Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 15, A Choice
Bebe was still staring unhappily towards the direction in which the violet-robed man had ran. Unfortunately, the violet-robed man’s speed was normally above his to begin with. After using Sovereign’s Might, he vastly outstripped Bebe. Bebe could do nothing besides just watch as the man fled. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he was slower, Bebe wouldn’t have used his innate divine ability at the earlier distance of two or three hundred meters.
“Just consider yourself lucky!”
Bebe glanced warily at the surrounding area, then turned and shot back towards Linley like an arrow.
“Boss, are you alright?” Bebe asked, worried.
Linley opened his eyes and glanced at the surrounding area. “The battle just now might have drawn the attention of others. Bebe, let’s move first and talk later!” Amongst the commanders of the Planar Battlefield, Linley could only be considered a low-level one, while Bebe at most would be a mid-level one. The two weren’t yet powerful enough to be able to openly welcome challenges from others!
“Swoosh!” The two transformed into blurs, disappearing from the skies.
Moments after they left, a black-robed figure suddenly appeared in midair. It paused here for a moment, glanced around, and then left.
In the Planar Battlefield, only high-ranking commanders would dare to fly in the air, as they were confident in being able to fight any opponent. After all, it was easy for people on the ground to see those of them in midair. For example, Linley and Bebe only moved about on the ground.
After hiding in a deep cave, Linley and Bebe let out sighs of relief.
“Bebe, you weren’t able to catch him?” Linley said with a laugh.
“Nope! That fellow was hidden really far away. Boss, when you spread out your Blackstone Space, he quickly escaped from it. I used my innate divine ability, but I wasn’t able to reach him with it in time.” Bebe said unhappily. “That fellow really is a bastard. He hid so far away when he attacked. He didn’t even dare to draw too close!”
Linley shook his head. “This is the Planar Battlefield, not a dueling ground. Everyone’s strategies are different! In addition, there are more experts here than just those of the Divine Darkness Plane and Divine Light Plane. Even supreme experts from other planes have decided to come in support of one side. Thus...the experts here are from throughout the Four Higher Realms and the Seven Divine Planes. This is a terrifying battleground. It makes sense for everyone to be so cautious!”
Bebe felt the pressure now, as well.
Aside from the Planar Battlefield, what other place could possibly attract these supreme experts to all gather in one place and think of ways to kill each other?
“I wonder how many commanders are here.” Bebe mumbled.
“As I see it, the Divine Darkness Plane and Divine Light Plane each have at most twenty or thirty commanders. The other planes, all combined, should have more! If ten come from each Higher Realm and from each Divine Plane, more than a hundred would be present.” Linley sighed. “In addition, that’s a conservative estimate. Aside from commanders, there are some other experts who previously were Lord Prefects or regional lords who might have retired long ago, but who have only grown in power. They might come as well!”
Bebe nodded.
Indeed...those people came in as ordinary soldiers.
For example, Linley and Bebe. Bebe was here as an ordinary soldier, but in terms of power, was Bebe weak? It was the same principle. In the Planar Battlefield, there were perhaps only a hundred or so true ‘commanders’, but there were more who held commander-level power.
Over the course of countless years, quite a few supreme experts had given up their positions, possibly because they knew that they were weaker than their challengers. Some couldn’t be bothered to fight over power, and so gave up their positions. As for others...well, it wasn’t good to underestimate anyone.
“Only very few dare to act arrogantly in the Planar Wars.” Linley shook his head and laughed. Those who were arrogant without sufficient strength died early on. The only people who dared to be arrogant now were the likes of Dunnington. “Thus, that person who attacked me can be considered to have used an excellent method. If the first blow was unsuccessful, immediately flee.”
“Too diabolical.” Bebe muttered.
“It is diabolical, but it is also safe.” Linley took a deep breath. “Bebe, as I see it, we should use his method in seeking out targets! We’ll launch sneak attacks...and if we fail, immediately leave without any hesitation.”
“Heh heh, it feels bad being ambushed by others, but pretty great ambushing them.” Bebe’s eyes lit up.
Linley laughed resignedly.
Who wanted to be ambushed? But there was nothing they could do. If they fought openly, they would die upon encountering more powerful experts.
