Book 18, Highgod – Chapter 1, What Type of Weapon?
Linley had suddenly gained an insight and broken through, right at that critical moment when the Sovereign had descended, and became a Highgod. This caused Beirut and a few others to snicker in amusement, but quite a few others present were completely shocked. The most stunned of all were the experts of the eight great clans.
“This Linley...became a Highgod?” Patriarch Boleyn stared at Linley.
“He actually became a Highgod!” Patriarch Edric and the others all had very complicated looks on their faces.
“Even if the Sovereign hadn’t descended, we probably would still have to leave.” The Nether Serpent Patriarch sighed.
The reason behind their thousand years of savagery was because they were worried about Linley. They believed that the God-level Linley had to have fused at least five profound mysteries for him, given his power. And once Linley became a Highgod, he probably would have fused all six types and become a Highgod Paragon!
The terrifying power of a Highgod Paragon would be no lower than Beirut’s!
“Fortunately, he didn’t make his breakthrough earlier.” Patriarch Reinales whispered.
“Right.” The various Patriarchs all had very chaotic, mixed emotions right now.
The descent of the Sovereign had caused them to make an unwilling decision. But now that Linley had become a Highgod, they were frightened at the ‘close call’ they had.
Once a Highgod Paragon began a slaughter, the experts of their eight great clans would be like ragdolls for dismembering. Just look at Beirut! He even dared to block attacks from Sovereign artifacts head on. Who could resist such a monster?
“The Four Divine Beasts clan is so lucky, for such a genius to have appeared in their ranks.” Patriarch Barbary said in a low voice. “Let’s hurry up and leave.”
“It really is time to leave.”
The various Patriarchs all turned and left. They didn’t dare to violate the orders of a Sovereign, and Linley’s presence made it so that they left of their own accord as well. No matter what...today, the matters between the Four Divine Beasts clan and the eight great clans had come to an end.
The members of the Four Divine Beasts clan were all completely delirious with excitement and joy. Quite a few clansmen began to weep on the spot. From this day onwards, their Four Divine Beasts clan would no longer have to experience countless dangers and live a life of humiliation.
“It’s over!”
“Haha, it’s finally over!”
Celebratory voices rang out in the air above the Skyrite Mountains. Many clansmen were so excited that they fell to their knees, sobbing. The constant insults and taunts they had suffered in recent days from the eight great clans had been a sort of psychological torture to the Four Divine Beasts clan.
Finally...it was over!
“The forces of the eight great clans have left.” Bebe said.
Linley turned to look as well. The Patriarchs and Elders led the way, and the clansmen of the eight great clans, like a massive, roiling flood of locusts, flew into the air, then boarded multiple metallic lifeforms and left at high speed, leaving behind only those many empty castles and buildings.
“It’s all over.” Gislason had a very complicated look on his face.
The White Tiger Patriarch let out an emotional sigh as well. “Ten thousand years. Ten thousand nightmarish years. Finally, it’s over! Our clansmen won’t have to hide in the Skyrite Mountains, and won’t have to always be afraid.”
Every single member of the Four Divine Beasts clan felt extremely relaxed now.
“Lord Beirut. We will forever remember your great kindness!” Gislason was the first to bow, and then all of the other three clan leaders and Elders all bowed respectfully as well.
Beirut laughed calmly. “If you want to thank someone, thank the Sovereign.”
But Gislason and the others all understood that the Bloodridge Sovereign and the Four Divine Beasts clan didn’t have much of connection. If the Bloodridge Sovereign had truly wanted to save the Four Divine Beasts clan, he would have shown himself long ago. But he had only done so today...
Most likely, the reason for this had something to do with Beirut.
“Everyone!”
Gislason’s voice suddenly rang out, and it echoed in the air above the Skyrite Mountains. Instantly, the countless clansmen all turned their gazes towards him. Gislason said in a sonorous voice, “Today is a day of rejoicing. Over the past ten thousand years, our Four Divine Beasts clan has always been under tremendous pressure, and one Elder after another has perished in battle for the clan...today, we members of the Four Divine Beasts clan have finally once more regained our freedom to roam the skies of the Infernal Realm. We absolutely must celebrate this wonderful event. All clansmen will celebrate for three days!”
“Wonderful!”
“A three day grand celebration!”
Instantly, countless joyful voices rang out, reverberating throughout the air above the Skyrite Mountains.
