Book 13, Gebados – Chapter 1, Planar Prison
Caused an utter catastrophe!!!
Linley, Olivier, and Desri had just exhausted themselves to kill Beaumont, and immediately afterwards, a locust swarm of experts had appeared from beneath the Great Botha Levee. The auras of many of these experts had caused their hearts to quiver.
And immediately afterwards, Beirut had appeared.
With but a single palm, he sealed off that hole which was releasing countless experts.
From the ashen look on Beirut’s face, Linley and the others felt a sense of confusion and panic.
“What...what happened?” The sequence of events had caused Linley and the others to feel panicked.
“I’ll deal with you later.” Beirut sneered at them coldly, and then immediately flew downwards. The waters of the Yulan River split apart, making way for him. Only now did Linley and the others discover that beneath the Great Botha Levee, there was a dimensional doorway.
The dimensional doorway was currently completely sealed off by a black energy.
“Beneath the Great Botha Levee is a corridor to another dimension.” Linley and the others immediately understood.
Desri said mentally, “Olivier, that sword of yours just now should have disrupted some sort of enormous magic formation. Look, there’s still damaged remnants of that magic formation that can be seen in the nearby area.” Indeed, beneath the Great Botha Levee was an extremely complicated magic formation.
Because of this enormous, complicated magic formation, the dimensional doorway was completely sealed off.
Beirut’s body began to emit a black aura, and the complicated magic formation below once more began to slowly take form. This magic formation was thousands of times more complicated than any which Linley had ever seen. Even the magic formation centered around Bloodviolet in the Foggy Valley of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was far inferior to this complicated magic formation.
“This magic formation...”
Linley stared at the visible holes that had been chopped into the magic formation. It had an ancient aura, and mysterious, complicated lines and runes. Linley could just barely understand ordinary magic formations of the seventh and eighth ranks, but this magic formation...Linley couldn’t understand it at all.
Complicated!
Mysterious!
After nearly an hour, Beirut finally, completely restored that damaged magic formation.
“Crackle...” Beirut stretched out both hands, and instantly, the shattered black stones of the Great Botha Levee, as though melted by a fire, began to liquefy, then re-fused into a whole, forming the Great Botha Levee once more. The new Great Botha Levee, in front of Beirut, began to slowly descend, once more completely covering that enormous magic formation.
“Boom!”
The Great Botha Levee sank into the bottom of the river, while at the same time, the water once more rushed against the Great Botha Levee, then diverted around it, flowing as it always had.
“Olivier’s sword just then must have cut through the Great Botha Levee and damaged that enormous magic formation, which was why the many experts on the other side of that space were able to charge out.” Linley naturally came to this conclusion.
At the same time, Linley begin to sigh in amazement in his heart. “This magic formation’s power truly is incredible. It was actually able to seal away so many experts.”
The art of setting up magic formations was an extremely profound and immeasurably deep one.
Unfortunately, Linley had never studied it, nor did he have the energy or time to go study it.
Beirut glanced into the distance. This sudden disturbance had attracted the attention of many of the distant spectators as well.
“You three. Come with me.” Beirut looked coldly at Linley, Olivier, and Desri, then flew straight north. Linley, Olivier, and Desri didn’t dare to make a single sound, obediently following behind Beirut.
On the way over, Desri secretly mentally spoke to the others, “Linley, Olivier, how many experts did we accidentally release just now?”
Olivier didn’t make a sound.
After all, Olivier had been the one to accidentally overturn this basket.
“Although the timeframe was short, I think...” Linley thought back to that terrifying scene of countless, locust-like experts charging out. “In that short period of time, there should have been more than a thousand experts who had charged out.” Linley wasn’t certain either as to exactly how many had entered the Yulan continent.
“I caused this mess. I’ll shoulder the responsibility.” Olivier’s voice rang out in the minds of Linley and Desri.
“Hmph! Shoulder it? How will you shoulder it?” Beirut’s icy voice rang out, while at the same time, his rapidly flying body came to a sudden halt.
Beneath them was a line of mountain ranges. Linley, Olivier, and Desri all hurriedly came to a halt, respectfully standing before Beirut. Only, in their hearts, they were extremely shocked...just then, Olivier had been mentally communicating with Desri and Linley.
However, Beirut had heard it.
“Olivier, do you know how great a disaster you have caused?” Beirut sneered coldly.
Olivier ground his teeth, forcing himself to raise his head to look up at Beirut. “Lord Beirut, I will work hard to shoulder all of the consequences.”
“Shoulder them? You aren’t even capable of repairing that great sealing formation, one which an Overgod set up. And you think you will ‘shoulder the responsibility’?” Beirut said with a cold sneer.
An Overgod set up?
Linley and the others were utterly stunned, their mouths gaping. Overgods were far too distant a concept for them. They were part of the Laws of the universe itself!
“This time...it seems we really screwed up.” Linley had the sense that this time, they really had caused a disaster.
“Just repairing that great sealing formation requires one to have the power of a Highgod. Olivier, are you able to repair that formation?” Beirut glanced at him coldly. Even Olivier, at this point, no longer dared to make a sound. He, too, knew that this time, the situation really was severe.
But Linley suddenly had a thought.
Clearly...
“Beirut should be a Highgod.” Linley came to this conclusion.
“Lord Beirut.” Linley spoke as he looked at Beirut.
“Speak.” Beirut nodded faintly.
“Lord Beirut, I wonder what plane that dimensional gateway leads to?” Linley asked with curiosity. “Why is it that so many Deities came out of it, and also...all these years, why have so many outsider experts appeared?”
