Book 18, Highgod – Chapter 16, Abyssal Mountain
That eerie, crescent red moon hung up high in the void.
A metallic lifeform flew through the skies, bathed in that eerie red glow. Linley peered through the window towards the outside, seeing the occasional castle pop up in the distant mountain forests. Surrounding those rare castles were some massive flying dragons, immortal phoenixes, and other Saint-type magical beasts. These enormous magical beasts were reared in captivity.
Within the metallic lifeform.
“Boss.” Bebe was holding a goblet of wine. Sipping from it, he frowned. “Are we really going to the Abyssal Mountain? The book Grandpa gave us spoke of it, and said that it was the most dangerous location in the entire Netherworld. Although I want to adventure as well, I keep on having the feeling that Sayant’s words are unreliable.”
“Whether his words are reliable or not, we can’t be certain for now.”
Linley put down his goblet, laughing calmly. “We’ve just spoken to a single Lord Prefect. The Netherworld has more of them than just Sayant himself. When we reach the next Prefecture, we’ll ask again. After having spoken to a number of Lord Prefects, we can make our decision!”
Speaking with a Lord Prefect would only take a day or two, but travelling to the Abyssal Mountain would require decades.
Nursing his goblet while walking to the front of the metallic lifeform, Linley stared through the window again, into the ancient night-time scenery of the Netherworld. Linley sighed emotionally, “I hope that the souls of Father, Yale, George, and Dixie were able to stay alive in the Undead Realm.”
From Northbone Prefecture to the Abyssal Mountain was a journey that entailed crossing through six other prefectures. In two of them, the Lord Prefects were situated in rather remote, distant corners. If Linley was to go visit with them, he would have to deviate significantly from his route by hundreds of millions of kilometers...and so Linley gave up and didn’t go visit them.
He went to visit the other four Lord Prefects instead.
Of the other four, two of the Lord Prefects were not present within their residences. It was possible that they were outside adventuring, and so Linley left empty-handed. But Linley did, in fact, meet the other two. One of the two was present in his prefecture and received Linley, but this Lord Prefect didn’t know a thing about the residences of the Sovereigns.
As for the other Lord Prefect, this one did indeed know a bit regarding the Sovereigns.
He said to Linley, “Linley, based on what I know, deep within the Nether Sea, in the Azurewave Island, there lies the residence of a Sovereign. But of course, based on what I know, the ‘Abyssal Mountain’ which Sayant mentioned also does indeed have the residence of a Sovereign. Only, Abyssal Mountain is far too dangerous. It is best if you go to the island instead!”
Upon hearing this, Linley immediately expressed his gratitude and leave.
The entire Netherworld was formed from one enormous continent which was vaster than the five continents of the Infernal Realm put together. At the ends of the Netherworld was a vast, endless sea which was known as the Nether Sea. The Nether Sea was truly endless, and the Azurewave Island was deep within it.
“Go to Azurewave Island?”
Linley shook his head internally. “Traversing the entire Netherworld alone will take nearly two centuries. To then venture into the Nether Sea and travel to Azurewave Island will most likely take another century or two. The trip to Azurewave Island will take at least three or four centuries!” Linley sighed to himself. “In addition, who knows if I will even be able to meet the Sovereign once I reach Azurewave Island? If I’m not even able to meet the Sovereign, I’d have to leave and head to the Abyssal Mountain and spend another three or four centuries! This round trip would take seven or eight centuries. Not worth it. Not worth it!”
The danger level of Azurewave Island was much lower, but it was too far.
Time. Time was precisely what he couldn’t afford to waste right now. The sooner he could save his father and the others, the better. If too much time passed, his father, Yale, and the others might have truly died.
“Boss, you made your decision? We are going to the Abyssal Mountain?” Bebe asked.
“Right. We’re going to the Abyssal Mountain. So what if it is a bit dangerous? At least I am now certain that the Abyssal Mountain is indeed the residence of a Sovereign. If we fail in our journey to the Abyssal Mountain, we can then hurry to Azurewave Island. No matter what, we can’t waste any time on roundabout trips!” Linley said.
“Hey, Boss, take a look outside.” Bebe suddenly said in astonishment.
