Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 29, The Disposition of the Divine Sparks
There was a group of people within Dragonblood Castle who were unable to sleep. Linley’s departure to do battle with the Grand Warlock was something which Taylor, Gates, and the others hadn’t known. Only Wharton and Zassler knew. But after Linley left, Wharton and Zassler informed everyone of this affair.
Zassler’s thoughts were very clear.
If Linley didn’t come back, he still had to tell Taylor and the others anyways.
If Linley came back successfully, it would be a joyous affair that everyone had to share in.
No matter what, it was best to let everyone know.
The candles in Dragonblood Castle’s main hall were all lit. A large group of people were assembled here. After Zassler and Wharton had informed them that Linley had gone to do battle against a Deity, they had been utterly shocked. Right now, all they could do was wait impatiently.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard.
“Mother, why have you left your training?” Taylor, who had been worrying about Linley’s battle with the Deity, turned and saw the person who had just arrived. He couldn’t help but call out in surprise.
“So you are all here?” Delia squeezed out a smile.
Originally, Delia was preparing to wait patiently in the pocket dimension, but Delia discovered...that she just couldn’t calm down. She kept on worrying, and so she decided to just come out and wait for Linley’s return in Dragonblood Castle.
“So you all know?” Delia looked at everyone.
Wharton, Nina, Gates, the Barker brothers and their spouses, Taylor, Sasha, Hillman, and Housekeeper Hiri all nodded.
Delia nodded slightly as well.
All of them were waiting and praying. They raised their heads to stare at the distant night sky, hoping to see that familiar figure appear.
“Everyone, don’t be impatient. There’s a distance of thousands of kilometers from here to the valley. The flying time alone will take a good long while.” Wharton urged everyone.
“It’s father!” A cry of delight and joy rang out. It was Sasha, who had been staring at the sky.
Instantly, everyone turned to look at the night sky.
Indeed, a human figure dressed in a sky-blue robe was flying gracefully through the sky. Taylor, Delia, Sasha, and the others all ran forward excitedly.
Seeing everyone here, Linley felt a comforting, happy feeling in his heart.
“Delia. Taylor. Sasha.” Linley had a hint of a smile on his face. He was the calmest person here.
“Lord Linley, you killed that Deity?” Gates, coming from behind, shouted out excitedly. Wharton and Zassler all looked at Linley as well. Delia was worried as well...she was worried that Linley might have lost one of his bodies and been forced to flee back.
“Of course.” Linley grinned.
Instantly, smiles blossomed on the faces of everyone present.
“Wonderful.” Taylor was incredibly excited. “My father is someone who killed a Deity. Tonight, nobody is going to sleep. I’ll immediately arrange for wine and food to be brought over. Tonight, all of us are going to have a wild party!”
“Right! Wild party!” Gates shouted loudly as well.
Everyone was incomparably excited.
“Wild party!” Linley laughed and nodded as well. Normally so somber and serious, he was very happy right now as well. Before the battle, Linley had felt nervous as well, but now, not only had he returned without being injured at all, he had freed Yale. Linley naturally was incredibly happy.
Tonight, Dragonblood Castle was more festive than ever before.
They partied until the dawn was beginning to break. Only then did everyone leave, while Delia and Linley asked Zassler to stay behind.
Within a guest room in Dragonblood castle, Zassler stood there, looking at Linley and Delia, wondering why they asked him to remain behind. However, he had an inkling in his heart, because he had long ago hypothesized that this Deity level expert was a practitioner of the Edicts of Death.
When Linley killed the Grand Warlock, he had definitely gained some special items, which others wouldn’t even be able to use.
“Lord Linley?” Zassler had a visible smile on his face, only, Zassler’s face was simply too eerie and astonishing to begin with. Even smiling, he looked terrifying. “Why did you ask me to stay?”
Linley removed an interspatial ring and tossed it to him.
