Book 17, Indigo Prefecture – Chapter 6, The Weakest, Smallest Branch
“Welcome home!” These words caused a hot feeling to gush forth from Linley’s chest.
Feeling the caring gaze of the Baruch clansmen on him, Linley suddenly realized that the difficulties he had endured through the nearly seven hundred years he had spent in the Redbud Continent, traversing the Starmist Sea, and hurrying through the Bloodridge Continent was all worth it!
After wandering in the Infernal Realm for so many years, he had finally returned home!
Baruch released Linley, then looked at Linley, his fierce face hiding unshed tears. “Linley, you must’ve had a rough time of it.”
“Mr. Hanuman, thank you.” Baruch looked towards Hanuman. “This Linley is indeed of my Yulan continent branch.”
“Haha, Baruch, congratulations. Here is the emblem of our clan. Let Linley bind it with blood.” Hanuman handed out an emblem, then laughed and said, “I won’t disturb you further.” As he spoke, Hanuman flew away and departed.
Baruch gave the emblem to Linley.
“Bind it with blood?” Linley studied the emblem.
“This shows your status as a clansman. All members of the clan have it.” Baruch explained, and Linley immediately bound it with blood. In the instant that he did, Linley found out to his astonishment...
That he could actually sense the emblems which others carried.
“Indeed, by relying on this, one can easily differentiate whether or not someone is a member of the clan.”
“Linley.” Behind Baruch, that handsome youth was all smiles. “Do you know who I am?”
Linley couldn’t help but be startled. He had never before met any of the ancestors of his clan. How could he know their name or identities?
“My name is Ryan.” The handsome youth said. “You were talking about my affairs, just now.”
Only now did Linley understand, and he laughed, “Our first Golden Dragonrider Saint of the Baruch clan!”
“Haha, Golden Dragonrider Saint. Right, right.” Ryan began to laugh loudly. “Just now, you mentioned myself and Hazard. Hazard, come here.” Behind Ryan was a muscular man with light golden hair.
“Linley, hello.” Hazard said.
Linley opened his mouth, but Linley suddenly realized that he had no idea how he should address them.
Hazard was his great great great...grandpa?
Whether it was Baruch or Ryan or Hazard, all of them were many generations senior to Linley.
Seeing the look on Linley’s face, Baruch was able to guess what Linley was thinking. He laughed, “Linley, in material planes, people’s lifespan are not very long, so generational questions matter. In the Infernal Realm, however, there are many who have lived for over a hundred million years. Caring about generations is no longer meaningful.”
“Look, in our Azure Dragon clan, which has existed for countless billions of years, there might be a gap hundred million generations between an elder and a junior. Tell me, what’s the point?”
Once things got to a certain level, it became pointless.
For example, in the Yulan continent and the O’Brien Empire.
The War God had many descendants. After five thousand years, his descendants were simply too many, and so O’Brien himself didn’t care much about them. Of the disciples he had accepted, the eldest were almost as old as him, while the youngest were comparable to Linley. There could be a gap of five thousand years.
But despite such a huge gap, they still simply viewed themselves as fellow apprentices.
“The Azure Dragon clan has set its roots and scattered its leaves in very many places. It’s possible that two people who were born at the exact same time might be technically separated by countless ‘generations’ in the family hierarchy.” Baruch laughed. “Thus, not just in our own family, in the entire Infernal Realm, which ‘generation’ one is in doesn’t matter much.”
Linley nodded in agreement as well.
“Boss, Grandpa Beirut and I are separated by I don’t even know how many generations, but I still just call him Grandpa.” Bebe said. “Also, Beirut’s three sons. I just call them by their names.”
Bebe was a member of Beirut’s clan, after all. Technically speaking, he could be considered a descendant of Harry and his brothers.
But because the difference between them in the generational hierarchy was simply too great, Bebe just addressed them by their names.
“Haha.” Ryan laughed. “Linley, at first, we had headaches as well over this matter, but now we are all accustomed to it. All members of the Azure Dragon clan just address each other casually. The only thing that matters for status is one’s power!”
