Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 39, Bluefire
“Mr. Leylin?” Although surprised and delighted, Linley was puzzled as well. Although in the past, Bluefire had given him some guidance, and he had viewed Bluefire as being very powerful, that was because when Linley was young, he had been too weak. “I’m above average even amongst commanders now! Ordinary commanders aren’t able to do anything to me. But that attack from Mr. Leylin just now...? What level of power has he reached, exactly?”
Linley didn’t know if that attack was a casual attack, or a full-power attack from Bluefire!
“Linley. Bebe. Long time no see.” Bluefire smiled as he strolled over.
“Haha.” The nearby Hemmers suddenly let out a loud, carefree laugh. His laughter echoed like thunder, and he stared at Bluefire with those golden eyes and a scorching gaze. Two rays of golden light that could be seen by the naked eye shot out from Hemmers’ gaze. “What an expert! Here in the Planar Battlefield, when everyone sees me, Hemmers, they all slink away and hide in the distance. It is so rare for me to meet an expert like you. Fighting with this Azure Dragon clan kid is no fun; I feel like my arms and legs are tied. It’s not pleasurable! Your power seems to be decent. Come, let’s have a contest!”
Linley and Bebe were both stunned.
“Is Hemmers crazy?” Linley blinked twice.
What he didn’t know was that Hemmers was the sort of person with a straightforward disposition who loved battle.
As soon as Hemmers finished speaking, he made his move! His steel-hard leg, flashing with golden light, slammed hard against the ground. “BANG!” The ground instantly split apart, with hundreds of cracks appearing. Hemmers transformed into a golden flash of lightning, charging straight towards Bluefire!
“What a boorish man.” Bluefire raised a crimson eyebrow, saying with a soft laugh.
His robes were as white as snow. Bluefire just stood there, not dodging at all.
“BANG!” Hemmers’ right leg, flashing with golden light, struck out towards Bluefire like a meteor. This kick caused the world to tremble, space to distort, and dozens of twisted spatial cracks to appear.
“What a terrifying kick.” Linley’s face changed.
“Boss ,just now, when he fought you, he wasn’t this powerful.” Bebe said.
Linley knew this all too well. He had relied on his gravitational compression to make it so that Hemmers was unable to bring his full force to bear. Otherwise, given how monstrous Hemmers’ innate strength was, how could Linley have exchanged so many blows? “Bebe, carefully watch and see how Mr. Leylin receives the attack.” Linley stared at the battle, not daring to be distracted at all.
Bebe stared as well.
“Not bad.” Bluefire just stood there, but very strangely, that golden leg-blur actually moved through Bluefire’s body.
Bluefire’s body vanished, reappearing three meters away.
“Teleportation?” Linley’s face changed. “No...speed! Astonishing speed, speed comparable to Bayer’s! For him to dare to dodge only at the last moment against Hemmers’ kick, his speed is absolutely...” This was the second time Linley had seen such terrifying speed.
Hemmers had missed with his kick, but he let out an explosive shout. “Good!” At the same time, Hemmers suddenly twisted his thick torso!
He spun about like a tornado, and his golden leg instantly began to spin about as well. With almost no pause, he continuously kicked out towards Bluefire, who still had that calm smile on his face with not a hint of fear or concern.
“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”
In Linley, Bebe, and Hemmers’ eyes, Bluefire’s body seemed to teleport about, consecutively creating multiple after-images, then appearing a hundred meters away, standing there calmly.
“Boss, this Bluefire...what sort of speed is this? What profound mysteries is he using?” Bebe didn’t understand.
Linley trained in the Elemental Laws of Fire, so he had some ideas. “Fire is different from wind. Bayer’s body became agile and illusory; although his speed was very fast, he was also as formless and invisible as the wind. Mr. Leylin is different though; watch, he’s just like the fire. Flames erupt violently and with energy! There’s nothing illusory about Mr. Bluefire’s speed; he explodes with it! His speed instantly explodes forth to a limit, making it so that even you and I feel as though he is teleporting.”
Linley couldn’t stop sighing in amazement.
For a person to reach such a level in speed...this alone would make Bluefire a high class commander.
“What’s going on with you?” Hemmers bellowed angrily. “You keep dodging! This is no fun at all. I, Hemmers, had a favorable impression of you, which is why I wanted to fight you. If you have any ability, fight against me, Hemmers, head on!” Hemmers howled unhappily to one side, clearly knowing that his speed was far inferior to this person.
