Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 5, Sword Intent
Instantly, the entire battlefield fell silent.
Over ten Highgods had actually been killed in a single blow. This was simply inconceivable!
“How is this possible?” Linley stared with wide eyes. “Even if it was a soul attack, he would at most be able to hit one person. How could ten Highgods simultaneously fall from the skies? What happened just now?” Linley now regretted it.
Regretted not having seen that sword attack.
“Flee!”
“Flee!”
The divine clones that had emerged from eight of those Highgod corpses began fleeing in terror in every which way. After having witnessed the power of that sword, none of them had any courage to fight again.
“Too powerful. Too frightening.”
These Highgods now truly had the fear of death in them.
“Fleeing?” Learmonth watched calmly as those eight divine clones fled, a hint of a cold smile at the corner of his lips.
Suddenly...
He drew his sword!
In that instant, eight rays of black sword shadows sliced through the air simultaneously, attacking in eight different directions towards those eight fleeing divine clones. Those eight divine clones continued to move forward, but their bodies were bisected, then fell down from the skies.
Blood splashed everywhere in the air.
“That sword!” Linley’s pupils shrank, and in his mind, he frantically began to think about that sword.
That terrifying, nearly invincible sword!
In Linley’s mind, the image of that sword flashed through as fast as lightning. That sort of extremely fast sword which had the ‘intent’ of an exploding volcano. In the instant the sword had been drawn, the power of the technique had been completely, explosively released...it was utterly unblockable. Wherever the sword shadow passed, destruction came with it.
“Is this the Way of Destruction?” Linley hurriedly shook his head. “It doesn’t seem like it. It seemed like...”
In his mind, Linley was frantically trying to deconstruct that attack on a deeper level, the more he analyzed it...with each minor insight Linley gained, the more questions he had as well.
By now, the leader of this bandit group, that muscular, red-robed man, had fled long ago. Just now, he had been calling out for combat and killing, but he only had his subordinates attack. He himself stayed in the back, not charging forward to attack at all. When he saw that destructive sword, he had immediately chosen...
To flee!
“What a terrifying fellow. That sword was capable of simultaneously killing ten-plus Highgods!” The red-robed man’s heart was filled with terror. “If I had been slightly slower, most likely I would have been killed by that frightening Fiend as well. How could these two old fellows have invited such a powerful Fiend?”
The red-robed man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “This Fiend is so formidable. It seems that this time, we’ll need to invite the young master’s teacher, ‘Mr. Wind’, to personally get involved.”
“Hmph.” The red-robed man glanced backwards. “These idiots. Did they think the money of me, Vionnaz, was so easily earned? They were able to make money, but they weren’t able to spend it. Unfortunately, the twelve Highgods that the young master gave me as subordinates all died as well.”
The red-robed man was Vionnaz, one of Inigo’s subordinates.
As for the bandit army, Vionnaz had spent money to invite several major bandit organizations to form a single group. After all, Vionnaz had led twelve Highgods, while the other bandit organizations all combined only had seven or eight Highgods.
In particular, Vionnaz had given them an enormous sum of money.
These bandit groups naturally had joined up. In recent days, they had joined forces to waylay quite a few groups.
“I need to hurry back to let the kid immediately inform the young master.” Vionnaz immediately flew back towards his own residence.
With two divine clones being in two locations, communications naturally were quite fast. Inigo was thus easily kept abreast of the situation regarding Linley’s metallic lifeform.
After the leaders of the bandit group were slaughtered, and especially after Learmonth’s sword attack, all of the bandits lost their willpower and they began to flee in every direction. Instantly...not a single bandit group was now left.
“They really ran quite quickly!” Bebe snorted.
“This Learmonth...” Even Salomon was shocked by Learmonth, standing in mid-air. Learmonth’s face was cold and calm, as though nothing had happened. Indeed, to Learmonth, this sort of small battle was nothing at all.
“Linley?” Delia called out softly.