If one was powerful, one would be at a higher level in the clan. Even if one was very senior in terms of the hierarchy but had remained a God despite training for trillions of years while another had trained for just ten thousand years to become a Highgod, one had to bow respectfully when seeing that Highgod.
“You can just address me as clan leader. As for the others, you can call them by their names.” Baruch laughed.
“Call them by their names?” Linley felt that it was awkward.
“Of course.” Hazard laughed. “You’ve reached the God level, but most likely were born within the past thousand years. Dozens of years ago, I had another daughter. She is much younger than you. Are you supposed to address her as ‘ancestor’?”
Linley could only laugh.
To these people who had unlimited lifespan, generational hierarchies really did become meaningless.
“Anyone who isn’t directly within three generations of you can simply be addressed by name.” Hazard said.
“Everyone, stop standing there. Come to the main hall.” Baruch laughed, and Linley followed them deeper in, chatting with everyone while walking. Linley also introduced Delia and Bebe.
“Clan leader.” Linley asked, “How many people does our Yulan branch have?”
“A few hundred people.” Baruch laughed as he looked around. “However, in this gorge, there’re a few other branches as well. Our Yulan branch is a very small branch.” But there was something which Baruch had not said...
That his branch was the weakest, smallest branch.
“Baruch, you seem to be in a good mood?” A teasing voice rang out.
The faces of Baruch and the others immediately became rather unpleasant. Linley turned to look at the source of the voice. From not too far away, a few people walked over, the leader a youth with long green hair. The youth had a rather mocking smile on his face. “What happy affair has happened? Tell us and let us hear it.”
“Ignore them. Let’s go!” Baruch said in a low voice.
Linley noticed as well that the other clansmen didn’t look at that green haired youth at all, continuing towards their residence.
“Baruch, I’m talking to you. Why the ugly face?” The green-haired youth shouted with a frown.
The youths behind the green-haired youth seemed to be quite dissatisfied with Baruch as well, one of them snorting, “Baruch, what, are you going to be so arrogant, just because you have someone supporting you? You aren’t going to even pay attention to us when we speak with you?”
The faces of Baruch, Ryan, and the others were exceedingly ugly to behold.
In the Azure Dragon clan, the Yulan branch was the weakest one. When they had been brought over, they had all been Saints. After undergoing the Ancestral Baptism and hard training, although they had made great improvements, the amount of time they had lived was simply too short, just a few thousand years.
Even the strongest member of the Yulan branch was just at the God level!
God?
In the Infernal Realm, especially in an ancient clan like the Four Divine Beasts clan, if even the strongest person in a branch was still just a ‘God’, then it was all but guaranteed that this branch would be viewed in contempt, be mocked, be satire!
The other branches all had many Highgods.
But yours only had Gods? How could you compete against them? It’d be strange if you aren’t mocked, for that matter!
Although everyone in the gorge belonged to a fairly weak branch, at least the other branches had one Highgod!
“Motherf*cker, what’s with all your bullshit?” Bebe shouted angrily.
Tarosse’s face had turned grim as well, and he icily swept these people. “Where have you lot come from, and why are you saying so much bullshit in our place?”
“You...” Those people were stunned, and then infuriated. They had never imagined that in the weakest Yulan branch, the branch which they often mocked and insulted, there would be someone who dared to be so arrogant towards them!
The leading youth began to laugh from rage. “Baruch, your people are quite bold. They dare to insult me, Asru [A’si’lu]!”
Asru himself was a Highgod!
In the Four Divine Beasts clan, being a Highgod didn’t mean much. On the way over through the Dragon Avenue, Linley had seen more than a hundred thousand patrol soldiers, all of whom were Highgods. One could thus imagine how common Highgods were, here!
But...
The Yulan branch didn’t have a single Highgod!
Thus, Asru, as a Highgod, could be arrogant and unbridled in front of the Yulan branch. As for Baruch and the others, they had to just endure it.
“Asru, don’t go too far.” Baruch said in a low voice. “Today, we have guests.”