“Zassler, this interspatial ring belonged to that Deity. It should be much better than yours. Go ahead and bind it by blood. Go ahead and withdraw its contents as well.” Linley had great faith in Zassler. Actually, if Zassler intentionally left something inside of it, Linley wouldn’t know about it.
“Yes.” Zassler, trembling slightly, accepted the interspatial ring.
He didn’t care much about the interspatial ring, but of course he was greatly desirous of the possessions of Deities. After binding it with blood...
Zassler waved his hand, and withdrew a large pile of things from within the interspatial ring, filling up almost half the main hall. Amongst them were many herbs, jars, and the like, as well as some scattered pieces of ore. Seeing these things, Zassler’s eyes instantly lit up.
“A golden pearl of souls?” Linley looked at the Gold Soul-Pearl held within a translucent glass. He could sense the dense concentration of spirits within it.
Through the Coiling Dragon ring, Linley directly drew the Gold Soul-Pearl into his Coiling Dragon ring. Actually, Linley had absorbed perhaps just one percent of those liquid gold soul essences. To absorb all of them, it would probably take Linley half a year.
But Linley could clearly sense how beneficial it was for his soul to be growing stronger.
“Lord Linley, many of the materials here are extremely valuable, and very beneficial to me. But these two divine artifacts should be used by warriors.” Zassler pointed out two divine artifacts.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
So the Grand Warlock didn’t just have that black sickle. He had two other divine artifacts as well.
“Zassler, do you want to become a Deity?” Linley looked at Zassler, a not-quite smile on his face. Behind him, Delia also grinned towards Zassler.
Zassler was stunned.
“Become a Deity?” Zassler was somewhat numbed. Become a Deity? Who wouldn’t?
Someone as intelligent as him immediately understood from Linley’s words what Linley’s intentions were. But Zassler still found it rather hard to believe. Zassler knew exactly how important a divine spark was. Even Dylin had felt incredibly grateful towards Linley for gifting him with a divine spark.
A divine spark represented the creation of a Deity.
“Can it be that you don’t want to?” Linley asked. “If you don’t want to, then forget about it.”
“I want to. Of course I want to.” Zassler said hurriedly.
“Haha...” Seeing the look on Zassler’s face right now, Linley immediately started to laugh. Delia couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Linley, stop teasing Zassler. Where’s that Death-style divine spark? Give it to Zassler.”
“This is the divine spark of a Deity. Go and fuse it.” With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved the Grand Warlock’s divine spark, then tossed it over to Zassler.
Seeing the divine spark fly towards him, Zassler felt as though his entire body had turned light and airy, as though he were on a cloud.
This was a divine spark. After fusing with it, he would become a Deity!
Zassler couldn’t help but swallow. Trembling, he stretched his hands out and caught the divine spark. Zassler felt as though this divine spark in his hands weighed trillions of pounds, and his hands couldn’t help but shake.
“Lord Linley, thank you, thank you.” Zassler was extremely grateful.
Before meeting Linley, he had been an Arch Magus necromancer of the ninth rank. Finally, he had become a Saint, but Zassler knew very well the limits of his talent...it had taken him eight hundred years just to reach the Saint level. To reach the Deity level, the amount of time it would take him would be measured in ten-thousand year units.
Who would have thought that without having experienced any difficulties, a divine spark would just suddenly appear in front of him like this?
“Don’t say thank you so many times. But Zassler, you have to work hard. Your understanding of the Laws is deeper than Barker, but Barker has already begun fusing with his divine spark before you. I want to see who amongst you two will become the third Deity of Dragonblood Castle.” Linley said with a laugh.
Without question, the second Deity of Dragonblood Castle would be Delia. After all, she was already more than halfway through fusing with her divine spark.
“Lord Linley, don’t worry. I will definitely work hard.” Zassler’s heart was burning with eagerness!
The goal of countless experts, and even countless Saints of the Yulan continent, was to become a Deity.
Next, Linley asked Zassler to leave.
