Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 42, Earth Fire Water Wind
“Spacetime Paradox!” No matter how calm and collected Chief Sovereign of Destruction Wodred was, upon seeing this, his face completely changed. “How can he know this technique? Orloff swore an oath by the Overgods. He couldn’t possibly violate it.”
“Wodred! What is going on!” A clear voice rang out in his mind. It was the voice of the Chief Sovereign of Death. As time had passed, given how quickly Sovereigns were able to spread information to each other, more and more Sovereigns had come to chaotic space. There were already more than forty Sovereigns who were watching this battle!
“I don’t know either.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction was completely stunned. For the moment, he had no idea what was going on. “You said that Orloff couldn’t possibly teach it to anyone else. What about you? Did you teach it to anyone else?” The Chief Sovereign of Death said hurriedly. “How could I teach it to someone else?!” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction sent back frantically.
“Then there are only two possibilities. The first is that Augusta developed it himself.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said. “Impossible! How long has he had his blood essences of the Four Divine Beasts for? In addition, I was able to develop it because I long ago became a Paragon in the Edicts of Destruction, and had a thorough understanding of the soul as well. Luck also played a major role. Augusta wasn’t even able to become a Paragon; even if you gave him a trillion years, it would be impossible for him to develop even a fragment of this technique!” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction was absolutely certainty of this.
“Then the only possibility is the second one...even though I don’t dare believe it.” The Chief Sovereign of Death’s voice contained a hint of dread. The face of the Chief Sovereign of Destruction changed as well. “Are you saying that Orloff is...”
“We’ll know soon. However, Linley’s in danger as well, now.” The Chief Sovereign of Death sent to him, rather worried.
“Even if we tried to save him, we wouldn’t make it in time.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction frowned. “Augusta unleashed the technique already. Perhaps, because he has very few blood essences of the Four Divine Beasts, the strength is inferior to mine, but...it isn’t something which the likes of Linley can withstand. Linley doesn’t have a soul-protecting Overgod artifact, after all.”
Linley was indeed in dire straits right now. More than forty Sovereigns were spread throughout chaotic space, watching. Through their divine sense, the Sovereigns couldn’t help but come to the same conclusion...
Linley, this supreme expert who had, in ten thousand short years, suddenly risen to prominence and eclipsed the Chief Sovereigns of the Laws...could it be that this brilliant, shining star was about to fall, after having released its last burst of light?
When the phantoms of the Four Divine Beasts appeared, a unique, invisible energy spread out in every direction. Within ten million kilometers, all space came to a sudden halt. The constantly shattering and cracking space froze in mid-crack, while more than ninety percent of the invisible energy was fully unleashed on Linley.
“Compressing spacetime...distorting it! The flow of time changes!” Linley, when faced with this technique, suddenly had a familiar feeling. “This...”
Linley’s gaze began to blaze as he stared at the phantoms of the Four Divine Beasts surrounding Augusta. Every single phantom was releasing a unique type of energy, and when combined together, they unleashed this full technique. The four unique types of energy actually were able to manipulate the universe to the point of affecting space and time.
“This...isn’t this...” Linley’s eyes instantly turned round. In this moment, time itself stood still! Even that ray of translucent light which shot out of Augusta’s mouth seemed to have suddenly become very, very slow.
“Right! That’s exactly it!” All these years, Linley had always been in pursuit of completely fusing those four profound mysteries from different Laws into a complete whole. However, although he was able to train to the bottleneck, the final step of completely, perfectly fusing the four Laws was something Linley was still yet to be able to do; he wasn’t able to overcome this threshold. But now, when sensing the unique, perfect fusion of those four types of energy, and how they manipulated the heavens...
It was as though a master sculptor who had bitterly toiled in pursuit of perfection suddenly saw the sculpture of a grandmaster sculptor, and instantly gained enlightenment. This was the current Linley!
The Azure Dragon was water-attribute. Water was soft and gentle, capable of encompassing and absorbing everything.
The Black Tortoise was earth-attribute. The earth was vast, heavy, and ponderous.
The White Tiger was wind-attribute. The wind was invisible and formless, appearing and disappearing without any pattern.
The Vermillion Bird was fire-attribute. Fire burned and blazed wildly, filled with violent fury which was unpredictable.
