Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 10, Sword Intent
Earth, fire, water, wind. Four Laws. The four profound mysteries that Linley had chosen from them were, respectively, the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, the ‘Profound Mysteries of Explosion’, the ‘Profound Mysteries of Circular Softness’, ‘Dimensional Attack’. Of the four, the hardest to fuse was the ‘Profound Mysteries of Explosion’.
During the past five thousand years, Linley had gotten a deeper and deeper understanding of the Laws of Earth and Laws of Water.
This had made it so that Linley had, long ago, completely fused the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, ‘Dimensional Attack’, and the ‘Profound Mysteries of Circular Softness’ into one. As for the Profound Mysteries of Explosion, it had reached a bottleneck in its fusion with the ‘Dimensional Attack’. Once the fusion was completed, then only the final step would remain; completely fusing all four of the profound mysteries into one.
“Rumble...” Waves struck against the slopes of the mountains.
Linley hovered there in midair. “Now, I have two steps to go. The first is to completely fuse the ‘Profound Mysteries of Explosion’ with ‘Dimensional Attack’. Then, I need to completely fuse the four together into a whole. By then, with four profound mysteries all fused together, the power of the attack will be so great that surpassing Augusta will be simple.”
And then, Linley took a breath to calm himself as he stared around himself. There was not, however, any sun in this world of ten thousand kilometers.
Linley raised his head, then said a single word. “Light!”
Instantly, with Sovereign power serving as the core, countless particles of elemental essences began to gather. They frantically compressed, and then formed a dazzling sphere that hung high in the sky; a sun! The sun hung high in the skies, wantonly releasing light which illuminated the entire plane.
With but a thought, Linley willed a membrane to form around this sun, protecting it.
“Normally, it will constantly draw in elemental essence, and afterwards, it will release it in the form of sunlight in a perpetual cycle.” Linley smiled calmly, and then used the technique upon the other side of the plane, creating a moon. Within this plane, the sun and the moon swiveled around the plane in a constant rotation.
When the sun dropped beneath the edges of the plane and reached the back side of it, the moon would just so happen to rise.
“Everything has been completed.” Linley looked at his surroundings. There was the earth, the mountains, the seas...but no life. However, Linley wasn’t capable of creating new life; at most, he would be able to bring some living creatures from other places to this place.
“Crackle...”
A giant spatial tear appeared in the distant skies, and two figures flew in. One was a black-robed Beirut, while the other was a white-robed Bluefire. The two were clearly rather surprised and curious.
“Haha, Linley, although this fused divine plane of yours is a bit small, in terms of its spatial stability, it has actually surpassed the Seven Divine Planes and is close to the Four Higher Planes.” Beirut waved his hand, chopping out a spatial tear, then evaluated, “And in this place, both earth and water are fairly dense in terms of elemental essences.”
Linley let out a resigned chuckle. “Don’t make fun of me. I spent more than four thousand years, but was only able to make such a tiny plane.”
“We aren’t making fun of you.” Bluefire looked at the surrounding area, then laughed. “We can create planes, but alas, we cannot create new life.”
“The creation of new life is not a domain which we Sovereigns can interfere in.” Beirut laughed calmly, then looked towards Linley. Rather expectantly, he said, “Linley, you have spent five thousand years here. Given your training speed, especially after becoming a Sovereign with two Sovereign bodies...I imagine that you now train at least a hundred times faster than before you were a Sovereign. In the past five thousand years, how has your training progressed?”
Bluefire’s eyes lit up as well as he looked eagerly towards Linley.
“I’ve fused five profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, and four of the Laws of Water.” Linley sighed with a frown. “However, I’m still somewhat lacking when it comes to fusing four different Laws. The further I go in my training, the harder it becomes. I imagine that in order for me to truly master the fusion of these four Laws, it will take me anywhere from a few thousand years to...an indeterminate amount of time.”
Beirut and Bluefire exchanged a glance.
