Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 34, Samsara
“For one to be born, one must die. Then how was the first Bula born?” Bebe blinked.
Hearing this, Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
“Bebe, tell me, how was the first Godeater Rat born?” Linley said.
“Uh....” Bebe was speechless.
“We Bulas, along with many other unique races, are all birthed by the heavens.” Bresle laughed. “For example, I was born in the Nala material plane, but the three members of my race that I met were all born from other planes. Although I know that I can sacrifice myself to give birth to a child, for now, I don’t have that desire.”
Linley understood.
This was the rule of the universe; more powerful a race was, the fewer in number they would be.
For example, the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and the other two of the Four Divine Beasts. For example, the Abyssal Fruit Tree. The Chief Sovereign of Death, and the Chief Sovereign of Destruction. Those were most likely all unique. Although this Bula race had a very unique ability, they weren’t comparable to Godeater Rats or Abyssal Fruit Trees, and so there were quite a few of them by comparison. For example, over the course of the years, Linley alone had encountered, through using divine sense, more than a hundred members of the divine beast race, ‘Suanni Lion’.
Divine beasts were divided into classes as well, after all.
“Haha. I didn’t expect that this time, I had accepted a Bula as my Emissary.” Linley laughed. “And a grandmaster in magic formations, at that. Excellent. Let’s head out.”
Linley released his Sovereign power, bringing the group alongside him as he transformed into a ray of earthen yellow light that flew at high speed towards the nearest teleportation array.
While Linley’s group hastened towards the Infernal Realm, Borte and Manlu, the two Lesser Sovereigns, returned to the Celestial Realm.
The one and only building that hovered in the air in the Celestial Realm...the Orloff Gardens.
This levitating garden was the residence to one of the two most powerful of the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts...the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff!
Within the quiet gardens. Orloff was seated in the meditative position atop the grass, his long, white beard past his chest.
“Lord Orloff.” Borte and Manlu bowed as they arrived.
“Oh, you returned.” Orloff smiled.
Borte and Manlu couldn’t help but feel comfortable. As they saw it, choosing to subordinate themselves to the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, had been a wise decision. The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, was extremely powerful. In addition, he treated others very well. Given how icy and cold the Chief Sovereign of Destruction was, submitting to him would have been extremely unpleasant.
But the Chief Sovereign of Fate? He always greeted them with a smile.
Of course they would feel comfortable, and also feel all the more loyal to the Chief Sovereign of Fate.
“Lord Orloff, you asked us to take on that man, Bresle, as an Emissary. But by the time we located and identified Bresle, he was actually with Linley.” Borte said helplessly. “We asked him to give up Bresle to us, but Linley refused. We even mentioned your name, Lord Orloff, but he didn’t care at all. He even barked at us.”
The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, upon hearing this, simply laughed. “Forget it. This Linley is a Chief Sovereign-level expert, after all. It isn’t strange that he has a bit of an attitude.”
“Alright.”
Borte and Manlu both bowed.
“Alright. In roughly a century, the Planar War will begin.” The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, rose to his feet, then stared into the distance. “I have to pay a visit to the Divine Light Plane as well.”
The Infernal Realm. Bloodridge Continent. Within the borders of the Indigo Prefecture.
“Whoosh!”
A ray of earthen yellow light flashed past the skies, descending into the Skyrite Mountains. The ray of light moved so quickly that even many of the Highgod clansmen weren’t able to notice it.
The Skyrite Mountains. Linley’s estate.
Linley’s group suddenly appeared out of nowhere within the empty, grassy field within the estate.
“Elder Linley!”
The maids and guards, upon seeing Linley, were badly startled. They all hurriedly saluted or curtsied.
“Haha, Linley, you were gone for quite long, this time.” A voice rang out. Beirut and Bluefire emerged at the same time.
Beirut swept Linley and Bebe with his gaze, along with the seven behind them. The seven were the five Emissaries, and the black-robed and white-robed Bresles. As for the commander of the army, Wilhelm, upon Linley’s group arriving at the teleportation array, Wilhelm had elected to stay behind with the teleportation array guards instead of accompanying them.
