Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 42, 108
Linley’s divine earth clone and original body were both absorbed in training in the ‘Laws of the Earth’. Although he constantly increased his understanding with regards to ‘Gravitational Space’, he hadn’t been able to even find the initial steps of fusing the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and the ‘Gravitational Space’!
The most important part of fusing two profound mysteries was in the initial steps. Once one found the initial steps, everything else was just a matter of time. But if one hadn’t even found the initial steps, then no matter how much time you spent, it would be useless.
Linley exhausted all his mind and efforts on trying to decipher the way through which he could fuse these two profound mysteries.
But the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and ‘Gravitational Space’ were both high-class profound mysteries. It wasn’t too hard to fuse the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ with the ‘Essence of the Earth’, but fusing the ‘Gravitational Space’ with it was extremely hard.
“This doesn’t work!” After having spent thirty years without even finding the first steps to fusing these two profound mysteries, Linley started to panic. “If I’m just stuck here, I can spend ten thousand years without being able to improve at all. I can’t let this continue!”
“The conditions this juvenile beast has set truly are not easy ones.” Only now did Linley understand how difficult a task this was. Grinding his teeth, Linley immediately made his decision. “Then I’ll try doing it in a roundabout way!”
His divine earth clone continued to train hard in attempting to fuse the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and the ‘Gravitational Space’.
As for Linley’s primary body, he attempted to let the Gravitational Space and the Essence of the Earth fuse!
The Essence of the Earth had been fused with the Throbbing Pulse of the World long ago. If he could fuse Gravitational Space with the Essence of the Earth, then it might be possible for him to use that fusion to then draw the Gravitational Space and the Throbbing Pulse of the World closer to each other.
By drawing them closer together, he would begin to be able to take those first steps.
Upon having broken through the first few steps, a wide road would lie ahead of him!
The 38th year of Linley’s bitter training.
“Letting Gravitational Space and the Essence of the Earth fuse is much simpler.” Linley had spent eight years time in allowing these two profound mysteries to gradually fuse.
Because the Essence of the Earth and Throbbing Pulse of the World were already completely fused, through the Essence of the Earth, Linley felt some confidence in his ability to fuse the Throbbing Pulse of the World and the Gravitational Space.
The 46th year of Linley’s bitter training!
“This roundabout method has finally succeeded.” Linley had finally begun to fuse the Gravitational Space and the Throbbing Pulse of the World . With a beginning, it would be much easier in the future.
Although he had begun to fuse them, and his original body and divine clone were simultaneously training, Linley would still have to take an extremely long amount of time and break through the bottleneck in order to fuse the Throbbing Pulse of the World and the Gravitational Space, these two profound mysteries.
This year was already the 206th year of Linley’s training!
In addition, the reason why it was so fast was because Linley’s original body’s soul had absorbed a large amount of amethyst soul essences and had become extremely strong.
On the 206th year of Linley being trapped here. Within the cave in the Amethyst Mountains.
“Snooooore. “Snooooore.”
The gentle nasal sound echoed in the room. The juvenile amethyst beast still lay there, occasionally wrinkling his nose in his sleep, appearing quite adorable.
In the middle of that violet globe, Linley’s entire body was covered with bloodstains from that tremendous pressure, but currently, a look of delight was on Linley’s face. “I’ve finally fused those two profound mysteries.” After having spent fully 206 years, and with his original body and divine clone training together, he had finally fused those two profound mysteries.
At present, Linley could actually completely fuse the Throbbing Pulse of the World, the Gravitational Space, and Essence of the Earth together, because the three profound mysteries already had a common element connecting them together.
“However, I still have to wait to actually get out before being happy.” Linley didn’t waste any time.
Raising his head to look upwards, he stared at the black stone glowing with violet light which hovered above him.
“Repulsive force?” Linley frowned.
Although he had already begun to fuse the Throbbing Pulse of the World and the Gravitational Space, Linley still didn’t quite understand how repulsive force could be generated!
“What is it all about? How to counter this repulsive force?” Linley felt quite frantic. To be able to counteract this repulsive force, at the very least, he himself would have to be able to generate a Gravitational Space filled with repulsive force. Only when he had completely understood this would he be able to counteract!
