Book 17, Indigo Prefecture – Chapter 46, Spare No One!
Linley felt his heart be instantly ripped apart!
When Linley was together with Delia, he felt as though he were a lonely boat who had found his harbor, with his heart at peace. Their souls had become deeply intertwined, and neither could leave the other!
“No...no...no way...” Linley couldn’t accept it.
He would rather die than see what he just saw.
How many years had it been? From that first time when he had learned of his father’s death...when he had watched as Grandpa Doehring sacrificed himself for him...those two events had caused Linley to sink into an abyss of despair. Ever since those two times, Linley had buried hatred deep into his heart and then encased it in ice.
But because of Delia...
Linley once more felt the warmth of family. In front of Delia, Linley didn’t have to hold back anything. His heart and Delia’s heart were completely joined. Linley felt that he was blissful, that the heavens had treated him generously...
Because he had Delia, his partner in life!
But today...
His father had died. Grandpa Doehring had died. Those two blows had caused Linley to nearly collapse. But the blow he suffered today was even fiercer than the previous two. Delia had been together with Linley for simply too long!
A thousand years of taking care of each other. Their lives had become one!
“This...” Phusro was stunned as well.
“Delia!” Bebe was stunned as well. He, linked together spiritually with Linley, could feel the despair and deathly loneliness radiating out from Linley’s soul. Bebe couldn’t help but feel his own soul quiver.
What sort of despair was this?
“Boss!” Bebe was about to cry as well.
“Rumble...” Tempah, his entire body covered with that black aura, once more violently charged towards Linley, while Linley just stood there stupidly.
“Die.” Tempah was shaking from excitement.
He sent a full-force fist smashing towards Linley’s head. Before his fist arrived, the spatial ripples it generated arrived, striking at Linley’s head. Linley, rather numbly, turned to look, but all he saw in front of his eyes was a fist glowing with flowing black light.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Linley seemed to have gone insane, as he let out a terrifying howl!
His undamaged left arm suddenly swung out, snatching the oncoming fist, delivering it into his own chest. “Bang!” The fierce punch cracked the Sovereign’s Might covering Linley’s body, smashing against his chest.
“CRUNCH!” His ribs shattered and his chest caved in.
“Eh?” Tempah was completely stunned. What was Linley doing?
“Whoosh!” Linley’s draconic tail suddenly swung over, stretching out towards Tempah and wrapping itself around him. Linley’s left arm was clutching Tempah’s right arm, while his draconic tail was binding Tempah, pulling him into a tight embrace.
Tempah wasn’t able to break free!
The two stared face to face, right next to each other!
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” Linley seemed like a madman. He suddenly turned his head, ramming it viciously against the opponent. That fierce, azure-golden spiked horn in Linley’s forehead, covered with that azure light, stabbed down viciously.
“F*ck off!” Tempah wanted to break free.
But Linley’s Sovereign’s Might was on full power, and water-type Sovereign’s Might was durable to begin with. Even worse, Linley’s body was more powerful than his to begin with. Tempah, break free? Unlikely!
“Die!!!” Linley howled ferociously like a madman! His head savagely, repeatedly slammed towards his enemy’s, and so too did that fierce horned spike, covered with Sovereign’s Might!
What was the toughest, sharpest part of Linley’s body?
It wasn’t his fist. It wasn’t his scales. It was these spikes!
They were just like the spikes of an Armored Razorback Wyrm, which before death would unleash its most powerful attack by blasting out these spikes. An ‘Armored Razorback Wyrm’ of the ninth rank was able to use these spikes to pierce through the body of a Saint-level magical beast. Linley’s spikes, in turn, had been strengthened and intensified by the blood essence of the Azure Dragon, as well as that drop of Sovereign’s Might.
The sharpness of those spikes was utterly terrifying.
For Tempah to have his head struck by Linley’s...and especially given that Tempah’s body was inferior to Linley’s to begin with...
After his protective barrier of Sovereign’s Might was broken through after three successive ‘stabs’, Tempah only had enough time to let out a bellow, and then stopped making any noise.
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”
In the blink of an eye, Linley’s head had smashed into the opponent’s countless times.
Bebe, Phusro, Tewila, and even those other four enemy Elders were staring in disbelief. Tempah’s entire head had been slammed into pulp. His divine spark had been knocked flying...but Linley continued to smash.
Smash his head. Smash his body!
Blood flew everywhere. Muddy bits of flesh flew everywhere. The sight was utterly unbearable! Linley’s eyes were as crimson as blood, and he was utterly wild.