Linley looked through the translucent metal to the outside as well. He saw that far in the distance, above a tall mountain, in the air above an ancient castle, two men were standing in mid-air, staring at each other. Both were dressed in long black robes, while one had long silver hair and the other had long violet hair. The violet-haired man’s entire body was crackling with lightning.
The two flashed like lightning across the skies, exchanging blows.
BANG!
A large crack in space appeared.
“These two are both fairly strong. They should be at the Seven Star Fiend level of power.” Linley evaluated.
“This journey was so boring. All we saw were some Gods or some weak Highgods fighting amongst themselves. It’s rare to see supreme experts battle. Boss, let’s take a break and see who wins!” Bebe’s eyes were shining as he spoke. Bebe was rather interested in battles between supreme experts.
Linley was helpless.
“We’ll only stop for a short period of time.” Linley still brought the metallic lifeform to a halt.
In the distant horizon, those two supreme experts exchanged multiple blows, their power causing the skies to split open time and time again. But a few moments later, the body of the silver-haired man suddenly vanished like an illusory shadow as he fled at high speed into the distant skies. As for the violet-haired man, he pursued at high speed.
“Hey...that’s boring. They ran away before anyone died.” Bebe said resignedly.
“Enough. It doesn’t matter who lives or dies. We aren’t too far from the Abyssal Mountain by now. We’ll be there in a few months. Let’s make haste.” Linley once more controlled the metallic lifeform, sending it flying forward.
“A few more months? Whoaaaah. I look forward to it. They say the Abyssal Mountain is dangerous, but how dangerous, really?” Bebe’s eyes were gleaming.
“We’ll know when we get there.” Linley laughed, while his mind thought back to the descriptions of the Abyssal Mountain the book he had read.
The Abyssal Mountain was the greatest of the mountains of the Netherworld. It was more than a million meters tall, with a circumference of over ten thousand kilometers. The Abyssal Mountain was constantly surrounded by tri-colored fog clouds, which actually formed Heaven-Earth Chains around the entire mountain. The wall of fog was not to be touched, as any who touched it was almost guaranteed to perish. The Abyssal Mountain was filled with dangers, and people were not to casually enter it!
“Tri-colored fog clouds? Heaven-Earth Chains?”
Linley’s mind was filled with questions. The descriptions the book had regarding the Abyssal Mountain was very sparse. It just repeatedly warned that the Abyssal Mountain was not to be entered, and that it was very dangerous. As for the tri-colored fog clouds and the Heaven-Earth Chains, it didn’t describe them in detail.
Linley spent the next few months in quiet training, and time passed quickly. On the thirty-plus years of this journey, Linley’s divine clones remained constantly in training, while his original body assisted his divine earth clone in meditating on the Laws of the Earth. However, the amount of improvements he made in thirty years wasn’t that significant. For example, his divine water clone had reached the bottleneck in the sixth mystery long ago, but despite so much time having passed, he had yet to make any breakthroughs and reach the Highgod level.
“Boss, Boss!” Bebe’s jubilant cries rang out. “Hurry, hurry, look, look! Abyssal Mountain. Abyssal Mountain!!!”
Linley, who had been seated in the meditative position within the metallic lifeform, absorbed in training, suddenly opened his eyes.
Swoosh!
Linley hurried to the front of the metallic lifeform, staring out through the metallic metal. In the distance, a towering, dazzling mountain spire had appeared, surrounded by a layer of faint blue light. It looked like a blue mountain, but upon taking a closer look, Linley realized that the blue light was constantly flashing.
“It lives up to its reputation as being the greatest mountain of the Netherworld.” A smile appeared on Linley’s face.
Bebe rubbed his chin, then said in praise, “The Abyssal Mountain really is tall. The books say that it is a million meters tall, and before seeing it, I doubted if that was true!”
Seeing this tall mountain, Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
The mountains of his homeland, the Yulan continent, were tens of thousands of meters high at most. In the Infernal Realm, he had seen some extremely tall mountains that were hundreds of thousands of meters tall, but he had never once seen a mountain that was a million meters tall.
“The Abyssal Mountain. We’re here!” Linley let out a sigh.
“Woo, we’re here!” Bebe called out jubilantly. “Goshdarnit, the past thirty years have bored me to death. We finally made it! Everyone says the Abyssal Mountain is very dangerous, but I want to see what exactly is so dangerous about this place. I want to see what it can do me, Bebe.”
