Book 20, The Crown’s Riddle – Chapter 34, Hiding One’s Strength
At the peak of Mount Wiesel. The teleportation array lit up again and again.
“So many experts have appeared. They all have such terrifying auras! Far more powerful than even our tribe’s elder...can they all be Deities?” That Azure Steelwing Hawk quietly hid within the thick foliage, staring towards the distant mountain peak. This elf-turned-hawk, upon seeing the many Deities descended, had been terrified into motionlessness. Those two magical beasts that had been fighting fiercely were terrified into no longer fighting as well.
A group of Highgods appeared once more at the peak of the mountain. Just like before; the group was huge!
“If we add in this group, there has to have been more than ten thousand people already.” The young druid murmured silently.
This group of Highgods was led by a man dressed in a long white robe, with white hair and white eyebrows. His brows, however, were nearly vertical, and his eyes were as crafty as a fox’s. This person was someone Linley was quite familiar with; the Highgod Paragon of Wind, ‘Bayer’!
Just as Bayer began to order the people who had been brought over to advance...
Suddenly, a different teleportation array lit up.
“Eh?” The young druid was surprised.
In the past, each teleportation array saw more than a hundred people pass through. But this time, there were only two! A youth and a youngster.
“Although there are only two, judging from their look...that group of a thousand Highgods seems to be quite terrified of that youth and youngster.” The young druid could clearly see that the newcomer youth was face to face with the white-robed, white-haired, white-browed man. They were chatting about something.
These two were of course, Linley and Bebe.
“Bayer, don’t be so arrogant. It remains to be seen who will be the one to acquire the red caltrop diamond.” Bebe snorted coldly.
Bayer, in the Planar Battlefield, had engaged in a battle with Linley’s squad. It could be said that there was an old grudge between the two.
“Then we’ll just have to wait and see.” Bayer swept Linley and Bebe with an icy gaze. He knew that Linley and Magnus had dueled each other, and that Magnus had even been exiled into chaotic space. Thus, Bayer didn’t dare go too far either.
“Let’s go!” Bayer gave the order.
Immediately, that vast group flew away and departed, leaving behind only Linley and Bebe, who stood there at the peak of the mountain.
“I thought that we had moved quite quickly. I didn’t imagine that so many people would have already arrived at this Okerlund Plane.” Linley smiled slightly, then spread out his divine sense. Instantly, it spread out to encompass not just the two continents, but also the vast, endless sea. “This Okerlund Plane is quite large. Even Highgod Paragons would need to use Sovereign’s Might in order to cover the entire plane with their divine sense. If they don’t, they would at most be able to extend their divine sense to part of a continent, perhaps to a circumference of just a hundred million kilometers.”
Although Highgod Paragons had the power of Will, their souls weren’t that powerful; if they simply relied on their own spiritual strength, the amount of area their divine sense could cover wasn’t that large.
In the Planar Battlefield, if Highgod Paragons relied on their own spiritual energy, the area their divine sense could cover was very small. Only by relying on Sovereign’s Might were they able to extend it to eight thousand kilometers! When Linley used Sovereign’s Might, he could extend his divine sense to thirty-six thousand kilometers! But if he relied on his own spiritual energy, he could stretch to five hundred and twelve kilometers!
In a material plane? Linley could control his spiritual energy to cover an entire plane!
“Boss, did you find the red caltrop diamond?” Bebe asked.
Linley began to frown. “Huh. Strange!”
“What is it?” Bebe was a bit worried.
“The entire Okerlund Plane has more than ten thousand Highgods already. Bayer, Dunnington...quite a few Paragons have arrived as well. But there are only two Gods. Clearly, they aren’t Brodie.” Linley was completely puzzled. “In addition, I haven’t located the red caltrop diamond despite searching the entire plane. It might be hidden within an interspatial ring, making it impossible for me to find it.”
Even Sovereigns wouldn’t be able to locate items that were hidden in interspatial rings.
“Boss, Brodie’s not here, and the red caltrop diamond isn’t here either...could it be that Brodie has already left the Okerlund Plane?” Bebe said, worried. “Could it be that he just passed through here, so as to deceive his trackers?”
Linley frowned. “This is a possibility.”
“If we want to investigate as to what happened after Brodie arrived, the easiest way is to ask the Planar Overseer.” Linley swept the nearby courtyard atop the mountain with his gaze. “Now where did the Planar Overseer go?”