“Lord Beirut, Phusro, the two of you absolutely must attend our celebration.” Gislason looked towards Beirut.
“Definitely.” Beirut laughed calmly and nodded.
“Haha.” Phusro chortled, then glanced sideways at Linley. As he did, he couldn’t help but laugh loudly. “Linley, you made a breakthrough just as you saw the Sovereign. I, Phusro, have lived countless years, but I’ve never seen such a thing.”
Linley could only grin rather awkwardly.
“You did see the Sovereign, right?” Beirut laughed.
“As soon as I saw him, he left.” Linley still felt rather stunned. Actually, at the moment of the Sovereign’s descent, Linley had already become absorbed in the insights he had gained upon watching the battle between the Grand Elder and Patriarch Barbary.
Linley had no idea as to when the Sovereign had arrived and what he had said.
However...from what everyone else was saying, Linley realized that the departure of the eight great clans was due to them obeying the orders of the Sovereign.
“Sovereigns really are Sovereigns. With but a single sentence, the eight great clans were forced to obediently leave.” In Linley’s mind, he could still see that massive black face, tens of meters high, that stood in mid-air. He also remembered the terrifying gaze of those two eyes.
The supremacy of a Sovereign. Linley, having experienced it, would never forget it.
“Let’s go. Your clan is going to have a huge celebration.” Beirut laughed, then flew into the air.
Linley, Bebe, Phusro, Delia, and the others all followed Beirut into the air. As for Gislason and the other clan leaders, they had left early on to go arrange the banquet. This celebration would be one that was held throughout the Skyrite Mountains.
While flying, Beirut suddenly began to laugh at himself.
Linley couldn’t help but to turn and look at him. Beirut glanced at him, then said resignedly, “Linley, I really did make more work for myself. I wanted to give you some encouragement, so said that I would give you a godspark weapon after you became a Highgod, but who would have imagined that a few moments later, you would suddenly break through?”
Indeed...
Linley really was a bit too efficient.
“Grandpa, you have to forge a good godspark weapon for my Boss.” Bebe said hurriedly.
“Since I’ve given my word, of course I’ll do it.” Beirut nodded, then looked at Linley. “Speak, Linley. What sort of weapon do you want me to make for you?”
Even Phusro began to laugh loudly. “Linley, although Beirut’s godspark weapons aren’t Sovereign artifacts, in terms of toughness and hardness, they are comparable to Sovereign artifacts. In the Infernal Realm...the godspark weapons of Beirut are priceless treasures that can’t be bought.”
“I want...”
Linley pondered for a moment. He had the Coiling Dragon ring, and his soul had just improved greatly. After he refined more amethysts in the future and repaired the Coiling Dragon ring, his soul defense would rise to an extremely high level. What he lacked right now...was defense against material attacks.
“Lord Beirut, you can go ahead and forge a set of godspark armor that can fuse with my scales, just like the one the Grand Elder has. That’ll let my punches and kicks become tremendously powerful as well.” Linley said eagerly. With a set of armor, he could use it for both attack and defense.
A dual-purpose artifact!
The smile on Beirut’s face suddenly turned stiff and forced.
“Boss...you want a set of armor?” Bebe stared at Linley as well.
“Linley...you really are something.” Phusro stared at Linley, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
Linley was rather amazed, and he looked at them in confusion. “What? Is this request of mine very excessive?”
Beirut had a very strange look on his face. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. In the end, it was Bebe who explained. “Boss, forging godspark weapons is an ability inherent to and unique to us Godeater Rats. It requires us to devour divine sparks, then refine the essence within, then coalesce the essence into the shape of a weapon.”
“But every single divine spark is very small, and the amount of essence that can be refined from each one is tiny. Digesting a divine spark takes a long time as well...thus, to forge a large weapon, just think about how many divine sparks will be needed, how much time would be needed, and how much effort it would take! It’s very hard. That’s why godspark weapons are generally very small.” Bebe explained.
Linley began to understand.
He also remembered how the godspark weapon in Bebe’s possession was just a dagger. As for Gislason’s set of godspark weapons, it was a pair of gloves. They were all very small weapons.
But what he requested was a set of armor that could cover his entire body. In terms of size, it was probably dozens of times, perhaps even a hundred times larger than Bebe’s dagger.
“A set of armor that can cover your entire body...to make this, I’ll probably have to work for thousands of years without resting.” Beirut felt quite a bit of pressure.