Linley glanced sideways at Bebe, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
It truly was quite hard for Bebe to feel as though he was in any danger!
Bebe’s body was so tough that it could be said to be even tougher than godspark weapons. His material defense could be said to be invincible. As for his soul defense...although Linley wasn’t certain, given that Bebe was capable of executing an innate divine ability such as the ‘Godeater’, Bebe’s soul was definitely not weak, and he also had a soul-protecting artifact.
“Don’t be incautious! The Abyssal Mountain is the residence of a Sovereign. No matter how mighty you are, can you be mightier than a Sovereign? Be low-key, be low-key!” Linley laughed.
“Sovereigns wouldn’t lower themselves to attack me, and as long as it isn’t a Sovereign, what have I to fear?” Bebe laughed.
Although they were able to see the Abyssal Mountain from far away, in truth, Linley and Bebe were still more than a hundred thousand kilometers away from the mountain itself. It was precisely because the Abyssal Mountain was incredibly high that they were able to see it from such a distance. However, a hundred thousand kilometers...given the flying speed of the metallic lifeform, they were able to traverse it in less than an hour.
The nearer they drew to it, the harder Linley and Bebe found it to breathe.
“Boss...it really is ridiculous!” Bebe was completely stunned.
“Heaven-Earth Chains, tri-colored fog clouds...so this is what the book referred to!” Linley couldn’t help but feel astonished as well.
The Abyssal Mountain, as they saw when they drew near, gave off the feeling of being so tall that it pierced the very heavens.
But it wasn’t the height of the Abyssal Mountain which was the most astonishing.
The Abyssal Mountain was completely wrapped in fog. The lower half of the mountain was wrapped in a white fog, while the top half of the mountain was wrapped in gray fog. As for the very peak of the mountain, that area was wrapped in a violet fog. Because fog of three different colors surrounded it...there was no way to see deep into the Abyssal Mountain.
The strange thing was, Heaven-Earth Chains had appeared!
They saw...
That like waterfalls, from the top of the Abyssal Mountain to the bottom, countless chains of lightning snaked downwards. These countless chains of lightning were as thick as a normal-sized person, covering the surface of the fog. There was roughly just one or two meters between each chain of lightning.
“Good heavens...every single chain of lightning has to be a million meters long.” Bebe said in praise.
Linley sighed in praise as well. “No wonder they are described as Heaven-Earth Chains! These countless lightning chains that cover the entire mountain...where in the world do they come from? Only a place like this could possibly form such oddities. How marvelous.”
“Let’s go in.”
Linley and Bebe flew out of the metallic lifeform. After storing it away, Linley headed directly to the base of the Abyssal Mountain, flying at high speed. Although they were already quite close, they still had to fly for some time before reaching the base of the mountain.
“Boss, let’s go in.” Bebe began to fly inwards as he spoke.
“Hey, you two, milords, halt, halt!” A cry suddenly rang out from nearby.
Bebe couldn’t help but come to a halt, and Linley turned to look as well. A youth dressed in a long green robe flew out, his face filled with tension. He hurriedly said, “Milords, this area is covered with Heaven-Earth Chains. No matter what, don’t go inside. If you run about inside wildly and touch any of the Heaven-Earth Chains, you’ll die for sure.”
“We know that the Heaven-Earth Chains cannot be touched. We’ll go in from between them.” Bebe laughed.
Linley nodded as well.
Although countless chains of lightning descended from the peak, there was still one or two meters between each pair of lightning chains. This space was more than enough for people to fly through.
“It seems you two don’t know anything.” The youth picked up a rock from the ground, then casually tossed it towards the ‘crack’ between a pair of lightning chains. As the rock passed through the space between the lightning chains...
“CRACKLE!”
Between the chains of lightning, a semi-translucent membrane suddenly formed, which completely blocked the space between them. In addition, it had countless electric spark snaking across its top, flowing between the two ‘chains’. These electric sparks reduced the stone into nothingness.
Linley and Bebe were both stunned.
“Under normal conditions, the translucent membrane between the chains of lightning are invisible. But they are always present. Thus...if you want to go through, you’ll suffer attacks from countless sparks of lightning. This lightning is no ordinary lightning...even powerful Highgods will instantly be reduced into ash by those lightning bolts!” The green-robed youth repeatedly warned.