Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 25, Must Go
The feeling that his current Dragonblood Warrior transformation gave Linley was...power! Boundless strength!
“Whoooosh!” The swaying of his draconic tail created a howling sound in the air, and the edges of those azure-gold draconic scales which were reflecting that cold, golden light seemed to be as sharp as knives. If one of these draconic scales were removed from his body, they would probably be able to easily chop apart very precious ores.
The gold drop of blood that had entered Linley’s body had transformed every part of him.
He did his best to endure the pain, softly emitting agonized growls.
A long time later...
The transformation finally was over.
“Whew.” Linley let out a long breath, while at the same time, he took a look at his new, transformed appearance. Azure was the primary color, covered by a layer of golden light. The transformed Linley naturally emitted an ancient aura, as though he were an ancient, god-like beast.
“Linley.” The nearby Delia had been nervous the entire time. Now, seeing that Linley was no longer shaking in agony, she felt slightly more at ease.
“Delia.” Looking at Delia, Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face. At the same time, Linley immediately dissolved the Dragonblood Warrior transformation. Only, this Dragonblood Warrior transformation had been simply too explosive. All of the clothes on his body had been completely shattered. He didn’t have a single scrap of clothing on him.
Fortunately, at present, only himself and Delia were here.
“Get dressed, quickly.” Delia laughed while berating him.
Linley immediately withdrew some underwear and outer garments from his interspatial ring. As a Dragonblood Warrior, he always had many sets of clothes prepared in his interspatial ring. Dressing himself, Linley then sat down alongside Delia. Leaning against each other, they began to chat.
“Linley, what does it feel like to have reached the Deity-level?” Delia was very curious. After all, she hadn’t truly fused with the divine spark yet.
“Becoming a Deity?”
Linley was slightly startled. Although he had become a Deity, Linley hadn’t felt that he himself had changed much at all. Now that Delia asked him, however, Linley took a good look at his body and sensed it and his surroundings had indeed changed slightly.
“It’s clearer with my divine clone.” Linley swapped to his other body.
Indeed, with his divine clone present, Linley could clearly sense the control he could now wield over the surrounding area. This was a certain type of authority which that Demigod divine spark conveyed upon Linley. Linley had a feeling...that divine sparks were actually a sort of ‘certificate’ representing certain powers as well as a certain understanding of the Laws.
The more powerful the divine spark, the more authority would be granted.
“You swapped bodies yet again?” Delia laughed. “If, in battle, one of your bodies were to be destroyed, you could use the other body to continue doing battle, right?”
“Yes, I can do that. Only, the divine clone is more effective when utilizing the Profound Truths of Velocity.” Linley sighed.
“Huh?” Linley now sensed another change. Countless thin, silken streams of gold had permeated directly into his soul-world. Although each of them were miniscule, when combined, they still added up to an astonishing amount.
“What are these?” Linley was puzzled.
Linley had never seen this sort of strange energy before. But when he interacted with those countless golden threads, within Linley’s mind, he could sense one pious person after another. Every single golden thread represented a person.
“The energy of faith!” Linley instantly understood.
Linley immediately paid close attention to those golden threads. Those gold threads directly entered Linley’s soul-world. Only, as this soul-world was vast and boundless, the large number of gold threads could only be considered a single drop of water within that great sea. Linley couldn’t sense any changes to himself caused by those golden threads entering his consciousness.
Aside from, that is, being able to sense those pious worshippers.
“I hear that faith energy is extremely beneficial for training, but why is it that I can’t sense it?” Linley was somewhat puzzled.
But soon afterwards, Linley laughed. “I just reached the Deity-level and just started collecting faith energy. However, faith energy is nonstop and constant. For example, the War God has accumulated thousands of years of faith energy. As for the likes of Sovereigns, they have followers in all the countless planes. Who knows how much faith energy they have accumulated? Most likely, only after faith energy accumulates to a certain amount will one sense its effect.”
Although he didn’t understand what faith energy was used for, Linley was very certain that faith energy definitely was beneficial to himself.