“Boss...” Bebe had never seen Linley go so berserk before. Through their soul connection, he could feel that Linley had completely descended into a mindless savagery, the throes of which caused Bebe to tremble.
“This...” The four Elders were stunned as well.
How could a battle between Seven Star Fiends end up like this?
Linley didn’t block Tempah’s attack, but rather grappled Tempah, then used his own head to smash him to death?
As they looked at Linley, whose arm was severed, chest was caved in, and whose face was covered with blood, they felt their hearts grow cold.
“Linley, stop, stop!” Phusro shouted through divine sense. “Stop immediately!” Phusro rushed over, giving Linley a vicious punch, and Linley’s body couldn’t help but tremble.
This punch brought Linley back to sanity.
“What am I doing?” Linley felt as though he had gone completely insane. He then looked sideways at the distant Delia, lying on the ground. His eyes couldn’t help but immediately turn red once again, and then he turned to look at the other four Elders.
Those four Elders hadn’t used Sovereign’s Might!
The four Elders had been stunned by Linley’s display of savagery. Only now did they come to their senses.
“Elder Zabu and the others died. We aren’t of any use here. The appearance of this Phusro was completely out of our expectations. Let’s flee.” The four Elders hurriedly spoke through divine sense, and then they fled in every direction.
But Linley just let out a bellow.
“Rumble...”
Azure light spread out everywhere to a diameter of hundreds of meters, trapping all four of those Elders in the distance who had sought to flee within. The azure light then transformed into an enormous cube!
Blackstone Prison!
A Blackstone Prison formed from Sovereign’s Might!
This was water-type Sovereign’s Might. Although it wasn’t earth-type, it was still far more powerful than Linley’s own ‘God-level divine power’. The ‘durability’ was extremely powerful in particular. These four Elders, in turn, didn’t have Sovereign’s power.
Trapped within this Blackstone Prison, there was no way they could flee at all.
“Linley...” Phusro wanted to speak.
“Phusro. Tewila. Don’t interfere. Leave this Blackstone Prison. Let me handle the four of them!” Linley growled, and a corridor split open from above. Phusro and Tewila let out sighs, then flew out.
Within the Blackstone Prison, Linley could defeat them one by one.
Given that the enemies were not in possession of Sovereign’s Might, this was a battle between two people on completely different levels.
Darkness. Not a single hint of light could be seen.
The four Elders were trapped into different parts of the ‘cube’. All of them wildly struck the walls, but how could they possibly break through this cube formed from Sovereign’s Might?
Within one of the rooms.
“It’s all over.” The gray-robed Elder was in complete despair.
“Whoosh!” The wall suddenly split open, and a person walked in.
The gray-robed Elder’s heart trembled as he looked at the Dragonformed Linley, his entire body covered with blood.
“It’s all because of you.” A growling voice.
“Whoosh!” Linley charged forward. Shocked, the gray-robed Elder wanted to resist, but a ray of spiritual energy spread forth. This was the ‘Spiritual Chaos’ formed from Sovereign’s Might, and the gray-robed Elder instantly fell into a stunned state.
When Linley had dealt against Tempah and the rest of the five, he could have used this technique to put the other four into a stupor. However, Elder Tempah had Sovereign’s Might to protect himself, and so Linley wouldn’t have been able to influence him at all.
Tempah naturally would protect the other four in turn.
This was the reason why Linley hadn’t used this technique yet. But now...the gray-robed Elder, under the effect of the ‘Spiritual Chaos’, was nothing more than a ragdoll target!
“Hello, Linley. My name is Delia...” In Linley’s mind, that scene of his first meeting with Delia in the wind-style magic class at the Ernst Institute drifted to his mind. At that time, Delia was just an adorable little girl.
“BANG!” Linley’s draconic scale covered fist smashed the gray-robed Elder’s head.
Linley’s form moved towards the direction of another room with an Elder.
“Linley, before I leave, can I hug you?” When Linley’s father had died that year...that dark night in Wushan township...Delia had said that she wanted to give Linley a hug before she left.
But that time, Delia had kissed him instead.
“BANG!” Yet another gray-robed Elder died.
Linley walked forward, completely emotionless. In front of him, another corridor appeared within the wall.
“Milord, there’s a person named Delia outside. She says that she was your classmate and that she wishes to see you.” That first time they had met again after their ten years of separation. At that time, Linley had already become the world-renown Master Linley, while Delia was the Envoy of the Yulan Empire.