“I, go too far?” Asru stared.
“Baruch, you’re quite bold. You dare insult Lord Asru?” The people behind Asru called out.
By now, Tarosse and Bebe were unbelievably angry. Tarosse had never viewed an ordinary Highgod with any consideration. “Kid...”
“Shut your mouth!” Asru pointed angrily at Tarosse.
Tarosse was enraged.
Asru laughed coldly, “I know that you others are Highgods. But you don’t seem to be members of our Azure Dragon clan. You are permitted to stay here, where our Azure Dragon clan lives, which is already something you need to feel thankful for. But if you are to fight...the soldiers of the clan will be the first to exterminate you!”
Asru had noticed long ago that Tarosse, Cesar, and the others were Highgods.
But he wasn’t afraid, because this was the territory of the Azure Dragon clan. Through the clan emblem, he had noticed long ago that these were outsiders.
“Cesar, you all, no matter what, cannot fight.” Baruch shook his head and sent mentally, “The reason you can live here is partially due to Linley’s status, and partially because our clan is located in a remote region. But if you were to fight...regardless of whether you were in the right or in the wrong, the clan soldiers will always favor our clansmen. Once you start a fight, they’ll kill you. Linley, look after your people.”
Tarosse, Cesar, and O’Brien were all stunned.
“Don’t worry, clan leader.” Linley replied.
Linley then turned to look at that Asru. Asru was a Highgod? But what was an ordinary Highgod to him? While in the Miluo Island, when he had used the Blackstone Prison, he had committed wanton slaughter when surrounded by tens of thousands of Highgods.
He didn’t even fear tens of thousands of Highgods.
How could he care about this Asru?
“Kid, what are you looking at?” Asru shouted. Asru was in a very bad mood today. This weakest Yulan branch normally was shouted at and mocked by him as he pleased, without saying anything in response. But today, it seemed as though they were being rather arrogant.
“Asru, right?” Linley laughed.
“Right.” Asru raised his chin slightly.
“Linley, don’t cause trouble.” Baruch was rather worried, and he hurriedly sent through divine sense, “The strongest member of our Baruch clan is just a God. Our branch is too weak. We can’t fight with them.”
“Clan leader, I’m a member of the clan. If I were to act against them, the army soldiers wouldn’t favor them, right?” Linley sent through divine sense.
Baruch said, “They won’t favor them, but you are only a Go-...”
Linley immediately turned to look towards Asru. “Asru, I advise you that in the future, after today, you had best not come annoy our Yulan branch.”
“What did you say?” Asru was flabbergasted.
“In the future, don’t annoy us.” Linley said grimly.
Asru stared at Linley, speechless, then raised his head and laughed loudly. “Haha...” Even those youths behind Asru began to laugh loudly.
The Yulan branch was the weakest one in the gorge. They were always picked on and mocked by the other branches. But they were too weak. They couldn’t resist at all.
“Kid, listen up...” Asru pointed at Linley, about to say something. But suddenly...rays of hazy earthen yellow light suddenly sprang up, enveloping Asru and the others.
Blackstone Space – Supergravity!
Asru’s body hunched over and he immediately fell to his knees. The powerful gravity caused his entire body to shudder. The people behind him were even worse; they immediately collapsed at first before then just barely standing up.
“I told you. In the future, don’t annoy my Yulan branch!” Linley’s face sank, and instantly, the earthen yellow light trembled.
The downwards gravitational force transformed into a repulsive force!
“BOOM!” Asru and the others were thrown far away by that repulsive force. From far away, they stared at astonishment and fear towards Linley. Linley hadn’t even moved, but he had been able to easily toy with them.
The difference was too great.
Linley couldn’t be bothered to spare a single extra glance for Asru’s group. He turned towards Baruch and said, “Clan leader, let’s go back.” In Miluo Island, Linley had slaughtered a path through tens of thousands of Highgods. How could he care about a single ordinary Highgod?
“Linley...”
Baruch’s group was completely stunned.
They had yet to understand that from today onwards...the Yulan branch would never be mocked or humiliated again.