Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 31, A Meeting
Linley had already spent more than five hundred years in establishing his divine plane of wind.
“Whooosh.” A savage wind blew about wantonly, causing the entire area to be in a state of chaos.
In this blurry, indistinct region, not even the skies or the land had yet to be fully formed. Deep within this blurry space, an indistinct figure could be seen, standing in the center, with rays of faint green light emanating towards every direction from his body, causing this blurry region to constantly expand and stabilize.
Linley, his eyes shut, just stood there, his long, light green hair billowing about loosely.
He had stood like this for five centuries now.
“Wind. Invisible. Formless. It can condense to be as sharp as a blade, but dissipate into nothingness.”
Within Linley’s mind, multiple sword shadows were constantly flashing about, executing the various insights he had gained.
An endless torrent of faith power flooded into Linley’s consciousness like a river, causing his understanding of the wind to increase at a shocking rate. In particular, the process of establishing this divine plane of wind had caused Linley to gain many insights, and he had easily broken through many bottlenecks and resolved many difficult questions.
In the past five hundred years, Linley’s level of understanding regarding the Elemental Laws of the Wind had increased at an astonishing rate.
This was because Linley had a solid foundation to begin with.
In five hundred-plus years, Linley had reached the level of fusing five profound mysteries of the Elemental Laws of the Wind. But of course, the Elemental Laws of the Wind had nine profound mysteries. Linley could only be considered to have made some minor accomplishments.
“Haha...”
Suddenly, loud laughter rang out, echoing within this blurry space, causing it to tremble.
“After more than five hundred years, I’ve finally, completely fused the ‘Dimensional Attack’ profound mystery, and the Profound Mysteries of Explosion. Now, the Profound Mysteries of Explosion have already completely fused with the other three profound mysteries.” Linley couldn’t help but let a smile appear on his face. In almost an instant, Linley had begun to completely fuse all four profound mysteries into a whole, within his body.
His understanding regarding the profundities of these four different mysteries began to slowly rise.
“So that’s how it is!”
As he meditated, Linley’s development of his most powerful attack, ‘Sword Intent’, began to change as well.
‘Sword Intent’. Once the sword struck out, the invisible sword energy would strike out a bit too wantonly, unable to completely condense into a single point.
But now that he was beginning to fuse all four of the profound mysteries, Linley was able to begin to slowly condense his strike into a single point.
In the past, when Linley had yet to become a Deity, as his understanding of the profound mysteries grew, his power had risen as well. Now, as his understanding of this fusion of the four profound mysteries grew, Linley’s ‘Sword Intent’ was beginning to rise in power as well.
“Another four or five centuries will be needed for this plane to be created. This is enough to allow me to rise in power once more.” While establishing his divine plane of wind, Linley was training as well. Not just his wind-type Sovereign clone; even his divine fire clone, his water-type Sovereign clone, and his earth-type Sovereign clone were completely focused on training as well.
Linley was completely focusing on increasing his strength!
The Divine Earth Plane. Black Tortoise Continent.
The Black Tortoise Continent was the continent which one of the four ancestors, the Black Tortoise, had controlled. Although the Black Tortoise had perished nearly twenty thousand years ago, the Black Tortoise Continent hadn’t changed.
Green grass could be seen everywhere, and a group of people was agilely advancing through it.
The leader was a brown-haired youth, while behind him was four men and two women. This was Sovereign Linley’s party.
“So that’s how it is.”
While walking forward, a smile suddenly appeared on Linley’s face. His right hand gestured twice slightly, and an blurred sword ripple shot out from his hands, causing space to instantly shatter.
“The Sovereign is...?”
Everyone, Russell and the rest of the six included, were all puzzled. Recently, over the course of their journey, Linley couldn’t help but test out some techniques from time to time. This naturally caused the other six to feel surprised. However, they didn’t dare disturb Linley.
“Boss, if you are going to train, just have your other clones train. Why must you...” Bebe couldn’t help but speak out.
Linley, absorbed in the hidden profundities of his new technique, was startled awake. He let out an awkward laugh. “Bebe, I couldn’t help myself!” Now, aside from his original body, the other four clones were completely absorbed in the process of fusing the four types of profound mysteries into a completely whole. Every single day, Linley gained some insights into the fusing of these four Laws.