“These are the Emissaries you found?” Beirut laughed.
“Right.” Linley laughed and nodded. “But of course, finding Emissaries didn’t take up too much time. The main thing was, Bebe and I took a nice tour of those three Divine Planes.”
The nearby Bluefire couldn’t resist saying, “You seem to be quite at-ease. Right. Those clones you left behind in the estate...why are they all absorbed in training? I wanted to speak with you, but didn’t find any chance to.”
Linley could only chuckle.
Indeed, of his five major clones, only his original body was relaxed and at-ease. The other three Sovereign clones, as well as his divine fire clone, were all training.
“You can stay here for now.” Linley glanced at the Emissaries behind him, and then looked towards a distant maid. “Make the arrangements for them to have places to stay.”
“Yes, Elder.” The maid said respectfully.
The six Emissaries thus followed the maid away to settle down here.
Linley and the other two sat down around a table. The three began to drink and chat.
“Oh, from what you are saying, in the past five centuries, you’ve improved quite a bit?” Beirut said, surprised.
Linley nodded. “My power is roughly three times as great as it previously was.”
“Three times!” Beirut and Bluefire couldn’t help but feel stunned.
In truth, ever since he had begun to completely merge the four Laws, Linley’s ‘Sword Intent’ had begun to increase in power as well.
The different between the fusion of three profound mysteries of different Laws and four profound mysteries of different Laws was nearly a hundredfold. For Linley to have only improved his power threefold wasn’t much.
But to a Chief Sovereign-level expert, a threefold increase in power was truly terrifying.
“Haha, excellent!” Beirut couldn’t help but slap his hands on the table and sigh, “It seems the days of the Chief Sovereign of Light are numbered.”
“Right.” Linley nodded. “The next Planar War is less than a hundred years from now. During this period of time, the forces that will send people in to do battle will begin to gather. Augusta most likely coordinate with the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, as he did before. This isn’t the time to attack yet. In addition, my power is still, slowly rising. I’ll wait for now. This is the right time to wait, and what’s more, I’m quite confident.”
Beirut and Bluefire couldn’t help but laugh.
Linley had never given up the goal of killing Augusta. The hatred between Augusta and Linley stemmed from multiple causes. Last time, Linley had compromised for the sake of his mother’s life. He had no other choice.
Augusta himself knew that Linley was just biding his time and tempering his rage for now.
But as Augusta saw it, since Linley was a Paragon already, he had no further potential for growth. Linley wasn’t someone for him to fear; in fact, Augusta seized the opportunity to give Linley a good fleecing during their negotiations.
Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, decades passed.
The six Emissaries under Linley’s control were in no rush to head to the Planar Battlefield. They remained within the Skyrite Mountains!
The Skyrite Mountains. Linley’s estate.
In an empty area, the black-robed Bresle and the other five Emissaries were organized into a hexagonal star formation. A very unusual surge of divine power was constantly circulating through them. The black-robed Bresle and the rest of the six were constantly moving about at high speed, flashing hither and to, sometimes going into the air, sometimes going into the distance, and sometimes landing back down.
In addition, they often launched attacks towards the air, causing one spatial rift after another to appear.
“Everyone, halt.” The white-robed Bresle barked with a frown.
Instantly, all six landed onto the ground.
“What is it, Bresle?” The four men and two women looked at the white-robed Bresle.
“It’s wrong. The way the formation currently works...consumes too much energy. More than half the energy is wasted.” Bresle couldn’t help but shake his head.
“It’s already quite excellent.” The beautiful lady with fish scales on her forehead said with a laugh. “When the six of us join together, our attack power and defense power all increase dramatically. In addition, those of us with stronger defenses can help those with weaker defenses take on some more of the burden. When we attack together, we are comparable to eighteen Emissaries fighting separately.”
Sometimes, joining forces was a good thing. Sometimes, it was a bad thing. During Planar Wars, for six Emissaries to be gathered in one place was giving the enemy a chance to annihilate them all in one massive attack.
However, if those six Emissaries were able to work within a magical formation that allowed their strengths and defenses to join together, then the situation would naturally be different.