But how?
Linley didn’t know!
“That ‘Reisgem’, the juvenile amethyst beast, said that as long as those two profound mysteries fuse...” Linley suddenly was stunned.
He remembered the words that the juvenile amethyst beast had said; “This is a ‘Gravitational Space’ that was created after fusing the Throbbing Pulse of the World and Gravitational Space, with a little special something mixed in...”
“A little special something mixed in?” Linley murmured.
The attack power of a certain technique depended partially on the profound mysteries themselves, but how to apply the profound mysteries was also very important.
For example, in the Infernal Realm, there might be two Seven Star Fiends who had both fused four types of profound mysteries, but they might use them in different ways. Naturally, their attacks would be different! A particularly ingenuous way in which they used the attacks might cause the power of the profound mysteries to increase many tenfold!
“To be able to cause gravity to generate a repulsive force? How?” Linley carefully inspected the violet light surrounding himself.
However, no matter how much time he spent looking, all he saw was violet light. Linley couldn’t see anything at all.
“What is it, exactly?” Linley repeatedly pondered. “How to use gravity and change it into a repulsive force?” An attractive force and a repulsive force were completely separate types of force. No matter how he pondered it, Linley couldn’t understand how to change between the two.
How could Linley have known?
That when the juvenile amethyst beast said ten thousand years, it was because he was confident that for an ordinary God, it was virtually impossible to exit the violet sphere within ten thousand years.
To fuse two profound mysteries in ten thousand years wasn’t too hard!
Some geniuses could do it in a century.
However, this violet sphere had a special quality. It wasn’t the profound mysteries! Rather, it was a very special type of usage of the profound mysteries, something which Reisgem felt the most proud about.
“How to use it, exactly?”
Ignoring the agony, Linley shut his eyes and constantly visualized and hypothesized in his mind.
His divine earth clone and his original body were completely absorbed into this. They constantly analyzed and pondered, time and time again...and time flowed on.
The 482nd year Linley had been trapped here!
After two centuries of painstaking thought, Linley had already come up with quite a few powerful ways of using and fusing the Throbbing Pulse of the World and Gravitational Space. However, Linley still couldn’t come up with a way to convert the ‘attractive force’ to the ‘repulsive force’.
“What to do?”
Linley was extremely frantic. After pondering for two hundred years, he still hadn’t come up with the way by which a repulsive force could be generated.
“I’ve already thought of everything, but it’s useless. I’ve thought of everything. What to do? What to do?” Linley stared at the violet light around him. He couldn’t help but feel angry. “Can it be that it really will have to be as I told Delia, that I’ll just give up this divine earth clone?”
Linley didn’t want to give up his divine earth clone!
It wasn’t because the divine earth clone represented a life, and it wasn’t because of the divine earth clone’s powerful soul attack.
It was because...
“The vast Earth!” In Linley’s mind, the image of that man, dressed in long white robes, with a long white beard. “Grandpa Doehring...”
It was Grandpa Doehring who had guided Linley onto the path of training in earth-style magic. Linley also knew that Grandpa Doehring had always wanted to break through the Saint level to become a Deity. Only, Grandpa Doehring didn’t have the chance to. Linley himself had trained so hard and had finally become a Deity in the Laws of the Earth, and now had entered the Higher Plane of the ‘Infernal Realm’!
Linley sometimes thought to himself: “Grandpa Doehring, if he knew that I had become a Deity of the earth-element and had entered the Higher Planes, he would definitely be very happy.”
His divine earth clone didn’t just represent a life to him.
It was something which Linley felt Grandpa Doehring had entrusted him with!
He didn’t want to give it up!
“No, I cannot give up! The Laws of the Earth. I will continue to train in them. I definitely will not permit the divine earth clone to die.” Linley constantly told himself this, and then stared at the juvenile amethyst beast. “It’s been less than five hundred years. The juvenile amethyst beast gave me ten thousand years. I still have more than nine thousand years left. I will definitely succeed, definitely succe...”
Midway through his sentence, Linley came to a halt. He stared at the sleeping juvenile amethyst beast.