“Could it be that the Planar Overseer was already captured by others?” Bebe asked hurriedly.
“Planar Overseers generally aren’t that strong. Most are Gods, while a few are Highgods.” Linley’s divine sense encompassed the entire Okerlund Plane.
After his soul mutation, the strength of his spiritual energy far surpassed that of others using Sovereign’s Might, especially given that he had a Will that was even stronger than that of Paragons.
These other Paragons weren’t able to detect Linley spreading his divine sense out at all.
It was much like how Linley wouldn’t be able to detect it when Sovereigns spread out their divine sense.
“The Okerlund Plane...amongst Deities, aside from a number of Demigods and two Gods, everyone else is a Highgod.” Linley frowned.
As he saw it, the Planar Overseer should be one of the Gods or Highgods.
“Those two Gods...one is female, and her appearance is similar to many sculptures that are located throughout that continent. It seems as though she is that ‘Radiant Goddess’ whom they worship. As for that beastman, he looks like the ‘Beastgod’ carvings that exist in the other continent.” Linley understood that these two shouldn’t be Planar Overseers.
In the material planes...there were some churches that didn’t wholly worship any Sovereigns.
For example, in the Yulan Plane, there were those who worshipped the War God, O’Brien. In the Baruch Empire, there were many who worshipped Linley. Anyone who became a Deity would be able to use and enjoy the power of faith. The power of faith would improve one’s soul, and generally speaking, when training, one would be able to train much more quickly.
For example, when meditating on the profound mysteries, if one had a great reserve of faith energy, many profound mysteries that were originally very hard to understand might suddenly become clearer and more relatable.
But of course...
Faith energy was still an outside source of help. In training, one’s own strength was still the most important. For example, although many Sovereigns enjoyed the benefits of almost unlimited amounts of faith energy, in terms of the profound mysteries, they might spend countless years yet still be unable to become Paragons.
“Boss, that Planar Overseer might be a Highgod.” Bebe said.
“That’s possible.” Linley said with a frown. “But I’m worried about something.”
“Worried about what?” Bebe asked, puzzled.
“I’m worried...that the first people who arrived took away the Planar Overseer, acquired some important information from him, and then, to ensure the others wouldn’t gain that information, kill the Planar Overseer.” Linley had a hint of worry in his brows. He had already come at maximum speed.
But the others had been even faster!
“How could those people have moved so quickly? Boss, your speed far surpasses the speed of most Paragons.” Bebe mumbled.
“Most likely, those Paragons were brought by the Sovereigns directly to the teleportation arrays. I’m fast, but I’m far from being as fast as a Sovereign. As for those groups of Highgods, they are probably Highgods who were drawn from the armies stationed around the teleportation arrays.” Linley was just guessing, but he felt quite certain about his guess.
And in reality, it really was as Linley suspected.
Sovereigns cared deeply about the Overgod talismans. Thus, it would be normal for them to bring a Paragon with them in making haste to the teleportation array.
“Rumble...” The teleportation array lit up once more.
Linley glanced at it, frowning. “There really are quite a few people here. Bebe, let’s leave.”
A surge of wind-type divine power swirled around Linley and Bebe. The two transformed into green blurs, instantly disappearing into the horizon. Linley, the other Deities, and the Paragons...none of them noticed that not too far away, amidst the trees, there was that Azure Steelwing Hawk.
As they saw it, that was just a magical beast. They wouldn’t even glance at it.
“Wow, what sort of speed is this? Although that group of people was fast, I could at least still see them move. But those two...” The Azure Steelwing Hawk was completely stunned.
More than ten thousand Highgods had descended. Their awe-inspiring presence as they flew through the air completely terrified the Saint-level experts of the Okerlund Plane. Soon, the news regarding the ‘Descent of the Gods’ quickly spread out. The Radiant Temple was the first to receive this news, and the Radiant Goddess personally ordered that the forces of the Radiant Temple were to pay attention to their behavior, and that they weren’t to offend these mysterious figures.
As for the Radiant Goddess herself, she saw that vast group of experts as well.
Good heavens. She was a God! In a material plane, she was invincible! But every single one of those thousand-plus individuals were more powerful than her. Any one of them could annihilate the Radiant Church.