Linley’s progression was what they had expected it to be. After all, five thousand years of training as a Sovereign was definitely comparable to five hundred thousand years of training as a Highgod.
The three Sovereigns just stood there in the newborn fused divine plane, laughing and chatting.
“Linley, when are you returning to the Yulan Plane?” Beirut suddenly asked.
“I’m in no rush. My original body is still in Dragonblood Castle, so I don’t need to hurry back. I’m preparing to develop what will be my most powerful attack to date.” Linley laughed calmly. “Now that my understanding in the profound mysteries of the Laws has increased, my previous supreme attack, ‘Microcosm’, is no longer suitable.”
“Makes sense.” Beirut and Bluefire both nodded.
“Then we will wait for you in the Yulan Plane. Haha, after you finish developing it, you have to show it off to us.” Beirut chortled, and then he and Bluefire both left as well.
To develop a technique that suited one’s self wouldn’t take too long. Generally speaking, ten days or so would be enough.
Earth, fire, water, wind. These four Laws had a total of twenty seven profound mysteries. To select the four most appropriate profound mysteries out of them was extremely difficult. However, given Linley’s level of understanding regarding them, and the fact that he had decide to develop towards ‘material attacks’, he had chosen the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, ‘Explosion’, ‘Circular Softness’, and ‘Dimensional Attack’.
Amongst them, ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, ‘Explosion’, and ‘Dimensional Attack’ were exceedingly, terrifyingly powerful attack-focused profound mysteries.
To fuse them together by force was virtually impossible. Thus, Linley had selected ‘Circular Softness’ to serve as the chain which allowed the other three profound mysteries to perfectly fuse together.
According to Linley’s plan...
If he selected the most attack-focused aspects of the four Laws and bound them together, the power should definitely reach an inconceivable level.
Within the void. Chaotic energy streamed everywhere, forming countless ‘comets’ that streaked about in a bewildering, beautiful manner.
Linley stood there within the void, holding Mirage in his hands. He would occasionally shut his eyes and ponder, and then occasionally wave his hands to test out his attacks. Every single test caused space to crumble.
“Although I’ve already fused three profound mysteries, with the fourth profound mystery of ‘Explosion’ not yet being fused in, that’s fine. ‘Explosion’ will simply make it so that the power of my attack will gather together at one point, then instantly blast out.” If countless streams of energy could be focused onto one point, how powerful would that attack become?
Just as Linley continued to perfect his technique, a light suddenly flashed in his mind.
“A sword?” Linley’s eyes lit up. “My spiritual energy is far more powerful than that of an ordinary Sovereign’s. Why don’t I infuse a spiritual attack into the attack. When I strike out with my sword, I will simultaneously launch a material attack and a soul attack!”
Intrigued, he immediately began.
The sixteenth day of research in the void.
After countless setbacks and improvements and reconfigurations...he had continuously perfected his technique, to the point where Linley was now unable to perfect it any further. He had finally created his most powerful, supreme technique!
“I’ve finally perfected it. However, the material attack and soul attack both require me to use all my power to control it. It seems that I will need to use two souls to separately control each aspect.” Both the soul attack and the material attack were supreme techniques; using either of the attacks would force Linley to be completely focused and unable to be distracted.
Thus, his only choice was to have two of his souls separately control each technique.
“It is time to test my most powerful attack.”
With a smile, Linley waved his hand. Mirage vanished, and what appeared was the Life Overgod Sword!
Holding the Life Overgod Sword in his hand, he stared with a sharp gaze towards the void in the distance.
Fused Sovereign power filled the Life Overgod Sword, and instantly, a terrifying aura spread out. “Riiiiiiiiiip.” Countless streams of chaotic energy in the void shattered, as countless spatial tears appeared in the surrounding area. Even before the Life Overgod Sword had struck out, its power could already be felt.
“Rumble...”
The sword moved!