Or, to be precise, he was staring at those 108 spikes on the back of the juvenile amethyst beast!
Linley stared, stunned, as though he had lost his wits. He muttered to himself, “108? Flat?”
Linley’s mind suddenly had thoughts flash through like lightning, and then, Linley shut his eyes. At the same time...
Within Linley’s mind, he visualized rays of divine power forming, exactly 108 rays of them. First, he organized them in sequence like the way those 108 spikes on the juvenile amethyst beast’s back were organized, and then constantly visualized rearranging them, trying to see what special effects might be generated.
The 108 rays of divine power were simply too complex.
After spending fully half a month visualizing, Linley felt overjoyed. “Indeed. With a different sequence, the power of the gravity will increase a hundredfold.” Linley knew very well that while normally using a ‘Gravitational Space’, at most one would be able to impact another person’s movements, but the impact wouldn’t be extravagant.
But by organizing the power in such a manner, the maximum limits of the attractive force had increased a hundredfold! Most likely, even Highgods would be rendered unable to fly.
“That’s not right. It’s still not as powerful as the gravity here in the Amethyst Mountains.” Linley refuted this mentally. “And wait. The gravity of the Amethyst Mountains isn’t focused downwards. Rather, it is like a sphere, absorbing in all directions. No matter where one is, one will be drawn towards the Amethyst Mountains.”
Linley opened his eyes, and in front of him appeared the violet light which had formed into a sphere. He just looked at it...
“Flat? Sphere?” Linley murmured, but slowly, a light appeared in Linley’s eyes. “Right! Sphere!!! It isn’t a simple flat surface!”
“Crunch!”
The ‘shackles’ binding Linley’s thoughts just shattered.
“Haha, so that’s how it works. Haha, how could I have not realized this? However...to mentally go from visualizing a flat surface to a sphere is incomparably more difficult.” Linley could completely imagine how difficult that must have been. If visualizing the effects on a flat surface had to be done a thousand times, then the visualization and hypothesizing needed for a sphere would be a thousand to the third power! A billion times!”
A thousand versus a billion!
The difference was too great.
What’s more, Linley had spent far more than just a thousand times visualizing all sorts of possible scenarios for a ‘flat surface’. Thus, the number of visualizations needed for the complicated sphere would naturally also be far more.
“If I truly had to blindly exhaust all possible calculations on ways to align the 108 rays of divine power, even if I spent a trillion years, I might not be able to finish it.” Linley understood using this sort of technique wasn’t just a matter of calculating everything out; it required certain insights.
“However, fortunately I know that the true trick of it lies in the sequence of those spikes on the juvenile amethyst beast’s back.” Linley opened his eyes, carefully inspecting the 108 spikes on the back of the juvenile amethyst beast, working hard to memorize the lengths and locations of those 108 spikes.
The 108 rays of divine power in Linley’s mind were constantly changing, while at the same time, Linley also began to circulate 108 rays of divine power around his body.
All sorts of calculations and visualizations. Linley’s divine power around his body began to be ordered as well. As time went on, the repulsive force actually began to lessen, or, to be precise...the repulsive force didn’t lessen, but Linley was able to counteract part of the repulsive force. As Linley’s calculations and visualizations came closer and closer to the true path, the amount of repulsive force counteracted increased even further.
“Huh?” The juvenile amethyst beast suddenly opened his eyes, staring at Linley. He was tremendously shocked. “This...this kid actually...?”
The violet amethyst beast immediately stood up, so angry that his nose was crooked. “It’s only been five hundred years, but this punk has actually begun to approach a basic understanding of the ultimate technique of myself, Lord Reisgem.” The juvenile amethyst beast watched as the earthen light around Linley’s body circulated, the profound mysteries of the Laws contained within the light.
“Right. That’s how you do it!” Linley, overjoyed, opened his eyes.
In the instant he opened his eyes, he saw the juvenile amethyst beast staring at him, filled with anger.
“Mr. Reisgem, I’ve finally reached your requirements.” Linley smiled. Although at present, some repulsive force remained, that was primarily because the juvenile amethyst beast was using ‘Highgod’ level divine power. While the type of technique they used was the same, of course the juvenile beast’s would be somewhat more powerful.