The territory of the Fogdeep continent was too vast, stretching millions of miles...a continent such as this, in the Infernal Realm, was nothing, but it was still thousands of times larger than the Yulan continent. The number of empires, kingdoms, and alliances within the Fogdeep continent came to a frighteningly large figure, and most people would never be able to traverse the entire Fogdeep continent in their entire lives.
At the eastern region of the Fogdeep continent. Atop Mount Liangya, within the Moulin Empire. A new estate had suddenly appeared out of nowhere atop the mountain.
Quite a few of the more intelligent people who lived around Mount Liangya immediately understood...that perhaps even Saints wouldn’t be able to suddenly create a new estate atop the mountain. Immediately, quite a few people began to climb up Mount Liangya, wanting to go meet the mysterious expert within the estate. They hoped to take this person on as their master!
If they could be guided by an expert, their futures would change.
Unfortunately...
The closer they drew to the estate, the more terrifyingly powerful the gravity became. Even the number one expert in the area around Mount Liangya, an expert of the ninth rank who had come in the hopes of taking on a master, found that upon reaching a distance of six hundred meters from the estate, he was unable to advance a single step further. From this, one could imagine how powerful the gravity was!
That expert of the ninth rank immediately sighed, “Such a terrifyingly powerful gravitational technique...this is definitely something which only Deities are capable of!”
Within the estate in Mount Liangya. Linley and Bebe were residing here.
Three full days! Linley could say with confidence that he had thoroughly searched the entire Okerlund Plane!
“I originally thought that Brodie would hide the red caltrop diamond deep in the seas, or deep under the earth. But now, it seems, my guess was wrong.” Linley shook his head. It was easy for him to send his divine sense into the empty air, but the deeper one went into the ground, the harder it became.
When his spirit sense had already stretched to cover the entire plane, not even Linley would be able to make it stretch to more than a million meters into the ground. It was simply too hard.
Linley had spent three days. It could be said that he had inspected every single part of the entire Okerlund Plane!
“Boss, can it be that Brodie really did just transit through here? He intentionally made multiple transits to fool people?” Bebe mumbled.
“Everything is possible! The simplest thing to do right now is to find that Planar Overseer. He definitely knows quite a few things.” Linley had no other options.
“But we don’t know that Planar Overseer.” Bebe’s eyes lit up. “Boss, let’s just ask around and see whose forces were the first to arrive, then go find the leader of that group. Boss, now that you’ve fused four types of divine power, your power should vastly surpass the power of a Paragon. If that Paragon dares to refuse to give you an explanation, then beat the crap out of him or even kill him, then have his subordinates hand the person over. Let’s see if they dare refuse!”
A four-way soul mutation. This had bestowed Linley with a Will greater than a Paragon’s.
In addition, his body was now almost as strong and durable as a Sovereign artifact!
Linley’s material attacks, in the past, had already been a bit more powerful than Magnus’. Now his body had dramatically strengthened, and his divine power had also strengthened tenfold! In terms of material attacks...Linley could absolutely lay claim to being the number one Deity!
“I might have the ability to kill Paragons.” Linley said with a frown. “However, this isn’t the time to reveal my power yet. If I were to pressure them with raw force and make it so that the Paragons of the Okerlund Plane were aware of my power, those Paragons would probably join forces against me out of fear!”
Paragons were invincible amongst Deities. This was a well-known legend!
But in the face of a never-before-seen four-way Soul Mutate, this legend regarding Paragons had been shattered! If the Paragons knew how powerful Linley was, and that they wouldn’t be able to fight him one-on-one, they would definitely form an alliance to block Linley! By then, the difficulty level for acquiring the red caltrop diamond would rise greatly.
The largest tree in the forest would attract the most wind.
This was a principle which Linley understood.
“Right now, what I need to do is continue to pretend that I am a Paragon. I can’t reveal too much power.” Linley laughed calmly. “Once the red caltrop diamond appears, I can show my power. By then, I would have already acquired the red caltrop diamond. It would be too late for them! I imagine...I’m not the only one searching for that Planar Overseer. The other Paragons are searching as well.”
“Boss, are you saying...?” Bebe understood.
“Join forces! Join forces with the other Paragons and force the Paragon who captured the Planar Overseer to hand him over and give us his information.” Linley’s divine sense was continually scanning the Okerlund Plane, and he immediately reached out directly into the mind of Dunnington. “And Dunnington...is the best person for me to join forces with.”