Actually, Hemmers was very angry. His attacks were very powerful, and his defenses were also very powerful. Unfortunately, he was too slow and he wasn’t skilled in distance attacks.
Thus, when many experts encountered Hemmers, they would immediately flee. This was same for the first two people he had encountered; it was also the same for the next few hundred he had encountered. This, Hemmers absolutely detested people who relied on speed to dodge.”
“You are an amusing fellow.” Bluefire still had a smile on his face.
“Amusing my ass!” Hemmers raised his head and shouted. “Shorty, if you have any skill, come fight me, Hemmers, head on!” As he spoke, Hemmers viciously smashed his two sandbag-sized fists against each other. With a ‘BANG’ sound, it was as though a mountain had just collapsed. The terrifying collision caused spatial cracks to appear even between his fists.
“Shorty, do you dare?” Hemmers raised his head proudly.
Bluefire’s height was quite normal, but given that Hemmers was three meters tall, it wasn’t unfair for him to describe Bluefire as being ‘short’.
“Haha...”
Bluefire couldn’t help but start to laugh. “I’ve been in the Planar Battlefield for so long, but I haven’t actually fought a single time. Fine, then. Today, I’ll exercise a bit...come!” After Bluefire finished speaking, with a ‘bang!’ sound, Bluefire’s entire body began to swirl with flame. Those eyes beneath his crimson eyebrows began to burst forth with fiery light.
He was like a fiery divinity of war!
“Good!” Hemmers laughed loudly, and after speaking, he charged towards Bluefire, the earth trembling with each step he took.
Linley and Bebe continued to watch, focusing their attention on this scene. “Boss, who will win? I mean, if they fight head on, who will win?” Bebe asked mentally, while Linley shook his head. “I’m not too sure. According to your grandfather’s intelligence reports, Hemmers has an innate, massive strength, and his attack power is comparable to that of Highgod Paragons! If Mr. Leylin chooses to fight with him head on...hard to say.”
Bluefire, his entire body swathed in flames, watched calmly as Hemmers charged over.
“HAAARGH!”
His face savage, Hemmers gave a low growl, and his right fist, carrying an inexhaustible, massive force and flowing with the profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, smashed directly towards Bluefire. With a ‘rumble’ sound, spatial began to tremble everywhere the fist went past.
In an instant, the fist arrived before Bluefire.
“Good!” An explosive shout.
Bluefire, who had been calm this entire time, lifted his eyebrows. His right hand, formerly hanging down by his side, suddenly shot out lightning-fast. Linley and Bebe only sensed an eye-piercingly brilliant, fiery red light shoot out. This ray of fiery light slammed directly against Hemmers’ fist, a head on collision...fist against fist!
There was no trick to it at all; it was a complete, head-on collision!
“CRACK!” When their fists intersected, space shattered apart like glass, as dozens of spatial rips appeared!
Hemmers and Bluefire both trembled slightly. Hemmers took three steps back, while Bluefire took one step back as well.
“Uh?” Linley and Bebe, stunned, stared with completely round eyes.
“How terrifying. Bluefire didn’t use a Sovereign artifact or Deity artifact at all.” Linley had been focused on Bluefire’s fist; that was a fist that was as white and pristine as white jade. “Hemmers was birthed from the Divine Earth Plane itself; he was a golden mountain, who after countless years of being nurtured by the plane, gained sentience, which is why his body has such incredible strength. But Bluefire...”
Linley was stunned.
“Superb! Hemmers, you really live up to your reputation!” Bluefire laughed calmly, letting out a praising sigh.
Hemmers stared at Bluefire, stunned, then at his own fist. He didn’t dare believe it. “How is that possible? How is that possible? He fought with me head on, but he actually had a slight advantage?” Hemmers knew very well that just now, in that instant when his fist collided with the fist of the man before him, a sharp, boring force had surged towards him.
That sharp, boring force was like the explosion of a volcano; it had charged forward fiercely!
In the face of that explosive power, Hemmers felt his undefeatable fist...tremble.
“Who are you?” Hemmers said in a low voice.
“Me? You can address me as...Bluefire!” Bluefire said with a calm laugh.