“Linley, in another few dozen years, our Dragonblood Castle will have a total of five Deities.” Delia said with a laugh. Linley, Delia, Zassler, Barker, and the fully grown Bebe. “Five.” Delia felt amazed as well.
“But for some reason...”
Linley frowned. “Delia. I still feel a bit uneasy. Right now, the Yulan continent feels like a chaotic pond. No one has any idea anymore what is inside the pond, nor will any of us be able to predict what sort of experts will suddenly appear from within it.”
“Right.” Delia nodded slightly.
The sudden appearance of the Grand Warlock, as well as that mysterious god, ‘Muba’, of that secretive church...and that was just what Linley knew about. Many Saints had appeared in the past few years in the Yulan continent as well which had previously been unknown.
Who knew when a full God would emerge?
Even though Linley’s side had the advantage of numbers, the disparity in raw power would be too great.
“Linley, how about we go ahead and put this wind-style divine spark to good use as well?” Delia said. “Desri and the others haven’t come looking for you in the past few years. I think they won’t come asking for this divine spark again.”
Right now, Linley still had an unused wind-style divine spark.
A divine spark would have to be fused with for dozens of years before a Deity would be created.
“The wind-style divine spark?” Linley paused for a moment. “No rush. Right now, we aren’t lacking for Deities.”
After this last battle, Linley’s life returned to its normal tranquility. His divine clone focused on training in the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’. Presently, Linley’s ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ had only reached a fairly early stage. It was still very far from full mastery.
After all, after the Profound Truths of Velocity was fully mastered, that represented the simultaneously mastery and fusion of the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects, which together formed the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’.
At that time, Linley would enter the realm of full Gods.
“Given my current speed, who knows how long that would take? A thousand years? Ten thousand years?” Linley himself wasn’t certain. The more he trained, the more he felt this Profound Truths of Velocity was inconceivably vast and complex.
At the same time, Linley’s original body focused on training the Profound Truths of the Earth.
In Linley’s original body, due to having absorbed the soul essences, his soul continuously grew. In just three short months, he had absorbed half of those liquid gold soul essences, and his original body’s sword-shaped soul had already increased by a sizable amount, while the power of his soul had increased nearly sixfold. For a soul to increase sixfold in power...this was truly astonishing.
Actually, even the Grand Warlock’s soul would have been strengthened multiple times after absorbing those twenty million soul essences. In addition, the Grand Warlock’s soul was much more powerful than Linley’s to begin with, and so it was only logical that Linley would grow stronger at such a rapid rate.
One of the great benefits of his soul growing stronger was...
The pace at which he gained new insights in the Laws and was able to visualize attacks was rapidly rising!
After ascending from the Saint level to the Deity level, Linley’s soul had been slightly touched by the natural laws, and so had begun a fundamental transformation, allowing his hypothesizing abilities to increase greatly. Now that his soul was six times more powerful than normal, Linley’s hypothesizing ability was nearly a hundred times faster than in the past when he was a Saint.
In addition, Linley was constantly draining and refining souls, allowing his hypothesizing abilities to continue to increase.
In the past, it might have taken him eight years for a breakthrough, but now, in just those three short months, Linley broke through from the 64 Fused Waves of the Throbbing Pulse of the World to the level of 32 Fused Waves. But upon reaching the level of 32 Fused Waves, Linley clearly sensed that the difficulty had just increased yet again.
“Given this level of speed, breaking through to the 16 Fused Waves level will most likely need another year. Then...how long will it take to break through to the 8 Fused Waves?” Linley was rather astonished.
The Throbbing Pulse of the World rose exponentially in difficulty as one learned more of it. From the 256 waves to the 128 Fused Waves, and then to the 64 Fused Waves, the difficulty increase hadn’t been too great. But the further one went, the exponentially harder it became. In truth, the Throbbing Pulse of the World was one of the fairly high level components of the Laws of the Earth. It was extremely hard to fully master it at the Saint level.
Fortunately, Linley’s soul had dramatically risen in power, after he had absorbed so many soul essences.