After all, even the likes of Sovereigns needed faith energy.
“Linley, what are you daydreaming about?” Delia interrupted Linley’s thoughts.
Linley returned to his senses. After Linley carefully explained what he had just sensed, Delia was shocked. “Faith energy? So when your spiritual energy senses faith energy, it appears as golden threads. Faith is an insubstantial, formless thing. Why is it that human faith can create this sort of unique energy?”
“I’m not sure either.” Linley laughed. “Delia, in two days, I’m planning to head out.”
“Right. You’ve already reached the Deity-level. There’s no need for you to keep working so hard.” Delia nodded.
“No. The reason I am going out is because I am preparing to start a kill-or-be-killed battle with a Deity.” Linley looked at Delia solemnly. Although he previously hadn’t told Delia, at this time, Linley no longer wished to hide it from her. After all, this was simply too important.
Linley himself wasn’t fully confident in his ability to defeat another Deity.
After all, the opponent was a Deity as well.
“What?!” Delia was instantly so shocked that her eyes turned round. “Linley, you are going to battle against a Deity? Who? The War God? The High Priest?” Delia instantly grew worried and frightened. Linley had just become a Deity.
It was too dangerous.
“No, not them.”
Linley, facing the look in Delia’s eyes, felt a hint of guilt in his heart. After all, in this battle against the Deity, it would be wonderful if he won, but if he lost...wouldn’t it have been terribly unfair to Delia?
“Then who is it? Why do you have to engage in a battle to the death?” Delia said hurriedly. “Could it be that this is an unavoidable battle?”
Linley let out a long sigh. “Fine, then. I’ll tell you the truth, Delia.” Linley immediately described Yale’s situation in full to her. He started from Yale’s out-of-character desire to have sole rights to buy the battle captives of the Empire, all the way to the point where Yale came to use poison to try and kill Linley, as well as Zassler’s hypothesis.
If he didn’t kill that Deity, Yale would forever remain a puppet!
In addition, at this period in time, that Deity was in a badly wounded state, and was also busy. In a few more years, that Deity would have recovered his strength, and he wouldn’t be able to find another good opportunity.
Most importantly...
He could afford to waste time, but Yale couldn’t.
Who knew when that Deity would once more send Yale out to be sacrificed? If Yale truly were to die, Linley would probably blame himself for the rest of his life.
“Linley.” After hearing everything, Delia wanted to say something, but she couldn’t get it out.
She didn’t want Linley to risk himself, but she understood Linley’s personality very well. Linley could, for her sake, throw away everything, including his own life. But for the sake of Wharton, Yale, Reynolds, and the others, Linley could do the same.
“Delia, don’t worry. I still have some reason to be confident.” Linley said.
“What reason?” Delia hurriedly asked.
She hoped that Linley could explain it to her and give her an answer that would put her at her ease.
“A person’s battle strength is based on their personal ability as well as their weapons. Delia, this Bloodviolet sword of mine should be an extremely powerful type of divine artifact.” Linley explained. “In addition to that, Delia, you need to remember that I have two bodies; my original body, and the clone.”
Linley rubbed Delia on her shoulders and said seriously, “Delia, I can guarantee to you that if one of my bodies is destroyed, I will immediately choose to retreat.”
Delia had a hint of bitterness on her face.
She understood what Linley meant. Actually, the loss of either of Linley’s bodies would be a huge blow to him. If his original body was destroyed and his soul dispersed, then...Linley would never be able to train in any other Laws again. He would only have that wind-style divine clone.
But if the divine clone was destroyed and its soul was dispersed, then it would be lost forever, and in the future, he would never again be able to train in the Laws of the Wind. Even if he managed to gain insights, he wouldn’t receive the acknowledgement of the universe again, and he wouldn’t be given another divine spark.
From the look in Linley’s eyes, Delia could tell that he had already made his decision.