Hemmers narrowed his ox-like eyes, then nodded slightly and said in sonorously, “Fine, Bluefire. I’ll remember you! Even in the past, when I encountered that Highgod Paragon of water, Borhaus [Bo’er’hao’si], when we exchanged punches against each other, I still wasn’t at a disadvantage. You...are very powerful!” After speaking, Hemmers turned and immediately walked away.
Bluefire laughed softly as he watched Hemmers leave. He couldn’t help but let out a sigh of praise. “He really lives up to the reputation of being an expert who was chosen to be a Sovereign’s Emissary, even as a Demigod.”
“Mr. Leylin.” Only now did Linley walk over.
“Leylin, you are so powerful!” Bebe’s eyes were shining, and he hurriedly ran over. “How did you become so powerful? How is it that Odin, one of the other five Kings of the Gebados Planar Prison, was so much weaker than you? Right...is your increase in strength related to your entry into the Necropolis of the Gods?”
Bluefire’s true name, after all, was ‘Zacharias Leylin.’ Bluefire was just a moniker. It was enough for outsiders to know his nickname, but of course people he knew would address him by his name.
“Necropolis of the Gods?” Bluefire let out a chuckle. “It had a bit to do with it, but it wasn’t all because of that place.”
And then, Bluefire turned to look towards Linley, laughing. “Linley, long time no see. I didn’t imagine that you would have already fused four profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. When I first met you, I had the impression that your comprehension ability was excellent...but I didn’t expect that in just two thousand years, you would have reached such a level, and be standing at the peak amongst Highgods.”
Of course commanders would all be considered as being peak Highgods.
But of course, only figures at the level of Highgod Paragons could truly be considered the ‘peak’.
“If it hadn’t been for your guidance in the past, Mr. Leylin, I probably wouldn’t have been so fast in my training.” Linley said modestly.
“Alright, it’s been so long since we’ve met. Let’s sit down and drink some wine and have a good chat.” Leylin said with a soft laugh.
Of course Linley wouldn’t refuse. It would be another three centuries before this Planar War would conclude. He had more than enough time, and he was happy to accompany Bluefire. At the same time, Linley was rather stunned by Bluefire’s power, as well as puzzled. “He was able to fight Hemmers head on with his bare hands, and have a slight advantage? Can it be...that Bluefire has become a Paragon?”
Linley knew exactly how rare Paragons were!
There were many material planes, but over the course of countless years, the number of Highgod Paragons, or to be precise, the number of people suspected of being Highgod Paragons, was less than thirty. “Can it be that my Yulan Plane has produced one as well?” Linley felt quite eager.
Bluefire used a punch to create a cave, and then withdrew from his interspatial ring a table, wine, and food. The wine and food had all been kept chilled, but of course, Bluefire quickly defrosted them. Linley, Bebe, and Bluefire all sat down, eating and drinking and chatting casually.
“I didn’t expect you to come as well, Mr. Leylin.” Bebe grabbed a haunch of Demon Dragon meat and began to chew on it. “I imagine you must have killed quite a few commanders over the past few years in the Planar Battlefield, Mr. Leylin. How many?”
Bluefire held a cup of wine. He took a sip, then laughed and shook his head. “Not a single one.”
“What? Not even one?” Bebe stared. “Mr. Leylin, everything else aside, the speed you showed off as well as that terrifying attack strength of yours, comparable to Hemmers...these two things alone make it so that you can kill many commanders! When those commanders encounter you, they won’t even be able to run!”
Given how fast Bluefire was, how would anyone be able to escape him?
“Do I have to kill people just because I came to the Planar Battlefield?” Bluefire shook his head and laughed. “I came here for two reasons. First, I’ve never taken part in a Planar War, and wanted to come in for a look. As for the second...you don’t need to ask.”
Bebe, knowing that Bluefire didn’t wish to discuss it, asked no more.
Linley, unable to repress his curiosity, asked, “Mr. Bluefire, just now, that speed of yours...as far as I can tell, only that Highgod Paragon, ‘Bayer’, is comparable to you. And your attack power is comparable to Hemmers’. I want to ask you, Mr. Leylin...have you reached the Paragon level in fusing the profound mysteries?”
Bluefire was startled.
“If you can’t tell me, then don’t.” Linley said hurriedly. Linley, too, knew that many Highgod Paragons hid their power and didn’t publicize it. This was why many people were only ‘suspected of being Highgod Paragons’.
“There’s no need for me to keep any secrets from you.” Bluefire nodded slightly. “Indeed. A thousand years ago, I reached the level of Paragon.”