“Haaaaargh!”
A fist swung out like a mountain, smashing against the body of a gray-robed Elder. Immediately, with a ‘bang’ sound, space itself exploded as a large hole appeared in space. Half of the gray-robed Elder’s body was blasted apart.
Linley, his face expressionless, took a few more steps forward, entering another wall.
“Delia, what is it?”
“I cried.” Delia clutched at Linley’s chest. “I want to cry. When I think about how in the past, you were together with Alice, I want to cry. When I think about how I waited for you for ten years, I want to cry. Wuuu....”
The night of their wedding. Delia had been in his arms, throwing a tantrum.
After Linley killed the final gray-robed Elder, the Blackstone Prison vanished. That drop of Sovereign’s Might had been completely used up as well.
“Delia...” Linley murmured.
His tears fell down, mixing in with the blood on his face.
The entire world was silent. The members of the Azure Dragon clan and the distant spectators didn’t dare make any sound. They could all sense a terrible, deathly pressure. They just watched quietly as Linley flew towards Delia.
“Waaaaa....waaaaaa........” Wade’s sobbing echoed in the mountains and forests.
Linley, hearing his son’s sobs, couldn’t help but tremble.
Linley quietly sat down next to Delia’s body. Delia’s face was still wet with tears. These were the tears she had shed upon seeing Linley be in dire straits during the battle. Linley reached his hand out, gently examining her. As of this moment...Delia’s body didn’t have any aura at all.
“Waaaaaaaa....” Wade was sobbing nonstop.
Linley returned to human form as well. He stretched his arms out, picking up Wade. Wade, in his father’s arms, continued to sob.
“Don’t cry, Wade.” Linley said softly.
“Boss, it’s all my fault.” Bebe was agonized as well.
“Linley, Delia isn’t dead!” A sound rang out. Linley’s entire body shuddered, and he suddenly rose to his feet, hurriedly turning to look towards Phusro. In disbelief, he said, “Phusro, what did you say?”
Phusro said seriously, “Linley, I’ll tell you this. Delia isn’t dead. Not only is she not dead, all of the other people who were struck by that elfin-looking Elder’s dying blow aren’t dead either.”
“But...but...” Linley couldn’t sense any aura from Delia at all.
Phusro said with certainty, “That elfin-looking Elder’s dying blow sent out nearly a million green specks of light flying out. Many of those who were hit by just a single speck of green light all fell. Can it be that you think...that elfin-looking Elder was capable of killing a million Highgods with a single technique?”
Linley came to his senses.
Right. No matter how powerful an Elder was, he would at most be able to kill a hundred or nearly a thousand people with a technique. But to kill a million Highgods? Impossible! Utterly impossible!
In truth, when the elfin-looking Elder had released those green specks of light, although he had sent nearly a million, in reality, because the people in the area were tightly clustered together, most of the green specks of light were ‘blocked’ by the people standing in front.
It would be amazing if even ten thousand died.
“Then Delia isn’t dead...but why doesn’t she have any aura at all?” Linley turned to look at Delia. He sent a ray of spiritual energy out, slowly sending it into Delia’s mind.
Within Delia’s sea of consciousness, her divine spark was still there. Her sea of consciousness, however, wasn’t moving at all. It was deathly still, without any hint of a living aura.
“That elfin-looking Elder should have been an expert of the Edric clan, which moved here from the Higher Plane of Life. He trained in the ‘Edicts of Life’.” Phusro said solemnly. “Although the people hit aren’t dead, there isn’t much of a difference between their state and death.”
Linley hurriedly shook his head.
And then, he looked at Phusro. “Phusro, tell me. What is going on with Delia? Can she be saved?”
Phusro let out a low sigh. “Linley, the most powerful healing stems from the ‘Laws of Life’, but it is also experts of the Edicts of Life who have the most bizarre ways of attacking and harming the soul. That elfin Elder was an elite amongst them. Before dying, he released that technique, spreading out countless specks of green light, each of which is actually just a ‘seed’.”
“Seed?” Linley didn’t understand.
“Linley, a person’s foundation is the soul!” Phusro explained. “That green light burrows into the soul and begins to devour the energy of the soul, converting it to energy for its own use.”
“Devour...convert?” Linley began to understand.