Linley and the other two had their hearts filled with questions.
Beirut glanced at them. “Actually, this isn’t a big secret. The Deities who came a few years ago and the ones released just now all came from the Gebados Planar Prison.”
Gebados Planar Prison?
Linley had heard this name come up several times. Dylin had come from this place as well.
“Might I ask what sort of a place the Gebados Planar Prison is? Why are there so many experts there, who would come to our Yulan Plane?” Linley asked. Meanwhile, Olivier and Desri didn’t dare to make a sound.
Desri’s heart quivered whenever he so much as looked at Beirut, while Olivier knew that this time, he was the one who had caused this disaster. Thus, of the three of them, only Linley dared to speak at this time.
“This Gebados Planar Prison, as a matter of fact...” Beirut shook his head with a smile. “In truth, it is part of the Yulan Plane.”
“Part of?” Linley and the others were astonished.
Beirut stared into the distance. He seemed to be speaking to himself, “Within this boundless, infinite universe, there are countless common planes. Every single one of those common planes has an interconnected Planar Prison. The material plane and the planar prison, combined, form two sides of a whole.
Linley, Desri, and Olivier could hardly believe it.
They had originally believed that the Gebados Planar Prison had to be a planar prison located somewhere in the universe that was used for the purpose of imprisoning experts. But from the sound of it, every single material plane had a planar prison. They were two sides of the same entity.
“Linley, do the three of you have any idea how long the Yulan Plane has existed for?” Beirut looked towards Linley and the others.
Linley, Olivier, and Desri looked at each other, somewhat lost.
How could any of them know how long the Yulan Plane had existed for?
Even ancient, incomplete historical records went back as far as hundreds of thousands of years.
“I’ll tell you. I myself have lived in the Yulan Plane for millions of years.” Beirut said. “As for how long the Yulan Plane has existed for, that figure is unimaginable to you.”
“A hundred million years?” Linley stated a number he felt was very large.
A hundred million years truly was a long time.
“A hundred million years?” Beirut shook his head disdainfully. “Let me tell you. This Yulan Material Plane has experienced countless troubles. Long, long ago, this world was actually 90% land.”
90% land?
But by now, the ocean areas by themselves made up more than 90%. How had the world changed into a sea world?
“This land has gone through countless eras. The eras which I know about include the ‘Beastmen Era’, the ‘Savage Era’...one era after another. Although humans appeared a very, very long time ago, in truth, humans only became the dominant species on the Yulan continent less than a hundred million years ago!”
Linley and the others all listened quietly, not daring to speak.
“Let me tell you. This material plane was formed by nature. It wasn’t formed by a Sovereign or the Overgods. The countless material planes which nature formed have existed for even longer than even the Seven Divine Plane and the Four Higher Planes.” Beirut said solemnly.
Linley secretly nodded.
If it had been naturally formed, then of course it would have been formed long ago, in the beginning of the universe.
“The exact number, I can’t be sure about. But I know for sure that this Yulan Plane has existed for at least a hundred million hundred million years [ten quadrillion]!!!” Beirut couldn’t help but feel excited as he spoke.
Linley and the others were utterly stunned.
Ten quadrillion years?
So easy to say. It was just a number. But in reality, it was unbelievable.
To be precise, even if the Yulan continent produced only a single Deity every ten thousand years (which wasn’t actually the case)...in ten quadrillion years, the number of Deities which the Yulan continent had produced should have exceeded one trillion.
And this was just the Yulan continent.
“Ten quadrillion years is just based on what I know. If you want to know the exact number of years, you would most likely have to go ask one of the Overgods.” Beirut was certain of this. After all, even Sovereigns only slowly appeared afterwards. As for the Four Overgods, they were personifications of four major rules of the universe. When the universe had formed, the Overgods had appeared as well.
Only they would know exactly how long the material planes had existed for.
Linley forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down his beating heart. Desri and Olivier were doing the same thing.
They were all heroic figures of this era, but in the face of the countless experts which had appeared over as time had flowed on over the past ten quadrillion years, they were most likely just ordinary figures.
“Astonished?” Beirut laughed coldly. “For every material plane, there is a Planar Prison. The Gebados Planar Prison is the matching plane for our Yulan Plane. In the history of our Yulan Plane, if any Saints or Deities angered the Planar Overseer, the Planar Overseer would imprison them into the Planar Prison.”
“The Planar Overseer?” Linley couldn’t help but think of that ‘Hodan’.
Beirut said calmly, “But of course, sometimes there are special circumstances. The Planar Overseer of the Yulan Plane is Hodan. But this is my homeland. Naturally, the matters of the Yulan Plane are for me to control. They aren’t up to that Hodan to decide.”
“Intentionally or unintentionally, the experts who offended the Planar Overseers were all imprisoned there. Although it doesn’t happen frequently, they will slowly accumulate to a frightening number.”
Beirut sighed. “Just the number of experts I personally threw into the Gebados Planar Prison during these past ten thousand years, when I have been in charge of the Yulan Plane, add up to over a thousand. But of course, there are some special circumstances and reasons for that. Normally speaking, only a few will be imprisoned every ten thousand years.”
“Those who are imprisoned are all Saints at the very least. They won’t starve to death. Even if they don’t break through, they have limitless lives.” Beirut looked at Linley and the others. “Linley, think about it. Even if only three are imprisoned every ten thousand years, over ten quadrillion years, how many will have been imprisoned there?”
Linley and the others did the quick mental calculations. Instantly, they were stunned.
This number was simply too astonishing.