“Fine, then.” Delia took a deep breath, staring at Linley. “But Linley, you have to promise me that you will remember what you said to me today. If one of your bodies is destroyed, you have to immediately give up. You can’t let yourself die! You have many other friends and family members aside from just Yale!”
Linley and Delia looked at each other.
“I promise.”
Dragonblood Castle. The main hall.
Right now, there were many people gathered here. Linley becoming a Deity was a source of great excitement to everyone, but the vast majority of them didn’t know...that when nightfall came, Linley would secretly head out to the Dawson Conglomerate’s branch and to seek out and engage in a deadly battle with that Deity.
But of course, a few people did know.
Two people. One was Wharton. The other was Zassler.
When nightfall descended, the three of them were hovering in the air above Dragonblood Castle.
“Big bro, you absolutely have to be careful.” Wharton was very much against Linley going to battle that Deity, but he knew Linley’s temperament. All he could do was try to make sure Linley was cautious. “Big bro, don’t forget that there are many people here in Dragonblood Castle who are waiting for you.”
Linley nodded slightly.
Zassler also said seriously, “Lord Linley, this Deity trains in the Ways of Death, and he will be most highly skilled at soul-based attacks. You must be careful. His weakness should be in close combat. If you can engage him in close combat, your chances of victory will be very high.”
Both Zassler and Wharton were actually very worried.
“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to me.” Linley was filled with confidence in himself.
After smiling towards the two of them, Linley immediately began to fly in the southwest direction. In an instant, he vanished into the horizon, his speed so fast that it would astonish anyone.
“Just judging from his speed alone, big bro should be fine.” Wharton now felt slightly more confident.
Linley, who trained in the Profound Truths of Velocity, was most proficient at speed!
.................
Within that dark, gloomy underground room.
The skinny, skeletal Grand Warlock, his entire body covered with that black robe, was seated on the ground in the meditative posture. In front of him, that crystal globe constantly emitted that gloomy green light, illuminating the cold, sinister face of the Grand Warlock. But right at this moment...“Creaaaaaak.” The door to the room opened.
Another figure, also full covered by a black robe, suddenly appeared in the secret room, as though by teleportation.
“Are you done refining it?” The hoarse voice came out from the person’s mouth.
“So, so it’s Lord Beaumont [Bo’meng’te].” From the mouth of the Grand Warlock came a hoarse, ear-piercing laugh, the type of laugh that would definitely frighten a baby to the point of bawling.
The mysterious newcomer let out a cold snort. “It has been six full years since we have arrived here from the Gebados Planar Prison. You are already in control of the three major trading unions of the Yulan continent. The slaves that you have killed already number over ten million, and your servants have killed many people as well. I think you should be just about ready to finish successfully refining the Gold Soul-Pearl.”
“Hrmph. Lord Beaumont, do you think refining souls is such a simple task?” The Grand Warlock said with some anger. “Even some full Gods are incapable of refining souls. Souls are extremely fragile and delicate. To purify their essence requires one to be extremely careful and not be the slightest bit overconfident.”
The mysterious newcomer glanced at the Grand Warlock.
After a moment of silence...“You should know what my temper is like. I’ve been protecting you all these years. Otherwise, given how badly injured you are, you probably would have been killed by Muba long ago. I’ll give you three more years. If at that time you still haven’t finished refining a Gold Soul-Pearl, then don’t blame me.”
“Three years. That’s about right.” The Grand Warlock wasn’t worried at all. He said calmly, “In the next three years, I hope you, Lord Beaumont, will continue to help me hold that Muba at bay. Once my soul has fully healed, I won’t have to fear him any longer.”
The mysterious newcomer glanced at the Grand Warlock, and then his body disappeared from within the secret training room.
The Grand Warlock watched as Beaumont disappeared, laughing coldly in his heart. “Gold Soul-Pearl? A lowly, despicable fellow like him also wants to get a Gold Soul-Pearl? If I weren’t heavily injured, would I be afraid of you? Do you know...I actually have already successfully refined one. But unfortunately, I’m not going to give it to you.”