“When ambushing, the two of us will work jointly.” Linley had been planning this on the way back. He immediately said, “When we find a target, Bebe, use your innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’. I’ll immediately execute a material attack! There are very few people capable of blocking my Mirage sword!”
Linley was very confident.
Bebe’s ‘Godeater’ ability acted on a person’s soul and divine spark, while Linley used material attacks.
“Bebe, against what sort of person would your ‘Godeater’ ability fail?” Linley asked.
He had to know the power of Bebe’s ‘Godeater’ ability in order to plan things out.
“Oh. Grandpa mentioned a few things before. Those who are at the Paragon level should be able to resist my innate divine ability.” Bebe said.
Linley nodded. “Anyone else?”
“Those who have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts should be able to block as well.” Bebe said, then began to laugh. “But don’t worry. Very few people have Sovereign artifacts. Most likely only a portion of commanders have Sovereign artifacts, which are divided into three types. There are very few soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts, and also very few people in possession of them.”
Linley wasn’t too surprised by Bebe’s response.
Soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts were made by Sovereigns to protect their own souls! It was natural that an artifact which a Sovereign used to protect his own soul would be effective against Bebe’s technique.
“Bebe, if the enemy uses Sovereign’s Might, would he be able to block it?” Linley asked. This was the real question which he cared about.
“Heh heh, someone who uses Sovereign’s Might...won’t be able to block me.” Bebe said confidently. “My innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, will go through any possible opening. Unless the soul protection is completely flawless, as soon as it encounters any opening, it will seep through, locking onto the soul and divine spark!”
Linley nodded slightly.
“It seems that it would be hard for me to block this technique as well.” Linley laughed.
“Heh heh.” Bebe nodded smugly. “Unless, Boss, you completely repair that soul-protecting Sovereign artifact!”
“Completely repairing it...how difficult a task it is!” Linley laughed in response.
During the course of this conversation, Linley had come to understand how terrifying Bebe’s innate divine ability truly was. Any commander who was not a Paragon or who did not possess a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, upon encountering this technique, would probably find it hard to escape! The only method was to do what that violet-robed man had done; immediately pull away.
Once one was attacked within the range of the technique, one would be finished.
“Amongst the commanders, only a portion of them possess Sovereign artifacts. Even fewer have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts.” Linley was filled with confidence. “Bebe, just by relying on this technique, should be able to deal with the vast majority of commanders. No wonder Beirut said that by relying on this technique, Bebe’s attack power would be close to Beirut’s own.”
Linley was already filled with confidence regarding the Planar Battlefield.
After all...it wasn’t just Bebe who had a supreme technique. Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ and innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, when combined with his godly weapon ‘Mirage’...this was also a very frightening triple threat.
In the blink of an eye, two months passed.
Within the cave.
“Boss, it’s been two more months. We only found a single person, and it was someone on our side. This rate is really low.” Bebe was rather impatient.
They wanted to hunt enemy commanders, but they hadn’t even found any targets. They had power stored up but nowhere to spend it.
Linley nodded. “Bebe, there should be enemies on this side of the Stellar River as well. But although they have come over, all of them are extremely careful. Finding them is very hard. As I see it...let’s go straight to their base!”
“Boss, are you saying...?” Bebe’s eyes lit up.
“Pass through the Stellar River and go to the other side!”
The Planar Battlefield didn’t have a sun, a moon, or stars. Upon raising one’s head, all one would see was the multicolored patches of chaotic space high in the skies. Although it was beautiful, it was also very dangerous. The only reason the battlefield had any light at all and wasn’t steeped in utter darkness was because of the chaotic space high up above.
The Stellar River!
It divided the battlefield into two sides, and was one of the danger zones of the Planar Battlefield.
“Boss, so this is the Stellar River? How can you call this a river?” Bebe and Linley were currently standing amidst the grass, staring towards the distant Stellar River.
The Stellar River was extremely long. According to the descriptions on the map, it divided the entire Planar Battlefield in two, and so naturally it was a million kilometers in length. There was no way one would be able to see to the end of it with the naked eye. And its width...
“It must be a thousand kilometers wide.” Linley looked towards it.
