Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 28, Five Hundred Years
In the desolate wilderness, Linley and Reisgem, one tall, the other short, were advancing side by side.
“What’s going on? There’s almost no one around.” Reisgem couldn’t help but grumble and curse, his eyes filled with anger as he looked around. “It’s one thing for those weaker commanders to be hiding, but those fairly powerful ones...when Reihom and I were together, we ran into quite a few of them. But now, all of them are missing.”
The nearby Linley was silent.
Linley was beginning to feel frantic as well. He couldn’t help but look about at the battlefield, but there was nothing to see, not a single person. “The Planar Battlefield seems to have suddenly grown much more barren. There’s not many people visible now. When Bebe and I used Deathgod Golems to lure people in, we still discovered a few people.” Linley couldn’t understand either what was going on either. It had been three years since they had killed that elven male, ‘Occluar’.
It had been three full years, but Linley’s group hadn’t acquired another gold badge!
It wasn’t that Linley’s group had grown soft-hearted; they didn’t find any targets they could attack at all!
During these three years, Linley’s had encountered quite a few ‘people’, but all of them were either Deathgod Golems or truly supreme experts whom the four wouldn’t be able to handle at all. But of course, there was also one time when they ran into another squad. That time, Linley’s group had prepared to attack, because there were only two of them.
But just as they were about to attack and to call Bebe to come over, they discovered...that three more helpers rushed over to join the enemy squad.
This squad was actually a five person squad! And, in terms of power, two were on the same level as Reisgem. Once the battle began, perhaps they might be able to kill one or two of them, but their own side would also lose one or two people. It wasn’t worth it.
“Linley.” Reisgem suddenly said amusedly. “Hypothetically, if we were to be unable to acquire any commander badges during the remainder of the duration of this Planar War, then Reihom and I really would have suffered a loss! After all, we gave you the first commander badge.”
Linley was stunned. All he could do was let out an awkward laugh.
“I’m kidding.” Reisgem pulled out a violet fruit, then began to eat it. “How could we not acquire any more commander badges? Hmph...if push comes to shove, we can wait for the final battle of the Planar War. The four of us will join forces to kill a few more enemy commanders. Given our power, it won’t be too hard if we join forces during the chaos of that battle and take advantage of some people.” Reisgem was clearly quite confident.
Linley nodded slightly as well.
Although he now had two commander badges, he was still some ways off from his target.
“Boss, we have a target!” Bebe’s voice suddenly echoed in Linley’s mind. Linley’s eyes lit up, and he grew excited.
“Reisgem, we have a target.” Linley immediately flew towards Bebe’s direction.
“Oh!” Reisgem hurriedly flew after him as well.
But by the time Linley and Reisgem got there, they discovered that Bebe and Reihom were standing in front of a black-robed figure, whose arms were already torn off, revealing a metallic color beneath his shattered shoulder blades. Bebe, seeing Linley and Reisgem arrive, turned and said resignedly, “Boss, it is a Deathgod Golem.”
Linley and Reisgem were rather disappointed, but they had already been prepared for this.
After all, the number of times this had occurred over the past three years was far too many.
“This Deathgod Golem actually isn’t fleeing.” Linley began to laugh.
“Why flee? It won’t be able to escape anyhow. It’s just a Deathgod Golem, after all. I have plenty of these toys. In addition, I’m quite curious about the second Godeater Rat to appear in the countless planes of the universe.” The metallic golem spoke out, and then looked towards Bebe with curiosity. “Might I ask, what is your relationship with Beirut?”
Linley was startled.
How did others know that Bebe was a Godeater Rat?
“How did you know?” Bebe said, surprised.
The Deathgod Golem said, “Of course I know. You used your innate divine ability several times, causing that Godeater Rat illusion to appear. Quite a few people have seen it already. At first, everyone thought it was Beirut, but afterwards, they learned that it was a youngster who wore a straw hat. When I saw you wearing a straw hat, I naturally recognized you.”