“No. Too much energy is being wasted in the activation of this formation. This is completely different from the ‘Samsara Formation’ that I envisioned.” The white-robed Bresle shook his head.
Right at this moment...
“Samsara Formation?” A voice rang out. Linley and Delia were walking together towards their direction.
“Sovereign.” Everyone bowed.
Linley laughed as he looked at the white-robed Bresle. “Bresle, your accomplishments in the art of formations is quite impressive. In recent days, I’ve been watching you six constantly test out this formation. I have the feeling...that the six of you will becoming marvels to behold at the Planar Battlefield.” When a Sovereign’s Emissaries did well, the Sovereign would gain face as well.
“Sovereign, this is still quite different from what I had envisioned.” The white-robed Bresle shook his head. “Long ago, I spent nearly a hundred million years to develop this Samsara Formation for the sake of allowing myself and ‘Black Robes’ to join together and release even greater power. This six man formation is something which I devised based on an extrapolation and expansion of the original Samsara Formation. But this formation...six people joining together is much more difficult.”
Linley nodded.
To develop a powerful and perfect battle formation was extremely difficult! To develop one in just a few thousand years? It was impossible.
Bresle had spent nearly a hundred million years on the original Samsara Formation. Now, since this new one was based on the same principles, developing it was much faster. Despite that, however, hundreds of years would still be needed.
Delia, by Linley’s side, said with a laugh, “As I see it, when the time comes, the six of you should use the same type of Sovereign’s Might. That way, when activating the formation, you will waste much less power.”
“That is what we were planning as well.” The white-robed Bresle said respectfully. “But this battle formation clearly is not yet perfect. Still, Sovereign...we only have a few decades before the Planar War starts. We aren’t going to be able to make it in time, I think.”
“Don’t be impatient.” Linley laughed calmly. “The Planar War will go on for a thousand years. The first part of the thousand years consists of people hunting and killing each other. Only the final few moments of those thousand years culminate with the final battle. You only need to enter before the final battle, and so, you still have a thousand years. When the time comes, I will personally send you all to the Planar Battlefield.”
Travelling from the Skyrite Mountains to the Infernal Realm’s dimensional gateway leading to the Planar Battlefield would take up a tremendous amount of time. But for a Sovereign, less than half a day would be needed.
“Thank you, Sovereign.” These people were all overjoyed.
The more they perfected this formation, the more powerful their defenses and attacks would be. Thus, the greater their chances for survival would be.
“You can continue. I won’t disturb you.” Linley laughed as he led Delia away.
Silently, soundless, another ten years passed.
The Infernal Realm. Deep within the Chaotic Sea.
“Rumble...”
A long ‘dragon’ formed from a long, winding line of human bodies could be seen, as a steady stream of people flooded towards a distant black castle. Thousands and thousands of experts of the Infernal Realm poured into the black castle. The black castle wasn’t that large, but this torrent of visitors had already been going on for quite some time.
Two people were located before a window within this black castle. They stood shoulder to shoulder. It was Linley and Boson.
“There really are quite a few attendees this time.” Linley couldn’t help but say in surprise.
“There are many participants this time. Although this is a battle between the Celestial Realm and the Infernal Realm, many experts from the other planes, such as the Netherworld and the Life Realm, have come to join our side.” The Bloodridge Sovereign, Boson, was by Linley’s side, and he sighed as he spoke. “In terms of quantity of soldiers, we far surpass the Celestial Realm. But in terms of quality, we are greatly inferior.”
Linley laughed calmly. “The Chief Sovereign of Destruction and the others have gone all out. It will be hard for the Celestial Realm to win this battle.”
“Right, Linley, where are your six Emissaries?” The Bloodridge Sovereign suddenly said. “What’s the rush? Isn’t it enough for them to join together with the army before the final battle?” Linley replied with a laugh.
“As you choose, then.” The Bloodridge Sovereign looked below at the constant, never-ending flow of people. He couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “The Planar War has begun. A large number of people will die yet again.”
Linley nodded slightly as well.
The thousand-year Planar War had begun!