But he had already given his word.
“Lord Beirut, I apologize. I didn’t understand much about the forging of godspark weapons.” Linley said hurriedly. He didn’t want to make things too hard for Beirut. “Just make a sharp sword for me. It just needs to be comparable to Bloodviolet in length.”
What Linley lacked right now was attack power. With an extremely sharp godspark sword, his attack power would rise significantly.
“Comparable to Bloodviolet?” Beirut let out a sigh of relief.
Perhaps the amount of divine spark essence needed to make a longsword was somewhat more than what was needed for a dagger or a set of gloves, but...what Linley needed right now was, quite clearly, that sort of thin, sharp sword. The amount of divine spark essence needed would just be a few times more than what was needed for a dagger.
“Lord Beirut, what I lack right now is attack power, and so the sharper this godspark weapon, the better.” Linley said.
Beirut said confidently, “Forging something as hard as a godspark weapon and making it sharp is very easy...however, to forge this godspark weapon, I’ll still need to spend roughly a hundred years. You have to wait for a time.”
“No rush, I’m in no rush.” Linley laughed.
The Four Divine Beasts clan was in a state of peace now, and he himself had become a Highgod. Linley couldn’t think of anything he had to do right away. The only thing he ‘had’ to do was spend time with his family, and continue training as much as he could.
The members of the Four Divine Beasts clan all went wild. They all celebrated madly, and be it at the Patriarch’s residence or remote areas such as that great gorge, banquets could be seen everywhere. Everyone from the Patriarch to recently born Saints were all celebrating.
Linley, as an Elder, naturally was toasted by many people.
After three days passed...
Within the great gorge.
“The clansmen have all gone crazy with joy.” Linley laughed as he looked outside the window. The three days of mad celebration had caused the entire Skyrite Mountains to be filled with a festive aura. The stifled, depressed aura that had been present for so many years had been wiped away all at once.
Everyone was exceedingly happy.
“You’ve been smiling non-stop for the past three days.” Delia couldn’t help but laugh.
Linley laughed and nodded. “Right, Delia. That day, when I became a Highgod, I didn’t have the chance to carefully inspect myself, and I’ve been too busy the past three days as well. You go take care of something else. I’m going to spend some time investigating myself.” Linley said, then sat down in the meditative position on their bed.
Delia, seeing this, just laughed, then walked out of the room.
After having reached the Highgod level, he had been baptized once more by the natural Laws. The soul of Linley’s Highgod earth clone had increased in power nearly tenfold. Although the other souls weren’t strengthened much, still...
Linley’s five souls were in reality all one soul. Under the influence of his divine earth clone’s soul, the other four souls were slowly improving as well.
Actually, as long as Linley took his divine earth clone into his original body, then the spiritual strength of the divine earth clone would become the spiritual strength of his original body. After all...they were one to begin with.
“A little while later, I’ll need to spend some time refining some amethysts.” With a thought, Linley reached out and connected with the plane of the Elemental Sea.
The Elemental Sea.
This was a vast, roiling, endless, boundless sea of earthen yellow light. The deeper into the sea one looked, the higher level the quality of the energy of the ‘seawater’.
By now, Linley had become a Highgod. He could already see very deep into the sea, and deep within the sea, a large amount of liquefied Highgod-level divine earth power was present.
“What a thick, dense layer of Highgod-level divine earth power. When I had become a Highgod earlier, I was too worried about the clan, so I didn’t spend much time examining this bottom layer, and to see what it has!” Linley controlled his divine sense to delve still deeper into the Elemental Sea.
An incredibly dense and incomparably powerful aura spread out as waves of earthen water swirled about at the bottom.
The earthen yellow water was clearly different from the ordinary liquefied divine power.
“That should be...?” Linley’s divine sense wasn’t able to go down any further, but he was able to vaguely sense...“The aura of Sovereign’s Might? Right. It is Sovereign’s Might!” After having seen Sovereign’s Might for so long, Linley completely understood.
After all, the depths at which he could investigate was still a ways off from the deepest reaches.
“The bottom of this Elemental Sea is filled with Sovereign power?” Linley was rather stupefied.
The bottom of the Elemental Sea was boundless and limitless. So much Sovereign power made one grow desirous just looking at it...but Highgods had a limit to the depths at which they could investigate. There was no way they would be able to actually acquire any of it!