“Ah.” Bebe was rather stupefied. So it was his straw hat which had betrayed him.
“Now I get it! No wonder they all went into hiding and didn’t dare to show themselves.” Reisgem said angrily.
“Of course nobody dares to show themselves. Everyone knows what Beirut’s temperament is like; even if he came in, we wouldn’t be too worried. But this youngster who no one knows is also capable of that technique...nobody wants to treat their own life and future like a joke.” The Deathgod Golem said casually.
Once one was hit by that technique, one would be finished. Even if they had divine clones in the outside world, they would still topple down from their honored position at the peak of the world of Deities.
“Hurry up and f*ck off. I won’t wreck your Deathgod Golem.” Reisgem said irritably. “This really pisses me off. It’s hard for me to locate these people, but I didn’t expect all of them would hide away. They really are cowards!”
It wasn’t cowardice, though; it was caution.
The various commanders had all expended countless amounts of effort to reach their current levels of power. Even if they didn’t acquire any military merits in this Planar War, they could still go participate in the next one. After all, it occurred every trillion years, with five battles each time. To them, military merits were secondary concerns; their lives were the most important!
Once their most powerful clones died, they would be finished.
“What should we do now?” The normally taciturn Reihom knew that the situation looked bad as well.
“What can we do?” Reisgem chewed on his lips. “It was such a rare stroke of fortune for me to get Bebe’s assistance. I really wanted to dominate those people, but all of them went into hiding. Hmph...fine, then. Let’s all find a place to rest as well. After we are finished resting, when the final battle occurs, we’ll all emerge and slaughter them viciously! We’ll acquire more military merits then.”
“That’s all we can do.” Bebe said resignedly.
Linley frowned slightly. Although other commanders might not care too much about how many military merits they acquired, as they could acquire more in the next Planar War, Linley had no time to waste. Linley had to acquire sufficient military merits during this Planar War.
But, with so many people in hiding, what could he do?
“As I see it, let’s go find a place to rest while at the same time, use our Deathgod Golems to lure people close. If we can lure in one or two commanders, that’d be good.” Linley said.
“Right, makes sense. There are another eight centuries from now till the end of this Planar War. It really is possible for us to attract some people over the next eight centuries.” Reisgem nodded in approval.
“Alright, enough thinking about it then. Let’s go find a place to rest.” Bebe was the first to move forward.
Linley’s group casually selected a tall mountain. By relying on Reihom’s supreme technique, they set up a cave estate. Linley’s group of four thus began to live here peacefully. As for controlling the Deathgod Golem to attract people, this mission was handed over to Bebe and Reihom, while Reisgem completely focused on training.
As for Linley, naturally, he was more than happy to seize the opportunity to train hard.
The Planar Battlefield fell into a period of strange tranquility. Aside from a few rare squads of extremely powerful experts, virtually all of the other solitary commanders went into hiding. Most were waiting for the final battle! Some were waiting to leave after the final battle, while others were waiting to participate. Although the final battle would be dangerous, if the commanders were cautious, they would have a survival rate much higher than that of ordinary soldiers.
Five hundred years silently slipped away peacefully!
The tall, desolate mountain. Within the quiet cave estate.
Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were seated next to each other, drinking wine, eating fruit, and chatting casually.
“Linley really is too hard-working in his training.” Reisgem couldn’t help but glance outside towards a distant courtyard, where Linley was currently seated in the meditative position. “It’s good to be hard working, but you have to take a rest.” As Reisgem spoke, he took a huge bite of the fruit.
“My Boss? Of course he is hard-working when training. Naturally, his training speed will be fast as well.” Bebe said smugly.
The habitually taciturn Reihom gave a rare nod and said, “This Linley’s training speed really is astonishing.”
“It really is. Nearly four centuries ago, when Linley woke up, he said that he had already begun to completely fuse four profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. And how many years has this kid been training for? Just two thousand years. How many years have I been training for? I’ve only fused five profound mysteries, myself.” Reisgem said with a smirk.