The Stellar River was a thousand kilometers wide. At a glance...it seemed incomparably brilliant and beautiful. But upon taking a closer look, they discovered...that the brilliance wasn’t generated from ‘river water’. Rather, it was from countless spatial flows. The Stellar River was filled with countless spatial tears, which could be seen everywhere.
The spatial tears were so common that they formed into a thick, dense ‘river’, a river completely formed from chaotic spatial tears!
“How are we supposed to go past this damn place?” Bebe said with a frown.
Linley looked carefully as well. The number of spatial tears that appeared and disappeared here were innumerable. But of course, given that it was a thousand kilometers wide, there were some safe zones as well. There were some meteors, mountains, and hills that floated throughout the Stellar River. They just hovered there. Clearly, the regions in which they resided had no spatial tears.
However, they were in the center of this ‘river’. Linley couldn’t just teleport there.
“The Stellar River has two wide corridors!” Linley said. “Only, these two corridors both have army headquarters stationed at each end and are under guard. Our side isn’t so bad; our people guard it and won’t attack us. But if we pass through the wide corridor to reach the other end, we will suffer enemy attacks!”
The two sides of the Planar Battlefield were actually connected to each other solely through those two corridors.
“Boss, are we really going to...?” Bebe raised an eyebrow.
“Right! All we can do is find a safe corridor through the regions of chaotic space and spatial tears.” Linley looked forward carefully as he spoke. “Bebe, some places have no spatial tears. Let’s look carefully for them.”
“No other choices.” Bebe mumbled.
Linley and Bebe both focused their attention on the Stellar River.
Linley quickly discovered that within the Stellar River, there were some places with neither spatial tears nor chaotic space. By connecting these safe spaces...a sinuous pathway could be traversed. What Linley had to do was to find a small pathway that would allow him to reach the other side.
“Boss, look over there. It seems that place is passable.” Bebe pointed and said. “However, I can only see to a distance of a few hundred kilometers. It gets blurry after that. The small spatial tears can’t be seen clearly past that distance.”
Linley gave it a look, then shook his head. “Doesn’t work. The path that I found is the same; there’s no way to be certain as to whether or not the latter half is passable. How about this, Bebe...let’s head to those floating boulders in the center. Once we reach those spaces, we’ll look for a path that reaches the opposite shores.”
“Alright.” Bebe had no options as well.
“Then let’s follow that path. It just happens to lead to the millstone-like boulder over there in the center.” Linley immediately decided.
Linley and Bebe, while paying attention to their surroundings, transformed into two rays of light, quickly advancing to the sides of the Stellar Sea. But upon reaching the sides of the Stellar Sea, Linley and Bebe felt pressure from what they were going to do. The ‘river path’ they had selected was filled with countless spatial tears above and below it, as well as regions of chaotic space.
“Let’s go.” Linley sent.
Linley and Bebe instantly passed through the Stellar River. The two agilely and nimbly threaded their way through, moving up, down, left, and right at high speed, avoiding one dangerous region after another.
At this moment, it was as though Linley and Bebe were dancing atop the blade of a knife. The situation was extremely dangerous.
But at their level, their self-control was at a very high level as well. They didn’t make a single error in any of their movements. Sometimes, they all but pressed against those spatial tears as they moved past them, but they still managed to dodge one danger after another.
“Up ahead.” Linley said, delighted.
Up ahead, there was an enormous floating boulder that was tens of meters wide. It hovered there, and despite having been there for so long, there were no cracks on it. Clearly, this region didn’t have much danger.
“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”
Linley and Bebe advanced, one up ahead, one behind. They landed on the surface of the millstone-like boulder.
“Whew.” Only now did Linley let out a sigh of relief.
He looked at his surroundings. The surrounding area was filled with spatial tears and chaotic space. Linley couldn’t help but say with a laugh, “Bebe, this...I feel as though we are back in the Yulan continent, in the secret room below Dragonblood Castle. However, that secret room had that membrane which blocked out the spatial tears and the chaotic space. Now, however, we don’t have any protection.”
“Boss...” Bebe suddenly said. “Do you think there might be commanders hidden within the central boulders of the Stellar Sea?”