The power of his ‘Sword Intent’ technique was, day by day, beginning to slowly rise.
Power that was increasing perceptibly, every single day...how terrifying was this?
“Boss, you really are a training fanatic!” Bebe snorted. Then, however, he rubbed his nose and began to laugh. “Still. Boss, don’t be impatient. We’ve already acquired five Emissaries. Only one is missing! The Black Tortoise Continent has more than a thousand Seven Star Fiend-level experts. And didn’t you say, Boss, that two of them are fairly close to us, just up ahead?”
Linley nodded.
He turned to look at the six behind him. Of the six, one was the commander of the Black Tortoise Army, Wilhelm [Wei’lian], while the other five were his Emissaries. Of the five Emissaries, three were men while two were women, and they all had their own unique strengths.
One was a ruler amongst the race of mermaids, a Goldcrest Siren. One was a divine beast, Nine-Tailed Windripper Fox. Another was a female Viva Titan...
In short, these five were either extremely strong in physical defense or extremely strong in spiritual defense. When given a Sovereign artifact, their flaws were perfectly concealed.
This was Linley’s prerequisite for his selectees; that he would be able to give them enough power to have a chance to survive in the Planar War.
“Five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.” Linley let out a sigh. “There are two more up ahead. According to our intelligence reports, they are both Seven Star Godhunters. One is named Bresle [Bu’lei’lei], a virtuous, broad-minded fellow. The other, Gansla [Gang’lei’sa], can be considered as being at the peak of power for Seven Star Godhunters.”
This intelligence had been provided to Linley by the commander of the Black Tortoise Army, Wilhelm.
“Wilhelm, hand over that detailed report on them.” Linley said calmly.
Earlier, Linley had only reviewed a simplified version of the report; he hadn’t read the detailed one.
“Bresle trains in the Laws of Light. He is very sincere and kind in his treatment of others, and he is willing to risk his life for his friends. Thus, he has quite a few good friends. Only, I find it strange; despite this sort of temperament, he was actually able to stay alive for so many years. This is inconceivable.” Commander Wilhelm laughed.
Linley couldn’t help but nod as well.
If the intelligence reports were correct, then this Bresle could be described as a ‘perfect’ person!
Bebe mumbled, “For such a good-natured fellow to be able to stay alive in a place as murderous and violent as a Divine Plane, and even reach the Seven Star Fiend level of power...it really is inconceivable.”
“Let’s go. Those two are sparring yet again.” Linley laughed calmly.
Immediately, Linley’s group advanced at a faster pace. A blurred shadow flashed, and it was as though they had disappeared into thin air.
On the grassy earth, there was a building formed from elemental essence. Ahead of it, there was a gleaming, rippling lake.
Two figures were in the air above the lake, fighting and moving at high speed.
“Swish!” An azure-robed figure, body crackling with lightning, was constantly moving about at a pace far greater than the other, white-robed figure.
Still, the white-robed figure moved very quickly as well; only, he wasn’t able to catch up to his foe. His defense, however, was extremely strong.
“Hmph.”
With a low growl, the white-robed figure’s body suddenly expanded. His skin instantly turned azure, and his arms and legs increased in size. White runes appeared atop his body as well, and the blue veins on his body bulged out, snaking and twisting across his form, while two sharp horns emerged from his forehead.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
The azure-robed figure’s attacks landed consecutively atop the body of the white-robed figure, but the leather-like skin of the white-robed figure was protected by that white light, and he borrowed from the force of the collision to retreat.
“The two can only be considered as being near the commander level.” Linley watched the two distant figures flash about above the lake, and he laughed calmly as he came to his conclusion.
“Sovereign.” Commander Wilhelm said respectfully, “This Gansla is extremely fast, and his attacks can be considered extremely strong as well. He doesn’t have any real weaknesses. But at the same time, he doesn’t have any real, overwhelming strengths either! As for this Bresle, his uniqueness lies in his body and his defense! His defense is extremely strong, especially after transforming. Even experts at a higher level would generally find it hard to kill him. Look; although that Gansla, by relying on his speed, is able to land multiple blows on Bresle, and yet Bresle isn’t affected at all.”
Linley nodded slightly.
Although the white-robed Bresle had exceedingly strong defense, in this battle, Gansla clearly held the upper hand.