Bebe just rubbed his nose, not saying a single thing.
In their four-person hunting squad, he was the only one who had no right to say a single thing when the topic of conversation was fusing profound mysteries.
Reisgem and Reihom had both fused five profound mysteries; naturally, though, this was related to the fact that they had been training for far too long a period of time. Linley had trained for just two thousand years, but had nearly fused four profound mysteries as well.
But him?
He hadn’t fused a single thing!
“Hmph. Hmph. My innate divine ability is powerful though.” This was how Bebe mentally consoled himself.
Right at this moment...
A terrifyingly powerful divine sense swept past their cave estate. Reisgem, Reihom and Bebe’s faces changed. Even the training Linley opened his eyes, staring towards the outside in amazement.
“Whoosh!” Reisgem and the other two immediately flew to the outside courtyard.
“Someone was able to use his divine sense to investigate inside. How terrifying.” Reisgem said in a low voice.
“It is either a Soul Mutate expert or a Highgod Paragon.” Reihom said.
Linley was stunned as well. It must be understood that this cave estate was in the heart of this tall mountain. Even the corridor which led from the cave to the outside was a hundred meters long. For someone to sweep the cave estate with divine sense meant that the divine sense stretched to hundreds of meters. Linley had refined countless amethysts, but his divine sense only stretched to a hundred meters.
At such a great distance...
There were only two possibilities. A Soul Mutate or a Highgod Paragon. Of course, a Sovereign could also use his own sense, but Linley’s group wouldn’t be able to sense it at all if that had happened.
“Right!” Linley’s group of four emerged from the estate and looked towards the corridor that led to the outside world.
In the vast, empty corridor, there was a single figure who was walking in towards them. This person was dressed in a long white robe, had white hair, and white brows. His white brows were nearly vertical, and his eyes were extremely long and slanted, and seemed to shoot out a freezing light. Just by walking forward, this white-robed, white-browed man made others feel an unconscious veneration towards him.
“Him!” Linley’s face turned ugly.
This person had once roamed the Infernal Realm, and had been known as the ‘Bloodwind’ Fiend. The meaning of this nickname was that when the wind arose, blood would fly into the air, and people would die.
“Bayer [Bei’e]! What are you doing here?” Reisgem frowned, and a violet light emerged from his body.
“Oh, Reisgem.” The white-robed, white-browed man let out a calm chuckle.
Although Bayer had adventured through the Infernal Realm in the past, the many experts of the universe all believed that Bayer had come from the Divine Plane of Wind, and that he was one of the supreme, king-like figures of that plane. Because...this person had already reached the ‘Paragon’ level!
“What has a Highgod Paragon come for?” Linley felt rather nervous.
Highgod Paragons were truly frightening.
“I didn’t expect you’d come to the Planar Battlefield as well, Bayer.” Reisgem said with a calm laugh.
“Originally, I had no plans to come here. The Planar Wars hold no meaning for me. However...I owed Occluar a favor.” This Bayer said calmly. “Occluar’s most powerful Life-type divine clone was killed by you, so he asked me to help him get revenge!”
Bayer said calmly, “I don’t like owing favors! And so...I came to the Planar Battlefield!”
The faces of Linley and the other three changed greatly.
So Bayer had actually come at the request of Occluar!
“You actually owed him a favor?” Reisgem frowned. Highgod Paragons had already reached the peak of the universe. It was very rare for them to owe someone a favor, but once they did, they would definitely repay it.
“The three of you don’t matter. I only need to kill one person.” Bayer calmly stretched out his right hand, his crystalline finger pointing towards Bebe. “Him! He was the one who killed Occluar. I will only kill him.”
Linley instantly grew frantic.
Reisgem just laughed calmly. “Bayer, do you know what sort of relationship he has to Beirut?”
“Beirut?” Bayer said calmly. “Although he is hard to deal with...even if I do kill his grandson, what will he, Beirut, be able to do to me?”