But currently, Linley was completely lost in his own world as he pondered on that astonishing sword attack. How could he notice Delia’s call?
“Hey, what’s going on with the Boss?” Bebe noticed that Linley seemed strange as well. The nearby Nisse laughed. “Bebe, could it be that your Boss was scared silly by that sword of Learmonth’s?” Nisse teased intentionally.
Bebe gave her a stare. “What do you know? My Boss probably had some insight.”
At this moment, Linley returned to wakefulness.
“Linley, are you alright?” Delia felt that the look on Linley’s face was rather odd.
“I’m fine.” Linley shook his head and laughed. “Just now, I was thinking about a few things. I actually thought that I was about to make a breakthrough, but I was wrong.” Linley glanced at the distant Learmonth, his eyes filled with astonishment and puzzlement. “That sword...”
Linley was also a sword-wielder, and his soul was shaped as a sword.
With regards to the concept of a sword’s ‘intent’, he had his own thoughts as well.
“I’ve only just mastered the basics of the Essence of Fire, and haven’t even become a Deity. Most likely, I guessed wrongly.” Linley was still lingering over those lightning-fast eight sword attacks. At his current level of power, Linley was not capable of seeing through the profound truths of that sword.
The nearby Salomon laughed and said, “Linley, are you shocked by Learmonth’s sword? Indeed, the sword attack by Learmonth just now was definitely at an extremely high level of the ‘Way of Destruction’.”
“Way of Destruction?” Linley raised an eyebrow.
“What, weren’t you able to sense the aura of the ‘Way of Destruction’?” Salomon asked.
“I sensed it.” Linley said, but didn’t follow up.
“If Linley sensed it, why is he surprised?” Salomon was somewhat puzzled, but he didn’t speak it aloud.
Immediately, the lucky, surviving Fiends all headed towards Learmonth and the black-horned silver-haired elder. Soon, more than fifty Fiends gathered around them.
The black-horned, silver-haired elder and the white-horned, silver-haired elder looked at each other, a hint of worry in their eyes. They had already begun to guess...the reason why so many bandits had come to waylay them. It must be understood that generally speaking, when a bandit group discovered so many Fiends, they wouldn’t attack.
The black-haired elder said loudly, “Everyone, I didn’t expect that we would encounter so many bandit attacks on this trip. I truly am sorry. In such a short time, more than sixty Fiends have died. Thankfully, Mr. Learmonth as well as Edwards and his brothers were here...”
“When we reach Bluemaple City, we will add additional money to your compensation.”
The black-horned elder said, and then a golden light flashed as the metallic lifeform once more formed in mid-air. However...the metallic lifeform was now clearly smaller in size.
The Fiends once more filled it, entering the metallic lifeform.
Soon, the metallic lifeform headed out once more. Fiends lived a life on the bloody edge of a blade to begin with. These Fiends who had lived for countless years only wanted their lives to be more exciting and to reach the peak of power in the Infernal Realm. To them, life and death...
Right, death was something they didn’t wish to face, and when they encountered any dangers they weren’t able to resist, the Fiends would flee.
But when death truly came, they wouldn’t be in terror.
After all, ever since they became Fiends, every single one of them had become mentally prepared for that possibility!
“The black-horned elder has a bit of a conscience. He knows he should increase our compensation.” Bebe snorted. “I keep on having the feeling that this escort mission isn’t simple.”
Linley nodded as well. “Right. Only, when we took on the mission, the only thing we noticed was that more than a hundred One Star Fiends and Two Star Fiends had been recruited. Who would have imagined...that there were Four Star Fiends, Five Star Fiends, and even a Six Star Fiend taking part as well!” Linley understood that this sort of ‘group mission’ was divided into different parts.
It was much like the battle at Moon Lake Castle.
Linley’s group was responsible for dealing with gold-robed guards, while the powerful Highgod Fiends were responsible for dealing with black-robed guards as well as the castle’s master.