“Haha, my friend Gansla, let’s stop here.” The white-robed man laughed. “If you were to unleash your most vicious technique, my soul defense wouldn’t be able to withstand it.”
“Bresle, your physical defense is simply too strong.” The azure-robed man laughed as well.
The white-robed man’s figure began to slowly transform back to normal. His two horns on his forehead disappeared, and he changed back into a normal, human appearance.
“The power of my body is part of my innate gifts, but in terms of actual strength, I’m still weaker than you, my friend Gansla.” The white-robed figure laughed. Suddenly, he frowned and stared into the distance, while the azure-robed figure by his side did the same. Linley’s group was slowly strolling towards them from far away.
Of Linley’s group, only the commander of the Black Tortoise Army, Wilhelm, was a native of the Divine Earth Plane.
Given his status, these two had never seen him before.
But of course...
Although these two had no idea as to who the members of Linley’s group were, they could sense that this group was not to be easily offended.
“Bresle, be careful. As I see it, they should all be quite strong.” The azure-robed figure sent.
“It should be fine, Gansla. We didn’t offend them; they wouldn’t act against us for no reason.” The white-robed figure chortled.
“Don’t think that everyone is like you.” The azure-robed Gansla was clearly readying himself, as he stared fixedly at Linley’s advancing group.
And then, Gansla barked in a cold voice, “Everyone, might I ask why you have come to my place?”
“I want to have a chat with him in private.” The leader of the group, a brown-haired figure, pointed at the white-robed Bresle as he spoke.
“My name is Bresle. Who might you be?” Bresle laughed as he walked forward.
“Bresle!” The nearby azure-robed Gansla immediately grew frantic, and he sent mentally, wanting to stop him, “You don’t even know them. Don’t go near them!”
Linley glanced sideways at Gansla.
With but a thought...
“Rumble...” A surge of earth-type Sovereign power immediately spread out, filled with powerful Sovereign’s Will. It instantly separated Gansla and Bresle, forming into a barrier that contained Bresle and Linley’s group, with Gansla kept outside.
The azure-robed Gansla was stunned by the earth-type Sovereign power. He couldn’t help but be knocked flying backwards, but with a backflip, he immediately rose to his feet again. He stared at the group within the translucent, earthen yellow barrier, and his face changed dramatically. “Sov, Sovereign...”
The power of Linley’s simple technique was simply overwhelmingly terrifying.
The white-robed Bresle, seeing the situation, immediately came to his senses as well. He hurriedly knelt down. “Bresle pays his respects to the Sovereign. Dare I ask what you need from me, Sovereign? If there is anything you need, just instruct me.”
“Bresle, I have a test for you. If you are willing to participate, you will become my Emissary, and I will bestow upon you a Sovereign artifact of your choosing.” Linley laughed calmly.
“Ah!” Bresle was stunned.
To become a Sovereign’s Emissary? To acquire a Sovereign artifact?
This was a stroke of fortune descending upon him from the heavens! Bresle felt dizzy for a moment. After training for countless years, who wouldn’t seek to reach the pinnacle? Only, even someone at the Domain Lord level or the Lord Prefect level wouldn’t necessarily be able to acquire a Sovereign artifact. After all, there were only so many Emissaries, while the number of commander-level experts was far more numerous.
“Me...a Sovereign’s Emissary?” Bresle couldn’t help but repeat the words.
“Naturally.” Linley nodded. “The prerequisite, however, is for you to attend this trial.”
“Dare I ask, Sovereign, what sort of a trial is this?” Bresle was so excited that his face was starting to turn red.
Linley let out a calm laugh. “Don’t be in a hurry to agree; first, listen closely to the details of this trial! I need you to participate in a Planar War, but this Planar War is different...” Linley explained in detail exactly how dangerous this Planar War would be.
As he listened, the look in Bresle’s eyes only grew even firmer.
He felt that he had a chance at surviving, even within this terrifying Planar War!
“Sovereign, I wish to acquire a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Bresle said hurriedly.
“All done. Six of them.” Linley felt a surge of delight.
“Lord Linley!” Right at this moment, a voice rang out in Linley’s mind.
“Eh?” Linley turned to look, only to see two figures flash towards him from far away, descending upon the ground. “Two Sovereigns?”