“A single speck of green light is very weak. Compared to the entire soul, it is miniscule. However, the single speck of green light, with each devour, will duplicate and result in two specks of green light. And then, those two specks of green light will continue to devour and become four specks. Four will then become eight...and as this continues...” Phusro’s eyes were filled with awe as well. “It is very terrifying! Although the soul of a Highgod is very strong, under this sort of devouring, the soul will constantly weaken. There will come the day when one’s soul will completely transform into green specks of light, at which point, Delia will die!”
Linley felt that this was unbelievable.
Souls could be described as strong, but also as fragile. Once they were shattered, they would be finished. But this devouring...it wouldn’t immediately cause the soul to be destroyed. Because, to be precise, the green light was merging with the soul and was part of it.
Actually, this was a sort of soul transformation process. Once the transformation was complete, the soul would be finished.
“Then is there a way to save her?” Linley immediately asked. This Phusro had a very high degree of attainment in the soul as well.
“This has reached deep into her soul. Saving her will be very hard.” Phusro shook his head. “I only train in the Laws of Fire. My attacks are powerful, but my healing...alas!”
Linley’s face immediately changed.
“However, supreme experts who train in the Edicts of Life should be able to save Delia. However, we have to hurry to the Skyrite Mountains.” Phusro said. “But in the Skyrite Mountains, the Four Divine Beasts clan does not train the Edicts of Life. If we go to other places to find experts...there’s no time, there’s no time!!!”
There was no time!
These words caused Linley’s entire body to sway.
“There’s no time?” Linley was frantic.
“There’s too few people in the Infernal Realm who train in the Edicts of Life. The eight great clans do, but they are your enemies. How could they possibly help?” Phusro shook his head and sighed.
“No. We can go to another place.” Linley said hurriedly.
“Impossible. There’s no time. Based on the rate at which the devouring occurs...in a year or so, Delia’s soul will be completely devoured.” Phusro said resignedly. “In Indigo Prefecture, I have no idea of any other power aside from the eight great clans that has supreme experts who specialize in the Edicts of Life.”
Linley lowered his head to look at Delia.
Delia was lying there quietly.
“No...no...” Linley couldn’t accept it.
Although she didn’t die, in the future, she would?
But in a short year, even at maximum speed, he would still be within Indigo Prefecture. But within Indigo Prefecture, the strongest forces were the Four Divine Beasts clan and the eight great clans, while only the Edric clan from the Higher Plane of Life possessed supreme experts who trained in the Edicts of Life.
The other powers?
The Four Divine Beasts clan didn’t have any such experts, at least.
What to do?
“Delia...” Linley was going completely mad.
Phusro looked about, seeing many Azure Dragon clansmen lying on the ground. “So many people!” He let out a sigh. “Although those green specks of light are weak, they are very hard to deal with. Ordinary Highgods aren’t able to resist them, unless they have soul-protecting artifacts or have extremely powerful souls. But of course, one can block it if one had Sovereign’s Might. This elfin Elder truly was vicious.”
Linley, lost in his grief, suddenly heard those words, ‘Sovereign’s Might’.
“Sovereign’s Might?” Linley’s body trembled.
“Sovereign’s Might can resist it!” Linley’s heart shook!
“Linley, what is it?” Phusro looked at him. Linley suddenly turned to stare at him. “Phusro, did you just say that Sovereign’s Might can block it? Are you saying that if I had given Delia a drop of Sovereign’s Might and she had been struck, she wouldn’t die?”
“Right. The elfin Elder’s attack is powerful, but once it encounters Sovereign’s Might, it will still dissipate. How could it possibly break through the defense of Sovereign’s Might?” Phusro nodded. “However, don’t be too heartbroken. After all, you need to use Sovereign’s Might while battling as well.”
Linley was stunned.
Battle? Battle?!
But he had three drops of it!
“Why didn’t I give any to Delia? Why?” Linley’s face turned ashen. “Why didn’t I give it to her? Why? Why?!” With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved a drop of Sovereign’s might. Beneath the light of the sun, it seemed so resplendent.
“This...” Seeing this drop of Sovereign’s Might, Phusro was stunned as well.
“Waaaaaaa....” Wade’s sobbing cries continued unabated.
Linley lowered his head to look at the sobbing Wade, then at the ‘slumbering’ Delia, and then at this drop of Sovereign’s Might. His gaze turned more and more savage, and the flesh on his face slowly began to twitch as his face slowly turned purple. And then, a hint of blood slowly began to leak from his mouth.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!!” A howl of incomparable agony ripped forth from Linley’s mouth, shaking the world.