But after the counteracting, the remaining amount of repulsive force no longer had much power.
Linley easily flew up and stretched out with his hand, snatching the black stone emanating the violet light. Immediately, the violet sphere of light collapsed.
The juvenile amethyst beast stared furiously at Linley. “You little punk. You actually were able to understand this technique of mine?”
“Actually, I must thank you, Mr. Reisgem. If it hadn’t been for the spikes on your back, I wouldn’t have been able to break through so quickly.” Linley was currently in quite a good mood. The juvenile amethyst beast instantly understood. “Your mommy! So it was I myself who helped you!” But the juvenile amethyst beast also understood...that even though Linley had seen the spikes on his back, how many people would have been able to connect them with Gravitational Space?
The juvenile amethyst beast knew very well that this sort of unique Gravitational Space was his innate ability. Combined with the spikes on his back, the power was extremely great.
“I’ll keep my promise. Kid, you can leave now.” The juvenile amethyst beast said discontentedly.
“Then, Mr. Reisgem, I’ll leave now.” Linley was very courteous.
“Ugh, after you leave the Amethyst Mountains, I won’t be able to see you again. I was planning on spending some time messing with you.” The juvenile amethyst beast curled his lips as he spoke with resignation.
“Leave the Amethyst Mountains?” Linley was stunned. He turned to look at the juvenile amethyst beast.
The juvenile amethyst beast glanced at him, snorted, then said, “I might as well tell you. You’ve already mastered my ultimate technique. This Gravitational Space technique is capable of nullifying the gravitational pull of the Amethyst Mountains. As for the soul-affecting influence of the wind sound, hmph, with that stone, you won’t be afraid either.”
“The black stone?” Linley lowered his head to look at the stone in his hand.
“All you need to do is bind it with blood...argh, your mommy! The more I talk about it, the angrier I get. I’m not wasting any more words on you. Hurry up and beat it.” The juvenile amethyst beast was very unhappy.
Linley’s heart was filled with questions. “Bind the black stone with blood?” But although puzzled, Linley still dripped a drop of blood onto the black stone. After doing so, the black stone merged into Linley’s body, fusing directly with Linley’s soul. Linley could now feel the strange, marvelous properties of this black stone.
“This black stone...?”
Linley could sense that the black stone contained within it an extremely dense power. Only, the power was too deep and hidden. Aside from that, Linley could also sense 108 rays of spiritual energy circulating within it, constantly changing positions.
Linley realized, to his astonishment...
That the technique he had developed after spending so much time pondering was just one of the most basic, superficial types of techniques.
“What on earth is this black stone?” Linley was astonished. At the same time, he glanced in amazement at the juvenile amethyst beast. “Although this juvenile amethyst beast said he was going to torment me, he actually gave me this black stone. This black stone definitely isn’t an ordinary item.” Linley didn’t understand it at all.
Why did the juvenile amethyst beast do this?
“Thank you, Mr. Reisgem.” Linley immediately said gratefully.
“Hmph.” The juvenile amethyst just turned his head away.
Linley didn’t waste any more words. He immediately executed the Worldwalking ability and left the cave.
The juvenile amethyst beast sat down onto the floor of the cave. Suddenly...the stones of the cave walls began to move transforming into an enormous face.
“Gem-Gem, what, are you mad?” The stone face actually opened its mouth and spoke.
“Hmph. Right. I’m mad.” The juvenile amethyst beast, ‘Reisgem’, said angrily. “Also, don’t call me Gem-Gem! I finally got a toy, and I had just come up with all sorts of ideas to torment him, but you actually didn’t let me, and then even gave him such a gift.”
The lips of the stone face moved slightly. “Gem-Gem, don’t be mad. Back in the day, I owed a debt to the clan leader of the Four Divine Beasts clan...” But halfway through the sentence.
“I told you, DON’T CALL ME GEM-GEM!” The juvenile amethyst beast bellowed, and then let out a snort and slammed straight into the wall, merging into the wall and disappearing.
“After all these years, he’s still like a little kid.” The stone face on the wall said helplessly, and then disappeared, the wall returning to its normal appearance.