This ‘Spacetime Paradox’ was actually the combination of earth, fire, water, and wind.
When one was stuck at a bottleneck, one might spend a trillion years without breaking through. But it was also possible that one would break through after a few days. This required luck; required a sudden flash of insight. Last time, Linley was just watching the battle, and so he hadn’t sensed too deeply into the technique. In addition, last time, he hadn’t reached this bottleneck in the fusion of the four Laws, and so naturally he hadn’t gained any insights.
But now, when facing this ‘Spacetime Paradox’, Linley, who had been at a bottleneck for so long, benefited from those accumulated experiences. Everything had been prepared for this moment, and now, when the insight came, Linley suddenly understood.
He understood!
Everything was now clear to him!
Although all of this took time to describe, in reality, everything occurred in a flash. This sudden enlightenment required only a fraction of an instant.
“Hmph, hmph, die.” Augusta laughed coldly as that translucent light reached Linley’s body.
“Rumble...”
The world suddenly changed as the natural Laws descended!
Linley smiled as he looked at that translucent ray of light. He let out a gentle breath, and a translucent sword shadow emerged from his mouth. When it clashed against the translucent ray of light, it instantly shattered it into pieces. The remnants of the translucent sword of light turned small and thin. After flying for a bit longer, it vanished from the universe.
Utter shock filled Augusta’s eyes. “Im...impossible!”
“Swish.” Linley’s eyes shot out two translucent sword shadows. Given how fast his soul attack was, Augusta was completely unable to dodge, and the two translucent sword shadows sank into his body.
However, Augusta was completely unharmed!
“His soul defense is actually this powerful?” Linley couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment, while glancing at the surrounding area. Four types of elemental essences were surrounding him. The natural Laws had already descended, and were currently transforming his soul. “If I hadn’t personally experienced this ‘Spacetime Paradox’ technique, who knows how long it would have been before I would make this breakthrough.”
This breakthrough was even more difficult than becoming a Paragon. Earth, fire, water, and wind; these four Laws and their profound mysteries were completely different. To perfectly fuse them into a whole was simply too hard.
But Linley had succeeded. “Upon becoming a Paragon, one would be bestowed with Will as a reward. It was even more difficult for me to fuse these four Laws together, and the technical power of the attack is ten times greater than a Paragon’s. I imagine that the amount of Will I shall receive should be greater as well.” Linley could clearly sense that each of his souls was rising in power.
Because Linley was a Soul Mutate, upon making his breakthrough, every single soul would evolve.
“Eh?!” Linley couldn’t help but feel surprised. “This...” Linley’s eyes were filled with wild joy. “I actually gained a portion of Will that was double what a Paragon would gain!”
Although he had expected that the amount of Will he would receive would be more than what Paragons received, he hadn’t expected that it would be double. This truly surprised Linley.
Originally, when he had successfully become a Soul Mutate, although he had been bestowed Will, it wasn’t double that of a Paragon’s. Each increase of a full portion of Will represented a tenfold increase in power.
Linley was able to break through the bottleneck and reach complete mastery; his power had thus increased tenfold in terms of the profound mysteries. But upon receiving two portions of Will as well, that meant that his power had instantly increased a thousandfold! It must be understood that while at the bottleneck, Linley was already ten times as powerful as the Chief Sovereign of Light, Augusta.
They were on completely different levels. They were several levels apart from each other; the difference between them was like that of the heavens and the earth.
“Linley actually blocked it? Broke through it effortlessly?” The Chief Sovereigns of Death and Destruction, along with the various other Sovereigns, were all completely stunned.
“Just now, the natural Laws descended.” The Chief Sovereign of Death suddenly said. “Are you saying...?” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction was stunned.
“Linley definitely made a major breakthrough. Otherwise, the Laws couldn’t possibly have descended for him. In addition, there is no way he could’ve risen in power by so much so quickly. I have a feeling...that the current Linley is no weaker than us!” The Chief Sovereign of Death sent in a low voice.
Indeed, in terms of power of Will, as a four-way Soul Mutate with three Sovereign sparks and two portions of will gained from the perfect fusion of four Laws, Linley was ten times stronger than ordinary Chief Sovereigns! He was already comparable to those Paragons amongst the Chief Sovereigns.