It was like a jade-green bolt of lightning that slashed out.
The tip of the Life Overgod Sword emitted countless rays of sharp sword energy, tearing open countless spatial fractures that extended as far as the eye could see. It seemed as though countless giant dragons were coiling about; the countless spatial fractures affected and pulled at each other as well, instantly causing large regions of space in the void to collapse!
The collapsed region was roughly a hundred meters wide, but in length, it was more than a million kilometers. Apocalypse!
When this attack was unleashed, more than just countless rays of sword energy shot out; actually, a tiny, unremarkable, translucent sword shadow that was just the size of a palm shot out as well.
“Sadly, I wasn’t able to add ‘Explosion’ into the fusion as well, and so strike zone of this sword is actually a hundred meters wide! If I could focus it into a single line, then that would be true perfection.” Linley evaluated. But although he said this, a smile was evident on his face, showing that Linley was quite satisfied with himself.
This attack simultaneously contained a soul attack and a material attack.
“Since it simultaneously contains two different types of attacks, then I’ll name it...‘Sword Intent’!”
Sword Intent. It truly was a ‘Sword Intent’; the ‘Sword’ was the material attack, while the ‘Intent’ was the soul attack.
“I really look forward to the day when I completely, perfectly fuse all four profound mysteries. What level of power will this ‘Sword Intent’ attack of mine reach?” Linley turned and took a simple step, passing through a thousand kilometers of space to enter the divine plane he had created. There was, after all, interdimensional portals that linked Linley’s ‘divine plane of earth’ and ‘divine plane of water’ to the Yulan plane.
He passed through the interdimensional portal and arrived at the Yulan Plane.
The Yulan Plane. Dragonblood Castle.
Dried leaves had been blown everywhere by the wind. It was late autumn. Five thousand years had passed, and the marks of history had been left upon each tree, each tile, and each stone within Dragonblood Castle.
Beneath an ancient tree with a trunk that was so large, ten men would be needed to link hands around it, Linley, Beirut, and Bluefire were gathered.
These three Sovereigns had, quite naturally, formed into a little team.
“Grandpa Beirut, what did you say?” Linley was greatly shocked. “We should head out?”
“Right.” Beirut smiled, then nodded.
“But at my current level of power...I’m not confident in my ability to fight against the Chief Sovereign of Light.” Linley said hurriedly. Augusta had an Overgod artifact as well, after all.
“When you were creating your divine planes and training, Bluefire and I discussed this matter carefully.” Beirut laughed. “You are trying to fuse four different types of profound mysteries from different Laws. This will be even harder than becoming a Paragon in a single type of Law! Although you have made great improvements in the past five thousand years, I’m worried that even if you spend another five thousand years, you probably won’t make any more major improvements.”
Linley fell silent.
Fusing four profound mysteries from different Laws. The power was tremendous, but so too was the difficulty level. The difficulty level was, in fact, greater than that of becoming a Paragon in one Law.
“Thus, we decided to do something else.” Bluefire joined in.
“To do what?” Linley frowned as he looked towards Bluefire and Beirut.
“You are a Fusion Sovereign.” Beirut smiled. “In addition, you have four bodies. Currently, you have only fused two Sovereign sparks. In reality, your potential has yet to be truly unleashed. Our plan is to leave the Yulan Plane and hunt down a Sovereign! We will let you fuse with yet another Sovereign spark!”
Linley couldn’t help but feel shocked.
Bluefire nodded as well as he looked at Linley.
“Given your power, after you fuse with another Sovereign spark, your strength will completely eclipse that of an ordinary Chief Sovereign. It will even surpass the Chief Sovereign of Light’s power.” Beirut’s gaze was scorching. “By then, the three Sovereigns of our Yulan Plane will naturally be able to live carefree lives amongst the world of Sovereigns.”
“Won’t killing Sovereigns attract the wrath of other Sovereigns, who might even stop us?” Linley frowned.