This mission, with a Six Star Fiend involved, wasn’t a simple one either.
“Everyone is already on board. What is there to think about?” Salomon shook his head. “If just now, when facing the attack of the bandits, taking the chance to flee would have been one thing. But right now, we are already aboard the metallic creature. If we want to leave and retreat now, once this gets out...we’ll lose face.”
Spineless, fearful cowards.
They would definitely become a laughingstock.
“Everyone, calmly train.” Linley said seriously. “No matter what, even if we encounter enemies, the primary target isn’t us. It is the black-horned elder and the white-horned elder. We just need to work hard to protect ourselves.”
Linley didn’t have any intention of protecting their employers. After all...
Those two elders were both Highgods, while Linley himself was just a God.
“Right.”
Everyone nodded, and then scattered towards their own rooms to begin training. In this room, only Linley and Delia were left.
“I wonder why those two old fellows chose us, these Gods, to participate in the mission.” Linley was still filled with confusion. “Forget it. Protecting Delia and Bebe is enough.” Linley looked at Delia, and then closed his eyes and began to train.
“I hope that in a short period of time, I’ll be able to quickly break through this bottleneck in the Profound Truths of Velocity. That way, I’ll be able to protect us better.” Linley chanted to himself quietly.
Red Orchid City. Within a courtyard in a hotel.
Inigo received the news that had been delivered from his subordinate, VIonnaz. He couldn’t help but frown. “I didn’t expect that those two old fellows actually invited such a powerful Fiend. To have trained to such a level in the Way of Destruction means that he is most likely a Five Star Fiend or a Six Star Fiend.”
Inigo didn’t dare imagine that it would be a Seven Star Fiend.
This was because Seven Star Fiends were ultimate experts with their own titles. They didn’t lack for money, and they were at the top of the rankings as Fiends. They generally wouldn’t take on missions.
“Inigo.” The green-robed elder suddenly appeared in the courtyard again.
Inigo, seeing this person, immediately stood up and said respectfully, “Teacher, the results of Vionnaz’ mission is already known...” Inigo immediately told the results of that battle in detail to his teacher.
The green-robed elder frowned. “Oh? Trains in the Way of Destruction, and killed ten Highgods with one sword? Power like this is indeed hard to oppose.” The green-robed elder, although somewhat worried about the power of this opponent, didn’t feel that things were hopeless.
“Teacher, do you feel confident?” Inigo said softly.
The green-robed elder said in a low voice, “Since he’s accepted a mission, then this Fiend shouldn’t be a Seven Star Fiend. Since he is a Six Star Fiend...I should be able to defeat him. However, based on the power of that sword attack you described, the attack of that Fiend is simply too powerful. I still can’t take it on head on.”
“No need to take him head on, Teacher. You only need to kill those two old fellows.” Inigo said hurriedly.
The green-robed elder nodded slightly. “If that’s the case, then I am confident. I just need to separate the Fiends from them for a time.”
“Then I’ll entrust everything to you, Teacher.”
The green-robed elder laughed calmly.
Linley, in his room, continued to train for nearly a year.
“Huh?” Linley opened his eyes. “Why do I feel uneasy all of a sudden?”
For some reason, Linley suddenly felt some restlessness in his heart. Linley immediately took a deep breath, letting himself calm down.
Delia opened her eyes as well. “Linley, what is it?”
Through the window, Linley looked at the outside. “Nothing. Only, while I was training, I felt my mind grow uneasy for some reason.” Right now, the area below the metallic lifeform was a boundless desert. The wild wind howled and desert sand filled the skies.
The metallic lifeform continued to fly at high speed.
“You felt it also?” Delia said in surprise. “I felt some unease as well.”
At this moment, the metallic lifeform was completely covered by yellow sands. Originally, the metallic lifeform’s Fiends didn’t care about the sand, but...for that instant the metallic lifeform was covered by sand, the entire metallic lifeform suddenly, in the blink of an eye...
“BOOM!”
Blew apart!