial Chaos? Spatial Pausing? Spatial Freezing?” Linley’s laughter reached the utmost level in joy.
“The Draconian!” A large number of Abyssal Blade Demons had discovered Linley.
“Kill!” Roaring furiously, the many Abyssal Blade Demons simultaneously struck out, chopping down with energy blades towards Linley. The criss-crossing waves of energy chopped apart even the ground. Although many of them didn’t land on Linley, a few of them did indeed concentrate on Linley’s body.
“Boom!” Wherever the energy blades passed, the metallic ground and tunnel were turned into smithereens.
“He’s dead for sure!”
“Huh?” Suddenly, the Abyssal Blade Demons were shocked.
Linley, who had been thousands of meters away, had suddenly appeared in front of them in two casual flashes. They only saw a strange, devilish flash of violet light, and then their heads went flying off.
“The ‘Fast’ aspect, the ‘Slow’ aspect...haha...they are all wrong paths of understanding!” Linley laughed loudly. With each casual strike of his sword, he easily killed the Abyssal Blade Demons, and with a simple flicker of his body, he easily threw off the Abyssal Blade Demons and moved far away. In terms of speed, he was now three times as fast as the Abyssal Blade Demons!
He was simply too fast!
Even if the two red Abyssal Blade Demons came over, they wouldn’t be more than half of Linley’s current speed.
“In the past, I thought that if I could reach the limit of the ‘Fast’ aspect, I would become a Deity. If I reached the peak of the ‘Slow’ aspect, I should also be able to become a Deity. Yes, I can become a Deity, but doing so in that way is taking a wrong path.” Linley’s heart was filled with joy, as though he had suddenly completed a massive project. “Once the ‘Fast’ aspect and the ‘Slow’ aspect each reach their utmost limits, they will merge together...”
“Both ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’, these two major aspects, they are all part of the Elemental Laws of the Wind’s...”
“Profound Truths of Velocity!”
Bloodviolet flashed out casually in Linley’s hands. At first, it seemed to be moving extremely slowly, but at second glance, it was actually as fast as lightning. From different viewpoints, one would see two completely different effects. In addition, at the edge of Bloodviolet, there was a faint blue spatial edge that seemed similar to the ‘Dimensional Edge’.
With a casual sword blow, space itself began to ripple, and extremely minute cracks in space appeared.
Any casual blow from Linley now had part of the power of the ‘Dimensional Edge’.
Linley’s form quickly appeared in multiple areas, and wherever that devilish violet light flashed, the heads of the Abyssal Blade Demons went flying.
“This technique shall be called...Profound Truths of Velocity – Dimensional Decapitator!”
“Swish!” Linley’s body suddenly scurried out of the ground.
“Haha, he came out. Children, kill!” Those two red Abyssal Blade Demons immediately gave the order in excitement. Countless howling sounds could be heard as the hundreds of thousands of Abyssal Blade Demons charged downwards like a horde of locusts, sending out energy blades towards Linley at nearly the same instant.
But Linley’s body had already appeared in the center of their group.
Like a gust of Wind, Linley flickered here and there, and wherever he appeared, the heads of the Abyssal Blade Demons would go flying. In front of Linley, these Abyssal Blade Demons had no ability to fight back at all.
Miserable screams and terrified howls sounded out constantly, and golden blood splashed in every direction.
In a very short period of time, nearly a hundred thousand Abyssal Blade Demons had died. All the remaining Abyssal Blade Demons were terrified. At first, they still had willpower, but now they had none left at all.
“Im...impossible.” The two red Abyssal Blade Demons called out in terror.
And then, a gentle gust of wind blew towards them. The head of one of the two red Abyssal Blade Demons went flying, while Linley’s Bloodviolet sword appeared at the neck of the second red Abyssal Blade Demon. His dark golden eyes stared calmly at the red Abyssal Blade Demon. In a calm voice, he said, “What, you still want to fight?”
“Mercy, lord.” The red Abyssal Blade Demon immediately knelt down in terror.
With their leader kneeling, the countless Abyssal Blade Demons whom Linley had utterly terrified all knelt down as well.
The eleventh floor of the Necropolis of the Gods. Across this wide expanse of land, countless corpses lay fallen, while countless living Abyssal Blade Demons knelt there on the ground, so terrified that they didn’t even have the courage to raise their heads. That terrifying slaughter just now had truly destroyed their courage.
The countless Abyssal Blade Demons remained kneeling. The wide expanse of land was stained with golden blood. Only Linley remained standing.
“Sadly, I haven’t understood enough regarding the ‘Fast’ and the ‘Slow’ aspects.” Linley thought back to the profound truth he had just gained insight into. “Although I’ve fused two major aspects into one and developed the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ of the Elemental Laws of the Wind, I’m still one step away from becoming a Deity.”
Right now, Linley could sense that he was at the precipice of the Deity-level.
Actually, both the ‘Fast’ and the ‘Slow’ aspects, when trained to their utmost, could allow someone to become a Demigod. And then, after the two aspects were totally fused into the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’, which was then trained to the limit, one would become a full God.
These two aspects were seemingly polar opposites. To fuse them wasn’t something one could mentally envision; it had to come from a spark of insight.
The higher one’s level of understanding was in the two aspects, the harder it would be to fuse them. It was as if one had travelled a long distance on two roads heading in different directions. The farther one travelled on each road, the harder it would be to combine them.
Linley hadn’t reached a very high level of understanding in these two aspects yet, and so it was actually a bit easier for him to find that spark of insight to fuse them.
In the past, when developing his ‘Tempos of the Wind’, Linley had begun to understand how to allow these two aspects to work together. Upon developing the ‘Myriad Swords Converge’, he once more advanced. After casting the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell, he suddenly had that insight, reaping the benefits of his accumulated experience and coming to understand the true ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’.
Thus, his movement speed instantly increased threefold or fourfold, and he was able to develop an even more powerful sword technique; the ‘Dimensional Decapitator’!
“Do you know where the divine spark is?” Linley lowered his head to glance at the kneeling, quivering red Abyssal Blade Demon.
“I know, I know.” The red Abyssal Blade Demon was terrified that Linley would kill him.
“Lead the way.” Linley said.