On a technical level, with his fused profound mysteries, he was ten times more powerful than a Paragon. In terms of energy, his fused Sovereign power was a hundred times that of an ordinary Sovereign’s. His only flaw...was that his Overgod weapon was not suited to him, and so he wasn’t able to unleash much of its power. But despite that, Linley’s power was already enough to make it so that he had no need to fear the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts at all.
“How...how can you...” Augusta stared towards Linley in disbelief.
Linley had instantly increased in power a thousandfold. This increase in power gave Linley complete confidence in facing even the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff. Linley felt no fear at all now. Laughing, he looked at Augusta. “I’m quite curious. Why is it that your ‘Spacetime Paradox’ was so weak? It was far weaker than I expected!”
The fused innate divine abilities of the Four Divine Beasts would allow one’s power to increase more than ten thousand times; after all, for Lesser Sovereigns to be capable of exterminating Chief Sovereigns, one could imagine how mighty it was.
The Chief Sovereign of Destruction himself had said that when developing ‘Spacetime Paradox’, although the power was far from the power unleashed by the Four Divine Beasts, it was still a thousand times greater than his own raw power. But Augusta...
“Whoosh!” Augusta’s figure flashed away, attempting to flee.
“Swoosh!” Linley’s figure flashed as well, and he instantly appeared in front of Augusta. With a casual swipe of his draconic tail, he lashed out with it, using it like a whip that struck viciously against Augusta’s body, sending him flying far away.
Blood splattered, but as a light shone over Augusta’s body, his flesh and skin were completely healed. “You...your speed?!” Augusta was completely stupefied. The current Linley was on a completely different level from the former Linley.
“I told you. You won’t be able to flee.” Linley laughed softly. “You haven’t answered me yet. Why is it that your Spacetime Paradox is so weak?”
Augusta, having seen Linley’s speed just now, no longer had any plans to flee. He let out a snicker. “Weak? The strength of this technique has to do with how much blood essences of the Four Divine Beasts one has. Wodred used far more blood essences than I did, so the power of it was naturally greater.”
Linley laughed and nodded. “Alright. It’s about time. If I don’t act now, Orloff will soon arrive.” Hearing this, Augusta’s face changed.
“Linley.” The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, who was currently hurrying through chaotic space towards them at high speed, sent to Linley frantically, “Isn’t it just a matter of letting your mother regain her free will? Fine. I will make Augusta release his spiritual bond with that Angelic Resurrection Pool.”
“Orloff, you seem to be quite nervous.” Linley sent back. “As far as I can recall, and in fact, as far as any Sovereigns can recall, you, Orloff, as the Chief Sovereign of Fate, always spend your time toiling away with research in your Orloff Gardens in the Celestial Realm. You never get involved in worldly affairs. Nothing can disturb you. But now, you are nervous.”
“Naturally. He is my good friend.” Orloff sent back. “Linley, I hope you won’t act foolishly.”
“Just a good friend?” Linley laughed as he sent back...and the Chief Sovereign of Fate’s face changed slightly.
“Upon seeing Augusta execute ‘Spacetime Paradox’, I realized the truth. You are bound by an Overgod oath; there is no way that you could’ve taught ‘Spacetime Paradox’ to someone else. But there is a loophole; if you and Augusta are the same person to begin with, then naturally any secrets you know, he knows.”
Linley let out a sigh. “Actually, if I hadn’t accepted that Emissary and learned of the existence of the Bula race, I wouldn’t have come to this realization so quickly. Actually, when I fought Augusta for the first time and realized that his power was ten times what I had expected, I began to suspect that he might have other Sovereign clones. Unfortunately, I never imagined, nor did I dare imagine, that you and him truly were the same person!”
The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, “Since you’ve already guessed it, you should know what to do. I do not wish...for you and I to become enemies!”
“Yes. I know what I should do.”
Linley smiled as he waved his hand. The Life Overgod Sword in his hand lashed out in a beautiful, dream-like arc, and a finger-thick ray of inky jade light shot out. The only thing that appeared within the surrounding space was that finger-thick ray of inky jade light, and a finger-thick spatial tear. There weren’t even any spatial ripples created.
The energy was concentrated to an absolute peak.
Linley’s most powerful technique...Sword Intent!
“Slash.” A hole appeared in Augusta’s head. Augusta’s mouth opened...but he was no longer capable of making any sounds.